Simon's Career History and Outro

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Products and technologies from our global brands, Norton, Lifeelock, Avast and Money Lion See it in action at genendigital. com I should just give a couple of quick tips I'm haggling. It seems a good move for me as long as the rate is very close to being the best buy. Locking money away so that they don't have access to it is very much more where I would stand. If this is a new and a different way for you to be, don't feel you have to go the whole way at the start. And now from the ridiculous to the ridiculous Hello and welcome to the comomingly named The Martin Lewis podcast. I do wonder what that's gonna be about. And this is our Question T time episode, where you are ESQ's extra savvy questioners get to ask me your questions on absolutely anything and everything open brackets within Reason. And if you come on a caller, you even get a badge. This week, you asked me Should I pay off my student loan with a zero percent credit card? Is the Octopus energy tracker still a good idea Is it time to move my kids junior cash icer into a junior shares icer Then we have a success. One caller tells us how we saved five hundred quid on his breakdown cover. All that and far more. Play the theme tune. Hello and welcome to our Question timeime podcast where you get to ask me anything and everything open brackets within reason closeed brackets. and joining me In charge of today's questions is of course, podcast producer Simon PPS, How you doing I am excellent. I'm fizzing with excitement. We're recording this the day that the Football World Cup starts. I love the World Cup. I love major tournaments. After this, I'm editing the podcast. I'm going home. My wife's cooking Mexican food because Mexico are playing tonight. It's a very exciting time Is she going to be cooking a different cuisine for every match each evening Can she keep that up? she's an excellent? What do the coo in Curacao? does she know? How's she gonna do that? Look, Challenge accepted.opefull I'll report back what Blinda has made over the next. May Maybe Simon, you could make the Curacao food. Well, but that would be a disappointment for my entire family. She's a far superior cook to me Yeah, well I know you're very, very sporty so the Wor Cup. I mean you do commentating, don't you shall we let people in secret You do a bit of commentating, don't you on the side? Oh, There there is no beginning to sm my talents. It's not just podcasting that struggle Yeah. Now do some football commentating. I'm doing some cricket producing over the next month. love Yeah yeah. there's a Wen's T twenty World Cup happening in England at the moment. It's all very exciting. Sam and N I say in the background we're offering messaging, especially about the cricket Be I don't have that many friends who were into the cricket. So I'm often messaging Simon and saying, didid you see that? we had it because we were in Pod last week against New Zealand when it was England New Zealand. So anyway, enough of all of that type of stuff. I hope you've got a PPS for me at the end of the show. This is probably your last one for a while, isn't it? 'use Mat's back next week. Yeah, I've loved my little run of doing it, but yeah, we're we're back to the normal routine, I think I shall be seeing you on the Big Issues podcast. Right Let's start the show. What's your first question Well actually we got a first question that's really interesting in from Tom in Sheffield. He wants to know about paying off his student loan Hi, Martin and Matt I'm on track to pay off my student loan in full before the term ends. I started university in two thousand seven Given the interest currently being added to the balance, would taking out a zero percent credit card to pay off now and then repay the card monthly be possible? Thanks for all the advice and help over the years you have given everyone, Tom from Sheffield What an interesting question What I need to state and this is really important at the start I am going to answer this question for Tom's very specific circumstance So he's on a plan one loan. Most of you listening will not be on a plan one loan, which has a different interest rate to plan two and has different repayment thresholds to plan five. and most importantly, Tom we know is going to clear his loan, which changes the entire logic And not only is Tom going to clear his loan, but by the way he's written it, I'm assuming he's going to clear it within the next year or two, so there isn't much left Otherwise, we'd have to talk about the risk that he might lose his job, have a lower salary, and therefore not going to be paying it. I'm going to ignore that for this. M people especially on planlan two and Plan five will not clear their loan in full before it wipes, which is an entirely different way of thinking and an entirely different way of behaving. So don't that this applies to you if you're in those circumstances. So on a base level, I have to first assume that Tom does not have any other debts that are more expensive than his student loan Plan one student loan is set at the rate of inflation, so for this year is at three point two percent So if you had any other debts like a mortgage or a credit card or a loan that were more expensive than three point two percent you would be better off thinking about clearing those ahead of clearing your own student loans The second thing I would say is when you're within two years from clearing your student loan, You can have it so that you no longer pay it via the payroll pay it off via direct debit, which makes things easier because if you pay it via the payroll, it's coming note out like tax thenen what often happens is you keep paying it