Podcast Badges and Final Questions

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Products and technologies from our global brands, Norton, Lifeelock, Avast, and Money Lion See it in action at genendigital. com You've gott to check the terms and conditions each time, but there are lots of people who do this and who make thousands of pounds. Hey Martin, it's Eddie Hall, the Wilstrongest man. It is actually cheaper even though you don't need it now if you would need it later for you to get it now. You don't ever want to be in a position where you need the money today and today is a bad day to take your money out Hello and welcome to the comingly named Martin Lewis podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. This is our Question Time episode where you our Esquires, extra savvy questioners get to ask me your questions on absolutely anything and everything open brackets within reason closed brackets This week, you ask me, shouldould I get life insurance earlier than I need because it's far cheaper when you're young. How do I keep my current bank account but still get bank switching bonuses? I work for the NHS if I go into the high rate tax band, will I have to submit a tax return? Should I stop investing when I'm five years from needing the money And finally, what are my consumer rights over getting aQuestion time Cs badatch? Play with thanu Hello and welcome to this Qestion timeim podcast. You know the one where you can ask me questions on anything and everything open brackets within reason closeed brackets and you often do it seat of the pants tim as I'm not sure one hundred percent what's going to be coming in and what we're going to be doing through the podcast. The person who is sure though, the person who knows exactly what's happening. The person sitting in the driving seat to this This week, PPS Icast producer Simon. How are you, Simon? I'm excellent. I'm delighted to be back. It's a sign of how good I do this job that you're allowing me, given that my name isn't Matt to produce you. True, Yes. I mean, so it is normally curator of questions himself, Matthew Burnham, but who has been skying for a number of weeks now and is going to regret it when less people address it to Dan Martin and Matt than they used to. It's his own fault The Detrichus is his programm. And then last week we had another map, not normal mat, anotherother mat. anotherother map did very well. though he did an Australian accent. Oh I mean, that did cashback stuff. Did you like that? stuff? I mean I'm probably laughing out loud. But just checking, I wasn't planning to do it. Do you have any accent? You see now unlike Matt Lansley, I'm not naive enough to ever be pushed into that sort of stuff from a presenter. So no, you won't be getting any of that from me. I thought he did it. he had He did He did it very well. He missed it last week Oh pooor Matt, who is in for his first we had actually been it one once a long time ago. never done questuestion timee been for his first question time. and as regulars will know, questestion time, anything can happen on questestion time. There are no rules here. We're not on the radio. We're podcast only, we can do what we like. I made him because we didn't have any callers. I decided he' had to pretend to be a caller, not literally pretend wen't have actually lied to our listeners, but he had to do it in an Australian accent. It was very funny. I mean, to be fair, if you do listen to it, there's no danger of anyone thinking, oh this is a real call from Australia. No, I don't think that we're in any danger at that time. There was no danger whatsoever. Although I did know, is near the start you started listening sort of Mattss at the VBC Yeah and he's completely ignored that my new boss is also called Matt And of course, Matt Britain, if you are, wantant to become an ASQ, you are entitled to send in an email question. Of course the director genereneral. Yeah Director, I'm not sure General could get a badge DG ESQ D So obviously you become an extra savvy question if you ask, but I just think within proprietary reasons, I think the DG coming on asking a question. I mean, I would say he's doing that in his job role so he doesn't get a badge. Well, there you go And then again, it's for me to decide, it's probably for him to decide. He's marking his own homework. I'm annoyed with him already. I'm not liking this scenario. It's not happening. I'm putting my foot down. Dy director General You're not welcome O this show, particularly obviously in the question time because it would break the wholeoly esc you thing. Shall we get on with it? Yeah, well and on that antagonistic note,ll move on to the questions. We've got a gentle one start with Joe has been in touch She is saying deear M andem Martin and Matt I love listening to the podcast. Thank you for all the good work you do. Sweet, sticking with the M and M I don't want to close my Lloyd's bank account as I enjoy the free cinema vouchers I receive as a reward However be happy to open a second spare account with your top switch suggestions I would like to enjoy the switch benefit by switching just a couple of direct debits. Is this possible or too greedy? I'd then obviously use the account to move to another bank every few months or so Thanks and the hopeful for anicipation, Carry Gards, Joe. Joe Everything you say is absolutely possible and is the textbook way for savvy money savers to do this. Now I stress that This is not your, I'm just going to go and do it. This takes a little bit of work and a little bit of planning, but if you're willing to do that, I'm willing to explain how you do it So this is effectively the concept of using a mule account, sometimes called a burner account in order to get bank switch bonuses So you have your main bank account that you're enjoying, you use it as your main one And then you get a second account which you're going to use as the burner Now bizarrely The