Christmas Financial Planning

Although we usually associate Christmas with precious family time and offering gifts to loved ones, we all tend to over consume and for many Christmas is overshadowed by debt and financial worries...

The Budget

The Budget: “Great giveaway or kick in the teeth for the poor?” Spreadsheet Phil finally loosened the purse strings in the first Monday budget since 1962. Will his budget measures give the ...

Protection

An offer you can't refuse? The vast majority live from paycheque to paycheque. But what happens if that cheque stops? What happens if you’re sick, injured or dead? Who pays the rent? Who pays...

Wise investing in a crazy world….

The pervasive influence of Trump, BREXIT and state sponsored murder - not forgetting state sponsored cyber terrorism – all combine to continue one of the longest periods of global market uncerta...

SIPPs

Investors have used SIPPs to buy esoteric assets that have turned out to be worthless. There is a court case on the subject running even now. SIPPs are allowed to hold a wide range of different in...

Children’s Financial Education

Money Talk presenter Simon Webster would argue that the ultimate purpose of education is to prepare our children for the world of work. Only a few can leave school to work in PR, in media, or “c...

Artificial Intelligence Stole My Job

We may soon be hearing that line a lot as the Bank of England warns that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will soon put millions out of work. Their Economists envisage a Fourth Industrial Revolution w...

Pension scams and how to avoid them

With 253 fraud victims reported to Action Fraud during 2017 and £23 million lost, pension scam artists continue to steal money by luring people by offering unrealistic returns on their pension sa...

Interest Rates

On 2 August 2018 the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of England unanimously voted to increase interest rates by 0.25% for the second time in 9 months following their historic collapse ...

Home ownership hopes collapsing?

Stepping onto the first rung of property ladder has become an ever-greater challenge. As a result, the younger generation now asks, “is the dream of owning any home over?” Ever increasing hous...

Income Roulette

16 million people in the UK are balancing on a knife edge, literally just one pay cheque away from financial disaster – with insufficient savings if they lose their job. It’s the middle age...

Commercial Business Finance

The banks are sometimes accused of “offering business customers an umbrella when the sun is shining but taking it away as soon as it starts to rain.” This week Simon unpicks the vexed issue of...

Mythbusting- Common Law marriage

This week Money Talk hosts Helen Noble, a mediator and collaborative lawyer with solicitors Rix and Kay… She’ll unpack the urban myth that is “Common Law” marriage. There is really no such...

How to avoid personal liability from business errors

Simon’s guest this week is Dan Sherlock, commercial lawyer with Rix & Kay Solicitors and together they will be discussing the limitation of personal liability for those running an incorporat...

Pension Transfers

  Many people are sitting on a fortune and just don’t know it. The cash equivalent transfer value of many final salary pensions (the cash a final salary pension scheme gives you to go aw...

Tax Strategy for the New Tax Year

Every March, radio shows and newspapers give top tips for last minute tax planning, but that’s it, they’re last minute! Far better to set a tax strategy for the year ahead so that you can impl...

Getting on the Housing Ladder

Home ownership is at a thirty-year low and housing continues to eat up a growing proportion of household income. Owning a home by the age of 25 has become an unachievable dream for many over the l...

Evolving laws on Britain’s roads

Britain's roads are a hazardous place and the laws ruling them are ever evolving. This Friday on Money Talk, Simon is joined by David Barton, a solicitor specialising in motoring law. David ...

Has the Stock Market Bubble Burst?

This week America sneezed, so the rest of the world caught a cold. The Dow dropped by more than 1,175 - its biggest one-day points fall in its history – and European, UK and Asian markets all sa...

Crypto currencies and other scams

When we last talked about Bitcoin it had just hit a peak value of $17,000 USD. Today it’s fallen through $10,000 USD so all those people who did not buy it on our advice can be extremely gratefu...

2017 in retrospect

2017 - a year that has been absolutely packed full of both highs and lows. This Friday Simon will be reflecting on the good, the bad, and the bits in-between. For a one hour summary of the y...

Data Protection – knowing where you stand

With the New Year comes new regulation impacting every business in the land - including yours! General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) aims to return control of personal data to the individ...

