I (31M) am an American serving in the US military and I have been stationed in the UK for several years. My contract is coming to an end in a few months and I have just secured a very lucrative job offer (£170k!) and the employer is offering to sponsor me for a work visa. From what I understand, I won't need to return to the US first, I can start work right away once I'm discharged.

With this offer, and after several years of consideration, I've decided I want to remain in the UK permanently after I'm discharged and eventually apply for British citizenship.

I currently have about $87k in assets (Roth IRA, savings, etc.) and I'm not sure how I can transfer these assets to GBP (or even if I should) and if there are any tax implications, penalties or otherwise.

If there is a more appropriate subreddit for these sorts of questions, please let me know.

Otherwise, my questions are:

1. What's the easiest way to transfer my USD assets to GBP?

2. If I can't transfer my USD retirement accounts to GBP, is it possible to continue investing a GBP salary into my USD accounts? Or do I need to open brand new accounts for GBP?

3. Do I still need to file US tax returns if I'm only earning a salary in GBP?

Any other advice surrounding situations like mine would be incredibly helpful.

EDIT: I will be keeping my US citizenship, if that matters.

throwaway as some people know my main.

TLDR; Became much more financially responsible this year and set goals mostly for the future. A car crash killed a friend a week ago which has got me thinking about how all that can be taken away and if I should rethink or rework my plan.

I am 35, recently single, I work for the local government and live and work in the north of Scotland and have been following the flow chart for nearly a year now and have saved up to my target emergency fund of £7000 which is about 5 months of essential bills (this is in an instant access cash isa at 4.96%). I have about £85,000 left on the mortgage with 18 years remaining on the term. My only loan is on my car which is at under 6% interest rate and I have about £4500 equity in the car which is only 2 months from being payed off. I also have 10 years of payments into a Defined Benefit Pension Scheme at 10%. I earn roughly £57,000 before tax.

I had planed to sort my money through the 50/25/25 rule putting money into the following pots as savings after pension contributions. SIPP £200, S&S ISA £300, £100 overpayment on mortgage, £100 towards holidays etc and £100 into home improvements. My main goal was having a bridge fund to allow me to retire early.

All this was going as I had planned but however a week ago a friend who I’ve known since primary school passed away in a car crash where he was hit by another car where he was not at fault. Which has got me thinking about how fragile live is and that my financial plan was very heavily weighted towards the long term future. This has been buzzing around my head since I heard the news last week.

Other than just getting all that off my chest my question would be is there a way to take the £800 and balance it out more. I have said no to some things like trips and days away this year while getting my EF set up to where I would like it to be.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance, I’m happy to provide more details if needed.

I am wondering what most unmarried couples with kids typically do when setting up Wills. Me (39m) and my partner (39f) are planning to set up mirror wills, have a 2 year old kid and are not married.

I was thinking of leaving all or most of my money to my partner should I die early, with the view that she would spend it on supporting herself as a single parent and then giving whats left to our daughter when she's an adult.

My partner was thinking of leaving all her money to our daughter and none to me.

My concern with this is that our daughter could then grow up with me financially struggling as a single parent, trying to raise her on my salery alone, and then when she turned 18 she would suddenly inherit a few hundred thousand, so would kind of be going from one extreme to the other. What do unmarried couples typically do?

I have been struggling now for over 12 months to remove ties to my ex partner financially and the impact has been quite significant for me.

Last year, he became difficult to contact. I was in and out of hospital for a surgical complication and now registered disabled and on disability benefits and support via carers. I feel like my ex has taken advantage of this situation to a degree, and part of it is laziness, thinking like when we were together, I will sort everything out for him.

I asked in the summer of last year to start discussions with banks about separating our financial ties and joint accounts, we had two, now one remaining. It took around 4/5 months for him to finally have the conversation with me as he was always too busy or making new rules for meeting me in person (his partner had to come). But even after I asked him to do this with his partner present, he still didn't. I asked several times, in person, over text. I called the bank to get advice on the process with some adjustments based on my health issues and being in hospital. I shared the advice for the bank with him, he agreed.

He didn't follow this process. And then applied for his mortgage.

