Her Discussions by Dr Faye - How To Get 99% Ahead of MOST People In Your 20s | Finance Expert

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

It's honestly shocking how little we're taught about money, given how big a role it plays in our lives. That's why I knew we needed an episode on money, as financial health is just as important as physical health.Ola is a leading voice in financial health, featured in BBC News, The Financial Times, and Elle. She’s the perfect guest to answer all your questions about this topic, helping you stop stressing and start building a stronger financial future.What you’ll learn:💰 How to get 10% more from your savings✨ A ChatGPT prompt to help you track your money🛍️ The golden 30-day basket rule (for your next ASOS order)🎄 How to spend £15 vs £50 on Christmas dinners this year👜 1 thing to leave in your purse to save more money🍿 Why cancelling Netflix won’t help you buy a houseResources & links mentioned:AllThingsMoney: @allthingsmoneyhttps://allthingsmoney.com/Links to subscribe / follow:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/her-discussions-by-dr-faye/id1835829612Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5viLYizHD4Zy6J42iqtPRoCan I ask you a BIG favour? 💙Please leave a review or rating. It helps us grow the podcast and bring you more amazing guests.Share with someone who needs this; it might help them live a happier, healthier life.Follow us on social media or join the broadcast channel to send us your questions for our guests. I'll leave the link here: https://www.instagram.com/channel/AbY4liwxlLnewx4H/?igsh=MWhuaXFweGtucTB3cA==https://www.instagram.com/channel/AbY4liwxlLnewx4H/?igsh=MWhuaXFweGtucTB3cA==🛑 Disclaimers & legal:This podcast is for educational / informational purposes only and does not constitute medical, legal, or financial advice. All opinions are those of the speaker(s).

And I read this book and I was like, oh my gosh, I do not know anything. What is an Isa? What is a lifetime ice so? What is a mortgage? I had to go and teach myself all the things we weren't talked about in school. Financial health is one of the biggest determinants of our health in general. And I think it is ridiculous that it is not being included in more health conversations. OLA is a leading voice in financial health featured in BBC News, the Financial Times, Elle.

I think a lot of people see investing as gambling, but they don't realize, wow, if I can teach my kids, self-hand to invest. I teach every young adult how to do the same. Stocks, shares. I personally don't invest in shares, but I do invest in Bitcoin. So we'll explore how to track your spending, break a shopping addiction, build your credit score and invest. How do you personally do your budget? I would say if you can. So do you have Apple pay on your phone? It's so frictionless that we can be tap, tap, tap in and not realising how much you spend. Apple pay in my head, I'm like, that's monopoly money. tips on starting good financial habits for young people. So I think firstly you need to start.

I always recommend if I'm teaching someone or I'm coaching someone. If you haven't already, please could you just take one moment to leave a five-star review if you're listening on Spotify or subscribing if you are watching on YouTube. It is a huge, huge, huge help to the podcast and means that we can keep going, bringing you more and more guests that can help you live a happier, healthier, life. Thank you. All there. Our community have sent in so many incredible questions asking about all things financial health. But before we get started, I just wanted to say my personal reason for having you on this podcast and why I think it is so, so, so important is that financial health is one of the

biggest determinants of our health in general. And I think it is ridiculous that it is not being included in more health conversations full stop. Yeah. If we, we can be spending a ridiculous amount of money on all the wellness products under the certain. If it is making our financial health worse, that is not good for our overall health. But beyond that, we're going to talk about all things like investing, financial literacy, differences in gender financial health. But first of all, I wanted to just hear a little bit more from you about what was your experience with money growing up. And what was it like with your friends, your family?

Did you talk about money? Yes, so I guess when it comes to me and finances, my friends have always coined me the cheap friend. And I always joke and preface by saying like, I'm not cheap, I'm just frugal. And if I can find a better deal, I am that gal. So I feel like growing up, I've always kind of been good with money, quote, unquote. But it wasn't until I got to university when I had my student loan.

And I was like, oh my gosh, like, I need to learn how to manage this find this money. Because if I blow that up after fresh years, I've got no one to look at. after me to like financially help me. So I think the switch clocked there, firstly, when I've got to university, I was like, okay, I need to learn how to manage this money because it's a lot. I've never seen this calendar cash before, so I need to make sure I manage it well. Just a small interjection. Why on earth do we give students like $3,000 into there? Why do we give them money? Students who have never had to deal with a salary. And we think it's a good idea to give them money that's meant to live off for three months in one go.

It's ridiculous. Three months that money is meant to be cover your rent. That's got to cover your food. That's got to cover your socialising. And I was a big socialiser at university. So, yeah, I think it's crazy. And then it was after my placement year, I read this book, Money a User's Guide.

And again, I thought I was pretty clued up by 22 with how to manage my finances. And I read this book and I was like, oh my gosh, I do not know anything. What is an ICER? What is a lifetime ISO? What is a mortgage? And so again, I had to go and teach myself

all the things we weren't talked about in school and then it really quickly caught on us how little we're taught about money at school or university. I'm so excited to come on to what is an I say? What is a mortgage a little bit later on? But first, you said the word frugal. For people who are listening, what does the word frugal mean?

And how do you embody the life of a frugal person? That's a good question. I feel like frugal is just someone that is just conscious of how they spend their money and I don't think it should be a bad thing. So if you are frugal, listen to the podcast, us, I would, I'd say embrace it. So, yeah, I just think I'm very conscious of how I spend my money because I've always

been of the mindset. If, God forbid, anything happened to me or my parents, my mom or my sister, I know that I have to have something to fall back on. And so I'm not someone that is very, I'm not a big spender. Like, yes, I love to travel and everyone come for me, whoever follows me, would be like, OLLI, you can travel a lot. But I feel like that's the one thing I splurge on, but everything else if I can get a good deal on, I'm there.

And also I think it's about like your own personal financial boundaries. Like I think especially the society that we live in, it can push you towards spending, it can pressure you into spending money on things. You might not normally want to spend money on like designer things. And you know, if you personally know that you derive a lot of value from travelling, that is different than you feeling like, oh, I need to buy a designer bag because that is a sign of success. Yes. Yeah.

Definitely. We've got a section that we're going to do a little bit. later on that is our buy or buy-bye section. But first, you've worked with some of the largest finance brands like Barclays, Wealthify. What are the biggest gaps you've seen in education when it comes to the financial system? Oh, biggest financial gaps. I would say not learning how to budget. I think that's the biggest thing. So I think again, we get thrown into the adulting world. I either go to uni or we get our first paycheck and don't know how to manage that. And I think when I, especially when I work with a lot of clients of mine, they're always like,

I want to start saving, I want to start investing. And I'm like, okay, how much can you afford to save or invest? And they're like, well, I don't know how much I have. And that all comes down to a budget. And so, again, I always, when I work with young people, especially, they always draw their eyes and they're like, budgeting is so boring. I'm like, no, budgeting just allowed to see how much you can afford to spend on the finer things in life, what you love to spend your money on.

And then also how much you can save and invest. So I think budgeting is so important. But I think the fact that we'd also not taught how to invest is like, I think my biggest sticking point because, again, I think a lot of, the UK now become great savers, but none of us really, when we look at the bigger picture of the whole UK and I guess the 18 to 35, it's not enough of us are investing. And that's the best way to grow and actually build wealth rather than just saving and letting our savings earn 4% interest. Yeah. What's your favourite way to budget? Like, how do you personally do your budget? Oh, good

questions. So I give myself a money date every month. And so money date? Money date. Nice. And what does it involve? Because that's like that's like. sounds really appealing and I think maybe my issue with not like I don't do my budget every month time I am guilty of me and like I'll see how it goes and um but saying you have a money date I'm like I kind of want to join in on this money date this kind of sounds kind of fun you know what does that involve so I feel feel like when it comes to the mundane adulting task we just have to romanticise it and so if I've not got a man to take me out I'm going to do a money date myself so what I would do is basically just look at how much I've been paid I pay myself in a monthly

basis because I'm self-employed. Every month I look at how much that is because it might vary depending on what I've got coming up that month. And then I break up that budget or that paycheck that's come in into a weekly budget. And then, so let's say, for example, I get paid into my Lloyd's bank account. And then every single week I pay myself into a separate bank account. And then only go spending with that bank card because I feel like a lot of us, when it comes to spending now, it's so frictionless that we can be tap, tap, tap in and not realizing

how much you spend. You look really good. You're that. Yeah, I feel personally attacked. This is, you know, Apple pay. That's not in my head. I'm like, that's monopoly money. Exactly. Exactly. Girl math, right? So I think it's really important if we can add a bit of friction to our spending. So for me, it looks like giving myself that weekly budget. At university, I used to cash that weekly budget. So at the time, I used to live off like 50 pounds a week, which is insane. Now you could just never, but I used to literally. cash five, 10 pound notes and I know it made me just a bit more conscious of my spending. So I knew every Wednesday had to go to my sports night, had to go to the student union.

