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Live For Today, Plan For Tomorrow · A Little Bit Richer

0:02
Kia: Hey, Kia, here. Some legal and general research has highlighted
0:06
Kia: that an estimated 6. 5 million people are reaching key
0:10
Kia: life events like getting married, becoming parents, or buying a
0:14
Kia: home later in life. By delaying key life milestones, people
0:19
Kia: are putting off important money decisions which might impact their longer-
0:23
Kia: term financial wellbeing. Welcome to another episode of a Little
0:27
Kia: Bit Richer, brought to you by my friends at Legal &
0:29
Kia: General. Here to talk about how younger generations are redefining
0:33
Kia: key life milestones and the impact this has is a
0:36
Kia: friend of the show, Koren Byrne, from Legal & General, who
0:39
Kia: talks about the path she's taking as an independent 30
0:42
Kia: something woman. Thank you for joining us, Koren.
0:44
Koren Byrne: Thank you for having me.
0:46
Kia: I'm really excited because I need to get into nitty
0:49
Kia: gritty of what this means. So before I get too
0:51
Kia: into it, can you talk us through these issues and
0:55
Kia: the social changes that we are seeing in society now?
0:57
Koren Byrne: Yeah, of course. So when I started working in financial
1:01
Koren Byrne: services, it must have been about six years, and it wasn't until I
1:06
Koren Byrne: got into the industry and I was hearing about these
1:08
Koren Byrne: products, especially around protection insurance, income protection, life insurance, critical
1:13
Koren Byrne: illness, and I was like, these seem really good products
1:16
Koren Byrne: to have and I had that light bulb moment. I
1:20
Koren Byrne: was like oh, they actually could be for me. But
1:24
Koren Byrne: the way that they're spoken about and how they're marketed
1:27
Koren Byrne: and positioned, it's the when you get married, you might
1:29
Koren Byrne: want to look at taking out a life insurance policy.
1:32
Koren Byrne: When you buy a home, you might want to look
1:33
Koren Byrne: at getting a life insurance policy or some income protection
1:36
Koren Byrne: and things like that. The average age for people buying
1:39
Koren Byrne: their first home is 34, which is the highest that
1:42
Koren Byrne: it's been in decades. And marriage, the average age is
1:45
Koren Byrne: 32, which again is gradually increased from 2000 as well.
1:51
Koren Byrne: So there are around 4. 1 million households that would
1:57
Koren Byrne: count as a single income, no kids, SINC, or a
2:00
Koren Byrne: dual income, no kids. So we are definitely on the rise.
2:04
Kia: Those numbers that you put there are not the numbers
2:06
Kia: I think people would jump to when you think to
2:08
Kia: an average first time buyer. 34, that's a lot older
2:12
Kia: than what you think it's going to be. So I'm
2:14
Kia: in my mid 20s, I have friends who are doing
2:17
Kia: and achieving all these things and I'm like oh my
2:18
Kia: gosh, I'm way behind. When you look at the numbers,
2:20
Kia: you're actually not, and it is increasing. It's probably going to
2:22
Kia: get even higher when I get to that point. But
2:24
Kia: you mentioned the term milestones there.
2:26
Koren Byrne: Yeah.
2:27
Kia: So what do you actually mean when you say milestones?
2:29
Koren Byrne: So when I am talking about a milestone, I'm talking
2:33
Koren Byrne: about those more traditional life key milestones. If you look
2:38
Koren Byrne: to your parents, your grandparents, school, uni maybe, if that's
2:42
Koren Byrne: for you, work and then you get married, you buy
2:46
Koren Byrne: a home, you have children, and then you retire. And
2:50
Koren Byrne: so especially looking at that mid- life point, which is
2:53
Koren Byrne: probably what we're discussing most, which is buying a home,
2:56
Koren Byrne: getting married, having children, in no particular order, of course,
3:00
Koren Byrne: people are either choosing to not do those things for
3:04
Koren Byrne: a variety of reason or that they're just doing them
3:08
Koren Byrne: later in life. None of my close friends in a
3:11
Koren Byrne: similar age have children, so we're redefining what family looks
3:16
Koren Byrne: like. And so it's not necessarily a bad thing at
3:19
Koren Byrne: all. I think it's great because we're breaking the mold
3:22
Koren Byrne: and carving our own paths, focusing on careers and things
3:25
Koren Byrne: like that. But what could be happening is that if
3:29
Koren Byrne: we're delaying some of these key milestones or not reaching
3:32
Koren Byrne: them at all, a lot of these key milestones, are
3:36
Koren Byrne: what trigger conversations about protection insurance, if you're looking at
3:41
Koren Byrne: mortgages, investments, savings, your pension as well. So if we're
3:45
Koren Byrne: not hitting these milestones or we are delaying them, could
3:50
Koren Byrne: this be delaying our financial engagement as well and could
3:54
Koren Byrne: we be doing ourselves a little bit of a disservice
3:56
Koren Byrne: in not engaging with our finances? It's really common to
4:00
Koren Byrne: put something off until you get to a certain point.