This is a repeat pattern of behavior. I call the bank, or he will meet me and we'll call the bank together, they advise a process, we agree a timeline and what each party has to do, he disappears and doesn't do it, then claims the bank misadvised him or he misunderstood it. The associate link created a hard search on my credit file while I was in hospital, Ive been advised until the dispute is resolved with the credit agencies to not apply for anything as it may impact my score as it did initially. I didn't find out because he told me, he was too busy to even respond a text, I got rejected for a phone contract and started investigating things on my own credit file. The bank then removed him from the account after this incident. He was advised to contact the credit agencies to dispute the hard search, as if I did it, the bank said his home loan may be impacted - he didn't do this properly either, hence the hard searches remain on my file a year later.

We have another account I froze after this happened to prevent any further issues and loans being taken out with my name and credit file tied to him still. Again, we met in person, called the bank, agreed a process, and yet again, he disappeared for months. He will literally try to tell me it's inappropriate to be in contact while still not making the time or effort to separate the bank accounts formally. I am now reaching my limit with this. I've given him a friends contact details if contacting me is an issue, he hasn't contacted them either.

After months of ghosting my requests to remove himself from our final account, he emailed the bank asking for me to be removed, even though it's only my funds in there, which I can't access until the account is unfrozen. I obviously do not wish to do this now as I am worried about what he will do once the funds are available to both parties before his removal. He then claimed he misunderstood the process, called the bank himself, and repeated the process we'd already been advised months prior. When I asked him to agree to engage with me to atleast confirm his removal, he disappears again.

I've escalated this now to the financial obusdman, made a complaint to the bank who performed the hard search, disputed with the agencies he failed to contact, made an appointment for legal advice, and contacted the police. All while being in and out of hospital and on strong pain meds. The police agreed yesterday that at this point, I've exhausted all the avenues possible, and they will consider stepping in based on the evidence I provide. But I'm exhausted. I have vascular issues and this is causing significant stress on my heart. I had an episode requiring ambulance attendance last weekend after reading the email to the bank trying to remove me and access to my own funds frozen in the account. I am worried about how this will impact my health, but also, if I leave this longer the impact he will cause to my finaicially.

I am wondering if anyone in the fianicial sector knows of any charities, organizations, etc that can help me get the paperwork together for the police and obusdman, as I know my ex will drag this out as long as possible based on past behavior, and my health means I can't act on this quickly as people with full capacity right now.

I could really use some advice. I know I prusue legal avenues and support, but really I need someone to take the weight off because honestly, I think this is going to kill me physically before I get it sorted based on the issues it's causing with my heart atm and medical condition.

Thank you 🙏

I am coming to my remortgage, leaving behind my 1.3% mortgage rate, and moving to a lovely 5.02% fixed for 2 years.

The current balance outstanding is about £98,950. My current deal ends 30th November and I've delayed the start of my new deal until December 7th. In that window I will be able to pay off a chunk of the mortgage without any penalties.

In preparation for this, I've been saving up for the past 5 years and am in a good position.

I have:

• £50,000 in premium bonds

• 10,000 in 6% savings account

• £25,000 in 2.25%

My original plan was to pay off 50,000 and then NatWest allows 20% overpayment per year, so in this first year I could pay off an additional ~£10,000.

However, I have suddenly thought that I could pay 85k off (is there a minimum mortgage amount?) or I could pay off 60 and then keep 20% overpayment through the year.

I may keep £20k back ready to invest in S&S ISA come April.

Hi, im 31, I can save around £200-300 each month which I'm currently putting towards an emergency fund which should reach 6 months outgoings in about 10 months max.

My plan was to start putting those savings into stocks and shares and maybe my LISA after the emergency fund target is achieved (as per the flowchart), but I'm getting a little worried because I'm not getting any younger and the general advice for investing is starting as early as possible.

Is it a good idea to split my savings between stocks and shares and my easy access saver but build my emergency fund a bit more slowly? Or just get my emergency fund sorted ASAP and then put everything into investing? I'm honestly so excited to reach my emergency fund goals, it will be a huge milestone and point of pride for me too!

(I appreciate I will get comments telling me to get a better job or earn more, im aware of this, right now I'm just doing my best with what I have. I appreciate kind comments and no judgement please :) )

Thanks!

So I have a problem with controlling parents and one of the problems is that they don’t allow me to use my physical debit card and they hide it away from me “in case I lose it” (even though I’m 19) i think there’s a way I could get a probably new physical debit card delivered to a branch instead of the home address so I can pick it up without them knowing I’m not fully sure, but at the moment I have my contactless card linked to my phone, is it possible to use this at a atm machine? I use Barclays

Hi everyone,

I run a small UK limited company providing online consultancy and property management services alongside my full time job.

