The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - Navigating Pensions for Psychologists and Mental Health Professionals

Episode Date: January 8, 2024

Show Notes for The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast Episode 109: Understanding pensions for psychologists with Ian DempseyThank you for listening to the Aspiring Psychologist Podcast. In this episode of the Aspiring Psychologist podcast, I am welcoming back a guest from my previous episode – Ian Dempsey. Whilst this episode may not be focused on psychology, it is important for anyone stepping into the career realms and thinking about the future. Join us as we discuss all things pensions, investing and futures, including the NHS pension, the importance of starting early, and potential tax advantages of pensions. We hope you find it so useful.I’d love any feedback you might have, and I’d love to know what your offers are and to be connected with you on socials so I can help you to celebrate your wins!The Highlights:(00:00:39): Welcoming Ian back!(00:02:18): The importance of managing money(00:03:03): Reflecting on past financial experiences (00:04:56): The legality of pensions(00:05:58): The long term benefit of starting pensions early(00:07:36): What is compound interest and how does it work?(00:11:08): The not-so altruistic nature of “rounding up” your shopping in supermarkets(00:12:49): The power of growth and refining (00:14:35): The benefits of the NHS pension(00:17:39): Starting a pension for kids?!(00:18:39): You do not need to have a lot left over (00:20:52): Asking yourself the big questions(00:22:24): The future is not fixed(00:23:58): The impact of our current cost of living crisis (00:25:50): The different types of pensions (00:28:03): Can you truly invest yourself?(00:32:01): You can have a dabble with financial matters (00:34:57): When looking for financial advisors… (00:37:58): The importance oof financial advisors(00:42:33): Finding the balance of plans and life(00:45:29): I wish I had started sooner…(00:48:03): Life outside money(00:51:02): The safety of pensions (00:53:19): The other benefits of money management (00:58:51): On choices and having options (00:59:55): Connect with Ian (01:01:34): Ian’s big tip for everyone (01:02:49): summary and close Links:📱 To connect with Ian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-dempsey/?originalSubdomain=uk 🖥️ Check out my brand new short courses for aspiring psychologists and mental health professionals here: https://www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk/short-courses🫶 To support me by donating to help cover my costs for the free resources I provide click here: https://the-aspiring-psychologist.captivate.fm/support📚 To check out The Clinical Psychologist Collective Book: https://amzn.to/3jOplx0 📖 To check out The Aspiring Psychologist Collective Book: https://amzn.to/3CP2N97 💡 To check out or join the aspiring psychologist membership for just £30 per month head to: https://www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk/membership-interested✍️ Get your Supervision Shaping Tool now:

Hi there, it's Marianne here. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to quickly let you know about something exciting that's happening right now. If you've ever wondered how to create income that works for you, rather than constantly trading your time for money, then you'll love the Race to Recurring Revenue Challenge with my business mentor, Lisa Johnson. This challenge is designed to help you build sustainable income streams. And whether you're an aspiring psychologist, a mental health professional, or in a completely different field,

the principles can work for you. There are also wonderful prizes to be won directly by Lisa herself. And if you join the challenge by my link, you can be in with a chance of winning a one-to-one hours coaching with me, Dr. Marianne Trent. Do you want to know more? Of course you do. Head to my link tree, Dr. Marianne Trent, or check out my social media channels, or send me a quick DM and I'll get you all the details. Right, let's get on with today's episode. Coming up in today's episode, are you ready to unravel the secrets of pensions as a mental health professional and inspiring psychologist? Join us in this very special

episode where I'm joined by a qualified independent financial advisor where we go through all things pension. Loads of great advice in there and answering all of your questions. Tune in and equip yourself with all of the skills, advice and strategy you need to be liberated in your financial freedom in future. Hope you find it so useful. Hi, welcome along to the Aspiring Psychologist podcast. I am Dr. Marianne Trent and I'm a qualified clinical psychologist. Something I really struggled with when I was earlier in my career was feeling like a proper enough grown-up to take myself seriously and look at pensions. It was something that was always on my to-do list but never really seemed like the right time. I'm

telling you now is the right time but I know that can still feel tricky. Previously for episode 76 I was joined by Ian Dempsey, an independent financial advisor and we were talking generally about money and trying to make ends meet and having it stretch to cover our bases, but also to kind of think about financial planning. I've invited him back by special request where we're going to be looking specifically at pensions. This is ideal if you are any kind of mental health professional and if you are a qualified or an unqualified member of staff. Let's dive in and meet Ian again. And yeah, I will catch you on the other side. Today, we have Ian Dempsey with us, who you might remember, a few months back,

we were talking about all things money. And we have a special request for Ian to come back and talk about pensions today. Hian thank you for joining us hello you're very welcome i mean yes come on come on back again we should make it a regular start really shouldn't we i think yeah i think so many of us don't really understand money that that's probably not a bad idea and i think part of the challenge we've got at the minute as we just said i fear it's really challenging to look after your money at the moment. It costs the living. Investment markets aren't performing particularly well. Interest rates are doing great guns at the moment, but that could be a double-edged sword with your mortgage going up.

But potentially you're getting a bigger return on your savings account. Like I think I said to you, I've been doing this for 17 years now and these economic conditions we're in right now are the worst i've seen in 17 years and it's just a real mix of emotion challenging circumstances it's tough like it's really really hard to manage your money at the moment i think right across the board no matter what level of wealth or where you are in your career journey it's hard it It's really, really tough. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more.

And I guess we just have to hope it will. You know, what we know about is it bull and bear years that we will get back up there again and things will improve. I mean, it will, 100%. Like, if you look at history and as much as the FCSA past performance is an indication of the future, every single time we go through this, it gets better. It's just holding your nerve

and staying consistent with your approach. That's what makes a big difference long-term. But that's easier said than done if maybe this is the time that you've just started. And I think part of the challenge we've got is we've had good markets for 10 years. We've had good returns, solid returns for a long period of time

while interest rates have been low having conversations about investments and pensions has been a very very easy conversation because you can just pull those figures out and just compare the two now it's it's very very different and i've got clients in investments as i kind of mentioned off air that that are just unsure whether it's the right thing for them long term 100% is but right now is it the right thing so there's some real challenges and some difficult conversations kind of happening behind the scenes at the moment yeah yeah there are and it really does make me think about when I was in a position that was probably quite fortunate I I won't lie, when I was working full-time as an assistant psychologist and I was living with my parents. I think I only paid about £100 a month rent. It was

very, very low-key. And I really probably at that point was thinking, should I start a pension? Shouldn't I start a pension? And I guess other people listening to this might well be having that similar feeling. So I think I'm right in saying that if you're employed, you kind of have to be offered a workplace pension. Is that right, Ian? It is, absolutely. So auto enrolment came in a few years back, which effectively became a legal requirement for employers initially of a certain size, and then it's just been phased out to smaller and smaller employers to offer a pension. And the minimum contribution of that pension in total is 8%. So that would be 5% from you,