first second account that you need to get You want to go and get the type of account that really doesn't have any perks and isn't going to offer any perks in future. So at bank accounts like Monzo and Starling, digital banks that are really easy to open And then once you've got that bank account The reason for doing that is to get the perch, you almost always need to use the new Bank seeven day switching service, which is where it closes the old account for you. It switches over your direct debits and standing orders automatically, and it auto forwards any payments made to your old account. So you want to have someome, you know not normally an incentive based account that you're going to start off with. And then once you've got that set up You then need to use that as your burner account to move in order to get the bonuses But there will be criteria, the most common are that you will need to be shifting across two direct debits, normally of at least two pounds a month So just take a couple of your lower direct debits that you have from your normal bank account, making sure you're still fulfilling the criteria Lloyd's and Put them into this account and make sure you've got money in order to be able to pay them, put them into that first Burner account. You will, in some banks, but not all, also have to fund the new bank. Now some might say you need to have five hundred pounds a month in, so that's just having your salary going in there Others will say you need to put a total of a thousand pounds in in the first thirty days. Well, that's all pretty easy. As long as you got the funds Lloyds, you can transfer it across from Lloyds. you can have the money going into there and that sh fulfill the criteria that you need in order to get the bonuses. Once you've got the bonus on your second second account, if you see what I mean, you've got your first second account and then it's your second second account will be the first one with an incentive. Once you've got the bonus, you've got that money, then you can move your second second account to be the third second account and you can go and do it all again. whileile all the time keeping your standard date to day with Lloyd. You can hear from the explanation You've got to check the terms and conditions each time, but there are lots of people who do this and who make thousands of pounds. I'm just looking because we always have Huh? A talks quite a lot, but doesn't talk in this podcast. herer who is spoken about but never speaks Rosie, who fact checks me through this. Rosie, I think you've done the odd sort of bank switch and got across for making profit with the ha it? Yes. So Rosie who is listening in here, who is casting her ever watchful eye over the entire podcast, She's giving a nod that this all works well. And actually many people in MSC Towers, my office is many of the team there decent money out of switching bank accounts and there are a lot of mules and a lot of burners going on in MSE towers Okay, we're going into question two and you've just heard the sting, but what you didn't hear during the sting is I accidentally referred podcast producer Simon as Matt. I've got so conditioned to Matt's being the producer of this podcast. E though Simon and I work together every week doing the Big Issues podcast that I've just called you Matt. You're not a matt, but do you fancy changing your name? It would make life easier Don't worry Adrian, we all got names wrong sometimes. I'm not big on it. All right. so following the format, Matt's format Simon It's got to be a call. But I am of course going to follow Producer Matt's schedule and have a caller. We arere all very scared ofroucer Matts schedu. We don't even know if he's listening while he's having these few weeks off, but we're all absolutely petrified. They'll come back with an iron fist. But we have Georgia in Manchester on the line Hello Georgia H okay? Good yes What can I do for you my question is I around life insurances and protections, Israeli and personal protections So I'm twenty five years old, cururrently privately rent with my partner. so we don't own a home But we've also got no debt or dependence either. and we don't expect this to change anyime soon. I always see adverts about taking out life insurance and how the earlier you take it out the cheaper it is I was wondering if I take it out now and in the future my situation changes, so I buy a house or have children? policy then become byred given I've got nothing to insure currently and I've got a healthy set of insurances through my employer. I just didn't know whether to take any out now and I didn't want to leave it until I'm much older and then it'd be much more expensive Wow, what a really, really interesting question. First of all, can I say Lovely to have someone aged twenty five on and to be thinking about your finances at this age, so well done you for that Okay Life insurance and protection is complicated. It depends what you're trying to protect for Now it is absolutely right that there are certain protections where you get it younger, it can save you money And the most obvious, we'll focus on one of those, the most obvious and the most simple form of life insurance, and there are lots of different forms of life insurance is what's called level term assurance Now It's interesting. you said you have nothing to enure. Well, we are literally, you do. We're insuring your life you know so you do have something to insure that. Now what level term insurance does is it says If you were to die within a set period you would get paid a fixed lump sum. you couldn't have it escalating sometimes with inflation, but let's st with a fixed lump sum in that period So for example, you might say I'm going to have a two hundred thousand pound level term insurance lasting for twenty one years So if I die within the next twenty one years A firm will pay out two hundred thousand pounds. If I die twenty one years in a