4:03
Koren Byrne: But if we're not buying a home until we're 34,
4:05
Koren Byrne: getting married until we're 32, does that mean we shouldn't
4:07
Koren Byrne: look at income protection, look at critical illness, think about
4:11
Koren Byrne: what we're doing with our pension? And I just think
4:13
Koren Byrne: it's really interesting to see how those family units are
4:17
Koren Byrne: changing and what impact that might be having on financial
4:20
Koren Byrne: engagement as well. And I do call myself a family
4:23
Koren Byrne: even though I'm single, I have a cat.
4:25
Kia: It's your family, I mean.
4:27
Koren Byrne: That's my family. It's me and my cat. We are family.
4:28
Kia: I love the way that you described just different family units
4:32
Kia: and I think it takes off the pressure from people
4:36
Kia: who may think, " Okay, I'm behind in life. I'm not
4:38
Kia: doing well. I'm not married or I'm not in a couple,"
4:40
Kia: because we have different priorities from my parents or grandparents,
4:43
Kia: and that does impact what that looks like for us.
4:46
Kia: I know there's an issue here, so what exactly is
4:48
Kia: the issue?
4:49
Koren Byrne: Yeah, so what's happening is we are missing out on
4:54
Koren Byrne: important conversations about certain financial products because as a group
5:01
Koren Byrne: we're doing quite well, but you're also really vulnerable if
5:05
Koren Byrne: you haven't had a conversation with someone about how to
5:09
Koren Byrne: protect your income or saving for retirement. We're so focused
5:13
Koren Byrne: on that enjoyment and that financial engagement piece is really
5:18
Koren Byrne: important I think for this group.
5:20
Kia: Yeah, I think it is just understanding how these products
5:22
Kia: work so you can make an informed decision as to when
5:25
Kia: best to maybe implement them in your life. So absolutely, 100%,
5:28
Kia: I'm behind you on that. I've had many conversations with
5:31
Kia: friends, right, and a lot of them have this idea
5:36
Kia: that, you know what? Life's my enjoyment. I'm going to
5:38
Kia: live for today and I worry about tomorrow if and
5:42
Kia: when I get there. If I don't. I've had a good today. So I
5:45
Kia: want to ask you, what are your thoughts on that idea?
5:48
Koren Byrne: I would probably class myself as one of those people.
5:51
Koren Byrne: No, I think it's a really interesting point, especially with
5:55
Koren Byrne: how things are at the moment, the cost of living
5:56
Koren Byrne: and stuff like that. I think, yes, it's one thing
6:00
Koren Byrne: to be enjoying and doing the day- to- day by
6:02
Koren Byrne: choice, but I think it's also really important that actually
6:05
Koren Byrne: managing your day- to- day while also thinking about the
6:09
Koren Byrne: future and being able to do things for your future
6:11
Koren Byrne: is quite a privilege at the moment. But I think
6:14
Koren Byrne: when you are in a position where you can do
6:18
Koren Byrne: something towards future self that you'll look back and give
6:21
Koren Byrne: yourself a pat on the back for when it comes
6:23
Koren Byrne: to your finances, do it. If you can, do it.
6:27
Koren Byrne: Because you will thank yourself in the future.
6:29
Kia: You will.
