The Meaningful Money Personal Finance Podcast

Today we're looking at strategies for spending it all. Not leaving anything behind but putting our wealth to good use while we're alive. Of course, that begs the question: what does it mean to 'put our wealth to good use?'

We've had lots of questions about managing a drawdown fund or decumulation of any kind right now, probably due to the small matters of soaring inflation, tanking markets, rising gilt yields, rising interest rates, war in Ukraine, energy price pressures and Government confusion. So we'd better address that…

Each family situation is different, and each raises unique financial considerations that need to be addressed. Today we want to cover the challenges of and strategies for financial planning where there is an age gap between partners.

We've all heard the classic mantra that good investing should be boring. And that's true: buy-and-hold, long-term, index-tracking investments are the best option for the majority of people, the majority of the time. But today we're going to balance that by talking about having some fun with your investments. Some of them, anyway!

Today we continue our series entitled "Strategies For…" and we're talking this time about Strategies for Working Less, whether that's because you're heading towards retirement, anticipating maternity or paternity leave or just want more time for yourself…

Today we're going to be talking about strategies for impactful giving. Back in 2018 I interviewed a lady called Lauren Janus who gave us some great insights and I think it'll be good to revisit things in this Strategies For season.

Last time we talked about strategies for giving money to your kids towards the end of life, this time it's helping them as they grow up and become adults; things like getting them through university and helping them on the housing ladder.

Today in our second Strategies For… session, we're going to look at how to give money away effectively to your kids, taking in gifts, pensions, trusts and lots more besides...

Today we begin a new season of the MeaningfulMoney podcast where each episode will be strategies for dealing with a certain financial situation. Today we start with Strategies for managing the pension Lifetime Allowance…

In this short update, I wanted to let you know a bit about what's going on with me and MM, plus explain why I'll be taking a break from the podcast for a few weeks...

Today I'm chatting with one of my absolute favourite personal finance YouTubers is Damien Talks Money. Today, he and I talk about the finance creator space, the dangers of it and its opportunities.

Today I'm chatting to Nate Klemp PhD, founder of Mindful Magazine and co-author with his wife Kaley of The 80/80 Marriage, all about how couples can work together selflessly to work towards a shared financial future.

Today I chat once again to Phil Billingham, who I chatted to back in Season 9, episode 4 about financial planning for ex-pats. Phil approached me with an interesting idea for a conversation about how financial advice has evolved over his 40-year career.

Today I'm chatting with Lisa Atkinson, a listener who cleared £35k of debt in 18 months on an ordinary salary as a single Mum of twin boys. But she didn't stop there. I know you'll find this conversation encouraging and motivating!

So, I opened a TikTok account the other day. I know - this is not to be expected of a silver-haired, middle-aged dude, but you know, I do like to keep people guessing! Almost immediately, the almighty TikTok algorithm decided to show me a video by a guy with the handle Frugal Spender. And then a few days later, Brian DMd me, we booked a Zoom call and agreed to record a podcast together. And that's what you're about to listen to!

I'm always interested in new technology that can make financial decision-making easier. For most of us, being able to make a decision is based on having the right information, which often means projecting long years into the future. Today I'm chatting with Kevin Hollister from Guiide - that's with two 'i's' - about their app which aims to make retirement decision-making simpler.

Today I'm chatting with Jillian Johnsrud, author of the book Fire The Haters. Jillian became financially independent at 32 years old and now creates content to help other achieve similar results. Inevitably though, when putting yourself out online, you'll attract trolls and idiots, and Jillian shows us how she has dealt with that and also talks about her financial journey.

Today we're going to asking an important this or that question - should you take your pension tax-free cash or not?

When it comes to taking benefits from your DC pensions, most people just assume that Drawdown is the ONLY way to go, and that annuities are dead, but we think there's a place for them for the right people at the right time.

Today we want to cover a topic that is very subjective to each individual's circumstances - whether you should take out insurance for a given risk, or whether you should use some of your own money in case that risk occurs.

The idea for this session came from a brilliant post in the Meaningful Money Facebook group by none other than Nick Mitchell, one of the brilliant moderators and part of the team here at MeMo. Nick felt like he was coming to a transition point in his career and was concerned that he was losing his identity somewhat, which, like for most of us, is very tied up in his work. This got us thinking about retirement - the biggest transition most of us face, work-wise - and whether its best to go out with a bang or fade out slowly.

Today we're talking about investing for income, for growth or both - so it's more of a this or that or the other conversation really. But this is actually something that we come across quite a bit talking to clients, particularly those in retirement.

Today we're going to be discussing a this or that choice which, on the surface at least, might present something of a conflict for us, but we're not ones to shy away from challenging subjects! Should you seek advice from a professional adviser like us or whether you should go it alone.

Today, Roger and I talk about investing, and specifically another THIS OR THAT question, and this one is hotly debated amongst investors and advisers and of course, by the fund management industry. Should you invest passively, or actively? And what does that even mean?!

Today we're covering similar ground to episode 1 of this season where we asked whether you should overpay your mortgage or invest. This time though, we're trying to solve the dilemma of whether you should invest while you're still paying off bad debt.

Today we're answering one of the questions we get answered most on email, in YouTube or Facebook comments, pretty much anywhere - which is best, Pension or ISA?

This season is called This or That, and in each episode we'll be looking at a particular this or that scenario. This week's This or That question is whether to overpay your mortgage or invest? You have some spare money each month - should you pay down your mortgage more quickly or should you invest it in your pension or ISA?

