Should I Delete That? - Money money money with Makala Green

Episode Date: November 28, 2022

This week, the girls chat to financial planner and money expert Makala Green. Makala is the author of The Money Edit, a fantastic book that helps its readers feel more confident and in control when it comes to their finances. Em and Alex take this opportunity to pick Makala's brain about the things they've always wanted to know but were too scared to ask. They discuss debt and mortgages and recessions, and Makala shares a breakdown of what a pension actually is...Follow Makala on Instagram @thewealthcheckBuy Makala's book The Money EditEm's Alex has been reading Hate Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes us Despise One AnotherFollow us on Instagram @shouldideletethatEmail us at [e-mail] & edited by Daisy GrantMusic by Alex Andrew Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Yeah, you're just paying interest. You're just paying your interest. Wow, you're not making a dent in there. Yeah, you're not making any debt. Hiya. Hello. Good morning. So, I annoy myself. Oh no, sometimes the noises come out of the mouth and I'm just like, I am such an irritant.

I annoy myself too because it's 4 o'clock and I just said to you good morning. So we've not kicked this off on a good date. I spend my life saluting magpies because you know if you see a magpie on its own, you have to salute it for luck. And I literally, I get myself, first of all, I did it the other day. And I meant to put it, I meant to mention it. But I went to salute a magpie the day, but I was holding my phone in my hand because I was on FaceTime to Georgia and I whacked myself in the head with my phone.

This guy was looking at me like, why? But I always get confused. And then I have to apologise to the magpie. I'm like, good morning, Mr. Magpie. And then I'm like, oh, fuck, it's past 12. I've got turned back around. They'll be like, sorry, good afternoon. That's, I meant good afternoon.

I just hope he doesn't get annoyed with me. So far so good. People, like my family will kisses my, kiss, it blows kisses to magpies as well. But it's friendly. We're saluted. We know, it's my military background. Not my military background.

My family's military background. My military background. Lowe. My military background. Heaven's in the army. Actually, you know what? I don't think I'd be that. bad. I wouldn't be any good in the Navy. No. I think I'd be all right just in, and I wouldn't

be all right in the Air Force necessarily. If you can hear a drill in the back on this building, what going on by the way? Yeah, I'm not allowed to fly because I'm my shit eyes and I just personally don't like the water. But land stuff, I'm a good shot. I'm, I'm all right. I mean, not in my current pregnant state, but I'm all right, kind of on my feet. Yeah. Yeah, you're quite resilient. Yeah, I think I'd be all right. yeah yeah so something to consider i look good in camouflage i've done one of those like week long boot camps no oh fucking like like a diet one yeah fucking grim oh so great they make you wear camouflage no no no you just but they're all in camouflage and they're like screaming at you and it's horrific

what truly one of the worst experiences they're screaming at you and you you have to do like this i don't know burpees challenge or sit-ups or sprints challenge and if anyone stops then you have to restart so there were people just like not wanting to stop and like just being sick and it was like all encouraged like yeah like i think you'd be quite good in the army with that in that you're you'd be so scared of like letting your gap like your team down that you'd just be so good you wouldn't be good in the traditional sense it's not through like your own valour or determination no merely you're like desperation to like keep everyone else mental resilience not my strong point so i think I struggle, but. But you never leave a man behind. Like, you're, you epitomized that.

Actually, I actually think you would leave me behind. I actually, I've changed my mind. If it was just me and you, and you didn't know anyone was looking, and I've been like shot in the leg and I'm just, I'm just, I think you'd leave you. I'm not, I don't think you'd leave me, but I can't put all my money on the fact that you'd stay. Oh my God, that hurts because I would put my, I would put everything I own on the fact that you wouldn't leave me. Of course I wouldn't leave you. And of course I wouldn't leave you, you bitch. Well, you might now.

No, now I. Yeah, well, yeah, my loyalty has been tested now. I just think it would depend. I just think it would depend. On what? If you really knew that no one would know. Okay, love that. Okay, so you think I'm good, but like not deep, deep down, like surface level good.

No, I ought, actually, to be honest, now I'm. I'm picturing it. I'm picturing it at the other end. And I think you'd be like, no, I'll just die too. Like, I imagine yourself shooting you and you're shooting yourself in the leg and just lying with me. in for a penny and for a pound yeah i'll be like i'll don't do this go save yourself oh yeah would you save yourself if i told you to i don't know but i think about this a lot because um there was a climbing a climbing duo two men that climbed i can't remember what mountain it was but basically they were attached by a rope and one of them fell off a ledge and the other one was still on the ledge touching the void yes touching the void yes and he had to cut the rope yeah he had to cut the rope yeah there was a lot of controversy around it

but he was like of course I cut the rope like if I didn't cut the rope both of us would die so yeah so yeah if you haven't seen touching the void if you're listening if you're listening and you haven't seen it basically I if you didn't cut the rope then he'd both die but if you did cut the rope then he was just killing his mate

yeah and he cut the rope and then defying all the odds the mate didn't die and dragged his like mutilated carcass all the way back to base camp where they were basically they'd left him haven't they yeah yeah just about to And then they got there, and it awkward as fuck. And he had broken, like, his leg to fuck.

It was, like, shot to fuck his leg. And he managed to get, like, trek a hell of a way to get back. But I also think about a French film is something called Avalanche or something. I think about this a lot. So it's a family. It's a man and a wife and their two kids, and they're a ski resort on holiday. And they're sat at a table just eating. And an avalanche comes in.

And all of us, like, super sudden, super quick. and he see the father sees his avalanche coming and his two kids and his wife are at the table with him and he picks up his phone and runs and it turns out that the avalanche was just basically like cloud rather than actual snow so it was not and the whole rest of the film then is them trying to come to the terms with the fact that what they just witnessed

like his wife just saw that he literally in the face of this danger like this direct threat to his family he picks up his phone and runs and just leaves them behind. Oh my God. It's haunted me that. Seeing that, you should watch it.

It's a really good film. Divorce him. You did, like, immediately divorce him. Well, I won't spoil the end of the film, but it's interesting. Oh my God. No, I've really changed my mind. You don't have that in you. You're much too nice a person.

You'd stay. And I think you'd stay much to your own detriment. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'd like to think I would. Force majeure, it's called. It's a really good film, really good film. Jesus, that's horrific.

That would be, that's literally. about as bad as it get. That's the biggest it I've ever heard in my life. Oh my God, that isn't. Yeah, that's the biggest ick. That is literally the ickyest of all icks. You can't get it more icky than that. Your phone. Your phone

with your two children sat in front of you. And it was a, what, you're running from a cloud. You lose it. Literally, how embarrassing. How embarrassing? How embarrassing? I know. Shame on him. Morty. Shame on that fictional character. I know. Oh, it's not even a true story. No, no. It's a film.

I don't think it's a true story, no Probably, there will have been throughout history Yeah, yeah, they will Yeah, I really feel like I've done you really dirty And I've got like massive guilt about it now Because I don't think you would go Well, that's okay

You know, you're entitled to your own opinion I have to wait and see now I'll just carry it with me and Yeah And I just have to hope to God This never happens now Because it'd be like, well I would have stayed But you didn't expect me to so

go die see yeah happy rotting hopefully it's heaven oh god it won't be I'll be straight down the stairs talk about this all the time with Alex because obviously there's no my Alex

he'll be going straight up like no questions asked see ya yeah yeah yeah like pearly gates it'll be glorious and I just I'm not confident yeah going down to a blaze I think so yeah

yeah it'll be sad it'll be like when you're a shopping centre and one of you's going one way up the escalator. Yeah. Have a nice infinity, Alex. Good bad awkward, hit me. Good pleas from you. No, you hit me.

Write the face. Do you know what? It's so annoying. I don't know if you do this too, but I have to write down my good bads and awkwards because I'm so forgetful. I do too, except I forgot to do it this week. Same.

And I still got the drip stick there. Oh, ew. Oh, yeah. Do you know, I was lying in bed at around 3 a.m. And I had all my good bads and awkwards altogether. and I was like, I need to write this down, but I don't want to get my phone out. So I tried to come up with a way, like a puzzle, to remember them all. And I obviously can't remember, but the awkward stands out.

But anyway, so the good and the bad are just like, generically, what's going on. And I was like, I had another good that wasn't this good because I don't want to be like talking about my egg freezing all the time, like every single episode and it's like boring, boring but the real the real genuine good is that I am hopefully I think making it to a collection stage on Saturday it's Thursday now and I've just been very anxious this whole time about not get because you hear so many stories and you know everyone's experience is different with responding to treatment to medication and stuff so I'm booked in for the the collection on Saturday and I'm just so happy to make it there I don't know the outcome obviously but I just

I'm pleased to get to this point because I was just scared of not going to it like I've known so many people who have like they take the drugs and like bodies don't respond your ovaries don't respond and blah blah blah so I am very happy about that that is definitely my good good yes I'm so happy but my bad is that I just don't get right

I've been having to drink more water I've been told drink more water it's so interesting because when she puts the probe up and oh my God I've had so many probes up my fanny at this point. I literally walk in and just take my knickers off at the doctors now. But they've taken wet knickers. Literally yeah. And then and then you can see and she saw a bit of fluid like a one of the first scans and she was like you're dehydrated. You need to drink more. It's really cool. You can like see the fluid and it's not cool but you know it's interesting.

