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Your 2026 Money Reset: Practical Steps to Be Better Off by Year-End · Merryn Talks Money

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News. Welcome to Marin Talks
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Speaker 1: Your Money, the personal finance vision of Marin Talks Money.
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Speaker 1: In these bonus podcasts, we talk about the best strategies
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Speaker 1: we're making the most of your money. I'm married something
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Speaker 1: that web editor at large for Bloomberg UK Wealth and.
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Speaker 2: That joined Stevieck Senior reported at Bloomberg and author of
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Speaker 2: the multi award winning money Distilled newsletter.
0:37
Speaker 1: Happen You Year, Man, Happen you here? John. Now, you're
0:40
Speaker 1: probably having a lovely time because you were so right
0:42
Speaker 1: about silver and knowing you, you probably absolutely piled in
0:46
Speaker 1: and now you're super rich and leaving us any day. Now,
0:48
Speaker 1: Am I right? Or am I right?
0:49
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously yes, I was right a boot so well,
0:52
Speaker 2: I wasn't even right. But somelf, I've just been gopping
0:54
Speaker 2: at it. But yes, from the seed lanes, because self
0:59
Speaker 2: is the crypto of the males world.
1:04
Speaker 1: Yes, I suppose it is. No, it's not, because it's
1:06
Speaker 1: been going up.
1:10
Speaker 2: Oh shorts filed already. It's only the first podcast of
1:14
Speaker 2: the year, starting early to the usual address.
1:19
Speaker 1: John's listen, I'm feeling quite optimistic about the beginning of
1:23
Speaker 1: this year and partly to do with the Golden Civil Prize,
1:26
Speaker 1: et cetera. But I'm kind of alone. Well, this is
1:28
Speaker 1: the time of year to look at Pole's surveys, et cetera.
1:31
Speaker 1: And one of the first ones that caught my eye
1:33
Speaker 1: this morning was one about despair over the future in
1:37
Speaker 1: the West. So the majority of people think governments are failing,
1:40
Speaker 1: democracy is weakening, life is going to be harder and
1:44
Speaker 1: harder generation after generation. There's this kind of miserable stuff,
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Speaker 1: this idea that people genuinely feel that their governments are
1:51
Speaker 1: failing we say are by the way, and that they
1:54
Speaker 1: that there is very little at a high level agency.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, to be honest about it, it's hard to disagree
2:01
Speaker 2: with the sense of a lack of agency. I think
2:05
Speaker 2: the one thing that I would the main thing with
2:08
Speaker 2: a disagree is the idea that this is then the
2:11
Speaker 2: lete and inevitable declaim as opposed to a change. And
2:14
Speaker 2: obviously change is unsettling. But obviously we're already seeing change.
2:19
Speaker 2: You just started with Donald Trump demonstrating change very clearly.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, when he goes for change, he really does go
2:27
Speaker 1: for change. I don't think that the rest of us
2:29
Speaker 1: can quite go for change in the same way as
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Speaker 1: Donald Trump. What we are going to talk about today
2:33
Speaker 1: is things that you do have your own agency over
2:36
Speaker 1: that that is not, you know, invading countries and that
2:39
Speaker 1: kind of thing. It's a little more prosaic really.
2:42
Speaker 2: So find your resolutions less quite like an idea invades
2:46
Speaker 2: small country.
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Speaker 1: But let's just correct because as Trump is main clear,
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Speaker 1: there's not an evasion. No, not an invasion, not invaded Venezuela,
2:56
Speaker 1: not running Venezuela, or they're kind of running Venezuela. Do
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Speaker 1: we leave that to one of the political podcasts and
3:01
Speaker 1: move on. Yes, financial resolutions things you should be doing
3:05
Speaker 1: or not doing to be better off. By the end
3:07
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty six, were aiming for six potential financial
3:12
Speaker 1: resolutions for you. Now. One thing to say here is
3:15
Speaker 1: that there is a yet another survey out from you gov.