off once you've cleared it and then you have to get that money back So it's important to move it in that way So let's get into the specifics The first point is cannot pay the student loan company with a credit card Now the student loan company says it wouldn't be responsible for them to allow a customer to pay off a debt by taking on another debt. And I think for broad people, and especially those who aren't financially savvy, that's absolutely right. But for those who want to tactically play the system, it may not be right If you have no other debt And you can get a zero percent card. then using that off your student loan at three point two percent would give you a marginal saving well be worth doing. So How would I do it? Well, when we want a credit card at zero percent that doesn't have a fee So the money transfer card that I could have looked at, which is where it paid the money into your bank account, it wouldn't be worth doing because their cheapest has a four percent fee So what you would actually have to do in this case, is get yourself a zero percent for spending credit card That's one where you can spend on it, effectively borrow on it at zero percent for up to twenty six months and you'd go v an eligibility calculator to check which you could get. You would then use that zero percent for spending card for all your normal spending A that way the money would build up in your bank account. I'm assuming you're not overdrawn as well And therefore you'd be able to use the extra money in your bank account to clear the student loan. So what you're effectively doing is you're shifting money onto the zero percent credit card, shifting debt onto it to give you money in your bank account and use the money in your bank account to clear off the student loan If you were to do that in your particular circumstance that you're definitely going to be clearing this soon then it would save you money However Having done all that in theory I want to throw a wobler in here cururrent interest rate is three point two percent. you can earn four and a half percent. in easy access savings at the moment So if you really were going to start to play the system you would actually be better build up the false zero percent debt put that money in a high interest savings account assuming that you don't pay tax on your savings. so you're within the You can earn a thousand pounds of interest a year or using your cash ice or allowance And to actually earn four point five percent or four point seven percent in the top easy access cash IA on that money and just let the debt roll on at three point two percent because the difference between the two is about one point five percent. So you would be one point five percent up. If we're going go super nerdy if I'm putting my full geek glasses and teeth in off for this one then the absolute best result if you were going to play the system doing that would be to sts. G look up stooing. We've talked about it in the podcast before. Podcast producer Simon now, once he's editing this is going to tell you which podcast that was and when you can listen to it. Yeah, so that pod was called What's the bestest way to stoos and it was uploaded on the eleventh of may twenty twenty six You' be able to find it on BC Sounds or wherever you found this podcast So Martin Thank you for that, Simon whatever you just said and you would probably be better off to stoo. So yes is the answer, but lots of ifs and buts. But most people Be careful moving your student loan debt to a commercial debt, even if the interest rate is cheaper with the commercial debt The student loan does have some preferable terms, such as the fact if you lost your job and you couldn't repay it, you no longer have to repay your student loan because it's based on an income contingent system, i. you only repay it above a threshold. Hopefully, I've danced around all the different issues in there and given you enough to think about. When you were saying you've got no debt Would you countter mortgag as a deb Well, it depends on your mortgage rate If you have a mortgage rate that's at a higher interest rate than your student loan currently is which is three point two percent. then You would probably want to consider overpaying the mortgage as a priority to overpaying the student loan debt. presuming you could overpay the mortgage without overpayment penalties. It's a whole other subject there, Simon. know we can do another six minutes on overpaying your mortgage and when it's right, when it's wrong and how to best utilize it. But hopefully by my suspicion is, I've given a relatively sophisticated answer there to Tom because it was a relatively sophisticated question. I have to be mindful that listening to this podcast is all types of different levels of financial sophistication If that's all a bit confusing for you It's not for you I'm just going to add in an extra thought on this Because I know I suspect quite a lot of people are going to listen to the podcast to hear whether they should pay off their student loan in the zero percent credit card The most important thing here is that equation of whether you are likely to clear your student loan before it wipes. plan one loans that Tom had peopleeople borrowed less and it has a lower interest rate. peopleeople who took Plan one loans are far more likely to clear it before it wipes than the most common type of student loan which is plan two loans, For those who started university between twenty twelve and twenty twenty three in England and Wales plan two loans The repayment threshold is higher So you start repaying at around twenty nine thousand pounds. You repay nine percent of everything you earn above it And you repay for thirty years interest rate is between