The most frustrating answer in financial services is ‘it depends’, so if you’re keen to find out where to put your money in 2025, you’re not going to like the answer – because it really does depend.

Fortunately, that’s not the start and end of the answer, because once you know what it depends on, it’s actually much more useful advice than someone simply giving you the name of a fund or telling you to keep your cash in a shoebox under the bed.

Read more: 7 post-budget steps to protect your finances

When people ask about the best home for their money, they’re usually thinking about external factors, but the key is to start with your own needs. Think about your finances in the round. Are your short-term debts under control? Do you have protection in place for your family?

Do you have enough saved for emergencies? Are you on track with your pension? And are you investing to make the most of your money? There’s a decent chance that you’re falling short in one or more areas, so these are your key priorities for the year.

If short-term debt, like credit cards and loans, are an issue, it makes sense to set up a direct debit to pay down the most expensive of them first. Over time, you’ll spend less on interest, so you can free up more money for your other financial goals. If protection is a priority, you need to consider how to free up cash for insurance premiums to cover those who rely on you.

For emergency savings, the first step is working out how much you ought to have. This is another frustrating ‘it depends’ answer. While you’re working age, you should have enough cash to cover 3-6 months’ worth of essential spending – and in retirement that grows to 1-3 years. It means considering the cost of your essentials, and then looking at your circumstances to figure out where on the saving spectrum you need to be. The answers will be radically different for every household, but as a very rough starting point, the Hl Savings & Resilience Barometer shows that the median spent on essentials is £1,842 a month.

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For any other cash you’ll need over the next five years, savings is still the most sensible home for it, but you can consider tying it up for periods in a fixed rate account, in order to lock in a decent rate. You need to decide what the money is for, when you’ll need it, and how long you can fix it for.

You also need to look ahead, and consider your pension. The best approach is to start with a pension calculator, where you put in details of what you’ve saved so far, what you’re putting aside each month, and when you want to retire. It will show you what you’re on track for, and whether you need to do more.

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Last year was one of the quietest on record for the London Stock Exchange, which saw the largest outflow of companies since the global financial crisis, stark new analysis shows.

Takeaway giant Just Eat, Paddy Power owner Flutter, travel group Tui, and equipment rental firm Ashtead were among those to announce plans to ditch their main UK listing.

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) saw 88 companies delist or transfer their primary listing from the main market – the most since 2009, according to data from auditing giant EY.

A number of these firms said declining liquidity and lower valuations were key reasons for moving away from London, particularly to the US which offers more capital and trading activity, EY said.

Betting giant Flutter Entertainment switched its primary listing to New York, where it said it could access the “world’s deepest and most liquid capital markets”.

Just Eat Takeaway abandoned its listing on the LSE altogether, citing the “administrative burden, complexity and costs” associated with keeping its shares in London as one of the reasons to quit.

Other companies such as Watches of Switzerland faced pressure from activist investors to swap their main stock market listing to the US.

A flurry of companies exiting or moving their primary listing to foreign markets was compounded by a shortage of companies launching their shares in 2024.

There were a total of 18 new listings, known as initial public offerings (IPOs), in London last year, EY found.

This was the lowest volume of listings since EY started recording the data in 2010, and five times less than the number that delisted or transferred elsewhere.

The launch of French TV and production giant Canal+ in December nevertheless gave London’s stock market a major boost as the year drew to a close, raising £2.6 billion on its market debut.

This was the largest listing since 2022 and brought the total value of proceeds raised over the year to £3.4 billion – triple the amount raised from 23 companies in 2023.

Scott McCubbin, EY’s IPO lead for the UK and Ireland, said it had been a “quiet year” for the LSE, adding: “Ongoing geopolitical instability, slow economic growth and a diminished appetite for domestic equities among pension funds have impacted valuations and liquidity.

“We also saw the largest outflow of companies from the main market since the global financial crisis as companies sought access to a deeper pool of investors and the prospect of improved liquidity on other exchanges.”

“But as we enter 2025, there are reasons for cautious optimism,” Mr McCubbin went on.

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