Callum Mason

Journalist working at the i Paper. Formerly of MoneySavingExpert.com and Tes.

The i Paper •

Retirees need £44k for a 'comfortable' life. How are the rest of us meant to manage?

It's hard to save for a 'comfortable' standard of living in retirement, but it's just as hard - or harder - to have it before you retire A person living alone in retirement needs to spend £43,900 a year to live at a “comfortable” standard, according to new figures released by the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA).This figure is calculated by researchers at Loughborough University and is based on discussions with members of the public from across the UK.Crucially, the nu...
The i Paper •

At 64, I'll never downsize from my four-bed because moving home is horrendous

Experts say that helping retirees to downsize into smaller homes could be a key way to combating the housing crisis - but difficulties moving put some people off doing it After retiring early in his mid-fifties, John Dixon lives in a four-bedroom house with his wife Linda.Their children are now in their twenties and thirties, and so John says that they were open to the concept of downsizing in the future.Experts say that supporting those in retirement to downsize into smaller...
The i Paper •

The real cost of delaying payments into your ISA account

Putting money into an ISA earlier in the tax year can boost your returns, according to analysis by an investment firm Putting the maximum £20,000 in your ISA at the start of the tax year could boost returns by tens of thousands of pounds compared to if you wait before investing cash.Savers and investors can put away £20,000 per year into an ISA and not pay any tax on the interest or returns, with the allowance resetting every April.Aside from in some specific circumstances –...
The i Paper •

I pay £750 a month to flat share at 58 – I've come to terms with renting forever

Research from SpareRoom shows that 14 per cent of renters don’t think they will ever get on the property ladder, and 30 per cent are unsure For the majority of the 36 years he has been living in London, Patrick Loomer has been in a flat share.At 58, he says he is “past coming to terms” with the fact that unless he wins the lottery, he will be renting for life.“I would have loved to own flat, but my life just didn’t work out like that,” he says.Patrick currently pays £750 a mo...
The i Paper •

At 23, here’s how I made £60k by investing during Trump’s stock market plunge

Investment experts say that buying after stock markets fall can give you an opportunity to make strong returns Adam Mlamali bought his first home late last year in the West Midlands.It was a fixer-upper, which the 23-year-old says needed extensive renovations, which have already begun, and have so far cost £20,000.He decided he needed to find some money to complete the renovations, and so, in April, Adam paused the renovation work and decided to go “all in” on investing in st...
The i Paper •

Borrow up to my eyeballs for a mortgage? I’d rather rent

Although there are many advantages to owning a home instead renting, stretching yourself to the very edge of your financial limits to do so is not worth it You would be hard pushed to find someone who has rented over the past few years who says they would love to carry on doing so for years to come.With renting comes the risk of regular price rises at the whims of your landlord, the prospect of being turfed out of your home, and problems that often go unfixed for months on end – thing...
The i Paper •

I'm a financial journalist but opted out of a pension in my 20s - I'd do it again

Opting out of a pension should be avoided at all costs, but with compressed wages and rising living costs, many will do so regardless without alternative solutions Nearly nine years ago after finishing university, I started my first job in journalism in Edinburgh, aged 22.It paid a paltry figure well below £20,000 a year, but as someone with no formal journalism training, no work experience in any newsroom of note and Government warnings of a deep recession ahead, I decided it was bes...
The i Paper •

Frustrated about paying tax on your state pension? Here's why others have it worse

The fact that the state pension is set to climb above the tax threshold is seen as a symbolic moment for many, but we need to stop acting as if the plight of pensioners is unique Unless you have managed to avoid reading the news for the past three years, you will be aware that since 2022, successive Governments have frozen the level at which you starting paying income tax, and plan to keep it that way until 2028.This means that as earnings rise to keep up with climbing prices, more an...
The i Paper •

The areas where house prices have risen by more than 800% over 30 years, mapped

Property prices have risen throughout the country in the past few decades, but costs in certain areas have been falling House prices have risen by more than 800 per cent in some parts of the country over the past 30 years, according to extensive analysis by Savills estate agency for The i Paper.There is a vast difference in the rate of growth in areas of England and Wales over the past three decades, a study of property price growth figures published by the Office for Nationa...
The i Paper •

The stock market turmoil reveals the reality of Britain’s two-tier pension system

ANALYSIS

Most people working in the private sector see their pensions take a hit when stock markets fall - but many public sector workers are shielded from this disruption If you have been brave enough to check your pension balance since Donald Trump’s infamous Rose Garden press conference last Wednesday, it is likely to have been an uncomfortable read.Since the US President launched his wide-ranging plan to hit imports to the State with – in some cases ey...
The i Paper •

How thousands are cutting council tax by up to £2.5k by challenging their bands

Some households are moving down four council tax bands after submitting challenges, figures obtained by The i Paper show Thousands of households have had their council tax reduced by multiple bands after challenging the Government, resulting in savings of £2,500 a year for some. Properties in England and Wales are assigned into one of eight council bands, rated A to H, which determines how much a household’s annual bill will be.The bands are based on what the value of your ho...
The i Paper •

Inside the scramble to beat the stamp duty deadline

Buyers who don't complete purchases this month face paying thousands of pounds more in stamp duty Given it takes an average of 151 days to complete a property transaction after agreeing a sale, a delay of 24 hours may seem inconsequential. But between Monday and Tuesday next week, this is not the case. In fact, a delay of just a day could mean someone buying an average-priced home has to fork out an extra £2,500.This is because until the end of Monday 31 March, first-time buy...
The i Paper •