the RPI rate of inflation, so three point two percent for this year two RPI plus three percent, which is six point two percent when you combine the two So the amount of interest being added is larger Now while that might make you think you really want to use it to clear the loan, actually does for many people is mean they won't clear the loan in full within the thirty years before it wipes. If you're not going to clear the loan in full in the thirty years before it wipes Paying off an extra one thousand or two thousand pounds by putting that debt on a zero percent credit card actually result in no saving in what you have to pay on the student loan Because the student loan, the amount you pay is dictated primarily by what you earn, not by what you owe. What you owe is only an indicating factor in whether you'll clear it or not within the thirty years So the real reason I'm doing this is for those people who won't clear within thirty years There is a risk that you would get a zero percent credit card out pay off some of your student loan debt paying off some of your student loan debt wouldn't actually reduce what you have to pay on the student loan in the thirty years before it wipes, but would have built you up a one or two thousand pound debt on a credit card totally unnecessarily I'm not going to go into great detail on it, but I think it's a really interesting point and I didn't want anyone to go away listening to my answer to Tom, thinking, oh, I might do that when your circumstances are very different Now Simon. The format says you need to have a caller or at least a voice message now. Do you have a caller? and do you know their question I'm here to make you happy. I think you're going to enjoy it Okay we're joined by Louis in Redim Hello, Louis, what a great name. Love it. It's Double weathering is podast. The name's not Lewis Martin, is it? That would be even better. Well to be fair at the end, I'll reveal I also think you're a good egg, Lewis Okay. what are you on for, Louis? What can I do for you? So I wanted to share a success that I had for following your guidance So I received my REC brereakdown renewal letter just recently and I noticed that the premium had gone up by about eighteen percent up to sixty two pound forty one my wife at I policy. and I ized that's quite a lot and I don't remember using them even in the last year So I had a look and I noticed I'd been a member since two thousand eight And the price has just crept up over that time. and I just taken my eyes off it completely. obbviously it's just auto renewed. So when' it started out? you remember what it started out and what is it now again So it increased from last year was in the fifties, but back in two thousand eight, I had a look back as far as my records could go and earliest I could see it was under twenty round about twenty pound. ' gone up like a lot over the years And I remember hearing from you, know about to sprinkling your finances, do comparisons and loyalty not paying. And so I did an online quote with the main competitor, of course, y, and also as a new customer for the RHC. And then armed with that went and rang them up and they offered me a fifty percent discount to the renewal on the spot Which was quite a lot, but they actually was still double what it would be for a new customer, which the call handler had to agree with And so that's what we did. We cancellled the renewal. I signed up as a new customer for fifteen pound eighty five p for a month for both my wife and I. And actually extra benefits, like unlimited callouts and car hire and this kind of thing. So yeah, it was a lot cheaper. quter of the price And five hundred and fifty nine pounds saved for the year. So really good So can I be honest I was going in the beginning of that and thinking how incredibly cheap you had got the cover Because you didn't mention it was a monthly thingig R And when you were saying sixty two quQid and I'm thinking sixty twoQid, well the cheapest full service company out there that gives you everything is about sixty id a year. So you can get it. I realize now, wow, that is a big successor. What's that? It's a saving from initially, what about five hundred fifty quid or something? a year. Yes Okay, all right, all right. So look This is really important. The number one call centre sector to haggle with in the UK is breakdown recovery specifically the AA and the RAC If you are at renewal, you should never just accept their renewal price. You should always see how you can get the reduction. This is such a wonderful case study. Thank you so much, Limis, because you've done two things you've won prove that you can haggle and you've got a fifty percent reduction, which in its own right would be a good saving. But two You've also proved that if the saving isn't big enough, as I always say, if your haggle result isn't big enough We should never get angry They have a right to set a price and charge us what we want. You never get angry with the person on the phone and you sound like a lovely chap. I'm sure you didn't But equally, you do always have a right to take your custom elsewhere, which is exactly what you've done You've gone somewhere else because it was cheaper and you've got the best price for you. Wonderful, well done. you very much And yeah, big say, five hundred and fifty quidd a year shows you the power of a haggle and even more the power of being a new customer. Wellld shouldn't work like that, but it does. Brilliant. And a double success for you, Lers because I saw in your email you referred to yourself as ESQ in Waiting, which is now an official title for you You can take off the in waiting. and There will be a badge coming There are rumors, I don't w want to oregg this But there are