Informed Choice Radio Personal Finance Podcast

In this episode of the podcast, I'm talking about some very practical ways to earn more and spend less money in 2018. There's also a roundup of the latest personal finance news, details of the January book choice for the new Informed Choice Radio book club, and the aftershow segment. 

Happy New Year! It's that time again, that time when we make our resolutions for the year ahead. Today on the podcast, it's all about resolutions. I'm going to be talking about why 92% of people fail to keep their New Year's Resolutions and how you can keep yours. I'll also share some important personal finance resolutions for 2018, before sharing my own goals and my resolutions for this podcast too!

This is Part Two of a two part special rewind this week, looking back at some of my favourite podcast interviews of 2017. On Monday in Part One, I shared clips from eight of the interviews we published between January and June this year. We shared conversations with Dan Hannan, Canna Campbell, Malene Rydahl, Tasneem Clarke, Kate Raworth, Pete Matthew, Erin Lowry and Danielle Marchant. In part two today, the best bits from interviews published between July and December.

in this special two part episode, I’m sharing some of my favourite podcast moments from the past year. In Rewind 2017 Part One, I’m sharing some interview excerpts from episodes published between January and June. Part two which will be out on Friday will include interviews from July to December.

Today on the podcast, I’m joined by three solicitors to talk about estate planning – what are the best ways to protect your estate? Louise, Isabel and Catherine from Hart Brown Solicitors in Cranleigh came into the office earlier in the week, and we sat around the meeting room table to talk about wills, lasting powers of attorney, trusts, and generally working with a solicitor. There’s also a roundup of the latest personal finance news – this week with a Christmas flavour – and the after show segment, where I talk about some of the things we’ve been doing here at Informed Choice this week.

My guest on the podcast today is Nick Tucker, Head of UK Domestic at UBS Wealth Management. Nick is the author of a new report called What's it all for?; Wealth and the next generation. The question of what wealth is fundamentally for has no single answer, and will be a deeply personal matter for most individuals. UBS have created a report that brings together eight different case studies, highlighting some of the real challenges and dilemmas faced by different families when it comes to making plans for transferring wealth to the next generation. Is wealth simply to be enjoyed by the people who have made it? Those with children and grandchildren will usually feel a sense of responsibility to their descendants. Setting them up in life, though, without taking away their drive and incentives for success, is a complicated task. No two situations are the same, but you may recognise elements of each in your own story. Here's my conversation with Nick Tucker, all about Wealth and the Next Generation, in episode 292 of Informed Choice Radio.

In this episode of the podcast, my two cents on Bitcoin. Is it the first genuinely successful get rich quick scheme in history, just a bunch of nerds and drug dealers speculating on a harmless game, or something far more sinister? I also chat to Bill McQuaker, portfolio manager in Fidelity International's Solutions team. We talk about how investment markets have performed in 2017, the outlook for next year, and Bill's own views on Bitcoin.

My guest on the podcast today is Ross Clark, author of The War Against Cash: The plot to empty your wallet and own your financial future – and why you MUST fight it. We're constantly being told that we are on the cusp of a cashless society. And if you're anything like me, more and more of your financial transactions are becoming cashless. According to Ross Clark, the financial services industry would certainly like to see it that way. We're being enticed with contactless cards, mobile phone payment apps, and methods of bank transfer: all, apparently, for our convenience. But as Ross Clark argues in his compelling new book, The War Against Cash, it's not in our interests to surrender the right to use cash. He argues that commercial interests want us to pay electronically in order to collect valuable data on our spending habits, while governments would love us to move to cashless payments in order to control the economy in ways which suit them, not us. If we choose to pay electronically, that is one thing, but we will regret it if we do not defend the right to pay with cash. Ross is a journalist who writes extensively for the Spectator, the Daily Mail, the Daily Express and for many other publications. For many years he wrote the Thunderer column on the Times. He's also the bestselling author of How to Label a Goat: the silly rules and regulations that are strangling Britain, and several other excellent books. Here's my conversation with Ross Clark, author of The War Against Cash, in episode 290 of Informed Choice Radio.

In this episode, I'm sharing my chapter from the newly published Harriman's New Book of Investing Rules: The Do's and Don'ts of the World's Best Investors. I also pick a few of my favourite tips from other contributors to the book.

My guest on the podcast today is Stewart Cowley, author of the new book Man vs Big Data. Stewart is a regular columnist for the Sunday Telegraph and the financial magazine Citywire. He's a regular guest on BBC Newsnight, Radio 4 and SKY News. Having worked in finance in New York and London since the 1980s, Stewart is now passionate about reporting on economics, and Man vs Big Data is his latest book taking a deep dive into an interesting topic. Man vs Big Data distills the complexities of the most absorbing statistics and data of modern life and shows us how understanding a little more can help improve your life. In the book, Stewart explains to readers the science and theories that impact on our everyday existence. He taps into our instinctive curiosity about the world around us, but also show how, by understanding these things, we can learn to take greater control of our lives. Here's my conversation with Stewart Cowley, author of Man vs Big Data, in episode 288 of Informed Choice Radio.