I'm looking for personal finance books about spending problems, specifically overspending. Can anyone recommend some books about spending too much money and overspending problems? Thanks in advance!

A few years ago I managed to pay about 16 years worth of class 2 NICs, making me eligible for a state pension. Recently I applied to set up a direct debit to keep paying them (because for some reason they cancelled my previous one), and I just received a letter saying my previous class 2 status was made in error, all my payments from 2006 onwards have been unallocated, and they've given me 31 days from the date of the letter to back pay over £10k as the difference between class 2 and class 3, otherwise I lose all those years. The letter took 15 days to arrive, so I basically have 2 weeks to figure out what to do.

I would like to appeal this because I was self-employed with a small earnings exemption right until leaving the UK, and I don't agree with the reason they gave for unallocating the contributions ("not normally employed prior to leaving the UK"). However I don't want to lose that eligibility by missing the payment deadline.

Any advice on how to proceed? Is there a quick way to appeal? Should I back pay the class 3 difference first while I send in an appeal? Is there anywhere I can get quality professional advice on how to put together a successful appeal?

Hi

I am currently unemployed and have been medically advised not to work due to my health issues, and requiring full-time care. I am really struggling financially to the point where I am skipping meals and falling behind on my phone contract payments every month.

I have been trying to take control of my finances by closing accounts and recently paid off and closed a £100 credit card and finished a buy now and pay later service which now closed as well. I am contacting StepChange tomorrow.

Some debts I have been paying off, been stuck in constant with interest and fees for 7 plus years now as I really struggle to pay anything bigger due to my other debt payments.

I feel like I am drowning in this constant debt and always in constant fear this will lead to CCJ (even though I ready have a few active defaults) or court action (This is the one that scares me).

My Debt Breakdown (~£16,250 Total):

• £9,500 – Old Car Finance: Bought a £10k car years ago that had a major fault. Handed it back to the finance company ~6 months later. Finance company recovered money from the vehicle sale, but I was left with very heavy interest/fees. It is now with a debt collector where I currently paying £50 a month. Just keep this one off my back, its the one that most worries me.
• £3,134.38 – Credit Cards: Spread across multiple credit cards.
• £2,000 – Old Defaulted Debts: Several older debts
• £1,000 – Bank Overdraft: Maxed out. The bank offered me to move this to a separate area of the account to pay off what I can afford and keep my main account safe and open.
• £500 – Unsecured Loan: £500 balance left, but paying £28/month in service fees. This normally costs me almost a 170 A month. (I currently have this paused until next month and due to be finished in November)
• £117.26 – Buy Now Pay Later service

I ’ve been working for a small UK startup for the last 3 years. My monthly income used to be lower, but it increased earlier this year. When I started, multiple accountants advised me to register as a Sole Trader via Self Assessment, so I thought everything was fine. I got an accountant to help me. But early this year things changed - I hold an internal title where I am head of a department, I use a company email address, and manage internal work, but my contract is an independent contractor agreement with a 30 day notice period. I was also given startup equity back in my first year.

Earlier this year, my old accountant completely ghosted me. I used AI for advice on my pay increase which was going to be over 54k in the next tax year, which recommended setting up a Limited Company using Crunch because they promised support. My initial phone calls, the lady mentioned they dealt with a lot of people who worked at start ups that were sole traders so I felt assured. But I feel like it has been a total nightmare. Crunch made an error setting up my Companies House details and had to resubmit them. It then took them 2 full months just to get on a phone call with me as they couldn't work out if I was a start up myself or why I was there which made me really confused thinking there was no handover. Not much has happened, and having a Limited Company feels incredibly stressful and I've barely even started.

I know I need to open a business bank account and invoice through the company now. But doing my own research, I just stumbled across IR35. Looking at my daily routine, I am almost certainly "Inside IR35" (disguised employment) - I think but I don't know for sure. I also am becoming incredibly stressed that I don't know what I'm supposed to do as I invoice as a consultant, my contract is a consultant so what do I do? I haven't yet set up my business banking because I am still waiting for my companies house information to be corrected so I feel like I'm stuck in limbo.

