Twelve questions a financial plan should be able to answer. Count your yesses — then use the planner to check the underlying figures and keep a dated review. Its readiness indicator reflects those two things, so a bigger number never pretends the plan itself is better. Free, no sign-up, and nothing you type leaves your browser.
Money Horizon › Money MOT
The five-minute money MOT
1
Do you know the age your money runs out?
Not a rule of thumb — a year-by-year projection of your own income, spending, tax and pensions, to the age you choose.
2
Would your plan survive a 2008 — or a 1973?
The planner replays real UK market history against your figures, plus the worst starting decade since 1871.
3
Do you know what your family would receive after tax?
The estate at every age, inheritance tax under the rules as they will stand — pensions included from April 2027 — and the income tax your heirs pay on an inherited pension.
4
Have you chosen a risk level you could live with in a bad year?
Six questions give the level you can stomach; the plan says what it can absorb; the right level is the lower of the two.
5
Do you know what your fund and platform charges cost over your lifetime?
A few tenths of a percent compounds into tens of thousands of pounds; the planner shows the figure.
6
Is there a cheaper order to draw your money?
Cash, ISAs and pensions in a different order can move lifetime tax by five figures; three orders and four spending rules are compared on your plan.
7
Could you safely give money away now rather than leave it taxed later?
The largest regular gift your plan can afford — even with a poor first decade of returns — and the inheritance tax each gift saves, with its seven-year clock.
8
Are you using this year’s allowances?
ISA, pension, carry-forward, marriage, dividend and savings allowances, each with what it is worth at your figures and the 5 April deadline.
9
Will the state pension arrive in full?
Your qualifying years, and whether a £923 voluntary top-up buying £358 a year for life is worth it for your record.
10
Does your income target match a real standard of living?
The PLSA retirement standards — minimum, moderate, comfortable — one click from your income target.
11
If you are a couple: does the plan survive the first death?
Spouse exemption, transferred allowances and the survivor’s income are modelled through both deaths, not just one.
12
When did you last review any of this?
Plans age. The planner keeps yearly reviews, tracks your actual return, and shows when a review is overdue.
The readiness percentage is not a judgment on your wealth or a recommendation. Seventy points come from explicitly checking the six input groups; thirty come from saving a review within the last year.
Not advice. Money Horizon is a planning indicator built on simplified rules. It does not know your full circumstances, cannot replace a regulated adviser, and its figures should not be relied on for any decision. It is not financial advice. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.