3:19
Speaker 1: It says only nineteen percent of Britons say they intend
3:22
Speaker 1: to make New Year's resolutions for twenty twenty six. We'd
3:25
Speaker 1: like to make that one hundred percent of our listeners.
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Speaker 1: Young people are the most likely thirty seven percent of
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Speaker 1: them eighteen to twenty four, so they're going to do it.
3:33
Speaker 1: And health pledges top the list of resolutions. Now that
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Speaker 1: makes sense health first always, but rather depressingly, only about
3:41
Speaker 1: seven percent of them say that they want to make
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Speaker 1: a financial one. So no, it's worse than that. Save more,
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Speaker 1: spend less seven percent of people. Okay, improve financial management
3:51
Speaker 1: four percent of people. Reduced levels of debt two percent
3:55
Speaker 1: of people. Hmmm for centristan, maybe people just don't have
4:00
Speaker 1: any doubt. We know that household that isn't across the
4:02
Speaker 1: board much for a problem at the moment. But save
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Speaker 1: more spend less. Economists wouldn't be down with that. They
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Speaker 1: would let us just spend more, save less, but improve
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Speaker 1: financial management. I think that's that's the key. So why
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Speaker 1: don't we work from that? Improve financial management is an
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Speaker 1: over arching resolution that, to be honest, really really really,
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Speaker 1: more than a couple of percent of you should be
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Speaker 1: picking up because that is not enough that I should
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Speaker 1: be like one hundred percent. Okay, So John inside that
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Speaker 1: what would be your number one financial resolution?
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Speaker 2: Number one? Yeah, well number one is quite tricky, but
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Speaker 2: I guess the if you won't improve your financial management,
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Speaker 2: then that it's more. But well, it's making sure that
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Speaker 2: you you your spending is under control within the bones
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Speaker 2: of your monthly income. And I think that's the most
4:55
Speaker 2: important thing.
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Speaker 1: God, John, do you think people should be making spending
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Speaker 1: spreads cheets and budgeting spreadsheets and all that kind of thing.
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Speaker 2: Not unless you have to. You know, if if your
5:05
Speaker 2: budget is tight, then you want you do want to
5:07
Speaker 2: live within your means. I think that's that's important. Obviously,
5:10
Speaker 2: living within your means death us from period to period
5:13
Speaker 2: in your life. And that's the other thing. It's like,
5:15
Speaker 2: what you haven't you prioritized at this particular point, So
5:19
Speaker 2: you know, what is your savings goal? Do you want
5:22
Speaker 2: to you need to buy a house, in which case
5:25
Speaker 2: that dictates how you save or are you more my
5:29
Speaker 2: age and you want to maximize the amount of money
5:31
Speaker 2: you're saving for your retirement?
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Speaker 1: You know.
5:34
Speaker 2: So it's all a bit different life stages. So if
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Speaker 2: you're asking about one thing, then that that is the
5:39
Speaker 2: most boring thing. It's like, nowhere your money is going
5:43
Speaker 2: and what your what your what you want to do
5:45
Speaker 2: with it?
5:46
Speaker 1: Yeah? Do you know this connects nicely with what I
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Speaker 1: would say would be my number one right, which is
5:51
Speaker 1: to actually make time for this. And one of the
5:54
Speaker 1: things that people never do is set aside an hour
5:58
Speaker 1: a month. Literally, this is not going to kill you
6:00
Speaker 1: an hour a month to sit down and just go
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Speaker 1: through everything.
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Speaker 2: That's really important, because yeah, because it's the same any
6:07
Speaker 2: kind of productivity move or or exercise move is. The
6:11
Speaker 2: first thing you actually need is to budget the tame
6:13
Speaker 2: for it.
6:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, and take that time and then you can actually
6:17
Speaker 1: sit down. You can open your bank account, you can
6:19
Speaker 1: look at all your direct debits or if your build,
6:22
Speaker 1: you can look at your insurance utilities. You can talk
6:25
Speaker 1: to your partner about it, because you've got to do
6:27
Speaker 1: this as a couple. If you're going to do it,
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Speaker 1: sit down with your partner, do it together. This one
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Speaker 1: hour maybe once a month is pushing it once every
6:34
Speaker 1: two months, once every two months.