So I've been trying to drink more but like how the I don't understand how people do it. It's extremely uncomfortable. It's unpleasant. Going to the toilet when you're out and about is horrible. going to the toilet, it's a, it's a pain in my ass. Because they don't have that much, particularly in the desert. You know, they've got to go by on like minimal water supplies. You're like a with an old raisin. You'd be fine. You'd be fine?

I really would. I really would. You never think that's really blowing me, well, this is what I found quite fascinating about this. So we've spent quite a lot of time together this week. And you've obviously been drinking a lot more water. And I know that for two reasons. I know that one because you've told me and two because you've had to, to go to the loot a lot and I mean a lot and that's like yeah like it's kind of gone a weird amount

like I would if you're saying you were drinking those water I'd have been like this is weird you've gone so many times yeah but the really fascinating thing about the whole thing is I haven't seen you drink any water at all I swear I am constantly drinking like non-stop I feel like a water fountain I believe you but I I haven't seen it well now I'm dying myself but I I've got some advice. What? You know I love my chili bottle. My big litre big one.

So you just know you do at least two of those a day. Yeah, but that doesn't solve a weird problem. No, but that's just a training exercise. But like, oh, I despise public toilets so much. I despise them. Exactly. You just, know, you are training yourself to need to wee less. Like, genuinely take this, like, one of your little boot camps

and you've got a big, scary army soldier telling you. But it's not possible. It's like my blood is absolutely. And I go to the loop and it's like, it's like a racehorse. Like, it's like, and it lasts for about the stream is like a minute long. Dave heard it through the day and was like, are you okay? And I was like, no, I don't know what's going on. It's just like, whsh, I've never known anything like it.

My Alex is like that, but I have a really big ladder. I don't want to show off and I can make it go for ages. And to prepare my pelvic floor for what's about to happen, I make myself like all the triggers, you know, and like you hear a running tap or like you get in the shower and like, you you do we when you get the shower and water and you make you pee. I've literally, I will not let myself. I deliberately go into the bathroom when I need away and like run the tap and like don't let myself away.

Yeah, I'm like pushing it out. Mind game. See, that isn't, that's definitely mental. I'm not good with the mental side of that. Like if I'm in bed and I'm like, don't think about the toilet, then I'm going to have to go before I go to bed, before I go to sleep. Oh no. Even if I don't need it.

Yeah, that's like, that's like, that's my bread and butter, I'm just like, nah. That's good. That'll serve you well. that. Yeah. I hope so. It's something I'm working for that. What's your good or bad? Or awkward? My good. I don't think I have a bad. I can't remember. My good. I'm actually feeling really good just in my life. Excellent. I mean, fuck me. My mood swings. Those would be the bad. That would be the bad. Like, I'm not, yeah, it's not, it's not appropriate. Like, it's just irrational. It's just, I know I'm around. As I'm doing, I'm like, this is irrational. This is a rational. Yesterday, I tripped over a cardboard box, which had one of my deliveries in it. I was so angry about it. I picked it up. It was empty.

And I was like, I just like, I can't live like this. And I threw it down the corridor. And then it like bounced off the front door. And then it was even more in the way. And I was like, like, marched over and like trampled it. And then Alex, like, are you okay? I was like, don't talk to me. I just need to be alone.

I know this is all my fault. And this is completely irrational, but I need to be alone. And he's like, okay, well, I love you. Do you want a glass of squash? I was like, no. I was just so bad But I've said it to you Like how many things have I bought to you this week

That are just like It's so irrational But I'm like just in bad moods with people or things I can't imagine though It's not fair Hormones are so so powerful What is it when you're pregnant Which hormone do you have most

Like what is it Progest Progest drone? Oh that's not good Because that's the one that gives you PMT The Progesterone Isn't it? Yes

makes you very breathless. Yeah. So I'm simultaneously out of breath and annoyed, which is two things that actually, kind of is at odds with how I normally am as a person. Normally I'm quite, you know, I'm quite a happy person with good cardiovascular fitness.

But these days I'm just, I don't even know myself. You've gone down hell. I'm honestly, I'm a horror. My mom did say that she was like that during her pregnancy. She said it was just like nine month PMT. So I'm hoping that's all it is.

I'm just a horror. And I just feel like I just have to put out an apology to everybody that I, come into contact with and actually everything like the like just inanimate like that cardboard box i flattened that thing out i trampled all over it you've been very nice to me it's just gone yeah yeah yeah weird weird i have yeah and we both had a very hormonal time as someone pointed out like we should be really at each other's strokes about now someone messaged being like you both chose like the wrong time to do this live show Oh my God, that's all good.

Oh, that's my good. Yeah, that's the good. We, welcome back out. We sold out the live show in an hour and we're really sorry. Do you know what? Because now we went from Jubilant to like horrific guilt. Talking about mood swings. Very quickly.

This was in my head last night and I, my cousin's called Liv. So Liv, L-I-V, live show. Love, love. So I was thinking about my cousin Liv to remember that show as my good, because that's how fucking forgetful I am, and I forgot anyway. Yes, mood swing, we went, we are, I said, like, we've got whiplash from our emotions at night because we went from scared and anxious that nothing was going to sell to pure joy, like, I couldn't, literally couldn't believe it, that they all sold, to then crippling guilt.

I was like, oh, fuck, oh, fuck, when we got loads of people saying we didn't get tickets, and I was like, oh my God, this kills me. And they're people that supported us and that they really wanted to come and they didn't get a ticket. So I don't know. I don't know the answer. We're just, we're idiots for not getting a bit of a big venue. Yes.

We're doing more in different places. And like, yeah, we'll have a bigger venue and we are going to do it again. And we're really, really, really sorry. But if it's any consolation, it's because we 100% didn't back ourselves to try for bigger. I know. Like we had to be, because imagine, guys, imagine how to hire it would have been if none of you'd want to go. So we had to, you know, we had to come. have the balance that.

So we're really sorry and we'll do it again. Shilling tickets to the very last minute and then we just had to like fill it with people from the outside. You know, it's not good for our spirits. Yeah. No. So that was the reason for the small menu but

I'm really sorry because we didn't even like, I don't know, we didn't even announce a time. We didn't give pre-warning. So like if someone just didn't get on their phone within the hour, they were gone. Pitches. What were we thinking? We just.

It's fucking worst. So maybe it's not a good. Okay, that's my bad. actually. But hopefully it's good for the people that got tickets. Yeah. I'm really sorry for everyone else. I have two actual back.

No, I have one bad and one awkward, but both are all good. I'm just going to give them both as awkwards because they're not really that bad. So I said my friend yesterday and she was, she popped over, not to see me, she popped over for a work meeting with Alex. And I know her like well, but she's not like me and you. She's not like really, really good friends. She's just like, she's a fan. She's really nice.

Anyway, she's in the house. And I was eating these, I've been into them recently, like these mini, salted original pretzel type crisp things. Yeah, they're pretty good, but they should come with a health warning that they don't currently have. So I was eating one, started choking. I was like, oh God, how embarrassing.

So then I tried to like, whatever. And so I thought I got away with it. And then I was like, oh my God. And I realized, you know, I had that stupid broken jaw last year. And my sinuses are still a bit funky. And I'm guessing it had to do something to do with that.

But I was sitting there and I was like, oh my god there's something stuck between my nose and my mouth like basically like and i'm like this is bad like somewhere in my sinuses right now is a pretzel and i'm just like trying to say goodbye to her and she's like so i do want to go for a walk and oh yeah we must get the guys together and i was like yep sounds really good anyway got to run got i've got to call got to go got to go and she was like okay blah and i was like literally like i just left it downstairs i was like i've got to go i went upstairs and i blew my nose and what came out my nose half a fucking pretzel wow Oh my God. How? How?

I don't even know. I'm guessing I'm just, it must be broken jaw related because that didn't feel normal. It, like, it didn't feel like that just happened. I mean, my sister, my sister once got, and my sister's wild, wonky as hell. She can get milk out of her tear ducts. Yeah, this, this gets me.

Yeah, my mom got a bit of spaghetti out of nose once. So, you know, maybe. So what, the clerks and girls just have like a big gaping hole between their, like, mouth and nose. would appear so gross would appear so but also what a party trick thank you very much yeah

that's something I don't know I'll practice doing it deliberately anyway that wasn't even my awkward I have another awkward but I want to hear your awkward first my awkward isn't even shouldn't even be that awkward but for me it was deeply uncomfortable I was it was actually

we'd recorded that day I went home I was going upstairs at the train station and we were putting the live show live that night tickets live and we were trying to sort it and I was in a total world of my own like I could have been anywhere like I wouldn't know

and I just walked up the stairs I obviously not paying attention to my surroundings at all and obviously in London you always walk on the right side No you stand on the right you walk on the left but if you're doing stairs

you walk on the right no wonder we get confused I don't know basically you follow the stream of people one way and you let other people come down the other way I I somehow, which is not like me because I'm such a sheep.

I'm such a follower. Like, not a leader in any sense, but also probably like me because I'm a bit stupid. But I didn't follow the stream. And they were all going right up the stairs. And I went left, but I didn't know this at the time. And then I was on my phone. I was so immersed in this, whatever we were doing.