rumors Pduction is happening on the badges So I think the b exciting. The badge may be coming. I am still waiting to see the final design. Professor Sir Dror Matthew Burnham Esquire of this parish will be back as curator of Qions nexte week is that right, Simon? Yeah, ye, so the he's been off because he's gone on a world tour of bad production sites. yeah. But I think he's back and I'm hoping On his first return, he will be formally announcing that he has the badges in his hand But I should say I should say about Lewis. So I had to sort of search his email address in the Martin Lewis inbox to find this email You voted for NPC, didn't you? Because you're a good guy. did actually, I must say thequire name has grown on me now, but yeah, originally I did vote for the other one, you're right? Yeah. And you know that the other one, the reason this is happening a glad came up with the other one. is that to be fair, the first idea for having a name for our callers and our contributors was podcast producer Signons And he suggested MPC Martin's what was it Martin Martin's podcast contontributor, whichich makes sense and he iss also obviously the monetary pololicy commommittee of the Bank of England. So it had a good double meaning. Now then we had a bit of internesign prodroucer warfare going on between podcast producer Simon and podcast producer Matt And obviously, Simon is generally the king of the big issues podcast, whereas Matt is the King of the Question timeim podcast And Matt really didn't want Simon's suggestion to win. I'm sure they're very fond of each other really, but when it comes to the canon of the podcast, they are fierced rivals. And so yeah, you will be very happy you got a voting there aren't you Matt? Dt you've just called you backat. I'm is Simon. Yeah, yeah, no, good on you, Luis. and to be fair I'm just delighted I'm delighted that ultimately we went with the giving people a titled idea Lewish, you can call yourself an ESQ for the rest of your life. You are. You can officially in anything that's referring within the canon of this podcast, call yourself an ESQ and put those letters after your name. Love it. I'm very proud of that. Thank you very much. Thank you for calling and thank you so much for sharing your great success. It was lovely to. Thank you I to speak to you I suppose Son what I should do now is I should just give a couple of quick ticks on'm haggling I'm going to do this. actuallyctually we're going to be doing it on the Big issues podcast later this week going in full on the Hggle. So I'll just give you one now. I know you want five, but I'm only giving you one. what you want two? or right, I'll give you two, but that's enough First thing I'll do is always say, when you're haggling, especially if you're talking to a real person, whether it's online or whether it's in webchat where you can haggle more now. be nice They are people They're human beings, they have to do their job, but they don't have to pull out all the stops for you you want to win them to your side. I call it financial flirtation. I'm not asking you to cross the line in any inappropriate ways. But just think of it of the idea that you want to win this person to your side with a smile, use their name if they've told you their name, you know, thank them Do it all in that way. aggression does not help Tit number two If you're near the end of your contract or at the end of your contract O biggest weapon is that you might go elsewhere So if you're not getting what you want, policely and nicely asked to go disisconnections or whatever the equivalent is in that firm because internally it'll be known as customer retentions. The people who work in that department they have the real power to keep you. As I say, that's the only two tips that you're getting. Listen to the podcast later in the week, The Big Issues podcast when we will be going into haggling into far more details Oh, and if you' got a haggling success for that, Martin Lewis podcast of bBb. co. Uk. So next up we've got a question about energy. It comes from Alistter to Martin and whichever version of Mart It's me this week Simon ye. You need Simon too, Simon. Don't worry, mate. My Octopus tracker tariff is due to finish soon. I was happy with the risk of fluctuating prices previously, but can I check Is this sort of product still a sensible option in the current market? Many thanks for all your efforts, Alistair. So the octopus tracker tariff is not a normal tracker tariff. Other tracker tariffs just track the price cap. The octopus tracker tariff tracks the wholesale rates on a day by day basis It is a far more complicated and more sophisticated tariff than most energy tariffs out there. Literally the price you pay for gas and electricity moves every day based on the current as in that days or often the prior days actually Wholesale rates, the rates that the electricity and gas companies are pay for gas and electricity Generally It actually does pretty well I mean, I should note that the Octopus also has the agile tariff where the electricity charge varies every half hour and is even more complicated, can be even more lucrative or even more costly if you get it wrong So let's just go through this Current unit rates on the standing charge on average. four electricity is just under twenty five p and that's going to rise to twenty six p in July The gas is five and a half p rising to seven point three three p in July. So you're seeing, it's twenty five twenty six p for electricity F five and a half to seven pence on gas I go and I clicked it up as the question was being asked to the page online that allows me to see way the tracker rate moves. Well on electricity, in October and November and December it was Almost always last