6:36
Speaker 2: Even once every two months is good. And also steffin
6:39
Speaker 2: in tames as well, because I mean things like when
6:41
Speaker 2: your insurance comes in, make sure you've got that in
6:44
Speaker 2: a diary so that you know to do the compartison
6:47
Speaker 2: search at some point before it comes in. Yeah, it's
6:50
Speaker 2: much much easier than it used to be in the
6:52
Speaker 2: old days. I mean, I still remember when you had
6:54
Speaker 2: to phone around three different car insurance or whatever to
6:57
Speaker 2: try and seek it a new quote. But there's at
6:59
Speaker 2: least now you can or put any one wave site,
7:01
Speaker 2: so you just you need to put a detain for
7:04
Speaker 2: it and planet.
7:05
Speaker 1: Ye and I'm going to pick up that one on
7:07
Speaker 1: insurance right. The other thing, if you've got a mortgage,
7:11
Speaker 1: a remortgage coming up, you really need to be on
7:14
Speaker 1: this probably an advance. I had of text this morning
7:16
Speaker 1: from a friend who's just about to roll off a
7:19
Speaker 1: five year mortgage deal at one point five percent, and
7:24
Speaker 1: so you need to be on that very quickly to
7:27
Speaker 1: make sure that you do not end up on a
7:29
Speaker 1: standard variable rate.
7:32
Speaker 2: Yeah.
7:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, those will come in nasty, very nasty. They can
7:37
Speaker 1: come in at six plus percent at the moment. Imagine
7:39
Speaker 1: going from one and a half to six percent on
7:41
Speaker 1: your mortgage. You do not want this to happen. So
7:43
Speaker 1: that's something to be absolutely aware of. If you know
7:46
Speaker 1: your mortgage is coming to an end, and now is
7:48
Speaker 1: the time to put that in your diary, not the
7:51
Speaker 1: actual end of the mortgage, but six months in advance,
7:53
Speaker 1: to make sure that you are not the person, particularly
7:56
Speaker 1: in an environment of falling interest rates at the moment,
7:59
Speaker 1: you are not a person who ends up with the
8:02
Speaker 1: standard variable rate. Don't be that person.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, And you can also talk to a mortgage broker
8:07
Speaker 2: doing the boat that team, and if you do find that,
8:10
Speaker 2: you're like, there's a good chance you'll be able to
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Speaker 2: lock that in and then look at it again just
8:15
Speaker 2: before your mortgage is actually up, and if there is
8:18
Speaker 2: a bit of rate at that point, you can switch
8:20
Speaker 2: to that.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. And we have, by the way, done several podcasts
8:23
Speaker 1: on this. Do go back to our property series when
8:26
Speaker 1: you can learn all about mortgages and finding a mortgage
8:28
Speaker 1: broker and how to work on that. I suppose one
8:30
Speaker 1: thing I might add to that, John, This is not
8:33
Speaker 1: necessarily a resolution, but a reminder, which is that if
8:36
Speaker 1: you are one of the very few people who appear
8:38
Speaker 1: to be buying a house this year, bargainheart. Bargainheart prices
8:44
Speaker 1: are changing, aren't they. The market is finally reacting to
8:47
Speaker 1: higher interest rates. These things move so slowly, but interest
8:50
Speaker 1: rates have gone up a lot. House prices are reacting
8:52
Speaker 1: to that. So it is time if you are looking
8:55
Speaker 1: for a house to make sure you really really get
8:58
Speaker 1: the right price.
9:00
Speaker 2: And I think the further up the ladder you go,
9:03
Speaker 2: the harder it is to find a buyer. So if
9:06
Speaker 2: you are a buyer, especially at the kind of upper reaches, then,
9:10
Speaker 2: as you say, you should be able to kind of
9:12
Speaker 2: drive a harder bargain than you could have maybe five
9:15
Speaker 2: years ago.
9:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, and if you're selling.
9:18
Speaker 2: Well, I guess you're just going to have to accept
9:23
Speaker 2: that you may not get the price that you would
9:27
Speaker 2: have got again sort of like five years ago. And
9:30
Speaker 2: again it depends on where you are. The further north
9:32
Speaker 2: year in the country, the more likely it is that actually,
9:35
Speaker 2: you know, your house price probably is roughly what you
9:38
Speaker 2: thought it would be worth, whereas the further south year,
9:40
Speaker 2: particularly in London, prices haven't moved since, you know, in
9:43
Speaker 2: about a decade. Realistically.
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Speaker 1: Well, the papers are full at the moment of stories
9:49
Speaker 1: about people who can't sell the houses where dashboards sell,
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Speaker 1: with this, with that, and it's a cruel world out there.
9:54
Speaker 1: But the answer is that there is no such thing
9:56
Speaker 1: as a house that won't sell. There is only a
9:58
Speaker 1: house that won't sell because of it's is wrong. There's
10:01
Speaker 1: always a price, right.
10:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think a lot of the problem with
10:04
Speaker 2: that is that people have unfortunately something's taken out debt
10:08
Speaker 2: against the home over time, and so they end up
10:12
Speaker 2: with a price that not only they think is worth
10:15
Speaker 2: the kind of a price that they feel they need
10:17
Speaker 2: to get and you can't ankled to that. As you say,
10:21
Speaker 2: if the house isn't selling or getting viewings, then that's
10:24
Speaker 2: because it's the price is too high.
10:26
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, okay, now that's a depressing woman moving on
10:28
Speaker 1: from this, although not depressing for the bias, just the price.
10:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good.
10:47
Speaker 1: Right. The next one, next to the financial resolution is
10:50
Speaker 1: be aware of all the possibilities for tax efficiency and
10:54
Speaker 1: take advantage of them. Right, So max out your eyes up.
10:57
Speaker 1: I think pretty much everyone who is able to do so,
10:59
Speaker 1: max out there, I said last year. Right, Yes, we
11:01
Speaker 1: saw we figured from the Bank of England out the
11:04
Speaker 1: other day showing that five point one billion into cash
11:07
Speaker 1: ices in November twenty twenty five alone. That's the highest
11:10
Speaker 1: inflow in the year, apart from in April, which is
11:12
Speaker 1: obviously it was the highest INFLOCE. So yes, max that out.
11:17
Speaker 1: Remember that it's not that long hammer. It's another two
11:19
Speaker 1: iSER seasons until you can only put twelve thousand pounds
11:23
Speaker 1: into cash and the rest has to go into equities,
11:25
Speaker 1: of which John and I thoroughly approval that. We don't
11:27
Speaker 1: understand why the over sixty five is get an exemption
11:29
Speaker 1: from that I spoke for you. You approve as well, right, John, Oh.
11:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, I approve, yes, And also yes, I don't know
11:34
Speaker 2: why the over sixty five is get get exempt from that. Well,
11:37
Speaker 2: I know why, but I think it's a tought reason.
11:40
Speaker 1: Yeah. So max out your isis, but also be aware
11:42
Speaker 1: as you do so of the interest rate you might get.
11:45
Speaker 1: Very often the interest rate on a cash iSER is
11:47
Speaker 1: lower than the rate you might get on an ordinary account.
11:50
Speaker 1: And it isn't entirely possible that if you have to
11:53
Speaker 1: pay tax on the interest from an ordinary account, you
11:56
Speaker 1: may still end up ahead of what you get on
11:58
Speaker 1: a cash isico. Who can know? Check all that stuff
12:01
Speaker 1: out along the way. By the way, a number from
12:03
Speaker 1: aj Bell three hundred billion pounds is sitting in the
12:06
Speaker 1: posit accounts or current accounts of pay no interest of
12:08
Speaker 1: any kind whatsoever. Do something about that. If that's you,
12:12
Speaker 1: do something about that. It's insane.
