The following is a transcript of a bonus episode of The Pension Confident Podcast - Personal finance tips part three. You can listen to this bonus episode or scroll on to read the conversation.
PHILIPPA: Welcome to another bonus episode of The Pension Confident Podcast full of expert tips from budgeting to getting started with investing. And by the way, this is part three - so if you haven’t heard the first two you can listen to this and then find them on our podcast feed.
Before we start, just remember that anything discussed on the podcast should not be regarded as financial advice or legal advice and that when investing your capital is at risk.
Now, April’s traditionally the month when you’re supposed to get your spring cleaning done. This year, how about spring cleaning your finances too?
Here’s Personal Finance Expert, Lynn Beattie - aka MrsMummyPenny - with a great tip to start us off from episode 23 when she revealed how we could all save money just by checking through our monthly subscriptions.
LYNN: So, say you’ve got maybe four or five subscriptions that you could do without, that you could cancel. So maybe that’s like £40 per month. That’s nearly £500 per year. So if you just spent half an hour going through your subscriptions and cancelling those four or five, I know it’s a hassle to do it, but it’s a few clicks. £500. When are you ever going to get paid £500 for half an hour’s worth of work?
PHILIPPA: Next up, a clip from episode 19 where Financial Journalist, Kalpana Fitpatrick talked about the importance of keeping your family savings going however small they are.
PHILIPPA: And I’m also thinking about the fun stuff you know, the holidays, the celebratory things, you know, this is part of having kids but I want suggestions for smart ways to make this a bit more affordable. I’m thinking about planning ahead here because there’s quite a lot of stuff you can get at discounted rates if you think ahead, right?
KALPANA: I’d say a healthy budget and I hate that word ‘budget’, and I’m sorry I’m using it. But it comes back to those early days of planning and knowing what your expenses are, your essential costs. Then, create some sort of ‘fun pot’ where you’re saving up for certain things - ‘this is our holiday fund’ etc. And just constantly keeping that going. Don’t let it be your credit card. Try and build that buffer and just keep building it throughout your life.
PHILIPPA: Little and often?
KALPANA: Start from even before they’re born and just keep going because you’ll always need to access that pot.
PHILIPPA: Here’s Kalpana again with a simple way to start saving for your kids’ future.
KALPANA: There’s loads of clever ways that you can save for your children now. It’s a very big thing in Indian culture to give cash gifts. So every time my children were given cash, and they were literally given it from the day they were born, I stuffed it all into an ISA.
PHILIPPA: You took it from them?
KALPANA: I took it and I put it into a Junior ISA (JISA), and it sits there for them to do what they want with it when they’re 18, hopefully something good!
PHILIPPA: And if you’re thinking about investing, here’s Ayesha Ofori, CEO of Propelle and PensionBee‘s Non-Executive Director, Lara Oyesanya in episode 21 with a few things to know before you start.
AYESHA: When I did first start investing, people were sort of like, ‘Oh, you’ve missed the boat’ or ‘The market has just gone up’, ‘Oh, it’s not the right time’, ‘You should wait, you should wait’. My view is that if you’re going to start investing, which means you should have a long-term time horizon, just start.
PHILIPPA: What do you mean by long-term time horizon?
AYESHA: For me, anything less than around three years is not an investment. And in some cases, people say it’s five. So you should have at least a three to five year time horizon in which you’re not expecting to have to use that money.
PHILIPPA: So, we’re not talking about quick wins here? That’s really clear.
AYESHA: Absolutely. This is about building long-term wealth and investing over a period of time. So, if you need that money within three to five years, then it’s probably not going into your investing pot.
LARA: You’ve got to prepare for the highs and lows because everything is subject to market movements, which you don’t have control over.
AYESHA: And you can’t predict.
PHILIPPA: On to a different type of investing now - property. Here’s PensionBee’s CMO Jasper Martens in episode 23 with some thoughts.
JASPER: A house is to live in and many people make the assumption that their house is going to be their pension, or it’s going to be ‘the’ investment they’re going to make. Like you said, Lynn, most people will have a really big mortgage attached to it, to actually purchase that property. It’s not actually yours, it’s the bank’s. I’d say with property, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is that you see it as ‘the’ investment. Well, actually there are other investments in life too, like an investment account or a pension. And then also very practically, with a house - I’m a homeowner - don’t invest in a very fancy bathroom or a very fancy kitchen that’ll go out of fashion in two or three years. Something that’s a bit more timeless - this is more practical.
LYNN: Have you done that Jasper?
JASPER: Yes, I have!
PHILIPPA: And finally a financial product you might not have thought about - life insurance. Here’s LifeSearch CMO, Justin Harper explaining why he thinks it makes good sense.
JUSTIN: The wonders and benefits of life insurance are simple. You pay a small amount of money every month and then at the end, either when you die or at the end of the term, you get some money back. The insurer pools all the different premiums from all the different policy holders, so they have that big money in case you die. So, you can take out a policy today and if you die tomorrow, as a result of an accident, it’ll pay out the full amount. Those are the sort of things you can’t save for, so insurance plays a valuable role.
PHILIPPA: That’s it for this bonus episode. Catch up on the rest of the series wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find us in the PensionBee app and on YouTube. If you click to subscribe you’ll never miss an episode and the next one will be out at the end of this month. Happy listening!
Risk warning
As always with investments, your capital is at risk. The value of your investment can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you invest. This information should not be regarded as financial advice.
