Money Clinic with Claer Barrett

With nearly 11m people in the UK set to file their tax returns by January 31, are you dreading the annual nightmare - or have you already got it licked? In this bonus episode of Money Clinic, we answer all of the questions about tax returns that you wanted to ask. With more people starting side-hustles and small businesses during the pandemic, how much extra income do you need to earn before you h...

When Lucy Kellaway left the Financial Times and retrained as an economics teacher, she could not have predicted how the cryptocurrency craze would sweep through British classrooms. But is there anything on the school curriculum to teach teens about the risks of unregulated investments, or even basic financial literacy? Lucy thinks not. The FT’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign — FLIC for...

REPEAT: 2021, like 2020, was another turbulent year for most people’s finances, but the new year provides the perfect opportunity to set some “financial resolutions”.The guests on Money Clinic are millennial couple Toby and Siobhan and they’re looking for some timeless “fin-spiration” to get their money to work harder. They’ve paid off their credit cards under lockdown, and are wondering where to...

REPEAT: Claer explores how young people can use the popular tax-free Isa accounts to invest or buy their first property. This week, she meets Ryan, a 22-year-old graduate who confesses he has three Isa accounts, but doesn’t know how best to use them — or how to unlock savings bonuses potentially worth tens of thousands of pounds.  Expert and practical help is on hand from Harleigh Reid , who...

REPEAT: Putting all of your pension savings in one place to make it easier to manage your retirement plans sounds like a sensible idea — but it’s not necessarily the right solution for everyone. Claer Barrett meets 51-year-old Tina who has spent lockdown searching for all of her old pensions: some have performed better than hoped, but others have had high charges, and she has a gap in her UK state...

This week, Money Clinic is having a pay rise takeover - we’ll be pulling apart that big, scary box labelled ‘Asking for a pay rise’ - and unpacking the dos, the don’ts, the tips and tricks for getting the salary you think you are worth. Visiting our pay-rise clinic today are three podcast listeners with three different financial predicaments: Natalie keeps getting knocked back when she asks for a...

Following the COP26 conference in Glasgow, many climate-conscious investors want to know how to match up their investments with their values.  The short answer is environmental, social and governance investing — ESG for short. But there are plenty of questions around how ‘green’ this really is. Thirty-year-old Harri appeared on one of the first episodes of Money Clinic last year, and his deci...

Many dream of being an elite footballer, but what’s it like actually earning a professional player’s salary?  In the second half of this two-part podcast special, Claer Barrett explores the darker side of earning staggering sums as a young player. Unscrupulous financial advisers, risky investments, gambling, injuries and early retirement can all cut short your earning potential - and there ar...

Many dream of being an elite footballer, but what’s it like actually earning a pro player’s salary? Top football players earn staggering amounts of money, but even they are not immune from financial challenges. These range from planning for a career that could end by the age of 35 to teenage players struggling to manage such large financial windfalls. In the first half of this two-part podcast spe...

This is the podcast about doing work differently. Join host Isabel Berwick every Wednesday for expert analysis and watercooler chat about ahead-of-the-curve workplace trends, the big ideas shaping work today — and the old habits we need to leave behind.  Subscribe on Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/working-it/id1591925469 - On Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/5vNDHxEOc1p...

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to manage an investment portfolio worth hundreds of billions of pounds? Global equities specialist Malcolm MacColl is one of two managing partners at the helm of Baillie Gifford, the Scottish asset management company, which manages more than £350bn worth of investors’ cash. An early investor in Amazon, Tesla and Moderna, Baillie Gifford’s...

Students were up in arms after reading the Financial Times scoop that the UK government is considering lowering the salary level at which graduates have to start repaying their loans.  Currently, student loan repayments start when you earn more than £27,225 per year, but the FT has reported this could be reduced to around £23,000 in future. Any changes are expected to apply retrospectively to...

Plenty of people in their 30s, 40s and even 50s have yet to start saving for retirement, and are anxious about how to begin. Today’s show is packed with tips for so-called ‘late starters’ like this week’s guest David, who is 38 and self-employed. Incredibly, David is planning for a retirement that he never thought he’d live to see. As Claer hears, a revolutionary new treatment for cystic fibr...