12:15
Speaker 2: And another thing is if you've got cash that is
12:17
Speaker 2: setting out, say the nayser for whatever reason, then if
12:20
Speaker 2: you're married, make sure it's going into the name of
12:23
Speaker 2: the spouse who earns the least, because they all pay
12:26
Speaker 2: the least tax or the interest issuming that you trust
12:30
Speaker 2: your spousting off to stick your assets in their name,
12:34
Speaker 2: which I hope you do.
12:35
Speaker 1: I hope you do too. Back to the fact that
12:37
Speaker 1: all your financial decisions should be joined. There with another
12:40
Speaker 1: survey out the other day saying that a very large
12:42
Speaker 1: number I can't remember the percentage of which of people
12:45
Speaker 1: and couples have money they hide from their partners. Can
12:48
Speaker 1: tell you much about trust, does it.
12:50
Speaker 2: Everyone's good different ways of running their financies. But I
12:52
Speaker 2: think whenever you're haiding money from your partner in a
12:56
Speaker 2: serious way, then that's that's that's just Biden news.
13:00
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean there's having your that's having your own accounts. Yeah,
13:04
Speaker 1: that's having your own accounts, and there's hiding money. Anyway, again,
13:07
Speaker 1: that's not our area. We'll leave that for the self
13:09
Speaker 1: self help podcasts.
13:10
Speaker 2: We do need to do a divorce episode at some point.
13:13
Speaker 2: Keep getting getting requests for that for some reason I
13:16
Speaker 2: think than maybe some people in the office who are.
13:23
Speaker 1: I would like to apologize to all our colleagues for
13:25
Speaker 1: the exsumptions John Nigs. But anyway, we have past divorce day.
13:29
Speaker 1: Divorce Day was January the fifth, the day when the
13:32
Speaker 1: more people file for divorce in any other day in
13:35
Speaker 1: the year on average. But of course the best financial
13:37
Speaker 1: tip when it comes to divorce is don't do not
13:40
Speaker 1: get divorced. Everyone's standard of living is lower after divorce.
13:43
Speaker 1: You can run one house on a certain amount of
13:45
Speaker 1: cash trying and two households on the same amount of
13:48
Speaker 1: cash doesn't work so well, particularly right now when you're
13:51
Speaker 1: not going to sell your house to the amount you
13:52
Speaker 1: thought you were going to sell your house for. So
13:54
Speaker 1: if you can possibly reconcile and again moving into the
13:57
Speaker 1: realms of our self help compare it anyway. So if
14:02
Speaker 1: you can avoid getting divorced, don't get divorced. And of course,
14:05
Speaker 1: the the other bit of advice that divorce lawyers always give,
14:08
Speaker 1: particularly to women, is if you are getting divorced, forget
14:12
Speaker 1: the house, go for the pension, and stay out of
14:14
Speaker 1: court to the extent that you possibly can.
14:17
Speaker 2: That could advice because patients relooked.
14:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, do we now need a divorce podcast or are
14:23
Speaker 1: we done?
14:26
Speaker 2: Let the people decay?
14:27
Speaker 1: Okay, send it in if you want, if you want
14:30
Speaker 1: to know more about how to divorce well financially, at
14:32
Speaker 1: least that's all we can do. Let us know, right,
14:35
Speaker 1: I'm sticking with tax John, I'm sticking with tax. The
14:37
Speaker 1: next resolution has got to be to keep an eye
14:39
Speaker 1: on your pension. Do you know what you've got? Do
14:41
Speaker 1: you know what types they are? Do you know how
14:43
Speaker 1: they work? Do you know all the t's and c's
14:46
Speaker 1: around the edge? Can you save more? What if you
14:49
Speaker 1: make a really small additional contribution, if you're young, and
14:53
Speaker 1: you up your contributions by one or two percentage points,
14:56
Speaker 1: which most most schemes will allow you to do, time,
15:00
Speaker 1: that's going to add up to a lot right with doing.
15:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I mean this is a really important one
15:04
Speaker 2: because so many people have got so many pensions or
15:07
Speaker 2: even just one pension that they don't know what's in it.
15:10
Speaker 2: So if you're if you're an employee, look at your
15:13
Speaker 2: auto enrollment pension, double check the conditions if you get
15:17
Speaker 2: a match from your employer, like if you put more
15:20
Speaker 2: in and they'll put more in, then you should definitely
15:23
Speaker 2: do that. And also check what it's invested in. And
15:26
Speaker 2: also if you're older, check that your fund isn't being
15:30
Speaker 2: lifestyled unless you want it to be because a lifestyle
15:34
Speaker 2: and this is the closer you get to retirement, the
15:35
Speaker 2: more that gets put into Technically, less risky assets like bonds.
15:40
Speaker 2: But that can mean that when you get to retire,
15:42
Speaker 2: maybe you know what, your fund doesn't grow in as
15:44
Speaker 2: much as you wanted it to, or you know, you
15:46
Speaker 2: thought you were invested in one thing and in fact
15:48
Speaker 2: you're invested in another. So just keep an eye on
15:51
Speaker 2: what's going on with your pensions.
15:53
Speaker 1: Yep. Okay, any other tax things we should think about.
15:57
Speaker 2: I mean, there's you. I mean, obviously the gains tax
16:01
Speaker 2: allowance is very low now, but it's still three thousand pounds.
16:05
Speaker 2: And then for some reason you do have you know,
16:08
Speaker 2: investments in outside an outside the pension wrapper. Then crystallizing
16:13
Speaker 2: some of those gains can be useful to use up
16:16
Speaker 2: betsy your allowance. But yeah, it has become very very
16:19
Speaker 2: meager in a very short space of time, you know.
16:22
Speaker 2: So it's going down from like twelve to kind of
16:24
Speaker 2: three and just the space of a few years. So
16:27
Speaker 2: people who once wouldn't have had to worry about that
16:29
Speaker 2: and do have to worry about it now. So's what
16:31
Speaker 2: taking a look at and again trying to share that
16:33
Speaker 2: allowance about your books where you can.
16:36
Speaker 1: Okay, I have one more that I think is really
16:38
Speaker 1: important and that I wrote about at the end of
16:40
Speaker 1: last year, which is taking us back to cash, we
16:42
Speaker 1: talked about making sure you're any interesting cash, making sure
16:46
Speaker 1: that you max out your eyes seraph for what you
16:48
Speaker 1: wanted to have, the cash, stocks and shares, make sure whatever.
16:52
Speaker 1: We'll do more on ices at a different time, but
16:55
Speaker 1: one of the key things about cash is that you
16:56
Speaker 1: need to have actual, real physical cash. Hmm.
17:00
Speaker 2: Thought this was a really interesting point.
17:02
Speaker 1: You mean, yeah, so you know, what if there's a
17:04
Speaker 1: cyber attack, what if your bank account is locked for
17:07
Speaker 1: some reason, you know, to do with cyber attack, to
17:09
Speaker 1: do some money laundering mistake whatever it is. I don't
17:12
Speaker 1: mean a mistake on your part, obviously, not our listeners.
17:14
Speaker 1: I mean a mistake on the bank's part, believing that
17:16
Speaker 1: there may be something wrong with your account when there isn't.
17:18
Speaker 1: This happens increasingly. There are all sorts of reasons why
17:23
Speaker 1: you might need to have a couple of weeks worth
17:26
Speaker 1: of cash at home. Don't forget, of course, possibility of blackout.
17:29
Speaker 1: All sorts of things can happen. Yea, and none of
17:32
Speaker 1: none of your accounts are going to work if there
17:35
Speaker 1: isn't any electricity, or if there's a cyber attack. So
17:37
Speaker 1: having a bit of cash at home in case of
17:41
Speaker 1: emergencies is really worth doing. And I know people listen
17:44
Speaker 1: to me saying this and they think you're ridiculous. But
17:47
Speaker 1: look at the cyber attacks we saw last year and
17:50
Speaker 1: the year before, look at the geopolitical tensions ramping up,
17:53
Speaker 1: look at the problems we're having in our electricity market
17:55
Speaker 1: and with our grid. I mean, why would you not
17:57
Speaker 1: have the insurance of having cash at home.