So again, it made me conscious of, okay, will I sacrifice a lunch in the library just so I can get my sports night ticket? Or, you know, I want to see the girls one evening. What else can I sacrifice when it comes to my spending? So I think having that weekly budget was a great way to kind of budget my finances. I really like the idea of adding more friction. Yes. Just, you know, even the way that the human brain works, like we are human

brain like we are constantly seeking the easiest route the root of least resistance. Yes. The moment you add that that layer of resistance where even, you know, I find it now the way that they add Apple Pay onto online shopping and then it just adds your shipping in because even just having to type in my shipping would be enough to deter me away from an online purchase. And like now that I don't have to do that, so do you have Apple Pay on your phone? I do. But just on that one card.

only that car. So there was one summer where, I think maybe it was last summer the summer before, and had my credit card on there. And like, again, it can be really easy to be like, oh, I know I've got maybe £20 left of this weekly budget. This dinner's going to go on my credit card instead. And so you can easily just then stop being more lax. And look, you know, we're all humans.

Sometimes we do become a bit too lax. But if you actually do want to incorporate discipline, then, you know, being hard and fast and just deleting all your cards but your weekly bank account, that is the way I personally do it. And I really recommend it. Because again, it just makes you more conscious. So I love seeing my girls on the weekend. And because I love seeing them on the weekend, I know on a Monday and Tuesday,

you would very rarely see me going out for dinner because I'd rather have that money for the weekend instead. So little things like that just makes managing your money, just I guess, yeah, easier. Yeah, no, I really like that. And actually, there's a lot of things I personally can take away from that. Just adding that extra layer of friction. Next, we are going to come on to our bye and bye-bye section.

So I'm going to show. you a piece of paper and you're going to tell me whether you would buy or like you think it's good basically or say bye bye okay we're going to go first isis bye bye bye yes why do you why do you like an is so an isa if you are listening you don't know what it is an is so an isa is a tax free account whether that is a savings account investment account and it just allows you to pay less tax their tax spends so I'm sure everyone listening would be like yes to the ISA. Yeah. And savings accounts. Buy as well. Just because obviously with your IISers, you only get a tax-free limit of up to £20,000. So I do recommend opening up a savings account

as well. Even if you don't want an ICER, then you've still got your savings account. And yeah, I always recommend everyone to start saving. Yeah. Next we have stocks shares. bye but I'm hesitant to say bye only because like I said I'm a huge advocate of investing but when it comes to investing in individual shares I'm a bit skeptical because I feel like a lot of people try to be really tactical when it comes to investing and investing really is for the long term so I personally don't invest in shares but I do invest in a different type of investment which I'm sure we'll talk about later on in the podcast for anyone listening do you want to who isn't familiar with like stocks and shares do you want to

explain like briefly what like stocks and shares just are yes so stock shares the term can be used interchangeably but essentially when you're buying a share you are buying a percentage of a company so for example this top and wins from ASOS so if I want to invest in ASOS I would buy a share of ASOS and that would make me a shareholder and typically if you are investing in a company you might get dividends so if ASOS had a great financial year they might pay me as a shareholder dividends so you can also get not only capital gain if the share price appreciated, but you'd also get dividends as well. I hope that we do come on to other options later on, but you made a really good point about investing in individual stocks and shares. There's obviously people who dedicate their entire

lives to picking stocks and picking shares specifically. And most of them never beat the market. You know, it's a little bit like gambling for finance pros. you know like it's gambling for the middle class like yeah yeah yeah so i yeah that's and yeah they they can be good good option like there's nuance there's nuance yes yes loans oh it's these are very broad yeah they are so so they're going to school today which i love so i would say bye bye if we're taking loans in it's like in the sense that is written on on this piece of paper, only because I feel like the lack of financial literacy in the UK

doesn't teach us really to manage loans or debt properly. And so I guess loans on this sense that I'm seeing as is money from either the bank that you want to just use just to buy a car or, and that's not car finance, that's actually just taking 10 grand from the bank because they can give you 10 grand. Or maybe buy now, pay later. I personally am not a user of buy now pay later.

And so, yeah, I would say bye-bye, but again, a mortgage is a loan. And so you do have great positive loans that you can use to advance in your lives and your careers. But I guess looking at it, face value, I would say bye-bye. Yeah, it's a nuanced topic. Bitcoin. I'm a buy. Interesting. Okay, go on.

Tell me why. So I deliver a lot of financial education workshops. And people love to ask me my thoughts on Bitcoin or just. just cryptocurrency in general. And I invest in Bitcoin. But I am a long-time investor. I am a buy and hold. I'm not a trader. So yeah, I have Bitcoin as part of my portfolio alongside other investments. Yes, Bitcoin is risky. But if you do your due diligence, if you do your research, I'm not anti it. But I wouldn't recommend putting all your life savings into Bitcoin. You use two terms that I'd love you to explain for any listeners who are not clued up in

like finances. So you said like a buy and hold. person versus like a trader. Yes. So what are the differences between those two like patterns? And what are the pros and cons? Yes. Between Be it both. So like we mentioned, I think a lot of people see investing as gambling.

And I would only say gambling is true if you're looking to pick stocks and I guess just day trade. Anyone that can do that well, well done. I've yet to meet someone that has successfully day traded. unless you're someone in the London Stock Exchange, for example. But a buy and hold mentality, which is what I do, which what I teach, is that when it comes to investing, I recommend investing for at least five to 10 years because we know the stock market goes up and down. So I always recommend if I'm teaching someone or I'm coaching someone that

investing should be seen as a long-term game. So I think I first invested in Bitcoin in 2020. So I just held it and we're up quite a bit to be fair, but I just leave it. just because I don't need that cash right now. So yeah, I feel like, again, because there are dips, I always try and get people to avoid selling when there's a dip because hopefully you'd like to think over the next couple of years, it will always recover.

And you only have to look at a stock market graph from like 1990, for example, to see that the trend has always been up, but day-to-day can often fluctuate. And I think it's really important for people to remember when it comes to Bitcoin, when it comes to stocks and shares, is that is not the actual money that company, is making all the, like, that's not real money. The value of stocks and shares, the value of Bitcoin is derived from human psychology.

And like humans are notoriously emotional, you know? Humans, like humans are notoriously emotional. The way that one minute Bitcoin will be worth a ridiculous amount of money. And then the next it will be, it will completely drop. That's not because one day the stock of Tesla might be really high and then Elon Musk will say something silly and Tesla will plummet. That doesn't mean that Tesla as a company is making less money. It means that

people are valuing a Tesla stock less and that is based on the human brain that's not based on business. Supply and demand isn't it? Exactly. So like actually if you just you know you just hold on you weather the storm of human emotion. Yes. And it's almost like weathering your own human emotion because when people panic they buy you know? Yes. When you just sit with that and you go I'm going to stick this out I'm going to try and not get, get, get rid of the noise.

I think that's what is important. And that's why I don't invest in individual shares because there's such a high risk of volatility compared to ETFs, index funds, things like that. So, yeah, I think buy and hold if you can. And yeah, I think it's just all about having a diversified portfolio, which means just having as many types of investments as you can in one package or, yeah, just across multiple different industries.

So you are well diversified. Nice. Next we have index phones. Index phones. Bye. Bye. Nice. Do you want to stop by explaining what are index funds and why is this a big buy from you?

