Vestpod

💰 The gender pension gap is often framed as a savings problem.

A new Department for Work and Pensions () report suggests it is also a work and care problem.

People who spent most of their working lives in full-time employment retired with a median income of £403 per week.

For those who mostly worked part-time, it was £219.

The report also found that women were far more likely than men to have spent significant periods working part-time or out of paid work altogether, often because of caring responsibilities.

This matters because pension outcomes are shaped by much more than individual saving behaviour.

They are shaped by working patterns, childcare, career breaks, caring responsibilities and lifetime earnings.

Retirement inequality does not suddenly appear at 65. It builds over decades.

💡 If unpaid care work helps keep families and the economy running, should it be recognised more explicitly within the pension system?

🎙️ We discuss topics like this regularly on The Wallet podcast.

Are Stocks & Shares ISAs about to be taxed more? 👀

Recent reports have suggested the government may be considering changes to how cash held inside Stocks & Shares ISAs is treated.

The key highlights:

👉 This is not about taxing investments, capital gains or dividends inside an ISA.

The discussion is focused on one specific thing:

💷 Should interest earned on uninvested cash held within a Stocks & Shares ISA continue to receive full tax protection?

For now:

✅ Nothing has been confirmed
✅ No changes are currently in place
✅ Investments inside ISAs are not being taxed under this discussion

If introduced, this could affect people who keep cash temporarily inside a Stocks & Shares ISA:

• while waiting to invest
• after selling investments
• as part of a wider strategy.

As always, the headlines are often more dramatic than the the practical realities - so no need to panic.

We’re curious to hear your thoughts, as always.

Should ISAs encourage more investing, or should savers be free to hold cash inside a Stocks & Shares ISA without additional tax considerations?

Money anxiety doesn’t appear out of nowhere. Most of us grew up in a culture where talking about money felt awkward, shameful, or completely off limits.

We were expected to somehow understand payslips, pensions, debt, budgeting, taxes, investing… without anyone properly explaining any of it.

And now it’s showing up in our mental health.

📉 65% of Gen Z say money worries are damaging their mental health.
📉 Nearly half of millennials in the UK are living paycheque to paycheque.
📉 Research from the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute found that people with problem debt are more than twice as likely to experience mental health problems.

But anxiety around money is rarely about being “bad with money”. It’s often about uncertainty, overwhelm, shame, rising living costs, unstable work, and feeling like everyone else secretly understands something you don’t.

If money feels overwhelming right now, try making the problem smaller:

💛 open one letter, not all of them
💛 spend 10 minutes looking at your banking app, then stop
💛 talk to someone you trust instead of carrying it alone
💛 automate one small savings transfer if you can
💛 remember that avoiding money stress is a very human response to stress itself

And if debt is affecting your mental health, organisations like offer free, confidential support.

Financial literacy is mental health support too. That’s part of why Vestpod exists. 💛

Shared during Mental Health Awareness Week, with appreciation to , , and The Principal Foundation for the research and resources referenced in this post.

A new financial crisis isn’t guaranteed. But the signals are getting a bit louder… and harder to ignore.

Based on “A fresh financial crisis may be coming – it won’t play out like the last one” by Simon Jack for 👇

What’s raising eyebrows right now:

• 🏦 Private credit is booming, now worth ~$2.5 trillion. It’s complex, lightly understood, and built on layers of borrowing. Some funds have already limited withdrawals
• ⚡ Energy risk is back. Oil prices are above $100, with tensions threatening key global supply routes
• 📈 Markets are concentrated. Around 37% of the S&P 500 sits in a handful of tech giants, many tied to AI
• 💸 Governments have less room to step in. Debt levels are much higher than in 2008
• 🌍 Global cooperation is weaker, which could make a coordinated response harder

But it’s not all doom:

• 🛡️ Banks are far stronger and better regulated than they were pre-2008
• 🔗 Risks are more spread out, rather than sitting in one fragile system
• 📊 Markets are still holding up, suggesting investors expect things to stabilise

So maybe the question isn’t if something breaks, but where - and how prepared we are when it does.

What do you think feels like the biggest risk right now?

We’ve been asked to contribute to the new Magazine 🤍

And we couldn’t be happier, not just because of the platform, but because of the conversation. Writing about money in a way that actually reflects real life, the trade-offs, the unseen gaps, the things that don’t always make it into the headline.

These are the topics that matter. The ones that shape long-term security, even if they don’t always feel urgent in the moment.

Grateful to be part of a space that’s opening these conversations up 💬

With thanks to for the data and insights referenced in the piece 🐝

💷 It’s Financial Literacy Month.

Quick question. When did you last talk to a child about money?

Not a formal “lesson”. But a comment about how much things got where and why, deciding not to buy something. Explaining why some choices are made.

Those moments add up more than we think. Research from suggests that even after years of financial education being in schools, many young people still leave without feeling confident about money. And according to , children who grow up having regular money conversations can end up significantly better off later in life.

So it’s less about getting it “right”, and more about making it normal.

Because what they see and hear early on tends to stick later in life.

Big changes are coming for landlords in England from May 2026 🏡

The Renters’ Rights Act will reshape how renting works:

• “No fault” evictions are being scrapped
• Rent increases will be limited
• Rental bidding wars will be banned
• Ads must be fair and transparent

It’s a big shift, especially if property income is part of your long term plan. But clearer rules could also mean fewer disputes and more stability over time.

How do you feel about these changes?