This is Money Podcast

In this second Making the Money Work episode, Andi Peters and Simon Lambert talk to Olympic bronze medal winner and former professional boxer Anthony Ogogo about how people fund a boxing career and whether an Olympian makes much money.   Anthony tells us about building his boxing career and how an amateur boxer has to support themselves on a shoestring – even when they are heading for the Olympics.  He discusses his subsequent professional career and how after injury forced his retirement, he is swapping the boxing ring for the wrestling ring.   The 30-year-old was one of the sportsmen and women celebrated by Britain as the nation enjoyed the thrill of the London 2012 Olympics and a slew of medals.   Then aged 23, the middle-weight boxed his way to a bronze medal to add to the gold that he had won in the Junior Olympics in 2004.   Anthony, who was also a promising footballer who played for Norwich City’s youth team, had taken up boxing at the age of 12 and by the time he arrived at the London Olympics he had also won a silver medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.   He turned professional after the 2012 Olympics and had a short but successful career in which he challenged to be world champion.   He suffered a number of injuries before a fractured eye socket forced his retirement from the sport in 2019, with 11 wins and just one loss in his professional career.   In a statement on his retirement, Anthony said: ‘I’ve been through a lot in my career. I’ve had 17 operations and suffered every pain imaginable. I’ve won, lost, cried and hurt. But if you were to ask me would I do it again? In a heartbeat. I love this game’   He signed off with the words ‘Never give up’.   Anthony discusses how he got through hard financial times when he was injured, why he’s been careful with money and tried to save, and what it’s like being a cash-strapped up-and-coming fighter in the boxing world where those at the top are making millions.   Unable to box anymore due to his eye problems, Anthony is now on the path to a new career as a professional wrestler with All Elite Wrestling and he tells us how he intends to build that and what his financial resolutions for the future are. About Making the Money Work In our new podcast series Making the Money Work, in partnership with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, we talk earnings, budgeting and savings with those whose lives and finances roam far from the norm.   The five podcasts are hosted by Andi Peters, alongside This is Money’s Simon Lambert, and every fortnight over the next ten weeks you can listen to a new interview with a different special guest about their financial lives. This is Money’s Podcast will continue to appear each Friday as usual, and the Making the Money Work podcasts will be published fortnightly as a bonus episode in the feed.

Santander is to cut the rate of interest customers can earn with its 123 current account. It will mean one of Britain's most popular accounts will have dropped from a top tier 3 per cent when it launched in 2012 to 1 per cent. Why has the high street banking giant done this and could it result in an exodus of people moving? Does it signal the end of current accounts with benefits? It is also capping the level of cashback customers can earn while putting a blanket 39.9 per cent overdraft rate in place – following a similar move from its banking rivals. Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost take a look at what it means for the current account market, whether there are other – better – accounts to switch to and how it managed to become so popular. Also on this week's podcast, we look at the rise of the buy now, pay later form of credit and whether it is another debt trap to watch out for. Why have nearly 40,000 people put in retrospective planning applications? And can you really hide a castle behind a haystack… Lastly, the love affair with car buyers and SUVs shows no signs of abating – sales continue to grow at a faster rate than any other group. We list the five reasons, allegedly, not to snap one up and whether you should consider an alternative.

Savers had a resoundingly duff deal over the decade that just ended, as they paid the price for the borrowing binge that proceeded it. Understandably, many feel somewhat aggrieved – like a moderate drinker who got the hangover that should have gone to the party animal. But it’s not just ‘emergency’ low interest rates that turned permanent that delivered the pain, banks and building societies paying little respect to loyal customers and undermining them with rock bottom rates on legacy accounts has also played a major part. Now, the financial watchdog has a plan to deal with the so-called loyalty penalty. A standard savings rate across all easy access accounts and Isas, with the ability to offer better rates over limited periods, for example, 12 months. When bonus time was up, that standard rate would act a floor to protect savers against the 0.01 per cent-paying accounts of this world. Is this a solution to the problem, or just some tinkering that all but mandates bonus accounts and does nothing to tackle saver inertia? Simon Lambert, Sarah Davidson and Georgie Frost tackle the plan to improve the savings market on this week’s podcast – and discuss whether this is a wise idea for a new decade or a recipe for more of the same. Also, on this week’s podcast, as a decade ends and one begins, we look at the property market: what happened to house prices in the 2010s and how did it compare to the 2000s, 1990s and 1980s, and also what will happen this year and in years to come? The team also look ahead to the 11 March Budget and what may crop up for our personal finances, along with the growing population of over-90s and how we look after our nonagenarians properly.    