day, I don't get a penny And the reason you would use level term insurance is you would use it too provide funds for your loved ones and your dependents if you were to die in the term The reason I mentioned twenty one years is people commonly will do it until their children leave full time education That's why it would be twenty one years. And this is about The fact that about one in thirty children will lose a parent before they're eighteen I was one of those one in thirty and when a parent goes Young, not only is there obvious horrendous emotional and grief consequences but there is also a potential lost income that can have knck and effects and compound all the problems So that would be one of the reasons for getting level term. Are you with me so far, Georgia? with you Okay So Where this gets interesting is it seems to me you're indicating certainly you've already got four times life cover through your firm, which is decent. You would normally want The normal rule, if you're getting level term is you want to cover roughly ten times the highest earner in a partnership's income And the reason we say hest doner in a partnership, even if it's not you that if your partner were hire, if something were to happen to you, Well, they may have to stop work in order to provide for the dependence, which is why it tends to work on that type of basis. But of course, all of this is ridiculously early So most people would say, all right, stop there. I mean, it's ridiculous. You don't need it right now. You don't have any dependence to protect. But now I'm going to do some numbers and Through the Magic of podcast, I will produce those in a couple of minutes I've got some quote details here Absolutely fascinating So Let's imagine we want to cover you with a level term policy of two hundred thousand pounds until the age of sixty five. Right If you were to get that now I'm assuming you're a non smoker and I've gone through the very cheapest way to get this. so these prices can vary. We're just seeing this as sort of an emblematic of what it can be you would pay a fixed price of five pounds seventy eight a month And you would get it for forty years because it needs to go until you're sixty five fiveive pound seventy eight a month for forty years is around two thousand eight hundred pounds is in total what you would pay. If you were to wait ten years to get the cover until you were thirty five You would then only need a thirty year policy And assuming you haven't had any health issues in the meantime That would cost you nine pounds fifty two a month. And the total cost would be three thousand four hundred pounds So it would actually be more expensive to cover thirty years at age thirty five than forty years at age twenty five If you were to do it at age forty five, so you had to wait twenty years and get the same two hundred thousand pounds for a twenty year non smoker costs you seventeen pounds and eleven Which means you would pay in total four thousand one hundred pounds. to do it once you were ageed forty five So now we can see that in basic terms, it is actually cheaper even though you don't need it now if you would need it later for you to get it now There is one final complexity here which is inflation and the value of money twowo hundred thousand pounds now might cover ten times your income, but you' know what inflation is Georgia prices rise But two hundred thousand pounds in forty years time will almost certainly be a lot less than two hundred thousand pounds now So the problem with this, that's when people say it's cheaper to get it younger. They're absolutely right if you're comparing on a current price level. But if you were to get insurance in ten years time and were to stay ten times the highestbt earner You might actually need more insurance to do it because you might suddenly have to be covering three hundred or four hundred thousand pounds And by the age of forty five, you might be covering five or six hundred thousand pounds. And so some of the reason is that the value of money in forty years is not as high as the value of money right now, and all of that has to be factored in Bings down to whether you do it or not, which is a really interesting question The first thing I'd ask is, do you have the cash available right now to do it if you wanted to definitely Re interesting L I'm sitting there thinking You We want to do ten times cover Right? That's what you want. and you've got four times cover three work on level term life insurance If you could get six times yournt current salary And you could do it for a few quid a month for forty years and you know there'll be health and the quotes will be different and all of that type of stuff And you need to go and there are some good guides out there on how to get cheap level term life insurance that you should be reading when you do it you may want to say How much am I prepared to pay right now? Maybe you say I'm prepared to pay three pounds a month because it's not very much cover for myself for the next forty years, which will then you know, hopefully if you do decide to have children and have dependents later, will give you some level of cover because we don't know what you need to cover we We don't know whether you'd have a mortgage you want to cover as well. We don't know any of that. But when you do get to the point that you need it, you've already got some in place very cheaply, that might be helpful But I'm not sure I'd go much further than that. I need to mull on it. What's your thinking? Yeah, I think that makes complete sense. I guess my worry was if I stay with my employer for long amount of time and maybe employment either short term or for good in, you know a couple of decades time then I'd be in a position where I'm now having to pay for my own life cover and maybe that the work life cover was never sufficient anyway for kind of what my needs might be in the future. So I think for of anything less than a