How rich are you? Work out where your income and wealth sits in the UK

How rich are you? The highly subjective answer to that will be influenced by your attitude to wealth, income vs spending habits, and where in the country you live. While we quite rightly worry about inequality, Britain's disposable incomes are the most equal they have been in 30 years, but where do you fit in the earnings and wealth scales?

To make the most of your money, Cheapflights.co.uk has compiled some top tips for cutting down your holiday costs in 2017. We've picked some of the best and added in a few of our own.

New BMW 5 Series wins What Car?'s coveted Car of the Year award

A new hi-tech BMW that can drive itself has been crowned 'Car of the Year' in the motor industry's version of the Oscars. The BMW 5 Series, which has self-driving features that allow it to drive for short distances, took the top spot in the What Car? 2017 awards. We reveal the winners in the other categories and prices.

Providence went into administration in September 2016 and now Deloitte says that a huge 20 per cent of the value of the bonds issued was spent on launch and marketing costs.

This will be the fourth consecutive year that John Leiws, which is collectively owned by its staff, has cut the payout. Last year average payout was £1,585 for each of its 91,500 staff.

Bovis Homes, whose chief executive left abruptly on Monday, was willing to pay its customers as much as £3,000 to complete deals by December 23 - even if the home was not finished.

The euro may not exist in 10 years' time if Paris and Berlin fail to bolster the single currency union, French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday.

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FTSE LIVE: M&S, Tesco, Debenhams and Primark post Christmas trading updates

Early on the index was down 20.2 points at 7,268.2, as the pound rose against the dollar by 0.6 per cent to $1.23. Yesterday the index closed in positive territory for the 12th consecutive day. Overnight Donald Trump dominated the world news agenda with an extraordinary press conference. The US President-elect hit back angrily at 'fake news' claims of a compromising Russian dossier reported by CNN, refusing to answer questions from the organisation's reporter in retribution. There was also little in the way of the economic policy discussion markets had been looking for, leaving the Dow still shy of its symbolic 20,000 level

Britain's biggest retailer reported that its sales grew by 1.3% over the 12 weeks to January 1, just beating Morrisons' 1.2% growth, and racing ahead of 0.1% and 2.4% falls from Sainsbury's and Asda.

The shareholder, believed to be a Dee Valley employee, is understood to have bought shares in the company in early December and shortly afterwards transferred 445 of them to individuals.

Generally, governments on both sides of the Atlantic are exceedingly careful to avoid the leakage of price sensitive information. The President-elect has no such sensitivity.

Sales in its clothing and homeware division rose 2.3 per cent over Christmas, helping boost overall sales across the group by 1.3 per cent.

Deutsche Borse is seeking to seize control of 216-year-old LSE in what both sides call a merger of equals. But Deutsche shareholders will get a controlling stake and their boss will run the business.

Should you invest with the FTSE 100 at a record high?

Savers tempted to put money into the stock market by the FTSE 100's record run could be investing just as the risk grows that shares will tank, experts warn. This week, the FTSE closed at an all-time high for the ninth day in a row. Stock market highs tend to encourage many small investors to throw caution to the wind, as they chase down gains.

Since the end of June, the pound has fallen by 18.4 per cent against the US dollar, compared to the 17.2 per cent drop in the 200 days after 16 September 1992, the Press Association said.

But, speaking to MPs on the Treasury Select Committee, Carney said the process of adaptation to life outside the EU could 'amplify' those risks for the UK once again.

HMRC spies on what you buy and sell online with eBay and others thanks to new law

HM Revenue & Customs quietly acquired powers in September which allow it to snoop on anyone who uses so-called marketplace websites that connect buyers and sellers. It means teams of investigators now have extensive access to websites such as Etsy - where craft-makers sell items like homemade cards and knitting - and eBay, as well as property and holiday letting sites including Booking.com and Airbnb.

A number of lenders are asking landlords to collect nearly double their mortgage payments if the property is let to strangers who share a bathroom and kitchen.

Pensions minister Richard Harrington gives his first major newspaper interview since taking over from stalwart pensions campaigner Baroness Ros Altmann - and before her Sir Steve Webb.

Villa vultures strike again as holidaymakers are scammed with non-existent Canary Islands

At least 20 families landed at Arrecife Airport, in Lanzarote, last weekend to find they had been scammed, a Thomson employee told one victim. The fraud is centred on villas in popular holiday spots such as Tenerife, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.