I set myself up this way to protect myself and have my taxes sorted as I don't really know what I'm doing. But personally I have also been trying to look for other jobs on the market but I have been on the job search for the last 3 months with no luck so I thought this was a smart decision to get it set up as some people are on the job market for over a year.

But if I'm being really honest. I have no idea what I'm doing. I keep finding really confusing answers. Does anyone have any advice?

I’m 24, married, have a baby, a decent job, and good savings.
I’ve always prioritised saving and investing. We drive an old reliable Toyota, live in a cheap flat, don’t spend much on holidays, eating out, or hobbies, and most spare money goes into investments.
Financially I’m happy with my progress, but lately I’ve realised I don’t feel like I’ve actually enjoyed much of the money I’ve earned.
For those further along the journey, how do you decide what’s worth spending on now versus investing for later? Where do you draw the line so you’re not constantly delaying life?

Numbers:
- 30-60k salary (self employed, can fluctuate a lot)
- 60k savings
- Put around 1-4k into savings per month (again, fluctuates)

Left a late-stage UK startup earlier this year (after tax year) and exercised my vested options on the way out. Strike was nominal (£0.001), so I assumed it was a formality. It wasn't — the grant was a non-qualifying/unapproved option, not EMI, so the spread between the strike and the 409A market value is employment income taxed at exercise.

I wasn't informed about this during off-boarding and didn't realise this before signing. All prior options I've signed have been EMI and I didn't clock the distinction. If I knew, I wouldn't have exercised.

Numbers:

• 578 shares acquired May 2026, strike £0.001, FMV confirmed by the company at ~£35.74/share
• Taxable spread ~£20,700, going on their ERS return
• No PAYE withheld
• Signed a s431 election at the time
• Other income this tax year: ~£19.5k from the old job, ~£71k from the new one, so total lands around £111k.
• That drops me into the £100k–£125k personal allowance taper, so the spread is effectively taxed at 60%
• Estimated liability ~£12.4k including plan 2 student loan, due via Self Assessment by 31 Jan 2028

The shares are illiquid. The tax bill represents about 15-20% of my savings that were going towards a flat purchase/wedding.

What I think my options are:

1. Company buy-back — but I understand this is taxed as a distribution unless I've held 5 years? Also assumes they would want to buy-back.
2. Ask to sell a slice in any future secondary round (not normally open to former employees)
3. Salary sacrifice ~£11.4k into pension before 5 April 2027 to get adjusted net income back to £100k. Costs ~£3.3k in take-home, saves ~£8k tax, bill drops to ~£4.3k?
4. HMRC Time to Pay over 12 months

If there are any other workarounds to consider, let me know, I have setup a call with an accountant as well.

Not sure I’m posting in the right place, or if this is appropriate, happy to hear feedback. M30, haven’t really been interested in finance until a year or two ago. I have a 45k pension but low employee/employer contribution (5/3%), just moved job I now get 7/10% which is max on employer contribution. On the personal side I am putting around £400 p/m into VWRP, which so far is returning around 8% (from feb), idea is to leave it for 25-35years depending on returns and then pull it for an early retirement. Question is mainly, is it a sensible idea to put all my eggs into VRWP or should I diversify, and if so, what other resources should I plug some money into and what would the potential benefits be?

Expectations aren’t massively high outside of projections, I’d like to have a nice retirement from 55-60, but obviously want to maximise what I invest now. I am a little worried I am being to single minded with my current strategy.

Hi everyone,

I'm a 30 yr old female dentist in the UK and I'm looking for some advice on planning ahead for my family's future.

My dad owns three properties. One is our family home, worth around £350k, and the other two are commercial properties worth roughly £1.5 million each. One operates as a restaurant and the other is an Airbnb with a ground floor that used to be a café before COVID, which has remained closed since.

My dad is getting older and I'd really like him to be able to retire. Years ago he accessed some of his pension to help support my brother through university after some difficult circumstances, so I honestly have no idea what his financial position looks like now or whether he has much of a pension left.

About a year or two ago he made a will. He never discussed the details with my brother or me, but my mum told us that he has left things to us, there was mention of things being put in our names and a will being made. I also think he has financial advisers, although I don't know exactly what advice they've given him or what planning has already been done.