3% from your employer. But it's very easy for you to opt out of it. You could say, I don't want to be part of that pension. I don't want to do it. It's when you're kind of young, free, and you've got the world at your feet. Do you really think about a pension? No, you don't. I didn't. And I'm just going to start a little bit later. But I think in the 17 years I've been doing this, when I look at the experience of clients

that have got to a really strong retirement position or have got significant wealth built up for later on in life they started early and they didn't start with massive amounts because that compound effect over a period of time just spirals and spirals and gets bigger and bigger and those margins of contribution levels to growth get wider and wider every single time so start as soon as you possibly can even if it's only just a relatively small amount it makes a big difference long term and ultimately the way you've got to think about it in simple terms is if you put £100 in your employer's going to top that up then you're going to get your tax relief on top of that straight away off the bat you've got well over a 30% to 40% uplift. If I could get clients 30%, 40% uplift on investments, I'd be retired by now because I'd be doing the same.

You know, that's an incredible free uplift to your savings or investments that you don't get on an ISA, you don't get on a savings account, you don't get deductions against your mortgage for that. Tax relief at 20% as a basic rate taxpayer, 40% at higher rates, plus an employer contribution is huge. Make the most of it. Because if you don't, in simple terms, that money just stays with your employer. That just becomes their profit, does it? They just put that back into their own coffers. Absolutely. And there's no obligation for them to do that if you've opted out of that scheme because you've made the decision. You've decided, I don't want to be part of this scheme,

therefore I'm going to step back. Some of the bigger companies will say, well, we'll give you an extra £150 a month on your salary or whatever it might be. They'll compensate you for that. But a lot of them won't. They'll just say, well, okay, that's fine, no problem. But the sooner you start, the bigger those those numbers are much further down the line and it also

fundamentally means that when you get to your 40s and 50s you're not having to play catch up to to make up for those early years yeah there's two things i want to talk to you about which aren't linked to pensions but i'm going to to ask you anyway, because it's made me think. About a month ago, we were talking about compound interest, because I'd shared a post on socials that said, if I was to give you one penny a day that will double every day for the next 31 days, or I was to give you a million pounds today, which would you take? And most of us think, you wouldn't, I know what you'd take. The answer was like, of course I'd take a million pounds, because one P a day doubled for 31 days. That's what's going to give me about four pounds or something, isn't it? That'd be rubbish. But actually actually you're much better off with the one p a day and

that in essence is how compound interest works isn't it can you guide us through that better than i just have ian yeah absolutely so it's it's a it's a it's a great way just illustrate a simple compact and that the phrase that i always use is einstein said it was the eighth wonder of the world so compound growth is just growth on your on your on your growth so day one you put 100 pound in so let's assume day two you've got 102 pound on day three you would get growth on that 100 plus the two so it's growth on growth on growth and I think the interesting part is the longer you have that money in there, the bigger that growth is going to be, which is where certainly when you look at pensions and investments for clients,

it's a case of thinking, well, you might not be there now, but stick with it because those last few years before you need that, that compound growth can be phenomenal. But going back to your example, it's just sit down, sit down, write it on a sheet of paper. So a penny, then it goes to two, then it goes to example, it's just sit down, sit down, write it on a sheet of paper. So a penny, then it goes to two, then it goes to, then it'll go to four, then it'll go to eight, then it'll go to, and it just grows and grows and grows over a period of time. And even I was amazed when I kind of looked at that one. I thought, wow, that's a big number

at the end of it. But that's the kind of stuff that can either work with you or can work against you. And when I say work against you, that is things like debt, credit card loans, compound growth is working against you. But if you put it working for you in savings accounts, even at the moment, because the interest rates are really good or investments, you're getting growth on your growth. So your money is working hard for you. And a phrase that I always use is when you save your money, you put it to rest. When you invest your money, you put it out to work. So you're sending out the packed lunch ready to go and you're building money

on your money. And over a period of time, it makes such a difference. I absolutely love that. Go on money. Off you go. Go and work hard and bring me some more back. The other thing I wanted to talk to you about is probably something that's already on your radar. It's something I heard on Radio 2 recently.

I'm a Radio 2 girl. And they were talking about, you know, when you're in a supermarket and it says, or even for that matter, McDonald's, and they say, oh, do you want to round it up to give to charity? You know, give an extra 25p. And I've always thought oh that's a nice thing for them to do isn't it and sometimes I do and sometimes I don't what I didn't realize and I might I might have grasped the conversation wrong is that that becomes a tax break for the company that's not necessarily as altruistic as that might look

and that's something that I wasn't aware of, and I would probably assume most people are not. Is that right? 100% it is, yeah, absolutely. So they get a deduction for any charitable contributions against their corporation tax bill. They don't get above and beyond that. So if you said, I'm going to give you 25p in my pound

to go towards the McDonald's charities, then they just get a tax break on that part that goes in they don't get extra relief on top of it for doing it um but yeah that that's that's what it's there for but i can remember i used to work in mcdonald's a long long time ago and they were at the time they're one of the biggest charities in the world because of the amount of money that they they donate to kids charities i think they do a phenomenal job but at the same time that's something that you could benefit from like if there are charities that are close to your heart rather than contributing to them personally you could contribute to them through your business and you could you could legitimately write some

of that off as as um as a taxable expense like make the most of it you know it's contribute out your business so people are already limited companies then they can look to do that in their own business and then benefit the charities that they want to benefit yeah absolutely okay how many stars did you get on your badge ian oh great question i had this is the old school i had the full house i had five so so i did a bit of everything. Honestly, I talked to people at McDonald's. It was a great...

I loved McDonald's when I worked there. It was a really busy branch. And it just... They got the monies with that, absolutely. But I loved it. I think it was such a great ground to do so many things that I kind of look at now. Because you were just in at the deep end

and you worked really, really hard for eight-hour shifts. Stunk of burgers at the end of it which which my parents never liked but there you go one of my besties when I was at uni used to work at McDonald's during the school um holidays as well and um we used to like to play a game how bored we were sometimes what do McDonald's ever run out of let's do they ever run out of gherkins no do they ever run out of? Do they ever run out of gherkins? No. Do they ever run out of buns? No. Literally, the answer was no for everything. But I think things have changed these days.

They often don't have things these days. But, yeah, that's a little insight into my life when I was at uni. Also, they're a really good employer. They do private health care for their staff, which you just wouldn't know, probably. And degree. You can get a degree now through McDonald's. I'm reading, I've read a great book. It was called Sympological Repeatable, which is one of the former directors of McDonald's in the US.

