Helen Nugent

This week’s Best Buys, provided by Moneyfacts, are Two-Year Fixed Rate Bonds.

There was an almighty hoo-ha when George Osborne introduced pension freedoms. In the biggest change to pensions in a generation, anyone aged 55 and over is now allowed to take their entire pension pot as a lump sum, paying no tax on the first 25 per cent and the rest taxed as if it were

As the UK basks in beautiful sunshine, it’s tempting to abandon all thoughts of a holiday abroad and opt for a staycation. But we all know the vagaries of British weather. It’ll probably be raining tomorrow. With this in mind, the financial information company Defaqto has taken a close look at potential nightmare holiday scenarios

This week’s Best Buys, provided by Moneyfacts, are Variable Rate Cash ISAs.

Praise be, there’s some good news on the financial front this morning. Roaming charges for the use of mobile phones while overseas have been abolished as from today. Under the new European Union law (the Roam Like Home legislation), British mobile phone users can now make phone calls, send text messages and use data in other EU

Depending on which way you look at it, today’s house price data from Halifax is either good or bad news. Taken one way it paints a gloomy picture, with house price growth continuing to slow. According to the lender, in the year to May house price inflation dropped to 3.3 per cent, down from 3.8

Not since the days of William Hogarth has Mother’s Ruin featured so prominently in the national consciousness. In the 21st century, gin is seriously big business as evidenced by the slew of pop-up bars and festivals devoted to this elixir of the gods as well as the number of bottles weighing down supermarket shelves. Just

When you’ve been writing about money for a while, a few key phrases crop up again and again. But of all the useful words employed in the world of consumer finance, ‘shop around’ is by far the most popular. ‘Make sure to shop around’ never goes out of fashion, and for good reason. It applies to

A record number of people are now paying the highest rate of tax thanks to wage inflation and the reduction in pensions tax relief. That’s according to figures from HM Revenue & Customs. While the proportion of people paying the 45 per cent additional rate is still small compared to the overall number of income

Ah, butter. Salted, unsalted, English, French, garlic, spreadable, straight from the fridge – just thinking about the many forms of butter make me salivate. Then there’s what to pair it with – crumpets, teacakes, toast, jacket potatoes. The list goes on and on. So it comes as a blow to learn that butter is selling

There are three supermarkets in the small market town where I live. That’s three major chains serving just 14,000 people, not to mention another five within a four-mile radius. So when Sainsbury’s lodged planning permission to build a fourth outlet within spitting distance of the existing shops, local people had had enough. Objections were launched