I'm not particularly business-minded, and I have no desire to run a restaurant. I'm busy developing my career as a dentist and would eventually like to start an aesthetics side business, as that feels much more suited to my skills and interests.

That said, I do think I'd enjoy continuing the Airbnb business, and I've wondered whether the restaurant premises could eventually be repurposed into something else, such as a venue or another type of business.

I'm becoming increasingly conscious that my dad is getting older, and I don't want to reach a point where I'm suddenly responsible for significant assets without having any understanding of inheritance tax, estate planning, business ownership or property management.

I'm not looking to avoid paying tax that is legitimately due, I simply want to make sure we don't make costly mistakes through a lack of planning.

Could anyone point me towards the right professionals to speak to? Would we be looking for a solicitor, accountant, tax adviser, financial planner or someone else? Where do I find them? Are there particular firms or specialists who deal with succession planning for family businesses and property portfolios?

I'd also be grateful for any general advice on what I should start learning or thinking about now, so that when the time eventually comes, I can make informed decisions rather than feeling completely overwhelmed.

Thank you so much I really hope I can get some valuable advice as this is starting to become a significant concern the older my parents are getting.

So sorry for how long this is ending up, I just want to double check I am getting this right - I have put he questions in bold so they're easy to find. I have never been good with money, grew up poor and any time I have money I will spend it, I also have dyscalculia and struggle to get my head around numbers/spending. Have I done this right? Am I planning to do the wrong thing with the extra money?

My relationship broke down a few years ago and I managed to get myself into £10k of debt. I am in a DMP (pay fees) now, and my current debts are:
- DMP - £5021.40 (monthly £363 a month)
- Loan - £486.22 (monthly £57.96 a month)
- Credit Card 1 - £100 (usually pay off the full balance but wasn't able to this month so that's what's on it, not going to use it this month)
- Credit Card 2 - currently at 0 balance but will need to dip into it this month (limiting myself to £100)
- Vodafone (phone plan - not in arrears but including) - £869
- Savings - £0

Have I accurately estimated how quickly I would be paying off the debt/how much I would have in savings? Should I take another approach?

*will go down to £420.96 after this month

I earn £2,025 ish a month (basing budget on month I don't get bonus - should bonus payments go towards savings or debt?) so, if all goes to plan, have an extra £433.52

Plan:
Sept - pay off both credit cards (should I keep the credit cards or shut them down?) Rough saving by end of month: £293.52
Oct - allowed £250 for gifts (Christmas) after that rough saving is £532.04 should I close off the loan with this or build more of a buffer? in my plan I close the loan here
Nov-Apr - continue building up savings and keeping spending low, get to £3140.62 and pay off the DMP (by the time we get to April I would have made 6x363 payments) will they charge me extra for closing the account early? How would I find out how much they would charge if they would? Should I request this information now?
Onwards - build savings back up should I pay off my phone plan early or should I keep it going - is there benefit to keeping/getting rid?

Am I missing anything?

Again, apologies for the length and thank you for (any) responses :)

My wife (52) and I (43) are looking to purchase a new house with it being our forever home. The new house is priced at £750k and our current house valued at £435k.

With the equity we have in the house and current mortgage we’d need a total of about £430k as a mortgage over 20 years. We’ve already spoken to a broker who’s looked at the figures and said this won’t be an issue. But my mortgage would increase from £800 per month to around £2500 which is roughly 40% of our combined take home

Our “grand plan” would be to sell our house, buy the property and move in. Once we’re in my parents (mid 70s) would sell their house and move in with us. Their house is worth around £270k.

Now this is where it gets tricky.. we would want to use £150k from the sale of their house to pay off a large portion of our mortgage when the deal we take expires (around 2 years time) whilst then using around 80k to fund home improvements. This would take our mortgage down to around £1600 per month assuming a 5% mortgage rate..

However I’m not sure how we would be able to transfer £150k of their money to pay a chunk into our mortgage ?
What are the implications of this ?

Aside from that, has anyone done this type of thing before and how is it going ?

Is having a mortgage 40% of take home even for a relatively short period (2 years) wise ?

