One real decision at a time, followed through a key scenario. The answer comes first, then every line of the sum, then when the answer changes.
Childcare and pensions
Earn just over £100,000 with a child in nursery and one extra pound can cost your family £11,120 of childcare support. A pension payment can bring it back for a fraction of the price.
For parents earning around £100k who pay for childcare
Child Benefit
With four children, a pay rise at £70,000 is taxed at 63%, more than a millionaire pays. Here's how the charge works, and why it makes a pension payment in that band unusually cheap.
For families claiming Child Benefit, with a parent on £60k to £80k
Pay and bonuses
A bonus should be good news. Land it in the wrong place and it can cost a family more than it pays. Here's how that happens, and how putting half of it into a pension turns the result around.
For anyone with a bonus or pay rise due, especially near £60k or £100k
Work and childcare
Cutting to three days looks like losing 40% of a salary. Once tax and nursery fees are counted, it's often a fraction of that, and sometimes a family ends up better off.
For working parents with a child in nursery
Mortgage and pensions
Overpaying feels like the sensible choice. For a higher-rate taxpayer, putting the same money into a SIPP and using it to clear the mortgage at 57 can leave you thousands better off. Here's the working, including when it doesn't.
For homeowners with a mortgage and money to spare each month
Student loans
A student loan feels like a debt to clear. For many graduates it works more like a tax, and paying it off early only shrinks the amount that would have been written off. Here's how to tell which you are.
For graduates repaying a student loan, and parents of students
Cars and pay
An electric car through work is paid for before tax and National Insurance, with only a small tax on the car itself. For many employees that makes it far cheaper than leasing the same car privately. Here's the working, who gains most, and where it backfires.
For employees whose employer offers, or could offer, a car scheme