This is Money Podcast

The state pension age will rise once more, it emerged this week - with those in their 40s set to lose out. But is it fair to continue to raise the state pension age in line with life expectancy, especially for those who cannot work through their 60s? Georgie Frost, Simon Lambert and Rachel Rickard Straus discuss how we handle the thorny and expensive issue of the state pensions. Also on this week’...

Mumblings of potential big house price falls have emerged again recently to delight the crashists. The 40% number was even mentioned - and that's not happened in a while. The property market is clearly slowing down - and prices are falling in London - but is all this talk of a crash overdone? After a report emerged from an LSE professor a fortnight ago, This is Money readers have been reliving the...

If you pop into the bookies and bung a quid on Elvis Presley still being alive – he died in 1977 - and he shows up as the support act to his heir apparent Ed Sheeran at Wembley Stadium next year, you’ll win £2,000. Put that pound into a top paying savings account over the same period and you’ll earn just over 1p. This is why stupid savings gimmicks are becoming a thing. It works like this. The pro...

Nurses have had their pay cut every year for the last five years. Students are coming out of our universities with the highest level of debt in the West – higher on average than the USA. Rents are totally out of control. What then are the prospects for our youngsters and for our public sector workers? Is austerity really going to end? It’s complicated and there’s only one person who can explain th...

What do you mean you’ve never seen The Big Short? It was nominated for five Oscars, won one and features Brad Pitt, Christian Bale and the part-time stripper with five houses and a condo. Watch it. Now! It’s all true. It’s about the financial crisis and it might all be about to kick off again. The Bank of England this week issued its Financial Stability Report and it’s terrifying. We’re in debt ag...

‘If you've ever wondered how you get triangles from a cow,’ sang British music legends Half Man Half Biscuit, ‘you need butter milk and cheese and an equilateral chain saw. ‘ It’s obvious when you know the answer! But what about the stuff you think you know the answers to… but do you? Really? The Big Money Questions. That’s the name of our fortnightly video presentation with Rachel Rickard Straus...

Wherever your heart lies in the debate about Britain’s role in the world, your head cannot escape the fact that we import a lot of what we consume. From the oil and gas that heats our homes and powers our cars to the hops that add flavour to our pints of beer. And that’s fine when you have a strong currency. Thing is, for roughly a year ours has been devalued by about 20% and it affects the price...

It was meant to be an election about Brexit but it turned into one about new young voters and what they wanted. They wanted change. What they got was a minority Government, a coalition between the Conservatives and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). But there are five more years until the next election and anyone 14, 15, 16, and 17 years old now will be able to vote in the next on...

Would you pay more tax for better health, housing, communications, green spaces, roads, social care, railways, education, defence? Or not? The consensus seems to be that we would if only people felt they could trust the people who spend it on our behalf. It’s a complex and fascinating issue for a country living way beyond its fiscal means - allow Georgie Frost, Simon Lambert and Rachel Rickard Str...

A row that erupted over the Tory manifesto social care plans led to accusations of a dementia tax and a swift U-turn. Voters had previously been told they would get a cap on costs, but instead they got a floor of £100,000 to which their wealth could be whittled down to. The issue highlighted a problem we have in planning our finances - trust. Do you trust the framework that the Government puts in...

The manifestos are out, but which political party would you trust with the UK economy? We look at Labour's plan to hike taxes, the Tories' plan to ditch the triple lock and the Lib Dem's plan to make a bit of cash on the side from selling weed. This week we finally got the triple whammy of what our three main political parties will do, so would any of these plans work and what do people think abou...

In part two of this week’s podcast, Georgie Frost, Rich Browning and Simon Lambert discuss the inevitability of another global financial meltdown and how we’re going to fix it this time round. Meanwhile, what’s in store in Europe now a former investment banker, Emmanual Macron, is president of France and looking to reinvigorate the European project? Perhaps this an opportunity for investors to mak...

The property data is out and it’s not looking good. House prices fell for the first time in five years. Homes are going for less than asking prices. Yet in some areas you need 17 times your salary to buy a place. Where’s it all going to end? Perhaps moving into tiny mobile sheds on trailers or a boat is the only answer. Or will prices start to tumble? Simon Lambert takes one of his legendary foren...