This bonus podcast episode is from This is Money's new special series Making the Money Work, in partnership with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Andi Peters and Simon Lambert talk to record-breaking Atlantic solo rower Kiko Matthews. How do you fund a life less ordinary? For most of us financial life means paydays, bills, mortgages and attempts to save or invest, but for others it is very different. If you decide to row the Atlantic, are an Olympic boxer, or have made a career out of having adventures or doing comedy, what on earth do you do with your finances? In our new special podcast series Making the Money Work, in partnership with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, we talk earnings, budgeting and savings with those whose lives and finances roam far from the norm. The five podcasts are hosted by Andi Peters, alongside This is Money’s Simon Lambert, and every fortnight over the next ten weeks you can listen to a new interview with a different special guest about their financial lives. This is Money’s Podcast will continue to appear each Friday as usual, and the Making the Money Work podcasts will be published fortnightly as a bonus episode in the feed. The first episode features Kiko Matthews, who on 22 March 2018, became the fastest woman to row the Atlantic, solo and unsupported, over 49 days, 7 hours and 15 minutes.  Through sponsorship of her world record attempt she raised more than £105,000 for King's College Hospital by the end of that year. But that isn’t even half the story, because in 2009 Kiko had been diagnosed with Cushings Disease, a rare and life-threatening condition, which causes tumours on the pituitary gland that controls the body’s hormones. That life-changing discovery led her to quit her job as a science teacher, qualify as a paddle-boarding instructor and set up her own business, before deciding to row the Atlantic, despite not being a rower. Midway through her training in 2017, her Cushings Disease returned and although she had to undergo neurosurgery, Kiko pushed on with her Atlantic rowing attempt. Since then, Kiko has focussed on environmental campaigning and recently cycled round the coasts of Britain and Ireland completing beach cleans. On this podcast, Kiko tells us her fascinating story, discusses her finances - and reveals just how you go about funding rowing the Atlantic.

Does Woodford trump Brexit and the election, were you more concerned about the wealth gap, or do all those pale into insignificance next to the challenges of climate change? On this week’s podcast, Simon Lambert, Georgie Frost and Tanya Jefferies discuss the money stories that shaped the final year of a tumultuous decade. Fallen star fund manager Neil Woodford dominated the financial headlines after his fund was frozen at the start of June, with investors still waiting to find out how much they will get back as it is wound down. That saga was enough to push Brexit and politics out of the main headlines for a while, but they loomed large over the whole year.  January triggered a period of fretting over no deal, March saw the Brexit deadline come and pass, summer saw Theresa May out the door of Number 10 Downing Street and Boris Johnson in, only for the new Prime Minister to miss his own Brexit deadline and gamble on an election that he won handsomely. Where does that take us next – and will the set of negotiations we are about to enter into with the EU, after Brexit finally happens on 31 January 2020, prove even tougher. The election also brought campaigning on wealth and inequality – and this topic has also never been far from the agenda in 2019, whether it’s the gap between rich and poor or young and old.  Should we worry more about it? What is triggering the problem? How much do high house prices have to do with it? The team discuss that and the defining global issue of the year: climate change. How will countries stepping up their attempts to reduce carbon emissions shape the next decade – and does it present an investment opportunity? We hope you enjoy this final podcast of 2019, thanks for listening, and have a very merry Christmas. We’ll be back in the next decade.

The stock market and the pound bounced as Boris Johnson claimed his 80 seat majority in a better-than-expected election win. But will the honeymoon period last into the New Year, beyond Brexit on 31 January, through a Budget in early February and past the negotiations about how exactly our future relationship with the EU will pan out? The Conservative manifesto was thin on detail, but on this podcast we discuss what was in there, what else we know Boris might do and what we think he could do with the big majority this general election delivered him. And we ask whether the man who wants to be a great Prime Minister, can deliver the goods on the NHS, reshape the economy and get stuff done?

The combined wealth of British households is up 13 per cent between 2016 and 2018 - with the average standing at £286,600. But it's not all about house prices. In fact, the bulk of the rise is thanks to private pensions rather than property inflation, according to the Office for National Statistics. And it says that despite plenty of election claims to the contrary the rich aren't getting richer - but does that claim stack up?  On this week’s podcast, Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost delve into the figures and ask: is financial inequality growing? We look at whether a reader can retire at 58 with a £6,000 pension – but £420,000 in a savings account. Meanwhile, as Vanguard reveals details of its new self-invested personal pension is this now the best home for cheap and easy retirement savings outside of the workplace? On the not so bright side for investors, M&G has suspended trading on its commercial property fund as savers dash for their cash. And finally, away from the serious stuff, we ask do you have to pay inheritance tax on a stamp collection - and just how much do you need to hold in Premium Bonds to have a strong chance of winning a £1million jackpot prize.