And she wrote a book around how processes will have to find your business and it's so true because mcdonald's are really really good at what they do because you get the same cheeseburger no matter where in the world you get it because it's a simple logical repeatable process and they've just refined and refined and refined that down to something that distilled it to something really pure and every single branch follows the same process every employee goes through the same process their training is exceptional because they want everybody to do it in a specific way um they've they've done phenomenally well out of it i don't know whether you saw you've seen the um the the film with michael keaton in it

when he's that he's the ray Kroc the founder of McDonald's and he gets involved with these two brilliant film love that film but yeah there's so much to be learned from it they've done phenomenally well they're a worldwide chain and continue to grow so one of the questions I've received was given the kind of uncertainty of what a career in mental health might look like these days. So it might involve NHS or employed work. It might involve a bit of private work. It might involve fully being private. Should people or could people consider, should they not have any NHS pension?

Should they start a private pension right away? Or I know it's kind of hard to give generic advice, but people are confused, Ian. What's the way forward? Yeah. I think that's in the whole of the market about pensions. Like pensions have this illusion that they're really complicated. But if you look at the NHS pension, it's still a very, very good pension scheme. So I would encourage anybody that has access to that pension scheme to have one because it's such a well-rounded, great growth on the scheme itself, depending on which variation of the scheme that you're involved in. But even the most recent one, which I think was the 2015 edition. I can't remember off the top of my head,

but there's three different evolutions of the NHS pension. And no matter which evolution you're involved in, you're not going to get that kind of growth. You're not going to get that kind of return over a consistent basis as you would do with a private pension. But that doesn't mean to say that a private pension hasn't got its place. So ultimately, if you are thinking that you want to move up from the NHS to private practice,

there are pros and cons for both of them. What I encourage psychologists and people that work in this space that I have conversations with is to think about the bigger picture, first of all. It's not just about the pension. It's about the big piece. It's what do you want to get out of life? What are your financial goals? What do you want to achieve?

Why is that so important to you and plan that all out and get a real structure that works that you're emotionally engaged with first and then the numbers can just drop in because it might be that you've got enough pension provision where you are after being in the nhs for 10 or 15 years that you don't necessarily want to have a private pension there might be other things you want to do it might be that you've got a shortfall so you want to make that up by making those contributions and keeping your corporation tax below a certain level everybody's different but what i'd encourage anybody to do is have some conversations with a financial advisor have some conversations with an accountant talk these things through

talk to colleagues talk to other people in this position to understand what they do i think the nhs have got a great health plan that you can get in contact with with the pension the information might be limited um but it's a good starting point like most financial advisors will have a conversation with you around what's the right thing to do and i'd like to think the majority of them would be would indeed come back with that right advice for you yeah thank you and you can absolutely have both can't you can have an NHS and a private and also a child can have a pension you can start saving a pension for a child can't you literally it's never too soon yeah absolutely and I think if you can start contributing to a pension for your kids at an early age, you're setting themselves up for such a great retirement further down the line. And as I said earlier, start and earlier makes such a difference.

If you could get them started from what they wouldn't start from birth, like parents or grandparents contributed from birth, you could do 2 do 2880 a year with tax relief that goes up to 3600 um if you contributed to that and they then contributed 100 pound a month for the rest of their life they're the kind of people that retire at the age of 55 and and the rest of us are kind of kind of working it makes such a difference but having that discipline of 100 pound a month rather than getting to 40 and 50 £50 and realising you've got some serious shortfalls to make up makes such a difference. And if people are listening thinking I'd love to be able to find an extra £100 a month to put in my kids pension but I haven't got that but I could probably muster up a tenner a month is that worth doing or not? Yeah whatever you can

do I think I think investments and pensions are a lot more accessible than they ever have been i think the information that's available especially with social media and webinars youtube places like that there is a vast amount of information available on the basics and i think you almost need to distill it down to what what the basic elements are and it's or do you want to save for your's, do you want to save for your kid's future? Do you want to save for your future? Yes or no? Simple as that. And then you can kind of plan out.

You don't necessarily have to start with a massive amount. It could be that you start, like you said, with a tenner, that maybe you build up in a savings account. And then once a year, you make a contribution into the pension. I'm not sure many investment platforms operate at only a 10 or a month i think the minimum tends to be about 25 but two and a half months in you can you can make a contribution you could do that three four five times a year if you wanted to but just just get started and start chipping away makes a big difference brilliant such good advice and when i left the

nhs you know it's that quandary of what do I do with it? Do I leave it there? Do I kind of take it out and put it in my in my new shiny private pension? And I think the general consensus is leave it there. Leave it there. You're not going to do much better than an NHS pension. Is that kind of your general advice? Yeah, 100 percent. I mean, you can't you can't move it out anyway so it has to stay within the NHS I think um one of the dangers that you can kind of overlook is you can almost kind of disregard that and start really going aggressively after your um your

private pension and contributing consistently on a consistent basis over a period of time, take a step back, big picture stuff that has to be included in that conversation. If you're having a conversation with a financial advisor and all they're talking about is the private pension, but they're not including this NHS pension that you've got, which could be worth quite a tidy sum of money, then maybe you need to be having conversations with a different financial advisor. And that's not me saying that, it has to be having conversations with a different financial advisor. And that's not me saying that. It has to be me or anybody else. But big picture stuff, you need to plan the whole thing out.

It's not just looking at one particular area. And yes, those private contributions are worth it long term. But how do you know you haven't got enough already? Because if you have got enough already, could you do something else? Could you be spending it could you be going on holiday two or three times a year instead of paying that pension that's why the big picture conversation makes such a difference retirement plan is really important 100 but it's that million dollar question of getting a balance between now and what you want further down the line and somewhere in the middle is the right answer. And that balance will tip and kind of sway throughout your life.

And sometimes I tell clients to just spend the money and it kind of puts them on a bit of the back foot. But if you've got enough, then why do you need more? Spend it, enjoy life because tomorrow is not guaranteed, is it? No, it isn't. And I've not read the book, but i know there's a book called is it die broke or something like that that you basically plan so much that you're you know you haven't really got anything left to pass on when you're when you're gone yeah i've heard i can't

remember the exact name of it but i don't think it's something along those lines yes it's definitely on the list but yeah absolutely like you can't take it with you i mean great that you want to leave stuff for the kids i understand that as well because actually it's giving them a bit of a leg up further down the line but i'm sure your kids and i'll say this exactly for my parents i'd prefer them to be around for another 10 or 15 years because i've had a great old life rather than scrimping saving and leave me 50 60 grand in a will spend it i don't need it absolutely i wish i could have kept my dad for longer you know he worked hard and he worked as a boiler man and um you know he did

did enjoy his life he liked tinkering with his bikes and stuff but he died at 71 and that's no age no not at all and they just they just saved you know they didn't really have new cars and didn't have fancy holidays and you know it's just yeah it's it always feels like a distant thing doesn't it all this financial planning and when we're going to retire and um but i was recently staying with somebody in ireland when i was over there doing a keynote talk and um the lady i was staying with was 84 and I'm 42. And I literally had this moment of just thinking, gosh, that's nothing. You're exactly double my age.