Jaguar Land Rover sold a record 580,000 models in 2016. To spearhead its car sales assault for this year, a refreshed F-Type sports car has been unveiled. And there are new versions too.

Motorists filling up at the pumps are now paying around £1.18 a litre for petrol, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said.

Best paid jobs and biggest pay rises of 2016 revealed

Compare your pay to the national average and see whether your employer treated you to a pay rise in line with the the rest of your profession. Farmers, care and air travel assistants were big winners on the pay scales in 2016. Travel agents, careers advisers and probation officers lost out.

January is the time when a host of bonds mature. But don't take the new rate offered to you by the big banks - you can get more than twice as much interest from a new bank or a building society.

Make sure you move your money after the first 12 months with the Post Office account: the 1.01 per cent includes a 0.76 percentage point bonus which only lasts a year.

MARKET REPORT: FTSE smashes all existing records with 12 consecutive days of rises as

The blue-chip index, which has now risen every trading day since December 21, climbed 0.21 per cent, or 15 points, to 7290.5. The main market, had risen as high as 7326 throughout the day, setting yet another intra-day record.
Anglo American was the top riser of the day as a weaker pound helped companies with overseas earnings.

The defence giant's shares nosedived yesterday as management said profit for 2016 was £245m, below the range set out in its update of last October.

Aidan Heavey will make the move at the London-listed company as part of a boardroom shake-up. The board justified the move by claiming that it would create a 'phased transition' in leadership.

The update came a week after Persimmon saw an 8 per cent rise in annual revenues. Taylor Wimpey sold 13,881 new homes last year, up 4 per cent on the previous year.

Mega rich ex-Tory treasurer Michael Spencer, who offloaded his £200m stake in TP Icap this week, presents an unsmiling face to the world.

Sainsbury's rakes in £1bn in record Christmas sales boost

Sainsbury's raked in over £1billion worth of sales over the Christmas period, as 30million customer transactions kept the tills ringing. Britain's second biggest supermarket said its premium ranges proved particularly popular, with sales of its Taste the Difference party food line up 50 per cent year-on-year. While enjoying record sales over the festive period, Sainsbury's like-for-like sales only increased by 0.1 per cent in the 15 weeks to 7 January.

Next, which has 59 stores across the UK and Ireland, posted sales up 2.7 per cent over the six weeks to the end of December after a 'very strong' online performance.

Online sales stormed ahead by 35 per cent, and new outlets opened in China, Bahrain and Indonesia. Shares rose 5.1 per cent, or 135p, to 2784p.

In its trading statement Foxtons said sales for the year ended December 31 came in at £133million, down from £150million in 2015.

The droves of visitors sent revenue at the group up 12.6 per cent in the 12 months to December 31, in a year when it added 19 sites to its movie empire.

Is it cheaper to turn my heating on at night?

I'm trying to cut down the amount I spend on my energy bills, does it cost me more to have my heating on during the day or at night? If there is a difference in price depending on the time of the day how much am I likely to save by only turning on the boiler at certain times during the day?

We want you to claim every penny you are owed for delays, cancellations and dire service, whereas currently just one in five eligible passengers submits a claim.

Enough of this shoddy service: it's time we all took a stand against the ghastly firms running our railways. As any Southern Rail commuter will testify, the most infuriating part is the helplessness you feel.

Audi has the Range Rover firmly in its sights as it previews the Q8

The German luxury car maker showcased the concept version of the Q8 - a model that's due to arrive in 2018 - at the Detroit Motor Show on Monday. It uses a potent but super-efficient plug-in hybrid powertrain, which Audi says could make production when the showroom-ready car arrives in 2018.

Some 28 per cent of drivers said they don't trust the new technologies and another 13 per cent find parking apps and websites too confusing to use. But a quarter say they didn't know they even existed.

Will house prices continue to rise in 2017?

Average property prices finished 2016 at a record high of £222,484, up by 6.5 per cent in December when compared to the same month in 2015, according to Halifax. However experts remain divided over whether price rises will remain robust into the new year or start to falter as Britain begins the process to leave the EU and buyers grapple with ever-higher asking prices.

Average household disposable income jumped to £26,300, almost £1,000 more than pre-financial crisis levels, the Office for National Statistics said.