6:29
Koren Byrne: While you can think about maybe putting a little bit
6:34
Koren Byrne: more away, not just that rainy day fund because I
6:37
Koren Byrne: think some of the research that we've done showed that
6:40
Koren Byrne: especially with the SINCs and the DINCs, they're much more confident with their
6:45
Koren Byrne: money. But that overconfidence can come at a price because
6:48
Koren Byrne: they put money away in a rainy day fund, but
6:51
Koren Byrne: they're not thinking about pensions or savings. Because they haven't
6:56
Koren Byrne: got those maybe natural triggers where they might be speaking
6:58
Koren Byrne: to mortgage advisors where someone would just say, " Oh, have
7:02
Koren Byrne: you thought about life insurance and what are you going to
7:04
Koren Byrne: do? How are you going to protect your income if you
7:05
Koren Byrne: get ill and stuff?" So I think it's a balancing
7:09
Koren Byrne: act, but definitely don't do what I have been guilty
7:13
Koren Byrne: of. Don't bury your head in the sand. Do take
7:16
Koren Byrne: a breath-
7:16
Kia: Take a breath. I'm outside. There's a lot going on up here.
7:19
Koren Byrne: ... and just think, " Oh, can I put a little
7:21
Koren Byrne: bit more aside? Have I looked at what my pension's
7:23
Koren Byrne: doing recently? What am I savings saying? Yep, that instant
7:27
Koren Byrne: account is fine, but maybe I can lock some money
7:29
Koren Byrne: away and something for a fixed term and things like
7:31
Koren Byrne: that." It's probably not as fun as brunch, but future
7:38
Koren Byrne: you, when you're having brunch in your 80s will definitely
7:43
Koren Byrne: thank you.
7:43
Kia: Absolutely. I don't plan on retiring with no money. I
7:47
Kia: plan on chilling on a beach and having a great
7:50
Kia: retirement. I'm not thinking about where the next money's coming from
7:52
Kia: because I've already done that in my younger years.
7:54
Koren Byrne: Absolutely.
7:55
Kia: You spoke about it earlier and that's life insurance. And
7:59
Kia: I think often there's certain words, life insurance is one
8:01
Kia: of them. Retirement's another one, pension's another one where people
8:04
Kia: automatically think about being old and they also think about
8:09
Kia: dependents. So if someone or a couple isn't planning on
8:14
Kia: having kids, is life insurance still something that they should
8:17
Kia: consider taking out and looking at?
8:19
Koren Byrne: Yeah, short answer is yes. The longer answer is having
8:23
Koren Byrne: children, life changing in a number of ways and also
8:26
Koren Byrne: it gets you thinking about how do I protect this
8:29
Koren Byrne: person that is solely reliant on me? And so it's
8:32
Koren Byrne: a natural trigger and if you look at any adverts,
8:36
Koren Byrne: it's very easy to look at that and think, " Oh,
8:40
Koren Byrne: it's not for me to worry about because I don't
8:42
Koren Byrne: have children, I don't need life insurance." But you might
8:45
Koren Byrne: because if you don't have any dependents, it doesn't mean
8:49
Koren Byrne: that you don't have what we'd call beneficiaries. So people
8:52
Koren Byrne: who you would like to leave some money for as
8:55
Koren Byrne: much as my brother annoys me, it might be quite nice.
8:57
Kia: Well, I mean that's the two of us in the room.
9:00
Koren Byrne: Yeah, no, we're still really close and if anything should
9:02
Koren Byrne: happen to me, I'm sure he would be really pleased
9:05
Koren Byrne: if it was a beneficiary of some sort from a
9:08
Koren Byrne: life insurance policy for me so I could make sure
9:10
Koren Byrne: that he was looked after. Same for my mum. Also,
9:13
Koren Byrne: getting a life insurance policy, oftentimes when you're younger, it's
9:17
Koren Byrne: cheaper. So life insurance can absolutely be for you if
9:21
Koren Byrne: you don't have children, but it might not be. It's
9:24
Koren Byrne: worth exploring. So I've already touched on income protection before,
9:29
Koren Byrne: which for someone in my position, if I was to
9:32
Koren Byrne: be off ill for a significant period of time or
9:36
Koren Byrne: injured, I'm the only person that pays my rent. Daisy
9:39
Koren Byrne: can try, but we've tried to get her Instagram famous-
9:41
Kia: We've tried, and she's not doing it.
9:41
Koren Byrne: ... and she's too much of a diva for that.