Teachers blocked from swapping big pensions for higher wages

A trust of nearly 100 schools planned to offer teachers the chance to take home higher pay in return for smaller pension contributions from April, but has been stalled after a Government intervention A plan to offer teachers the option of swapping big pensions for a higher salary has been blocked by the Government in a move that has big implications for the public sector.United Learning, the biggest academy trust in England, was aiming to offer the scheme to thousands of tea...
The i Paper •

Households who took short mortgages in 2024 to save 'virtually nothing' next year

Mortgage rates have not fallen as quickly as some households predicted they would last year Mortgage holders who took out short term fixed deals in 2024 are set to be dealt a fresh blow as they will likely save “virtually nothing” next year when they refix, experts have warned.Many of the 400,000 households who took out two-year fixed mortgages last year hoping that rates would have fallen significantly when they came to renew are set to find themselves paying effectively the...
The i Paper •

At 66, I haven't saved into a pension, here's how I'm trying to fix it

People in their 50s and 60s spoke to The i Paper about their pension saving regrets Caroline Romero admits that for most of her life pension planning was not “high on her list”.In the 1980s, she and her late husband started running a restaurant, which they continued for more than two decades.Times were tough as they negotiated multiple UK recessions, and Caroline admits that she put nothing away for her later years because she expected to inherit a house and retire with her h...
The i Paper •

I've ditched my Help to Buy ISA - I won't trust government savings schemes again

With poor interest rates and punitive restrictions, savers have been shortchanged Last week, I transferred all the money I’ve had sitting in my Help to Buy ISA to a regular cash ISA.It means that when – or rather if – I do buy my first home, I’ll never get the £3,000 bonus that the account was sold on offering.And I won’t be opening an account with the replacement scheme – the Lifetime ISA – either due to several major flaws with the system. I opened my Help to Buy ISA seven years ago...
The i Paper •

Savers could face tax bill of up to £2k if cash ISA scrapped

Cash ISAs allow people to gain savings interest without having to pay tax - but there are concerns Reeves could scrap them Some savers could face tax bills of more than £2,000 over the next few years if cash ISAs were to be ditched, analysis shows.Cash ISAs are a type of account that allow people to earn interest without paying tax on it with savers having a limit of £20,000 a year that can be placed into them. Around 18 million people hold such an account, figures from HMRC...
The i Paper •

I can't sell my flat - I'm losing £500 per month renting it out

Charlotte Mitchell is stuck unable to sell her Croydon flat as a result of cladding issues Charlotte Mitchell bought her London flat in 2018. Six years later, she has moved out but is still unable to sell it, and is making a loss every month that she rents it out, as a result of cladding.The 37-year-old first found out that the one-bedroom flat she owns in Croydon, south London, had issues in 2020.Although the cladding issues themselves have now been fixed, the high service c...
The i Paper •

Thousands of over-60s take out student loans they are 'unlikely' to ever repay

People in their 60s have taken out £37m in tuition fee loans – they could technically face repayments past their 100th birthday Thousands of over-60s are taking out taxpayer-funded student loans they are unlikely to ever repay due to a loophole in the tuition fee system.There is currently no upper age limit on the government loans, meaning mature students can access them on the same terms as young people, repaying 9 per cent of their income over £25,000.However, a person’s in...
inews.co.uk •

Reeves warned more borrowing risks driving up mortgage rates

Moves to loosen rules that limit the amount of money the Government can borrow at next month’s Budget risk interest rates staying higher for longer and banks hitting the brakes on recent mortgage rate cuts, the Chancellor has been warned.Rachel Reeves is considering changes to her fiscal rules – rules that govern how much she can spend and borrow – at October’s Budget.In its manifesto earlier this year, Labour said it would follow a rule that debt must be falling as a share of the economy by the...
inews.co.uk •

'Optimistic' mortgage rates could end up having to rise again, economists warn

Mortgage rates could end up ticking back up in the future, economists have warned, claiming they are currently based on “optimistic” forecasts of the speed at which the Bank of England will cut interest rates.Earlier this year, mortgage rates fell below 4 per cent on expectations that the Bank would cut interest rates in the first half of the year, but when it became clear that this would not happen, the price of home loans rose.Economists warn this could happen again.This is because fixed mortg...
inews.co.uk •

Reeves's '£10bn windfall' explained - and why it won't reverse winter fuel cut

A decision by the Bank of England could give Rachel Reeves an extra £10bn of “headroom” at her upcoming Budget, according to reports.This is a term used to describe the buffer zone the Government has while still meeting the Budget rules it sets for itself.Some have called upon Reeves, if she does have this extra windfall, to reverse the controversial decision to cut the winter fuel allowance for many pensioners.But does the Bank’s decision actually give Reeves more space – and could that be used...
inews.co.uk •

700k graduates locked out of housing market by £2k extra tax

More than 700,000 former university students are now paying back £2,000 or more a year towards their student loan – a figure that has nearly doubled in the past five years and is preventing graduates from getting on to the property ladder.Many now pay greater portions of their salaries each month to the Government as a result of retrospective changes to student loan rules, according to a Freedom of Information request made by i to the Student Loans Company.Most students face making these large r...
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