ten or a month, it feels like a no brainer for me. like the cost of a couple of coffes to really just give myself that assurance that should I choose to move employers and I'm in between jobs and something happens or just becomes one of those admin jobs that you put off later in life and God forbid something happens before you end up covering yourself does feel like now while I've got there brain space to actually sit down and think about it and do it and they've got the disposable income. It feels like it's the right thing to do and that actually the workplace provisions are An added bonus if anything. So look many workplaces do give you sort of four times life cover, that's a pretty common thing to do. is a really it is a really tricky one. And onene of the things you said in your question, what if things change? Well, onene of the great joys of level term assurance, the reason I went for the simplest one, Unlike many terms, many policies like critical illness, what it iss a critical illness, it has to be a predefined term W level term life insurance being blu, you're either dead or you're You know and barring certain clauses where, you know, being honest people and I don't want to trigger anybody, but The exemptions and the debate or dispute would tend to come around if somebody took their own life Other than that, it's pretty clear cut Now if you were T years older and you had a couple of young children and you were calling me about level term insurance, I would be pretty strong saying for me, it's really important that you consider it. I hope it'll be a waste of money. I hope it will never pay out. And the same is true with you, Georgia. I hope you know that you're still going strong at sixty five and therefore all this money has gone away But simply because of the maths that you can get a policy very cheaply because you're starting at twenty five, even though it isn't inflation proof the term you're getting , I'm not sure you necessarily want to put a tenor away. Remember, the problem with level term insurance is if you stop paying, it goes. So youre paid for twenty years, you really the most important time is the last twenty years of the forty years. If you stop after twenty years, then it's all gone So you're committing yourself to life. So you might just want at this point because you don't really need it. It's sort of a soft toe dip in the water of a few quid a month I think is probably absolutely fine to do, but it's not necessary to do That sounds really sensiveal. Really interesting thought questions It's a really interesting thought question. I would be interested to know from other listeners Have you done this? Did anyone out there get level termal similar insurance before they needed it in order to take advantage of the fact that you were really young when you started it Bed lovely to know. Georgia, thank you so much. Hold hold on, hold hold on before we go, Georgia Do you know about the badges I've heard about the badges and I've heard that they may or may not be quite ready yet and I was wondering about the validity of the badges and whether they were just characterically dangled or whether they will come to real life. You have actually accused me there of potentially getting callers by deception. The Badges. I think you're accusing producce them out of getting callers by deception. ye, I have to take responsibility. My name's above the door, signon My name's above the door. The badges are real, but produce a mat whose idea the badges were Dides he's going to go and take this long period off work just after we've promised everybody the badges and he is the one responsible for producing the badges. You will get a badge I just can't say when Well, so I can will happen I can reveal So it's been very rare Jeorge. it's just a sort of peculiarity of it that me, Martin, and Matt have worked the same week in the last month But me and Matt were both in together on the same day recently and I overheard him talking to editor Tom I think badgies are are getting closed. on the way. Badges are on the way, everybody. Badges are on the way You heard it here first. Not sure where else you'd hear it, so it's pretty obvious, but you heard it here first. Georgia, thank you so much, your badge. Now according to Simon we' be com Thank you both so much. B cheers. Just a reminder to everyone, the rules are this. You're allowed to refer to yourself officially legally within the canon of this podcast, not outside the wider canon of this podcast as an esquire, and an extra savvy questioner, if your question or comment is read out in the questQuestion timeime podcast. You only get a badge if you come on as a caller or you do a voice note. There is a hierarchy here. You only get the asquired badge if you're actually vocally on air. This isn't Bhemia, you know. This is a tight sh And if you want to be one of those lucky callers, you can of course email as your questions Martin Lewis podcast at bbc. co. u Oh so that was a really interesting question from Georgia there. Nice to have a younger voice on the podcast. If any of you are listening and you are younger too and you got a question, we'd love to have you on this is a podcast for the ages of all ages. I think I have overgrandised it a little bit there. So Simon, got to be a read next. Who's our next ESQ Yes, it is. and we've got a question in from Emily. She says, Dear Rosie, Matt and Martin, I won't say that personally, Emily. I let things slide. It's been a day. I just think it's I'm starting to note Rosie coming first now On occasion You know, and there was a big debate between myself and Matt and the fight will continue once he comes back about who goes first. I don't think any of us has foreseen Rosie going first I don't know how I feel about it. The silent asssassina podcast? Yeah Yeah. She's over there. She's got this sort of She's got a Mona Liser smile on at the moment. try It's really difficult to read how she