Yes. So index funds are essentially a collection of companies held into one package. So like we mentioned earlier with shares, I could have, let's say, a clothing index fund. And that might, rather than me invest in ASOS, I could invest in a company. clothing index fund, which might have ASOS, new look, Adidas, Nike, all in that one package, and then my money is diversified across

all of those different companies. Rather than risking or hedging all my bets into ASOS, they might do really badly. But as an alternative, I can actually invest in that index fund. And let's say if ASOS went bust in that portfolio, hopefully doesn't because I love buying my clothes from ASOS. At least I'm diversified across, you know, Nike, Adidas and things like that as well.

So it won't have as big an impact compared to if I just invested in individual shares. And if someone was looking to invest in an index fund, what is their first step that, or what is the step-by-step process that someone takes to invest in an index fund? Yes. So you've got index funds. You've also got ETS, which you might have heard of before. And that stands for exchange traded funds.

So exchange traded funds tend to track a market. So you might have the New York Stock Exchange or you might have the London Stock Exchange, for example, and it might just track the said economy. And when you say track, you mean just, I'm trying to simplify it. When you say track, you mean like go up the same percentage that that is going up. It really, like, simple. Yeah. So essentially, let's say, for example, so there's loads different types of ETFs and index funds,

but a big popular one is the S&P 500, for example, and I hate the fact that I've had to say it. But people will love that investment because there's so many finance pros that love to rave about it. but the S&P 500 tracks the American stock market, and that tracks the 500 largest US companies. So essentially, if all 500 companies are doing really, really well, then you would see an upward growth in that ETF value, and then also that value will then correspond with the, I guess, the capital gains you then make as an investor.

So that's just a US example, but you've got the Futsi 250 or the Futsi 100, which is the UK stock market. So again, if you wanted just to invest in the UK, you can, you can invest in the US, you've got Asian markets, you've got, yeah, so many markets. But if you wanted to get started, firstly, I would say to open up a stock and shares, ISA, actually even before that, decide how you want to invest. Because when it comes to investing, people always want to just take the advice for someone online. I think you need to think about, are you comfortable with investing yourself,

or do you want actually just to use a platform that does all the investing for you? So if you feel comfortable with everything I discussed today, you might want to go down, DIY investing and find a platform that can do that for you. So that's where you can then pick your index funds or your ETFs or your individual stocks and shares. And then there's platforms like AJ Bell, Hargoo's Lansdown, there's Invest Engine and those platforms allow you to invest in all the different investments I mentioned, not cryptocurrency yet, but the other ones that we've discussed. Or as an alternative, you can use a robo advisor. So that's a platform that will do all the investing for you based on your attitude to risk. They might say to you, Faye, how risky are you

feeling on a level of one to five. You might say, I'm a level three out of five, and then they'll create this whole investment platform for you based on what you said. And there's platforms like wealthified. There's platforms like nutmeg, money box that will do all the investing for you if you don't feel comfortable picking your investments yourself. But once you've chosen that platform, open up your stocks and shares, visor. I'm going to tell you a little personal story about my first experience with index phones.

So when I discovered index funds, I made my Vanguard account. Yes. And I had no idea how to use it properly. So every so often, or like I had a direct debit that came out every month and it went half into the S&P and then half into the footsy. Because that was what I heard the finals bro was talking about. And then any extra money that I had, I was like, oh, like at the end of the month, I was like, oh, give that a little investor or whatever. And I just used to put 50 quid in about, I don't know, probably about 10, 12. I literally would scroll down and go put a 10 in there.

No, you would do. Yeah. And then it was like maybe a couple years later. So I had like it was obviously they're all, a lot of them are very, very, very similar. Yes. And my boyfriend was like, why are you? And I hate that a man has to explain this. I'm so.

But he was like, why are you doing that? You should only really like three max, three max. Like you're already, it's already quite a diverse part. There's no reason for you to be doing. Go and dilute it even further. Then you're 10 pounds and make just 10 pence instead. When I tell you, there was. no education whatsoever. I just went, five of there, 10 of there. I respect the fact that you

tried though, because I feel like not enough of us, and again, this isn't financial advice, but I think not enough of us try. Because I think when you actually do make that first leap, you actually learn on the go. You also then realize, oh, actually I'm a really good investor. Or you actually see the power of the stock market because I got my sister investing at like 19. And she started with 20 pounds. And I think the week later, she lost 20p and then she was, I'm going to go at me. now she's investing 50 pounds a month and she's now seeing an upward growth and I was like see if only

someone had told me at 19 or 20 to start investing fair enough I started at 22 but yeah the power of starting young is just crazy so I respect the fact that you started yeah and also like I wasn't worse off I think I was still better off than if I'd put it in a savings account even when I'm not doing this very well

I'm still better off than if that was sat in a savings account with a not very high interest rate so then now I only have I think two but he said it's good to have one that's international. Okay. Rather than he was like if you're going to do an ETF, have one that is don't have or if you're going to have one or two or three, probably best not to have one in like just the US one

because if the US market crashes that like diversification. Exactly that. Exactly. Exactly. And I guess if there's anyone else listening and this is not me telling you to go put your money into this investment, but you do also then have global index funds or global in ETF. So if you don't want to just put your money into one market,

you have again the option to globally diversify your portfolio. And again, when it comes to investing, lots of people often say, but Ollo, it's too risky, but they don't realize if you have a workplace pension, your money's being invested. And again, that might be globally diversified. That might have US stock markets and stocks in. And so again, when we actually think about that and associate it with us investing ourselves, we need to put two and two together and be like, actually, I'm not stressing about my pension fund.

And if I listen to Oller and only invest for five plus years, I shouldn't really be stressing about my investments either. Yeah, that's really, really helpful. Real estate. That's so American. Real estate, property. Bye. Bye.

Okay. I feel like over the last few years, this has been a little bit of a controversial one. Very big, controversy. Very big. Can you talk through the why you're by and like maybe pros and cons? Okay, so real estate. I guess if we just put property as one umbrella, buy, in terms of like first-time buy

if you want to get in the property ladder you want to have a home to live in I think absolutely if you can afford to buy definitely go down that route I think the pros of that is that you obviously you own an asset and yes we still have a mortgage and you have a loan to the bank

but you actually have a tangible asset now I know so many people that buy cars that buy handbags and again there's nothing on with it but they're not real assets and they don't really hold value compared to if you're investing in property but obviously the cons of that is obviously, you know, high deposits for some areas that we live in.

Some people don't love the fact that they own money to the bank. But I guess the counter argument is that you'd have to pay money somewhere. So would you rather that money go towards a landlord or you're, I guess, owning that asset, which hopefully is appreciating. I'm not against or for either one. Personally, my personal preference would be to get on the property ladder as soon as I can. And I'm sure many people do have that same dream. But when it comes to buying property as a landlord,

I think that's where the big controversy comes in because obviously there's so many bad landlords out there. Am I going to advertise the fact that everyone should get on the property ladder and also buy second properties to be a landlord? Probably not. But I have seen some great landlords that have provided some great homes for people. So again, if you're in a privileged position where you can invest in property, definitely go and do so.

But I don't think houses are appropriate. appreciating the same level as our parents' generations. No. And I think there's a lot of people who love to be property gurus or property experts that tell you, oh, just invest 60K in this property and flip it. It's not as simple as that anymore. And I hate the fact that, you know,

we're in this era of social media where people love to think that everything's just so easy. And for some, it has been, but it's also not for a lot of people. I know a lot of people have lost thousands of trying to flip properties or, you know, become a landlord or start a rent-to-rent business. And I'm not going to go down that route. going in dual at all, but yeah, I think there's pros and cons for both sides,

but definitely if you're a first-time buy and have the dream of getting a property, definitely go for it. I love, love investing in my van, like, just pumping my money in my eyes and not thinking about it. And like I, so where my house in North Wales, my mom and dad bought it for like 70K or something. It's insane, isn't it? Like a ridiculously low, low price, but it was like this derelict ex-hot, and they did it up. And it was a nice, you know, a nicer house to living. but because it was a hotel, the bottom flat was like self-contained

because it was like where the owners would live and the rest of it would be like a hotel that makes it sound like, I mean a bed and breakfast, that makes it sound like my house is a mansion. I want to come down to dinner. Like it's a normal, like it was a bed and breakfast. The bottom, yes, the bottom like basement flat was self-contained. So my mum and dad were like, oh, like we'll rent out the bottom flat

because we don't need that space. This woman came in and she gave me bad vibes the whole time. She, me and my brother were kicking our ball outside and she screamed at us for kicking our bowling, like, we're children, like, you know, whatever. She basically didn't pay my dad rent for like a year. And obviously, renter's rights are so, so, so, so, so important, passionate about that. But he spent so much money on, like, lawyers fees because it was really hard to... Same happen to my mum.