And it feels like that's no time at all. Before I know it, I will be 84. Yeah. Disappear so quick. And I see that so often. And you can, as much as you're trying i talk with clients about this having a north star in the sky of where you want to get to and where you want to plan and move towards that doesn't have to be rigid that can move that can change and it will

because i've seen it and know that most people have seen it over a period of time you make all these best laid plans and then something just throws a spanner in the works and it has to change maybe your partner gets ill. Maybe you're split up. Maybe you get divorced. There's lots of different moving parts in this. But that doesn't mean you disregard it completely and live completely for the now. It's a hard act and a hard balance to get right because society at the moment and how we live is expensive.

We're in the middle of a cost of living crisis. We've got high interest rates. So if your mortgage is changing, you're probably coming from two percent interest rates to five or six percent interest rates that has a big impact on your monthly um bills like we all know how much more expensive supermarket shopping is how much more expensive petrol is how much more expensive your car insurance is everything is getting more and more expensive that's the impact of inflation and when inflation is running at the rate that it is at the moment which feels a little bit out of control that's the impact of inflation and when inflation is running at the rate that it is at the moment which feels a little bit out of control that has a real impact on the on the

amount that you take you take home every month and sometimes you have to just pull it all in i think i can't think about the long term right now i've planned for that like four or five years ago but i can't think about that right now i I just need to go into survival mode. And I think there's nothing wrong with that because we feel this emotional guilt that we're not going to have the life that we want further down the line, or maybe we're not going to have the round the world trip.

But that's no good if you're miserable right now. If you can't afford to live right now and it has an impact on you, your mental health, your wellbeing, your family and all the rest of it, what's the cost and you can't put pounds and pence cost on that stuff yes plan for the future but it's getting that balance right and that's hard and it's hard to do it yourself when you've got emotion involved in it because sometimes somebody else has an extra pair of eyes and ears can see things and have the same conversation you've been having yourself.

But it sounds differently and it just resonates on a different level to having that conversation with yourself. Thank you. It's really, really useful food for thought. Am I right in thinking that if the worst happens and we don't get to that ripe old age that we'd planned for our retirement, that certainly a private pension can be passed on as an asset. So that then becomes something that you leave for your children. Am I right in that? It is, absolutely. So, I mean, an NHS pension, you can do the same thing,

but the benefits are slightly less. So the NHS pension, we'll start with that one. So that's a defined benefit scheme. So with a degree of predictability, you've got an idea of how much income you're going to have from that pension scheme when you retire. 15, 20 grand a year or whatever it might be. So on your statement, you get every year, it's indexed thing to go to for a period of time. Now, the challenge with those types of scheme is as much as they're great for

you in the income that you're going to have with your spouse or your partner, whoever else it might be, if something happens to you, those benefits reduce significantly. So else it might be if something happens to you those benefits reduce significantly so typically it would be it would reduce down to 50 so if you've got a income of say 30 000 from your pension then it would reduce down to 15 so your spouse would get 15 if your spouse then passes away nothing then gets left to the kids unless that under the age of 21 in full-time education where they would get i I think it's a 25% pension, but that would only be while they're considered to be financially dependent upon you. Flip that over to the other side and then you've got a private pension. In simple terms, just think of it like a savings account. So it's the £100,000 pension pot that could be passed down to your kids your partner whoever it is that you

decide and that's done really simply when you set the pension up with your financial advisor or even if you haven't used a financial advisor you're completing expression of wish form and that's you saying i want my pension to go to little johnny little jane and my partner mary i don't know where those names came from but but they were the first ones that popped into my head but but they're the ones that that you pass that pension down to. They can do whatever you want with it. Now, the tax benefits would be that if you died before the age of 75, they get that lump sum as they can do whatever they want with.

They can keep it in a pension or they could take it out. After 75, there's some tax implications. So most of the time, people will just keep that as part of a pension. But I like to talk to clients about it and think of your pension as almost like an extra bit of life insurance so if something does happen to you and you've got a private scheme that could be passed down through the generations doesn't necessarily have to go to your kids because got your grandkids or whoever it is think of that as part of the bigger picture. Thank you. And you mentioned there that it's obviously possible to do investing by yourself without a financial advisor. And for some people perhaps on a lower income,

that might feel preferable. But I guess the theory is, is that when you go with an IFA, that they try and make you more money than you would do otherwise if you were to do it by yourself is you know because I guess the thing with with financial advisors is that you do pay them a premium um and that can feel quite ouchy and when you do have a lower income it can feel like giving away money that just feels really hard one um how can you kind of balance up the kind of the morals and the ethics of that well that's that's a question and a half um i mean you can do it yourself absolutely what i'd encourage you to think about is have you got the knowledge to be able to do it

yourself because if you if you've got the knowledge have you then got the time have you then got the capability and there are three different things to look at there now if you have then yes do it if you haven't then maybe that's the point that you engage a financial advisor and there is a perception that you give having financial advice can be expensive and and i'd probably encourage you to think about it the other way around like what are the costs of you not using a financial advisor because that can be significant there are lots and lots of different studies and you can just put them into Google of financial advice versus not having financial advice. And I think the average difference that makes is a pension of somewhere between an extra two to three thousand pound a year when you retire. Now, if you can use a financial advisor

to set that up for you and have that extra two to three thousand pound a year when you retire, when you can't earn anymore, that's a a big difference but that doesn't mean that you can't do that yourself there are so many investment platforms there are lots of self-investment platforms there are a lot of them that will have tutorials and really simple pathways that you can go down to start this thing yourself but my view is that you should be able to have a conversation with a financial advisor. And certainly I do this with clients. You don't need to have me as your financial advisor

for the rest of your life. We can have a one-off conversation and we can do that on a basis that works for you. I think the whole world of financial advice is changing. It's changing massively and it will do over the next 10 or 15 years. The vast majority of the industry right now it feels quite transactional so you sit down you go through a process listen to a guy

probably in a pinstripe suit with a flash card tell you about how great their business is how much money they look after why you should use them and it feels a bit like a sales pitch and i was part of that world for a long time until i started thinking there was a better way of doing it. Now, I don't operate like that anymore. My view is actually let's figure out what's really, really important to you, why that's really important to you, and then we'll fit the numbers around that. And that's not me trying to convince you for me to be your financial advisor. It's about me planning out what's important to you. And if you want to go and do that yourself, because you've now got the plan from a professional, why not go and do that yourself?

