The Money Spot™ - UK Personal Finance

Heather Katsonga-Woodward

I’m Heather. A massive personal finance fanatic. I love to answer people's questions on getting rid of debt, saving, stock market investing, property and retirement. Subscribe to this podcast if you want to: earn more, save more, invest more and have fun! No episodes in April, August and December - #SchoolHolidays #MumPodcast

  1. 01/07/2023

    #48 Unleashing your financial freedom: the game-changing FIRE movement demystified

    Have you heard about the FIRE movement? It's an acronym for Financial Independence Retire Early. While many people interpret it literally, there's more to this movement than meets the eye. In this episode, we delve into what FIRE truly means, dispel some common misconceptions, and explore the different aspects of achieving financial independence (or FI) and retiring early. Contrary to popular belief, the FIRE movement is not a cult or a race to become a millionaire overnight. FIRE is also not about living close to the poverty line so that you can save every penny possible – in the process depriving your family of positive life experiences such as holidays. FIRE is about gaining control over your financial life and having the freedom to choose how you spend your time without worrying about money. Many attribute the beginnings of the FIRE movement to Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez’s 1992 book, ‘Your Money or Your Life’. This episode breaks down FIRE into its key components: financial independence, retiring ‘early’, and what retirement means in this context. Read more and comment on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whats-fire-movement-ultimate-guide-financial-retire-heather Ask me a question: https://www.katsonga.com/coach.html Support the podcast: In $: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TheMoneySpot In £: https://www.patreon.com/TheMoneySpot Your way: https://www.paypal.me/katsonga

    10 min
  2. 26/12/2022

    #47 Investing 101: where to put your money, how much to invest and what to invest it in

    Investing 101 – HOW TO START INVESTING: where to put your money, how much to invest and what to invest it in? I receive a lot of questions about “how to start investing” and this month alone I’ve fielded quite a few, so, as a belated birthday present to myself I decided to get this all out into a simple blog. Any tax rates and thresholds mentioned in this post will be correct as at the time of writing but tax is something that gets tinkered with all the time so this could get dated pretty quickly but using figures will help you understand how it all currently works in principle. First things first, everything I share here is information not advice. Once you decide to actually start investing you would be well advised to: a) do some further research yourself; and b) speak to a fee-only all-of-market independent financial advisor. Fee only means they don’t charge you a percentage of what you have to invest (that is, they charge a fixed fee) and all-of-market means they can offer products from a range of institutions.. Ideally, you should only invest money that you will not need for at least 5 years. This is because share market prices move up and down and if you need that money before five years is up, there is more chance that you might have to sell at a loss. Investing is a long-term game, the longer the time you can wait, the higher the probability of being up. Over a 20 year period, the S&P500 has returned a positive return 100% of the time. While the future may turn out to be different, you are generally well advised to leave money invested as long as possible. While my aim is to make this discussion as simple and as unintimidating as possible, at times it will feel really complex not because investing is hard but because we invest within the context of a very complicated and convoluted tax system. But you have to get to grips with our tax system to get ahead with investing…anyhow,…I’ll divide this into four parts, feel free to skip ahead to the part that you need: - Part 1 is all about what sort of investment account to put your money in; - Part 2 lays out what to think about when deciding which institution to invest your money through; - Part 3 helps you think about how much to invest over time; - Part 4 provides pointers regarding what you should invest in. Part 4 is very much based on how I choose to invest and this is the area where you may want to talk to more people about including your chosen IFA. Feel free to jump to the part that is most relevant to you... - Part 1 - 04:54 - Part 2 - 19:14 - Part 3 - 26:35 - Part 4 - 30:22 RESOURCES Resources and all links mentioned in episode: https://www.katsonga.com/wealthblog/investing-101-how-to-start-investing-where-to-put-your-money-how-much-to-invest-and-what-to-invest-it-in Call me: https://clarity.fm/heather B School for Kids and other books: https://www.katsonga.com/mybooks.html Ask me a question: https://www.katsonga.com/coach.html Support the podcast: In $: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TheMoneySpot In £: https://www.patreon.com/TheMoneySpot Your way: https://www.paypal.me/katsonga

    41 min
  3. 10/10/2022

    #46 How can I borrow more and house hack my way to a buy-to-let property portfolio?