In our series giving personal investors an insight into how the professionals do things, we spoke to Richard Buxton, manager of its Old Mutual UK Alpha fund.

My father died and now my stepmother is leaving everything to her children

My father passed away in 2010. His second wife is 85 and still living in the house they bought. My father's half was left to myself and two sisters, possibly grandchildren. Now my father has passed away my stepmother is saying we will not get anything and everything will go to her two adult children. Is there anything we can do?

Yorkshire BS offshoot, Accord's limited offer of £1,000 for borrowers taking an offset deal is intended to raise awareness of the benefits of offsetting your mortgage.

Vintage jewellery is increasing in value faster than house prices, according to the latest research. Experts say many people have no idea of the true value of the old jewellery they possess.

Rolls-Royce pledges its future to the UK, after near record year

Rolls-Royce has reiterated its commitment to Britain, regardless of Brexit, after the German-owned luxury car maker posted its second highest sales figures in a century. The West Sussex-based firm - which is owned by BMW - sold 4,011 cars in more than 50 countries in 2016, up six per cent on 2015.

The iconic VW camper van has been reborn, this time powered purely by electricity. It's the second in the upcoming 'I.D.' sub-brand the German car maker hopes will repair its flagging reputation.

Korean car maker Kia has revealed its a powerful new 170mph coupe-style sports saloon called the Stinger, to take on Germany's Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Britain's Jaguar.

Towns where house prices rises can cover your commuting costs in days

Homeowners in Esher, Surrey, commuting into London fared best as their homes' rising value paid for their annual train travel in just eight days, but other towns also saw house price gains pay off. Esher knocked Solihull in Birmingham off the top slot in the annual study of house price rises vs commute costs by property website Zoopla.

How to turn your idea into a business: Five tips to get started

If starting a business is something that's on your mind, 2017 could be the best year yet to give it a go, as costs are low and it's perfectly possible to build one in your spare time. Emma Jones, of Enterprise Nation, gives us her five tips for turning an idea into a business.

A woman in a driverless car

New expert research said that delays on motorways and major roads during peak periods are expected to rise by 0.9% once a quarter of the nation's vehicles go self-driving.

Our six steps guide to make a profit from decluttering your home

Buried deep among that pile of unwanted festive gifts, overflowing storage boxes and never-used 'essentials' is an opportunity to make money. We show you how to make a profit from decluttering your home, as Bev Martin, pictured, did with her £40 clocks made from bike gears.

The sterling exchange rate with the Brazilian real showed the biggest sell-off but the pound lost more than a quarter of its value against nine other global currencies, including the Russian rouble,

I went ahead with the property sale abroad, believing that clearing the draft would take about five days. But when I went to the branch with the draft, I was told it would take four to six weeks.

The six-point plan to help supermums get financially fit in 2017

Of the 14million women at work in the UK, more than two million are now breadwinners - of whom two-thirds are single parents. But stay-at-home mums are far from idle, doing the equivalent of a £30,000 salary in unpaid work and childcare every year, according to insurance firm Sunlife. So here is our six-point plan to help supermums get financially fit in 2017.

If you have been rejected for business funding by your bank, help could be at hand. Under the new government lending scheme, your bank must refer you to an alternative source of finance.

Top fund tips for 2017: From the US to Japan and UK

After the turbulence of 2016, many investors will be wondering what this year could possibly have in store for them. While markets are impossible to predict, we have gathered the views of some investing experts who have examined all the factors and picked a selection of funds - and an investment trust - that they believe could be winners in 2017.

When are the cheapest times to book top 10 European destinations?

Travel costs are set to soar this year thanks to the poor performance of the pound, so it is tempting to lock into prices sooner rather than later. But the January sales are not the only way to find an escape from the rising cost of holidays. Follow our ingenious guide to saving a fortune on air fares and packaged trips.

Tesco is asking staff to 'pledge' to improve everything from diet to fitness and getting more sleep as part of a programme which it insists is entirely voluntary.

Better-off households also regard themselves as only just scraping by: 50 per cent of families surveyed earning more than £70,000 said they were 'just about managing'.

MIDAS SHARE TIPS: Life group Phoenix rises with £74bn under its wings

Phoenix Group, which manages closed-life insurance and pension funds, was reborn in recent years following a complex series of mergers and acquisitions. Today, the company is valued on the stock market at almost £3billion and it looks after the life and pension policies of more than 6 million people. The shares are 748½p and should gain ground as chief executive Clive Bannister delivers his ambitious growth plans.