18:00
Speaker 2: This obviously happened in Spain last year, and again another
18:04
Speaker 2: colleague was pointing out that she was in Spain at
18:07
Speaker 2: the time and they couldn't get cash out and they
18:11
Speaker 2: couldn't you know, they couldn't buy anything, or they did
18:14
Speaker 2: something like twenty euros to last them for three days,
18:18
Speaker 2: and so yeah, no, I mean I think that's that's
18:20
Speaker 2: a really important useful one. It's almost like your emergency
18:24
Speaker 2: emergency fund.
18:25
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly. I mean we're not talking here about the
18:27
Speaker 1: amount of cash it has armed robbers breaking into your ome.
18:30
Speaker 1: We're just talking about a couple of days of cash.
18:33
Speaker 1: If something goes wrong, you can still get some bread
18:36
Speaker 1: and some milk.
18:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, I think that's a that's a really
18:39
Speaker 2: useful one. I think it's one that the people don't
18:42
Speaker 2: think about, particularly again younger people, whenever they've just used
18:46
Speaker 2: their phones for everything. Oh.
18:48
Speaker 1: Actually, while we're on the subject, John, I just wanted
18:50
Speaker 1: to point to a Bloomberg article on our website about
18:55
Speaker 1: the horrors of people invading your home if you have
18:58
Speaker 1: very got large crypt holdings, to force the passwords out
19:01
Speaker 1: of you really unbelievably unpleasant. So I just wanted to
19:04
Speaker 1: take this opportunity to let everybody know that while I
19:07
Speaker 1: talk a lot, just to teach John about my crypto holdings,
19:10
Speaker 1: they're worth very very very little, like basically nothing. Please
19:15
Speaker 1: do not invade my home. And John, of course, John
19:18
Speaker 1: of course has no cryptoical so definitely do not invade
19:22
Speaker 1: his home. Yes, that would be a complete waste of time,
19:25
Speaker 1: total waste of time. Invading either of our houses would
19:28
Speaker 1: be a waste of time. Don't do it.
19:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so that's another New Year's resolution. If you've
19:34
Speaker 2: got a lot of crypto, don't tell anyone.
19:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
19:41
Speaker 2: Actually, I mean that's interesting because one of the reasons
19:42
Speaker 2: that these people do invade people's homes is because there
19:45
Speaker 2: isn't a central authority that can just stop your crypto.
19:48
Speaker 2: It's like if somebody steals your credit card, then you
19:51
Speaker 2: phone your bank and it's dead within seconds. But if
19:54
Speaker 2: somebody kind of like you know, hatch you over the
19:56
Speaker 2: head until you give them your crypto passport, there is
19:59
Speaker 2: nobody stop that from being stolen.
20:02
Speaker 1: I've got to be fascinating to find out how many
20:04
Speaker 1: people have already forgotten their password.
20:06
Speaker 2: Oh, I mean that too. I mean that's the other
20:08
Speaker 2: big issue. But yeah, you know, that's that's a lot
20:11
Speaker 2: less traumatic than you know, having your hoose violently broken into.
20:16
Speaker 1: Well, yes, but having your house violently broken into while
20:18
Speaker 1: someone tries to force you to tell them your password,
20:20
Speaker 1: which you forgot five years ago.
20:22
Speaker 2: Oh yes, yep, that's yeah, ye, your point, I mean,
20:27
Speaker 2: is what happened to me? Yeah, this is really a
20:30
Speaker 2: cheerful one, isn't it? To start the new year as
20:33
Speaker 2: we mean to go on?