I was trying to get, I don't know. And I got to the stairs and I just looked up. And there was like a queue of people waiting in front of me just staring at me. Like, and two men at the front with their briefcases just staring. at me and I was like, oh my God, as a people pleaser, right? And as someone who is, like, prides myself on being polite, I was like, I am fucking mortified. I've just walked all the way up the stairs

and they've had to wait for me, this queue of people, have had to wait for me at the top while I just casually meanded up on my phone, not even in the room. Millennials. I was so ashamed of myself. Do you know what you should have done when you got some talk? I felt awful.

Should have apologised. Just we didzely. I did. No, I literally, I was like, oh my God. In French. Oh, yeah. No, I'll always do it in another language. Whenever I get embarrassed, I'm doing anything in London. If I ever have to take, like, photos for work, or like photos of myself or whatever, I just pretend I'm Spanish, which isn't foolproof because I don't speak any Spanish, so I just say, see a lot. But that's what you need to do. You can utilise your second language. Yeah. Because, you know, everyone hates tourists that anyway. That is a good idea. I should have done that. Yeah, I'm not awful.

Can't be with any other vash Fasch Pumboos I can't think of Pumboos That would be me of the job We're in a big little text We'll play

So yeah that really Just really hurt inside I don't know It kind of dented my identity A little bit Dented how I think of myself There's nothing more embarrassing Than a Londoner to like

Go wrong on the tube I know I know And when you know And people don't like people who do that in luck you know it's because if you just want to get around if you did that in front of me i'd be like i know what is this shit i'd probably throw something at you i was embarrassed i'd push you back down the stairs no i wasn't i wouldn't there you go um what's your other awkward

well my other awkward i went to the hospital the day to go and just the like it always sounds more dramatic everyone's oh my god you're okay i'm like yeah you just have to go when you're pregnant occasionally anyway you have to go peering a cup right and i went and they always they meet you with a cup. They're just like, you have to wear in the cup and you get there. And they just test you weight and you're like, okay. And normally it's fine. And what they gave me at the beginning, which I hear is standard, if they give you like a cup, like a, like a pot and a cup. So you're in the pot and then you can pour the pot. Because also bear in mind your belly is getting a bit bigger. So you can't head down and aim into the tiny little

pot, you know, so you need to wee into the cup so you can pour it into the pot. That makes sense. It's difficult at the best of times. They didn't give me a pot this time. They just gave me a No, they didn't give me a cup, they just gave me a pot. And I can't see underneath my tummy anymore. So I was like looking for my wee hole and I couldn't see it. So I sat down and you know, this is so intimate. But you know when you start weeing sometimes when you're a bit desperate and it doesn't come out as a short jet, it just comes out a bit wonkily. Obviously you've got your label on the on the pot.

So I was like, I can't put my hand into a wonky stream because it'll get it on the label and then I'll have to hand the label in covered in peat. like the poor midwife taking that like that's just so unfair I'm not going to do that to it so I'll wait for the jet to straight now I waited it didn't straight now and before I knew it I'd run out of way oh no oh my god and it was like well and it takes a lot to embarrass me to be honest but it was one of the first times of my life right one of the times most recently where I've been like this is really embarrassing like because I'm going to have to come back out where the midwife waits for you because they wait for you to take your wee

so they can test it and I'm going to have to come out with an empty jar and be like I missed or what was I going to say like no one's going to believe someone in third trimester of pregnancy didn't need a wee like that's just but that's what I went

with so I came out and I was like oh stage right one I didn't need one like I was in the need one like I was in the blue flushed so she obviously like obviously I had a week so I was like okay and then and then I I just had to sit in the waiting room and drink loads of water.

I was literally back and bag and back until I could get enough to go again. I was just like, I was really like accessing my options. Like, what can I, what can I do? Did it come up straight next time? I was just a bit sort of more controlled with it. I think that's where my training's coming quite useful is. I've got quite good stop start now. Okay.

I was just letting little bits out. It is actually really hard to do that though, isn't it? I had to do one recently. And I was a shame to say that I was like, I actually am not quite sure where I'm, where I should be placing this. I feel like if it was coming out of my actual vagina, I'd know where to place. But we, I'm a little bit confused. I think I need to have a look at anatomy again. But do you know what I mean?

Yeah, it's between the wee hole, no, between the vagina and the, I'm going to just say, and the top. And we have three holes. Yeah, I think it's between like, like upper bit. towards the clip basically or like the hood the hood yeah right down in the hood right okay but not in the hood it's like just it's up further okay anyway you're supposed to get it for midstream because it doesn't I don't think it's very oh oh I didn't know that it's not open though is it so it's like so it will come out wonky unless you're really desperate yeah and like it also and also like sometimes if you sit like wonkily on the loose it sometimes you have to get like sometimes you have to like

pull one bum cheek out to like make sure they're both like even keel so that they're were you straight but then you know you haven't got that much time do you ever have that when because obviously well not obviously but like I only squat in public spaces because I can't sit on toilet seat but sometimes when you squat and you can't be 100% sure you can't 100% predict which direction it's going to go in

and then you're like oh fuck I'm pissing all over the floor you piss all over the floor I have to be quite careful yeah I've got to really squat where it's great I have to really squat all the way of over. Are you weeing on the, when you say the floor? Not floor, but like, you know, it'll like fly off in a direction you just didn't expect. What direction? I don't know, like in front and to the side or something, you know? Generally when it's not like a heavy one, when it's just like,

oh, a little tinkle, you know? Interesting. No. Sorry everyone. Okay. There you go. I'll try it next time. Is it just me? I think I'm just getting too comfortable. Maybe. No, I mean, I've, you're on the seat sometimes. It happened the other day when I squatted and I weed on the seat again. As long as you clean it up, it's fine. It's not gone on to the floor though. Do you mean to tell me we've been blaming men this whole time? I once fully pissed on the floor.

Total accident, squatting, fully, fully, fully pissed on the floor. It was embarrassing. You just missed? Completely missed, yeah. How the target's so big. I've watched you kick a football into a hole the size of a football. How have you missed a tiny pea stream into a huge bucket? Something's, there's a sign-ups, it's the way that I always get shit up, dog shit on my hands when I pick up Betty's poo.

I don't know. I want to watch you eat. There's something not quite right. I don't know. Something missing. Dispractor. I don't think it's to do with your brain. I think it, yeah, maybe, but like, dysprax me with the vagina.

Is that a thing? There's now. Let's research. Anyway, we have a guest for you. Oh my God, we do. Such surprise. Yeah. I know.

A guest. Oh, my God. Yes, we did. we got one. So this week we spoke to a financial expert, Michaela Green, who's the author of the book called The Money Edit. And given the fact that it was announced that last week the UK was going into a recession, we thought it would be a really good time to talk to somebody who kind of really understood the economy and what we could do as individuals basically to better understand this and look after our money at a really confusing and terrifying time. So I put a

question box out on my Instagram and the questions that we put to Michaela were all from my followers from you guys. We did our very best, but there were such, so many questions and such good ones. I was reading this. I don't know this. I don't know this. I don't know this. And we learned so much from Michaela, but we did not get everything that we wanted to across. So hopefully she's going to come back. We definitely need a part two. There was so much to ask her. But I do feel like we covered a hell of a lot in this episode and I ended up far more knowledgeable than I was at the beginning of the episode. Did you? Yeah, definitely. And there's proper like tangible advice. Right. And it was the first time actually, you know, I don't know about you, but I don't really

have anybody that I can ask these questions to without feeling like a fucking moron. Yeah. So it was really nice to be able to just lay it out and be like, I just don't, we don't understand this. And she really explained it in a way that didn't make us sound stupid. So we learned loads and we know that you guys will benefit from it as well just because as we talk about in this episode, Nobody ever gives any financial education at school. So so many of us completely in the dark. And yeah, her advice was brilliant and super practical on debt, mortgages, how to buy, whether to buy, how to save. Savings.

Savings. It was excellent. So, yeah, okay, let's let her speak. Enjoy this episode, guys. Hi, Michaela. Hi. Thank you so much for being here. We were just saying before we started that we, I personally, we both have.

many questions. We don't know where to start. We don't know where to start. But I did put a question out on my Instagram yesterday and I was genuinely flawed by how many questions I have. And I think we sent you a snippet of how many there were yesterday. Um, load. But I have categorized them. So we had questions of all kinds come in about pensions, investments, savings, general advice for cost of living, budgeting. Debt. Yeah. You name it. We got it. And I'm so happy that you're here, to go through some of the questions that we had. But before we did that, I'd love it if you could just tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into this and yeah, and about the book that you had, the book that you wrote. And I suspect we're going to

need it. Absolutely. That is a big yes. So yeah, my name is Michaela Green. I'm an author of the money edit, which we've got here today. And also a financial expert. So I've been in the industry 18 years now. And basically I help people, you know, save more, earn more, retire comfortably, invest, all of the things that people mainly find a bit difficult and need a bit of handholding. So I'm kind of here to help, you know, with money tips and different ways to just help people get started with their financial journey and just realize that there's no shame or blame around it because it's one of the topics many people don't like to open up about. And I'm just like let's do it you know what's what's the worst that can happen it's so true and it does yeah

it feels like particularly women do not speak about money and that annoys me because I feel like men talk about it all the time yeah um like in the work I don't know workspace salary whatever and and we actually find this in our industry and because no one talks about how much anybody's earning it's just and I think society takes advantage of that a lot of the time with women so I'm trying to be brave and talk about money um but you're right we don't talk about it In school, we don't learn anything. And I guess, like, my first question would be, and this actually came up a lot from people,

is what would you recommend, how would you recommend, particularly at a time now where we're talking about the cost of living crisis all the time and people are hearing really scary words like fiscal and economy and blah all the time. How do we become more financially literate? Like, where can we go to start learning more beyond listening to this?