Will this election really prove to be about Brexit?  That issue was predicted to define the vote, but while each party’s Brexit stance will be at the forefront of people’s minds there are many other factors that now seem to be heavily influencing how the 12 December general election is shaping up. One of the biggest is the battle over the economy and our personal finances. There’s a sizeable difference between Labour’s tax and spending plans and those of the Tories. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats propose their own sizeable tax and spending rises but at less than half the Labour increase. So what do all these promises and plans mean for you? On this week’s podcast, Georgie Frost, Simon Lambert and Lee Boyce dig into the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat manifestos to find out. The Conservatives have already said they will spend an extra £34billion a year by 2024 and added a further £3billion to that in their manifesto. But Labour plan an extra £82.9billion of spending – with a further £58billion bill for compensating so-called Waspi women hit by the rising state pension age. Both parties claim they can fund their plans through tax – the Tories by halting corporation tax cuts and Labour by radically overhauling the tax system, including 45p tax for many more people and a new 50p ‘super rich rate’. The Lib Dems have their own proposals to add a bit to income tax and hike capital gains tax. What is the chance of any of these plans working? Will the tax rises pull in the money expected – and can the spending be used wisely? And what of the other things Britain needs to achieve? Is more housebuilding compatible with combatting climate change, protecting the environment and looking after the countryside – and what have beavers got to do with it? Listen to this week’s podcast to find out.  

Labour's election manifesto has been revealed and it involves a huge £82.9billion spending spree – to be funded by a similar tax rise. It outlined a 45p income tax rate above £80,000 and to leave no one in any doubt about its intentions opted to call its new 50p level above £125,000 the Super-Rich Rate. On this podcast, Simon Lambert, Georgie Frost and Lee Boyce run through the main financial points of Labour's manifesto, with a look at all the parties' plans due at a later date after the Tory manifesto lands. They look at the other Labour moves, including for capital gains will be taxed at the same level as income – with the annual allowance axed - sending the current 10 and 20 per cent CGT rate for investors in shares and funds – and 18 and 28 per cent for property investors - up to 20, 40, 45 or even 50 per cent. Entrepreneurs would lose their special 10 per cent capital gains tax rate that rewards them for building businesses. Dividends would also be taxed the same as income, with the dividend allowance removed. Inheritance tax reforms would be reversed, taking the amount a married home-owning couple can potentially leave tax-free down from almost £1million to £650,000. Elsewhere, corporation tax will rise to 26 per cent, VAT will be added to private school fees, second home council tax will treble, 10 per cent of company shares will be put into employer funds with workers and the state sharing dividends, and a transaction tax would be brought in for the financial sector. On the other side of the coin, Labour has promised billions for the NHS, infrastructure, public sector pay rises, free broadband for all, a rent cap for tenants and to nationalise the energy, water and rail industries. The team also discuss the Conservative's bid to fend off an NHS winter crisis caused by pension taper rules that are forcing older doctors to avoid doing work so that they do not get hit with big tax bills. Also on the agenda, how buy-to-let repossessions are rising as landlords feel the squeeze and why falling house prices in London and South East mean some families are managing to reclaim inheritance tax after homes sell for less than originally thought. And finally, we discuss the reg plate lotto, where drivers can try to win an entire lifetime's worth of free petrol or diesel, worth almost £280,000.

It could be you. It probably won't, of course, but maybe, just maybe, it could be.  That's the attraction of Britain's lottery for its millions of players and this week it reached its 25th birthday.  For self-proclaimed Lottery mug, Simon Lambert, that's two-and-a-half decades of spending money on the draw week-in, week-out because foolishly he has six numbers committed to memory. For some lucky people though, it's meant winning a life-changing sum of money, albeit for a handful it probably didn't change life for the better. On this week's podcast, Simon, Georgie Frost and George Nixon look at 25 years of the lottery and the story of a couple, Elaine and Derek, from Newcastle who won £2.7million shortly after the game started. So what did they do with the money - and what would our podcast team do? Also, this week we discuss the 100 per cent mortgages for students who want to try their hand at becoming buy-to-let landlords. Meanwhile, providers that know your new card details before you hand them over and Black Friday scams are also on the agenda.