The Meaningful Money Personal Finance Podcast

Every week I ask people to leave me voicemail questions so I can answer them on the show, and hardly anyone does so. But this week, I answer two voicemails that came in within a couple of days of each other. Voicemails, it seems, are like buses, you go for weeks without any , and then two show up together… Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download Sponsor Message This podcast is brought to you with the help of Seven Investment Management, a firm of investment managers based in London. They specialise in multi-asset investing, bringing institutional investing techniques to ordinary people like you and me. 7IM put their name to my show and to my site because they believe in what I’m doing, trying to get decent, easy-to-understand financial information out to the world. I’m very grateful to them for their support. You can see what they’re up to at 7im.co.uk Listener Questions Answered OK, two questions answered this week, the first is from George & Clare, who are getting married, and the other from Matt who has a questions on pensions tax relief. In this session, you'll discover: The single most important mindset shift towards money, when you're about to get hitched How to make sure money is never a reason for separation Why you might need to have a conversation about a pre-nup Some quick ways to optimise your finances as a couple How pension tax relief works for employees, and How salary sacrifice extends that process. Remember, you can have your question answered by clicking the green bar over on the right hand side of the page, or by going to the Ask Pete page! Resources mentioned in this show   Join the conversation I love to read and respond to your comments, so please do join in and share. Question: If you're in a couple, how have you organised your finances? Share the love Hugs and kisses to dacgw and Elliot Gardner for their reviews this week - much appreciated folks! If this show is of any use to you, it would help me massively if you would take the time to leave me a review on iTunes. This has a huge impact on keeping me near the top of the rankings, which in turns helps more people to find the show and to subscribe. Just click the button below:

In this encore episode, I revisit my chat with Andy Hart all about financial forecasting, a powerful process that divines the future of your finances, using mathematical software.  Shownotes are at http://meaningfulmoney.tv/session79

Budget 2016 So, up until a couple of weeks before this budget, we were expecting pretty swingeing changes to the pension system. George backed off from that, at least for now. But he had some other announcements up his sleeve and we’ll take a look at those today, I’ll be sticking to the personal finance related stuff, rather than messing about with duty on fags and, at the other end of the scale, with the macroeconomic stuff. 1 – Savings and Pensions Firstly, the ISA allowance will be increased to £20,000 from April 2017, while staying at £15,240 for the coming tax year (16/17) The big new announcement was the new Lifetime ISA (presumably to be called ‘LISA’) which will be introduced form April 2017. It will be available for those aged between 18 and 40 on April 6th 2017. These people can contribute up to £4,000 per year, and this will be topped up by 25% by a government bonus at the end of the tax year. This is similar to pension tax relief for BR payers, but a bit different. One can contribute to a LISA up to age 50, so maximum of 32 years from age 18. 32 years x £4,000 = £128,000, plus £32,000 of bonus, plus the growth on both – a useful su of money. The £4,000 limit will be included within the £20,000 overall ISA contribution limit, but you can transfer from other ISAs into a LISA to fund the £4k limit. Only one LISA per year is allowed per person. Withdrawals can be made with no implications for: house purchase deposit up to £450,000 or, for retirement planning after age 60. The LISA will be accessible at other times, but government bonus plus the growth on it must be returned, and a 5% exit penalty too – pretty swingeing. I can see the LISA being a forerunner of a new kind of pension, with limited tax relief and some limited access before retirement – we’ll see. There’s a really good factsheet here, produced by the Government, all about LISA and how she’ll work. 2 – Small business Some good news for small business owners: Corporation tax is reducing to 17% by 2020 from the current 20% rate. More importantly, Small Business Rate Relief is being overhauled from April 2017. Where the rateable value is less than £15,000 businesses will pay no business rates (the threshold is currently £6,000). The higher rate threshold is also rising from £18,000 to £51,000. According to the Chancellor, this means that 600,000 businesses will pay no business rates, and 250,000 will pay less than they currently pay. A small fillip for the self-employed too: Class 2 National Insurance contributions will be abolished (flat rate £2.80pw) from 2018 3 – Tax There will be new rates of Capital Gains Tax introduced from April 2016. these will be 10% is the taxable gain falls in the Basic Rate Tax band, and 20% if it falls within the Higher Rate Tax band. BUT, George said that “The old rates will be kept in place for gains on residential property and carried interest. That’s an 8% surcharge for residential property, clearly designed to encourage investing in companies over property. If you’re wondering, carried interest is a share in the profits of alternative investments e.g. Private equity and hedge funds. Summary Of course there were many other announcements, but these are the key things for those interested in personal finance I reckon Join the conversation I love to read and respond to your comments, so please do join in and share. Question: What do you think of the Budget announcements? How do they affect you?