Yeah, and it's like, actually, do you know what? It's not like, I think a lot of property gurus online can make it seem like... It's very glamorous. Very glamorous. and actually, and you know, you're dealing with people. And, you know, I don't know, that woman might have had a lot of stuff going on. You, the meaning she couldn't pay a rent, you know, I'm not going to judge on that, but you have to be prepared to deal with people who are going through tricky times.

And that's their living. That's where they're living, you know. You can't just, if someone can't pay their rent, just be like, right, fine, kick and go. You have to be able to accommodate people's difficulties. And, you know, actually, you have to make sure that you have the financial ability to, to accommodate people's difficulties. Yeah. And it's one thing having a bad landlord, but there's also such things as bad renters.

Like you've said, I've heard so many horror stories of people having to pay thousands in legal fees to evict people out because they're refusing to pay rent. And again, don't know if that's due to whatever issue it is, but then the financial implications of that on the landlord is big as well. And so yeah, I think when it comes to renting out properties,

I'm not anti it, but I think, yeah, pros and cons, like everything. Pros and cons, absolutely. Financial books. Bye. Yeah, 100%. I feel like it's so important if you can to financially educate yourself and yes, it can seem really boring but when you start seeing your, I don't know, your portfolio going up by 20% you're going to be, I'm so grateful. I've invested five pound and a financial book. Yeah, I'm definitely for it and I actually have a couple of my own e-books which I did based on the fact that, wow, if I can teach myself on to invest, I want to teach every young adult how to do the same. So yeah, I'm definitely for financial books.

Favorites, top recommendations. Oh, okay. Top one would be money, a user's guide by Laura Whatley. So good, 10 out of 10. And I met her last year and I was like, I'm trying really hard not to van girl you, but you're just so amazing. Obviously social media is a Wild Wild West

when it comes to financial advice. But I feel like if, like, I just, how I learned about investing was just a couple of YouTube videos from reliable sources. and when it comes to like invest in your time or your money into financial advice, I cannot emphasise enough the incredible returns you get on that advice that even, you know, just I think I started investing with just after a couple of YouTube videos, you know, it's like the 80-20 rule.

Just by learning 20% of the information, you can get, you know, 80% of the gains and everything after that is you're getting smaller and smaller months. margins of returns. But just that really, really, really good basic understanding is so, so, so important and actually quite easily accessible. Yeah, yeah. And I guess, yeah, touching on, like, my second recommendation, if you really want to go down the route of investing, then Simran Kaur's got a really book called Love

Yeah, amazing book as well. So there's so many, and all you have to do is literally just do with Google on Amazon, and there's so many of my friends have written books now. And yeah, they're just great. they're great so yeah simrant car i think it's our friends that invest did you see that yeah and she's had to rename the book it's so so so sad but yeah brilliant but it's such good book such good book and female invest again they've also got two books um so yeah there's just loads of books out there that i highly recommend nice and i think also when it comes to books like where there's

so much books and a lot of the information is the same i think it's picking up a book and you know if it's being explained to you in a way that you find enjoyable and it's not going to feel like homework you know the most important thing is and that's the same with creators like financial creators there's some financial creators who drive me absolutely like you know it's here's how to save yeah yeah sure we know the ones we know the ones like no but then there's some financial creators where i'm like like you know you it feels homely and accessible and like not yeah not like homework you know yes yes fab so we're going to come on to some community questions okay What are the basics of investing and its benefits?

Okay, so I feel like we've covered investing quite a bit anyway, but I guess if people still aren't sure, investing is essentially putting your money into a certain asset or stock or fund with the hope that it's going to appreciate in value. And I guess the benefits when it comes to investing is that rather than letting your money, I guess, sit in a savings account where it can earn 3 to 4% interest right now, your money invested could potentially, again,

it's never guaranteed, but it can potentially grow way quicker and way more than if you were to, I guess, just put it in a savings account. And I feel like the reason why investing is so important is because of inflation. So inflation at the moment in the UK is around 2%. That difference between the UK's inflation rate and your interest in your savings pot is about 1% more. So your savings at the moment is really only earning 1%, whereas the historical average stock market return is around 8 to 10%. So again, the growth when investing is crazy. If done wisely, if you do your research or you don't listen to the finance bros, you can potentially grow your money. And I think that's the real way to grow wealth. Next community question is pretty interesting. Does gender

make a difference in financial health? Oh, yes. In many ways. Firstly, institutionally, in the sense that we have the gender pay gap. We have the gender pension gap and we also have a gender credit score gap. Don't know if you knew that one, but we do. No. So institutionally and societally, we as women are disadvantaged

so I feel like yes, that has a big part to play in. But I think because of that, I think men more than ever have a really important role to actually, one, speak out when they see financial injustices in the office or the workplace, If they feel like they're more cleaned up about money than their female counterparts than to educate. And I feel like it's really important

that we open up the conversation when it comes to money because of these disparities. So, yeah, I do think there's big gender differences. I mean, it's factually backed. But, yeah, I think it's something that we all need to do as a society to come together and actually hopefully close those gaps. I think when I discovered the gender pension gap, it's often women who take time out of their careers to have kids and raise kids as well

or even care for something that's also not spoken about or even care for elderly relatives that's often what falls on women as well and I just completely didn't even think that that time that women take out of their careers they're not putting money into their pension and then women end up with less money like with less pension and I remember the first time I learned about that I spoke to, I, you know, spoke to my boyfriend. And I also think it's really important to have those really honest conversations with your partners. If you are choosing to raise children, have children, regardless of whether it is the man or the woman who decides to take a step back in their career, if one of you has to take a step back in your career, which it will be,

there needs to be that conversation that someone else is going to be financially compensated for that step back. And yeah, I think making sure women are aware of that is really important. Yeah, I agree. And I think also, again, this is very stereotypical, but again, even when it comes to like the gender credit gap, that is a result of oftentimes men taking care of the financial responsibilities within families, which, God forbid, if there are now separation, if there's divorces, women, sometimes can also happen to men. But you find that they might not have great credit. school so then if they want to seek financial help they might need a loan they might struggle to get that and then often off of the back of that then they become subject to financial abuse

so there's just a there's a big big disparity when it comes to gender and that's obviously not to try and I guess I'm trying to be sound too woke we're not coming after the men we're just like this is centuries and centuries of women and it's not all men it's not all men like my you know my boyfriend's like really really when I said this about the gender pay gap but he was like no that makes complete sense. And I have lots of male allies 100%. Exactly. But I think it's when women have, women couldn't have credit cards till the 70s.

Yes. Financial literacy for women is younger than our mothers. So true. Can we just, you know, that's like solid. That's wild. Do you put it like that? Yeah, yeah. Like, I mean, there may be people whose birth year starts with the two. Like, well, yeah, then maybe not quite. But, you know, that is, that is so, so, so young.

So it's not that we're anti-men. It's like we are trying to empower women with new knowledge for the female gender. Yeah, 100%. I agree. I agree. So I think that's why financial literacy is so important because the more we educate everyone,

everyone can then pass on their nuggets of information. And I feel like the stigma and to be able to talk about money just then hopefully becomes eradicated. Hopefully one day. Hopefully one day. The next community question is tips on start. in good financial habits for young people.

Oh, so I feel like number one, educate yourself. So reading those financial books, watching podcasts, listening to some of those TikToks. Reliable sources, yeah. And so, yeah, educate yourself first. And then I guess when it comes to just improving your financial health, starting with that all-important budget. So, you know, how are you when it comes to managing your finances? Are you someone that gives themselves a budget, quote-unquote?

But then at the end of the month it's dipping into their sayings because they didn't budget enough or are you someone that I guess lives on their bare bones budget and then can't afford to live life and I think when it comes to managing our finances balance is so important and so I think if you can budget but also know your weaknesses so okay can we add friction like we mentioned earlier so if you're someone that dips in and out your savings okay you add friction so maybe putting your money into a fixed rate account which means it's fixed and you can't touch it for a certain period of time or are you so someone that doesn't know where to start.

