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Financial Wellbeing with Leigh Dunkley · Financial Planner Life Podcast

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Financial Planet Life podcast.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about 15 stages in our career about working in the world of financial funding and financial funds.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: So check out the website.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: This week I am joined by leaders leaders to the financial well-being leaders who just after we fool falls financial well-being and how we financial planning to start financial well-being if we consider the same looking after you'll make it so the physical health and also the future of the health education to be difficult to school as well.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, everyone, good afternoon, and Elena back in the whole state for the financial panelists.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm really excited to be joined by Lee Duncan, who is the financial well-being lead at Code of Personal Well.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: So how are you this afternoon, Lee?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Hi Elena, I'm really good.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Really good.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: How are you?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm very well.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much for spending taking time out of your afternoon to come and join me.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: I've been really excited to have you on.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: So as I mentioned, obviously you're the financial well-being lead, but just to begin with, how did you get to that point?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: What's been your career journey today?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's a great question.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's been really, really varied.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm one of these odd people where if you say, you know, how did you get into financial services?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: I'll say, I've always wanted to work in financial services.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: And it stemmed very much from a child and probably from the roots of how I grew up.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I grew up kind of with my mum and with my dad.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: But as I was going through my teenage years, my parents and their relationship broke down, they went through divorce and separation.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: So actually, as I grew up, um, I really saw actually how money and finances had an impact on both my mum and my dad separately, but also as us as that family unit.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I always remember my dad's you know words of wisdom to me where he was like, go to university, go and work for a bank and get in the pension scheme.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: So I went to university, I um studied at Aston University in Birmingham, I did uh international business in French, and that allowed me to kind of I went to Paris for a year and actually spent six months working for HSBC and six months working for BMP Power Bar, which was amazing, and kind of came back, um, applied to be on the Lloyd's Bank graduate programme, which I did, so did that successfully and kind of worked through through my career with Lloyd.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then I absolutely on day one got into that pension scheme, and there was no rhyme or reason as to why why I did it back then.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: And it was only through my time at Lloyd's and the different roles that I've had that you really then start to get that appreciation as to, you know, that was absolutely the right thing for my dad to be telling me, and I now have an appreciation, you know, as a millennial, um, as to as to what changes and how that how things like that, that little piece of advice or that little, you know, do this, um, does can really have a real real big impact on on kind of your future and and your personal circumstances as well.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: So I've um I worked for Lloyd's Bank for around seven years.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I did two years within kind of a commercial bank, so supporting businesses around the UK with their business banking.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I then took the decision to move across, and I actually worked for nearly five years under their Scottish Widows brand.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: And so this was in the world of workplace pensions, um, and it was a new area for me, but it was one that I was really intrigued about because especially a brand like Scottish Widows, kind of we've all seen the adverts on TV, and you've all kind of get put into your workplace pension scheme, but actually, what does it mean?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: What is happening in this part of the business?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: So really joined, and and that was kind of one of my first real roles within the area of business development as well.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: And my role throughout that five years was to genuinely go and speak to businesses, speak to HR directors, the pension managers, well-being managers, and talk to them about actually what support were they putting in place for their employees from a pensions perspective?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: And more importantly, how are we engaging with different demographics, with different people in different roles, different divisions across these organizations to say actually, this is a really great benefit that you know your employer is putting in place.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: Do you even understand it?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: Do you understand what it is?
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: Do you understand what's going into it?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: Do you understand how you can maximize it?
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: You know, all of these different, you know, questions that many people have around the UK but actually just don't have the confidence to stand up and ask or don't know where to turn to to ask.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: So that was a big part of my role for five years.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: And it was kind of whilst I was at Scottish Widows that they uh put me through my level four qualifications myself.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm a qualified uh financial advisor by trade.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then it was around, well, uh just over two years ago now, um, that Lloyd's bank um announced the joint venture with Schroeder's PLC and the company of Schroeder's Personal Wealth or SPW for short, um, was born.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: So they they kind of announced that uh a couple of years ago now.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I moved across and joined back in October 2019 to really help set up the business development team, but ultimately kind of create and lead the financial well-being strategy within that.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, so you've had a busy, you've had a busy um, you know, career to date so far and lots of future prospects ahead of you.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: But I think in the podcast, obviously, we talk so much about financial planning, um the importance of financial planning, all the different elements of it.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: You're the financial well-being lead.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: So, what's the difference between financial well-being from financial planning?
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: And they come very, very hand in hand.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: So for me, when I'm out there talking about financial well-being, um, I quite often will ask people, you know, as the let's do now.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_02: What does what does financial well-being mean for you?