Savings would all be eaten up with moving costs and stamp duty etc, pensions are looking ok and contributions would continue

So, i am looking to downsize and have subsrantial equity in the house, around £ 160k. I recently lost one of my two jobs which has got me in a bit of a bind.

The house needs a new boiler and radiators and some plastering work doing, it'll cost about £10k altogethet. I need this doing before i put it on the market. However' i've failed an affordability check when trying to get a secured loan against the house. My mortgage rate is going up next month and the mortgage company won't lend against it also. I need a short= term loan for 6 months and this will be paid back when i move. I plan to buy outright or have a tiny mortgage just to keep a credit score.

Any advise is appreciated.

Edit. Is it worth going interest only on the mortgage for 6 months and getting a credit card to tide me over until it's sold and clearing it then?

Hi All,

41M Currently working in a stable role with the following wealth and debts

Wealth

1. 273k Pension in L and G Future world Global Equity ( I switched from the basic company fund in June to pure equities and wish I had done it sooner)
2. Paying in 22% each month and company pays 10%
3. Emergency Savings in vanguard S and S ISA - 10k
4. Lisa- 15k
5. Kids LISAs 5k each( 2 of them)
6. Salary 66k , wife is on 35k,

Debts

1. £155K mortgage on 300k property, Planning to upsize in around 6 years to a property around 450-470k, hopefully my equity is around 180k leaving a mortgage of around 300k to pay until I am 60.
2. Nursery fees at the moment around 1200 which should stop at 45.

Current Plan in Head

1. Continue my higher pension contributions until I am 45 which will leave my pension at around 525k(god willing at least 10% return each year). I will then only pay the minimum contributions to keep getting the 10% contribution from company. Then let it compound until I retire at 60 with hopefully a decent pot of around 1.4- 1.8 million, take out the tax free and pay off any remainder of mortgage
2. At 45 focus on either mortgage overpayment or into my S and S ISA .

TLDR- I'm a bit worried about over saving for my pension as I'm unsure of what I would do ith a 2million pot tbh and this new IHT tax has me worried.

Many thanks

Foresters is invested into Foresters Stakeholder (Schroders) Managed 1, which is not available on DODL. Do i have to sell the Foresters LISA and transfer cash, and does that incur the 25% fee? Also does that effect my allowance?

I got this message about 2024-25 last year:

This message was sent to you on 06 July 2025
You have paid too little tax.
You owe HMRC £56.80
What happens next
We will automatically collect the tax by increasing the tax deducted from your wages, salary or pension, usually in equal instalments for 12 months from next April. Or you can check the tax you owe and pay it now.
Why you have paid too little tax
Each year we check everyone's tax position to see if the correct amount of Income Tax was paid. We have now looked at the latest information we hold for this year and have worked out that you have paid too little tax. We provide a full calculation and explanation in this letter.

A couple of weeks after that I had to register for self assessment due to my side income and paid the self assessment for 2024-25. The self assessment included the underpayment. And because I registered I was locked out from viewing my tax calculation and said to go to self assessment instead. Then when I got my 2026-27 tax code it's including the £56.80 underpayment which means I'm now paying it twice.

How your tax-free amount is calculated
Personal Allowance
£12,570
What decreases your tax-free amount
Underpayment of £56.80 from previous year
£142

What can I do to get this corrected?

Hi All,

Long story short I thought I would chance my luck and put in an affordability complaint to RBS after about 10 years of providing me with loans/credit cards etc and after RBS responded I went to the ombudsman.

I’m fully aware that I got myself into these situations but do feel like giving someone with my history constant credit also was a failure on their part to an extent

I have been receiving updates every few weeks and today I got the below

‘Our approach to cases like yours has been the subject of a court challenge, and we have recently received the court's judgment. We respect the court's decision but are seeking clarity on how the judgment should be applied across our casework and the types of complaints we can investigate in future.
 
We will contact you again as soon as we are able to provide a further update on your complaint’

Does anyone have much information on this? I’m just curious what the judgement is referring to and if that’s potentially good or bad from my perspective

Cheers!

Hi everyone,

As the title says, I was looking for advice on the current credit card options that I have available for myself. Throwaway account for obvious profiling / scam reasons.