year, it was always in the sort of low twenty p. so quite a lot cheaper than the price cap so you gained clelearly, then suddenly this year, because of what's gone in the Middle East, wholesale rates have gone up So for electricity this year, We have seen quite a number of days where the tracker rate has been higher than the price cap. We've also seen days where it's been as low as seventeen p. I would say probably just looking at that graph and I'm doing a site estimate. so forgive me if I've got it wrong On electricity, it looks to have been roughly around the current price caput rate. of around twenty four p on average, some days more, some days less gas It's being quite a bit more expensive than the current rate. It's been in the six ps, most days when it's five and a half p on the price cap But that's actually cheaper than the new price cap, which is going to be around seven p. So what where does all that bring us? Well that brings us is I think In this current crisis, if you could get off the tracker cap for a couple of months it would probably be the safer option But you can't. What Octopus does and I understand why it does this, it says If you want to leave the tracker and go to a price g or go to a fix, you can But then you can't come back for nine months. So you're going to have to wait nine months before you sign up to it again. And that makes it difficult. I don't think You've been overpaying that prohibitively on electricity. You have been overpaying a little bit compared to the price cap. Not actually having a go atopctopus this tariff does what they've always said it does, it moves with wholesale rates So, in summary The tracker tariff you have probably in the April price cap period of April May June paid more on the tracker at a guess than you would have done on the price gap, but only slightly more, mainly because of gas prices But if they stayed at the same level as they are now on the tracker at the same volatility and often what's going on in the Middle East is going on in the Middle East and if it continues at that rate unless it gets far, far worse We assume it'll stay rustfly the same It's probably slightly cheaper than the new July price cap, which is going up thirteen percent on average and gas prices, particularly, they're going up, I think it's twenty six percent. So much of the rise is on gas So the rate you're paying on gas actually is less on the tracker than on the price cap will be in July So I don't think it's that big a risk to stay on it in July if you're hoping to stay on it long term once things go back to normal rather than having to pay the effective nine month penalty of being off it if you leave it now It's up to you basically.'s a long winded way to say it's up to your attitude to risk When I listened back to this, it occurred to me I hadn't mentioned fixed rate tariffs. and I know some of you will be thinking about what is the impact comparing to the tracker tariff to getting a fix Right now at the time of recording, I'm afraid there are very few cheap fixes. I mean, the cheapest fix you can get is not much cheaper than the April price cap. I mean, it's about one percent cheaper. So you could, if you want certainty, lock into a fix right now and the way that it has been going It looks like that would probably undercut the current prices on the tracker tariff But of course, the reason you've got the trucker tariff in the first place is to embrace the volatility and hope price will be cheaper on the tracker because you know the Middle East conflict is going to end or reduce and therefore those prices will come back down and then it should beating the cheapest fixes. So I was framing this within those people who are on the tracker tariff know what they're doing and have got the volatility. Of course, if you're not sure, then the easy way to make sure you guaranteed save over the price cap is to go into a comparison site and find yourself the cheapest fix But I don't think that was the spirit of the question. If it was You've got both my answers 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 M Dear Martin, there O Simon Maybe Simon Simon Interestingly, I think you slightly broke the format on't worry I'm not going to tell podcast producer that becausecause the second question on the show was actually a success And normally successes go in slot number four if we have a quarter with a success You've put it in slot number two. So I am presuming at this point with my best Sherlock Holmes act. that you now have a caller And it's an actual question as opposed to a success. have I done Little insiting to me. I've never been great with rules. I see it more as guidelines than a format point So yeah I decided to go my own way, but we have got a call on that. Am I right? we got a caller was asking a question? We got a call or who was asking a question. Matthew in Sunderland Hello, Matthew. I me do for you. loveovely to speet to you Hi, how are you doing J' from context, I have three children, an eleven year old, a five year old and a newborn So right now I have A thank you How newborn is newborn, please three monthold It makes to the point the answer to the question, but only difference just to get a good visual. Yeah, things have settled down now slightly and you start thinking about money again. so Okay So Junior Iiters. I have one for each of my oldest, so one for my eleven year old with nationwide and one with my five year old with Darlingon Building Society The Wandwward Darlington Building Society pays three point seven five percent And the one with nationwide is two point eight percent. Yeah. So now that I've had this third one, I'm looking at opening up a new junior ISA. and I kind of want to manage them all in one place