9:45
Koren Byrne: So she's never going to be an influencer and pay
9:47
Koren Byrne: the bills. I've asked, she's not put a penny of
9:49
Koren Byrne: rent up yet.
9:51
Kia: No, she put her paws up, she said no.
9:52
Koren Byrne: Absolutely. So it would give me that sense of financial
9:57
Koren Byrne: security if I can't work, and it would just give
10:00
Koren Byrne: me a bit of a buffer. And also a critical
10:03
Koren Byrne: illness policy. If you do end up with a critical
10:06
Koren Byrne: illness, it gives you a lump sum and it doesn't
10:10
Koren Byrne: have to go towards your mortgage, it can go to
10:12
Koren Byrne: the cost of anything for you. But again, it's a
10:15
Koren Byrne: buffer for you and it's how you look after yourself.
10:20
Koren Byrne: So, yes, life insurance, protecttion insurance could absolutely be for
10:24
Koren Byrne: you. Don't write it off just because you don't have children.
10:27
Kia: That's amazing. I think the general theme is just have
10:31
Kia: it on your mind and do the research. So, if
10:34
Kia: we come back to the topic of renting then, if
10:36
Kia: someone's renting in a couple, is it less important for
10:42
Kia: them to have protection if they have a partner who
10:45
Kia: they know can cover the bills and the rent? If
10:46
Kia: something were to happen, is it not a priority to them because
10:49
Kia: they know they can fall back on someone?
10:51
Koren Byrne: I think this is a really interesting one because obviously
10:56
Koren Byrne: if you are both covering bills, rent, you've got two
10:59
Koren Byrne: streams of income coming into that home. And yes, you
11:01
Koren Byrne: might be fine if you've got a planned break in
11:06
Koren Byrne: work or a planned drop in salary for one or
11:09
Koren Byrne: both of you because together you can calculate it and
11:12
Koren Byrne: you can plan for it. If something comes up that
11:15
Koren Byrne: you weren't planning for and if the unexpected does happen, it's
11:18
Koren Byrne: a very, very different scenario. It just gives you security.
11:24
Koren Byrne: If you were to fall ill, and from my own
11:26
Koren Byrne: experience with my health when I was diagnosed with MS
11:30
Koren Byrne: a few years ago, it's not just one appointment. You
11:33
Koren Byrne: get your diagnosis and you trot off and go, " Okay."
11:36
Koren Byrne: You are in and out of hospital. Depending on where
11:39
Koren Byrne: you're at with your health, you might not be able
11:40
Koren Byrne: to drive yourself to appointments. So, yes, you might be
11:44
Koren Byrne: relying on someone's income and they might still be working,
11:47
Koren Byrne: but they also might need to take time off to
11:48
Koren Byrne: care for you too. And then you end up in
11:51
Koren Byrne: a dynamic where you've got the stress of being unwell
11:55
Koren Byrne: and then you've got the financial strain and a rainy
11:59
Koren Byrne: day fund and with as much planning as you want, if something
12:03
Koren Byrne: unexpected happens, those costs drain really, really quickly. So it's
12:10
Koren Byrne: just one stress that you can take off someone and
12:13
Koren Byrne: take that burden of keeping up with the bills. But
12:15
Koren Byrne: unexpected things happen all the time and they-
12:17
Kia: All the time.
12:17
Koren Byrne: ... don't all have to be completely catastrophic to make a
12:19
Koren Byrne: real impact on your financial status as well.
12:23
Kia: Yeah, it's true.
12:24
Koren Byrne: It's just that freedom of choice then. If your situation
12:27
Koren Byrne: changes, you might have stopped work, but your partner might
12:30
Koren Byrne: want to go part- time and having something to fall
12:32
Koren Byrne: back on, like critical illness just means you get that
12:35
Koren Byrne: sum of money, which maybe makes those choices a little bit
12:38
Koren Byrne: easier to make and you just take a lot of
12:41
Koren Byrne: stress off yourself. So I think it's definitely worth looking into.
12:45
Kia: Very much so important. Another thing that's important though is
12:49
Kia: pension savings. Why is it important to save as early
12:53
Kia: as possible when retirement can feel like a lifetime away?
