Rachel Reeves is between a rock and a hard place - will it cost you more tax?
Rachel Reeves is due to deliver her Spring Statement next week and it's probably safe to say this isn't the position she wanted to be in.
After an Autumn Budget that raised spending and hiked taxes while locking the Chancellor in with a new fiscal rule, Reeves would have hoped to arrive in March with better news on the economy.
Instead, Labour's not-a-tax-on-working-people national insurance hike on employers has backfired, at the same time as the growth forecasts have taken a downturn and borrowing costs have risen.
So, what will the Chancellor do next week? Will she tweak her own fiscal rule, raise taxes again or cut spending in unprotected areas that are already suffering?
As Rachel Reeves finds herself between a rock and a hard place, Georgie Frost, Lee Boyce and Simon Lambert look at what could happen in this podcast.
Plus, what does the Bank of England holding rates and the potential future path mean for your savings and mortgage?
What should you do to sort your Isa and pension now?
Can you really give away £1million a year and dodge inheritance tax?
And finally, the question that anyone like Simon who racks up the odd foreign traffic infraction needs answered, if you get a holiday parking fine, do you have to pay it?
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59:07
How worried should investors be about the Trump slump?
Investors this week have been hit by the 'Trump Slump.' Why is the US President rattling markets and is it the end of the US bull market?
Georgie Frost, Simon Lambert and Lee Boyce discuss what you should be doing to make your investments great again.
How will the UK handle potential tariffs, should investors be in panic mode and what do experts say you should be doing to navigate the geopolitical turmoil?
Pension freedom rules came into play 10 years ago - these allowed retirees to take control of their pension savings, shifting away from the obligation to buy an annuity and moving towards flexible drawdown and investment options.
So a decade on, how have the class of 2015 fared?
Nationwide is handing out more money - £600 million of it - to 12million eligible members as a 'big thank you' following its acquisition of Virgin Money last year.
That’s £50 each. And it’s separate to its Fairer Share Scheme, which will be announced in May.
And lastly, what can you do if a neighbour cuts back hedges and trees which have given privacy for decades?
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48:01
Pension gurus on top-ups and sums behind a comfortable retirement
People with gaps in their state pension records have just one more month to take advantage of a special offer to buy missing years going as far back as 2006.
As long as you get your payment or a callback request in by 5 April you can still benefit from the deal, but after that you will only be able to fill gaps from the past six years.
And many are facing a backlog with payments in limbo – so what's going on?
This week pension gurus Sir Steve Webb and Tanya Jefferies join Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost to talk all things retirement.
How can people save sufficiently to provide an income in retirement which they cannot even earn in salary? Steve replies to this tricky question.
The state pension is going up in a month, with the headline rate at 4.1 per cent thanks to the triple lock. But Tanya reveals that elements of it are only going up 1.7 per cent... and does Sir Steve think the triple lock will survive?
We're on the precipice of Billmageddon with council tax, water bills, train fares, car tax, telecoms and even stamp duty rising – can you dodge the worst of the rises?
And Lee has five top tips for bidding at online auctions to pick up genuine bargains… but just remember the fees, no tweed required.
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1:08:57
How much do you need to earn to feel rich?
If you earn a six figure salary then you have a far bigger income than most of the population.
That's a multiple of the £37,500 median full-time salary and represents the kind of money that most people will only ever dream of.
But would that equate to feeling rich? The cost of living and tax mean that increasing numbers of six figure earners are saying they aren't that wealthy.
And surprisingly, more people seem to be agreeing with them - a recent This is Money poll of 7,600 people showed that 71 per cent thought you needed to earn at least £150,000 to be wealthy, while 25 per cent thought you needed to be on more than £500,000.
On this episode of the This is Money podcast, Georgie Frost and Simon Lambert discuss what it takes to feel rich and why so many people on big salaries now don't.
Also on this episode:
Why Generation X are falling behind on pension saving and what they can do to improve things.
Is it time to fix your energy bills as the price cap rises again?
And Carol Knight, of TISA (The Investing and Saving Association) on why cutting the cash Isa allowance would be a bad move and wouldn't even boost investing.
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47:50
Inflation strikes back: How worried do we need to be?
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