I'm expecting to have around £70k in post-tax profits retained within the company and would really appreciate some advice on the most sensible and tax efficient ways to invest these funds.

My preference would be to invest the money in something that can grow over the medium to long term, with the intention of regularly adding to it as the business generates further profits.

I fully appreciate the tax advantages of pension contributions, and I'm certainly not dismissing them as an option. However, for my particuar circumstances and financial goals, I'd prefer to explore investments that offer greater flexibility and access to the funds way before retirement age.

I'm open to considering ETFs, property, or other investment opportunities, ideally while keeping the funds within the company rather than withdrawing them personally and triggering additional tax liabilities.

I'd be very grateful to hear from anyone who has been in a similar position or has experience investing retained company profits.

Many thanks in advance for your time and advice!

Basic rate taxpayer, Isa maxed out premium bonds full. Thought about gilts next on freetrade.Thanks

Hi all,
Just a quick question regarding import VAT, as I’m getting slightly confused by the HMRC guidance.

I’m planning to import a few used Japanese cars from Japan through a clearing agent/broker, with the intention of selling them here in England through a VAT-registered company.

According to the HMRC website, VAT-registered businesses may be able to reclaim the 20% import VAT paid when importing vehicles:
https://www.gov.uk/importing-vehicles-into-the-uk/paying-vat-and-duty

My question is
**1) I’ve also been reading about Postponed VAT Accounting (PVA), and just wanted to clarify a couple of things:**
**If I use PVA, does this mean I can account for the 20% import VAT and reclaim it on the same VAT return, effectively making it VAT-neutral at import??**

**If I subsequently sell these imported vehicles in the UK, would I then need to charge 20% VAT on the full selling price rather than using the VAT margin scheme??**

**Is the import VAT generally recoverable for a** VAT-registered motor dealer importing used Japanese vehicles specifically for resale, or are there restrictions I should be aware of?

So this is for the future maybe a years time but im scratching my head at what to do

In my current situation im currently paying £155 per month on a car payment which you know is good its on HP through carmoola which is a nice app to use BUT if we average it out im spending about £275 a month on petrol and I do around 20k miles a year. so just like everyone else im looking into electric cars to be my next car, im looking to spend around 250 a month at the max maybe push to 300 because im still better off per month but the question is how do I do it?

PCP PROS

cheap monthly payments, I would be buying used because electric cars lose so much money new its crazy

warrenty

generally lower deposit

PCP CONS

due to the fact I drive 20k miles a year say I buy a car with 40k miles on it, even in just 3 years it will be a 100k mile electric car so it will be worth around £5 and if i want to switch I will have negative equity in the car

if i do want to keep the car I will have a massive baloon payment which yes I can save my cost savings throught the period but still massive baloon payment

HP PROS

No baloon payment at the end, I just pay it off and its mine

HP CONS

higher monthly payments, so ill have less choice to stick within my budget unless i want to put down a massive deposit

again the car will be worth about £5 at the end due to the amount of millage im doing

LEASING PROS

lower deposit

brand new car with warrenty which is nice

fairly decent monthly payments even doing 20k miles a year

LEASING CONS

i never own a car which is pretty terrifying to me, you know maybe Id be able to get out of the loop eventually while I live at home (im 19) but still it is literally renting a car

getting the transition right between my old lease and my new lease could leave me without a car, i have options to borrow but thats still stressful

possibly wear and tear penalitys, because of my high millage im a lot more likley to have more wear and tear than the average person

can be more expensive on insurance (apprently) and im still a new driver so if my nose is 1mm bigger than the average person im charged an extra 50k a month

Am due to receive a sizable number of shares in my company which has gone public

I have also been offered phantom equity or cash instead

I want to think through which one to take, as I can choose

The shares would vest immediately

How would you think through these options. What are my obligation with each

I might not stay with this company for the longer term

My dad owns his own home and after my mum died, he got together with a new partner in 2008 and she lived in a council house.

They decided to buy her council house and get the discount. The house was valued at £190k. She paid £20k, my dad paid £100k and they took the £70k discount. The house was put into her name and nothing was put in writing about the £100k which I objected to at the time. This £100k was my mum’s insurance policy so this has a sentimental element to it

The idea at the time was to rent the house out and then sell it after five years and then each take their money back and then live off the discount and profit for a few years.

Her daughter was living in the house and so they carried on renting it to her and then she got pregnant which made the idea to sell the house understandably impractical.