So getting a budgeting app that can do the hard work for you. Like automation, technology, there's so much now that I feel like there's not really an excuse to not be budgeting. Fine. That felt like a big at. I know you, but at everyone. Yeah, yeah. What are your favourite apps? So one of my favour is Money Hub and sadly they no longer resist.

But there are other many budgeting apps out there now like Emma, Snoop. Some come with paid versions, but I don't think, if you want to just start, budgeting you don't necessarily have to pay for any of these apps. Monzo, again, is another one of my favourites because, one, it helps me with my weekly budget, and then two, it helps me round up my spending to this nearest pound, which then gets put into a savings pot. So I'm saving for all the actual curricular activities I've got, my friend's weddings that I've got to tend to next year.

So all of that really, really helps. Do your research. There's so much out there now that really helps us manage our finance as well. Yeah, we've got computers. We can use them, you know, we've got phones. We watch out chat to BT now, so you can literally type out, create a budget, for me based on this income and these expenses. There's no excuse. No excuse. Absolutely no excuse. We're going to come on to a TikTok video that I wanted to get your thoughts on. I wanted to

know for listeners who are looking for reliable information about money when there's so much nonsense out there on social media. What would your advice be? There's great content creators on TikTok and Instagram, but I think it's always important regardless of who you're getting information from. It's just to cross-reference, to cross-fact, to cross-check, to cross-check. and because I feel like, yeah, although someone might, like for me, for example, although I might share the best savings accounts for, I don't know, easy access savings accounts, I think it's always best to just do your own research because you might find something that's better for you. I might have a slight bias, although I'd hope I don't.

I think I'm quite impartial. But yeah, I think it's very important just to always just cross-track everything you see online. Yeah. It's the same with medical stuff. It's just so important you're getting your information from multiple sources, doing your own research. So we had a lot of community questions about overspending, which I think is so, so, so. It's such a big issue when you go on Instagram and it's ads, ads, ads, ads, ads. Our attention is being drawn in every direction.

But I was wondering if you could really quickly explain what a credit score is and what that means for someone's financial health. Yeah. So a credit score is essentially a number given to you that, I guess, shows. your credit worthiness. So that essentially means that, let's say, experience credit score goes up to 999. So I might be given a credit score of 349 and that shows the lenders how good I am at managing credit. So essentially the higher the score, the better because it means to lenders that you're great and managing credit. And when I talk about credit, that's money you're borrowing from a bank or a credit lender. So that might be in the form of a bank loan. Credit score,

buy now, pay later. So again, it's really important that you look. look after your credit score because it can it can have an impact when it comes to buying a property if you want to get a car on finance even just getting out sometimes a mobile phone bill yeah and even renting now so again it's really important that you look after your credit score because again I feel like it's not something we're told about but funnily enough so many people are aware of what it is but sometimes don't often look after it as well as they should well I have a bit of an embarrassing story to tell when it comes to my credit score so when when I applied for my mortgage I got rejected and I was like oh why have I got rejected and then the mortgage broker was like go through

this website and download your report and I'll look through it and see why yes anyway so number one wasn't that big of an issue but still something to be aware of when I took out like my mobile phone contract yes I took it out in my university flat okay and so all the letters were coming through there and I went home for summer and I missed two of the bills. Interesting. Yeah. I don't think,

I think maybe I had them for direct debit, but then there were extra fees that came out or whatever. It happens. Yeah, I missed two bills. And when I came back,

opened up the post, paid them. Yeah. But those were two like black marks on my credit. Interesting. That was from three or two years before I tried to buy my flat.

Anyway, that was obviously like not great. The bad thing was, I had two CCJs. Oh, really? Yeah, not one. Two CCJs because I had got a parking ticket and they had, and now I was living in London and they had got sent to my family home in North Wales.

My mum was like, you can open your posts when you get home sort of thing to CCJs. And this, that is a big, big, big, that's a big black mark. Big, big black mark. At this point, I was really, really deep into the process and it was basically like, I really, wanted to buy this flat obviously and it basically prolonged the process of buying my flat by about two months. Two months. Yeah I was because my mortgage just kept getting rejected and then I so I had to I was calling the courts every day to see because I then paid it. Yeah. I was calling the courts every day and I was within a certain time frame that I could get it wiped but I was calling the courts every

day to see when it was going to get wiped and I was in work like calling da da da da da stressful. stressful. Buying a home is already stressful enough let alone dealing with that. It was Horrible and like I so not just if I just checked my credit score that would have been flagged and like I probably wouldn't have got to that point. Yeah. And but also like little things like having the right address on things. So you're if something bad happens if you miss a bill, you're not going to three months without realizing like I'd literally. It's literally things like that. And it's interesting because I'm assuming you're great with managing your money and you probably would never thought this you would find yourself in this situation.

And I think, again, this is where financially education ourselves is so important and just being aware of everything because everything has an impact. Yeah. So much so that a friend of mine was also looking to buy property. And they used buy now, pay later during the process of them buying a property, or at least in the lead-up. And there's not necessarily anything wrong with buying our pay later if used responsibly. But what happened was is that she bought a, I think it was like a 15 or 20-pound dress

and buy-now-a-later and paid it in like three or four installments. And so the mortgage lender, I mean, she got her mortgage. should approve but the mortgage lender was like can we ask why you bought this on buy now pay later is this you showing us that you can't afford to buy 15 20 pound dress and if you can't then why you're taking a mortgage yeah so things like that you just have to be very cautious of how that looks because again the mortgage lender is going to be giving you thousands hundreds of thousands to buy property but yet you're buying a 20 pound dress on buy an hour pay later so it's optics and things like that's really important alongside you know just keeping your credit score and good

health. Yeah. I also heard a story of someone who they got their offer accepted on their home and then they went out and they bought, like, ordered all their new furniture and stuff. On their credit card or and something. Yeah. Yeah. And then there's this huge increase of the amount that they've borrowed. Yeah. And then they couldn't get a mortgage. Yes. So it happens. Yeah. Again, financial education because I wouldn't have known that unless I'd have like done my research a few years ago, I mean, yeah, I'm very far off buying a property at the moment. But yeah, yeah, I think it's really important that you do realise things like that because again your credit score you think it's just three numbers that you check every month if you are good enough to do that or it's something that's just completely something you've gotten about but it's so important to check it every month because it's completely free to do yeah you can check your credit report so that's a more in-depth um look at what's going wrong if it's a bit lower than you expected um but i think it's one thing to caveat that if you are finishing university and you do have a university loan that doesn't impact your credit score because i feel like a lot of graduates always stress when they come up uni fresh face got their first and paycheck they always stressed about their credit score and that's not something to worry about straight away.

Student loan, I don't think it should, it should be called a student tax. Yes, essentially. Yeah, because it's not like, it's not like the same loan as, you know, because I don't look at my student loan. I'd rather not. Yeah, that's not my business. That's really not my business. Now we're going to come on to another section, which is, is it real or real, which

spelt like Instagram real. So I'm going to show you a short social media clip. Okay. And I would just love to know what. your thoughts are on it. Okay. Honestly, I think it's a no-brainer. $2.50 divided by $10, $25 a wear. Yep. For 10 more than 10 times. So $5 a wear for 20 wears. So cheap. You're literally buying it from the dollar store. It's like getting a coffee every time I wear it. Yes. Which I'll do anyway. No, you can add more. No, if you,

if you forfeit your coffee every time you wear that, then it's basically free. We cracked Gilmere. They're so good. We cracked Gilmeth. So Gilmath, what are your thoughts on Gilmath? Okay, so when the whole trend of Girlbath came out, obviously, love the trend, and it made me how, because of all the content that was coming up. But at the same time, going back to our conversation earlier when we talk about, I guess, the societal disadvantages we have as women, it was a shame to then have, and this is not me to be a Debbie Downer. But it was a shame to have this joke coined girl math.

Because it's like what happened to the male math? Yeah. You know, it's like we're already financially disaventions as it is. So it's a shame that we were kind of, I guess, joking along that trend. But at the same time, I did really enjoy that trend because things like that does make me laugh. I think, yeah, if we look at the wider picture, yeah. You know what I mean? It also like reinforces this stereotype that women are just...

