Sarah Coles is AJ Bell’s Head of Personal Finance. She’s passionate about helping people get to grips with their money, so they have more freedom to do the things that really matter to them in life.
Sarah regularly provides insight and analysis for the press, writes columns and articles and appears on TV and radio. She covers everything from savings and investments to pensions and tax.
Sarah is an award winning former financial journalist, spending almost 20 years working for publications from Bloomberg to Moneywise and AOL Money.
Sarah has worked as a financial spokesperson for the past nine years, and most recently won Headline Money’s Expert of the Year award.
31 July 2026
Could your pension last to your 100th birthday? Here's howThe number of people aged 100 or more has doubled over the past 20 years, raising the point that as life expectancy continues to grow so to must our pension calculations.
According to the latest government figures, there were 15,172 people who were at least 100 years old, two thirds of which were women.
When you’re planning for retirement, it’s...
28 July 2026
UK's gender tax gap narrows but pension and ISA disparity lingersThe UK has massively narrowed one of its financial gender gaps this year, which would usually be cause for celebration. However, this one is a slightly mixed blessing.
For the tax year 2026 to 2027, an estimated 18.9 million income taxpayers are women and 21.9 million are men – that’s a split of 46.3% women and 53.7% men, the latest government data...
22 July 2026
Are you on track with investing for your age?If you’re waiting for the perfect moment to do anything in life, there’s a risk you’ll never get around to it. And when it comes to saving and investing, you’ll pay a real price for the delay. So, it can help to know when other people have taken the plunge, and just how they’re doing, to see whether we’re on track, or if we need to get cracking...
22 July 2026
How much capital gains tax will I pay if I sell an investment in different chunks?Ask the experts. Sarah Coles is on hand to answer your personal finance questions. If you’d like a question considered for a future edition send it in now .
Or alternatively leave a rating for the article and include your question in the comment box.
I’d like to sell an investment to reduce the capital gains tax. The first sale was for £5,000 =...
7 July 2026
Four steps to make passing down estates less painfulDealing with the loss of a family member is an extremely taxing process that most people know too well. While dealing with the grief, there is unfortunately also a legal side that needs to be handled to distribute their estate, which often falls to a family member. This includes tasks like gaining the legal right to deal with the departed's estate...
1 July 2026
Nine ways to beat the energy price hikeEnergy bills are rising as of 1 July, with the arrival of a new, more painful, price cap. We’re paying the price of higher wholesale gas prices after the outbreak of the Iran war, and despite the pull back since the ceasefire, today’s hike was already baked in.
The fact this is hitting at a warmer time of year means we may not feel the full impact...
24 June 2026
Three key lessons the birthday lottery tells us about investing for childrenThe lottery of birth has a massive impact on Junior ISA (JISA) and Child Trust Fund growth over the years. If you were one of the first children to receive money from the government in February 2005, and your parents topped it up to £1,000, by the time you reached the age of 18 it would have grown into an impressive nest egg of £5,172.**
However...
19 June 2026
How to protect yourself if your partner is bad with moneyIn the early days of a relationship, it’s hard to bring up the subject of money. You may not want to...
18 June 2026
Brexit 10 years on: what's the impact on your money?The impact of Brexit in the 10 years since the referendum is hard to untangle from everything else that has been going on over the past decade.
We’ve faced a global pandemic, runaway inflation prompted by war, and a bond crisis precipitated by a disastrous mini-Budget. However, there are some aspects of our finances that were clearly impacted by...
18 June 2026
Iran peace deal: what does it mean for your finances?After three and a half months of war between the US and Iran, a peace deal has been agreed that would include an extended ceasefire and reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Nothing can be guaranteed in this peace process, and with some terms of the agreement still unclear, there’s the chance that something could break in the fragile deal between the...
