This is Money Podcast

If you pop into the bookies and bung a quid on Elvis Presley still being alive – he died in 1977 - and he shows up as the support act to his heir apparent Ed Sheeran at Wembley Stadium next year, you’ll win £2,000. Put that pound into a top paying savings account over the same period and you’ll earn just over 1p. This is why stupid savings gimmicks are becoming a thing. It works like this. The provider, bank, building society or app, pays a derisory interest rate but offers a 300% boost to your returns if an improbable event takes place. Not quite as unlikely as a resurrection but not that far off. First there were the Brexit bonds, where your 1% return will be tripled if you bet correctly on the pound / euro exchange rate once Britain leaves the EU and, depending on how you see this bet panning out, all of our successful businesses leave Britain. Now football fans are being targeted. If Manchester United win the FA Cup next year AND the English Premier League, unabashed Newcastle-based Virgin Money will bung you a bung in the form of 2% bonus on the savings rate. Other football clubs are available. As are better savings accounts. Also on the show, Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost explain robo investing – the cheap and easy new way of saving money without having to interact with expensive human advisers. And the latest wave of frauds filling an inbox near you are a terrifying as ever. Enjoy.

Nurses have had their pay cut every year for the last five years. Students are coming out of our universities with the highest level of debt in the West – higher on average than the USA. Rents are totally out of control. What then are the prospects for our youngsters and for our public sector workers? Is austerity really going to end? It’s complicated and there’s only one person who can explain this in simple, understandable English - Simon Lambert, who, with Georgie Frost and Lee Boyce, get to the bottom of the great public sector pay debate. Perhaps using more taxpayers money to give nurses and firefighters a pay rise will boost the economy? They also turn their attention to… The ‘absolutely hideous’ university fees students face in Britain. Nine grand a year for 4 hours a week and a lifetime of debt. A possible imminent interest rates rise and how one prepares for a battering on your costs of living. And with the dream of home ownership for graduates now pretty much over, rents are in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. What to do? Enjoy.

What do you mean you’ve never seen The Big Short? It was nominated for five Oscars, won one and features Brad Pitt, Christian Bale and the part-time stripper with five houses and a condo. Watch it. Now! It’s all true. It’s about the financial crisis and it might all be about to kick off again. The Bank of England this week issued its Financial Stability Report and it’s terrifying. We’re in debt again folks. Last time it was houses and condominiums, this time it’s cars and credit cards, house prices and wages. People are buying cars on credit like they take out mobile phone contracts. Car companies have turned into money lenders, egged on by the banks. Yep the bank again. Did they learn nothing? Meanwhile, the Bank of England needs to combat inflation by raising interest rates. How on earth can they do that in this climate? Simon Lambert, Georgie Frost and Lee Boyce do their bejesus to explain. Also on the show, there’s some brilliant stuff on… Cash forever! Can ATMs survive? And what’s your favourite ATM fact? The one that makes Batman appear, maybe? Will the sneaky fund management industry finally reveal what charges they’re really skimming off? The future of final salary pensions and the triple lock. And the Queen’s beard. Enjoy.

‘If you've ever wondered how you get triangles from a cow,’ sang British music legends Half Man Half Biscuit, ‘you need butter milk and cheese and an equilateral chain saw. ‘ It’s obvious when you know the answer! But what about the stuff you think you know the answers to… but do you? Really? The Big Money Questions. That’s the name of our fortnightly video presentation with Rachel Rickard Straus and a host of exceptional guests from the worlds of economics, business, the City and the bookshelves. In a departure from our usual round-up of the week’s money events, this week we introduce you to an audio version of the show. The question: What are stocks and shares? And related… What’s the difference between a stock and a share? Is that different from a bond? Why do they exist? Why are they different prices? What makes the prices move? How do you know if it’s worth buying them? Dividends? Huh? Forget the cheese - this stuff is whey too important to ignore. Listen, learn, enjoy.