12:56
Koren Byrne: So when you have a pension, it's an investment. So
13:00
Koren Byrne: the earlier you start, the more chance you have of
13:04
Koren Byrne: that investment growing. So ultimately, do it early. Start early,
13:09
Koren Byrne: don't put it off. Remember that this life that you're
13:11
Koren Byrne: creating now, you probably want to keep up, if not
13:16
Koren Byrne: maybe a little bit better.
13:19
Kia: That would be nice.
13:19
Koren Byrne: A few more holidays once you remove the work element, so start early and
13:23
Koren Byrne: just watch that build.
13:24
Kia: Amazing. I think, yes, start early is the thing that
13:26
Kia: we want everyone to remember when it comes to all your
13:28
Kia: protections, thinking about your future, have that on your mind and start early.
13:33
Kia: Before we round off then I want to ask you,
13:35
Kia: what are your three top tips that you think our
13:37
Kia: listeners should consider when it comes to planning for their
13:40
Kia: future and just getting their finance in check?
13:42
Koren Byrne: I think the first one is that it's all well
13:46
Koren Byrne: and good putting off or breaking the mold and not
13:49
Koren Byrne: going down traditional milestones, that's absolutely fine, but delaying key
13:55
Koren Byrne: life milestones shouldn't delay you engaging with your finances. And
14:01
Koren Byrne: I wouldn't be true to myself if I didn't say
14:03
Koren Byrne: something about protection insurance either. Just because you're not having
14:08
Koren Byrne: children and you're not getting married, doesn't mean that you
14:12
Koren Byrne: shouldn't have any protection insurance in place. I am my
14:15
Koren Byrne: sole dependent and if I can't work or something unexpected
14:20
Koren Byrne: happens to me, there are still bills that need to
14:22
Koren Byrne: be paid and I am the one that's responsible for
14:24
Koren Byrne: them. So critical illness, income protection, life insurance, explore them,
14:29
Koren Byrne: read up on them, have conversations about them and just
14:32
Koren Byrne: see if they're right for you. And you can also
14:36
Koren Byrne: have access to things like wellbeing benefits, private diagnostics, counseling,
14:42
Koren Byrne: private GPs, and these are the services that you can
14:44
Koren Byrne: access right now, which again saves you money. So there
14:48
Koren Byrne: are benefits to having these products now, not just looking
14:50
Koren Byrne: into the future as well. And yeah, and the third
14:52
Koren Byrne: one, I'm definitely of that generation of millennial that's very
14:56
Koren Byrne: much YOLO. That I've just really aged myself there in
14:59
Koren Byrne: saying that, I know I'm definitely not Gen Z. However,
15:03
Koren Byrne: I think it's a really great attitude to have sometimes,
15:06
Koren Byrne: but don't do it at the cost of your financial
15:10
Koren Byrne: security for now and in the future. By all means,
15:14
Koren Byrne: enjoy life. Enjoy the choices that you've made, enjoy the
15:17
Koren Byrne: family that you've built, whether that's you and your cat
15:21
Koren Byrne: or you, two dogs, three goldfish and a hamster, or
15:24
Koren Byrne: whether that's you married with children, don't stick your head
15:27
Koren Byrne: in the sand. Don't put things off waiting to do
15:31
Koren Byrne: other things. So just be really mindful and don't disengage
15:36
Koren Byrne: from your finances just because you're enjoying your disposable income.
15:41
Kia: I feel like this has given our listeners a lot
15:44
Kia: of encouragement, but it is just important to consider the
15:47
Kia: finances so you can protect yourself and cover yourself for
15:50
Kia: the future.
15:51
Koren Byrne: Absolutely.
15:51
Kia: Koren, this has been an incredible episode as per, because
15:55
Kia: you're a friend of the podcast, so thank you so,
15:57
Kia: so much.
15:58
Koren Byrne: Thank you for having me.
16:01
Kia: Next time we'll be joined by Ben Levett from TikTok
16:04
Kia: to talk to us all about the cost of having
16:06
Kia: a pet. I'd love it if you could review the
16:09
Kia: podcast, spread the word, and help others get a little
16:12
Kia: bit richer too. Keep up with the show on TikTok and Instagram
16:15
Kia: at Legal & General. A Little Bit Richer is brought to you
16:18
Kia: by Legal & General. Thank you for listening. See you soon.