    Hi Heather, Here’s my questions. I'm a single first time buyer, I have just under £10k deposit and i can borrow up to £200K based on some mortgage brokers.. is there any way I can borrow more money to buy a bigger house? What are your thoughts on the "helping hand mortgage" by Nationwide. Are there any other schemes for first time buyers? Second question, my plan is to use the house hacking method to save up faster in order to invest in more BTL properties. What’s your advice on house hacking and is it legal, do i need to inform the lender and would that make them more inclined to raise my interest rate? Third question, do I generally need both council and lender permission to change the structure to the house? Such as extension or loft conversion..etc? And how do I go about it.. where do I start? And are there any zone-ing regulations here in the UK as there is in the US? Finally, I am a foreign national here in the UK on a skilled worker visa, I've lived here for just over 5 years including a year in university, my credit score is very low due to the fact that I am not eligible to register for voting! I spoke to the council and they said they can't do anything. Is there anything I can do..? That's the only reason why my credit score is low. Thanks, Ahmed AND Hi Heather, I want to get into property investment but have very little capital. Is there any advice other than save to help buy properties with little to no capital? Your help is much appreciated. Shahid RESOURCES Tips on improving your credit score: https://www.katsonga.com/wealthblog/qa-how-can-i-improve-my-credit-score-so-that-my-husband-and-i-can-buy-a-house Investing basics: https://www.katsonga.com/wealthblog/how-do-i-save-into-a-pension-if-am-not-employed-or-self-employed Call me: https://clarity.fm/heather B School for Kids and other books: https://www.katsonga.com/mybooks.html Ask me a question: https://www.katsonga.com/coach.html Support the podcast: In $: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TheMoneySpot In £: https://www.patreon.com/TheMoneySpot Your way: https://www.paypal.me/katsonga Related post on my website: https://www.katsonga.com/wealthblog/how-can-i-borrow-more-and-house-hack-my-way-to-a-buy-to-let-property-portfolio

    21 min
  4. 18/07/2022

    #44 Pension SoS for women and the self-employed

    I always say that if you get nothing else right in your financial life, at least own where you live outright by the time you hit retirement and ideally much earlier. Well that’s not quite right, the other thing you need to make sure of, is that you qualify for the full UK state pension. Currently, when I am 68, for so long as I have 35 qualifying years, I will get £185/week in state pension until my dying day. That’s about £800/month or £9,620/year. This is not an insignificant amount and if you live with someone, i.e. your partner, a sibling or friend, it’s double that as you would each qualify separately. My calculations suggest that if you’re living on your own, that amount of state pension would at least cover all basic utilities (water, energy, council tax) and food. You can check how many qualifying years you have and whether you can boost them here: https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension If you’re self-employed, to qualify for the full state pension later on, make sure you’re signed up to pay Class 2 national insurance and if there are any gaps in your national insurance record, pay for them asap as you can only fill gaps going back 6 years: https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance/national-insurance-classes As the state pension is unlikely to be enough, it’s helpful to contribute towards a personal pension (aka a self-invested personal pension or SIPP) as pension contributions get tax relief such taht every £240/month contribution equates to £300/month into your pension pot. Based on a 7% gross growth rate of your pension pot (and keeping in mind the historic average return of the S&P 500 is 10%) • if you contribute £240 into your SIPP from age 20, you would have £1.6m at age 65. • if you contribute £240 into your SIPP from age 25, you would have £1.1m at age 65. • if you contribute £240 into your SIPP from age 30, you would have £790k at age 65. • if you contribute £240 into your SIPP from age 40, you would have £370k at age 65. • if you contribute £240 into your SIPP from age 50, you would have £155k at age 65. RESOURCES Call me: https://clarity.fm/heather B School for Kids and other books: https://www.katsonga.com/mybooks.html Ask me a question: https://www.katsonga.com/coach.html Support the podcast: In $: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TheMoneySpot In £: https://www.patreon.com/TheMoneySpot Your way: https://www.paypal.me/katsonga Related post on my website: https://www.katsonga.com/wealthblog/pension-sos-for-women-and-the-self-employed

    11 min
5
out of 5
20 Ratings

About

I’m Heather. A massive personal finance fanatic. I love to answer people's questions on getting rid of debt, saving, stock market investing, property and retirement. Subscribe to this podcast if you want to: earn more, save more, invest more and have fun! No episodes in April, August and December - #SchoolHolidays #MumPodcast

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