Yes, I would say there's many different mediums in terms of how you can develop your financial knowledge. And I think it's finding what really works for you and what you find interesting. So some people are podcast listeners. They love that on their way to work or when they're at home. You know, some people are book readers. And some people just love social media.

So for me, I try and put out as much as I can in all of these different mediums. So actually people can get more comfortable talking about money. But I think the first aspect really starts with yourself. and actually talking about or being confident to say, you know, I'm going to go through my bank statement and I'm going to see what's actually in there and I'm going to open those letters with debts

that I've never wanted to look at, you know, and I'm going to just really work out what's going on in my financial life. And I think that's where it really starts with your financial literacy. Yeah, I got anxiety when you said that because I'm such like burying my head in the sand with things like that. I always have been just like unable to look at my back because you're just scared of what you're going to see, but you've got to start there, right?

got to start there. You're not alone. I hear that so many times, you know, and people are confident talking to me about their finances because I'm a financial expert, but they find it really difficult even sometimes talking with their spouse or their partner, you know, or even just themselves about their finances. So you're definitely not alone. It does bring about a lot of anxiety. But for me, that's one of the reasons why I think there needs to be more knowledge out there about financial education. As you mentioned, it's not taught in schools. So I think don't be too hard on yourself if you do have those feelings around money but the more you you know the more you practice and the more you activate actually trying to ditch those feelings and not feeling that

shame and embarrassment the more comfortable you will begin to feel with money it's just struck me how crazy it is that this is not taught in schools at yeah i mean pensions we were talking about pensions before we started which we will get on to mortgages how is none of this time of schools yeah and i and i okay i'm not the quickest person ever but i can't get my head around these i really struggle with getting my head around these things. It's like, how are we taught the most random stuff in school and then we don't get taught this? Yeah, I was going to say we're taught some of the most complex stuff, you know, like algebra and, and then we grow up to believe that if we're not good at maths, then we can't be great with money and that's just absolute

nonsense. And again, that's one of the major myths that's out there that needs ditching. So it's one of those things where, you know, money is something that is a journey. It has a different, everyone has a different journey with money. So one of the things that you do find is that you feel anxiety with money, but equally teachers might feel anxiety with money. And, you know, they feel embarrassed about talking and actually teaching money and they don't feel confident. And this was one of the reasons why it hasn't been put out yet in mainstream schools

because a lot of the teachers came back and said, well, actually, I struggle with money issues. And this is a major thing that we're still tackling, I think, here in the UK, or globally, really, in terms of actually getting money education into the mainstream. Yeah. So I want to, I think we want to start talking to you about the cost of living crisis and about sort of advice that you have people who are budgeting and trying to navigate their way through this time.

But first of all, I wanted to ask, I put the category at the top as general what the fuck questions. And the first one is, well, do we need to worry? Is this an actual crisis? And I just wondered if you could explain what is happening because another one of the general what the fuck is was how the fuck does the value of money change? Why a house is so expensive? Why is everything losing its value?

And I actually think that's something that maybe people might be a bit embarrassed to not know but kind of what is happening. Yeah, I mean, I'm confused about it all. If you could explain that, just pick us off. There is lots of confusion out there. And before we really digest into the main part of this podcast, I really just want to say, you know, a lot of the information that we're sharing today is, you know, information based only.

It's guidance, hopefully, putting a bit of a disclaimer out there. And everything is based on your personal circumstance. So, yeah, what I will describe here would really hopefully help you in some way in terms of, you know, adjusting to what's going on. But I think there's lots of news, there's lots of noise. And sometimes you don't need to take on everything that you're hearing because money is something that is very, personal and that's what I try and get a lot of people to understand it's very personal to you so what you know your friend is going through with money might have no relation to to the money issues that you have and it's all about you

know establishing what your personal goals are what you'd like to achieve and then you can really work out what's going on in your financial life now to whether you should be worrying about what's going on or not yeah but the thing is that we're going for a cost of living crisis and the truth is it's affecting at least more than 90% of individuals, whether you're middle class, whether you're struggling, whether you're even a high earner,

people are affected with what's going on at this moment in time. And I think to say to worry, it doesn't help anything. You know, worrying about what's going on. I think the best thing that you can do is actually put a plan in place, figure out where you are right now,

where you want to be in the next five or 10 years, and how what's going on is going to affect you. and what other kind of things that you might need to put in place to kind of work around that. So I give you an example if you are, you know, you love food shopping and you're spending huge amounts on food. It might be that, you know, you might have to shop a bit smart, more smart. It might be that you're buying shop-home brands. It might be that, you know, you're actually comparing the market before you go out and shop. You're actually making a list.

It's just simple things like that that can help really curb and cut. back with your savings. Okay, dokey. That takes us, I guess, on really well to our Class of Living Advice section. I've never been so organised in my life. This is brilliant. Thank you so much.

Absolutely brilliant. I think you'd be proud of me. An excellent word document. I even put them bold. It was so proud. You put bold, you put capitals, bullet points. I wasn't fucking about. Okay, first question.

I get paid weekly and I really am finding a difficult to budget for bigger bills like rent. I am a single mum, please help. Okay, so you get paid weekly, I think one of the aspects is, as opposed to, it's a lot easier to budget, which many people don't do, budget annually, okay? So, although you get paid, whether you get paid weekly or monthly, actually look at your annual expenses and compare that with your annual income. So it might frighten you how much you're actually spending annually on, it could be even just coffees. Yeah,

sometimes when you add up, every time you buy a coffee, that adds up to about £1,000 spent a year just on coffee. Does it? Yeah. And that's an average, you know. So when you break it down like that in a year and you really look at that, that's when you get the eye openers and you think, oh my gosh, like I don't really want to be spending that much in that particular area in one year. It's very difficult to see that when you look at it in one week because you might see, you know, a coffee you've spent eight, 10 pounds and you think, oh, it's not that much. But when you compare that over a yearly basis and you look at that, it's much easier to budget then how much and cap. Okay, how much do I want to spend on coffees? Right. I'm only going to cap myself to

£500 for the year that I want to spend on coffees. And then you break that down and you divide that by 52. You know, and then you work out what your weekly spend should actually be. And you do that with every single category that you have in your life. So you'll do that with your food. You'll do that with, I mean, there are some fixed expenses. So there's some things that you might not be able to change, like your rent, your energy bills, which is continually increasing. So there's something that you don't have flexibility with, but I think the things that you do, you want to take as much control of that as possible in order to just, number one, survive the cost of living crisis and in order for you to continue to achieve the future goals that you've set for yourself.

So we've talked, you've mentioned the word sort of like budgeting and looking at like an annual thing. A lot of people who have asked if you have any tips for budgeting, if there's any apps that you recommend or like if there's any literature out there that could help people start with their budgeting? Well, there's a number of apps that's just budgeting. You've got apps like Money Hub, you've got apps like Emma, which help you with your budgeting. But the great thing now is a lot of banks are on board with the budgeting kind of features. So you will find that you don't naturally always have to download another app. You could actually tap into some of the resources that your bank actually provides you with. And they're always improving their

features. So I think some of the great things that you just want to look at is, you know, comparing in maybe your income and expenses from one month to the next. And many apps allow you to actually do that. But some apps are really technical and it actually breaks down, you know, oh, you've overspent on this area each month. And those are the ones that's quite good to log into. But I think, yeah, as a free point of call, you can always look at your bank's actual app as a first point of call

because many of them are on board and then explore other apps. I don't know if you like, I like plum. Yeah, yeah, that's good as well. It like it rounds up your purchases and takes that money. I use money box. Moneybox saves it for you as well. It really adds up. Moneybox invests your money as well.

Oh, that's clever. So it takes the pennies. If you spend like £2.70, it would take the 30p. And then, yeah, and then takes the 30p that you've got that accumulates. And then I put £10 in a week because I figured that would whatever. And then that comes in a month and then it invests and you can choose high risk, medium risk or low risk. Oh. Yeah.

And yeah, I made them high risk because I was like, well, it's the, it's the pennies technically. I'm not supposed to notice that as a psychology, so I'll see what happens at the beginning. And my sister was a student, she did low risk. And we both really benefited from it. Really? Yeah, yeah, it's been good. We actually saved both of us, we were talking about at the end of the last year. We both saved quite a lot of money last year just using that.

Which is really good. And I think something like that, because it's so automatic, if you're not that person who is quite, you know, rigid with your actual savings or investing, something like that could be really great. because you're actually investing without thinking about it. Yeah. And also, I don't know anything about investing. Like, I'm going to ask you some questions. No, but that's a whole other minds. So it's great for something like that.