About £300million a year remains unspent on such cards, according to industry trade body the UK Gift Card & Voucher Association.

We round up the Sunday newspaper share tips. This week, Midas looks at Phoenix Group while The Sunday Times highlights AO World.

Bentley's 700bhp Continental Supersports is the fastest four-seater car ever

While it might not look like your average five-door family hatchback, the new Continental GT Supersports just about earns family car stripes, as it does have four adult-sized seats. The 6.0 litre V12 express, costing £212,500, will charge to 60mph from a standstill in 3.4 seconds and gallop on to a maximum speed of 209mph.

What do prefab homes cost and which ones can you build?

Modern timber frame homes offer flexibility and can be installed onsite within days. Options range from the distinctive Huf Haus - with its large swathes of glass - to a £50,000 home for those on a smaller budget. We take a look at your options if you're thinking of building your own Grand Design.

The BMW 3 Series was the most searched for used car of 2016

Britons are forecast to have bought more second-hand cars last year than ever before and when it comes to the vehicles they are looking for, BMW's 3 Series tops the pile. Auto Trader said the German small saloon is the most searched for car on its site, amassing a massive 135 million advert views over 12 months.

Clearly keen to attract younger customers, the usually conservative company used Tinder apps to find five couples to go on a blind date with its new U.S.-built car.

Using data collected from over 319,000 journeys, the insurer said the worst rated drivers had to spend 67 per cent more on fuel during the period, which amounts to almost £50 a month.

50 ways to save money....

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.

Pick the best (and cheapest) investment Isa platform

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.

L Board sign on the rear of a blue saloon car , UK

If you are new to investing then the huge number of funds and investment trusts on offer can be confusing. Fortunately, This is Money's experts have some ideas to get you started.

On the up: Emerging markets such as Brazil are where much of the world's growth is expected to be over future years.

If you're looking to add some flair to your investing Isa with emerging markets, This is Money's experts have some ideas to get you started

Income investing: Dividends can deliver both a healthy boost to long-term growth and a way to earn from your investments.

Income investing can let you draw on your portfolio or reinvest dividends to build solid growth over time. Our experts give their fund and investment trust recommendations.

In this low-income world it can be hard to find mainstream investments paying a significant yield. Stifel has compiled a list of 19 investment trusts with a yield of more than 4 per cent.

Handy Brexit table explains the options for the UK's exit from the EU

Despite endless media coverage of the political wrangling and financial speculation, the average Briton can be forgiven for remaining confused about what 'soft' and 'hard' Brexit really mean. About the difference between the 'Norway model' for the UK's post-Brexit relationship with the UK and the 'Swiss solution'. But a clever table put together by HSBC in a report called 'Is Brexit Getting Harder?' cleaves some clarity from the murk.

It would have been nice to have a plan. Instead, after the Brexit vote we were left scratching our heads. But now it's time for some answers on trade and what we mean to the EU.

Pensions Road Sign against threatening clouds

We tend to put ambitious targets on our hoped-for income in retirement and then underestimate how much we will need to set aside to achieve that. So how much should you save?

When will UK interest rates rise?

An interest rate cut before the end of the year looks less likely following the plunge in the pound. However, the Bank of England has indicated that higher inflation driven by rising import costs won't make it lift rates.

What next for mortgage rates?

Several months after the Bank of England slashed the base rate to 0.25 per cent and lenders are still cutting mortgage rates on almost a weekly basis - but how low can they really go? The experts say not a lot lower and it's likely that if you get a mortgage at the moment, it's going to be a pretty cracking deal. 

Ten tips for buy-to-let

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

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Premium Bonds winners

January 2017
Prize value Winning bond No. Area
£1,000,000 246AD564653 Hampshire and Isle of Wight
£1,000,000 244PR471632 West Sussex
£100,000 95QV191662 North Yorkshire
£100,000 200BA464300 Hertfordshire
£100,000 19RC263145 Outer London
£50,000 34FS057524 North Yorkshire
£50,000 247ZK817797 Berkshire
£50,000 233MD060953 Northern Ireland
£50,000 217DZ763847 Surrey
£50,000 122EE745522 Gloucestershire
£50,000 120EK701941 Overseas
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