A Little Bit Richer Wrapped: 12 Money Tips

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This series is bought to you by L& G, helping you build a
future that's a little bit richer.

Iona Bain (00:06):
Hello, I'm Iona Bain, and welcome to A Little Bit
Richer, brought to you by Legal & General. Now, as we're
in the thick of the festive season, I thought we'd
do something a wee bit different, and dare I say, a
wee bit Christmasy. Today, we're diving into the 12 financial days of
Christmas. Yep. 12 quick, simple, feel good money tips that

(00:27):
we've learned on the show this year to help you
finish the year strong and set yourself up for an
even better one in 2026. No partridges, no pear trees,
just practical bite- sized ideas you can actually use from
the guests we've had on the show. So whether you're
wrapping gifts, traveling home, or hiding from your in laws
with a pair of headphones, we've all been there. Let's

(00:49):
jump into day one. First up is financial advisor and
content creator, Rotimi Merriman-Johnson, who shared some great insights on
building your investment portfolio. I particularly loved his tip around
the importance of diversifying.

Rotimi Merriman-Johnson (01:04):
So diversification in simple terms means not putting all your
eggs in one basket. And the reason why we do
this is because different companies will go through different cycles
and will perform differently at different times. And rather than
have a scenario where you're just invested into one company

(01:24):
and you're hoping that that company does well, you build
what's called a portfolio of companies. You can do this
yourself or you can use a fund. So if you
pick the right stock, then you can do really well
off the back of it, potentially. But it also means
that if the company doesn't do so well, your investment
can go to zero. If you were using an index

(01:44):
fund that tracked the UK stock market, the FTSE 100, you
would have 100 companies in that fund. So for your
money to go to zero, it would require a hundred
companies to go to zero, which I think if that's
happened, we have bigger problems to worry about.

Iona Bain (02:00):
Yes. Our second tip comes from Helen Tupper, author of
The Squiggly Career and co- founder of Amazing If. Helen
was full of practical advice, and here she is talking about
how to tackle the fear of failure when making a
career change.

Helen Tupper (02:14):
So there's this fear- based response to change. And then
there is a very practical one of, " No, but what
if I don't enjoy it?"

Iona Bain (02:23):
Yes.

Helen Tupper (02:23):
It's not a fear. It's a real thing. What if
I am not good at it? I've not done this
before. So I think there are two different things to
work on here. So the first one is caging confidence, (inaudible)
, and the second one is sort of trying to
get some exposure and experience before you kind of make
that move so that you mitigate the risk of it
going wrong. A lot of that is moving from sort
of limiting beliefs like, " What if people don't like me in

(02:46):
that team? If I fail, I'm going to be a
failure." All these kind of statements that go around our
head to more limitless thinking. So when I say limitless
beliefs, all I'm saying is change the story. So not, "
Well, if I do it and I fail, then everyone's
going to think I'm a failure." More, " Well, if I do it and I
fail, at least I'm going to learn."

Iona Bain (03:06):
On our third day of Christmas, let's look at pensions
and the power behind them. Here I talk to L&
G's Pete Gladwell, all about how your pension savings can
be invested to help build better communities, doing stuff for
the greater good. That sounds pretty Christmasy to me.

Pete Gladwell (03:22):
Your pension does have a power. It can have real
impact. It is worth thinking about who you're entrusting your
pension pot to, because it might feel like a small
amount to you, but when it's combined with millions of
other people's pensions, it starts to be a game changing,
a town changing, a city, changing a country changing amount
of money.

Iona Bain (03:39):
Oh, I like that. That's great.

Pete Gladwell (03:40):
It's true. I mean, you're talking about serious amounts of
money. So think about the impact and the provider that
you're entrusting your pensions and savings to. That's the first
thing. But again, you've got the power to change the
industry. Where people put their pensions is what the industry
then moves to accommodate. So if you have lots of
people telling their providers, " I don't want to be invested

(04:01):
in these sectors and I really care about these things,"
then providers like Legal & General and others will start to
create funds for you to invest in those. So even
within your choice, you can affect what the industry does
in future and affect that trend in the industry towards
being more considerate of the environmental and social impact of

(04:21):
the billions of pounds of money that we steward.

