The Meaningful Money Personal Finance Podcast

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

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

The idea for this session came from a brilliant post in the Meaningful Money Facebook group by none other than Nick Mitchell, one of the brilliant moderators and part of the team here at MeMo. Nick felt like he was coming to a transition point in his career and was concerned that he was losing his identity somewhat, which, like for most of us, is very tied up in his work. This got us thinking abou...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's no exaggeration to say that having a decent protection programme in place is FOUNDATIONAL to everything else we do with our money. It truly is the thing that everything else is built upon. If it's a shaky foundation, then all our plans might come to nothing. That said, insurance is something that most people need, but no-one really wants to pay for, so we need to get the balance right, making...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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