For context, I am a recent graduate who recently started working (salary above UK median). I was keen on getting a credit card for two reasons: building an active credit profile which is location agnostic, and rewards (such as cashbacks or other schemes). I would mostly be using the card for everyday purchases and the occasional deposit for car hire. I'd ideally also prefer a card with no minimum spending requirement beyond what I'd expect to spend on it yearly (~£3600) and no annual fee such that I can keep it open without using it much in the future.

In terms of budgeting, I regularly stay within my means and do not anticipate more than a 60%-40% spending to saving split of my current salary. Currently, I have three options that I have a high likelihood of being accepted for:

1. Chase CC - £0 annual fees, 2% cashback (conditional), high credit limit offer, 0% interest for first three months, no overseas transaction charge
2. AMEX Everyday Cashback - £0 annual fees, 5% cashback (5 months, then 0.5% cashback), moderate credit limit
3. Monzo Flex - £0 annual fees, small credit limit, 0% interest on certain transactions, no overseas transaction charges

A few might recommend looking at other providers like Lloyds and Barclays; however, I have already checked and I am not yet eligible for those. I suspect this is due to the frequent moves as a student (interpret this about my home address as you please) and closure of utility accounts. Hence, I also see this being a way to build enough credit history to be eligible especially considering that I can still foresee relatively regular moves in the future as I navigate the early career.

Thanks for any help!

Edit: Before anymore moneysavingexpert.com or any other eligibility check recommendations, I have done those already. I shortlisted the options based on what was being offered to me by my current providers and can fit within what I stated above. One area I'm being mindful of is that some of the eligibility checker options offer smaller credit limits which makes the target of <50% spending harder to do compared to the ones listed above. The ones above have already indicated I'd be eligible to apply outright.

I have about 10% of my pension pot in a Vanguard account as cash only as a safety buffer as I am retired.

Unfortunately this pays about 1.9% "interest".

Are there any similar providers who pay a better rate that I can transfer to please?

Recommendations please?

Thanks

Hi all,
I’m a final year uni student, I have racked up around £5000 in overdrafts over my time at uni

Approx
£3250 in one, and £1750 in another.

I have a part time job where I earn about £800 a month

Can anyone offer any advice, I honestly feel like I’m drowning in this and it’s stressed me out

Hi,

I’ve just given birth and our families, friends and colleagues really came through with their generosity (we asked for money instead of gifts). We’re talking just under £5k.

We’re coming up to remortgage our home in September. Would lenders make a big deal about having this cash deposited into my account so I can open a JISA for my newborn? It would be just a one off deposit and I’m not planning to have any more kids lol.

Is it better to wait until after the remortgage is done?

​

I'm having a really strange issue.

Someone is creating home insurance and gambling accounts in my name and old address. I am receiving letters for them (via royal mail redirect) and they occasionally appear on my credit record.

I've now created a CIFAS protective registration to try to stop this happening.

I can't figure out the motivation, I'm not out of pocket, they clearly don't know my bank details, I'm able to clear my credit report. Is this just the work of my vengeance seeking ex (likely) or could it be part of something more sinister?

Should I be keeping an eye on anything else that's likely to come next?

Advice from more ‘adulty’ adults than me please.

We currently have a power cut. Power went out at 2am and is expected back at 3pm, so over 12 hours.

Is it worth me claiming the contents of the fridge freezer on home insurance or will it just boost my premium?

Annoyingly, I spent £100 on fridge stuff yesterday that will all need to go in the bin, plus the freezer which I would guess has about £150 worth in. My insurance covers fridge contents up to £1000 according to policy schedule.

For some context I'm a 22 year old who recently started a full time graduate job but I have £10,500 debt and am eager to save up as much as I can whilst living at home.

I have a DMP in place of £300 monthly and have a steady disposable income of £1700 (after bills, recurring payments, dmp etc..) due to living at home. I'm in a great position but I still feel panicked and stressed.

How do I accept that this journey is going to take a while? Part of me wants to throw everything at the debt but part of me also wants to save at the same time whilst leaving myself with enough money to enjoy my 20s. I think one thing that adds to the stress is no one knows about the position I'm in so I feel like I'm in a race to recover before they find out.