Because if you can and you're comfortable doing it, then absolutely crack on. And I think the old transaction way was, we'll keep a hold of these relationships for as long as possible. And that world is changing. I think over the next 10 or 15 years, it's going to be incredibly exciting

because more and more people are starting to do this. And there's younger advisors coming in. I think the next evolution is going to be incredibly exciting because more and more people are starting to do this and there's younger advisors coming in i think it's the next evolution is going to be um quite interesting for clients because it is risky it is risky and it's that you know your funds may be at risk that feels oh it feels really scary doesn't it and i don't you know i i definitely don't understand enough to be doing it myself i did have a little bit of a dabble in like an online share trading thing, but I don't know what I'm doing. And it's a small amount, enough amount. It doesn't really matter.

It doesn't really matter. But I definitely am not good enough to do this by myself for anything more than I have already. I mean, the thing is, you could have a dabble with this stuff, right? You could start off with a relatively small amount and say, well, if I put £100 into one of these accounts, forget about how much it is, but look at the percentage figures on it. So look at the percentage returns. So if you're managing £100, because you need to be able to manage £100

and manage £1,000 to manage £100,000 to manage the million, right? You've got to understand the fundamentals of that £100, to manage £1,000, to manage £100,000, to manage the million, right? You've got to understand the fundamentals of that £100. But you could put that into an account and look at the percentages. And if that fund drops 20%, how would you feel if that was £100,000? How would you feel if that was half a million, if that was your life savings? And if that is the kind of thing that worries you, then you need to get a professional involved. If you're okay with those fluctuations, then potentially you could do it yourself. Now, playing around with £100 and actually being at the level where you're managing that yourself and you can have an impact on that return positively and negatively, you've almost got that extra layer of security with a financial advisor in there

because if you make the wrong decision and that drops yourself, how do recover that and that tends to be the thing that happens and i see a lot over the years like people that manage the funds themselves and there's some people out there do great job there's a tendency to over panic so when markets go down there's an over panic of crikey it's dropped 20 what do i do whereas if you take a step back fund managers don't do anything they'll just sit tight because the note will come back you can over trade so you'll buy and sell more more frequently I guess than I would if I was looking after it for you because we're thinking three five year time horizon reset the clock start again and just kind of repeat over a period of time if you're kind of buying and selling stocks and shares to try and make returns on an almost daily or weekly basis that's incredibly

risky um there was another one that's just gone so it was the over trading side of things it was the um the panic buying the the tendency to buy funds that you're really comfortable with or name brand names that you that you know which is a good starting point but actually if you think about it all those big companies going to continue that level of growth or do you want like the next amazon the next apple obviously you want the next amazon the next apple but whereas if you're using a fund manager they can potentially spot that because they've got teams of analysts and all that that sit behind that. It's a hard balancing act, but if you can start off relatively small and you're comfortable with it and you can almost multiply that out to the bigger numbers and you still feel comfortable

with the 20% drop, give it a go. You might just need someone to give you a bit of a help along the way and reach out to financial advisors and say, what are you thinking of this? Can I have a sense check on where I am? Is this going to be able to deliver me a b c and d 100 and there are advisors out there that'll do that for you there are other advisors out there that will say that's your bag you crack on it's you've got to find the right person to work with yeah great advice and you know some advisors are independent and some are not. Is there a right or wrong approach there? How would we even begin to understand why that's a good or bad thing? The thing for me is you need to find an advisor that you trust.

And whether that advisor is on a restricted basis or completely independent, you need to find someone that you're comfortable with. If you want, find another one. And that could mean that there are people out there that I've had conversations with that didn't feel comfortable with me. That's fine. I'm not everybody's cup of tea, and every financial advisor isn't going to be everybody's cup of tea. It's like, get a second opinion. Find someone that you feel confident having those conversations with. And when you do, stick with them. Whether they are restricted, which means they'll work from a certain panel of providers, or they might only work with one internal set of funds, or whether they're independent, which is the whole of market. And I've done both of them. of my career where I wanted more, I guess, options and alternatives to what was available out there

and to be able to fully utilize my 17 years of experience to deliver the best possible outcomes for clients. But that doesn't mean that if you're with a restricted advisor, they're not going to give you the best possible outcome because if they're looking after you properly and they are managing everything properly for you, then why rock the boat? I think a lot of the time it can get all caught up in returns, but if you're with somebody who makes you feel safe, secure, and you're having the right kind of conversations with them, whether they're restricted or independent doesn't really matter.

If you're just looking from a, I want as many possible options as possible, independent has to be the way to go because you've got the whole of the market available but that doesn't mean it's right for everybody it's about finding the advisor first and then understanding what they can offer yeah absolutely and I think it's like getting any job done in your house you should get at least three quotes shouldn't you should have three meetings with three different advisors and then maybe also try and do a bit of your research yourself to try and get your own kind of sense of what is available and how it compares.

And if it doesn't feel right, don't do it. Even if you have those three meetings, I had someone a couple of years back who I was the seventh advisor that he'd spoken to in a row because he just wasn't sure who he was going to pick, what kind of style he wanted, because we all operate in slightly different ways depending on what our experience is, what our qualifications are. You get a different experience from each advisor, but ultimately he ended up picking me because it was a very different approach. But

that doesn't mean my approach would work for you. You might want the transactional stuff. You might want to go through the process and just be really hands-off tell me what i need to do and everybody's different um have those conversations and if it doesn't feel right after three then have four maybe have five have six if it doesn't feel right then actually is financial advice right for you do you need to just take a step back for a moment and think well just because everybody's getting financial advice doesn't mean it's the right thing for you right now. I'm a firm believer that everybody should have access

to a financial advisor at some point. It might not be the right point in time for you to have access to them. Then you might just need a bit of a nudge in the right direction from a friend or a relative. Like have those conversations and it's the old stiff British upper lip, isn't it?

That we don't talk about money because it's rude and crass. Like for me, that's nonsense. Like have the conversations with people that you know, because they'll have made some of the mistakes that you are. You're not going to be asking them exactly what they invest in. Just be like, do you mind just telling me a little bit about what you do with your money?

I don't want to know figures or anything. Like, what do you do? How do you do it? Because you'll get different ideas and everyone's going to have a different opinion and i guess i guess the other caveat i've got to add to that is that's not bob the piss head down the pub who's never got any money because he's always kind of you're always buying him a beer i mean if you look at that logically he's probably not great with money but people that you know are okay with

money are okay financially. Have those conversations. Bob the pisshead down the pub might be richer than anybody because he doesn't spend his own money. You never know. This is it. You never know. I mean, it's unlikely, but it's possible. I love that. And, you know, someone who's in their early 20s, perhaps listening to this, how can they even begin to fathom what they might need and what the cost of living situation is going to be by the time they get to be in their late 60s, early 70s? Probably by the time they get to retire, it might even be 80s.