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's such a good question.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I guess it's to me being financially stable, you know, being able to pay um my bills, my rent while having, you know, um money left over to save while money, I guess for me, you know, I I like I like to go out for nice meals, I like to buy clothes.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: Financial well-being, I guess to me is having less expensive to do with the things that I enjoy.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: But I guess overall, the same way that we talk about um physical well-being and mental well-being, I guess it's uh for me, financial well-being is being in a position where I'm not stressing about these things, I guess.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: And and your answer there is is was actually really good because you've you've you had you had the two parts of it.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: So the first part, and quite often the part that people initially answer with is actually, do you know what?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: I want a little bit more money.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like if I had more money, I could buy more things, I could do more experience, I could live more comfortably.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: So actually, you know, let's climb that career ladder, let's, you know, let's build my wealth and have more money.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_02: And they talk, you know, around the pans and the pens.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um whereas your answer was probably the second part of it was was more where we come from, is that that confidence and that knowledge and that, you know, removing the stress and the pressure.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, you know, when we speak to people like yes, more money will absolutely allow you to buy more things and do more things.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the research shows that actually just because you have more money, that doesn't necessarily equate to that feeling of financial well-being.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: So when we're talking to people about financial well-being, it's absolutely that it's about providing education, it's about deepening understanding, it's about giving people the confidence for them to understand where their finances are, what they're doing, ultimately make tangible decisions that are going to put them in a better financial position.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: But ultimately, and I think more importantly, is empowering them to do that.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: Because actually, there's a lot of people around the UK that, you know, we see our finances uh they're extremely personal.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: We don't want to talk to anybody about them, we see them as you know, extremely complex, and that's everything from kind of day-to-day household management through to some of the complexities around pension schemes and retirement planning.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: So for me, that financial well-being is getting people to start to talk about their finances.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: Financial planning is a way to unlock that and do that.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: So the first thing for me is actually people need to understand where they are on their own journey and what ultimately what they want to achieve and where they want to get to.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: And then financial planning, financial planners, financial advisors, they are the ones with the toolkits, with the expertise that can help get that person from hopefully from A to B and do it in the right way.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: So, do you find then?
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: So you do workshops in offices, workshops online, how do you conduct these sort of financial well-being workshops?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: So we've kind of got three tiers to what we do at SPW, kind of from a financial well-being perspective.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: So the first one is absolutely all around financial education.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: And for us, for me, well, for me, financial education is there will be people in every organization that do not want to speak to anybody.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: And that's absolutely fine.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_02: Not everybody is ready to start that conversation, especially around finances.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: But actually, if they are signposted to credible resources, they're quite happy to go in there, look at the topics, the themes, the areas that are of interest to them, start to read, whether it's reading articles, into a podcast, but start to build up those financial foundations themselves.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: So that's really important to me and us at SPW.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: So we have what we call our wealth lens.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: And this is where we house all of our educational materials and content, and that is on such a broad range of subjects, everything from how to get on the property ladder for the first time through to you know retirement planning or you know, inheritance tax planning and everything in between.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_02: So it's making those resources accessible to people, and I think more importantly, making it accessible for free.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: Because we it seems really silly to me that we we try and put financial barriers in place for people to achieve financial well-being and unlock financial education.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: I think as a society and as an industry, we need to just stop doing that.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: If we've got the experts and they're creating this content, we need to be pushing it far and wide and getting people to start accessing and engaging with it.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_02: That's the first kind of level.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: The second bit is then what we call financial guidance, and that's absolutely right what you said.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's those interactive sessions.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's getting people who actually might have those more generic questions, who want to come along to you know, a seminar or a webinar and understand some more of those basics and ask those questions that they've got.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's giving them the platform and you know that circle of trust to be able to do it.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_02: And we do it in a number of ways.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_02: So we can absolutely, you know, with some of the employers and organizations we work with, we can go to their key sites, their key offices, we can do it in person, we can do it quite informally, whether it's a staff room, the campaign, whether we do it in a conference centre, and however, really that employer and those and their and ultimately their employees want to facilitate this conversation.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, across the last 18, 24 months, we've seen the absolute rise of doing this digitally and virtually via Teams and Zoom and Google Hangouts and the rest of it.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I was very skeptical at first.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's become because we've come from such a an in-person face-to-face world, but when the pandemic hit, you're like, oh my God, how are we going?