Shoppers have enjoyed cheap prices off the back of a supermarket price war, but alarm bells were sounded in Sainsbury’s results this week, showing how cost inflation is squeezing its profits. How long is it before supermarkets give up trying to cushion the blow for households and price rises hit? Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost look at what next for our shopping bills and how the big su...

The pensions triple lock means that state pensions rise by wages, inflation or 2.5% - whichever is greatest. This promise has raised pensioner incomes but stands accused of being too expensive and has become an election hot potato. Should it be ditched? Simon Lambert, Rachel Rickard Straus and Georgie Frost discuss it on this excerpt from the This is Money podcast. Follow us on Instagram @dmgnewme...

Plans to massively hike probate fees have been dropped, but was this due to the General Election or the government trying to distance itself from a move that saw a huge backlash? Simon Lambert, Rachel Rickard Straus and Georgie Frost discuss it on this excerpt from the This is Money podcast. Follow us on Instagram @dmgnewmedia. Follow us on TikTok @dmgnewmedia Follow us on X @dmgnewmedia Email us...

The result of the election on June 8 will determine the financial outcome of Britain possibly more than any other in recent memory. So sit down and listen to Simon Lambert, Georgie Frost and Rachel Rickard Straus explain in simple terms what is at stake. On the agenda: Pension triple lock – if you’ve never really understood this, you will now Energy price cap – that old thing. The only thing left...

Brexit this, Brexit that but what about the other stuff we need to worry about. Britain soon gets to vote in another election and inevitably the campaigns surrounding it will be about Brexit. Before you get bombarded with those, this week’s This is Money podcast looks at why Theresa May has even called another election and what that decision means for the economy, the pound and investors? Yet this...

The price of all sorts is going up this week - from stamps to council tax. This is Money's Rachel Rickard Straus and Lee Boyce play the lucky dip of price hikes - which involves a stop watch, chocolate eggs... and quick explanations of how bills are set to rise. Then it's on to debt - credit card, car... you name it. Is it a worry? Is it a big worry? What's going to happen next? (Spoiler alert - t...

It was never about economics. But 52% or the 72% turnout voted for the UK to leave the European Union last June and now it’s official. Prime Minister Theresa May has written and delivered a letter that gives the country just two years to renegotiate tens of thousands of laws that took 40 odd years to draw up. It’s about taking control, she said, without expanding what that might mean. In the absen...

One thousand years ago, life expectancy was about 30 years. In 30 years’ time, someone will be born who could live to 1,000. This causes a problem for the pensions industry and governments. It’s tough enough finding an income for a few months without working, never mind 935 years. This is the kind of problem experts have been grappling with lately and some of the results are emerging. On the table...

What a mess we’re in. Without too much effort this week, we spotted 10 messes. It was made pretty easy with the fallout from Chancellor Philip Hammond’s first go at a Budget making news all week. His attack on small business was up there with some of the made-up-as-you-go-along nonsense from his predecessor. Hammond learned well from George Osborne. Mess 1 The Budget. Last week we wondered if the...

It felt like there was something fishy going on during the Budget speech this week. Chancellor Philip Hammond peppered the few official announcements he made with low-rent panto gags and political jibes. Were these a distraction technique? With the benefit of hindsight, it’s clear that trying to be funny was silly Philly’s way of glossing over one of the more ‘spectacularly dumb’ decisions in mode...

A speech this week from President Donald Trump sent the US stock market soaring to a record high. And where the US goes, the rest of the world follows. The FTSE 100 is also impressing investors. Trump stood at the podium, behaved like an adult and explained a little more about some of his less crazy policies, including the fiscal ones. Cash held offshore could start washing back into America and w...

There are a lot of laughs this week as Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost take a sideways look at some of the week’s potty money stories. Banks are in the spotlight because it’s reporting season and there was a mix of good news, shock news and fraud news from Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and the rest. But the pathetic attempts by RBS to lure customers to its headline 0.05% interest-paying cash I...