Ft Money Show

Buying your first home is one of the biggest financial decisions you’ll ever have to make, so how can you prepare for it? On the Money Clinic podcast this week, presenter Claer Barrett meets a couple  — 29-year-old Alex and her partner 31-year-old Sarah — who are midway through their property buying journey. They have lots of questions: Did they get the right kind of mortgage? Should they prepare for unexpected costs? And what other financial questions should they consider before signing on the dotted line? Claer sources advice from Daniel Knott, the mortgage broker who posts as @DanDoesMortgages on Instagram, as well as Jo Little, who runs chartered financial planning firm Emery Little. If you would like to be a guest on a future episode, you can email the team at money@ft.com or drop @ClaerB a DM on Twitter, Instagram or TikTok.Follow Dan on social media @DanDoesMortgages You can read Jo Little’s blog here: https://emerylittle.com/author/joannalittle/This free to read FT article goes into mor

How financially compatible are you as a couple? On Money Clinic podcast this week, presenter Claer Barrett meets newly-weds Sahil and Priya, who have very different attitudes to money.Sahil is a spender and a high-risk investor. Priya is a diehard saver who finds it hard to enjoy spending her hard-earned cash. The couple want to iron out their financial differences, but confess that conversations about money often end in arguments or nagging.Financial psychotherapist Vicky Reynal examines the roots of the couple’s attitudes to money and suggests how they could move forward. Ken Okoroafor, money expert and co-founder of The Humble Penny website, advises how couples can communicate and work towards shared financial goals. If you have a money question you’d like to see tackled on the show, email money@ft.com or send Claer a DM on social media - she’s @Claerb on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. Follow Ken on Instagram https://instagram.com/thehumblepenny and visit his website at https://thehumblepenny.com

Record inflation! Soaring energy prices! Tax rises! Those are the gloomy economic and financial headlines, but three-quarters of the readers who answered an FT poll said they expected their bonus to be bigger, or substantially bigger, than last year’s.  If you’re lucky enough to be one of those people, this episode is for you, because the squeeze on living standards and turbulent world markets mean it’s even more important to use your bonus wisely.Claer is joined in the FT studio by three experts, FT columnist and former investment banker James Max, Nimesh Shah, chief executive of tax specialists Blick Rothenberg, and Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Landsdown. The three of them give their views on the comments from the FT readers who bravely bared their financial souls to tell us whether they intended to spend, save or invest their bonus.If you would like to be a future guest on Money Clinic podcast, please email the team via money@ft.com or follow Claer on soc

Why does the crew of the world’s biggest rock band have its own financial literacy programme? Well, life in the music industry is rife with financial instability - workers are often on short-term contracts, missing out on employee benefits such as pension savings and health insurance. A tour can stop at the drop of a hat - when a rockstar breaks their leg, or a pandemic hits - and workers are left without any income.That's why, when the retirement planning nonprofit, Alliance for Lifetime Income, became the Stones tour's latest sponsor, production manager Dale Skjerseth came up with an idea for helping the younger roadies manage their money better. This episode is packed with financial tips for budgeting and long-term saving, especially for gig and short-term contract workers. Featuring Stones roadies Nick and Dale, and Alliance for Lifetime Income chief executive Jean Statler.If you would like to be a future guest on Money Clinic podcast, please email the team via money@ft.com or follow Claer on social

Ashley dreams of owning his own home, but is well aware that the cash he is saving for a deposit is at the mercy of rising inflation. Would he be better off investing his money in his pension, in stocks and shares, or should he stay focused on getting on the property ladder?Expert guests Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and Jason Butler, financial guru and FT columnist, have lots to say about the challenges facing younger investors, and offer tips for devising a long-term financial strategy.If you would like to be a future guest on Money Clinic podcast, please email the team via money@ft.com or follow Claer on social media @Claerb. To read Claer’s FT column about how 20-somethings are being forced to choose between targeting property or pensions, click on this link: https://www.ft.com/content/2815d35d-2297-4712-a4c5-0178de343eb1 To hear Claer chatting to Paul Johnson in-depth about the pensions challenges facing young people on the IFS podcast, click here: https://ifs.org.

