Informed Choice Radio Personal Finance Podcast

Today on the show, we're talking about some easy ways to give yourself a pay rise. It's been a tough few years financially; low interest rates, low wage inflation, but rising prices. So today on the podcast, we're talking some ways to deliver an inflation busting pay-rise of up to £1,263. I'm pleased to welcome back as my co-host today, Lynn James, who blogs as Mrs Mummypenny.

What are the sub-conscious behaviours that drive our financial decisions? My guest on the show today is Neil Bage. Neil is the Founder of multi-award winning Be-IQ. Working with leading Academics, Be-IQ is an entirely new model and approach to understanding a client’s risk personality, their financial capability, and their financial decision making. Neil works closely with some of the most influential financial brands in the world, and regularly features as a keynote speaker, focussing on the sub-conscious behaviours that drive our financial decisions. He is an expert at bridging complex theory with real-world understanding. Listen to this conversation if you want a better understanding of the factors that contribute towards your attitude, capacity and need for investment risk. Here’s my conversation with Neil Bage, founder of Be-IQ, in episode 306 of Informed Choice Radio.

In this episode of the show, I’m joined by Nick Bamford to talk about defined benefit pensions. These are a hot topic in the world of financial planning at the moment and Nick has written a comprehensive white paper explaining the key issues at stake. There’s also a roundup of the latest personal finance news and, of course, the aftershow, where I talk about what we’ve been up to at Informed Choice this week.

Oldness is a social construct at odds with reality that constrains how we live after middle age and stifles business thinking on how to best serve a group of consumers, workers, and innovators that is growing larger and wealthier with every passing day. My guest today is Joseph F. Coughlin, PhD. Joe is founder and Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) AgeLab. He teaches in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies & Planning and the Sloan School’s Advanced Management Program. Coughlin conducts research, speaks and consults on the impact of global demographic change and technology trends on consumer behavior, business innovation & public policy. He produces the online publication Disruptive Demographics and he’s author of The Longevity Economy: Inside the World’s Fastest Growing, Most Misunderstood Market, the topic of our conversation today. Here’s my conversation with Dr Joseph F. Coughlin, author of The Longevity Economy, in episode 304 of Informed Choice Radio.

Today on the show we’re talking energy bills; it’s Big Energy Saving Week 2018 with a number of organisations helping people cut their fuel bills and get all the financial support they are entitled to. There’s also a roundup of the latest personal finance news, and an update on what we’re doing here at Informed Choice at the moment.

Why is it that incredibly unlikely things actually happen quite regularly and why should we, in fact, expect such things to happen?  My guest on the podcast today is Professor David Hand and we're talking about his book, The Improbability Principle. If you're interested in coincidences, probability or gambling, this conversation with eminent statistician David Hand is especially for you.  David has a long and impressive bio. He's Senior Research Investigator and Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Imperial College, London.  He's also Chief Scientific Advisor to Winton Capital Management, which is where we connected. David is a Fellow of the British Academy, and an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, and has served (twice) as President of the Royal Statistical Society.  David is a prolific academic, having published 300 scientific papers and 29 books, including Principles of Data Mining, Information Generation, Measurement Theory and Practice, The Wellbeing of Nations, and The Improbability Principle, the subject of our conversation today.  He's recipient of the Guy Medal of the Royal Statistical Society, the George Box Medal and, in 2013, was made OBE for services to research and innovation. Here's my conversation with Professor David Hand, author of The Improbability Principle, in episode 302 of Informed Choice Radio.

In this episode, I answer a listener question about playing catch-up on retirement savings. If you’ve left it late to save for your future, you’re going to want to hear my answer. I also speak to Curtis Evans,  Investment Director and Head of Fixed Income Product Management at Fidelity International, to get his outlook on interest rates and fixed income investments.

Did you know it took the world's greatest investor, Warren Buffett, nearly four decades to make his first $100m? My guest on the podcast today is Glen Arnold, author of The Deals of Warren Buffett. Despite holding positions of Professor of Investment and Professor of Corporate Finance, Glen concluded that academic life was not nearly as much fun as making money in the markets. As a wealthy investor in his fifties, he now spends most of his time running his equity portfolio from an office in the heart of rural Leicestershire. In his new book, Glen explains Buffett's thinking behind his first investment deals and shows how his cumulative returns compounded his wealth over time. If you want to understand more about the investment philosophy of Warren Buffett and how he got started as arguably the world's greatest investor, this conversation is for you. Here's my conversation with Glen Arnold, author of The Deals of Warren Buffett, in episode 300 of Informed Choice Radio.

40% of UK adults anticipate that 2018 will be a very difficult year for them financially. In this episode of Informed Choice Radio, we tackle those money worries and give you the tools you need to stop worrying about your personal finances.

My guest on the podcast today is Dr Sam Royston, author of a new book called Broken Benefits. Britain is going through the most radical upheaval of the benefits system since its foundations were laid at the end of the 1940s. In Broken Benefits, Sam Royston argues that social security isn’t working, and without a change in direction, it will be even less fair in the future. Drawing on original research and high-profile debates, this much-needed book provides an introductory guide to social security, correcting misunderstandings and exposing poorly understood problems. It reveals how some workers pay to take on additional hours; that those who pay national insurance contributions may get nothing in return; that some families can be paid to split apart; and that many people on the lowest incomes are seeing their retirement age rise the fastest. Dr Sam Royston is Director of Policy and Research at The Children's Society and chair of the End Child Poverty coalition, and spends much of his time trying to make the benefits system work a little bit better for children and families. He regularly gives evidence to Parliamentary Select Committees on welfare reform issues, and his work often appears in the national press. Here's my conversation with Sam Royston, author of Broken Benefits, in episode 298 of Informed Choice Radio.