Iona Bain (04:24):
Next up on our list is accountant, campaigner, and speaker,
Crystal McGillivray, who joined me to talk about neurodiversity and
money. Here she is talking about strategies to put in
place to manage debt. And I think that's something we
can all learn a lot from.

Crystal McGillivray (04:38):
First of all, I'd say stop, pause, breathe, and know
that you can get through. And I think second, just
take an audit, note down, " Okay, this is what I
have here. These are the terms and conditions here." And
then it's slowly working your way through various different methods,
a kind of avalanche and snowball method, and it can
be quite fun actually, as you watch that journey of

(04:58):
your debt reducing and know that you have done that,
once you're on that journey, the progress that you make
then becomes very self- motivating.

Iona Bain (05:06):
100%. But you have to start that journey in the
first place.

Crystal McGillivray (05:10):
You have to start. Yeah. And even starting with five pounds, because what we're doing
there is we're building this new habit and that's the
key. You are teaching yourself and learning and building up
the confidence that I can commit to paying money to
clear a debt that I have. That's you being responsible.
And once you start that journey, it starts to snowball
and you feel really good.

Iona Bain (05:29):
That's so encouraging and heartening. Let's come to The Mortgage
Mum, Sarah Tucker next, who guided us through the remortgaging
process. Sarah had some great advice on checking your mortgage
deal so you can make sure you're getting the best rate.

Sarah Tucker (05:43):
What we see is a lot of people don't ring
their bank, they don't switch the rate. They go onto
what's called a standard variable rate. They pay a lot
more money and they don't talk to us because they're
worried. What if I talk to an advisor and then they
tell me I can't have my mortgage and they take
my house away? That is not going to happen. So
my biggest message is go and speak to... Hopefully the

(06:05):
advisor you used in the first place is the one
to contact you six months before your rate ends and
just tell them what's going on right now for you,
what's happened in the last few years and let them
guide you through.

Iona Bain (06:14):
Yeah, because the standard variable rate is not going to
be a good deal for you.

Sarah Tucker (06:18):
It's not. It's the highest option out of the three.
And you can be talking about hundreds of pounds a
month more and so many people are on it. This
is what's crazy. 1. 8 million people coming off of
their fixed rate deals and there will be a huge
number that do nothing. And that is a mission for
us to try and get through to those people and say, "

(06:39):
Don't do nothing because then you're just going to switch
onto the variable rate."

Iona Bain (06:43):
Because it's crazy, but it's a very, very understandable mistake
to make whereby you just think, " Hang on a second, I've
really got no choice but to do this," whereas you're
making it clear, " No, it doesn't have to be like
that." We're officially halfway through our 12 financial days of Christmas. And
on my list next is life admin, specifically combining your
pension savings into one pot. Yep, you might square them

(07:06):
at the thought, but actually I had a really interesting
chat with L& G's Mike Crossley all about this subject.
He broke it down for us in easy, doable steps,
and that's music to my ears. Here's Mike talking about
how you can stay on top of your pensions.

Mike Crossley (07:20):
If you've got three, four, five different pensions, it can
be tricky to understand how much have you saved, are
your savings on track to give you what might be
a good income in retirement. So bringing them together can
be a really positive first step towards getting on top
of your retirement savings.

Iona Bain (07:36):
So it's a question of not forgetting that you have
pension pots and therefore being able to maximize what you
have much more effectively.

Mike Crossley (07:45):
Yeah. So really important not to be one of those
people who's lost an old pension. And it can happen
so easily. As people move house and stuff, they forget
to tell their pension provider. And then when you try
and remember, " What was that pension I had 5, 10
years ago," really easy to fall into that trap. So
bringing them together, perhaps after you've just changed job and
you've got a new pension, it's a great way of

(08:06):
keeping on top and actually reducing your life admins, you're
not then needing to tell five different pension providers each
time you move.

Iona Bain (08:13):
That's a very good point. Often when we are reluctant
to do something in the short term, actually we're just
storing up more problems for the long term. It could
actually save us time in the long run. We're on
day seven now, and up next is Dr. Eliza Filby.
Eliza is a historian, author, and generational expert, and we had
a fascinating chat about inheritance. Here she is talking about

(08:37):
how some people can only really afford properties if they
have the bank of mom and dad.