But also, if you are that kind of strict person, you can actually explore different types of, you know, investment platforms and see which one's the best one for you. If you actually want to physically put a set amount aside, or there's nothing stopping you from once you've gone through all of your expenses and you see how much you've got left to play with, actually saying, do you know what, I can comfortably put £100 a month a side for investing or £200 a month for side for investing, whatever it may be.

And sometimes you might find that that actually ends up more than just the automatic of anything that you've got left over. So it just really depends what works best. I kind of want to ask you about subscriptions as well. Okay. I'm wondering if that is an issue for people because it feels to me at least that like a lot of things, good things, but you have to subscribe to them now. And I imagine like, well, I know subscriptions really can add up.

Like we subscribe to so much now. Do people get caught out on subscriptions? Absolutely. Sorry, I'm going so off. Absolutely. If I flip it from a business point of view, in order for you, I mean, the greatest aspect now of many businesses, their biggest income revenues are from subscriptions. Right. So you are finding a lot more businesses are evolving and their subscription-based businesses, which exposes people who like,

like to only might maybe have money coming in on a weekly basis or don't see £2.99 per month as a big amount, they get easily caught out by, you know, it's not that much. But then when you start adding up all the subscriptions that you've got, and especially if you're not making a good use of them, you could easily end up spending lots and lots of money on subscriptions when you do that annual budget. So it's really looking at that kind of aspect of it. And I think it's using it. It's like at one point I realized I had, you know, Amazon Prime Netflix and Disney.

And it's like, come on, how many of them am I really watching? One of them, at least one's got to go. You know, and I'm not the only one. I know many people who come across things like that. And I go through people's bank statements for a daily living. And so I see that a lot, not only with that, but sometimes even with things like protection, with insurance. They've taken out an insurance with one bank because they said it's great. And then they've gone somewhere else and taken out exactly the same insurance.

Plus, they've got a current account, which actually covers them for that free of charge anyway. You know. Well, people asked about that. And I actually had never even heard of the insurance that you're talking about bank, bank insurance. Is that against fraud? No. I was just talking about different types of insurances. So it could be like a travel insurance or, you know, I've seen that people have free travel insurance included in their current account and they go abroad and they get travel insurance.

And it's like, well, you've got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, so it's just little things like that. to read that stuff, isn't it? Yeah. We're so instantly sold to all the time everywhere. I know. I know. And I mean, I'm just talking about this is something that my Alex finds like super interesting. It's like the psychology of marketing and PR and like how we're tricked into spending money that we don't need to be spending all the time. And so now he's reading

this book. I'll leave it in the show notes, the book that he's reading because it's really open my eyes. I can't remember what it's called, but it's really open my eyes to like how easily we fall into thinking that we need something or how the language that people use around like subscribe and i think doing covid as well with subscriptions yeah yeah like i don't know it's just so many like because i wanted to watch the salina and they're expensive i want to watch the selina gomez documentary which is on uh apple tv i think but it's seven pounds yeah it's six 99 a month that's so expensive yeah no it is especially because like all these good things are all on different like amazon and someone somewhere on prime um Netflix somewhere on apple some on

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risk-free for 100 nights at havenmatress.ca. Yes, we're all pulling you in different. We've gone off. We had enough questions with the help of yours. Okay. Devailed us. Sorry. Um, okay. Should we have, should one have multiple savings or current accounts to budget? Or could you do it all in one account? There are some accounts that allow you to, to do that in one. I think Stalin Bank is, has a feature like that and there's another. I can't think of it off my head. But I've always gone by, you know, the old school way in having a number of accounts, if need be. And again,

Again, it really depends on you as the individual because sometimes I think having those number of accounts, if you're that person who easily would dip into a pot of money, because I always say, you know, create, and I discuss it in the book, create like a holiday fund, create a social fund, you know, and create a coffee fund if you're a big coffee lover, you know, and that's easily, you could easily put your annual amount in there. And, you know, once that annual amount's done, then that's it. That means you've utilised that allowance that you've set for yourself. And I think that's a much easier way to budget than looking at a lump sum of money that's in a salary account and feeling that you've got enough money to spend until you absolutely see zero or you see minus. Yeah. You know, and that's naturally what people do because if you haven't given a job to a proportion of your money, then it doesn't know what it's doing.

Yeah. So I think it's really important whether it's you're going for an account which actually does it and separates it automatically for you. In America, it's great because they actually have, you know, employers actually separate the money for you before you get paid. And I think we need to adopt something like that as well. Yeah, they're able to like budget your money into certain areas. But yeah, we're not there yet. So I think that's something that you can easily do. Like a Monzo type situation.

Yeah, Monzo, Monzo, I believe, has that feature as well. Oh, no, I'm just sorry. I mean, I'm wondering if Monzo is a good option for people in terms of one of the accounts that they might have. Or should they have like one Nat West, one Barclays, one. Do you see what I mean? Where they're putting the different pots? Where would they put their different pots? Yeah, you can open separate bank accounts.

For some people, that's a bit confusing and really messy. For some, it's like, for somebody who's like maybe like a control freak, they really like that. And they would actually like to have and actually physically see when they open their purse. That's my Monzo card. That's my holiday fund. You know, I'm not going to touch that card. But I think if you're that person that kind of would prefer to have everything,

think in one place. So again, it goes back to that personal, there is no one shoe fits all, I say, with money. It's all about designing what works for you and your journey with money to help you, you know, elevate your financial journey. Question I'm really interested in as well. What is the best UK credit card to get in terms of points, systems, perks, CTC? This is difficult, right? It's so hard to know which one to go for. Yeah, it's really difficult. I'd kind of flip that on the head and say, rather than actually looking for the best provider in terms of who's actually offering the credit card because that can change daily,

I would say look for 0% interest rate credit cards if you're going to go for anything, if you're going to go for credit cards, because right now with the cost of living crisis, you are finding with inflation increasing, we're at 41 year high, that affects borrowing, and you find that debt actually goes a lot higher. So if you've got, you know, a credit card,

and you're paying double digits, 17% interest, you know, you're paying quite a lot just on anything that you've actually purchased. So I think it's always worth going for a 0% interest or taking out a reward card which actually, you know, you will save every time you spend with your card. I think that's great. If you're, if you love traveling, you love going on holidays, there's cards where you can build up air miles, you know, and there's credit cards that you can use to do that. You could even get that from, you know, BA or Virgin or even, even. banks actually offer air miles on their credit cards or you could get cash back on shopping you know so again it goes back to your personal preferences and and that's another thing that i describe in the book

you know finding the right credit card that suits your lifestyle and actually making the best use of that because if you're paying off your credit card each month you're not paying any interest anyway so even if you go for a reward card or a cashback card that's not a zero percent interest rate so long as you're paying that off each month you get the benefits of the rewards and the cashback and you don't have to pay the interest. So, sorry, just so I understand it, because I'm a bit thick with these things. If I were choosing your credit card,

I could have three options. I could have a 0% interest. I could have one that had a couple percent interest, maybe a little percent, but I would get air miles. I could get air miles back. Or I could have one that's, again, got a bit of interest,

but it's got cash back with shopping. So if I were a family of five, for example, maybe it would make more sense to go for the shopping one. if I were someone that flew abroad for work it would make sense to have the air miles one and if I were just me I'd probably go for the 0% one.

Yeah, it's very difficult to categorise it like that because again you might say a family of five so you like shopping but it depends on what the family... I meant food shopping, sorry. Yeah, I know what you mean, but it depends on what the income is for that household and what their lifestyle is. You could have a very wealthy family of five.

Yeah. You know, so it's really difficult to bracket it like that, but I totally understand what you mean. But I wouldn't necessarily categorize. And again, just like you can have a number of current accounts to help, you know, budget, it's great to have a number of credit cards because it's often that we don't have one thing that we enjoy. So we might be a big foodie like me and we also might like traveling like me. You know, so I think sometimes boxing yourself in, it could be that, yes, you've got a credit card that's for your food shopping. you've got a credit card that's for your air miles and you know when you're purchasing big things

you'd potentially use the air miles kind of credit card because that's going to give you a lot more points on your air or when you're travelling and then if you're shopping you'll always use their other credit card you also have energy saving credit cards as well so I've got cards that help every time I spend with that card it reduces my energy bill and that's a great factor for people right now in terms of reducing their energy bills so I think it's

using the right card for the right things. You could be wanting to start a bit of a side hustle. You need a bit of a cash injection. I would say go for something like a 0% interest rate credit card. So yeah, don't ever limit yourself to kind of like it's just one thing. You can have a number of credit cards, but just make sure you're using them in the right way. You're not incurring debt. You know, you're not incurring interest or having to pay interest because that's where it kind of gets a bit difficult. I always say borrowing is not always bad so long as it's managed effectively. But it becomes bad when you lose control.

Many people have a number of credit cards. And for them, it's not a great thing to have a number of credit cards because they just use it in all the wrong ways. And then they put themselves in a situation where they start losing financial confidence. They gain more financial anxiety because things are not working the right way. So I think if you're not, again, that person who can control debt very well, just avoid credit cards completely. So again, it's personal.

