The terrace house, in Burnley, Lancashire, has a price tag of only £9,000, meaning the entire cost of the three bedroom property is less than most buyers pay as a deposit. The property has recently been redecorated and boasts a lounge with gas fire and surround, a dining room and a fitted kitchen.

Retirees are now free to spend their pension savings as they please thanks to pension freedoms introduced in April. But number crunching from peer-to-peer lender Crowdstacker shows much-criticised annuities could still give you the biggest income.

This month saw the smallest November slowdown in asking prices for properties across the UK for four years, new research reveals. House prices fell by 1.3 per cent, bringing the national average cost of a home down to £292,572, Rightmove said. Buyers on the lookout for a new home in the run up to Christmas can expect sellers to set lower than average asking prices, the findings also suggest.

The VW Group has released a list of Audi, SEAT, Skoda and Volkswagen cars currently on sale it believes could have incorrect emissions and mpg figures. The list, including the VW Polo pictured, is said to affect the CO2 emissions and fuel economy ratings of around 430,000 vehicles in total - that's on top of the 800,000 previous generation cars with suspect figures announced earlier this month.

Television presenter Lucy Alexander has made millions of pounds from bricks and mortar - but she would spend it all on a cure for spinal cord injuries if it meant her paralysed daughter could walk again. Alexander has been presenting daytime TV programme Homes Under The Hammer for the past 12 years, but her TV career began at the age of nine when she starred in an advert for Fairy soap. She went on to drama school and famously appeared in Chesney Hawkes' 1991 music video The One And Only, before landing a job as a presenter of the game show It's A Knockout.

Mrs S.C. writes: Please help me. I am at my wits' end. My husband worked for NatWest for 40 years. He retired in 1993 and died in 2011. I informed all the relevant authorities and NatWest when he died, and the bank paid out on a £7,000 insurance policy. Now it says I have been overpaid on his work pension, because the bank did not know he had passed away. I am being threatened with court action and will have to sell my home to pay back the money.

Father Christmas will be swamped with a wishlist for £1billion worth of toys over the next few weeks. But you can help keep down the cost of those toys he delivers with a bit of smart planning. Parents, wishing to keep costs down or give a little bit to charity when buying gifts, should follow our essential guide. Laura Hollis (pictured with daughters Martha and Dot) helped a local school.

We just had a very uncomfortable weekend with no hot water and no heating as our old boiler broke down. The gas engineer got it started but said that parts for this model are not available now. So my question is do I try to replace it before it breaks down again and how do I save money buying a new boiler?

When ranked alongside another 11 of the UK's biggest cities - Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield - Edinburgh scored highly across a number of key considerations. Residents of the Scottish capital enjoy the highest take-home pay of anywhere in Great Britain outside London - at £25,543 a year on average.

Want to buy a tracker fund with a bit of extra bite? Regular trackers simply clone the performance of the world's biggest markets without trying to beat them, but so-called 'smart trackers' try to stack the odds in investors' favour and don't charge that much more. The idea is that 'passive' index investors gain a strategic edge in the markets, but avoid the expense of employing 'active' stockpicking managers.

The eerily empty bars and streets of Paris are bad news for the local economy. It is also a clear sign that the French capital's tourism industry will be hit - in the short term at least. Fears of another attack are likely to put a considerable number of people off booking that last minute trip to Paris or elsewhere. Thomson holidays-owner TUI was the biggest faller in the FTSE 100, dropping 4.06 per cent or 46p to 1088p.

With broker valuations out there of 37-39p a share one wonders then why stock in Egdon Resources in bumping along at just 9p. That price point is probably more reflective of investor disenchantment with the oil sector than it is indicative of the firm's prospects as it gears up for a busy and possibly transformational year. Egdon, which is a key stakeholder in one of the larger conventional onshore discoveries of recent years, is also at the vanguard of shale exploration here in the UK.

There is nothing in the show that reflects how actual, successful businesses run, says Simply Business chief executive Jason Stockwood. Today, in our post-Fordist knowledge economy, work is about cooperation. It's about talented people sharing skills to solve problems. But that's nowhere to be seen in The Apprentice.

The National Audit Office has released a report this month showing 58,000 employers had enrolled 5.4 million people by the end of August. It revealed opt-out rates remained low at less than 14 per cent and 1.8 million employers - smaller firms that will soon start to hit staging dates - are still to implement schemes for their staff.

David Willetts has a vision for a future Britain in which a new generation of workers are employed in a thriving space industry - and young people can afford to buy their own house. For many that will sound like science fiction itself, but the former Government Minister turned think- tank boss is hopeful that both could be reality if we just take the right steps now. Willetts, dubbed 'Two Brains' for his detailed academic approach to policy, left the House of Commons at the last Election, but is now carving himself a new role as a key voice in the often fiery debates on earnings and equality.

Gone are the days of simply spending a few hundred pounds on your first car. Almost one in five (19 per cent) 18 to 24-year-olds lease a car - more than double any other age group - and half of them are worth between £11,001 and £20,000.

The price for a two-night break for two people in Budapest, including return flights, B&B; accommodation, city transfers, food, drinks and snacks was £405, the Post Office said. Thanks to the strength of the pound, which has started to rise in value against the euro again in the past fortnight, holidaymakers to any of the 12 cities will have greater spending power than last year.

Holiday home landlords who own property in sought-after locations can earn up to three times the annual income of a buy to let investor, according to specialist broker Holiday Let Mortgages. But making money requires hard work and there are plenty of pitfalls you need to dodge.

To get the place warmed up quickly, does it make sense to whack the heating right up and then turn it down again when it's warmed up, or won't it make a difference to how quickly it becomes toasty? If I do go for this approach, will it cost me more on my energy bills?

Us Britons know what we like and like what we know. And what we know and like is property, as figures showing a near 40% rise in buy-to-let purchase mortgages shows. It might not be as big as the last one, but a fresh buy-to-let boom is being fuelled. For some it will end in tears.

To clear the average national household debt of £13,000 at 6% interest with a monthly repayment of £100 will take around 17 years. There are, however, plenty of simple ways to make significant savings on your regular spending that could clear your debt - or boost your savings - in less than a year. This is Money's top 50 - updated - money-saving tips may appear light-hearted but are deadly serious.

Choosing the right DIY platform is crucial but a wealth of choice and changes to charges have left many investors scratching their heads. We pick some of the best. We also highlight why investing in an Isa makes sense, as it should protect your hopefully growing investments from tax forever.

Interest rates will not move until mid-2016 and may not even rise for the whole of next year, economists have suggested following the latest Bank of England inflation report. A big shift back in the markets outlook for rates had preceded the second Super Thursday combination of an MPC verdict, minutes and Inflation Report.

For many buy-to-let looks an attractive income investment in a time of low rates and stock market volatility. Climbing house prices, rising rents and improving mortgage deals are tempting investors - although they will need a big deposit. Read This is Money's top ten buy-to-let tips

The influence of financial services on the economy is spelled out again as City brokers steal top spot in this year's official list of highest earners. According to the detailed 2014 annual salaries survey, brokers pocketed around 40 times more this year than those at the bottom of the list - the people responsible for keeping children safe on the way to school. Lollipop crossing patrols earned around £3,400.