I wanted to talk today about one of the biggest influences which is how we talk to money or how we talk about money ourselves. Then also how our outside influences like the media affect our relationship with money. I know that you’re reading this, and you’re going to be either one of these three things: 

• You’re going to be somebody who has no problem bringing money in but maybe you have some difficulties holding on to money, 
• You’re somebody who has difficulty holding onto money, who’s maybe overspending or suffers with the fear of missing out syndrome, always chasing the next thing, 
• You might be somebody who is absolutely fine to give to other people but when it comes to giving to yourself, it feels somewhat shameful or guilty. 

There’s a lot of emotions that we carry around money so I specifically want to focus this subject on how the media affects how we feel about money as women. I want to talk through some key notes that I’ve made, having read Starling Bank’s #MakeMoneyEqual campaign. 

I really recommend that you go and read this research. It’s so, so interesting to think about how this impacts on how we feel about receiving money, keeping hold of money, and growing money. 

One of the things that the report talks about how the media implies that women treat saving money like an exercise in squirrelling away pennies to spend on things like shoes and handbags. This tone is so demeaning and condescending. It’s dumbed down to make finances more understandable and it really just isn’t applicable at all. If someone said to me about spending money on shoes and handbags, it’s just not my thing at all. I think it’s quite derogatory to women that we are overspenders or that we just save money to go and buy makeup and shoes and handbags. I thought that was really, really interesting. Why is it that we are talked about in that way?

The way that the media talks about money and finances is that women are constantly needing to rein in their spending, or it talks about language like hints and tricks so as not to splurge. Whereas when the media talks to men about money, what this research shows is that men are spoken about in terms of impressing their friends or having luxury or having a stash of cash or using money to impress their friends. It’s very status driven. 

I’ve done a lot of research around this. In our certification programme, we teach people how to become financial coaches. Part of that is about understanding their own relationship with money. When people feel very status driven around money, they will automatically be driven with the main aim of feeling safe by trying to impress other people. I see this all the time with clients. I see this with very successful wealthy women who make a lot of money, but then they use it to portray that they’re living this luxurious lifestyle, which really is a deeper meaning around wanting to feel safe and valued and connected. So they somehow feel like by going on luxurious holidays, or having luxurious handbags, or splurging, is a way that makes them feel in alignment, it may be in alignment, but it’s often to do with wanting to impress other people. 

There’s no right or wrong with that. It’s actually a very good narrative to have around money because it can actually help to fulfil that need to feel safe. Often people who are status driven around money will look after other people. But there’s always this deep need that overspending around status driven, can fulfil this need for wanting to be liked and loved. So that was really interesting to me. Why is it that the media feels that men should be communicated around status, and women should be communicated around like splurging and squirrelling away the pennies. It just makes no sense to me.

One of the other interesting parts that was identified in the Make Money Equal report was that assigning these gender norms to finances, stops men and women from cultivating healthy relationships and having a productive dialogue around money. This takes me back to our relationship with money as a mirror reflection of the relationship that we have with ourselves. Assigning gender norms is for me, not necessarily about men versus women. It’s not about talking to men differently to women when it comes to money. But what is interesting is our own dialogue around money, because the things that we tell ourselves become the behaviours that we then do or don’t do around money. 

For example, if your money narrative has been that it’s hard to make money, or you have to work hard to make money. This was a big one for me growing up. I evidence that because my dad, who was my hero, growing up, he would work Monday to Sunday. He would work really hard in his business and was a very successful entrepreneur. The belief I therefore gained from his behaviour was I have to work hard to make money. That became my unconscious dialogue, that surely I couldn’t run a business where I don’t have to exchange 90 hours a week in my business to be successful. So when I started to be successful making money in the business, I would just get rid of it as quickly as possible, because it felt so unfamiliar, to not have to work hard to make money. Our dialogue around money is super, super important.

One of the other things that this research brought up was that talking about money should be fun. It really is in our communities. We have a lot of fun conversations around money because remember, it’s never about the money. It’s about the meaning and the perception that we attach to money that makes talking about money taboo, or makes talking about money feel difficult or hard, and brings up all those physical emotions, guilt and shame and judgement and regret and responsibility. We physically carry that in our body. So when we have to talk about money, sometimes it can feel really disruptive to our entire nervous system, because we feel threatened somehow because of those core beliefs, and those core narratives and dialogues that we hold around money.