feels about it. Now she's laughing and looking down in a slightly co and a little bit nervous way. But she knows she's not allowed to speak because that would ruin the shick that Rosie never speaks. So I can't actually ask you how you feel about it, Rosie. She she subtly think she's So okay, read it out. let's go So well she also follows up with big shout out to Rosie and for everyone who works behind the scenes everywhere. Here here couldn't do the podcast without and Rosie does brilliant work Emmily has recently made it to the top of band six in the NHS Agenda for Change pay scale which has made her very happy but feeling quite old. I bet she's really young. G on. Her annual salary is now forty eight thousand one hundred seventeen pounds. So still comes in the basic tax rate payer bracket But she also does quite a lot of bank work. The bank work is variable. Some months earning additional two hundred to four hundred pounds a month and others earning non. Now I think in this context, I think it's probably worth pointing now the bank work in the NHS, it's a bit like overime in slightly separate departments, I think is how you would phrase it. So she's talking about other NHS work, not working in a bank. It's also not guaranteed over the year and only ad hoc due to service needs, but the bank workk, combined with any interest from savings not in an ICA Kling film wrapper, might just tip me into the higher tax rate. Now can I just say I love the little Easter egg in there of the Kling film wrapper? What Emily's doing there, she's already referenced Rosie. Now she's referenced Kling film wrapper and I talk about that as my explanation of ICS Emily is suddenly telling us I've asked this question and I am a regular listener, therefore I need some respect. Respect given, Emily, respect given. carry on My question is how does this work if I do tip over Is it like a big pot where the government keeps track of how much income goes into the pot from the fifth of April each year? and when the pot is full and up to fifty thousand two hundred seventy pounds, anything else added into that pot goes through a forty percent tax sieve. Sorry, I'm really rubby when it comes to money and tax and things so analogies help I think you're smashing it Emily. Yeahah ye I'm thirty this year. Tld you she was young. told you she was young. I would refuse to read the question if I'd known' referring to thirty years old. Okay thirty this year so please don't tell my parents, or do I have to do a tax return at the end of the year to add up if I owe any extra or will it be added to some pay slips and not others In my whole life, I never thought I wouldd have to think about this as a higher tax rate, has always been a million miles away and other people's problems Thank you for all you do for people like me who weren't born for the complexities and nuances of the financial and economic world. All the best, Emily Oh well, Emily, thank you so much for saying that. Now the most important thing here to say, Emily is that it's great that you're asking this question It's far better to understand how it works than not So there's a few different concepts we need to get in here. I mean, the big question, it seems you're asking me is, do I need to do anything My hope is not My hope is as you pay tax through payers you earn PAY E, it should all be done for you If you're doing bank work, I would think that would be PAYE, just like your normal work is PAYE, but it may well have a different tax code, a second job tax code so that you have to pay twenty percent As long as the tax codes are right, You should be paying the right amount of tax. And actually the people to talk to about this are the payroll department in your work. And as you work for the NHS, that should be relatively simple to do. They will have big payrolls just to check that everything's going right I am, I have to say, delighted that we're having to talk to you about you paying higher tax because it means you're earning more. And you work for the NHS and I'm sure you're doing wonderful work and helping many people. So thank you very much for that I mean, the one negative here, of course is the reason more and more people are being dragged into the higher rate tax threshold is because of what's called fiscal drag And that's where even though earnings are rising And prices are rising because of inflation tax thresholds are frozen, which means each year more and more people will pay more tax than they would have done otherwise because the tax thresholds aren't rising, and that's drawing more people into it Now the one big thing that we do need to be careful of and everyone who is an employee needs to be careful of is is your tax code correct? Or in your case, are your tax codes correct You'll get a tax code. It'll normally be four numbers at a letter. So the standard one is one, two, five, seven L What that means is add a zero to the number. So one two fifty seven becomes twelve thousand five hundred and seventy and that is telling you what your tax free personal allowance is, the amount you can earn before tax So if it was one, two, five, seven L, it would be that. It can change and vary depending on what employment perks that you get. The L number the letter rather is far more complicated. L is the simple one But there are tax code calculators online that can decipher your tax code for you and then hopefully help you work out whether you're roughly in the right tax code or not. And that is worth checking, especially if you've got a second job. That's where the mistakes can happen. So do Go make a friend in the payroll department and talk to them about it so they can work it out for you If everything is working right and you're on PAYE, your tax should automatically be taken at the right rate. and if you slip into the higher tax band, then it'll be forty percent taken of everything above that. It's of course important for me to say. I'm sure