So I've looked at moving things to Darmage buildilding society, but then I can't manage any of that stuff online. I have to pull them all up. I've looked to NSNI, which is currently paying three point seven percent which is lower than what my But it's the top rate with online management. yeep it is, but it's lower than what my daughter is getting right now F first of my two questions is, is it okay to sacrifice that extra bit that my daughter is getting easy to manage in one place. Let's answer that one first, shall we? The answer to that question is in my view When we're talking about, I think it's a naught point nught five percent difference in rate Yeah. So let put in real terms, that's fifty p interest per thousand pounds a year or five p interest per hundred pounds a year. I don't know the scale of magnitude of the type of money you've got in there I put in around thirty pounds a month into each of the accounts. so probably doesn't make sense with that small amount of money to worry about the zero point. five per. Well also more importantly, I prefer you to have them all in a convenient place. so if the rate that in the place that you've got it in were to drop it would de You're not going to be waiting around four or five months thinking, oh, I need to sort all that out and move it somewhere else. You've got them all in one place, you can do it far more easily. And I think the convenience factor for nught point nght five percent is well worth it because you know even a delay of three or four weeks at some point in the future if the rate were to be pantced and you had to move it elsewhere would overcome any very small difference in rate right now. If you're talking about one percent or one and a half percent, where's your eleven year old's money? you've not mentioned withith nationwide, so he's getting two point eight percent, which is obviously a lot lower. Yeah. And so I think That's quite interesting because it sort of proved my point, if you forgive me If we make it as easy as possible, you've left his money in nationwide because it's a hassle to move a junior Ier So having it all in one place to try and reduce the hassle of moving three junior Iices in future It seems a good move for me as long as the rate is very close to being the best buy. And I think a n point n five percent rate sacrifice is absolutely fine to ease that administrative burden on you. So you have my permission. I reckon that was a permission question, Matthew. I call permission questions where people sort of know what the answer is, but they just sort of want an external party and me in this case to give you permission. If that's what you're asking, you have my permission to sacrifice noteut n five percent The next part of the question might not be so easy. Okay, The next part is should it even be in cash isers at all So it's long time frames. we're talking even with my eleven year old, it's another minimum of seven years until he's going to get it probably going to be using it for deposits on a house in the future so it could be ten years plus and then it' with it even being cush Well, if I tell you the first thing I wrote down on the piece of paper when I heard your question I have it's a red pen. I have no idea why. it says shares exclamation mark exclamation mark. So I'm thinking exactly the same way I've said this before in question time, but I think it's really important for parents to understand Golden rule for when you should invest is money that you don't need that you're putting away for a long time, depending on who you listen to, three years or five years. I'm a five year, people who are slightly less risk averse than me will say three years You're talking minimum seven years for your oldest, minimum seventeen years and nine months for your youngest. So on the time equation, you're absolutely passing it On the do you need the money? Well, the rule in a junior Iicer is this money is locked away and they cannot touch it. So they certainly don't need the money right now, where you wouldn't be putting the money in there in the first place. Which is why I often say that junior ISS is one of those really unless you're starting it for a seventeen year old, you's going to get money in a year. It's one of those really obvious areas where people should be biased towards investing more than saving I say that phrase because I know people get worried about investing in this country, bi us towards more because it's also worth me saying, you can have a junior ISA shares and a junior ISA cash You can only have one of each. so one child can only have one junior cash ISA and one junior shares ISE But you can have both. as long as you don't put more than nine thousand pounds in both in total. So it's a maximum nine thousand pounds in junior Iices in one tax year So your question really is, do you shift it all to shares orr do you shift some of it to shares And that really is probably fits into your attitude to what this money is for. If this is the only money you're giving them and this is the nest egg you're trying to build your kids fund with, I know people get more of risk averse on it Personally, I'd be tempted over that long time period. you know, if you're putting it in a broad spread of investment and I quote experts we've had on the show before, not my advice you know' go for a big broad global index tracker that's tracking thousands of the world's biggest companies. So it's just monitoring the performance of the market and getting those dividends added in and all of that over seven to eight years. On the balance of probabilities and you understand that phrasing, I can't say it will. I can only say on the balance of probabilities, it's more likely than not based on what generally happens