You mentioned before about energy, about getting energy points back on your energy usage. One of the questions that we had was someone asking, should we be trying to get fixed energy deals because they seem to be more expensive? I would say yes. Although fixed energy bills in this day and time doesn't mean much.

No. Because it still means that your, you know, that energy tariffs increase, then your bills are still going to increase even if you're on a fixed tariff. But I think when you do fix, even if it's slightly more expensive, you know exactly where you are and what you're expected to pay. So I always think that's a better way to help you budget than being on a variable where you have no flexibility or no control over what your energy bill might come in each month. Yeah, that makes sense. So someone's asked, how can I get out of the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck?

okay so big questions are yeah no it's fine I get this a lot and and it does happen a lot and it's a very easy trap to fall in that's why I want people to understand it's so easy to fall in again if you haven't given yourself if you haven't given your money a job so I would say a three-step process so the first thing would be to understand that income that you have coming in many people don't look at their pay slips a lot of them now are sent you know digitally but actually have a look at that pay slip, look at what your income is after tax. Also see what other expenditure is going out, you know, from your employer, because sometimes there's more things that's going out that you don't really want, like benefits that you don't really need and you're paying for them. So really

just look at your pay slip, work out what your actual income is. If you have other sources of income or yourself employed, try and get an average at least of the last maybe three months and just work out, okay, this is roughly what my income is on a monthly basis. Once you know your income, The next step is expenditure. So it sounds very simple, but these steps are very effective. Okay, so the next step is expenditure. So you're going through either your bank statements or on your app, and you're really looking at where is my money going.

Okay, because budgeting is like a picture. And whatever picture you actually have, it doesn't mean that that has to always be your picture. You can create it. You can make changes. You know, so budgeting is just kind of telling you where your money is going. So this is the part where you're kind of directing and saying, actually, I want my money to go here.

want my money to go there and that's where I would you know suggest at least looking at things tallying everything up you receive weekly or monthly and putting it on that annual basis and really working out how much I spend annually because the only time we hear about annually is our income you know we hear that oh this person gets paid 30,000 a year or 50,000 a year but nobody talks about expenses on an annual kind of basis so work that out on an annual basis because you know what you've got coming in as an income and then next actually identifying is there money left over Now, when I ask people the question, the ballpoint figure, do you have any money left over? Most people say, nope, haven't got anything.

And when I go through their income and expenses, I'm like, yes, you have. Right. You know, there's this money here and they're like, no, no, no, I don't have that money there. And I'm like, yes, you've given me all of your expenses. I've gone through everything. There is money there, you know. So in order to find that little pocket of money, it's a quick, simple tip, and it's a great way to actually find money, is to actually just work out what your income is, what your expenses is, what you've got left over,

and then defining what you actually want to do with that money. Okay. And if you don't, if there is that chance that you don't have anything left over, I guarantee there's something that you can do with your spending to actually build something, create something, some form of disposable income, should I say. So I would say really just again, look at your expenditure, think about, okay, is how I'm living now,

am I going to be able to sustain this level of lifestyle in the next 10, 20 years? if I continue like this without creating something for my future because basically that disposable income hopefully should be the pot of money for your future living. That's what it is. So I guess we're talking there about paycheck to paycheck, but what about people who are in debt?

Because I had a few of these questions come in. Somebody said, I guess we had a lot along this vein, but the broadest one is from this person that says tips on how to get out of debt. I'm talking credit cards overdraft, et cetera, when money is already so stretched? Yeah, so again, there's lots in the book around that. And it's kind of like that dreaded D word, isn't it?

This debt, this word that nobody wants to hear. It's a thing that nobody wants to face. And I think the first thing that you've got to do with debt is kind of own up that I actually, I'm in debt, you know, and actually just tell yourself, you know, I'm in debt. There's no shame about it. There's no blame. And then actually listing the debts that you have outside. standing. That's quite an important task to do. Once you've basically listed them, what you

should do at the side of that is actually tally what the interest is. Okay, because nobody looks at or nobody thinks about what the interest on their credit card is. I've had people that's come to me and they've had 47% interest on a credit card. Wow. Yeah, so there are credit cards out there that could literally charge you almost 50% half of the money that you've got just in interest. So every time you're paying each month, you're thinking that actually, I'm clearing my debt. but you're not. Yeah, you're just paying your interest. You're just paying your interest.

Wow, you're not even making a dent in it. Yeah, you're not making any debt. So the first thing to do is list what the outstanding debts are and then list by the side in a column. And I've got the columns in here that they can do them. List it in a column. What's the actual interest rates? And tally them from the highest interest rate to the lowest.

And what you want to start doing is chipping away either at the debts with the highest interest. That's a great way to, because what you end up doing is you're going to be keep paying this money and it's just going in interest. You're not really clearing any of that capital. So you want to pay the debts with either the highest interest, which is, you know, there's different type of methods. The other method is actually clearing the debt with the smallest amount of debt because sometimes you might have like a credit card and it's got £10,000 debt and then you've got a credit card and it's got £500. And sometimes I think even if you can just clear that 500, that gives you that momentum to kind of say, I can tackle this $10,000. You know,

I cleared one. I can clear the other. So sometimes it's always about building that momentum. I think if you're really struggling, the first thing to do is contact the providers as a first point of call and just say, you know, hey, this is my financial situation. Many people don't think to do it, but there are actually the bankers. Yeah, the bankers. Sometimes there's ways that they can help. Okay. That's interesting. Yeah. Sometimes your interest can get frozen, especially that we're going through a cost of living crisis. There is packages that many of these companies have that's available to, you know, people, debtors, but you have to actually ask for it.

Normally, they don't contact you and actually offer these things. No, they don't want you to know that much about it. So I think just pick up the phone. If you've gone through everything and you think, you know what, there's no physical way I can pay this. Contact your debtors as a first point of call. Explain to them your situation. Explain to them your income.

And they might be able to find ways to help with that. I think if all fail in that and that doesn't work, you've got lots of debt charities like step-churches, like step change, Citizens Advice Bureau, and again, they can also offer normally some financial assistance.

But it's a step-by-step process. I think sometimes working with maybe a bit of how much debt can you clear and setting a plan of action to clear the debt. And actually just think about how long is it going to take me to clear this debt.

And sometimes just having that clear idea of, right, it's going to take me three years, we'll give you the confidence to actually start tackling that. Yeah, because it can feel like unremountable. Yeah, but that's, because people just don't know what it is, they don't know how much their pain, and that confusion just breeds more anxiety and more worry. So I think the first step I always say is

just owning up to it, because that will give you that confidence to then pick up the phone, to then detail what you've got outstanding. I think it's just good for people to know it. It's a lot, definitely. Yeah, it's a lot. And that's why I say, you know, you're not on your own. There's many people going through, and there's lots of things available to help people who are in debt so yeah don't suffer in silence that's really good and that was some brilliant practical I've got help as well thank you I have a question off the back of it that is one of these and I can't remember what category it's from if people are they have credit card debts or they're still trying to get out of their overdraft should they be saving as well or should

their priority be paying off the credit cards or the overdraft or should it be doing putting half the money onto the credit card and half into a savings account what should the good question and I get that a lot as well. I've done quite a bit of a funny social media post on it and it was kind of like, I don't know if you remember that thing and it was like, both. But in essence, I think, again, that's another one of those things

that falls back to a personal kind of aspect. So I'm a strong believer in, you know, financial planning is all about goals. Okay, it's all about your personal goals, your short-term goals, your medium-term goals, and your long-term goals. And I think if you haven't set those out, you haven't got a financial plan in place yet.

And how hard is it to actually just sit down with yourself maybe for an hour and just say, you know what, this is what I want to achieve in my short term, one to three years, this is what I want to achieve three to five years over the medium term, and this is what I want to achieve over the next five years. And then what you've got to do next is add a monetary figure, you know, to each one of those things. Is it difficult?

Yes. I hope not. Yes, it's horrible. Yes, I know. No, possible, but again, sometimes having that clear mind, it's just like a journey, okay? Imagine somebody tells you, okay, meet me here at this place and I'm either going to give you the directions and a sat nav or I'm going to tell you to just find your way. You will find that place and have a lot more ease if you've got a satnav and you know exactly where you're going. And that's what a financial plan basically is.

So going back to that kind of question, it really depends on, okay, how urgent are those goals? because that's what we say for, isn't it? We save for our personal goals that nobody just saves for nothing. We save because we want to do something in the future because we want to buy a car or we want to go on this holiday. And it might be that you're going on holiday, you know, the beginning of the year. And so actually that savings is really urgent. You need to achieve the rest of that savings goal.

But at the same time, you've got to look at again that in conjunction with your debt plan. You know, how important is it to clear your debts? because once all of your debts are cleared, how much freedom will that give you financially, you know? And again, it's looking at what kind of debt you've got in place because many people have mortgages. Mortgage, to me, is considered as quite a good debt because it's actually leveraging and it's, you know,

the asset that you have is growing as well at the same time as you've got the debt outstanding. You might have debt on a zero percent interest rate credit card. And so there's no urgency to clear that kind of debt. Yeah. But if you've got high debts outstanding, which you can't control, which is causing you a great deal of financial stress, I would say focus on that. And from a financial point of view, you will always hear financial experts telling you, pay off your debts first. It's just a natural thing.