Wherever your heart lies in the debate about Britain’s role in the world, your head cannot escape the fact that we import a lot of what we consume. From the oil and gas that heats our homes and powers our cars to the hops that add flavour to our pints of beer. And that’s fine when you have a strong currency. Thing is, for roughly a year ours has been devalued by about 20% and it affects the price of just about everything. Prices are going up – the official inflation figures released this week show that in black and white in Excel. But wages aren’t going up. They might be in France and Italy but not in Britain. It means… …well permit Georgie Frost, Lee Boyce and the undisputed king of financial common sense, Simon Lambert, to explain exactly what it means. Also on the show. Personal debt is spiraling out of control and set to get worse as our low wage economy bites and interest rate rises now look more likely than they have for a long time. For heaven’s sake don’t let the crooks take what little money you have! We review the latest scams and show how easy it is to glean personal information from your Facebook updates. Which card should you use when holidaying abroad? Not Simon’s that’s for sure. There’s a novelty savings account on the market. You get a bonus if you bet correctly on whether sterling will be higher or lower than 1.15 to the pound in two year’s time. Are the overheated markets the result of investor boredom? And finally, Mobile operators are this week spewing over themselves to claim victory in the Europe-wide harmonisation of roaming fees. It’s nothing to do with them. It’s revolting. Merci the EU for that one. Enjoy.

It was meant to be an election about Brexit but it turned into one about new young voters and what they wanted. They wanted change. What they got was a minority Government, a coalition between the Conservatives and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). But there are five more years until the next election and anyone 14, 15, 16, and 17 years old now will be able to vote in the next one. As well as some 13 year olds. They’re now part of the discussion like never before. Simon Lambert, Georgie Frost and Rachel Rickard Straus discuss how this is likely to affect our finances now and over the next five years. Can this Government even implement anything from their manifestos? How will they tackle impending debt and housing crises? What the hell will Brexit look like? Can they tackle the intergenerational inequality that the new voters clearly crave? Rachel explains the financial and economic plans in the DUP manifesto and how that’s likely to clash with Tory plans. You don’t get stuff like anywhere else. Enjoy.

Would you pay more tax for better health, housing, communications, green spaces, roads, social care, railways, education, defence? Or not? The consensus seems to be that we would if only people felt they could trust the people who spend it on our behalf. It’s a complex and fascinating issue for a country living way beyond its fiscal means - allow Georgie Frost, Simon Lambert and Rachel Rickard Straus to explain. Also on the show… A regular minimum payment to all men, women and children in Britain is the panacea for the fair, just and healthy society we’ve all been waiting for. Isn’t it? Enjoy.

A row that erupted over the Tory manifesto social care plans led to accusations of a dementia tax and a swift U-turn. Voters had previously been told they would get a cap on costs, but instead they got a floor of £100,000 to which their wealth could be whittled down to. The issue highlighted a problem we have in planning our finances - trust. Do you trust the framework that the Government puts in place on social care, pensions, investing and saving to still be there in years to come? That was reflected in Simon Lambert's column this week, looking at a reader who asked whether they could bank on the tax-free pension lump sum continuing to exist when they needed it in future. Simon, Rachel Rickard Straus and Georgie Frost discuss whether we can trust pensions, social care or anything else in this week's This is Money podcast. Also on the agenda, on the show that tells you everything you need to know about money each week, is whether the UK economy is doing well, badly or indifferently, the bank accounts that pay you the most money and whether the fuss over Vanguard's new investing charges is justified. Oh, and finally, there's a chance to invest in a deep sea treasure hunt. Listen, enjoy (hopefully), leave us a comment or rating and subscribe.

The manifestos are out, but which political party would you trust with the UK economy? We look at Labour's plan to hike taxes, the Tories' plan to ditch the triple lock and the Lib Dem's plan to make a bit of cash on the side from selling weed. This week we finally got the triple whammy of what our three main political parties will do, so would any of these plans work and what do people think about them? Simon Lambert, Adrian Lowery and Georgie Frost delve into the details in the latest This is Money podcast. And it's not just the election, also up on this week's show is Lloyds vanishing Avios points, as it moves out of state ownership, the question of whether people should ditch their diesel and whether we should worry about a car finance bubble.

In part two of this week’s podcast, Georgie Frost, Rich Browning and Simon Lambert discuss the inevitability of another global financial meltdown and how we’re going to fix it this time round. Meanwhile, what’s in store in Europe now a former investment banker, Emmanual Macron, is president of France and looking to reinvigorate the European project? Perhaps this an opportunity for investors to make a quick buck or euro away from the uncertainty of the outcome of any Brexit negotiations. Is putting bankers in charge of anything within a decade of them bringing the world financial system to its knees a bit foolhardy? Or is this a case of this time it’s different? World War II was the solution to the Great Depression. Enjoy.