Episode Details

It's another Q&A show, and this week we cover managing finances under an LPA, Maternity pay, and what to do with a big windfall, plus lots more besides!

Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA4

00:58 Big fan of the show. Really appreciate your work. Dad is 92 with rapidly declining health (Dementia and mobility issues). He is still living at home with Mum (80) who is caring for him with family help. At the moment, it is about manageable. I am managing their finances. We have moved the majority of savings into my mum's accounts. I have used up mum's entire ISA allowance for this year. There is still around £38k of savings sitting in a no interest paying Barclays account. Due to their ages, I do not want to tie up the cash for too long, though at this point in time, they do not need to use this money as they are still able to live off my Dad's pension.

Can you suggest how I might manage this chunk of cash? Possibly a simple savings account, but I am aware that the interest rates are not exactly brilliant, and I wonder about moving into a GIA instead (I have moderate experience buying/selling shares in my own SIPP and ISA, though I am personally high on the risk curve with investments heavily in MSTR and TSLA). Any advice would be appreciated. Cheers, Rich

05:08 Love the podcast (obviously!), it's genuinely very helpful and has really helped me get my stuff together!!! Not sure if this is something you'd know about but, do you think you would be able to explain to me in your very listenable way, how to work out maternity pay, as in how it's actually calculated and how to plan to make up the difference etc plus anything else that might be helpful that I don't even know that I don't know!! I can't really find what I'm looking for anywhere else so just thought I'd ask as I find your explanations of things easy to understand (and could listen to you chat about anything tbh)!! Thank you! Jess

12:16 Thanks so much for your brilliant podcasts. I love the idea of the question and answer ones!

I have a fun question I have been meaning to ask for ages. I keep my contingency fund in premium bonds, and I periodically enjoy a thought experiment, around what I would do if I were to win the big prize of £1 million. (I fully realise this will never happen, but it is a helpful thought experiment to get me thinking about where my priorities lie in case I do receive a much smaller lump sum in the future).

I have no bad debts, I have a contingency pot and I contribute to a pension and ISA. My hypothesis is that I would give some to charity (maybe 10%?), might retain 5% for fun – a nice holiday or an upgrade to my car, would max out my ISA and pension, and then would split the rest between a world index tracker and one or two investment properties. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this and how you would allocate. Thanks! Justyn

17:52 The mantra is that the most important time to take advice is when nearing retirement. That's certainly true for us now, and my other half sought some regulated advice recently in respect to tax free cash and pension recycling rules. The advice was provided (that it was not tax free cash recycling) & so we are continuing with the plan as discussed / agreed with the regulated IFA that we contracted the discussion with (we checked the company and the individuals credentials out on the FSA website .. All good).

The question is (call me paranoid, but quite a lot of money – for us, is involved) what happens if in due course HMRC come to us and effectively look to impose penalties for us acting in accordance with the regulated advice provided / paid for (ie, they dont agree with it / decide it has broken the recycling rules)? I have no (sane) reason to suggest this will happen, but paranoia is a terrible thing!! Keep up the good work (oh, and Roger as well) Regards, Kevin Milsom

23:02 With UK inflation