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: We've we've made so many great strides to start to engage people on this journey.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_02: Like, is this going to set us back?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: Is this going to hurt people's financial well-being?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: Because we're not going to be able to reach them, you know, as easily or engage them in the right way.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: But I've been very, very pleasantly surprised by actually how many people attend these workshops and webinars online, how many questions and the level of interaction we get from them.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, the amount of actually employees and organizations that are wanting us to come back and rerun the series or tweak it and do something different next year.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: But I guess the one thing from doing it online is you make it a lot more accessible and inclusive for everybody.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: Because, you know, if if someone, if a business has, you know, an office where there's you know only two, five, ten people, you know, historically it's you know, would it make sense for for you to go in and sit there and engage face to face?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe, maybe not.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but ultimately when we're in this digital world, I think it's about giving having something that is accessible for everybody, is is absolutely kind of my takeaway.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then the final layer, that third layer is in obviously is financial planning, is financial advice.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: So um Archroders Personal Wealth will actually offer anybody within the UK, um, regardless of kind of level of wealth or money in the bank account, if they want or feel like they need to speak to a financial advisor, we will offer them that free, no obligation, initial consultation.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's half an hour for them to speak to a qualified professional.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: They can ask any questions they've got.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: There is no such thing as a really question when it comes to our finances.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and they can start to talk around, you know, their personal circumstances in a confidential environment, you know, what are they looking to achieve?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: And then our advisors, you know, can quite quickly um sign posts, answer those questions, provide some great guidance, and ultimately, if financial advice is going to add value to that individual, then we can look to support them in that area as well.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, excellent.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds like a very multi-level system that allows you to access sort of a imagine a very large population.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: As we talked about previously, you just said then money does definitely feel like a very taboo subject.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: People don't want to speak about it the same way that even when you're having a bad day and you're talking about one thing or another, you know, we feel quite open and confident to speak about it, maybe that would be the financial work, political, you know, managed in your business.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: But when it comes to finances, it really does become something very personal.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: People very often keep their cards post their tests.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: So do you find when you're running these workshops at whatever level they are, especially probably before you get to you know meeting a financial advisor that you are really educating people, that you are telling them things that they haven't heard before?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and that's really the crux of it, because I think you know it's quite easy, particularly, you know, working within this industry.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I've been in a very, very fortunate position where I've grown up and you know, my parents had, you know, they were very fairly educated, you know, they knew about things like pensions and debt management and basic budgeting and you know, instill some of that as as children and then working for large institutions, but equally at the same time, it's very easy to stereotype and bucket people.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I think, you know, particularly in certain roles.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: So when we were looking at designing actually the education and the guidance and the advice proposition that we take out there to other employees and organizations, you know, it's like, well, which business do we want to launch it with first?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: And my answer was, show this personal left.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: And they were like, Lee, we're a financial advice business.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: Like, this is crazy.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like these guys know what they're doing.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Yes, half of our population, half of our employees are qualified financial advisors, you're right.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: But half of them aren't.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_02: Half of them work in HR or finance or marketing or IT and tech and all the different support functions that are absolutely crucial to our business.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: But because our name is Schroeder's personal wealth, you bucket the entire organization and population into this world of, oh no, they should absolutely know what they're doing with their finances.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: So it's, you know, it's how do we get away from that?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, some of the, you know, different industries and things that you work with actually, you know, it's the old stereotypes of, you know, the chef never comes home and cooks for himself, and the joiners always got stuff that's going around the house.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: But we've got to acknowledge that, and you know, especially in in certain professions and fields, like when we're speaking, out there speaking to like lawyers and accountants, they are so time poor, like they are such highly skilled and highly educated people in their fields.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: But actually, it's then some of the basics around looking after your own finances and looking after your own broader well-being, whether it's mental, physical, financial, those are the things that often get deprioritized and missed.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: So the more that we can start to bring those conversations together and normalize those conversations, the absolute better.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think that that's really, really key in terms of um the links between our finances and our mental health.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: So we did some uh research last year, we published our first um our inaugural Money and Mind report, and we should be releasing the next one hopefully early in the new year, and we can just compare where people were pre-COVID to now where they are post-COVID.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: But um the findings in that were absolutely crazy.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_02: So we found that 48% of people, UK adults, felt regularly stressed about their finances.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's nearly half.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly that.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: And if we think about the mental health statistics that we all know, it's it's the one in four.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: So when we're overlaying these themes of you know, our finances, that figure is becoming one in two.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, when we talk about our finances, people are talking about anxiety, depression, panic, fear, overwhelmed.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_02: And it's having a real, real impact on our mental health and wider areas of our lives.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: So we need to really combat that.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_02: So even though nearly half of us are feeling this level of stress, only 3% of us have ever shared those worries with our employer.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: Now, again, to me, that is crazy because our place of work is where we accrue our wealth.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's where we, you know, earn our salaries, we might get bonuses, commissions, our workplace pension, protection benefits, all of these things that make up our remuneration package.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: So surely our employer would be the first part of call if we were feeling, you know, stress or anxiety or nervousness or had a challenge or a question around our finances, but it just isn't.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: And it does come back to the fact that it is the last to be.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_02: Now, I have absolute faith that we will, as an industry and a society, crack this because if we think about five to ten years ago, mental health was not a thing.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_02: Nobody would have signed off sick because you know, nobody would have even been able to ring up their boss and go, you know what, I'm just having a really shitty day.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: I just need some me time.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not going to be productive today.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: There's things going on in my life.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: I just need to take a personal day.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: And that the fact that that has conversation has been normalized is absolutely fantastic.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: Now, don't get me wrong, there is absolutely so much more we need to be doing around, you know, getting rid of the stigma around mental health and stuff.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: But it it does give me a lot of faith that we will get there kind of with the other pillars of well-being as well.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I think financial is probably the last one we do need to crack.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: And it's interesting how we talk about um financial well-being as a pillar in comparison to my mental well-being and physical well-being.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because the same way that like I joined a gym three months ago, because I'm confident about my physical well-being.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: I thought, you know, I'm getting to that point where I want to be a bit fitter, I'm going to go to the gym.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: Or the same time if I have something that's one that I know the things that I've really faster, like I've got to put myself on three other fastest afternoon.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: We've recently been off to the office without employee benefits, go to 50 defense or stuff like that.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: But it's very crazy when you think that, oh, I'm worried about money.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of actually approaching someone, you just bury your head in the sand.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: So it doesn't feel like that's something that you can do to actively tackle that.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's having that toolkit, right?