They say that money doesn’t make you happy. Maybe that’s true, maybe it isn’t. Today I’m talking to a good friend about financial wellbeing, what it is, and how we can get some!   Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download Sponsor Message This podcast is brought to you with the help of Seven Investment Management, a firm of investment managers based in London. They specialise in multi-asset investing, bringing institutional investing techniques to ordinary people like you and me. 7IM put their name to my show and to my site because they believe in what I’m doing, trying to get decent, easy-to-understand financial information out to the world. I’m very grateful to them for their support. You can see what they’re up to at 7im.co.uk Financial Wellbeing I’ve said before that money is not an inert force. It has incredible power to inspire the best and worst in people. It can be used to build up or to tear down, for good purposes or evil. It has the power to affect how we feel, and our financial wealth, or the lack thereof, can lead to great anxiety. Today I chat to my good buddy Chris Budd, who is a financial planner of many years’ experience. He’s also a qualified life and business coach and is well placed to get into the nitty gritty of how money works and how we interact with it. I’ll let him do the talking. There is so much to be gained from adopting the principles Chris has talked about, and digs deeper into in the book. Having a healthy relationship with money has so many knock-ons to the rest of our lives, that financial wellbeing must surely be a priority for all of us. Resources mentioned in this show Book: Financial Wellbeing (Released 31st May 2016 - pre-order on Amazon now) Podcast: Financial Wellbeing - Coming soon Website: Financial Wellbeing - some great blog posts on here Charity: Penny Brohn UK - helping people live well with cancer Financial Planner: Chris' firm Ovation Finance in Bristol  

Now the EU referendum has been announced, there is one question which I am starting to hear over and over again: How will Brexit affect my investments? Today I’m speaking to friend of the show, Justin Urquhart Stewart of Seven Investment Management, he of the red braces fame, and ask his opinion. He also tells us how he is going to vote and why… Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download Sponsor Message This podcast is brought to you with the help of Seven Investment Management, a firm of investment managers based in London. They specialise in multi-asset investing, bringing institutional investing techniques to ordinary people like you and me. 7IM put their name to my show and to my site because they believe in what I’m doing, trying to get decent, easy-to-understand financial information out to the world. I’m very grateful to them for their support. You can see what they’re up to at 7im.co.uk How will Brexit affect my investments? Since 1973 the UK has been a member of the European Economic Community, and we voted in a referendum to stay within it in 1975. Well, I didn’t, as I was born that year! Since then, the EEC has changed beyond all recognition and now, on June 23rd we’re going to be given the chance to vote again on whether we should stay or leave what is now called the EU. As you can imagine, my clients have been asking the question - what will the British Exit, or Brexit mean for investments? So I have been reading, listening and watching what I can to try and get on top of the pros and cons of each camp. The first person I called was Justin Urquhart Stewart, who returns to the MeaningfulMoney podcast for the fifth time! In this session, you'll discover: What affect the announcement of the EU referendum has already had on investments Justin's view on the pros and cons of a British exit from the EU Some clear parallels between the pressures currently being faced by the EU and those faced in ancient Rome Some of the key drivers of the current market volatility, apart from the EU referendum How Justin Urquhart Stewart is planning to vote in the referendum The best plan for riding out market volatility, whatever the result I think there are so many facets to this debate and it will depend very much on your point of view. And it was ever thus, right? We’ll make the decision based on what it means for us, perhaps at the expense of the greater good. Ah well, we’ll see, sometime on June 24th probably, what the outcome will be Resources mentioned in this show Transcript: As always, there is a full transcript of this show available by clicking the big blue button below: Join the conversation I love to read and respond to your comments, so please do join in and share. Question: How are you planning to vote, and why? Please keep any comments respectful, or I'll just delete them and block you ;-) Share the love Hugs and kisses to Sparky Lu, and O-J P for their reviews this week - much appreciated folks! If this show is of any use to you, it would help me massively if you would take the time to leave me a review on iTunes. This has a huge impact on keeping me near the top of the rankings, which in turns helps more people to find the show and to subscribe. Just click the button below:

Over the past six years I have built up quite a body of work here on MeaningfulMoney. And that’s especially true when it comes to how to invest. In today’s show I am going to bring together some of the best investing resources on the site and try to fit them into a path to take you from zero to elite investment skills. Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download Sponsor Message This podcast is brought to you with the help of Seven Investment Management, a firm of investment managers based in London. They specialise in multi-asset investing, bringing institutional investing techniques to ordinary people like you and me. 7IM put their name to my show and to my site because they believe in what I’m doing, trying to get decent, easy-to-understand financial information out to the world. I’m very grateful to them for their support. You can see what they’re up to at 7im.co.uk How to invest With 303 videos and 149 podcasts here on MM it can be hard to find what you need, though there is a very efficient search system. I am in the process of designing and building a new home page which will hopefully help new visitors find their way round, but until that is done, this post should help you navigate the best stuff when it comes to investing. Of the resources listed, more are podcasts than videos. Many of the videos are somewhat out of date now, and while I am redoing some of them, the podcast is generally where the meat is. Ready? Here are eight steps to become and investing ninja: Step 1 - Get into the right mindset Video number 246 talks about getting into the savings mindset. You need to start form a good place, as the changes you will make need to be deep-seated to last for a lifetime. This involves being future focused, getting mad at the financial services industry, and committing to taking control of your own future. Step 2 - Get started For those who are right at the very start of their personal finance journey, and are looking to pay off debt and begin saving for an emergency fund, I have a dedicated index page just for you. If you have done those things, and you're looking at how to invest, what's next? Podcast session 6 was a chat with the erstwhile Justin Urquhart Stewart of my sponsors, Seven Investment Management. In that show we agreed that investing should be dull, above all. You should understand your risk tolerance (more in a minute) and understand what makes a core investment portfolio. Then in Podcast session 10 we looked at Asset classes, or things you can investing, and a little bit about how they interact. And we followed this up with Podcast session 11, where we covered the platforms, wrappers and funds that these assets are held inside. this is the basic architecture for investing success. Step 3 - Understand Risk It has been proven beyond doubt that risk and reward are related. Risk is a multi-layered subject, as I discussed with my friend Richard Allum in Podcast session 16. Much later, I chatted to Paul Resnik of risk measurement firm Finametrica in Podcast session 119, and looked into the science of risk tolerance, and whether or not it changes in response to external factors. Finally, video number 300 covers the three main ways in which investment risk can be managed by ordinary folks, such as you and me. Step 4 - Educate yourself We're better at most things if we learn something about them in advance of diving in. The same is true for investing, which is why this site exists, and why you're here. You need to learn how to invest, before you start to invest. Podcast session 76 was a chat with journalist Robin Powell who created a documentary called How To Win The Loser's Game. Listen to the show and watch the film; it'll set the scene. Then I embarked on a four-part investment masterclass covering: Asset Allocation Risk and return Setting realistic targets Understanding costs Those four podcast sessions will give you a superb grounding of education and equip you to make good choices. Step 5 - Get practical Armed with all that good information, it is time to get your hands dirty with some practical investing. Back in Podcast session 41, I took listeners through how to build a portfolio from scratch, exactly how I would do it. I then chatted subsequently with Mark Polson of platform consultancy the lang cat, in Podcast session 75. If you're going to go it alone and not seek professional advice, there are plenty of online systems to help you invest in various ways, and Mark's guide helps you decide which is best for you. Once a portfolio is built, it should be reviewed. In Podcast session 96 I cover what to do when you sit down each year to look at the year just gone and the one coming up. What should you be looking for? What should you ignore? Step 6 - Learn about behavioural finance We are so often our own worst enemies. While investing is a science, as humans we are driven by emotion, and as such we