That's the word. Shop addict. You know, we can't control our spending. We're like, and also, you know, this idea that women are the ones who are going and spend, men are earning the money and we're just out here spending the money, which I kind of, I kind of hate. Yes. It also speaks to the leapfrogs I think we can do as women in our head where we are convincing ourselves that it's a purchase that's worthwhile. And often it's probably just doing the work of like marketers, you know, these marketeers have put an idea in our head and we're like, yes, this dress that I may only wear once is a good idea. for me to spend 70 pounds on.

Which brings me on to a community question. How to recover from shopping or spending addiction? Good question. And I've done quite a bit of content on this, even just through workshop delivery on the podcast. But I think if you can, it's to reinforce or add back friction into our spending. So what does that look like?

I'm coming home harsh. Delete in all the shopping apps off our phone. Yes. Yes. Yes. Actually, even before that, I think it's really important to identify your triggers. Yeah. So when you find yourself shopping, what is that trigger?

Is it because you're bored? Is it because you're low in mood? Is it because, I don't know, your boyfriend's ghosted you again? Do you know what I mean? Identify your triggers and then add the friction back. So, you know, delete the shopping apps on your phone. I've had to do it multiple times before. I had to delete ASOS because, again, I used to find myself in bed scrolling on an ASOS.

Like it was Instagram. That was my thing. Whereas just looking at it on Safari, I was like, this is, I don't want to do this. It doesn't have the same effect, right? So deleting the apps. If you are someone that shops on their phone or on their laptop, removing all your car details.

Because we all know, no one is getting up of their backside to go grab their car from their purse. Yeah. Let's be real. Let's be real. So I feel like, again, adding that friction is better because like we mentioned, Apple Pay is now on, let's say, on most of our phones.

So we only have to tap Apple Pay now to buy our basket. So again, if you deleted that from your phone, you'd have to get up. And you'd then think, actually, do I really want this? Do I really want those new shoes? Do I really need that handbag? Do I need that new £100 robe, for example? I think that's really important to consider. And then also maybe implement something called what I like to call the 30-day rule.

And that's by, if you're a big online window shopper like I am, leave that basket for 30 days. So add everything you want and leave with 30 days. Revisit it. You might not even visit it because you might have forgotten about the basket. But if you do remember, give it 30 days, come back. And most often than not, a lot of the things you wanted to buy is probably stuff you don't want anymore.

And I found myself guilty of that because I don't know about you, but my ASOS hearted items, I always look back and I'm like, ew. Yes. Yes. I'm like, what? I was like, you do not need that. So yeah, I think adding that those different bits of friction is really important. but I think the biggest one is to identify your triggers for sure. I really, really love that because whether that trigger is, yeah, feeling really crappy about yourself.

I know for me, if I'm feeling emotionally not my best, I'm like, what is going to give me a little bit of a kick? Yeah, it will be delivering myself, being Santa, plus to myself, and delivering some presents to my door. Like, you know, and it's actually not going to make you feel better. It's just going to feel a void. It's a plaster over a gaping hole. But I guess other triggers, Instagram, I unfollowed.

Loads of clothing runs on Instagram because that was a big one, big one. TikTok for me is a big one when it comes to like, and it's so funny, I made an Instagram page about things I refused to buy this autumn. But the amount of people that made me feel like I had to buy like a boo basket or how to buy like, I don't know, a stuffed pumpkin toy.

Do you know what I mean? Or decoration. And I was like, I'm quite frugal like I mentioned, but I was finding myself adding bits into my basket. I was like, no, Ollie, you don't need all this. Yeah. And consumerism is big, right? Especially with social media now.

So I think, yeah, it's really important that you do. If you can as well, start on following people that you don't want to be checking out either. Yeah, also influences. There was one influencer that I follow, and she posted four ads in one week, and I was like, nah, that's... Too much.

Pardon? It gets too much. It is. Sorry, I thought you said she's March, and I was like, what's March? No, too much. It's too much. A, it's irritating.

B, like, I do not need the temptation in my way. Yes. I do not need convincing some impulse spend. I'm bad. enough on my own, I do not need you posting for sponsored reels in one week. That is no. Also, I think for me, really helped unsubscribing from the marketing. Yes. That was a big one. When you come into my email basket and I'm already avoiding my emails as it is, I don't want to go through my emails and then you come on and tell me that's 50% off. You give me an excuse to procrastinate.

That is, and spend my money. It's a double whammy. It's not nice. It is a lot. And again, you can just be going about your day. Yeah. And then all sudden you're, I don't know, you're sitting on the TV with a wine in your hand and then you get 25, I did get this from New Look the other day, 25% off. Yeah.

Then I'm like, didn't need anything. But there's me like, oh, let me have a little look to see if there's anything I would want with 25% off. And you will find something. You will. You will find something. Because also it's that like the mentality in your head, when someone tells you it's 25% off,

the kind of the girl math, well, I'm losing money unless I find something. And it's not, it's only a bargain if you need it. Yes. And if you're only, if you weren't ever going to buy it, then it's not a discount. No, no, no, no. Yeah, exactly. Like you are, you, you, you are not making money.

Like, you are spending money. Yeah, yeah. Oh, okay. This is a really, this is a really good community question that I'd love to cover. Tips on balancing, saving for short term goals like your specialty holidays. Yes. Or, and long term ones like buying a house. Good question.

So I think, firstly, you need to start up, draw up a budget. So if you want to save, how much can you realistically afford to save? And then if you can, open up two separate pots. That might be two pots of Monzo. That might be a bank account with Zopa or one with Lloyds, for example. Give yourself two pots and try if you can save alongside each goal. Or if your house fund is something you want to put more money into, put more money into that. And then a little less into your short-term savings goal.

But I think it's really important to start with that budget. and give yourself a numerical number for both of these pots. So what are you working towards? Because, again, I often work with people and they say, I need to save. And I'm like, okay, how much are we saving? And they're like, oh, I don't know. And I think it's really hard to stay motivated

when you don't know what the end goal is. Because for me, if I know I need to save 10 grand, if I reach to like 9,000, I'm nearly there now. I'm going to put more. Whereas if I had no goal, it's very like, oh, saving 10 pounds. Actually, I might just take that 10 pounds because I can't be bothered. So I think if you're so,

a numerical number alongside that goal that you want to achieve, really, really recommend. But again, if you do have that habit of like dipping in and out of your savings, rather than having an easy access savings account, which is where you can access the money any time you like, opt for a fixed rate account, which is where your money's locked away for a certain amount of times. That might be three, six months, one to five years.

But also if you may be looking to buy your very first home, you might want to look at opening up a lifetime ICER, which is a fixed account which you can't touch. but the government adds 25% bonus for every £1,000 you add into it up to £4,000. So that's something you can look at as well. So, yeah, I would say those are my different tips. It's quite a lot of information, but those are different tips. Those are really, really useful.

If you were someone with debt and they're listening to this podcast and they're thinking, I want to save, I want to start investing in an ICER, how would you approach that differently if you had debt? Very, very good question. So if you are someone with debt and you want to start saving, I would look at what is the savings account offering you in terms of interest and how much is your debt costing you? So on average, I think the average credit card interest,

average credit card APR is around 24 is 27%. So if you've got debt of £1,000 and it's costing you £24 per month to pay that off, then I would focus on the debt first because having 4% interest on £1,000 is nothing compared to. to how much it's costing you in debt. So if you can try and tackle the debt first, I would do so. But I know at the same time people like to have at least something to fall back on.

So if you are in a privileged position where you can tackle some debt and also save at the same time, definitely do that. But I would look at tackling the debt first. You might want to maybe look at balance transfer. So that's maybe where you can transfer the balance onto a 0% interest card. So at least every single month, you won't be paying any interest if you're making the minimum repayments. So again, looking at, yeah, all of those different options, I think it's really important. But there's so many great charities such as citizens' advice, Christians get it's poverty

that give really good impartial advice if you're struggling with debt. I think it can be such a shame-filled topic. 100%. And I can't remember what the statistic is, but like it's a really, really, really high percentage of people in the UK who have debt. Oh my gosh, yeah. Like huge. And, you know, it's become so normalized people put in and coming up to the Christmas people putting their Christmas presents on their credit cards yeah going into debt yeah going into debt to show people they love them yes people going into debt to get married like debt is not a good thing but it shouldn't be something that we feel ashamed of it should be something that we are able to talk openly

about because you're right there are so many incredible charities and there's so many amazing options you know like when we talk when i you know at the beginning of the podcast and i said financial health is part of health. you know the risk of suicide the risk of it is such a huge huge huge risk a reason for suicide is debt it's not something it's such a serious topic yeah and there is options out there that is advice that is help i'm really glad that we we touched on that what are your opinions on getting into debt for Christmas or getting into debt for, say, a wedding. I personally would obviously say bye-bye.