that that shares investment will outperform putting the money in cash. So what are you thinking? thinking trying to convince my wife to look at some low fee docks and shares, Jiser will Maybe like Hargve's Landdown or something where they's been around for a very long time and you get trust them. Jis doesn't exactly And honestly, the platform risk is pretty limited with major platforms the issue is the issue is, will the investment go up or down? Nothing else. I mean, if she's concerned and you know, why you could probably start with a half half Right, Okaykay You know, I'm not I'm not saying you should do that, but I'm saying we have to manage people's attitudes to risk. And if your wife's concerned, an easy way is you know, you're giving each child thirty pounds a month Why not give fifteen pounds in your cash and fifteen pounds in a shares icon It doesn't matter You know, start it off and see how it goes unless you decide to go the whole hog donon't feel you need to go And I don't say this from a financial perspective. I say this from a psychological comfort perspective If this is a new and a different way for you to be donon't feel you have to go the whole way at the start. I mean, the most important thing, I would think, is start to dip your toe in that water and do it in a way that you're comfortable with. Well so all of my personal money that I put away for a long time is all in socks and chaairres, but it feels different for children And I think that's where the issue has come with my wife where our money putting it away. don we know that we're not going to need it in their money and use Well's likely wrong to risk it. But let's go back say canan't need it. until they're eighteen because you cannot get that money out until they're eighteen So we're not saying they have to permanently invest this. We're only talking about invvesting it while they're a child and your youngest has nearly eighteen years of that money to be locked away Now unless you were it was a very unlucky period And that's always possible The likelihood is the outcome will be better being in shares than in cash over that length of time in a very broad spread of investments, Oviously not in an individual share or something like that you've got high risk So I want to be careful what I say, but certainly for any children I'm connected to or know, where I have a familiar relationship with, so that's not just my own. that's other I' always I would always push towards shares' ISa Thank you M. I hope that's helpful. I wish you the best and congratulations to you and your wife and the elder siblings on the newborn Let us know what you decide to do, Matthew. I' drop your email back. Be Now that was very interesting. So Simon, next and we are following format now I know you're following format. This is the acance question, the funny question. And do, if you have a question for me that's not purely on topic, can be on anything. I mean, in the early days, it was who would I rather fight, you know A horse size duck or twelve duck size horses. So anything you like, do get them in touch on as well as your normal questions too at Martin Lewis podcast at bBb. co. uk. What have you got for me this week? What is our Fny. question or a scance question are different questions Yeahet Neil, I think has really got the tone right here. He has asked. Dear Martin M, Rosie, Simon, I Mark H hopes he hasn'tissed anybody. What about Eeditor Tom? Yeah, well you've missed out, sadly Editor Tom is all their boss. Yeah and I think he has to sign off an A pay rise. seem. Editor Tom is Matt, Simon and Matt's boss I am Rosie's boss if we're being honest about it, and my boss is the general public Well Neil is in between jobs and has decided to use some of his spare time embarking on a steps challenge. N spepecifically attempting to do one million steps in the month of June. He has two questions related to this What's your monthly step record And I'm doing my steps on the cross trainer as a way of saving my feet and also watching the cricket whilst I get my steps in My friends considered this cheating, but I wanted to know if you agreed or not. Neil in Northwest London PS am I still regarded as an ESQ if I send a non consumer finance related question? Well, that was actually technically three questions. No yeah, because ask was a question. Yeah. So let's answer last one first, you are definitely in ESQ and I really like your question. Thankk you, Neil Can we just do a bit of a magical podcast while I check my stats record, Simon? Okay, so I have checked because I do a spreadsheet of all my steps and then I do a blog on it each year. So it's actually quite easy for me in my nerdy way to check my step monthly record I did eight hundred fifty four thousand two hundred and seventy six last year, but my record ever was eight hundred fifty thousand eight hundred and thirty three steps. They're both in a daily average of around twenty seven and fivealf thousand steps for that month. And for those who like distances, what's that? seven hundred fifty odd kilometers it equates to. So about five hundred miles in the month People are thinking what this is ridiculous. I've talked many times about my steps before. Last year I managed to average over twenty six thousand a day for the whole year. So a million is a lot. I mean, that's a heavy month. I've never done a million because I tend to I'm a consistent stepper and I don't binge my steps I'm a consistent stepper As for steps on the cross trainer Some of my steps because I have an elliptical at home, And my first forty minutes most mornings, if I don't go out for a run, I run once or twice a week, but my knees can't cope with the running. I do it on the elliptical For those who don't know, that's