How can they begin to imagine and work that out, what they might need? It's tough it's really really tough I mean if and if you look at like generationally where we are and how difficult it is for us to get onto the property that like my kids and certainly your kids will find it even harder than we did to get onto that property ladder and are they going to be able to do that without parental support without parental help I don't know and that's that's the hard bit that's the moving part that's the moving part that we just can't predict but what i'd encourage you to do is if you're in that

position is to just try and and also map out like ultimately dream blue sky scenario what do you want your retirement and your end goal to look like and this is what i talk to clients about and it's that north star in the sky, if everything fell into place and everything happened exactly the way I wanted, which it won't, by the way, what do you want your retirement to look like? Is that going to be like your grandparents? Is it going to be like your parents?

Is it going to be like your Uncle Bob? Whoever it is, try and paint that picture a little bit. And if you can paint that picture, then you could almost reverse engineer that right the way back to where you are now. And it might be that you can't do that. And it might be that all you can paint that picture, then you could almost reverse engineer that right the way back to where you are now. And it might be that you can't do that. And it might be that all you can think about is the next five years. And that next five years might be, I want to get on the property ladder.

I want to make sure I've got some savings behind me in case the shit hits the fan, washing machine breaks down or whatever it might be. I want to be able to afford to put the kids into nursery because I plan to go back to school just figure that out and talk that through if you've got a partner to do that with amazing if you've got um friends you can have that conversation with great because certainly what i found is having those things in your head is very different to writing them down on a sheet of paper or very different to verbalizing them because they sound very differently and resonate on a different level and if it is just a five-year plan of i want to get on the property ladder or i want to move out of the family home or whatever it might be then try and figure out what that looks like you don't have to do it all at once like if we all did it all at once and we all kind

of in our 20s knew exactly what we were going to do for the rest of our lives, we'd all be retired at 55. You'd all be retired at 50 and you'd all have a great old life and the poverty wouldn't exist and all these other kind of horrible things that are out there because we'd all have our, I nearly swore again, we'd all have everything together and know exactly the direction we're going. And that's impossible. But sometimes it's just figure out maybe the five-year plan and then the next step then the one after that and the one after that and the one after that and that's what i tell clients we'll figure out what the long-term really important stuff is and why that's important to you we'll try and reverse engineer that and if we can't we'll just

figure out what we're going to do tomorrow and then and we're going to do next month, next six months, next year. And then all of a sudden, you're two, three years in, and you've got that plan that starts to kind of fall into place. Yeah, it's tricky, isn't it? This is, I guess, where dream boards and vision boards and Pinterest come in in that you can dare to imagine what you might want your life to look like. And that's not suggesting, you know, don't be disloyal to the life we're living now. I think speaking as a psychologist, we can be quite good at making the best of the situation we're in. And change can be tricky as well. But it's knowing that you do deserve to have a life that's enjoyable that feels comfortable that um you know it's got

good stuff in it and you're allowed you know I think and we spoke briefly last time about money trauma as well didn't we you know the messages we get given from others around us as we grow up about how how it is if you spend money you know you're really decadent or you know too carefree or um you know I think I said that my mum always would be an egg sandwich girl because they're the cheapest in the shop, you know, and anything more than that is just decadent, you know. But it's allowing yourself to free yourself from the shackles of what you've been told

and actually doing what makes you happy, which can be liberating. A hundred percent. And it's that balance piece again and it's a it's a word that i use all of the time it's that balance of here and now in the future but one of the things that i kind of hear a lot from clients in the 50s and clients in the 40s i wish i'd started sooner i wish i'd taken this stuff a little bit more seriously in my 20s i'm exactly the same been there done it struggled young kids, couldn't make ends meet at the end of the month, kind of stuff on

credit cards, or been there and done it. I've kind of made every possible financial mistake you could have possibly made. But overall, I wish I'd been more financially literate when I was in my 20s and knew about this stuff. And I think we've got a generation of people kind of growing up through the workplace and certainly our kids where all of this information is available. And that's a good and a positive thing because it could be information overload and you just feel like you can't move

because there's so much information out there. And let's be honest, a lot of the stuff that you see on social media can be rubbish at times. I think it's about being selective about the information that you think would be relevant and work towards and help you along those goals. Like to be successful, you don't need to have five Lamborghinis parked in your drive and live in a

$25 million house in LA, you know, define what your definition of success is right now. And that might just be getting to the end of the month and having £10 a month to be able to put aside and think I've started my financial journey. I've started my savings. That to me is massive. That's much more valuable than the guy who can put 20 grand a month away because you've got started. You've started that journey and that should be applauded and should be lauded because it's incredibly important because that's the first step and after that comes a second step after that comes the third one and then it just becomes

routine over a period of time and it's the phrase of like whenever you get a new car if you buy a new vw golf you'll see them everywhere everybody's got a vw golf they haven't got a new vw golf you're just more aware of it when you start being more aware with your finances then all of a sudden when you could just afford to do 10 pound a month then next month all of a sudden you can probably do 20 because you're a little bit more aware of what the goal is in the five years and what impact a 10 or a 20 pound a month can make and then all of a sudden it's 30 40 50 get a pay rise maybe you get some extra money coming in. Maybe you reduce your costs.

And it just starts to gather some traction. If you can grasp that, it sets you up for life rather than getting to 40s and 50s and saying, I wish I'd started sooner. And I do wish I'd started sooner. I do. We hear that all the time. So, yeah, the people listening now that are in their early 20s start now start now um i think it's that i felt i felt silly ian i felt silly because i didn't even have a boyfriend a long-term partner at that time i felt like oh just little old me like oh

it's a bit embarrassing bit cringe isn it? All this pension and investing. It's not silly though, is it? It's not. Not at all. Like that's the stuff that over the years, like I said earlier, the people that have got that financial security in the 40s and 50s are the ones that start now. It's the ones that started in the 20s and start taking this stuff

a little bit seriously. And you've got to start somewhere with like the 10 and the 25 quid or whatever it is. It's cringe it's not silly you might think it's boring but i tell you what's not boring retiring at 55 when everyone else is out working like when all those people that are kind of taking the mick out of you because you put your money at your pension when you're in your 20s and they're still slogging away in the 50s and 60s and you're kind of sat on a beach for six months of the year that's not boring and that's the reality of it right i've got i've got i've had clients over the years and who've taken to the other extreme and i'll use one example there was a guy that i gave mortgage advice to a long

time ago and he's he's 25 full-time plumber ran his own business lived at home with his dad never spent any money had 250 grand in the bank at 25. And I'm like, wow, that's incredible. What are you going to do with that? He said, well, I want to get it at 400, then I want to buy a house. Great. What do you want to buy a house for? Because I've got security for my family. Amazing. How many days a week do you work? Seven days a week. Do you have any time off? No, never go on holiday. And I work 12 hour days. Great. So you're going to have this big 400 grand house, four bedrooms and all the rest of it just for you. And he's like, well, what do you mean? I said, well, how are you going to meet somebody if you do that? And the penny just dropped all of a sudden.