However, I am obviously very aware of people's different circumstances. And I know for some people, their only option is to use credit. So I don't want to discount or, you know, come for anyone that is in that situation. But if you are someone that is getting into debt just for the sake of, you know, being able to look like they can afford to do buy the presents they're buying or to keep up appearances, then this is for you. So I would say I'm really not for that and I would advise against it

just because we all know how long January last, right? We always joke about how long that paycheck has to last when it comes to January. You don't want to find yourself in a position where you've spent so much money on your credit card and then you struggle to make your ends meet in January and then you have to borrow more money. Yeah.

And I think what gets people into debt is not necessarily the money they spent on the credit card or the loans they've taken out. It's the interest on top. products with a credit card, it's not necessarily the fact that you've done that. It's just, okay, do you have a plan to pay it off? So for me, a lot of my Christmas presents will go on my credit card because there's a higher level of protection when buying with the credit cards. So if you have a purchase between £100 and £30,000, if the product doesn't come as received

or it comes faulty, then you are protected with your credit card. So that's why I personally would use a credit card. But I have that money in savings, ready to pay off in full. So I think if you are looking to spend on a credit card making sure you have that exit plan is really important but do not spend beyond your means I think that's the biggest biggest tip I want someone to take um take on board this on this podcast today um and again I think when it comes to Christmas there's so much unnecessary pressure because if I said to my mum right now mama have no money but I can afford I don't know a dinner out she'd be like that's more than fine I don't need just but don't need you to give me all these lavish gifts your love's enough and so I think it's about having

those open and honest conversations with loved ones this year if you are struggling financially because there's no point trying to keep up appearances and then you're going to find yourself in a debt spiral. We don't want that and your loved ones wouldn't want that either. So I think it's about having those important conversations in the lead up to Christmas. And like we build connection off thanerability. Yes. We, that's the way that we build relationships. We don't build relationships with by putting up this facade. Like then we're not building a real connection. And in the cost of living crisis, you will probably say to your friends, you know, like I'm really struggling right now and I guarantee if that's a group of friends a lot of them will say do you know

what so am I yeah I'm so glad you said it like we we do secrets Santa every year like me and my group of girls and every year it's just got you know with cost of living the budget's just got progressively higher and this year so then this year they were like do you know what like it's just getting out of control we were spending like 50 quid like on one present because we didn't want to we thought it would be cheaper to do like we thought it would be one present per person rather than Yes, I get it. But we ended up spending like 50 quid because you can't, like,

it's really hard to get like a good present. Yes. So then this year we're doing like thongs and a something else. We're all getting each other. I love that. Not very on brand, but no, I love that because primate thongs are now five pounds apart. But this is it. You can get like a really, so we can get like,

I'm not going to say who my secret son, who my gift, but I can get like a fun thong. Like, and I love a fun thong. This is so not on brand. Love a fun thong. But it can be funny. Like we can go around, give each other, the thong and there we go. And you'll lose it. Yeah, exactly. It will be used. It's a useful

present. But that's, that's going to be, and we still get the same process of we're all going to be sat around opening up the presents together. We get a better return on investment because we have the exact same amount of time. We're just spending a lot less money. It's not just presents, you know, like Christmas comes up and everyone is like, we need a Christmas dinner. And you're like, I'm literally doing like three Christmas dinners this week. Like I, this is, this is a ridiculous amount of money and this is before we even get into presents. So we started doing like we did a Christmas dinner. We're like the girls as well. We did like a Christmas dinner at home, you know. And it makes a big difference. Huge difference. Everyone bring a like everyone bring a dish. Yeah. I mean the phrase a

Prosecco lifestyle on a champagne budget. No champagne lifestyle on a Prosecco budget. Yes. Like that springs to mind. And also if anything is, I don't know if you agree. You meet people who actually like fucking loaded and they're in the scruffiest clothes you've ever seen they're driving their 2007 Toyota like people who have a lot of money and I'm thinking of a specific example that I cannot share right now but like who are you trying to prove your wealth to remember that I agree I agree and yeah I just think hopefully you guys are taking this in because I think Christmas is the biggest time of year where people feel that financial burden and feel really out of place or feel really stressed. And I feel like Christmas is one day.

We've got 364 days left to think about. I think that's how many days are in the year. And like you don't, I don't know, like you enjoy something so much more if you're not in the back of your mind like this is really expensive. Yeah, yeah. Like, you know, if I go out for dinner, it's my third dinner in the week of doing my Christmas dinner rounds and I'm like, this is another 50 pounds. like, oh, this food suddenly doesn't taste as nice.

Whereas like when we all went around to my friend's house, I think she cooked, but we all chipped in like money for the ingredients. And it can literally be like, it can be like 15 quid. Exactly. And we're all sat around that table enjoying ourselves more than we would at a dinner table, a restaurant because we're like, no one is worrying about the bill coming at the end of the night.

No one's trying to pay for their own bill or trying to do them at. It's just, it's chill. I can have a drink. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. The classic. Yeah, and it's hard, it's hard because I'm like, oh, no, fair enough. Like, you know, you're counting your money. Fair enough, but it takes that away from it.

It takes the pressure off. You can buy a bottle of Prosecco from the corner shop. For like six, seven pounds and you're sorted. And not 27 pounds in a restaurant. More than that, I went to a restaurant the other day, and the house wine was 42 pounds. Oh. I was like, this venue is not giving 42 pound bottle of wine,

but you just have to. rip in and grear it don't you sometimes yeah and you don't want to be like the awkward you like you don't you don't want to be like i'm just going to drink water instead yeah yeah so that weekly budget yeah yeah the weekly budget oh this is a really good community question that i'd really like to cover tips to get ahead and grow credit rating after financial sidestep divorce and solo parenting oh i feel you i do and i feel like there's a lot of people in this position because I've worked with a lot of clients. But so when it comes to rebuilding our credit score,

one thing that really annoys to be about the UK is that one way to improve your credit score is to get a credit card. But before that, number one is to get yourself on the electoral role. So if you have moved out from a partner's or you've moved address, make sure you registered on the electoral role, which is basically just registering to vote because that shows lenders that you live at a set address. So I think that's the first step. Second step is, annoyingly, for some people,

they will have to maybe apply for a credit card to rebuild that credit score. And the reason why it helps rebuild it is because of the fact that it show lenders that if you're using it responsibly, that you can use credit wisely. And so because of that, your credit score increases. So by doing so, you need to set yourself a limit. So I would say, if you can, only spend a small amount of money on that. So when I got my very first credit card, I was only spending £100 a month on car petrol. And that meant I knew I could pay it off in full every single month.

The only way your credit score will increase is if you're using it responsibly and ideally paying off in full. That's really, really, really a big one. And then to also look at your credit utilisation. So what I mean by that is if you have maybe checked your credit score and you're thinking, why is it so low? You want to see how much credit are you using out of the available credit their lending. you. So what I mean by that is you want to aim for around 25 to 35% utilization, which means if the bank has given me £1,000 a month on my credit card, I shouldn't really be exceeding around $250 to $3.50 each month because again, it shows the lenders that even though they've

given me a certain amount of money, I'm able to use it responsibly. So I'm not using the bank's money and going, you know what, let's just go to Thailand, let's go to Bali. I'm actually thinking, okay, I'm going to use this. Why is it? And they love that. And so they do reward for that. So yeah, I think that's really important. But there are some new developments when when it comes to our credit scores, which is really exciting. I don't know when, but they are looking at putting rental payments as a way to also track your credit scoreworthiness. So I think that's a really big change that will be happening soon, hopefully. So keep your eye it peeled. So if you ask someone that pays rent on a regular basis and is actually able to do so, again, hopefully we

actually be able to reap some benefits of that. Another thing is that some bills, if you don't have any bills in your name at the moment. Put some bills in your name because again that also shows that you can pay your bills on time, contribute to your credit score. That can be in some cases, maybe phone contracts, heating, electricity, all that stuff. So yeah, definitely do it as well if you can. I completely agree with you. It's really annoying that to build it, a credit card is like probably one of the best ways to do. But in the hands of some people, a credit card, like you can get a credit card at 18. And I know a lot of people who did get a credit card at 18 and they, wouldn't it was not a

not a good idea because often these limits will be set to actually above your monthly salary exactly this and it's because I think it's really important for people to know that you they kind of would like it if you don't pay this off in full 100% that's how they make money yeah

yeah so they they if you pay that off in full every month they're not making any money so like they're making money by you going instead so they will sessly incentivise that by giving you a a limit that is more than your monthly salary. So even if you put everything on there,

you wouldn't be able to pay off if you went up to your limit. So I guess for people like that, or like especially young people, I've heard people recommend before, put in like your mobile phone contract. Yes. On your name instead of, say, like your parents, that can like help.