can make some very bad decisions. Half the battle with learning how to invest is understanding why we make mistakes and putting in place a framework to minimise these. Back in Podcast session 43 I covered nine classic investing mistakes that I see people make over and over again. Then, in one of my favourite conversations I have had for the podcast, I chatted to Greg Davies from Barclays Wealth over two shows, session 108 and session 109. Greg is the UK's foremost authority on behavioural finance and gives us some very practical tips on how to make good investing decisions. Finally, I make my own attempt to give some practical tips for making smart decisions in Podcast session 118. Step 7 - Get things in context As I often say here on MeaningfulMoney, money is never an end in itself, but a means to an end. It is there to serve your life goals, and to enable them, never to be a goal in itself. It is therefore vital to invest with this context in mind. In Podcast session 48 I asked some important questions, crafted by the father of financial life planning George Kinder. These three questions will help put money in its proper place. I then interviewed my good friend Tina Weeks in Podcast session 85, and she shared her approach for putting money into perspective. Step 8 - Take things to the next level Finally, for those plucky few who make it this far, there is the opportunity to level up, and take your investing to the next level. In Podcast session 81, I cover some advanced investing techniques, and in Podcast session 24, I talked about some lessons we can learn from how the super-rich manage their wealth. I chatted to financial guru Todd Tresidder in Podcast session 123, and asked the question: How much do I need to retire. Todd himself retired at 35 or something incredible, so he's a good man to learn from. And then in Podcast session 113, I covered ways to put your finances on autopilot, so you can grow your wealth while you sleep. Summary Phew! I think that is plenty for most people to be going along with. If you can apply the information about how to invest contained in these podcasts and videos, your financial success is pretty much assured.   Join the conversation I love to read and respond to your comments, so please do join in and share. Question: Which of these resources has benefitted you most, and why? Share the love If this show is of any use to you, it would help me massively if you would take the time to leave me a review on iTunes. This has a huge impact on keeping me near the top of the rankings, which in turns helps more people to find the show and to subscribe. Just click the button below:

This month on MeaningfulMoney, we have dived deep into the world of tax planning, and I have hinted about tax-efficient investing as I’ve gone along. This week I want to give you a comprehensive checklist to everything you need to KNOW and then everything you need to DO to make the most of the many tax planning angles available to you when you are investing.   Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download Sponsor Message This podcast is brought to you with the help of Seven Investment Management, a firm of investment managers based in London. They specialise in multi-asset investing, bringing institutional investing techniques to ordinary people like you and me. 7IM put their name to my show and to my site because they believe in what I’m doing, trying to get decent, easy-to-understand financial information out to the world. I’m very grateful to them for their support. You can see what they’re up to at 7im.co.uk Tax-efficient investing Checklist By now, you know how I feel about tax. It’s necessary to pay it, even our duty to pay it in order to contribute to society. But part of living in a developed economy is that the government uses tax breaks to encourage investing in certain ways. It’s those tax-efficient investing techniques I want to explore today. What I go through today will be all that 98% of you ever need to do. If you tick off these things you’ll save as much tax as it is possible to save when investing. Any other questions or comment, leave them in the show notes. Resources mentioned in this show Blog: Contrived Tax Planning Checklist: Click the big yellow button below to download the checklist so you can tick off each step Transcript: As always, there is a full transcript of this show available by clicking the big blue button below: Join the conversation I love to read and respond to your comments, so please do join in and share. Question: What capital gains tax planning and inheritance tax planning measures have you taken? Share the love Hugs and kisses to TimW123 and Rtheyalltaken for their reviews this week - much appreciated folks! If this show is of any use to you, it would help me massively if you would take the time to leave me a review on iTunes. This has a huge impact on keeping me near the top of the rankings, which in turns helps more people to find the show and to subscribe. Just click the button below:

Last week, we covered Income Tax planning, but there’s a whole world of planning you can do outside of that, to feather your own nest. In today’s show I’ll cover the two other main personal taxes, and look at how you can do some good solid Capital Gains Tax planning and Inheritance Tax planning [smart_track_player url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/meaningfulmoney/MMP147.mp3" title="Session 146: Income Tax Planning" artist="MeaningfulMoney Podcast" color="01A83C" social="true" social_twitter="true" social_facebook="true" social_gplus="true" ] Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download Sponsor Message This podcast is brought to you with the help of Seven Investment Management, a firm of investment managers based in London. They specialise in multi-asset investing, bringing institutional investing techniques to ordinary people like you and me. 7IM put their name to my show and to my site because they believe in what I’m doing, trying to get decent, easy-to-understand financial information out to the world. I’m very grateful to them for their support. You can see what they’re up to at 7im.co.uk Capital Gains tax planning & Inheritance Tax planning Capital Gains Tax (CGT) and Inheritance Tax (IHT) - both will likely figure at some point in your investing career, if they haven’t already. But CGT and IHT are most definitely able to be planned around, and I’m here to be your guide. All tax allowances and rates are for the 2016/17 tax year, and this is UK-only folks - apologies to my overseas listeners. Check out the archive! In this session, you'll discover: How capital gains tax works What CGT is charged upon and how it is calculated Why it might  be a good idea to make a loss from time to time How to make the best use of your assets for Capital gains tax planning Which kinds of investments are advantageous for CGT How Inheritance Tax works What the Nil Rate Band is, and how it is changing The three best ways to reduce your IHT liability How to best execute your Inheritance Tax planning strategies Everything I cover in this session will be enough for most people to never pay either Capital Gains Tax or even Inheritance Tax. Most of us don't have big issues with these taxes, but just need to know the best ways to work around them. Resources mentioned in this show Podcast: Personal Taxation Overview Podcast: Income Tax Planning Video: Enterprise Investment Schemes Transcript: As always, there is a full transcript of this show available by clicking the big blue button below: Join the conversation I love to read and respond to your comments, so please do join in and share. Question: What capital gains tax planning and inheritance tax planning measures have you taken? Share the love Hugs and kisses to Toxic_Fairy, and Dr Simon Li for their reviews this week - much appreciated folks! If this show is of any use to you, it would help me massively if you would take the time to leave me a review on iTunes. This has a huge impact on keeping me near the top of the rankings, which in turns helps more people to find the show and to subscribe. Just click the button below:

Income tax is a fact of life for most people, but income tax planning opportunities are available to everyone who needs them, if you know where to look. In this week’s show I cover the obvious and not-so-obvious income tax planning tips you need to know.   Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download   Sponsor Message This podcast is brought to you with the help of Seven Investment Management, a firm of investment managers based in London. They specialise in multi-asset investing, bringing institutional investing techniques to ordinary people like you and me. 7IM put their name to my show and to my site because they believe in what I’m doing, trying to get decent, easy-to-understand financial information out to the world. I’m very grateful to them for their support. You can see what they’re up to at 7im.co.uk Income tax planning The current and previous governments have done a great deal to bring more people out of paying income tax by increasing allowances, of which more in a minute. For those of us who do pay tax, there are plenty of ways of saving tax legitimately and that’s what we’re looking at today. By the way, I’m guessing there are not too many bazillionaire footballers and pop stars listening to this. These are the kinds of people who have fallen foul to tax avoidance schemes which turned bad. Needless to say I’m not a fan of anything dodgy. In fact, I wrote a blog about the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion, and why I think it is right and proper that we pay tax, even while using all the many allowances and reliefs that are offered to us to reduce tax. BTW, this is a session geared towards UK taxpayers, as I have no idea how tax works anywhere else in the world! In this session, you’ll discover: How income tax works All the allowances which are available from April 2016 All about about income tax reliefs – free money! What you should do if you’re in a relationship, to save income tax How to use the coming facility of ISA restocking to your advantage How to make the most of the new dividend allowance Which tax wrappers you should use to take best advantage of income tax planning angles The new extended personal allowance, personal savings allowance and dividend allowance, coupled with the existing benefit of pensions and ISAs will mean that the vast majority of people could well pay zero tax on all their investments and pensions (except when you take money out of a pension). It’s just a matter of organising things in the best way possible.   