With so many investing options out there, getting the right balance for your portfolio can be difficult. So this week presenter Claer Barrett has invited two listeners in for a portfolio makeover. Thirty-seven-year-old James holds UK-focused equities in his stocks and shares Isa. He was doing well, but market movements and rising inflation have made him think he might need to diversify. Thirty-four-year-old Gillian has taken a different approach, investing as much as she can into her company pension. However, she hasn’t paid much attention to what her pension is actually invested in.Investment experts Rosie Carr, editor of the Investors Chronicle, and Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, give their views on how James and Gillian can get the best out of their investments. Tips include how investors can manage the threat of rising inflation, different ways of approaching asset allocation and building a diversified portfolio.If you want to hear more about how to get started on your investment journey, try

Investors traditionally turn to gold as a ‘haven investment’ during volatile times so it will come as no surprise that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as rising global inflation, have caused a jump in its price. But there are many ways to invest in gold and in this episode, presenter Claer Barrett, the FT’s consumer editor, visits the vault of a gold shop in Mayfair and speaks to FT columnist Merryn Somerset Webb about what role gold can play in an investment portfolio.Read Merryn’s column at https://www.ft.com/merryn-somerset-webbPresented by Claer Barrett. Produced by Persis Love. Our executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Next month has been dubbed ‘Awful April’ as the cost of pretty much everything is going up — but is your budget ready to withstand the strain? 22-year-old podcast listener Lil is worried about how she’ll cope with higher energy bills, rising rent and bigger food bills at the supermarket — not to mention National Insurance increases and changes to her student loan repayments. She’s already pretty thrifty — so can presenter Claer Barrett come up with more ways that Lil could stretch her money further?Charlotte Jessop, founder of the website Looking After Your Pennies, explains easy ways everyone can get to grips with budgeting and saving money, as well as ideas for boosting your income. Plus, Claer visits the home of Miguel Barclay, better known on Instagram as the £1 chef, to see what budgeting tips he’s been cooking up in his latest book.You can follow all of the podcast experts on Instagram: @Claerb, @lookingafteryourpennies, @miguelbarclay To make the fried rice recipe Miguel cooked up for Claer, click

From the highs and lows of crypto, to weathering the cost of living crisis, to your financial compatibility with your partner - Money Clinic is here to help you feel more in control of your finances.New episodes every Tuesday from March 15.Presented by Claer Barrett. Produced by Persis Love. Our executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

REPEAT: 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 raise; Max knows that he could get paid more elsewhere, and Charlotte is trying to negotiate a bonus that really matches the effort she puts into her job. With expert advice from Isabel Berwick, the Financial Times’ work and careers editor and presenter of the Working It podcast, and Jonathan Black, director of the University of Oxford’s careers service and the brains behind the FT’s popular ‘Dear Jonathan’ advice column, this is a podcast you can’t afford to miss. Listen and subscribe to the Working It podcast: https://link.chtbl.com/0mRZG4fxCheck out the Dear Jonathan column: https://www.ft.com/dear-jon

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 have to submit a return?Presenter Claer Barrett discusses how apps can make the whole process easier, and whether it pays to get an accountant. Plus, she explores how freelancers can legitimately reduce their bills by claiming tax-deductible expenses, or negotiate extra time to pay. Jacquetta Brown, tax specialist at HM Revenue & Customs, and chartered accountant Deborah Edwards, who runs the money mentoring programme Raised Up Finance, are on hand to demystify the jargon and pinpoint sources of help.If you would like to be a guest on the next season of the show, email the podcast team money@ft.com or follow Claer

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 short — is hoping to change all that.In this special Christmas edition of the Money Clinic podcast, presenter Claer Barrett hears why Lucy and other top FT writers are supporting a greater focus on teaching finance in schools, as they recall their own formative experiences with money.Taking listeners on a tour of the FT’s City of London office, she hears from Patrick Jenkins, the FT’s deputy editor and trustee of the charity, who shares financial mistakes he made as a teenager in the 1980s, and US managing editor Peter Spiegel who explains why he thinks there’s a specific culture around money in the US.If you would li

