Money

Emily Evans bought her first doer-upper in Bridgwater, Somerset, aged 19, with her then boyfriend. They put down a £16,000 deposit and snapped up the Victorian semi for £160,000 with a 90 per cent mortgage. It needed complete refurbishment, but thanks to their hard work, the project only cost £20,000. Emily had also started working as an estate agent. 'It gave me an eye for a bargain and an understanding of the market,' she says.

Many of us long to be rich, but assume it will never happen unless we win the lottery one day. But building up a fortune is not magic — rich people do not belong to an elite money-making club that is closed to the rest of us. The truth is that many well-off individuals are simply people who have worked hard, made some sensible decisions and benefited from a smattering of good luck. And the good news is, as Richard Branson says, it’s never too late to start growing your wealth.

How does £48 a week for everyone in the country, rich or poor, sound to you? The idea of the state paying its citizens pocket money might sound far-fetched, but it's a possibility under a Labour Government if it wins the next election. The scheme is known as Universal Basic Income, and is an idea gaining increasing popularity among both those on the left and tech entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley

Jay Aston, pictured right, was one of the four members of the Eurovision winning British band Bucks Fizz, main picture, but after years with them she left in 1993. She says the fallout saw her lose her London home and end up on unemployment benefits. Since then she has picked things back up and once earned £1,000 for singing one song. Now Jay is back out touring with former bandmates Cheryl Baker and Mike Nolan.

There are no shortage of cautionary tales that tell us it is better to be happy than rich, but does it matter if some people have an awful lot more money than others? We dive into the snapshot of Britain that arrived with a new study into inequality, explain how to work out how rich you are and where you stand among Britain's earners, and discuss how to make things better.

When a company cuts its dividend payments, it can send many a chill through the wallets of shareholders, especially when that income is apart of their financial armoury. Vodafone cut its payout this week and there are fears that other big payers could follow suit. So where should investors look now for reliable, well-covered income.

Follow our definitive list of the 20 best deals right now and that cause the least trouble to achieve. No need to turn off the lights or live on bread and water. It is simply a case of searching for value for money in everything from your bank account to what you wear and how you keep fit. Read our list to check what we think are among the best deals out there, use our helpful money-saving tools and tell us if you know of a better deal.

Only cars that were between four and 10 years old were included in the results - models that are likely to be out of warranty, putting potential buyers at risk of covering huge garage bills if they turn out to be a lemon. The most reliable list contains (from top left) the Honda Jazz, Toyota Yaris and Mitsubishi ASX. The least dependable ranking includes (from bottom left) the Land Rover Discovery, Ford Kuga and BMW 1 Series.

In the latest sign that City investors are forcing companies to be more green, the move would force the oil major to explain how its operations are consistent with the Paris Agreement on dealing with harmful emissions. But investors at its AGM on Tuesday are expected to reject a more prescriptive motion that the FTSE 100 giant should set itself greenhouse gas reduction targets. The first motion has been backed by the company's board after being moved by campaign group Climate Action 100+, which includes 58 investors holding 10 per cent of shares in BP – including Legal & General and HSBC Global Asset Management.

He has instructed a solicitor based on him saying that the only reason he moved in with me was because I said 'I would see him right re owning part of my property'. He has financially abused me for years, emotional pressure for years and I even suffered a heart attack due to the stress. I am in my 60s and can now see he has been manipulating me for years just because I own my home. Lawyer Alexandra Kenyon, of Dickinson Parker Hill Solicitors, replies.

However you define what a richer or fairer life is, there is no escaping that a concern about inequality is one of the defining features of our times. Over the next five years a new study will attempt to answer whether it's actually a problem in the UK and at its launch a report laid bare a fascinating snapshot of Britain that shows who is getting richer.

The colours are from a range of paint suppliers, including Farrow & Ball, Little Green, and Valspar. They include Bone China Blue by Little Greene, Setting Plaster by Farrow and Ball and Puttin' on the Ritz by Valspar.

The number of driver details sold to private parking companies reached a new high last year, according to analysis of government figures. The RAC Foundation found 6.8million sets of vehicle keeper records were released to parking management firms in 2018 to 2019, up a fifth from 5.65million a year earlier.

Many people will have at some point walked down a street and thought 'I'd like to live here'. There's often just one small problem, however. None of the houses are for sale. But Knock for Sale, a new company that wants to help people buy their dream property - even if it's not up for sale - reckons it has a solution. Cards cost £5 each and prospective buyers can send multiple cards to different properties.

Once the chest is opened there's a light inside to guide you to one of the quad of hand-blown crystal champagne flutes, which the marque says are 'arranged to evoke memories of a V12 engine'. Costing the same as a new Mercedes-Benz E-Class saloon, the champagne chest has two ejectable thermal containers that can be used to serve caviar and canapes or chill a spare bottle of bubbly. Prices start from £37,000 before tax - so £44,400 including VAT in the UK.

Low awareness of and confusion over the name 'attendance allowance' - which implies you are receiving home visits from a carer - could be putting people off, according to retirement home developer McCarthy & Stone. The firm helps its residents claim any benefits to which they are entitled. But some three quarters of the 4,000 people it has assisted over the past three years had failed to apply for attendance allowance until it informed them of its existence.

We are used to keeping an eye on our bank balance, but are we looking at the big picture? If not, you are missing the vital first step to transforming your fortune. Calculating their wealth has allowed Siubhan Reid-Litherland and Mark Litherland (pictured) to bring forward their retirement and plans to travel by five years.

The first floor of the former printworks could pass for a dishevelled furniture showroom, writes AMELIA MURRAY. Wide-screen TVs and chests of drawers are lined up around the sprawling space. Sofas are grouped together in makeshift living rooms, with dining-room tables just around the corner. In fact, the warehouse, in Stockport, Greater Manchester, is home to Simon Charles Auctioneers, whose twice-monthly Super Saturday Live Sale is about to start. The auction has been running for more than 70 years and sells more than 5,000 lots each week. It is 9am, and eagle-eyed shoppers have an hour to inspect what's on offer before the bidding begins. Pictured: Chairs costing £600 which were bought for £55 (left), a microwave that retails for £110 but sold for £33 (top right), and a Samsung washing machine, which retails for £419 but sold for just £46 (bottom right).

Investors have no shortage of choice about where to put their money to work nowadays, but narrowing that abundance of opportunities down is tough. We talk to David Coombs, of Rathbones, who sifts through the world's investments to find the pieces of the jigsaw needed to deliver good and reliable returns for investors.

The amount you can save into a pension ultimately depends on what you can afford - but the longer you leave it the more you will need to save. 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?

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.

Lower than expected inflation figures have added weight to expectations that interest rate rises will remain on hold throughout most of 2019. This combined with the Brexit extension is forecast to keep monetary policy steady, with rates held at 0.75 per cent. While unemployment is low and wages are rising, there are still concerns over Britain's consumer economy and business investment being stalled by continuing Brexit uncertainty.