What these guides are for
Most money decisions are not investing decisions until you look at them properly. A deposit sitting in cash for four years is a decision about returns. A house bought at the top of your budget is a decision about what else that capital could have done. These guides price the ordinary decisions line by line, using published UK figures, and say where our own arithmetic starts and the source data stops.
Latest guides
Downsizing to Fund Retirement: What It Actually Frees Up
Detached to semi frees £166,381 on paper and £143,135 to £154,464 once every cost is paid. The estate agent takes more than the taxman.
Is My House My Pension?
Over 15-year holding periods since 1993, shares beat UK houses barely half the time. The returns are a coin flip; income, divisibility and tax are not.
What Is an SA302, and Why Does Your Mortgage Rest On It?
The tax calculation a lender asks for, what it proves, and why a brilliant year you never declared to HMRC does not exist as far as a mortgage is concerned.
How Long It Takes to Save a House Deposit Where You Live
Five months of gross pay in the North East, 14.2 in London, and what that turns into in actual years at three savings rates.
What Buying Your First Home Actually Costs in the UK
A £24,552 deposit, £0 stamp duty and £150 to the Land Registry: every line priced on the average English first home.