Dr. Eliza Filby (08:42):
Bringing into the conversation, this bank of mom and dad.
And there was a lot of shame, still is a
lot of shame on that parental dependency. There's a lot
of unsaid, whispered, " How did she afford that deposit," in
friendship groups. There's a lot of silence in families talking
about gifting, dependency, certainly about inheritance. There's a level of

(09:06):
economic infantilization that a lot of people feel when it
comes to their parents. And I think you need to
be much more open, both if you're in a privileged
position of having the bank of mom and dad, but
also if you're not, actually creating a greater level of
empathy amongst your friendship groups and saying, " Do you know
what? I can't spend 2000 pounds on attending your hem
party and wedding because I'm not in the position that

(09:28):
you are." And I think talking about it in your
peer groups, but also talking about it within your family
and also talking about it in society. Because one of the
things that I'm really passionate about is helping people understand
the social and economic forces that actually govern their lives.
And I think basically what's happened since 2008 to 2025 is that the state
has shrunk, the market's become dysfunctional and the parents have

(09:49):
stepped up. Stepped up from a point of love. And
I'm not someone that believes that inheritance should be taxed
into oblivion. It's about creating and having a conversation where
inheritance matters less and an economy where inheritance matters less
because it ultimately is demotivating.

Iona Bain (10:07):
We're coming up next to my episode with financial advisor,
Emmanuel Asuquo, and we had a great chat about side hustles.
And in this clip, he talks about how you can
make some extra money through passive income streams.

Emmanuel Asuquo (10:21):
Passive income streams are the dream, they're like Midas' gold,
they're... What we're looking for is basically... Passive income stream
is where you put money into something and then it
gives you an income each month, each year without you
having to go back and work for it. So your
money is working for you. Now, it sounds really difficult
and really hard, but there are some ways that you

(10:41):
can do this. So for example, I meet people who
have a spare room. So you could rent out that
room, no additional work, and every month that room, or
every week, depending on how you rent it out, could be
making you money. So that could be considered passively. Or
you could have a car. Some people get a car
and then they rent out that car. And again, they're
getting income from that car every single month. So it

(11:02):
all depends on what you're doing, but typically, I would
say that most things, although they say they're passive, require
work. Anything that you're making money from needs to be
maintained and tends to need to acquire work. So one
of the big ones people talk about is property. So
owning a property and renting it out. But even if
you rent out that property, even if you get an
estate agent to manage that, there's still work to be done

(11:25):
because they may need to be updating to the property.
There may be times when the property is empty, you
may need to help with the marketing. There's work to
be done to really maintain that income and make sure
that that grows and works on. So I'd say passive
sounds amazing, but the reality is that there normally needs
work to be done.

Iona Bain (11:42):
We talk a lot on the show about planning for
the long term and creating that future that you'll be
thankful for. And with that in mind, here's financial coach
and content creator, Laura Ann Moore, who gave us a
genius hack on how to trick your brain into saving.

Laura Ann Moore (11:58):
So I'm not a massive fan of no spend months.

Iona Bain (12:00):
Yeah, that feels very restrictive.

So restrictive. Where's the fun?

Iona Bain (12:04):
No.

But no spend zones would be, " Okay, where are my
biggest triggers with overspending? Where do I spend when I
look back and go, 'Oh, really wish I hadn't done
that?'" They're the places that you would put a bit
more of a rule around. For example, if your weakness
is after work, tired, can't be arsed to cook, you
know you're going to be getting a Deliveroo, afterwards you're like, " Oh,

(12:25):
I could have probably even made that for half the
price." So if you know that's your trigger, you would say, "
Okay, I am going to maybe do no Deliveroos during
the week." Or you can step foot outside in London
and before you know it, you've spent 100 pounds. So maybe
you say, " Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I don't spend before 12
PM." Just zones of the day, of the week, where

(12:46):
you just make an active choice to not spend as
much, therefore allowing you to save a bit more.