Definitely. Yeah. So like I mentioned, yeah, for mobile phone contract, not in all instances with contribute to your credit score, but depending on the, provide it it can do and then again if you have moved out bills so like we mentioned council tax bit like heating electricity all of the bills I'm not going to list of because it

made me sad because we paid so much in the UK but yeah just adding some bills and your name can really re-help and so yeah do that as well if you can yeah and pay your parking ticket yes we'll do two more community questions and then the final question that we've been asking all our guests Okay. So what can I do in my late 20s to get ahead and set myself for financial security and freedom? Oh, good one. So if you're already saving, then I would look at investing. Obviously, this is not financial advice, just caveatting that.

But like we mentioned, there's so many ways you can invest now without even have to lift a finger. So invest if you can. But we haven't touched this on the podcast today. But also looking at your pension, I feel like our pension pot is something that us as young people really often overlook. And the reason why it's such a great thing to look at and utilize more of is because one, it's invested. Two, we have our employers, well, not ours because I'm self-employed, but you guys have your employer's contributions, which is free money. And three, it's tax-free. So if you can, you can maximize your pension. And this goes for people that also don't feel

comfortable with investing in the stock market themselves. So you can maximize your pension by increasing your contribution. That's great because that's more money going into your pension. pot for when you retire and then also for a lot of employers now they will match that so that's even more free money so i think that's really important tip number two is to look at where your pension's currently being invested so if you're maybe in your early to mid-20s even early 30s or you don't see yourself retiring for a number of years more often than not our pension fund is put into a default fund which is normally a risk level of three out of five if you're not retiring for a while you might want to increase your risk appetite

because again, we're not, we're not, well for me, I'm not retiring for like another 40 years. It might even increase in the future. I can, I guess, take on more risk, is what I'm saying. So, again, this is up to you and I would seek financial advice if you can. But if you can afford to take on more risk, you might want to switch up your pension fund because then it means it's working harder for you

if it's aggressively growing in your formative years compared to when you're closer to retirement. So those are two ways that you can really look at maximising your pension that, again, people don't often think about. that's really, really useful information that I did not know that I'm going to look into because my poor NHS money is just sat there. Yeah. Final community question that we've got is what are your thoughts on increasing income

versus decreasing spending as a way to save, create wealth, which I think is super interesting because you're self-employed. Good question. So, funnily enough, when I first started all things money, I used to say, cut your expenses, cut your expenses, cut your expenses. but I think for the majority of us, we have all cut everything we can cut. There might be some people that are paying for four different subscriptions

they don't need, but I'm not talking to those people. I think a lot of us have cut a lot because of the cost of living. We actually just can't afford many luxuries, which is a shame because we work so hard for our money. So I think the next thing is to see if we could increase our income. That is the best way to grow wealth. So what does that look like? That looks like negotiating higher salaries if we can or job hopping.

I know the job market's really hard, but for some people they can jump to another job and get like, I've heard of people getting like 30 to 40 grand pay rises just for moving jobs, which is insane. And then secondly, seeing if there's ways you can take on a side hustle and that's not necessarily meaning a business. I feel like lots of people always think, oh, that's another person telling me to start a business and I'm not saying that because it does take a lot of time to start a business,

but a side hustle that can look like selling things on Vintid, doing consumer research, taking part in surveys, getting paid to search the internet. There's so many ways of making extra cash in that way that is often overlooked as well. And so, yeah, thirdly, if you can increase your income by creating a natural business, amazing. So, yeah, there's just ways, there's so many ways now where you can make money that doesn't just necessarily lie on your full-time job. And I always, always encourage to multiply your streams of income because our jobs aren't guaranteed anyway.

There's been so many redundancies made this year that it's absolutely crazy. So we're learning that job security is pretty much a myth in some cases. if you can diversify your streams of income it's really important to do so and obviously the extra way you can do it is by investing in the stock market as well yeah i think when you say like start a business it's just like so so so so intimidating but i think the best advice that anyone gave me was don't take what is obvious to you as obvious to everyone else yes and i'm sure like that'll resonate with you in terms of financial literacy like you've spent so much time research of financial literacy this is like your first language yeah whereas to so many other people this

is like they are not familiar with it. This is a foreign tongue. Like this is not, they don't know anything. You know, even when like I'm saying things like, oh, do you mind just breaking that down for people who don't understand? Because that was like,

that was me not long ago. So true. And I think that it's really important for listeners listening. If you are interested in growing your income, is recognising that we all have things that are on. obvious to us but aren't obvious to everyone else. And when we say starting a business, it sounds really intimidating, but that could just mean using the knowledge that you have to earn a little bit more money.

Yeah. And people have such good knowledge. I always joke that I've never, I've never been a corporate girly, right? But when people are telling me what they do at work and the skills they must have acquired, I'm thinking you can make bank. Yeah. By, you know, freelancing on the side. And again, that doesn't have to be a whole business.

That can just be a side hustle. Yes, I know a lot of people are time poor, but for some people that are scrolling on TikTok or scrolling on ASOS, you actually realise some other times you can actually be like putting in the graft and maybe earning the extra couple of hundreds, if not thousands, because it's crazy.

The money people are earning now. Like we are constantly, for this podcast, we are constantly looking for more freelancers for like researchers. Like we've employed like journalists to do research for us, thumbnail designers, editors. like there are people who are looking for help. Yes.

The internet is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful place. Markets like Fiver or like there's, there's lots of job markets online where you can do a couple of extra hours of work a week, freelance, time that you might be spending scrolling.

Yep. That you can maybe earn a little bit of income. They're going to do so much more for your bank balance than canceling your Netflix subscription. I can't remember. Backs. Yeah, like I can't remember someone said like the, someone did a calculation about canceling the Netflix subscription and whatever,

because boomers were saying cancel your Netflix subscription and you'll be able to afford a house or don't have your weekly take out coffee and you'll be able to afford a house. And it's such a load of shit. That is not going to make up the difference when they were buying their £30,000 house, three bedroom detached houses. Like Netflix, canceling your Netflix, not getting your weekly coffee. He's not going to do that. And that's why, and I'd say this at all of my events,

increase in your income is the biggest way of getting property led to find financial freedom to get financial security you need to be looking at ways of increasing that income and sometimes that just means becoming creative yeah yeah no completely agree completely agree that has been an absolutely wonderful conversation before you go there's a final question that we've been asking all the guests ola what do you wish every woman knew by the time she was 25 invest in the stock market. I hate to be that person, but honestly,

I always joke that if I knew how to invest the minute I walked out the womb, I would have. And that would have done, oh, would have done so much to my deposit, like future house deposit.

That would have done a lot for just getting through university. That would have paid for my driving lessons. So yeah, if you can start investing now, please, please do. Do it wisely, do it responsibly. See it as a long-term game. Like, I'm envious for my sister investing now.

So yeah, genuinely, genuinely start if you can afford to do so. If not, look at your pension as another means of investing as well. Love that. Thank you so, so so much for coming on the podcast. Before the viewers listening, where can they find you? Where can you find me? So you can find me online on TikTok and Instagram at All Things Money underscore. I've got a podcast as well, which is the All Things Money podcast.

We're on YouTube under the same handle. And yeah, I do one-to-ones. I have a range of e-books on my website, which is at W. www.allthingsandmoney.com. Perfect. Thank you so, so much. Thank you for having me.