the one way where you sort it's like a smooth way of running that stops the impact on your knees where you're moving your arms Abssolutely think those are legitimate steps. They tend to count less. If you go on a treadmill, you'll be getting around one hundred and fif hundred and sixty steps a minute If you're running elliptical, it's around one hundred and thirty steps a minute. If you'rening outdoors, it's around one hundred and eighty steps a minute tends to count less And it depends where you position your hands than actually running. But I do think you are doing steps. Elliptical move is a step equivalent. I mean, it's the equivalent to running and it's more energetic than walking. I mean, if you were getting your steps for baking, let's say and rolling dough I tend to think that is a bit of a cheat. Certainly, I mean, if you're doing it for twenty minutes, it's not really a problem. but if you were doing that every day, like a baker friend of mine who claims to get lots of steps. who rolls dough a lot, I think that's probably more cheating than actually getting yourself on exercise equipment in the gym And when you become obsessed by this as I am I actually tend not to cycle because you don't get steps cycling. I've even tried putting the fitness track around my ankle to get the steps It puts me off cycling because I don't get my steps. So the last thing I want to do, Neil is put you off getting your cardio in on your elliptical by saying your steps don't count. So to Neil's friend, leave it alright? Lave it. Just leave it, mate And now from the ridiculous to the ridiculous, watchatch your PPS So for those who haven't heard this bit The Podcast producer Simon, PPS, we also think is the host post script to the show So Simon is charged with coming up with something totally different to end the show with. What have you got to end the show? It's a podcast get above my station. It's not show. it's a podcast to end the podcast with Well, so people who listen to the bigig Issues podcast will know there is a mastermind at the end where we ask Adrian a question. And I like to show a little bit of daylight onto the magic of podcasting. there's kind of a dual feature to that. First of all, it's just nice. It's a bit of fun to ask Adrien a question But also it's a way for you to sort of sneak in an extra topic. It is exactly what it's for. It's to get me in an extra topic and a different way that people can engage with. and I always hope people are answering the question at home themselves. and then if they get it wrong or right, they're thinking about Why I pick those? All of those questions, they have a twist and unexpected twist, which is an important learning Now there is no hidden agenda to my question. I've got nothing beyond that. I'm not doing a mastermind. No you're not exactly. you're not doing a mastermind.. You're doing a faster mind. We don't need to get into any extra detail beyond it. I'm not sure I like this. We've worked together quite a long time. I've would test. I think I think how well you know them. How well I know you? Yeah. The question's all right. That's all right. I'm not married to you. It's not the worst if I get it wrong Which of these jobs have I never done Hey. chandelier installer. I'm thinking only fools of horseing. Do it, Dll boy. I'm ready Dll boy. All right, Grendad. Cry on Be human statue or see trade model done two of those three things I think you've definitely been a portrait model. Bea that's the type of I can see Simon at Uni or post uni saying, oh, I'll get pid fifty quid to stand there and be a portrait model or whatever it is. I mean even if you had to take your clothes off, that wouldn't surprise me So it's between human statue And Chandelier installer. Chandelier installer is so random That that makes me think you may have done it, whereereas human statue I think is a bit similar to portraiting. you may have just thrown that in You can't see you're doing the standing the street humuman statue and it isn't really a job is it? It's sort's think's like a busking thing. So I'm thinking Chandeliia So I'm glancing over at Rosie Now Rosie, who is fact checking me live as we're going and plays a brilliant part in the podcast, but in the canon of the podcast never speaks Rosie, do you agree or disagree with my choice of Chandelier installer and portrait disagree. Okay. so which Which one of the three Do you think he hasn't done Okay, so Rosie is therefore going for Chandelier inststaller and Human statue and I'm going for Chandelier inststaller and posed for a portrait Well for all her fact checking skills, Rosie cannot fact check my CV. It's a haallelujah for you, Martin. Yes So chandelier inall the aggette, that The portrait, who did you do it for and did you take your clothes off? I offered. They said, no, keep them on. No, You' be paid extra to keep them on. I met you. Yeah It was when I was backpacking, I saw an advert fifty dollars. Yeah, turn up, but it was a lovely sort of group of retired people. I sat there for two hours. They paid me some nice pictures How love late. Did you ever drop a chandelier No, first rule of chandelier installing, be very careful. In fact secondcond rule ofand at Chandeler in scoring, we never talk about Chandeler in S scoring. You've just broken the second rule Simon. It's all gone. I can't go back to it now, yeah. Right Cot over That's it for this week'sQion Time. Don't forget to subscribe so you know when we release a new episode. We put out a newQuestion timeim each Monday alongside the big topic podcast with Adrian on Thursdays. Aren't you lucky? twowo doses of money saving tips and tricks a week? Do make sure you send in your questions, you can email Martin Lewis podcast at bbc. co dot U