20:34
Speaker 1: Clearly right now, listen, we've done we've really we've gone
20:38
Speaker 1: through this. Hire set time aside to do some kind
20:41
Speaker 1: of financial mot etc. Make sure you have cash in
20:46
Speaker 1: a deposit account and genuine cash. Check the interest rate,
20:50
Speaker 1: put it in your diary. When your insurance and your
20:54
Speaker 1: mortgages are about to run out because that's going to
20:56
Speaker 1: get you in all sorts of trouble about your crypto holdings.
21:03
Speaker 1: Be tax efficient. That is five, we promise six. Give
21:07
Speaker 1: us one more, John.
21:08
Speaker 2: Get a well, get a well. If you're if you're married,
21:13
Speaker 2: get well. If you're mind and you have kids, definitely
21:15
Speaker 2: get a well. And if you've get anything more complicated
21:19
Speaker 2: beyond that, then you absolutely need to. You must have
21:22
Speaker 2: a will. And it doesn't really matter what age you
21:27
Speaker 2: are because obviously unexpected things happen. Get a well done.
21:31
Speaker 2: It's not complicated, it's not even particularly expensive, and it's
21:37
Speaker 2: it's really really important both in your own peace of
21:40
Speaker 2: mind and then for your inheritors. I think that's a
21:43
Speaker 2: really critical one.
21:45
Speaker 1: I absolutely agree, And crucially you want to get those wills.
21:48
Speaker 1: If redone, if anything has changed, yes, did you have kids,
21:53
Speaker 1: did you get remarried? Are you trying to blend a family?
21:56
Speaker 1: All these things disaster If your will is not written
22:00
Speaker 1: and clear, Yeah, don't leave misery behind you. That's what
22:03
Speaker 1: we're saying here.
22:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I mean that's that's the most important one.
22:07
Speaker 2: But then you also need to think about your admin.
22:11
Speaker 2: So what makes stuff, makes stuff clear? So like just
22:15
Speaker 2: even of one document that explains to your descendants you know,
22:19
Speaker 2: this is where everything is, so you need because that's
22:23
Speaker 2: the other issue is obviously things can be quite on tidy.
22:26
Speaker 2: Filing systems can be quite on tidy. So having a
22:29
Speaker 2: good idea, look, here's what matters, and here's where it is,
22:32
Speaker 2: even as a kind of loose document. And then you know,
22:35
Speaker 2: if you want to worry about the digital stuff, you know,
22:38
Speaker 2: that's that's another bucket of fish. But at the end
22:40
Speaker 2: of the day, your iTunes account is one thing. But
22:44
Speaker 2: you know your cuttnent account.
22:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, we did a great podcast on this last year,
22:47
Speaker 1: didn't we. So if you're if your interested mission and
22:50
Speaker 1: by the way, you really should be, we did do
22:52
Speaker 1: a podcast on this last year about you know, how
22:55
Speaker 1: to prepare your finances and everything around you for people
23:01
Speaker 1: after your death, to make life easy for them. Because
23:03
Speaker 1: of course that's one of the main legacies we'd like
23:05
Speaker 1: to leave behind is lack of admin. Well not like
23:08
Speaker 1: of adminal part like of admin. For our air step
23:10
Speaker 1: to deal with something straightforward, something simple, and something that
23:14
Speaker 1: won't cause our families to fight with each other after
23:16
Speaker 1: we're gone. No one wants that.
23:18
Speaker 2: No, you might know before you have gone so you
23:20
Speaker 2: can watch it.
23:25
Speaker 1: John, thanks for listening to this week's Marin Talks Money.
23:33
Speaker 1: If you like us, show, rate, review, and subscribe wherever
23:35
Speaker 1: you listen to podcasts. Also keep sending questions or comments
23:38
Speaker 1: to Merror Money at Bloomberg dot net. You can follow
23:41
Speaker 1: me and John on Twitter or x I'm at marins
23:43
Speaker 1: w and John is John Underscore Steppech. This episode was
23:46
Speaker 1: hosted by Me Maren's Unset Web. It was produced by
23:49
Speaker 1: Zamasadi and Moses and sound designed by Blake Maple's