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 direct their spare cash. How much could they save if they overpaid their mortgage — and how would that compare to putting more into their pensions or other investments. There’s also one financial to-do that they’re been putting off for a long time — making a will. Money experts Ken Okoroafor from The Humble Penny and Dan Garrett, co-founder of digital will-writing service Farewill, provide expert tips.If you would like to talk to Claer for a future podcast episode, email the Money Clinic team money@ft.com with a brief description of your story. Follow Claer on Twitter and Instagram @Claerb and read her weekly Serious

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 used a Help to Buy Isa to buy her first flat at the age of just 24, and Young Money blogger Iona Bain who explains the rules of the new Lifetime Isa, which can be used for property or investing.  If you would like to talk to Claer for a future podcast episode, email the Money Clinic team money@ft.com with a brief description of your story. Follow Claer on Twitter and Instagram @Claerb and read her weekly Serious Money column in the FT Money section of the FT Weekend newspaper.Further reading:If you’re new to investing, listen to this past Money Clinic episode on starting out https://www.ft.com/content/caedf0b

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 pension contributions due to working overseas. Experts Sir Steve Webb of Lane Clark & Peacock and Catherine Morgan, a financial planner behind the ‘In Her Financial Shoes’ podcast, provide tips for people of all ages looking to sort out their pension savings.If you would like to talk to Claer for a future podcast episode, email the Money Clinic team money@ft.com with a brief description of your story. Follow Claer on Twitter and Instagram @Claerb and read her weekly Serious Money column in the FT Money section of the FT Weekend newspaper.Further reading Let’s start with the basics. If you’re struggling to g

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 raise; Max knows that he could get paid more elsewhere, and Charlotte is trying to negotiate a bonus that really matches the effort she puts into her job.With expert advice from Isabel Berwick, the Financial Times’ work and careers editor and presenter of the Working It podcast, and Jonathan Black, director of the University of Oxford’s careers service and the brains behind the FT’s popular ‘Dear Jonathan’ advice column, this is a podcast you can’t afford to miss. Listen and subscribe to the Working It podcast: https://link.chtbl.com/0mRZG4fxCheck out the Dear Jonathan column: https://www.ft.com/dear-jonathanPlus

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 decision to invest in ESG funds appears to have paid off: he has made a decent return. However, he wonders how much this has been down to the underlying investment performance and how much because of the soaring popularity of ESG investments. With a record $3.9tn now held in sustainable assets worldwide, is this outperformance sustainable? Claer is joined by the FT’s Manuela Saragosa and Share Action’s Catherine Howarth, who have put ESG investing to the test. They offer practical tips on how to make greener choices with your pension,Isa and becoming an activist shareholder. Plus, they debate how worried investors sho

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 are lessons here for all of us. She hears from Gareth Farrelly, a former Premier League footballer who narrowly avoided death - and financial ruin - when his playing career ended, but has now reinvented himself as a top sports lawyer. Plus, former England player Sol Campbell and AFC Bournemouth full-back Jack Stacey reveal how they manage their money, and what listeners can learn from this. If you liked the show, please leave a review. Want to be a future guest? Email us at money@ft.com or reach out to Claer on Instagram and Twitter: @ClaerBFor more about the business of sport, head to Scoreboard, the FT’

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 special, Claer Barrett speaks to former England player Sol Campbell and AFC Bournemouth full back Jack Stacey about the reality, both good and bad, of earning a footballer’s salary. Plus, Daniel Geey on why there’s so much money in football.If you liked the show, please leave a review. Email us at money@ft.com or reach out to Claer on Instagram and Twitter: @ClaerBIf you enjoyed this episode, check out this Financial Times article by sports reporter Sam Agini https://www.ft.com/content/6d074e57-adf3-494a-98b9-6d0bc169c440 Or this article on the perils of making a fortune at a young age https://www.ft.com/content/a5

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/5vNDHxEOc1pI1acJS7He5e Or wherever you get your podcasts.The wellness industry is a trillion-dollar business, and the pandemic has turbo-charged it. One of the biggest trends has been the rise in employers buying their staff access to meditation and fitness apps. But does this ‘quick fix’ approach work? And are there better ways to boost wellbeing ? Isabel talks to Lorna Borenstein, chief executive of Grokker, a corporate wellness app about the reasons why she set up the platform and how clients and her own staff use it. It’s all part of a culture of taking care of employees - a topic Lorna has explored more deeply in her b