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_02: So, like you said, if we know that if you know, whether it's our mental health or physical health, if we know we're not in the best place that day or week or month, we've got that toolkit that we can reach inside of and going, I know these things usually make me feel better.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: So let's give them a go and let's see if we can turn this around ourselves.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and our finances, it we need to get to a place where we've got that same toolkit, whether it is, you know, um reaching out to a professional or a support line and just having a conversation.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, whether it's getting out our physical financial plan.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: And going, right, I know where my money is, I know I've got everything I need.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I think a lot of it with our finances is that reassurance.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: Because if we think about the times when that anxiety and nervousness creeps in around our finances, it's usually when we're going through life events.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: So whether it's you know new relationships, starting a family, growing a family, buying a first house, a second home, a holiday home, downsizing home, looking to plan for retirement, you know, buying a new car, uh, whether it's some of the even the more the more negative and stressful times of our lives, like relationship breakdowns, the loss of a loved one, it naturally is those kind of turning points in our lives that create that nervousness because it's the unknown, there's going to be an impact on our finances in some way.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: And actually the message that we want to get across to people is that's okay.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: Because actually, if you've got your financial plan, if you know what you've got and you know where it is, and you know your incoming and your outgoings and where your money is saved, then when these life events happen, we can just pick up that plan.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_02: And whether it's by yourself or whether it's with a professional, we can say, right, well, the impact of this life event is going to be X.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_02: Therefore, we tweak this and we pivot that and we might change that.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_02: And oh, and the plan makes sense again because we've got to make our money enable our lives.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: And this is what we talk about when we talk about financial well-being is, you know, we use the acronym Rocket that showed us personal wells a lot.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: And we use the acronym Rocket because we say that, you know, everybody has somewhere they want to get to.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody has a dream, a goal, a plan, something they want to achieve.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: And they want to get from A to B.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: And money is just fuel for your rocket.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the word we say, but actually, money shouldn't be the thing that controls our lives.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_02: Money should be the things that enables our lives.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: So we've got to be able to just have that confidence that we also we know what our money is doing and where it is, and that that is really the start point.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_02: And when we speak to people that have like a lot of this nervousness and anxiety around their finances, it's generally about going back to those basics.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's literally about saying, like, where are we now?
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: Where is this baseline?
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: Do we actually know how much money is coming into us as a household, as a family unit, as an individual person?
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: And do we know categorically how much money is going out and where it's going?
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: And nine times out of ten people have no idea.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_02: So it's going back to those real basics and and creating that toolkit that people can just get out and say, right, I am a little bit worried about this, but let's get that roadmap out and let's get back on track.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I can imagine, as you said, you know, the rocket analogy there, it's about enabling you, not controlling you.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: I can imagine for lots of people having these other people might think that it's very basic.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: But as you said, it's a lot of lots of people aren't educated on this.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: I can imagine for lots of people coming out of these tests, it really is an emotional release.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's not, it's it's a it's a weight off your shoulders to have this level of knowledge that then you can take moving forward.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely it is.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_02: And and we always put it into that context against the other pillars of well-being because, like you said, we've got very, very used and comfortable as a society to say, right, you know, if I'm feeling a bit lethargic or I've not had a great night's sleep, like let's get out there, let's go for a run, let's get those 10,000 steps in, let's go and do a couple of hours at the gym or you know, spend a couple of hours making a you know, batch cooking for the week of healthy meals that I know are going to be nutritious.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_02: But we invest a lot of our time and energy into those things because we know it's gonna make us feel better.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_02: And quite often it is, you know, a couple of hours each and every day that we are investing in our own well-being, which is fantastic.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_02: When it comes to financial well-being, actually, all we need is a couple of hours each year, you know, to build that financial plan, to do a review of the finances, to do that, you know, to update our budgets or check our pensions, see how it's going.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's not something we need to be doing every day.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's not something we need to be doing every week.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_02: So actually, we need to start prioritizing our financial well-being in the same way that we are prioritizing our mental health, physical health, social health, all of the other pillars of well-being that we know.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just about getting it to that same level of importance.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: So, for anyone in the audience listening to this and they resonate with it, then maybe they're a bit anxious about money issues or one thing or another, what are those first baby steps that you should take?