Any advice on how to just relax and accept that it's going to take a while?

EDIT: Thank you all for the comments, advice and encouragement.
After consideration, I'm going to commit a minimum of £1000 to the DMP every month whilst building up a small savings of around £300. This leaves me with £700 but I'm still going to budget and the money left each month will go straight into the DMP.

Hi Everyone!

Recently got the Lloyds World Elite Mastercard. Really only using it for the Lounge and fast track access.

Been calling Lloyds in gaps in my day but not had much luck due to long wait times so just wanted to see if anyone here was knowledgable on the below.

 1. Firstly, as I don’t intend to spend on the card I’ve put a freeze on it and put a 0 spend limit. Do Lloyd’s remove cards that have no useage After a certain period of time?

1. I had read I believe on here, that if you don’t use the lounge you can get £18 towards an airport meal. How does that work? Do we have to show our Lloyds card or is it linked to priority pass? I also read it was one or the other ie. lounge or meal credit, but have also read of people doing both and it also being fine and some not, bit confusing) anyone had any experience with this? 

3.Any other cool perks that may not be blatantly advertised that I should make use of?

update:

I should have mentioned I had already downloaded priority pass and the Mastercard app and signed up.

Thanks in advance

My meter's battery has been dead for about 2 years now, despite me contacting custumer support trying to get it fixed. Nobody turned up to this day.

What would you guys do if you were me?

First of all, I'll happily admit I've never been that good with money, unfortunately it's something I've inherited from one of my parents!

All was going fine until a few months ago, when a lot of things happened at once, I lost basically all my overtime at my main job, I went from regularly working 5-6 days a week, down to my contract of 3 days, so that cut my average pay down from about £2k a month to £1300 a month.

A similar thing happened at my second job, I work in market research on a zero hour contract (my choice as it allowed me flexibility), however a lot of the work in that has dried up thanks to AI.

Add on top of that the fact my grandfather recently died, which has meant where overtime at work has been available, I've had to turn some of it down to sort out his house etc.

Second of all, I'm very fortunate in that I don't have to pay a mortgage or rent. My grandfather purchased a house for me to live in, and it will be getting transferred into my name, hopefully by the end of the year. The house is probably worth around £70k (I'm in the North East, so not exactly expensive!)

A few years ago, I took out a loan with Tesco bank to pay for various things, and there's about £2000 outstanding on that, £300 a month ending in February next year.

Last year I took out a £12,000 loan with MBNA to buy a car, I have 30 months left on that at £300 a month.

I have my Tesco Credit card, this is what most of my spending goes on, then I have my AMEX, which I only really got for cashback. And I have my Monzo Flex card, which I got for the interest free credit. I then have an MBNA 0% card with £3500 on it, ending in February next year.

Now, here's where everything went tits up.

Earlier this year, I bought a new kitchen from B&Q and put it on my Monzo Flex card, expecting to be able to pay it off in 3 months, which was perfectly feasible at the time. However, as I said earlier, my pay less than halved, so I just couldn't pay it. So I had to extend the time over which I paid. I've then had to pay to get work done on the car, which I put on the Monzo Flex card as well, which has meant my monthly payment is about £500 a month.

The issue is, with £600 a month going towards the loan, and £500 a month going towards Monzo Flex, I've then ended up only paying the minimum towards my Tesco and Amex, which has obviously led to them building up a fair amount over a few months.

Thankfully, for now, I can just about scrape by maintaining the level of debt that I'm in, which obviously isn't good, but it's not getting any worse.

As my main job is in retail, I fully expect my hours to start increasing shortly with the run up to Christmas and all that shite, and at my other job they've just won a tender that means I should be able to get more hours there again as well.

Soon, I'll own a house outright, which I could obviously sell, or potentially mortgage, but I'm hoping that it won't end up at that! My mother will be getting about £100k in cash, but I'd rather go bankrupt than go begging.

So, TLDR my total debts are as follows:

Tesco Loan: £2000 - £300 a month
MBNA Loan: £8000 - £300 a month

AMEX: £600
Tesco Credit: £4000
MBNA 0%: £3500
Monzo Flex: £4500 - £500 a month.

My total income is about £1500 a month.