Now, what was also interesting in this research was that 71% of female centric articles will encourage women to specifically seek out vouchers to spend as if they can’t just spend freely. That’s just nuts! 73% of pieces about men suggested that they should make big investments like art and buying flash cars and investing in property. Why is it that men get communicated about big investments and women get communicated about saving money by using vouchers? Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big believer in using discount codes and cashback websites and vouchers, I do that all the time. But it’s really important to go from daily managing of money, which historically is where we’ve been really good at, as women, generationally. We’ve been very good at managing the household purse. But what we’ve not been so good at is making the big investments. That feels like the man’s game to put on the men’s trousers to make those investment decisions, or we sometimes feel like we have to step into this masculine energy in order to have conversations about investments because it’s so unfamiliar.

Why is it so unfamiliar? Because of this, if we’re going to encourage any more women to invest, we’ve got to change the way that we’re communicated about. This is one of the things that I am a huge advocate for is standing on speaker stages and talking about these things. If that’s not going to change, then that narrative is still going to be negative towards women being able and capable of investing. 

We designed an investing course four years ago, that was one of the first courses that we built, which specifically helps women to start getting investing, and for that very reason. We have so many myths around investing; that you have to have lots of money to get started, that you have to take lots of risks, that you have to be in your 20s to start investing, but it’s too late if you’re doing it in your 40s or 50s. We have these big myths surrounding investments. I think what this research shows for me is that we’ve got to change this narrative that investments aren’t just for the rich. Investments aren’t just for men and that it’s not just about scraping through the pennies or saving vouchers. It’s about having that real balance of managing the day to day household, but also being empowered that we can start making investments. 

There’s a whole bunch of research that shows that when women do get started with investing, we could change the world, because often we invest more ethically as well. So when we do make investments, we invest in sustainable investments. We’ll invest in funds that are not in things like tobacco, or the pornography industry, things that are on the UK FTSE 100, because we’re much more conscious about how our investing decisions are impacting the bigger world around us. Actually, what I find really empowering is that if more women get started with investing, the world would actually be a better place. This is why, because based on this research, we are not communicated that it’s normal for us to be making big investments.

Now, what was also interesting for me around this was when you type in the word investment into the search bar of most magazines for women, their results are generally designer handbags and expensive coats. What is that about, that an investment for us as women is only about appearance. It’s just such an old fashioned approach, isn’t it. Investment for me is about investing in yourself. That’s one of the best investments you can make is investing in yourself. Investing in property or companies – which is really what the stock market is all about. It’s just investing in companies that you’re probably already buying. You’re investing in Apple or Netflix, companies that you’re already using their products and services, and we’re just buying shares in those companies so that when they grow, we get a proportion of that growth. But isn’t that interesting? Go and try it. Just type in the word investment into some of the women’s magazines and just see what comes up.

Let me know what comes up for you around that. I’d love to hear. Drop me a DM on Instagram or a Facebook message and just let me know what you found. I’d love to see what comes up in your search. 

Then the final two things that came up; one was why can’t we unhook conversations about money from guilt and shame. This is something I talk about a lot and also in my book that’s coming out on the 9th December, not that far away! I talk a lot about this subject. We have entire chapters, specifically around guilt and shame because we say things like, I am bad with money, I am not able to take risks, I am not comfortable investing, I am terrible at making financial decisions, I am irresponsible with money. These are some of the things that I hear when I coach clients. These I am statements are really attaching our sense of self with money. If there’s anything that you take from this episode today, I want you to think about detaching your sense of self from money. We know rationally that having more money doesn’t make you a better person, having less money doesn’t make you a worse person, yet we give away so much of our power to the amount of money that we have, or the amount of money that we make. 

I was literally speaking to somebody last night on WhatsApp who was saying that she didn’t feel deserving of having all this money that she’s generating in her business. She was generating £30,000 in income per month from her business but she didn’t feel deserving to have and hold on to that money. Why? Quite possibly because of the shame that she feels around holding money and holding wealth. We’ve not done any coaching together yet so I don’t know where that’s come from, for this particular lady. But what is really interesting is to think about whose shame is it that we’re carrying.