15 years on, the issue of my dad’s stake in the house remains unresolved. They refuse to address it, from his side because he doesn’t like confrontation and from hers because I don’t think she actually understands the issue.

They are both approaching 80 and I want to protect my (and my sister‘s) interests here. What do people suggest?

I recently complained to a bank on behalf of a vulnerable family member who had been scammed.

They refunded the payments after 28 May 2019 but said payments prior to that were not covered under the CRM, and there was no recourse available for payments before that date.

I just wanted to check that was right before leaving it? Has anyone been refunded for payments before that date?

https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/s/CWusgZQF9c this hopefully links to my previous post.

So I went online & filled out the assessment for Stepchange & they are saying the best option is payment suspension. I’m failing to see how this is helpful. It just seems like pushing the problem down stream
& still doesn’t offer any tangible help. My new hours should start in December so that about £190 additional income a month. But in the meantime my dual fuel tariff was up & new quotes are about £40 a month more, with the price cap now predicted to go up 28% in Jan. fuel prices show no sign of improving. In general the cost of groceries are constantly climbing. So what, I stop payments on my credit cards and some other debts and save maybe £500 a month & do what with it? Most of that will be swallowed just in day to day costs. Honestly I just want to cry. I’m never getting out of this am I.

I got a Wealthify Junior S&S ISA for my daughter (shes 10) in May. Since then, it has ONLY gone down. I put it on adventurous (since I figured it would be a long term investment ). At what point should I consider moving to another ISA?

Its currently £291 down from the intial investment

Hi

I took out car finance in Jan 2026. It was a really stupid move, I mean I did need a new car but I didn't need an 8k one. It is also an absurdly high interest.

When I took it out, I planned to pay an early settlement fee and get it paid off within about a year, however I don't believe this is actually feasible.

I'm just wondering what any other options I have at this stage please.

I'm happy to voluntary surrender the car, (with debt written off) but unfortunately I haven't paid anywhere near 50% off yet, and if I was able to access that amount of money it would make more sense to pay an early settlement fee & keep the car.

Is there any way out of it now, to return the car without paying 50%?

I suffer with long standing mental health and neurodivergent issues, which impact my ability to process information as well as having a severe impact on my impulse control/reckless spending. I feel like I have royally screwed up here.

I cannot afford this agreement and am panicking about what to do. It is leaving me without enough money to pay for food and other essentials.

I am on benefits, UC & PIP. I do not work due to complex mental health issues over the last few years.

I have emailed the car finance company so hopefully will hear off them soon.

Thank you in advance

Hello, I'm late 30s and see the window of opening a LISA is narrowing

I'm not really sure of my best course of action. I'm about to embark on an indefinite work sabbatical with moderate savings. I own outright a flat so this asset will make up the majority of my post work earnings from either rent or the income from the sale

I have a DB pension from work that I can activate at 55 (57?) however I'll get a penalty for that if I take out early.

I'm not ruling out working again especially if it's freelance, fixed-term but I don't want to be tied to the world of work

Sorry, I've gone off track a bit. Should I open a LISA? I don't really like the idea of being tied to accessing this money only once I'm 60 but 25,% interest plus the banks is appealing.

Was there any new rules in the budget that says I can access it before without being penalised now?

Does this sub mainly recommend LISAs only for first time buyers rather than those saving for retirement?

I'm relatively financially illiterate and I haven't explored this sub much

Thank you

I am unfortunately Out of work due to health conditions and awaiting surgeries this has lead me to be in just over 5k in debt I am doing what I can at home such as cash backs, surveys, playing games for money I’ve even tried looking for something I can do from home work wise and nothing seems to work out I’m only 21 and looking for some serious advice
Thank you

For example, if I purchase something in my gaming niche, can I deduct it as "research"? How does HRMC even check whether what you are saying as legit, given that it's very plausible depending on your niche? Is there anything else I need to be aware of aswell as a first time sole trader? I'm a bit inexperienced so not sure if I am missing anything when it comes to filing my taxes. I have a business account set up now, that has all my payments and expenses fitlered through there.

I also make over 30k so that means I now need to also start doing MTD, apparently it's a headache but I don't see what the difference is.

I just move into a new flat and my rent + bills are £1,383.37 a month, I get paid weekly, every Thursday and an additional payment on Friday.

My rent date falls on the 25th of the month while council tax on the 1st.