you know this, most people know this, but not everyone in the UK on income tax is marginal So that means you only pay the higher rate on the amount above the threshold to be really practical. If the threshold's fifty thousand two hundred and seventy quid and you earn fifty thousand three hundred quid You only pay the forty percent on the thirty quid above, not on the rest below. that stays at the other rates If you are going to be going into the high rate tax threshold? Well There are a couple of things that might be advantageous to you You could increase your pension by that amount because you get that forty percent tax release as you're paying higher tax You actually because pensions come from pre tax income, you'll get forty percent tax relief on it. So you might want to increase your pension contribution because it means that instead of it costing you eighty p per pound you get in your pension, it costs you sixty p per pound you get in your pension. Now the reason you may not want to be a higher rate taxpayer apart from the paying more tax It is crucially because if you become a high rate taxpayer, your personal savings allowance drops. There's a cliff edge here. You earn one penny into the high rate tax pand. and instead of being able to earn a thousand pounds of interest a year tax free, you're now only able to earn five hundred pounds of interest a year tax free in all forms of savings cash iceer and stress doesn't count to this. So you actually lose quite a nice chunk of your ability to earn interest tax free. Now, if you're not earning interest on savings, it doesn't really make much difference to you at the moment anyway, but it might do in future. But certainly, if you're only dripping a tiny bit into the high rate tax threshold, then you could utilize increasing your pension contributions, for example to reduce your salary so that you're no longer a higher rate taxpayer, and that would mean you would keep the one thousand pounds a year of interest that you can get tax free from savings. So there are lots of things to think about. ICOC. I mean if the system works right, it should all be fine for you. is the basic summary. There is always a chance when you go to the higher rate tax threshold that the revenue send you a self assessment form The rule is pretty simple. If they tell you need to fill in the self assessment form, you need to fill in the self assessment form. The rest of your affairs seem pretty simple, so hopefully won't happen. But if it does happen, shrug your shoulders swear a bit and get on with it I think it's probably where Ill end Are you sitting there thinking Oh, I know what I wanted to ask him? Well, this is your opportunity. If you've got a question, then just send them in to Martin Lewis podcast at bbc. co. uk and please do start them Dear Martin? No, dear Mat Dear Martin them. O Simon Maby Simon So next up, we've got another caller and we are continuing our efforts to get around the country on this week's pod So we have John I Paisley, who is on the line. lovely coming from Scotland. Hello John. How are you? Hello Martin, how are you today? I'm good thank you very much. lovely to hear from you What is your question? So my question and I know you covered this topic recently, Martin, but it was just to clarify a point that I was thinking about that was whatking answered for myself It's a question on investing and I've very recently started been wasting fifty pounds a month then Money Bookx stocks and shares ISA. I'm I allowed to say that? Yeah, that's fine. It's true. Yeah. And I'm just doing a fifty pound pD transfer to a money stocks and shares ISA My questation is Money boox is one of those, it's a bit sort of robo investing or you pick your level of risk and it does it for you. so you're not making the investment decisions yourself How risky get you go? So C because this is money that I'm just dabbling with Martin and I don't really need the money say kind of dipping my toe in the water. I've gone for the adventurous They're kind of adventurous portfolio, which I can't remember the three things. I know that one of them is Fidelity Global shhares and I can't remember what the other two are It means if it's adventurous, it'll be a share based and equity based type portfolio that's giving you a broad spread and access to markets and that you're hoping know everybody knows my investment rule. If it's money that you don't need and you're putting it away for more than five years, savings is the poor relation to investing, so you should consider investing And it's great that you're dabbling your dble dabbling your toe. I don't think can dabble your toe dipping your toe in the water Yes. so where are we? So just on that point, Martin, just to kind of reassure you I pay money into savings as well and I've also got a workplace pension I've been being into for twenty one years as well. So So back to the question. The question was I was planning on accessing this money when I'm sixty and I'm forty seven at the moment Now I've heard you say in the past that any money that you invest, you should be prepared to put it away for five years In that cy Should I stop investing into that account when I'm fifty five to allow that money more time to grow Or is it okay to pay into an investment account like this? up until the time that you want to access the funds. A really interesting question Let me just sort of decode why I say what I say and then we can use how we apply it to your circumstances The reason for saying years is because markets move up and down, that's literally the point of them, they're volatile You know, they will go up, they will go down, they will go up, they'll go down. What you're more interested in over five years is the long term trend rather than it was higher two weeks ago than it is right now. because that is just the nature of how markets move And you might find there's a time where they dip quite substantially or they