A tax-efficient method of increasing the money paid into a pension scheme by giving up existing salary or proposed salary increases, so that the sum forgone can be used as an additional company contribution into a pension scheme.

An employee savings scheme that stands for Save As You Earn. You can save up to £500 of your salary each month for a set period. At the end of that period, you can use the savings to buy shares, usually in the company you work for.

A loan that is secured on your home or other asset. So that if you fail to keep up with repayment, the asset could be taken by the lender to cover the loan. A mortgage is a type of secured loan.

Glossary of Personal Financial Terms

AAA Rating

In short, AAA ratings (‘triple-A‘ ratings) are the highest credit rating available for an investment, such as a bond or company.

AAA ratings are issued to investment-grade debt that has a high level of creditworthiness with the strongest capacity to repay investors.

Similarly, the AA+ rating is issued by S&P (Standard and Poor) and is similar to the Aa1 rating issued by Moody’s. It comes with very low credit risk and indicates the issuer has a strong capacity to repay.