Now and again, something comes across my desk which makes me sit up and take notice, and that's exactly what happened when a book called Manage Your Financial Expectations landed in my in-tray. The book - one of three, eventually - and the whole project is the brainchild of Mark Hamilton, retired businessman and father of three. I've invited him on to tell his story and the why behind the books.

I'm joined today by Jinesh Vohra from a company called Sprive, and their tagline is Mortgage Free, faster - which immediately piqued my interest.

I'm excited to bring you a real-life success story from a listener called David Calder. David reached out to me, basically to say thanks for the content, and told me the story of his journey over the past year or so. He suggested that he'd be happy to come on to the show and tell his story to inspire others, and hopefully, it'll do just that.

This week, as an inbetweenisode, I thought we'd spend some time getting to know my good buddy Roger - he of the dulcet Cornish tones who has joined me for the past ten weeks or so on the podcast.

Roger and I have been advisers for nearly 50 years between us and we've long since learned that when it comes to advising clients, it really isn't the money that's important, but the way that clients behave towards their money. Today we're going to give you some quick wins to help yourselves make good decisions with your money.

Every penny paid in costs is a penny which isn't growing for your future, so it stands to reason that we need to minimise the costs we pay. And tax is one of the biggest costs we can incur.

Here we are with another session of Quick Wins, this time to do with your estate planning. We want to help you make progress quickly, if this is something you've been wanting to get your head around. But even if you're thinking that you're WAY too young to be even thinking about that, there should be some stuff in here for anyone...

It's no exaggeration to say that having a decent protection programme in place is FOUNDATIONAL to everything else we do with our money. It truly is the thing that everything else is built upon. If it's a shaky foundation, then all our plans might come to nothing. That said, insurance is something that most people need, but no-one really wants to pay for, so we need to get the balance right, making sure that we have enough insurance, but don't overdo it.

Your savings rate isn't the interest rate you're getting on savings in your bank, despite how it sounds. Rather, it is the amount of your income that you're saving each month or each week, and it's one of the most powerful levers in your control, when it comes to building wealth.

I'm throwing in a little inbetweenisode here in the middle of Season 21 because a good friend of mine Catherine Morgan is releasing her new book this week. The book is called It's Not About The Money - Three Steps To Become A Wealthy Woman. While that might seem to alienate a reasonable proportion of this audience, it ought not to as there's meat in the book for anyone, regardless of sex.

Many of us have amassed investments over the years. They might be old workplace pensions, or funds we chose because we saw a nice advert in the Sunday papers. But are these disparate pots of money really serving us as we build wealth for our future? Is there anything we can do to optimise them?

It's fair to say that retiring is a big deal for lots of reasons, but not least because there can be a lot to sort out. Today we want to look at the practical elements of preparing for retirement and also the less tangible stuff, like working out what you're actually going to do with your time!

Good budget control is the cornerstone of building wealth. If you always spend every penny that comes in, you'll never have anything left to save and invest for the future. Say like that, and it sounds obvious - and it IS! But we all know that this is harder to do than it is to say. So let's get into some quick wins to make the process as painless as possible.

Today Pete and Roger are going to be talking about how you can make some quick wins with your workplace pension, which is a hugely neglected area of most people's financial planning, but also super-important.

There's a real lack of understanding about the roles of platforms, accounts and investments in your wealth-building. Our goal today is to make sure you know what all these moving parts do, and how best to optimise them for your future success.

Time to round off Season 20 of the Meaningful Money Podcast and this time, my guest is me! As I can't really interview myself, I've called in my best mate Roger Weeks to guide the episode. My One Big Thing - the title of this season - is that most of us don't need to instruct an adviser to make serious headway with our finances.

This week I'm chatting to another Personal Finance creator, Prerna Khemlani of ThisGirlInvests. Her One Big Thing is bridging the Gender Pension Gap, and she has some good things to say about an important subject.

Today's show is a little bit different, and might be a bit polarising, and it's certainly longer than usual! I'm chatting with my friend and fellow financial planner Shabbar Kassam of Lumos Financial about Money and Faith.

The longer I do my job, the more I understand that it is a people business and not really about money at all. Our behaviours, our responses to influences, our decision-making - all these are what really counts towards our financial success or otherwise, and my guest this week, Catherine Morgan, is here to talk about how trauma can impact our money beliefs and behaviours.

Anne Boden is an extraordinary lady. Not many of us wake up one morning and think to ourselves 'I'm going to start a bank'. She did that and founded Starling Bank whose results speak for themselves. She is now turning her considerable talents to the mission of making money equal between the sexes.

I get an email or a message at least once a week asking for clarity on the NHS pensions scheme. It is a complex beast with different tiers, different attributes and lots to get your head around. Fortunately, when it comes to the NHS scheme, my guest today is one of the country's leading experts…

Today I'm joined by Ramin Nakisa of Pensioncraft who is doing amazing things on YouTube and beyond. This season of the podcast is called One Big Thing, and Ramin's One Big Thing is what he calls the Alpha Cult - he'll explain that and why it's important as we get into the conversation.

Jen Kempson, AKA MamaFurFur is a deeply inspiring person to me - I'm really excited to have her on the show. She's making huge waves on YouTube and Instagram and her messaging about money is solid, but it's her messaging about what money can do for you that stands out for me. She calls it Time Freedom...