But I think you always have to look at things from a personal circumstance. And you always have to look at what kind of debt you've got outstanding. You know, if you've got nasty debts, like payday loans and really high interest rate credit cards, you want to get those cleared. first because the fact that you've got them sometimes means that you know your you're maybe your credit is not where it should be or your financial circumstances is not where it should be so you want to kind of clear that because I think the more your debt is the more your credit is improved the lower the interest rates you'll get on credit cards and so on and so forth so you want to kind of just be in an environment where you've got good debt and you're doing savings and then you can do

both okay nice okay yeah great advice I mean there is there is there is so much to go through but I think we should touch on property and mortgages yes which are a total minefield yes that sigh yeah I can imagine and I don't normally sign when I hear the word mortgages but I am sighing right now but go ahead um okay so I think this might have been one of the main questions um is that should you buy a property at the moment in case interest increases or do we wait for a property crash right so only if i had a crystal ball could i tell you please answer all of the country's questions right now could i answer that question very clearly i would say not to wait for things like property

crashes okay the reason why is because that put me off of buying my first ever property yeah um and there wasn't any property crash in actual fact property prices increased even further And then I just bit the bullet and I thought, I just want to get on the property ladder. And I think many people can fall into that kind of trap and scenario because you just can't guess, even if we go back, because we're only going from past kind of performances. So you're having experts, property experts,

kind of guesstimating that there's going to be a crash based on previous things that's happened, that they've seen that looks very similar to where we are, that's led to a property crash. That doesn't mean that there is going to be, one so the fact if you hold off and kind of wait for something that may never happen yeah it's a difficult game to play because there is nobody that you could physically ask when if there's going to be one and when when it will be so I would say you know if if you're in a position to buy yeah

right okay don't don't don't wait yeah naturally there are times where you know the property market is generally historically has always been lower like December and the reason why property prices generally fall in December is because nobody really wants to sell around Christmas time and you find that property prices generally increase naturally around the summer because everybody gets that kind of property buy and buzz in the summer so you have a natural increase but the increase is what we're seeing right now is naturally because there's a shortage of properties on the market and there's a shortage of people that's able to buy so that just means. that the few that's in the market right now is selling at a much higher price. What I would say

is a quick tip on that, rather than waiting out, is look for your dream properties and negotiate as much as possible. Yeah. And that's a much more beneficial tool than waiting. Because at least you can, you know, sometimes because there is a shortage of buyers, you might have that bit more flexibility negotiating saying, you know, the properties on the market for 400. but I'd like to put an offer in for 400, you know, and I put that in the book. There's nothing, there's nothing, you know, shameful about actually going in for an offer that you believe in. And, yeah, you might get a flat no. But at least you tried because...

I've heard this a lot recently, actually, from people that I know that are buying and selling, or they're in a chain. Yeah. And there has been recently a lot of negotiation on price. Yeah. So that's a good tip as well, right, to negotiate, you know, where you can. Yeah, there's not a... huge demand. The property price increase hasn't gone up because there's

a huge demand. It's gone up because there's a shortage of properties on the market. So anytime there's something that's very rare, it's just like Hermes handbags, isn't it? It's very rare and it's hard to get to the price is extortionately higher than many other handbags. So

on a similar note, and I'm asking this on behalf of a great many of my friends as well at the moment, should I delay accepting a new mortgage deal in the hope that rates down, which I guess is the same question, but to mortgages. Because they've gone up massively, haven't they? They've gone up massively. Unfortunately, I'm even one that's been put in that position.

I've had many of my clients who's been put in that position. In actual fact, I've seen at least a £700 increase in mortgage payment. But the thing is, they're not good, they're most likely going to increase before they come down. And so if you've got a deal that's already coming to an end, I would say fix and fix now as soon as possible, I was told by, I liaise very closely with a mortgage friend as well and we always kind of knock heads and he kind of said, oh, how old are you? And I told him my age and he said, well, you wasn't around actually the last time when mortgage interest rates were like 15%. Wow. So he was like, this is nothing. Yeah, yeah. So I think it's one

of those things where it's just the kind of climate that we're in. And many of us who are in our 20s, 30s would have not have experienced this before. To be fair, we've had quite a good run so far, because we're coming from rates like under 2% to now go into rates like 6%. Yeah. You know, and it's making that 500, 800 jump. Yeah, the advice is to, like, there's just another specific question here, just at that percentage thing. Should I fix my mortgage for five years at 5.4% or should I wait it out? So you have a number of different terms that you can go for with a mortgage. You have two years, you have three years and you have a five year fixed. You also have variable rates. Yeah. Which basically will change in line with when the Bank of England

base rate changes. But the variable rates are significantly lower than the fixed rates at this moment in time. So that's also an option. But you have to bear in mind that your interest rate can increase at any point in time. But I would say many lenders are no longer offering variable rates now if you're remorgeting because they're just not, which is a bit annoying, but they're not. So that might not be an option for many people. So when she says, should I go for a five-year fixed rate, again, there's other options. So again, it would fall down to a personal circumstance. Will rates come down in the next five years? I believe so. Okay. So being fixed for five years at a higher rate,

yes, potentially you could be losing that. But again, you go for a two-year fixed rate. You don't know what rates are going to be like in two years' time. And then you could end up paying more, because also what many people must remember, every time you fix a rate, you're paying also a fee to naturally go into this fixed rate. And if you're not paying any fee, the rates are even higher.

And they've pushed up those fees. They're anywhere between £1,000 to £2,000 and sometimes more now. So, yes, you go for a two-year fix rate, you're having to pay that fee again. So it just really depends. Again, if you're that type of person, she might be an individual who's always gone for a five-year fix rate. And I would say, it's really difficult to say. But what I would say is explore all of the options that's available. Explore a two-year fix rate.

Explore three years, five, even beyond, you've got lifetime fix rates now. And just work out what's the best option. And if she is in any doubt, I would always say seek. mortgage advice. Because advice is looking at your personal circumstance and saying this is best for you because you told me this is what you want to do in the next two years. It's what you want to do. So for me to just, I can't advise. Can you get free mortgage advice? Is that available? I would say speak with a mortgage advisor. Mortgage advice is not free, but you can always get an opinion from them. So even if you don't want to take the advice, you can always get an opinion

if you know a mortgage advisor or, you know, most estate agents have mortgage advisors if you don't know anyone. If you contact your local bank, many of them are not mortgage advisors, so they can't provide advice as well. So they're just going to give you all of the information and it's down for you to decide. But some banks are still offering mortgage advice. So I would say pop into your local bank or local estate agent or find a family or friend who knows a mortgage advisor and get an opinion. So this is a quite specific question, but I think it's going to be applicable to a lot of people, sort of similar situations. So this woman is 35 years old.

I'm guessing her and her partner are renters, parents in full-time work and in £7,000 worth of debt. Is there any hope of us buying a house on average salaries? What does she classify as an average salary? Good question. If I go with the statistics, average salary is anywhere between, I would say, what, 29 to about $35,000 in the UK right now. Okay.

So she's stating that her and her husband are both on average salaries? Yes, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They rent in £7,000 worth of debt and full-time work. Yeah. So on average, I would say, based on a four times multiple, because the banks would generally do a multiple worth of your income,

so maybe four times or five times. So if her and her husband, say, for instance, is both on $35,000 each, that's $70,000 combined income. She could get on average around $200,000. 10,000 or 280,000 now when you look at the markets and you look at properties and she said she's got children yes that's very difficult to find a property of that value even a flat right um but then again personal circumstance she's got 7,000 pounds debt she didn't mention anything about the savings i don't know what she could have built up in savings if parents are able to help with a lump sum

I'm finding with a lot of my clients, the bank of mum and dad has become really helpful. And mum and dads have been, you know, drawing from their own savings, sometimes even drawing money for their own properties to basically help the children just get on the property ladder. And that's kind of where we are right now. Because naturally, even with average salaries, even with great salaries, people are struggling to get onto the property ladder. And this is the difficulty that we're facing. because the lack of properties that's on the market

and because the property prices are so high. But I would say if she's a first-time buyer, she's got options like shared ownership property. She's got opportunities like the home ownership schemes. So I would say she's got those options to go down those routes because some of the times they're able to help you with 25% of the deposit. You put in, or 20% of the deposit, you put in the other 5%. And that's a 25% deposit.

it and not only will that give better rates but also that might make them eligible to you know get onto the property ladder somehow that's great yeah do you have any confidence that it's going to get better or do you think it'll be that's a horrible question yes the good thing about the UK in the country that we live in is they've they've always found a way to bounce back and and that's going from you know historically speaking so I think I think yes I think there's a number of changes that would need to be made and I think we will go through worse times than now before we can get better or before it gets better

unfortunately because it's just one of those things where in order for us to stabilise as an economy it means that we generally have to maybe pay more taxes or anything that's our spending cuts like things will be reduced to what we've got access to And as a result of that, you know, that affects things like properties, that affects things like debts. And so you will find that we are naturally impacted as individuals in order to stabilise the economy. But to say, do I think it will ever get better?

