Inheritance and financial disputes, pensions, bitcoin, savings rates and the property market dominated our most read stories last year.

Stories related to pensions claimed ten spots in the 50 most read stories, while financial disputes bagged six slots and, in a sign of the times, bitcoin and crypto-related articles claimed four places in the top 50 versus three for house price-related articles.

Those topics along with savings, mortgages and property were the ones that featured most often in our biggest money stories of 2021.

This was along with a few eye-catching individual numbers, such as How to become an HGV driver and what they earn, Why you should set your thermostat to 19 degrees and Barclaycard slashing loyal customers' limits.

Pensions was the most featured topic on the top 50, but it was a reader question My late mother cut me out of her will - can I still claim my share?, which was the overall most read, at 279,581 times.

Next up in the top ten were three pensions-related stories: How much the state pension will rise in April, the Chancellor's plan to use pots for a UK growth fund, and when reporter Toby Walne tried to spend a week living on just the state pension.

The winners (and literal losers) from the bitcoin boom was in at number five on the top stories list, where we spoke to those who made a mint on crypto, including a long-time This is Money reader and podcast listener, who admitted to being more Skoda than Lambo.

Among the rest of the top ten, my picks would two classic reader questions, one a neighbourly dispute and one a household debate:

Can I force my neighbour to pay towards our shared garden fence?

Is leaving the oven door open when on dangerous and energy sapping?

The top 50 list of stories makes for an entertaining read - you can find it below - and highlights both what a broad bunch of stuff we cover and also how readers can just pick up a story that you may not expect to do well and run with it.

There's a caveat though; there are also some other things that proved hugely popular with our readers in 2021 you won't find in the list.

In order to get a top financial stories list I stripped out the stories from the Cars & motoring section that we run across This is Money and MailOnline.

They would have claimed five spots in the top 50, with Rolls-Royce's £20million boat tail, green numberplates, not parking in a garage making insurance cheaper, the blue Ferrari F40 sale and five of the best campervans proving the big hits. 

I also didn't include stories from the MailOnline Property section that we also carry, mercedes 280sl where energy crisis tips and tricks, how to add to your home without a large extension, a derelict house and 54 acres for sale near the Yorkshire Shepherdess, a couple who spent £500,000 doing up a church and Craig Revel Horwood's home for sale were the top five.

Finally, I knocked out our reader tools and calculators from the list.

The most popular of these being:

- Our independent best buy savings tables

- The free Power Portfolio investment tracker

- Monthly Premium Bonds winning numbers data

I recommend checking those out, along with our highly popular historic inflation calculator and This is Money's weekly podcast.