All things Christmas

All things Christmas with Money Talk live on Friday. A great Christmas need not cost the earth; how to stay safe on winter roads with Rachael Hogg from Auto Trader. Simon will also investigate�...

Raising business finance

Business finance has been harder to come by since the 2008 crash. While the high street banks tell us they are doing much more to help small business, many such business owners still cite “raisi...

Working through divorce

In 2016 there were 106,959 opposite sex divorces and 112 divorces of same sex couples. Interestingly these numbers are down from their 2005 peak. There seem to be no official statistics on cohabit...

Social media marketing: making it work for you

Social media is a powerful tool readily available at our fingertips. However for many small business owners, the idea of utilising social media for marketing purposes can be a daunting one. ...

Alternative finance options

Nearly two thirds of UK SMEs (small & medium sized enterprises) don’t understand how invoice finance works, despite their financial directors and CFOs considering restricted cash flow a bar...

The Conservative Party Conference 2017

Conference Season Episode Two: The Tories The Tory party has the biggest peacetime challenge of any government in history - negotiating the UK out of the Eu. Anyone who thinks this is straight ...

Convenience costing motorists cash

You're skidding?! Motorists lose almost £1,000 selling their cars through car buying websites BMW's & SUV's lose out the most Cars registered post 2014 lost £1,548 on average More t...

Auto Enrolment

Over 700,000 small & micro employers will be looking to auto-enrol in the the next 6 months, accordingly to The Pension Regulator. The automatic enrolment legislation imposes duties on empl...

Tax Credits – does your business qualify?

Thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) are receiving tax credits from the government for research and development (R&D) projects. SME’s can see a return of up to 25% of re...

Final salary pensions – opportunity or unexploded bomb?

It’s taken some time, but George Osborne’s pension freedoms are finally coming into play. These freedoms have captured the attention of many, and subsequently Final Salary Pension transfers are ...

Unpicking fairness

Paraphrasing Churchill “Capitalism is the world’s worst economic system – except for all the rest.” ..and therein lies the dilemma. Socialism failed in Russia and in Cuba. It was only whe...

Election Results June 2017

Friday is set to bring a clearer picture of who will be taking us into the UK's exit from Europe. But who will be leading the way? Simon will be discussing the results of the election this F...

Excess Capital going to waste

BRITISH FIRMS HAVE £500BN LOCKED UP IN EXCESS WORKING CAPITAL CASH TIED UP SHOWS BUSINESSES UNDER HISTORIC PRESSURE LATE PAYMENTS AND STOCKPILING AHEAD OF PRICE HIKES CAUSING A HUGE FINANC...

From the ground up

Without the right foundations many new business fail...so what is the key to building a successful business? This week on Money Talk Simon is joined by special guest Denise Wilton, founder of Mark...

Debt threat

In Money Talk this week Simon and Jo will tackle the thorny issue of credit card debt. In an overdue but welcome move the UK Financial Services Regulator proposes compelling card issuers to provide ...

Divorce: the hard facts

There were over 130,000 divorces in the UK in 2013. So more than half a million adults and their children went through what is often described as the most stressful event in life in a single year. C...

Political & economic upheaval – a week in review

Continued political and economic uncertainty leave much to ponder this week: Will rising inflation trigger early interest rate rises? Will the Uber led GIG economy crash due to changes in em...

Get wed for a pension?

The rights of public sector pension scheme members with partners (rather than spouses) have been significantly improved following a ruling by the UK Supreme Court. Denise Brewster lost her long-t...

2016 Best Bits

This week Simon will be reviewing the year gone by (the good, the bad, & the ugly!). On top of this we will be revisiting some of our favourite past shows! Tune in from 1pm this Friday the...

Credit and store cards: the good, the bad and the ugly

Convenient or dangerous? A help or a hindrance? Credit & store cards can be viewed entirely differently depending on who you ask. For the most part, whether a credit/store card is beneficia...

Financial survival at Christmas

  At Christmas family budgets always come under huge pressure. The cost of food, hosting and visiting, plus gifts & toys for the kids are fed by the natural desire to give the family t...

Employment law in an uncertain world

The job security of millions is threatened by BREXIT. Many of the UK’s employment protections emanate from Brussels. The terms of our departure and the attitude of future UK governments will hav...