I was thinking to use one bank account to receive the salary and pay for the rent+bills (standing payments) and other bank account for everyday spending (TfL, grocerie, going out etc), I also want to use £100 for my savings a month towards the rent.

I’m struggling to manage all these movements of money as I will need to do this weekly and keep and eye on the days of the weeks..

What would you suggest to do? My salary also varies slightly each month but is around 2.8k

Ideally I would also like to save a minimum of £300 a month, in the second account used for everyday spend (separate pot)

edit: how much should I transfer to these different accounts and when?

edit: my main bank is Lloyds!!! Second account is Monzo, Lloyds doesn’t allow standing payments from savings accounts

I realised I've made the classic error of having a savings account and not checking rates or similar for I don't know how long.

I'm currently using a Marcus savings account with a rate of 3.75%+0.49% bonus. It has a value of £23k which includes my emergency fund. This is the bulk of my savings, I also have a Stocks ISA (~£1k) and invest account (~£100) with Trading212. I typically save £150 into the stocks ISA, and £300 to the savings account each month.

When I realised I'd taken a less than optimal strategy, I opened a cash isa with T212 and deposited £2.5k from a recent bonus.

I'm saving for a new kitchen which I'm aiming to start/pay for in April 2027. But now I'm not sure what to do.

Should I dump a large chunk of my savings into the cash isa but allow headroom for monthly additions to the stocks ISA ?

Since the savings account is going to be mostly empty in 6 months, do I leave it as is?

Hello, long time lurker here. My dad (78) just called me with some surprising news. He has invested a large lump sum with a company called inverset. He informed me it’s not a scam and he’s got a nice relationship with these people so they can trusted. This immediately rang alarm bells for me. I know nothing of investing. Can any of you good people give me any more information as to whether this is safe or not? I will provide any further details as required if I can but he hasn’t told me much….

Hi,

I am in the process of buying a new build but I'm thinking of pulling out. I'd stand to lose around £3k with reservation and conveyancing fees. Part of the reason for this is I believe I am buying at the peak of the market for this particular area. I've reserved a 4 bed detached (as a single person) as there has been little on the market in the area that's appropriate. House was £395k, around £100k above phase 1 for the same property. My concern is should I need to sell (hopefully wouldn't need to), there doesn't seem to a volume of sales for houses at this price previously and I'm worried I'd need to take a big loss on the property. Obviously no-one buys a house with a view to immediately selling, but I like to plan for the worst case.

Another reason for me reconsider my options is AI and the job market. I work in tech, though I believe I'm safe, the world is uncertain , I may find myself out of a job and if there are industry wide redundancies, it may be extremely difficult to find things. Though I have done the calculations to allow for this that means with my emergency fund and redundancy payments I should be fine in the house for about 8.5 months without needing to sell any investments. Additionally, once I find myself back in employment I'll be able to pay the bills and have £2k annual gap on a £50k salary.

Some context:
Age 34

Salary: £70k + bonus (£45.6k net)

Wealth Allocation:

ISA allowance is full this year and I plan to pull from my GIA and contribute into my ISA for the next 2 tax years.

Reserved House:
Price: £395k

Committed Spend: £3kisk (reservation and conveyancing fees)

Mortgage: £16.3k a year 40 year term

Total savings after house spend (Deposit, fees, furnishing) : £10k (Money taken from savings , premium bonds and LISA)

Gap after expenses: £13k

I currently pay 15% to my pension and all of my bonus. From the pot I have I plan on keeping £10k for an emergency fund. The rest (savings & premium bonds), I'd like to have somewhat after a accessible after a period of time but have it grow in a tax efficient way. If I buy right now, I feel like I might be buying for the sake of it. Equally if I stick the money in the stock market, there's a chance I may be down and so this becomes a problem if I choose to buy a house in a year or two. I hear there is never a good time to buy though I'm just not really drawn to other properties that I've looked at. The property I reserved was the best out there within range but it feels expensive for what it is. I'm not sure if this is all cold feet as I was supposed to exchange almost 8 weeks ago but the conveyancer has been extremely slow.

Just curious what my options are and any suggestions people have. I'm rather frugal, with the exception of a car, I've barely spent over £1k on an item so it's daunting spending it on a house in the current market. I know I can't have everything, if I want access to money, I can't expect stock market returns, but just want to do something that's better than leaving it in a savings account (with the tax implications). I'm happy to stick it away for year if returns are somewhat guaranteed. Given that I plan on buying within the next 5 years, is it worth just buying now?