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'll tell you what, I'll canter through my six top tips and this features in the first webinar that we normally do, which is the introduction to financial uh well-being webinar.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: So, our six top tips are number one is, and this is this is the acronym.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_02: So, R is review household expenses.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely number one, because they are the expenses that you set up, you leave to run in the background, before you know it, the introductory offer, the deal that you signed up to for 12 months has run out, and we're now paying double, if not triple, the amount in money as we are for the exact same service.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_02: So, top tip number one is when you are setting up any initial household bill, whether it's energy providers, insurances, Netflix, internet, mobile phone contracts, mark it in the diary six weeks before that initial offer is due to end and then negotiate.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_02: Look on the comparison sites, find another provider, find a better deal, or negotiate with that existing provider.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_02: If the price has to go up, well, where's the enhanced service to match it?
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: Or if the service is going to stay the same, actually as a loyal customer, how can we make that price reflect that service?
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: So getting a lot more savvy with that because you'll be amazed how many just you$4.99 here,$6.99 there, you can save by just making sure we're on top of this stuff.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_02: And again, once a year, once every two years.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um the O then is organized finance aid.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_02: We've said it a couple of times.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's that income and expenditure, it's knowing what's coming in, it's knowing what's going out.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: Write it down.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: There's some great, you know, spreadsheets, toolkits, you know, budget planners online where you can physically go and it'll give you, you know, give you the layout, but physically looking at what's coming in, what's going out, and and use your current account for that.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: So some of the big banks have got quite good and and you know, savvy at showing showcasing actually the annual summary and starting to bucket and categorize some of your spending patterns for you.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_02: So it's then really easy to just pick that out and dump it in.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_02: But the most important thing about doing that exercise is understanding, you know, actually, have you got more coming in than going out?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: Which is a fantastic position to be in.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_02: But then it starts to prompt the next questions of, well, if I do have that bit of disposable income, whether it's at the end of every month or every year, what are we doing with it?
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_02: Because at the moment we're living in a world of historically low interest rates.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_02: We know that inflation is remaining at two, three, there's predictions of it even going up to nearly 5%.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_02: So actually, is our money best held in our current accounts, or should we be looking at things like other investments, whether it's ISOs, topping up pensions, whatever that might be, to look at some future longer-term growth.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_02: So it's starting to have those conversations.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: If you are on the other side and you actually identify, oops, like I'm spending more than's coming in, which you know isn't as uncommon as you might think.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's not a cause for panic stations.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_02: But again, this exercise is about understanding which one it is.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_02: Because if you do have more going out than's coming in, we can start to again look at that and address that and rebalance those scales.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_02: So actually, it might come back to actually, do we need to review our household bills and trim down some of that expenditure?
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: Or actually, do we need to speak to you know a debt debt management specialist, look at consolidating some of those loans?
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: But whatever avenue it is, to gain that understanding of where we are and then what support is out there afterwards.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_02: And see, then is that create a plan?
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_02: This is the this is the most exciting one for me.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_02: This is drawing that timeline, this is starting from where we are now, and draw that timeline as far into the future until you are no longer on this earth, and start to physically plot out what you want to achieve in this life.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_02: And people are, what do you mean?
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_02: What do I want to achieve?
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, well, we're not just working.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_02: So we weren't put on this earth to work.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_02: What comes at the end of it?
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, how you know, start to plot it in, and it's stuff we've already touched on, you know, key milestones, key life events, but ultimately, you know, when do we want to retire?
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_02: And what do we want that retirement to look like?
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: Because we're all living longer, none of us want to work longer.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_02: So ultimately, you know, children born today are gonna potentially have 30 to 40 years of retirement that they need to fund.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_02: So, what do they want to be doing in that retirement?
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's there's a there's a cost analysis here.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_02: It costs a lot, there's a kind of a very big disparity between someone that wants to retire mortgage-free and potter around the garden for the next 20, 30 years and seeing friends and family, versus someone that maybe got onto the property ladder a bit later, might still have an outstanding mortgage, but actually wants to travel the world and wants to take five years out and go on that round-the-world cruise or whatever it looks like.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_02: But until we start to think about what our future looks like, we can't start to say, well, actually, how much is that going to cost us?
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: Because then until we know how much that's gonna cost us, we can say, right, well, based on what we've got now and what we're saving now, are those dreams, goals, hopes, are they even realistic?
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_02: Or do I need to be doing something now to enable those goals to become reality in the future?