Peter McCormack, bitcoin bull and voice of the hugely popular 'What Bitcoin Did' podcast, joins Claer for a Money Clinic Investment Masterclass about cryptocurrencies. Recently back from a trip to El Salvador, the first country to make bitcoin legal tender, Peter tells Claer why he believes the cryptocurrency is the 'best form of money' and why regulatory crackdowns, volatile pricing swings and th...

How to match your money to your relationship status. Nearly one in four of us live on our own, but dealing with the financial and emotional strain of handling everything by yourself can be difficult. Jenny, 27, from Leeds, is being hit by the ‘single penalty’ and is exhausted trying to find everyday ways to save money. She’s looking for tips on investing in the stock market, whether to try to buy...

Forget about being a day trader, you need to let the money come in slowly and take a serious, business-like approach if you want to succeed - that’s the advice of Robbie Burns, better known as the Naked Trader. In this Money Clinic special Investment Masterclass Robbie shares his top tips about getting into trading - from whether you can combine trading with a full time job, why you need to be lik...

Are you working to live, or living to work? Followers of the FIRE movement (Financial Independence Retire Early) budget carefully so they can invest a greater proportion of their take-home pay. Is a life of extreme frugality worth the extra years of financial freedom later on - and how could you apply the principles of FIRE to your own finances?  This week, Claer helps listeners Amy and Rory...

In an extra special Money Clinic Meets, Claer Barrett interviews Joe Lycett, the consumer campaigner and TV comedian. As the new season of his award winning show Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back returns to Channel Four, he drops into the Financial Times studio to tell us what he really thinks about the world of finance.  Joe shares his own personal money story - including his charity shop thrifting...

REPEAT: Have you ever dreamt of starting your own business? It might sound more fulfilling — but being an employee has some perks you might miss. 33-year old Rhiannon set up her first business three years ago, offering virtual PA services. Even though she’s making a profit, Rhiannon is struggling to find a mortgage lender who will help her buy a property. Plus, she’s unsure about whether to leave...

REPEAT: In this week's episode of the Money Clinic, Claer chats to Naureen about getting started in investing. Naureen had a wake up call when she received her annual pension statement through the post, and saw that her projected income in retirement would not even cover the basics. But with so much information out there on investing, she doesn’t know where to begin. Experts Jason Butler, the FT c...

Would you fall for a £17,000 scam? You might think you are too smart to be duped by fraudsters, but under lockdown, criminals have come up with frighteningly convincing ways of parting us from our hard-earned cash. Claer Barrett talks to 31-year-old listener Jenny about how professional scammers conned her out of £17,000 after she clicked on a text message - and the battle she’s fighting with her...

When 29-year-old Sam found out that his younger brother had made £30,000 trading bitcoin, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The self-employed musician decided to put the last £2,000 of his savings into various cryptocurrencies, hoping he could double his money. However, wild swings in crypto valuations are proving a test of his strategy. Presenter Claer Barrett explores the highs and lows o...

It’s easy to create a budget to manage your spending - but can you stick to it? 32-year old project manager Rosie contacted Money Clinic as she kept making the same mistakes. Despite starting the month with good intentions, online shopping sprees frequently pushed her into the red. Battling with ‘buyer’s remorse’ as she returned her impulse purchases, Rosie asked Claer what psychological factors c...

Accountant Peter knows that to grow a business, you have to take on debt. But can he apply that same logic to his personal finances? He tells Claer how he is tempted to take out a bigger mortgage against his London flat and invest that money in a buy-to-let property - or even in the stock market. Has he come up with a brilliant shortcut to making some extra money, or is his plan to leverage up a r...

Retail is not dead. Brexit could help UK companies. Take a small punt on bitcoin, keep your money invested in fossil fuel companies, and reassess your holdings in expensive tech stocks. These are pretty punchy opinions about the investment world — and they come from one of the FT’s top opinion writers, columnist Merryn Somerset Webb. In this special episode of the Money Clinic podcast, Merryn chat...