drop substantially and then everybody goes, oh no I'veost fortune. Well,'ve only lost a forune if you sell at that point, if it's just a fluctuation in the market, it may well come back and we've seen that recently. The reason we talk about a long period is to ride out the short term And also what you don't want is you don't ever want to be in a position where you need the money today and today is a bad day to take your money out Right. That's the philosophy. Now, it sounds to me first of all You've said to me this is money you don't need Great. ye. So you taking it out at the age of sixty, I'm guessing is a soft sixty, not a hard sixty. Is that That's an arbitary length of time, ye. Exactly. That would coincide with my planned retireal date and you're maybe wanting to you know go on a nice holiday or do something that you wouldn't normally do when you retire. So it is a soft year. ye Well, in that case You know First of all, you might not use the money I say five years, which is relatively conservative. There are many investment specialists who would say three years and it's just worth you being aware of that The reason I go for five years is because My audience is generally beginners investors. And so I go for a more cautious approach. People who have a bit more experience, they tend to be thinking three years, they can see the patterns and ride it out and know what they're doing a little bit more on that basis Now it's also worth noting you've gone for an adventurous portfolio If you're going to want to access this money and it isn't crucial to you, you could shift to a less adventurous portfolio once you're getting closer to that sixty you could start to go to a cautious portfolio, which will probably be more in bonds than in shares and giving you less growth, but hopefully less risk of losing the money, which is what we're talking about. All of those, I think I don't think there is any blanket moratorium on you continuing to invest nearr the age of sixty. I mean and certainly The age of sixty itself is not relevant. You're still relatively young It is about the fact that you're going to want to take the money out. You're not going to want to cash in at that point, which is what makes it relevant that you being sixty So I mean, you could certainly, especially if you're going more cautiously and you're only talking about money that you're dabbling with, you could push it up to fifty seven fifty eight or if you might also think, and this is worth thinking about, you might also think, well, I've still got the money. I'm going to want to take sun out when I'm sixty, but I might not take it all that when I'm sixty. I'm to keep putting some more in at that point for it to grow and me to use later and to keep the pot growing see it is a soft guidance concept rather than a hard rule Does that make sense? Yeah, that makes perfect sense Simon. And what you said about moving the money to a less risky portfolio, a less adventurous portfolio Would that move all the money that was in that fund or would it just move subsequent additions to that fund that you make from when you move it? That would be your choice right here.ight You would be able to easily you I think right now you're able, I would presume, you can say what percentage of your fund you want in each level of portfolio. Yeah. So you would be able and you know, and we're talking functionality on all of these things will be far more in another five, six, seven, eight years with AI. I think you'll have a lot more flexibility. Therefore the choice is, you could decide again, in your head, I'm taking all this out in three years And you've got a nice pot in there that hopefully, and of course there are no guarantees with investing, hopefully has grown very well and done you very well. And you might be sitting there going, you know what? I'm happy with what I've got. I don't want it to go down anymore. I'm going to get much more cautious at this point just in case so that something doesn't happen in the next few years before I retire that you know gets rid of my nice dreams of going and having a wonderful thing have tail my spending on the back of it. That's a perfectly reasonable thing to do when you're getting into the period before withdrawal to decide I want to be more cautious All of it is fine. There are no hard rules here I think it's also worth me saying I think if I'm talking to John Aed fifty five who has been doing this for eight years I think you will and I know you've only just started. I think you will be a lot more educated about the situation then and sort of more confident in making your own decisions at that point, which is why it's great that you've started You know, you're doing this dabbling. someome of this is learning money. You should perceive it as learning money. if that makes sense. There's so much. I mean, even the platforms that you use for basing on they usually go are a little segment or a tab that you click on and it's kind of layn and it's got various articles on investing and for you to look at and kind of educate yourself about it. You know, one of the learnings will be at some point between now and when you're fifty five I'm pretty sure there will be a day or two where the markets really go down hard. Right? And you'll and then you'll go, oh, sugar Right? Or was this all the right thing to? And that's going to happen because that's what investing is about You know, and it is about that there is a roller coaster, but we hope When it comes to the investing roller coaster, unlike a physical roller coaster, the aim is that eventually you get off at a higher point than you started on, but there might have been a lot of ups and downs on the way All right, that's lovely, John Thank you so foring. have helped.. Thankks a lot. that was getting a lot to think about, but what you've said makes perfect sense and delighted to be on the show. alwayss lovely to have you Oers coming as well. The