Penny's help desk

Learn it properly, at your own pace

Short reads in plain English. Start anywhere — and any word with a dotted underline can be tapped.

Back to Penny's help desk

Where should your money live?Savings or shares? Move the dials, see the difference — plus the money basics nobody explains.Learn with a pretend £1,000Seven short reads. The best place to start if you've never done this before.I don’t know where to startFive simple questions, then I’ll tell you where most people begin.Should you invest yet?An honest check. Sometimes the right answer is “not yet”, and I’ll say so.Start with your lifeMoney comes after the rest of it. Let’s look at yours first.The UK stock market, explainedFTSE 100, FTSE 250 and AIM — what they actually are, like a friend would tell you.What is an ISA or an ETF?Sixteen everyday comparisons for the things people keep mentioning.Word decoderTap any word. I explain it in one sentence.What the charges really costSee it in pounds, over one year, five years and ten.How “free” platforms make moneySeven minutes. Who pays the staff when the trades are free — and where they'd rather you wandered.How to actually compare ETFsTen minutes, five things to look at — and how to read any fund name.Penny's Watch-outsThe pitches that catch people out — AI bots, hot tips, clone firms — and the red flags in each.Is this a scam?Paste anything that promises quick money and I’ll give you a straight read.Penny’s weekly lessonOne calm catch-up each week on what we both learned.

Short lessons from me

Read them in any order. Each one ends with something small you can actually do.

The basics

How to look at a company like a grown-up

Ask three calm questions of any company before you form a view.

What a share actually is

Understand what you own when you own a share.

Funds and ETFs, plainly

Understand why most beginners are pointed at funds first.

Why not to put it all in one place

See what spreading money actually protects you from.

What a dividend is, and what it is not

Understand paid-out profits and why a high yield can mislead.

Warning signs

What “going concern” means

Understand why an auditor saying “going concern” matters.

Director selling large amounts

Understand why a big director sale can matter.

Receivables growing faster than sales

Spot when money owed by customers may be hiding a problem.

Profit but negative operating cash flow

Understand why profit with negative cash flow matters.

How much debt is too much

Judge whether a company's borrowings look heavy for its size.

When the auditor resigns or changes

Know why a sudden change of auditor is worth a second look.

Profit warnings rarely come alone

Understand why one bad announcement often leads to another.

Costs and tax

Why 1% a year is not small

See charges as pounds rather than a rounding error.

The costs nobody mentions

Spot the charges hidden inside the act of buying.

What an ISA does

Understand the tax wrapper before worrying about what goes inside it.

Compounding, without the maths

See why time matters more than the amount you start with.

Staying calm

What a 20% fall feels like

Rehearse a bad year before it happens to you.

Time beats timing

Understand why waiting for the perfect moment usually costs money.

Telling news from noise

Work out which headlines actually change anything.

Deciding in advance when you'd walk away

Write the exit reason before the emotion arrives.