Growing Pains: Living in an expanding Britain

A third runway at Heathrow has been approved, following a government cabinet meeting on Tuesday. In a post-Brexit UK, many people are singing the praises of this decision. Supporters have already a...

Empowerment Through Education

  It is widely accepted that education opens many doorways in life. However, in a society that prides itself on it's education system there seems to be a general lack of resource and knowledg...

Brexit – Hard or Soft?

And what does this actually mean? It has been three months since Britain voted to leave the EU, and much has happened in the UK since then. Little, however, seems to have been decided around the...

The Debt Crisis in Britain’s Young

Accordingly to recent studies a third of Britain's under 24s are over £3000 in debt. The study conducted for the Money Advice Trust by YouGov found that credit cards, over drafts, short-term loans...

Something is rotten in the state of UK pensions

Just about everything that could have gone wrong with the UK pensions system has gone wrong over the past 20 years, and there is no end in sight. The rot began with former Chancellor Gordon Bro...

The Gender Pay Gap

Mother's earning power falls behind their male counterparts upon their return to work, says a recent UK survey carried out by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Figures have long suggested that wo...

Making Money Out of Cash

Britain is in a savings crisis... On the 4th of August the Bank of England cut interest rates to a new record low of 0.25%. While this is great news for borrowers, this cut is looking t...

The World of Residential Mortgages

Buying a house is considered to be one of the most stressful times in one's life. So who are the people who choose to be involved in this process every day of their lives? This week on Money...

State Pension

UK state Pension provision is already amongst the poorest in the civilised world. In an attempt to improve the situation a triple-lock on state pension was introduced to guarantee that it will incr...

The Challenges Facing First Time Buyers

Despite the considerable ‘hoorah’ around the new Help to Buy scheme implemented by the government, a recent study carried out by the BBC has shown that the average price of a starter home exce...

Brexit – The Result

What happens next? Today millions of people around the UK will be placing their vote for what they believe is the right way forward for the United Kingdom. Will we be staying in the EU? Or ste...

Fair Money?

BHS & Sports Direct VS National Living Wage & Auto-Enrolment Are we any closer to building a just society? Philip Green and Mike Ashley have made huge personal fortunes from British bus...

Senior Finances

Do you have a plan? As you get older you may find yourself thinking about things that may have hardly crossed your mind previously. In fact, many of these thoughts boil down to just the one...

The Behavioural Biases of Investors

Are your investments being held back by hidden prejudices? Investing your hard-earned savings can often be a nerve-racking experience. A recent study carried out by Schroders has identified that...

Inheritance Tax

  Following the revelation that David Cameron received a £200,000 gift from his mother, Inheritance Tax is once again in the political spotlight. But what is Inheritance Tax, and how could it...

The Politics of Tax Evasion

What is all the hype around tax evasion? Hiding your identity is not necessarily illegal - neither is hiding your money. However in most places in the world doing either to evade tax is. On this...

Tips for Starting a Business

Ever dreamed of starting up your own business? This week on MoneyTalk Simon will be joined by fellow entrepreneur (and new co-host) Jo Dodds to discuss how they each found themselves creating a...

Pensions & Property Purchases

Using a SIPP to purchase a property is highly tax efficient. This week on Money Talk... Write a cheque from your personal or business bank account to purchase a property and it's purely a bal...

The Time Bomb That Is Interest-Only Mortgages

Why are nearly one million people on the verge of having their houses repossessed? Money Talk investigates... In the 1980’s and 90’s interest-only loans combined with an endowment policy...

End of Year Tax Planning

This coming Friday on Money Talk Simon will be looking at the the ins and outs of Year End Tax Planning. As the end of financial year looms (April 5th), it is worth investigating whether or not you ...

Investing Ethically

In today's world it is often easy to remove oneself from where our money is being invested. Entrusting your hard earned cash with banks, pension funds and financial advisers (often without question) ...

The Change in US Interest Rates

Now that the Fed has raised rates – finally some might say - Money Talk is looking into whether or not a 0.25% rise in rates really matters... An interest rate increase anywhere means: B...