Also, watch for  the articles and videos on the MeaningfulMoney.tv site. I put out a blog post on Monday, the podcast on Wednesday and a video on Friday, and February is tax month, so that’ll be the general theme, at least until I run out of stuff to talk about! If you have any questions about this personal taxation overview, leave a comment below. Resources mentioned in the show Podcast: Personal Taxation Overview – including a downloadable cheatsheet with worked income tax examples   Join the conversation I love to read and respond to your comments, so please do join in and share. Question: What income tax planning measures have you taken? Have you invested in different tax wrappers? Share the love Hugs and kisses to Troy50, Rob Mildren and Steve Binns for their reviews this week – much appreciated folks! If this show is of any use to you, it would help me massively if you would take the time to leave me a review on iTunes. This has a huge impact on keeping me near the top of the rankings, which in turns helps more people to find the show and to subscribe.

Personal taxation is changing. It’s been a while since we looked at this subject, one of life’s inevitabilities, so let’s dive in to my personal taxation overview, and see where we end up!   Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download Sponsor Message This podcast is brought to you with the help of Seven Investment Management, a firm of investment managers based in London. They specialise in multi-asset investing, bringing institutional investing techniques to ordinary people like you and me. 7IM put their name to my show and to my site because they believe in what I’m doing, trying to get decent, easy-to-understand financial information out to the world. I’m very grateful to them for their support. You can see what they’re up to at 7im.co.uk Personal Taxation Overview Yes, tax is changing, as it often does. I heard somewhere that in the UK have the largest tax code, when printed out as a series of books, of any developed country in the world. I don’t know if that is true, but one things for sure, it IS a complex thing to understand, and yet it is so necessary. As ever though, I am here to simplify things for you and to cut down the reams of paper into bite-size chunks that you can APPLY to your everyday life and investing. We’ll cover the three main personal taxes: income tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax. This time, I’ll be looking at what you need to know, and then over the next two weeks I’ll look at what you can do to mitigate some of these taxes. BTW, this is a session geared towards UK taxpayers, as I have no idea how tax works anywhere else in the world! In this session, you'll discover: All about walls and boxes - that's a model for understanding income tax! The order your income is taxed in - it's important All about changes happening in April which transform how your income is taxed What is happening in April to the way interest on bank savings is paid How capital gains tax works How inheritance tax works How much you can leave your beneficiaries when you die, without paying tax It’s tempting to get into some actionable stuff here, but listening to tax info is dry, so I wanted to keep it short-ish. Next week we’ll look at income tax strategies, but for a visual cue to how this all works, download the cheatsheet by hitting the yellow button below.   Also, watch for  the articles and videos on the MeaningfulMoney.tv site. I put out a blog post on Monday, the podcast on Wednesday and a video on Friday, and February is tax month, so that’ll be the general theme, at least until I run out of stuff to talk about! If you have any questions about this personal taxation overview, leave a comment below. Show transcript As always, there is a full transcript of this show available by clicking the big blue button below:  Join the conversation I love to read and respond to your comments, so please do join in and share. Question: Is your tax situation going to be better or worse after the changes in April 2016? What are you doing about it? Share the love Hugs and kisses to Joshua Tharby for his review this week - much appreciated fella! If this show is of any use to you, it would help me massively if you would take the time to leave me a review on iTunes. This has a huge impact on keeping me near the top of the rankings, which in turns helps more people to find the show and to subscribe. Just click the button below: