Former Pensions Minister Steve Webb is This Is Money's Agony Uncle. He is ready to answer your questions, whether you are still saving, in the process of stopping work, or juggling your finances in retirement. He suggests a way that a pensioner struggling to pay his council tax bill might be able to get a full rebate.

The smug middle-class glow that comes from owning an Aga is not cheap - at £10,000 you could buy a decent second-hand car for the same money. But you own a high-class hunk of British cast iron art that doubles up as a top of the range cooker. And at least you're protected if something goes wrong, or so Toby Walne thought

George Soros is back and he is a bird of ill omen. The billionaire financier who famously bet against the pound during the ERM crisis in 1992 is now betting heavily against - well everything. Soros is buying gold, the classic bet to take against inflation, falling currencies and all-round market volatility. While he is not infallible, his intervention demonstrates the scale of the uncertainty financial markets and the economy now face.

We've just booked our summer holiday to Italy but we're yet to buy travel insurance. As Italy is in Europe are we ok just taking our EHIC cards? I understand it will pay for our medical costs if we fall ill. Or do we need to buy separate travel insurance as well?

A hoard of jewels and gems may be lying around your home - and could be worth a lot more than you think. This month auction house Bonhams is offering a free jewellery valuation service to help people better understand the value of what they own. We help you discover whether you are sitting on a fortune.

Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the CBI, admits it has not been a good week for the reputation of British business. 'I have to say I get incredibly angry and upset watching the whole BHS debacle; I feel a mixture of anger and disappointment,' she says. The extraordinary claim and counterclaim from the former owners and directors of the collapsed department store group has been as lurid as could be imagined.

The Mulsanne lives up to the Bentley bosses' aim of delivering 'first-class air travel on the road'. As an added bonus there's no queuing, no check-in, no security scanners and no delays.

There can't be many of us who haven't wished for a pool at one time or other. And there's no question that this is the time of year to put a house with an outdoor pool on the market. But one big question mark hangs over owning a pool the running costs, so how do buyers feel?

Every investor has one - that stock that you've owned for ever. Maybe it was the first share you bought, or the first success story you invested in. Maybe you inherited the shares from a family member, have fond memories of working for the company, or you've just come to rely on it over the years for a steady dividend payment.

I signed up for Virgin Media online earlier this year but after it was installed I wasn't happy with the service so I decided to cancel as I was within my 14-day cooling off period. Now I'm being told by Virgin I can't cancel as the cooling-off period starts from when I signed up, not from when it was installed.

Angle aims to improve diagnosis and treatment by assessing whether people have cancer and if so, what type it is, through a simple device that separates out circulating cancerous cells from the rest of the blood. The shares are 65½p and should increase substantially over the next few years.

Sports Direct staff are owed more than £20million, union sources and City analysts have estimated following the admission by the firm's owner Mike Ashley that he failed to pay the minimum wage. Founder and majority shareholder Ashley admitted to MPs last week that staff at the group's main distribution centre had not been paid the minimum wage, because they had been forced to spend unpaid time going through security checks. The situation continued for four years at the Shirebrook complex in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, which employs 3,000 workers.

Soap & Glory - the beauty products company behind Rich & Foamous body wash and The Firminator toning lotion - has plunged into the red after being bought by high street retailer Boots. Sales for the 17 months to August 31, 2015, fell to £12.8million while a previous pre-tax profit of £1.4million turned into a £2.6million loss. During the financial period the company was taken over by Boots parent company Walgreens Boots Alliance, a minority stakeholder since 2011, hence the longer reporting period.

A start-up matching athletes with parents as 'mannies' - male nannies - is expanding fast. Athlete Mannies was co-founded by running friends Ben Coldray, 24, and Richard Goodman, 23, who say there is a huge demand, particularly in London, for more flexible 'wrap-around' childcare for primary school children, typically from 3pm to 7pm, and this suits athletes' routines. Coldray said: 'We've been doing it for 11 months. It works well as we're both full-time runners. We started with one family and now we're up to 50 in Teddington and Twickenham in South-West London, and we've just started in Putney.'

When Ruth Amos's teacher set her the challenge of coming up with a device to help stroke victims, she never imagined where it might lead. A decade on, her StairSteady device is being sold around the world, she's launched several other business and was invited to give an inspirational TEDx Talk about her journey.

My employer is closing its final salary pension scheme to new contributions from all staff still in it and is transferring us to a defined contribution plan. What does this mean for my pension?

With exactly two weeks to go until the EU referendum, a new report suggests that Brexit fears are the main reason behind the 0.4 per cent fall in house prices recorded in May. The price of the average home across England and Wales fell by £1,312 to £293,599 between April and May - the biggest monthly fall recorded since November 2011, according to the latest house price index by estate agents Your Move and Reeds Rains.

Would you swap a two-bedroom flat in Essex for a French chateau with 45 rooms and a walled garden? That sounds unbelievable, but Dick Strawbridge and his partner Angel (pictured) swapped their two-bed flat for an abandoned chateau - sharing the journey with Channel 4. We pick six French manors for less than £500,000.

When purchasing a car, paying with cash or taking out a personal loan is likely to be the most cost-effective way of buying, but it could leave you financially exposed due to reduced legal rights. One expert explains how paying a small part of the fee on a credit card or opting for a finance package gives you more rights.

What do you need to look at before investing shares? Many experienced investors will have their own favourite measures of a company but there are a handful of important terms that crop up more often than not. Richard Hunter and Simon Lambert explain why they matter.

Research suggests that many people leave retirement planning too late, with some 42 per cent saying they are now worried about running out of money in retirement and 44 per cent are concerned about their future financial security, according to by credit checking company Experian. Since new reforms were introduced last April, people aged 55 and over have been given more choice over what they can do with their pension pots and are no longer obliged to buy an unpopular and poor value annuity.

My building and contents insurance will expire at the end of the month but we moving to America in August for six months and plan to rent out our home. How can we cover our home in the next two months, should we buy an annual policy and then cancel it when we go? And when we are away will the insurance be enough, or will we need a specialist policy?

With Ford Capris selling for over £50,000, one wealth specialist believes classic car prices have hit a ceiling. So where should you invest instead? Buying a vintage bike might be the answer. Or how about one of these five future classics for less than £5,000 today?

Former Pensions Minister Steve Webb is This Is Money's Agony Uncle. He is ready to answer your questions, whether you are still saving, in the process of stopping work, or juggling your finances in retirement. This week, he replies to a reader who wants to bump up their state pension to the maximum weekly payout of £155.65.

A retired engineer has allegedly buried £850,000 worth of gold in his five acre back garden using a digger, according to the chief executive of a commodity broker. Known only as Ron, the widowed man with a total of 18 daughters and grandchildren had the gold delivered to his house between November 2015 and April 2016, which he subsequently buried.

A few days ago I received a Benjamin Britten 50p coin in my change. My dad told me to keep hold of it as they are rare and fetch quite a bit of money. I searched the coin on eBay and found some examples of the Benjamin Britten coin being listed for thousands of pounds. Have a hit a bit of good fortune, or is it a red herring?

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.

George Osborne's continued austerity revealed in his 2016 Budget is likely to keep rates on hold for longer. Inflation expectations have been revised down for 2016 to 0.7 per cent, while Brexit uncertainty and slow global growth are also playing on rate-setters' minds.

Musicians have seen pay rises averaging nearly 20 per cent in 2015, while cleaners are getting 17.8 per cent more, and window cleaners 12.3 per cent. Artists in general are earning 14.6 per cent more in 2015 than 2014, according to the huge annual data dump of pay scales by the Office For National Statistics highlights.