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's number three.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_02: Four then is the case.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: So once you've got your plan, you need to keep it on track.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_02: You know, there's no point just putting that plan in a drawer and saying, okay, we'll see you in 50 years.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you very much.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_02: Goodbye.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_02: We need to be working towards them.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_02: And this is where I start to talk to people around um that longer-term financial planning.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: So thinking about things like their pensions.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_02: So actually, if you were listening to one of my webinars and it was your 20th birthday today, you would have 564 monthly paydays until your 67th birthday, which is the age most people would want to retire.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: You would have 564 monthly paydays to make a difference, to start saving a little bit more into your pension, putting it into savings, doing whatever, but it's a great amount of time.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_02: Now, obviously, the graph then shows that if you're kind of a little bit older, you're around 40 years old and on the call, you know, you haven't got as many monthly pages, unless it comes down to around 204.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_02: But the message is that it's never too early to start planning for later life.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_02: And it is never too late.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: So, no matter where you are on this spectrum, let's just start thinking about it, talking about it, and looking at actually what do we want to achieve.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_02: And then we can keep keep going, keep that plan on track, keep topping up our pensions, saving in twice, whatever it is, whatever the goal is, and we can, you know, put a plan in place to get there.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_02: The E then is the one that we've all heard of now and love, which is expect emergencies.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: This is that cash buffer fund.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_02: This is the thing that everybody says you need to have in place, and none of us do.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: And it is, and it the and that's the point of some of these sessions is actually we all know this stuff deep down, we've all been told it.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_02: We just need a good reminder to start doing it.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_02: And that bus fund, that emergency fund is absolutely that.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's that when the boiler breaks, the car needs new tires, the kids need new school uniforms, it's having that money set aside so that if something happens, and let's face it, these are all events that at some point are going to happen to most of us, we just don't know when.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_02: So it's having that money set aside so when they eventually do happen, we don't feel that stress, that anxiety, that nervousness, that panic of, oh my God, what do I do?
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_02: Do I need to dip into other savings?
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_02: Do I need to take out a loan?
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_02: Do I need to go to a payday lender and put myself in a financially vulnerable position?
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas in actual fact, if we just had that small pot of money set aside, it would alleviate a lot of that stress.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_02: And again, it's about getting people into just those good behavioural patterns of every month, and it doesn't have to be loads, whether it's 10, 20, 50, 100 pounds a month, whatever people can afford, it's getting into that habit of physically saving.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_02: That's the most important part.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_02: And then the key, the final one, obviously, it would be very remiss of us as a finance advice firm to not have take financial advice as that final, final um top tip because you know, I think people generally have, you know, don't understand the full value, I think, that financial planning can have.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_02: And it's whether it's, you know, they don't feel like their situation is complex enough, or they don't feel like they're wealthy enough, or they don't feel like they deserve to speak to a financial planner.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_02: There's lots of myths that are out there surrounding this industry.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_02: So we want to dispel as as many of those as possible and truly make more advice more accessible to more people around the UK, because it's only through having these conversations that we're genuinely going to make a difference to people's lives.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_02: So that's my six top tips from webinar number one.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: Sounds great.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_01: I think anyone that even I'm gonna take note of a lot of that.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_01: I think if you're listening in our audience now, there's some brilliant tips to start thinking about your finances if you're in a situation where you've got various sort of tightly in the stand in that sense.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I saw um statistics on um linked in 20%, 27% of employees their money worries impact their performance at work.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_01: So, how can embedding an effective well-being strategy then help like your overall performance and your overall performance at work?
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_01: So, why is it a useful thing to employers to be thinking about also?
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_02: And this is the conversation we have with employers all the time, because actually, not just financial well-being, but that broader well-being strategy, it's about looking after our people, right?
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: If our people are at work and they're stressed or they're anxious and they're not focused and they're not being as productive as they could be.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_02: They're not performing at the level that they could.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_02: So actually, by putting in place these tangible support mechanisms and solutions, hopefully you can give them that confidence, you can reduce that stress, we can reduce presenteism within a business so that hopefully people can then thrive and they can bring their whole selves to work and they can genuinely perform at their best.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I truly, truly believe that as employers, having that focus on well-being and financial well-being, because our finances do underpin absolutely everything that we do in this world, you know, whether we like it or not.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_02: So having that lens and having that real strategy around supporting people with their finances has to be crucial.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I think not just for your own employees within the business, but from an attraction and a retention point of view, like we know that especially for the millennials and then uh these and people coming through the world now, base salary is not everything they are looking for.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, I think it was a recent statistic I read from Glassdoor that said 86% of millennials would rather take a pay cut and move to another organization whose culture and values align better to their own.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_02: And the cultures and values piece for me, it's not just what we're writing on our corporate websites and we're instilling in our induction handbooks, it's how we live and breathe it.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_02: And to me, that is our well-being strategy and it is the support we put in place for our employees and the development opportunities that we have in place for them as well.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_02: I think you know, having that real well, well-rounded strategy for employee well-being can absolutely help help employers.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, let's face it, if we've got happier, you know, more productive employees, that's got to have a positive income on the bottom line commercials of any business as well as definitely.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I think when you start talking about financial well-being and money worries, I think some business owners might get back to salaries and financial.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's actually for the new generations that are now you know entering the world of work.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's things that for them are really important.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's things for businesses to take note of if they want to attract the hottest talent moving forward and keep it in their business.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_02: It absolutely is.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_02: It absolutely is.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I have this I have this conversation quite often, you know, with individuals, but also with my my friends and family that are, you know, potentially looking at other job roles or other companies to work for, and they're like, oh yeah, but they you know, the salary is like it's five or 10,000 pounds more a year.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, okay, but what's the pension benefit?