He was like, yeah, you're right. Because he's been so focused on earning that money, he's just forgotten about everything else in his life. So that's the far extreme of it. And somewhere in the middle is the right balance. It doesn't mean you kind of follow that route if you want to, fine. But it's that here and now but just getting started with one eye just in the future of where you want to get to yeah yeah and i know that when you're saving for a pension when it gets taken out

of your account or taken out of your wages it gets taken off pre-tax doesn't it but when it comes back to you again it does then get taxed if you're earning over the taxable threshold is that right it does yeah all right you're learning well done so so you do absolutely so but i suppose the difference is you've got control over how you take that income. So yes, the money that you go in, you're going to save tax, but you're paid on the back end. But that money that you're saving tax now is a basic rate taxpayer. You put your pension contribution in, it will get rounded up by an additional 20% so you get tax relief. Higher rate tax, that's 40%. If you do that out your business and your corporation tax rate,

depending on what your turnover is, your business can contribute to your pension now fast forward to 30 40 years down the line you've got this great big pension pot that you want to start taking some money from if you've got other assets maybe property savings investments or whatever it is you can control to a certain extent how you take that income um you might decide that you take an income out of your investments and they might be tax-free if you've got them as isis so you can take up to higher rate tax out of that pot you've got a lot more flexibility on that yes you know what you've got to pay some tax on it at some point potentially but as i said at the start that if you don't spend it that could go to your kids, that could go to your partner, there could be various other ways.

If you want to get really technical, sometimes you can borrow against the pension to do things, if you've got your own business. Tax is one of those things that you can't really avoid. It's that old thing I just said, the one thing that you can't avoid is debt and taxes. It happens to all of us, but you can have control over the level of tax you pay in your retirement much more than you can when you're employed or when you're necessarily building a business plus you also get 25 tax free you can take out your pension as a lump sum anyway that might be enough to keep you taking over for four or five years or to pay the mortgage off or have

the route around the world trip pensions are very tax efficient when you go in. They can be just as tax efficient on the way out if you manage them properly. Aha, so that's when you hear people retiring and they say, oh, I've got a lump sum and my pension. That's like, that's what you mean. Yeah, absolutely. That's it.

And it can make a big difference. And a lot of people just kind of almost sleepwalk into retirement without really reviewing this stuff until you get to the back end of it. Oh my God, what am I going to do? Well, if you wait until three weeks before you retire to look at this stuff, it's too late. You need to be looking at this consistently on the run up there to know whether you're on track, off track, what you can do. Do you need to kick up the backside to put more money in? Have you

got enough? Are there other things that you could be doing? I think I'm a big believer in having as many different things pushing in that direction as possible. It's not just your pension. That could be your business. That could be your property. That could be your savings, your investments. That could be other things that you're involved in. The more you've got pushing that way, the more security you've got that you're going to hit that end goal at the back end. Yeah, and I guess I'm part of the kind of spread your risk kind of philosophy. So because I'm self-employed, I only pay my tax twice a year. and i don't trust myself not to spend it and so i save that by putting that up into premium bonds which is kind of guaranteed isn't it it's um you know you can do up to 50 grand a year and that's that money's safe as housing because that's um that's with the government

um but actually you can earn money on that you win money but then you can earn money on the money that's invested again so that becomes compound in itself I think is that right of course yeah absolutely and it makes a big difference long term plus the tax relief and everything else that comes with it it's huge yeah and my dad um when he passed away he left my boys um a small amount of money and I decided to put that into premium bonds for them. And the other day, my youngest came home and on the sofa was a letter from them saying he'd won £150. And like, you know, it's amazing, isn't it? Because actually there's not a huge amount in there, but that's what he'd won.

And, you know, he's like, oh, amazing. What can I buy with that? And I'm like, well, nothing. We're going to leave it in there and see what happens for your future. But already the boys are like, oh, that means I've got more than you now because I've won. You know, and it's, you know, it's yeah, it's safe to have conversations with our children about money, isn't it as well? It's so important. I mean, you know better than anybody else like at what age kids cognitive behavior is set by and what an influence we have on our kids behaviors and how they manage their

behavior but importantly how they manage their money because they learn from us all of the time and us modeling certain kinds of behavior has such a positive impact on the kids and it's exactly the same the other way around like if we are spending money willy-nilly and quite freely on all kinds of stuff then your kids are going to grow up in that environment of thinking that that's acceptable if you're in mountains of debt then they're probably going to follow the same route it's very difficult for them to break out of it so as much as managing your own money is important just remember you're setting examples for your kids and how they manage theirs as well getting them involved in those conversations as early as possible makes such a difference and it's it doesn't necessarily have to start with things like pocket money it could be

you just talk to them about managing the money and managing a savings account or how you pay your bills every month or what a mortgage is what a what rent is what council tax having those conversations and keeping them open i think the education system's got a long way to go to kind of have those those conversations as well there are some incredible things happening in the background there are lots of um startup foundations i'm involved with one of them that will go into schools and talk to them about financial education what a mortgage is what a savings account is what abcd is and just really distilled out the simple forms because again as parents not everybody knows this stuff like not everybody knows what a what a mortgage is how that works and what an

investment is and what a stock or a share is but by having those conversations we're just equipping our children a lot better and and they're also going to be able to cut through the noise and see through the bs because there's a lot of it out there in social media and they're growing up in a generation of where as i said earlier unless you're unless you're jake paul and driving a lamborghini then that's not that's not classed as success like that's not success that's just i mean i'm sure the guys worked incredibly hard to get there but that doesn't mean if you don't hit that level that you failed at all yeah I hear you my kids both want to be either premiership footballers or youtubers and have seven cars in the garage

and it's like oh baby boys like your mummy's got a 10 year year old persia and she's actually a really nice person and works really hard and you know that's still really incredibly important um but it's almost like go big or go home like they're not they can't they can't see anything else as being viable i had the same with my two like they both want to be professional footballers both played football to a high enough standard but once they started getting to a certain standard and they realized the level of commitment involved neither of them wanted to do that anymore it just kind of felt like it was going to overtake their life to get there and ultimately that's that's a great point because if you want to get to that youtube level of stardom you want to get

to that professional sports level of stardom or ceo of like a worldwide company it's got to take over your life it's got to be a big life commitment and i kind of had that realization a while back that i could have all that stuff if i really wanted it but do it do i really want it and it's that old adage of do you want to be a millionaire do you want to spend a million pounds and i think the vast majority of people would like to spend a million pounds but they don't necessarily want to be a millionaire because to get to a millionaire is a lot of graft work blood sweat and tears to get there and I think that's missing but I think as kids kind of grow older they start to realize that level of commitment it takes to get to that point and I think the people