Iona Bain (12:51):
We're on to day 10 now. I'm going to chat about relationships
because when they go from the fun and frolics of
dating to having those difficult conversations about your future together,
let's face it, you've got to be honest and transparent.
So here's financial advisor Bola Sol on how to have
that tricky chat.

Bola Sol (13:08):
Their response is incredibly important. So whatever the situation may
be when you bring up finances, are they short with
you? Are they snappy? You have to look at all
those things. Are they avoidant or do they communicate with
you and say, " Okay, I can do this next week
and so on and so on." I think their response is
very important as well. Having the conversation, even if it's

(13:28):
not sexy. Sometimes you have to talk about the hard
things and do the hard things. That's how long- term
relationships work. When you hear people say, " Oh, we've been
together 15 or 20 years," and everyone kind of claps
by hearing that. I'm like, " I'm sure they've had a
conversation or two about finances," and other things as well,
relationships in different formats, friendships, professional career and so on.

(13:51):
So I just say, just see finance as one part
of that as opposed to all of it.

Iona Bain (13:57):
Now our 11th tip is about a subject that doesn't
exactly make our hearts race, but it is a really
important one. And that's why we did not just one,
but two great episodes with accountant, Tim Paul. Yep, we
were talking about tax and he broke down all those
technical terms that we find a bit scary and showed
us that tax really isn't as daunting as we might
think. Here's Tim talking through some quick wins.

Tim Paul (14:20):
The first thing I would say is checking your tax
code. For majority of people, this should be 1257L to
reflect the personal allowance that I mentioned earlier. If your
code on your payslip is anything other than 1257L and you
don't know why, then immediately you want to contact your
employer and get that sorted out. That'd be the first

(14:40):
thing. The second thing I would say is there's a
government app now, HMRC have an app, the government have
an app. Download both because what you can do is you can go on
the app and you can actually put in your details
and then it can tell you what benefits and allowances
you're entitled to, childcare, the child benefits, marriage allowance, those
kinds of things. So it's actually a very, very good
app. I've worked with the government a few times to

(15:02):
promote it and I use it myself and it does
give you all the information that you need, your national
insurance contributions, how much tax you're paying, your self- assessment
record, even your national insurance number, everything like that. So
yeah, that would be the second thing, see what you
can get. And then the third thing is the pensions point. Get
your pension sorted. If you don't know what pots you've

(15:23):
got where, or if you don't know how much you're
contributing, if you don't know how much your employer's contributing,
find that out, find out what the pension's getting invested
into. Make sure that you've got that sorted because that
is the quickest win in order to make sure that
you're not overpaying on your taxes.

Iona Bain (15:39):
It's a 12th day of Christmas. Hurrah, we made it.
For our last tip, we're going out strong. We're going
to hear from Claer Barrett, who I had a great
discussion with on pensions versus property. Here's Claer explaining why
most people prioritize one over the other.

Claer Barrett (15:55):
Ask any young person at any point over the last
20 or 30 years, " Which one are you going to prioritize?" Of course
it's going to be property because we want to get
on the housing ladder. We've seen what house prices can
do and the impact of owning an asset, which could
rise in value. No guarantees, of course, that that's going
to keep happening, certainly keep happening at the same rate in the

(16:15):
future, but it's been a one- way escalator for generations
past. And you can also tell your landlord to do one.
I think for many people, it's that, that's the motivation,
the insecurity of living in rented accommodation as well as
the huge cost. Maybe you're living with your parents for
longer in order to save up for a property. These

(16:35):
are all factors that are pushing young people towards prioritizing
property over retirement, which seems like a very, very distant dream.

Iona Bain (16:47):
Well, that wraps up our 12 financial days of Christmas,
12 tiny tweaks that together can make a surprisingly big
difference to your long- term financial health. If you try
even one or two of these over the holiday break
or beyond, let us know. You can get in touch
with us on TikTok and Instagram @ legalandgeneral. And don't forget, you can watch
all our full episodes on YouTube. If you enjoyed this

(17:09):
episode, feel free to share it with a friend who's
looking for a little festive money motivation. We'll be back
on January the 1st with a book club special to get your
new year off to a brilliant start. This podcast is
brought to you by L& G. I hope you have
a wonderful Christmas and see you very soon.

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