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like, actually, what what does that look like in terms of how much you contribute and how much the employer is going to contribute on your half, yeah, on your behalf?
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like, are there any protection benefits in place?
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_02: Or actually, would you potentially be giving up, you know, your life insurance and your critical illness cover, you know, yes, for a slightly higher salary, but you've got to almost work out that bigger picture to say by losing out on some of these other benefits, actually, even that increase in base salary doesn't wouldn't justify it.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'd be coming or out, you know, worse off.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I think for me, that conversation, particularly around protection, is one we need to be having more and more in the UK.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, I talk to so many younger generations in particular, and you say to them, like, you know, how many how many of you own one of these?
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's yep, how many of you have insurance on this in case you lose it or it's stolen, or absolutely everybody?
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, how many of you insure this?
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you are your single biggest asset.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_02: And the scary statistic I read least read l recently was it was 42% of people that have a mortgage have no form of life insurance in terms of it.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's nearly half of the population.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I know it's not a conversation that we want to have, and you know, it's you know it it's that it's that unexpected, it's the worst case scenario, right?
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's if the worst thing was to ever happen to us and we were no longer here, or actually we were just unable to work for a prolonged period of time, like what have we thought about what would happen, you know, to our financial position, to our, you know, to paying the mortgage, paying the rent, paying off our our long-term debts, you know, who would pick that up?
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I think a lot of people were still in this mindset of, oh, this the state will come in, the state will look after me, and and things like that.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_02: And you you see some absolute horror stories, especially working in this industry, of people that they they they go through the worst times of their life.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_02: And because they haven't put in place that robust financial plan, it's it's just they their finances become another area of of stress and and anxiety, and and like we said, they they start to control them and rather you know in what is already a stressful and and emotional time.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_02: And it is just it's it's part of the role and the world that we live in, that you know, it's as we said before, like it's never too early to start that conversation, but it absolutely can be too late.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like there's sometimes it's there's nothing we can physically do to help because the worst has happened and you just never want to see someone in that position.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_01: And and your point that it's never too early, but it can be too late.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_01: I guess from these financial well-being workshops that you don't need to make you're breaking down the streets.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_01: You're breaking down.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: February 55 to 5, February First, 55, February First Eighth, Feel like people represent them.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: May that be women not wanting to approach men, or may or may that be people from ethnic minorities feeling that they're not being represented.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_01: But I presume the financial well-being workshops allow to break those initial barriers down to allow people to feel more confident to seek the financial advice from a financial planner, which they might actually need.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: And that's exactly it.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, as an industry, you know, especially the financial institutions, you know, it we do, we do have a reputation for being pale, male, and stale.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_02: And it is, there's no way of getting around that.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_02: You know, there's there's so much we can do, there's so much that is being done.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, it's um I'm so proud, you know, to be able to sit here and represent, you know, a fantastic financial advisory and planning firm as a young woman recently turned 30 myself, um, and be able to kind of you know be the change and see the change that is that is needed out there and have an influence about how we do that.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I think you touched on a couple of things there.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_02: I think the jargon, oh my god, you know, it's insane.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the sessions that we run on on saving and investing for the future, you know, one of the the questions we pose to people is we're gonna tell you what the difference is between an ICER, a licer, and a JICE.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_02: Three acronyms, but it's like everybody's heard of an ICE, but how many people could actually tell you what an ICE is?
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like what it even stands for.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_02: So it is absolutely about breaking down those barriers, talking to people in plain English around what these things mean, and especially when you get into the world of investments and we're talking about equities and guilts and derivatives and yields, and you know, it's it is it's an absolute minefield, and it's no wonder that people just switch off.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like we've as an industry, we've got to make it easy for people to engage with us, and we've got to make it inclusive and accessible for everybody.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_02: We just have to, because it's you know, we talk about things like you know, we've still got the gender pay gap, protection gap, investment gap, you know, these are all things that as a society we can absolutely influence and change and bridge those gaps and bridge those inequalities.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_02: We've just got to do it together.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we've got to be looking, you know, internally, whether it's the government policies, whether it's financial institutions, whether it's employers themselves and you know, the policies and support they can provide.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we've we've we've all got a part to play in that, we really do.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_01: So what is the future of financial well-being then?
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_01: I know you mentioned what said earlier on, you know, it never can be too early.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_01: We're still as an industry trying to like crack down on this final pillar of well-being.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_01: But do you think this is something that needs to be trickled down to school education level?