listening to this podcast will absolutely resonate with what you've said about the hard graft because what you may not realize is that it's really, really, really hard to become a professionally qualified psychologist as well. It's so competitive that lots of people do, like you say, just give up or decide that, you know, they're going to do something different instead, because it's, you know, there's so much rejection, there's so much, much you know uncertainty that the people you then do see as qualified psychologists have absolutely you know put in that graft and the perseverance and taken the knockbacks and the setbacks and the the kind of not knowing whether

the prize will ever come um so yeah it's i think people will absolutely resonate with what you've said but it also hopefully means they're going to go the hard graft to really make their savings become their wealth, you know, and make that work for themselves too. And it takes some of the pressure off by doing that. Like, I get the hard graft. You've got to put those hard yards in earlier on in your career. But if you can get the finances and get on top of those, it means that further down the line,

you don't have to put that graft in anymore because you've got that security blanket of knowing I'm financially secure, I'm okay. And that's an incredible place to be in. And the difference you can see in people when they get to that point is, well, it's life-changing. Not everyone will get there, though. And I also understand that. I don't mean that everybody has to get there because everybody's got their own different version of freedom and what their life wants to look like it's not for me to dictate which which way is right and which way is wrong but certainly in the world that i operate in that financial

security piece is is really important it makes such a difference it really is and you before we hit record you and i were talking about strategy in business but the same is true in employed life as well you know you're allowed to have a strategy for your life and that can change over time it can change as regularly as you need but it just make makes us a bit less aimless is the hope isn't it absolutely and over the years i'm sure we've both worked with people that have had one job for one company for the rest for all of their lives and like that wasn't for me but that was perfect for them that was perfect for them and they've got to the end of their life end of their kind of working life and thought great i've spent 30 years with one company and that's been enough for me and happy days i'm happy like that's why life's so great because there are so many different options

about what you can do and what that means for you in terms of your happiness your well-being your financial status your financial security all of those things there's so many moving parts and so many different avenues you can take and you can always reinvent the wheel and kind of go down a different route and try something else yeah honestly Ian I think we will have to invite you back for another another money clinic because there's just so many questions and so many it's just you make everything so accessible and so easy to understand so thank you for your time how can people learn more about you and your work because they will want to i know okay really simple i am

on linkedin so if you just search for ian dempsey on linkedin i haven't got a website yet that's as we're talking about strategy and business, that's job number 345 on the list. That's going to come eventually, but I'm on LinkedIn. I share lots of information about budgeting, finances, money. I'm a big believer in education. All the stuff I've talked about today, most of that was probably kind of in posts from LinkedIn anyway.

Follow me along. Ask me any questions that you've got. I'll share as much information as I can to kind of demystify the smoke and mirrors of finances. Lovely. And I think what I might do, Ian, is I might schedule this for January

because that feels like kind of an optimistic time. What's your top tip for making 2024 your wealthiest, most productive year yet for your money? We could do a whole episode on that. I think it's been really, try and be really clear about what you want.

And there's some questions that I always ask my clients, like, what do you want out of this process? So I'm sat down with a client and they're talking about financial advice on money. What do you want out of the process? So if you're going to get on top of your finances, like why? Why is that important to you? What do you want to achieve by doing it? Why is that important to you? And how are you going to feel when you get there? And I think if you can answer those questions honestly and openly, and that doesn't necessarily mean the first answer is

going to be the right one because it might not be be but if you can write it down on a sheet of paper and think about maybe when you're walking the dog out on a run and all of a sudden it hits you between the eyes that's the right answer and that's what i talk to clients about if you can get really clear on those four five things the next step after that is fairly logical you can just kind of drop things into place but in terms of fixing your finances for 2024 complete a budget plan and know what you've The next step after that is fairly logical. You can just kind of drop things into place. But in terms of fixing your finances for 2024, complete a budget plan. Know what you've got coming in, going out. Put your money to work.

Make your money work in terms of getting money on your money in terms of compound growth that we've talked about. By understanding what you've got coming in and going out, you can give everything a job. You can understand what that's going to do for you. Link that to those five bits that we've just talked about there. And don't be afraid to make mistakes. You don't have to have a rigid plan that you have to stick to 100% every single day of the week, every single month, because you'll be miserable.

Give yourself a little treat every now and again. Have a little bit of a blowout. Come back to it, reset the clock, start again. If it fails once, come back and nail it again. If it fails two times, come back every now and again. Have a little bit of a blowout. Come back to it. Reset the clock. Start again. If it fails once, come back and nail it again. If it fails two times, come back and do it again. You can start again tomorrow. It doesn't make a difference if you don't quite get it this month, but just constantly keep that wheel moving forward,

even just a little bit. Celebrate the little wins. Like 10 a month, great. You've started. Amazing. I could just keep going there's loads of tips i could give yeah absolutely maybe we need to do that for another one it's such good advice thank you so much for giving your time so freely so there we have it do go over

and follow the lovely ian um on linkedin he um has great social posts over there and I often get myself into some very interesting conversations, but he really gets me thinking. Obviously, do get in contact with Ian if you wanted to look at engaging his services for your financial planning. You know, you can learn a lot simply by following him and being in his world. So have you got any future special request episodes that you'd like to see me cover? Because that is how this episode came about. Do come and let me know. Follow me over on any social channel. I'm Dr. Marianne Trent everywhere.

If you're watching on YouTube, please do like and subscribe, maybe tell your friends about us as well. And there will be a QR code on screen that will take you to all of my social channels. If you're listening to this as an audio, please do just type in Dr. Marianne Trent to any of your social channels and I shall appear. You can also come and connect with me over in the Aspiring Psychologist community with Dr. Marianne Trent. And yeah, if you do value this content, please do consider making a donation. And there are details for that in the show notes. You might also find the books, The Clinical Psychologist Collective and The Aspiring Psychologist Collective helpful. And of course, there is the Aspiring Psychologist membership too. Thank you so much for being part of my world. And I will

look forward to bringing the next episode to you from 6am on Monday. Take care. Then let this be your guide With this podcast at your side You'll be on your way to being qualified It's the Aspiring Psychologist Podcast With Dr. Marianne Trent my name's Jana and I'm a trainee psychological well-being practitioner I read the clinical psychologist collective book I found it really interesting about all the different stories and how people got to become a clinical psychologist it just amazed me how many different routes there are to get there and there's no perfect way to become one and this kind of filled me of confidence that no I'm not doing it wrong and put less pressure on myself.

So if you're feeling a bit uneasy about becoming a clinical psychologist, I'd definitely recommend this just to put yourself at ease and everything will be okay. But trust me, you will not put the book down once you start.