biggest profit of the investing. I mean, who cares if the money goes up ten twenty grand. Get a badge. I mean, that's what counts. The badge of won is worth. And My genius often gets overlooked on this podcast, John. There was a lovely moment when you were giving your answers And you referred to me as the expert instead of Martin I heard that too, but I decided not to correct No it on you, John. Yeah, let's keep that in can sh You can be on after you eat, John. We'll keep that in. And what will happen, I tell you the little is lots of people will have spotted that and they'll be going just said he just said Simon, I Mart it and'll they'll spot that. and then they'll get to the end and go, o they noticed as well. So I'll be very. Thanks, John. It was lovely buddy me listen, thanks a it. My pleasure, mate Right, Simon. so it is that point of the podcast where people get to ask me, well we call it a funny, but I'm going to say it's an a scance question, a different question and not holding onto the normal railway tracks of what we do in the podcast question. And by the way, if you have one of these, you've got a question for me, whether it's on the normal money saving stuff or you want to go a little bit we and a little bit woo and a little bit woo then just get in touch with Martin Lewis podcast atBb. co. U. So having done a buildup, I presume you have something Yes, other producers would have this as a read, but we're going to have it as a voice note instead. So subtext, everybody listening Matt normally does a caller and a voice note or two callers in a program. Simon is going here going, I've got two callers and a voice note. There's a little bit of producer topop Trump going on Well, Jeremy has got in touch and he knows his rights. Dear Martin, and Simon. I wonder if I can ask for your advice on something I'd like to ask if I've got a claim via Section seventy five You see, I'm a previous caller to the podcast back in december, twenty twenty five when I told you my success in saving money by ditching O two and moving mobile contracts I was wondering though, In light of the recent announcements about titles and badges, if I have a claim to a badge via this route at all I am willing to try charge backack too, if you think this would work I've also sought out the ombudsman for this sort of thing. But my searches have come a bit short Thank you for providing such a superb niche, nerdy corner for all things financial and the opportunities is to hear how podcasts are constructed I realizeed there wasn't any actual financial transaction here, and I'm simply trying my luck. But thank you Oh, I like that, Jeremy. Now this is actually fascinating. because you've heard of a self fulfilling prophecy. That is a self fulfilling complaint You see can say very strictly that because he was on the show before we introduced badges callers and voice notes absolutely is not entitled to a badge We are not doing this retrospectively There is no section seventy five because there's no credit card involved and there's no charge back because there was no plastic involved. And the financial ombudsman does not regulate podcasts you would have to go to OcomM, but I'm telling you I don't think there would be an offcOom complaint Having said that though, The fact that your voice note complaint has been read out Your voice has therefore been on the pod subsequent. to us putting in the rule that all corners and voice notes get a badge and therefore Plaint qualifies you for a badge due to your complaint about not getting a badge for your first call So the net result is you do get a badge Congratulations, well done when the badges are finally made, you will be on the list So welld done Jeremy for that. I did enjoy that. And Simon, that puts a little bit of just emphasis on you because you're now as your PPS You have to do the very final and finally on the show, the PPS Do you have one? I've got one. Please stay listening. Let's be honest, are you probably We're just indulging ourselves now. We're at the end of the questQuestion Time podcast, We've done the meet, you've had your questions answered, this is for us. We'd love you to stay here and join with us, but if you want to leave right now you can But it's Simon's PPS. What's your PPS PPS So last time I was on with you, my PPS was a question from England fast bowler Mark Wood. Yeah We've now got a question from the world's strongest man, Eddie Hall Hey Martin, it's Eddie Hall, the Will strrongest man Why is the heaviest thing you have ever lifted in your life The weight of a nation'sness is on my shoulders Sorry, I couldn't resist Does feel like that sometimes. Oh, that's good. What a deep voice, I feel. I can't do the deep voice. The heaviest thing I've ever lifted Well, that I know the weight of it was I set myself a bench press challenge to get to a one hundred kilogram single bench press And I did it, it was about a year and a half ago and I got to one hundred kilogram single bench press, which I'm very, very happy with. People who listen a lot oneough, I've been on the press upp challenge this year to do twenty five thousand press upps in a year. But I'm afraid I've actually had to recently cancel that because I've done my shouldering. So I'm going to stick with my past glory of my hundred kilogram bench press, which I don't think was that bad for a man in his fifties. Have I lifted anything else really heavy I can't think. Oh, and Eddie, thank you so for the question. I love that Loved it. What about you, Simon You know, you lift my spirits every week. A, you sweet I'm gonna stop, let's just stop. Stop. Podcust is over. That's it for this week. Don't forget to subscribe so you know when we release a new episode. We put out question time each Monday alongside the big topic podcast with Adrian on Thursdays. Aren't you lucky? Two doses of money saving tips and tricks a week. Do make sure you send in your questions to Martin Lewis podcast