I think the long and short answer is yes. Okay, that's good. I have a personal question. Will you please come back? Yes, please. We didn't touch on. We've not pensions or investing or savings or students. Go on.

Throw that. We've not, throw the pension question in there. Okay, there's like a thousand pension questions. They're all slightly different, but can I ask you just the one? Yeah. Oh, God, I can't choose. Because it's quite important. The first one is how do pensions work?

So that seems a bit broad. And I feel like maybe they could Google that. But just for now, I don't really know either. So we'll Google it together. But what do you think is the most valuable thing that you can tell us about pensions now in a nutshell that's going to help us out? give you a vague idea of what the questions are and then you can cherry pick so we basically got how much should i be contributing to a pension and what age should i start one i didn't really understand why there's only different points i'm self-employed

i'm self-employed i don't have a pension all of these things so yeah we won't yeah i think you need a topic just on penchant this is a very broad topic please may you come back and talk to us just about pensions at some point in the near future you're part two yeah are you just well any of those questions any of those questions any of those So benefits. Yes. And people are asking, will the state pension always be around? Basically, people are just, if there's anything, one thing you could tell us,

or what would you like us to know about pensions? Lots of benefits with pensions. I think as a nation, we don't contribute enough. Really? Yeah. And we're all guilty of it, regardless of our money or financial status. But pensions are one of those things where I think the reason why we don't contribute enough is because there's not enough exposure around pensions.

there's not enough knowledge that people have around pensions to really understand the benefits. So I'll give you a quick spiel on some of the benefits that's available. So one of the great things about pensions when you're contributing in is you've got the tax relief. So the tax relief is basically like free money that you get from the government. Every time you contribute, they're contributing with you. So that's a great factor. You know, you don't get that with ICS, you don't get that with your savings, anything else you do. You're not going to get the government saying, hey, I'll chip in with you.

And that's what tax relief is. So if you're a basic rate taxpayer, the government will contribute 20%. So for every £100 you contribute, they will contribute 20 pounds. That's huge. Okay? Which is huge. So you're physically only paying 80, they're paying the other 20 to make it 100. Every £80 you contribute, you're getting £100 contribution.

The other fantastic part about pensions is employers contribute. So when you are employed and you're working, most people are entitled to what's called an automatic enrollment pension, which is kind of like a basic. So it works out to an 8% contribution of your salary, basically. So again, the percentages breakdown on that is that the employer will contribute 4%. The government will contribute 1%. You have to contribute 3%. So again, you're getting more free money from number one, your employer, from the government. So again, it just means that it's a great tool that you can contribute to. The second thing that's great about pensions is it reduces the tax that you pay.

So many people are not aware of that. So it comes out of your salary before you've paid tax. Okay? Oh, I thought it was after. No. Oh, okay, okay. And that free money, so basically we get an allowance as to how much we can earn before we start paying tax, okay?

And every time you contribute, the government adds that money to that amount of allowance, okay? So it sits just over £12,000. But every time you're contributing to a pension and the government's contributing as well, that's increasing that allowance. That means that the amount before you pay tax

is going up and up and up. So there is a limit. Oh, so sorry, the $12,000 is like the sort of standard, but then if your pension is, but you're all putting a few hundred pounds into your pension every year. Yeah. Then it would be 13,000. Correct.

Okay. Yeah. If you put an additional, if the government contributes an additional £3,000, you've got about $15,000 before you start paying tax. So you could then, if $15,000 was your only source of income, you wouldn't pay any tax at all. So if you're like a high rate taxpayer, you would get the standard 20% tax relief at source, which you don't have to do anything for. And the further 20% you can claim back.

as a tax relief in your tax returns. So the more tax you pay, the more tax relief you get. Okay? So again, if you're a high rate taxpayer, you contribute £100, you're only physically paying $60. The government pays $40. Okay, so that's one of the major benefits going into a pension. While your money is actually in a pension,

so we've gone from the going in, while it's in a pension, you're not paying any tax. You're not paying income tax. I'm going to reel through the taxes here. You're not paying capital gains tax, which is what you pay on your profits, like if you sell a property, you're not paying any of that tax, and you're not also paying inheritance tax, which again is for a whole other topic, because it's a tax that nobody really talks about, but it's what they call as like the deaf tax, the tax you pay on deaf. So there's no, it's a very tax sheltered type of investment. And again, even when you're invested in NYSA, it's free of income tax and capital gains, but not for inheritance tax. It's exposed to inheritance tax, okay?

So that's another fantastic tool. Does that mean theoretically if your parent had a pension and then they were to die, you would inherit the pension without the inheritance tax? Free of charge. If they were to die before the age of 75, so again, there's limits. Okay, yeah. If they were to die after 75, you basically pay the tax at your normal tax rate. Okay.

Which is why sometimes we skip a generation, we go to the grandchildren because they're not taxpayers anyway, and then that way they... God, there's so much. I don't explode yet. And then I'm coming on to the end part. Okay. So what you've got to think about as a pension, many people think,

ooh, it's a bit complex. Oh, I'm not an investor. You know, a pension is your pot of money for when you choose to stop working. That's all it is. Okay? And all of us are going to want to stop working at some point. Not Alex, probably.

Never. Maybe, I hear that. But maybe at some point we're going to want to stop working. And what do we rely on then? What's going to maintain our standard of living? And a pension is just something part of that. Some people like property. Some people say their business and so on and so forth.

But a pension can produce a great part of that in a very tax-efficient way. Because on the way, when you come out, you get a 25% tax-free lump sum. So again, it's very different to any other types of investment. So if you have 100,000 built up in a pension, you would get 25,000 tax-free. And then you'll pay tax on the remainder. but you can choose to take it as and when you want to to try and control your tax. Wow. Okay. Okay. Shit.

So they're important. And also if you don't want to touch it, as we mentioned, it could be something that you build up and you pass on to your children. Yeah. You know, if something was to happen to you, that's your pot of money that you can pass on. And again, it's tax efficient.

So pensions are great tools for these kind of things. And in a nutshell, hopefully that's given a bit of a spiel about pensions and hopefully help people to contribute a bit more to a pension. But again, yeah, and it's an investment. So many people say, oh, I don't invest. I've never invested, but they've got a pension. Well, pensions are investments. And that's a great thing to think about.

So if you've already, if you've had something where you've contributed with an employer, you have already invested. Okay. That's super helpful. I think I've learned more in those few minutes about pensions than I ever have in my entire life. To wrap up, please could you just tell us a bit about your book? where it's available and why everyone needs to go by it. Okay, so the no shame, no blame.

I mean, there's everything in there. It's called the Money Edit. It's called the Money Edit. The first chapter I dedicated to building a money mindset because I think that is the foundation to everything. You want to arm yourself with financial confidence. You want to empower yourself. You want to tell yourself whatever money mistakes I made in the past,

it's gone. It's a new day and I'm ready to start again. And I think you need that kind of foundation in order for you to start building the right way. I've done a recent post and I said your mindset matches your money. And I'm a true. Yeah, let that one sink in. I don't like how that sits with me. I'm still trying to write that one out.

It's a bit confronting. The good thing about, you know, your mindset is you can change it at any point in time. You know, and you can work on it daily. It's not something that's going to change overnight. if you've had bad experiences with money or you know you've not learned much about money growing up but you can build a really positive money mindset and that that's one of the key things the the next step I talk about tackling managing your money like a pro because the budgeting aspect again is that foundation to then realizing how can I create this pot of money that I've got left over

each month and that's all budgeting's for because we don't just budget for the sake of it Nobody likes budgeting, but you're budgeting to work out. Where's that bit of extra cash I've got at the end of each month or the end of each week? Because it's there. Believe me, you can find it. And then I talk about getting on the property ladder, the different ways how you can get on based on, you know, who you are as based on your background, whether you need help from bank of mum and dad, whether you can build your deposit from scratch, which is also doable. And then I really focused on changing circumstances because I've come across so many different. scenarios where everything's going super great and then somebody has a child or they get married and you know they're in a negative relationship where the partner's really bad with money or

you know they go through a divorce or there's a death of bereavement in the family and that just throws everything out the window financially and people lose their track and and again I think that's not talked about enough you know because we're all human we all go through changes in circumstances it could be a really positive one I've seen many people win the lottery and then the money's just gone months later because there was no plan in place. So that's a key aspect going through the changing circumstances and just understanding where you should actually sit, what you should do, and then finally retirement, building that pot of money for retirement.

So that's everything in a nutshell. It's got lots of tools and tips. Brilliant. We're going to put the link in the show notes. It's called the Money Edit. We're going to need you back for at least about seven more hours of recording. Please can we get that, can we get confirmation on air? on your return.

Speak to Emily. Then you could come back, please. Speak to my agent. Yeah. Oh yeah, not me, but your agent's called Emily. Actually, yeah, quite right. Let's see how this goes. All right.

Thank you so much, Micha. Thank you so much, Vigela. You're welcome. Should I delete that is part of the ACAS creator network. Did you know all our glamping units have a resort, quality, Canadian made and eco-friendly. bed. Since day one, we have proudly partnered with Kelowna-based mattress company Haven, ensuring you have the best sleep possible. So it's just one more reason to visit us in the

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