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_02: For me, we are literally just at the tip of the iceberg.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_02: There is so much we can be doing.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the ideal for me is that you know, you would have every single employer across the UK would have a robust financial well-being strategy in place that was accessible to every single person.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_02: There was something for everybody in that organization, and it would be absolutely linked to the other pillars of well-being and not just looked at in isolation, which I think is one of the issues we've got at the moment.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we absolutely need to be taking this into skulls.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the fact that our money and finances are not a core part of our curriculum at the moment is genuinely worrying and a little bit insane.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, one of the things we recently did um this year and last year was we were working with a university up in Scotland, um, and we actually worked with the students themselves and delivered a series of podcasts where it was kind of like um talking about finances and you know, um, we did kind of various stages in terms of you know looking at leaving university and entering the world of work for the first time and what questions do they have around paclets and tax and pensions and things like that.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_02: And and that for us again is just a start, you know, you'd want it to be, you'd want there to be, you know, maybe not even on the curriculum, but at least that support system, you know, somewhere where people can reach out to, you know, at university level.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_02: And then taking that further down, absolutely at primary school and secondary school, it should be part of what we're taught.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_02: And we don't have to get into things like what is a pension, what is an investment, but it's about those again, those behavioral patterns and and getting children into good habits, like you know, how many children get five pounds a week pocket money?
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_02: Well, are we having the conversation around?
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_02: Well, actually, did this week did you want to spend four pounds and put a pound in, you know, in this little piggy bank here and we'll save it up?
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, if you leave that one pound in that piggy bank for a couple of weeks, I'll give you one pound fifty back.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_02: So actually, in teaching them kind of some of the concepts of actually saving in the first place and putting money to side, but actually, actually, if we do save, hopefully our money will grow and we'll get a little bit back extra in return.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_02: But also getting children to think more around well, what is the point of that money?
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_02: So, actually, do you want to have that money every week and just go down the local shop and spend it on those suites?
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_02: Or actually, is there something bigger that you want to save for?
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_02: And therefore, if we take that money every week for five weeks, rather than just buying those little suites every time, we could buy something bigger that you genuinely want and is genuinely going to add value to your life.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_02: So, again, that bit of like goal setting and getting them into that mindset.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_02: So I think there's there's definitely ways um that we can be doing it and just engaging with younger people um around this kind of stuff.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think to unlock this final taboo as we talk about it, it's about not having a stigma from an early age.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like I find it in many ways.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm you know, crazy some of the things that you do learn in school, which seem to never crop up in your life again.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_01: However, things like saving or just simple budgeting on what is a mortgage and things like that, and so crucial to understand from that low level of behavioural patterns.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not just, you know, we talk about mental health, and it's definitely a much more open, honest conversation that we're having now.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not been put into talk about mindfulness for children and it's ways to incorporate these behavioural patterns, you know, from a young age so you carry them with you as you grow up.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_01: There is definitely a space for us to be doing that with that financial well-being pillar as well.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_02: No, could not, could not agree more.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_02: And it's, you know, you see it, you know, we see that actually how we engage with things as a children, it absolutely comes our experiences, our background, what we're taught, you know, what we learn from family and friends, it stays with us through our lives.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um it it really, really does.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, you know, we see it a lot with the older generation as well at the moment, is, you know, especially kind of got this, you know, generation of baby boomers that are, you know, about to, you know, unfortunately leave us and you know, we'll be passing on significant amounts of wealth to younger generations.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's something like 5.5 trillion pounds worth of money is gonna be passed from one generation to another within the next 25 years.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_02: So for a lot of people around the UK, that is gonna be the single biggest lump sum of money that they may potentially ever receive through this form of inheritance.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_02: But who is talking about it?
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_02: So actually, are these people that are gonna pass on this wealth?
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_02: Have they told their families, you know, who is in their will, what is in their will, what their expressed wishes are for this money, have they thought about whether they're gonna have an inheritance tax liability and who's that gonna fall to?
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_02: And all these other things.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_02: So it's you know, like we've got such a generational um divide as well.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it kind of feels like we need to start that conversation earlier.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_02: We've got a proportion of people at the older end that just they do not want to talk about money at all.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_02: And it's almost our job in the middle here.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_02: We need to bring those two together and dispel some of these myths and get people talking.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_01: I like what you just said then, that what you are is ingrained from you growing up is what you carry with you because ultimately, you know, what your parents were telling you when you were growing up about you need something with a good pension and things like that, I guess has allowed you to blossom to the place you are now where you're able to share and pass that knowledge on to other people and help them be in final or meet their financial potential.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, absolutely, absolutely.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_01: Ali, it's been excellent to have you on the financial panel live today.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_01: You've been an excellent guest.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure you've had um taught a lot of our audience taught me a lot.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be definitely something that I'll be uh taking moving forward.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_01: This is also an excellent um broadcast for any business owners out there, any hiring managers, people that resonate with this and feel like they also need to make sure their employees um are not just fulfilled in all different elements but financially um as well.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I think um it's just been really good to have you on to talk about something that is very often that final to the what we speak about.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_01: And um, yeah, it'd be lovely to have you on with us today.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_02: No, thank you.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for having me with us.