That shame, that guilt is probably just a borrowed belief, a borrowed emotion. That has quite likely come from people that we have grown up with, family figures or experiences. What’s interesting about guilt and shame is they are two different things. Shame is when you’re referring to a decision that directly relates back to you as in your sense of self, who you are. Whereas guilt is just feeling guilty about something that’s happened. They’re two very distinct things and there’s more around the subject coming up in my book. 

Why can’t we unhook conversations about money around guilt and shame? I think this is because we don’t like talking about these emotions. For me, money isn’t the taboo subject here. It’s that perception and the emotion that we attached to it, that becomes the taboo subject. So in order to unlock conversations about money, I really do think that we need to speak more openly about our experiences since there’s no right or wrong relationship with money. For what we consider to be terrible decisions around money, it’s about time we started handing back those emotions of guilt and shame, and really practising self forgiveness. 

Those of you that have followed me for a while will know that the first step of changing our relationship with money is thinking about what decisions we have made, where we’re holding on to shame that we need to just release and hand back with love to ourselves, or somebody else. Often the shame that I’ve carried around money and how I’ve dealt with money has been from experiences from previous family members generations before us. 

I think about my great grandparents and my grandparents. They lived during a period of post war where everything was about a lack of and not enoughness. That scarcity mindset was actually quite appropriate for that time, when everything was limited. Food was rationed, for example, so that relationship with money very much served them in that generational period.

But some of that guilt and shame around having more than everybody else is something that just gets passed down the generations, through our core beliefs, and also through our energetic fields. How we feel about money, the feeling, is sat within the body, it’s within our energy fields. In order to release that guilt and shame, we can do things like journaling, meditation, even things like somatic work, where we’re working with the emotions that sit in the body and actually getting rid of them away from the body. 

Those of you that have been following me for a while will know that I recently qualified in emotional freedom technique or EFT and that is a technique that’s used to clear away trauma that is sat in the body by tapping on certain meridian points around the body, tapping those emotions away from the body, those traumas away from the body. It’s a little bit like acupuncture, but without the needles.

Just talking openly and asking, am I holding on to any decisions? What emotion am I holding on to there? If it is guilt and shame, then whose shame and guilt is that and is it time for us to hand that back with love, either to somebody else, or to ourselves, in order for us to move forward.

There’s lots of really juicy stuff in this report and I’d really recommend that you go and read it. The final thing I wanted to pick out and share with you was around how women are now the primary breadwinners in 40% of households. I just think that’s huge. If you think about that shift away from managing the day to day purse, to actually looking at some of the good, interesting ways that we can use money to live the life that we want to live and also do good for the world, with things like investing and growing our wealth, that’s really interesting because I think that this presents an amazing opportunity for us. As women who are, in 40% of households, now the primary breadwinners, we should be thinking about putting money aside for our future self and enabling us to safeguard and continue the lifestyle that we currently live way out into our financial future.

This is something I’ve spoken about on the podcast before where our brain doesn’t like uncertainty. Often when we start to think about our financial future, it locks down on us. Have you ever found that everything’s about today, or we’re more interested in maybe looking at what we’re doing next year, rather than what we’re doing with our money for the next 10, 20 or 30 years ahead? The brain doesn’t like that uncertainty, and the future is very uncertain. That’s why I’m a big believer in changing the language that the financial services profession uses on things like pensions. Pensions are boring, they’re dull. Who wants to talk about pensions? But what we do want to talk about is how we can safeguard our current financial situation to either improve it, or protect it so that we can live that life way into our 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and even pass that wealth to future generations potentially. 

This research, for me, shows a couple of things. One, is that we need to change the way that the media communicates to us about money. Their tone is very demeaning and extremely condescending. This isn’t just about saving money to spend on shoes and handbags. This is about creating wealth, making investments in ourselves and in our futures. The likelihood is that for most of you listening to this, you’re going to outlive your partners. You’re going to live way into your 80s and 90s. It’s very typical now for a woman to live into her 80s. We know that because we’re seeing lots of challenges around long term care and financially being able to support ourselves in long term care situations. Many of us will need either care in the home or to go into a care home or residential home where we can be supported to live our life frugally and lovingly, and with doing all the things that we want to do, and still have enough money left at the end of it. 

This report is just incredibly powerful to look at. We can almost ignore what the media is saying, because in most situations, this is not about just spending money on handbags and shoes, and very much about stepping into a place of empowerment where you can make investments for yourself. You are capable of bringing money into your life, bringing money into your businesses. Don’t avoid talking about money just because it brings up those emotions. This is really about embodying all of those emotions because emotions are not bad. Those emotions are there to give you a message and we can really use those emotions to step into a place of positive empowerment so that you feel deserving to have money, you feel deserving to keep hold of it, and you feel deserving to use it to give back for your own needs, not just everybody else’s. Use that money in a way that’s going to support you now and in the future. 

I’d really recommend you go and check out this research that Starling Bank has done around their Make Money Equal campaign. It was a report that I read some years ago when I first started my business.

And I’m absolutely delighted that we will be speaking to Anne Boden, the CEO of Starling Bank. She is the first and the only female CEO of a UK bank. I know that this was something that she is hugely passionate about so I’m really excited. Depending on when you’re listening to this, you may have already seen this episode on our social media accounts, or you may be listening to that next, but it’s something that I am super passionate about. And I hope you are too. 

Let’s do something to change this dialogue. To change these narratives. We can’t necessarily impact exactly how the media are communicating to us. What we can do is make sure that we are surrounded by women and others that are talking about how we can use money to do good, and also how we can think about being curious to our own narratives and our own language that we’re using with ourselves, because that’s something that we can all change. 

If you’ve decided that now is the time for you to upgrade your life, grow your wealth and transform your relationship with money, then come and work with me and the other ladies inside The Money Circle, where I’ll show you exactly step by step how to make this all possible. Come and join the financial family over at catherinemorgan.com/join-now.

Small steps. Big wins. Let’s go

This podcast is brought to you with the help of my friends at Starling bank voted Britain’s best bank four years running at the British Bank Awards. They literally changed the way that I looked at money with their clever visual savings tools to give you insights into your spending. And those of you who are in our community, will know just how much we love our money pots. So come and join the millions of people who have changed the way that they bank and apply for a free digital bank account in literally minutes. Just head over to www.starlingbank.com/financialshoes to get started.

Resources:

Get my book

Explore Starling Bank here

Compare Starling VS Monzo

Check out the #MakeMoneyEqual campaign

Starling #MakeMoneyEqual Manifesto Booklet

Register for my FREE Financial Coaching Masterclass

Join The Money Circle

Join Catherine’s Facebook Page and FREE Facebook Group

My Online Courses – Investing for beginners from £1

Catherine’s YouTube Channel 

Connect with Catherine on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook

The post Women: The Media Prevents You From Stepping Into Wealth! first appeared on The Money Panel.

The post Women: The Media Prevents You From Stepping Into Wealth! appeared first on The Money Panel.

If you’ve followed me for any length of time you will probably know that I am a huge fan of Starling vs Monzo. Starling Bank are what’s known as a ‘challenger’ bank, and challenger banks are changing what banking looks and feels like. What I love about challenger banks is that through the use of their intuitive, easy to use apps, they are more like personal finance assistants than high street banks.

As our lives become increasingly dynamic, fast paced, and mobile-ready, challenger banks like Starling Bank or Monzo are giving us exactly what we need; banking at our fingertips (literally, via apps on your phone!), real time, very clever, easy to understand reporting, and clear habit and spending insights.

We all place different meaning and value towards money because we all have a different relationship with money. More than 90% of the decisions we make about money come from our subconscious mind (ooh, interesting!) We are driven to make decisions about money based on both logic and emotion and interestingly this is why some women prefer managing money by looking at facts and figures and others on intuition and imagination. 

Starling Bank and Monzo’s money pots directly enable their users to do both! The visual money pots allow you to get creative about money goals and the categorisation of your spending habits enables you to see the facts. This is particularly useful right now in 2021 as we are beginning to take steps to recovering financially from lockdown (click the link for our top tips on recovering).

Hi I’m Catherine! My mission is to reduce financial anxiety and increase financial empowerment & resilience for 1 million women all around the world.

I am a self-confessed emotional spender turned savvy saver! From a young age, my relationship with money has always been fraught with difficulties.

Read my story here: Catherine’s Story

Starling Bank V Monzo: They have many similarities

Skip to section:

• Staring VS Monzo features comparison at a glance
• Are challenger banks safe?
• Child accounts
• Opening an account
• Fees
• Paying in and out
• Interest
• Goals and pots
• Travelling
• Borrowing
• Are Starling Bank and Monzo safe?
• Other accounts
• Worth a mention
• Starling VS Monzo: The best bank ever

At a glance

Account Fee	Free	Free
Payments	Pay out via bank transfer, Contactless, Chip and Pin, Paypal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Fitbit Pay, or Garmin Pay	Pay out via bank transfer, Contactless, Chip and Pin, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or send immediately to another Monzo account
UK ATM Withdrawals	Free	Free
Direct Debits	Yes	Yes
Topping Up	Via bank transfer, standing order, have salary paid in, or pay in at any Post Office	Via bank transfer, standing order, or have salary paid in
Freeze Card	Yes, in app	Yes, in app
Interest	0.05% AER up to £85,000	Access to marketplace, up to 1.31% with minimum £500 deposit (fixed term). Rates from 0.10%-0.93% available on instant access savings
Goals and Pots	Create different spending goals and protect money from daily spending. Pay direct debits from any pot you decide, with alerts when a bill is due to be paid from a pot.	Monzo pots let you put money aside, protected from your daily spending. Pick a Pot to pay bills from, so you can’t accidentally spend the rent. When a bill is due, they pay it from the Pot for you.
Travel	No fees or charges	Foreign ATM withdrawals free up to £200pm, 3% thereafter. Free to use your card abroad to pay for goods and services.
Borrowing	Overdrafts and loans up to £5000.	Overdrafts up to £3,000. Loans up to £15,000. Both with a soft credit check.
Safety	FSCS protected up to £85,000	FSCS protected up to £85,000
Business Account Available	Yes: Free – Voted Best Business Banking Provider 2020	Yes. Business Lite: Free Business Pro: £5pm
Joint Account Available	Yes – as long as you both have a Starling account	Yes – as long as you both have a Monzo account
Support	24/7 human customer support team via app, email, and phone.	Existing customers can get help via the app.
Special Mention	Won Best British Bank and Best Current Account 2020	Put your salary into Monzo and we can advance you the cash one day early. No cost, no hassle. Just more time with your money.
Child Accounts	KITE: Age 6-16 Starling Teen: 16-17 account	16+: 16-17 teen account

Are challenger banks safe?

While no bank is completely secure from criminals, challenger banks are normally as well protected as high street banks and building societies.

Because Monzo and Starling are regulated banks in the UK, the money you put in your Monzo or Starling account is protected up to £85,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The FSCS is an independent fund set up by the government to help protect people’s money.

Starling say: “In the app, Starling has a few key features to keep your card secure. Under ‘Card Controls’, you can allow or ban ATM withdrawals, online or mobile payments, magstripe payments, or gambling transactions.”

Child Accounts

In 2020, Starling launched their Kite account for 6-16 year-olds. It’s like a child bank account, but with more visibility and control for parents and guardians. Set it up in minutes, transfer money onto their Kite card in seconds, keep an eye on their spending and help them build great habits for the future.

As a parent, you will need to hold a Personal Starling account to open a Kite account, and it really couldn’t be easier. Plus Starling have made switching between apps a thing of the past. With Starling Kite, you’ll get the full picture and be able to see what they’re spending, directly from your app.

At just £2 per month, Kite is priced extremely competitively in comparison to other child accounts on the market.

Starling also offer a teen account for those aged 16-17.

Whilst Monzo do not currently offer a child account, their teen account for 16-17 year-olds isn’t a minimalist version of an adult account – it’s the same account they offer over 18’s. The only major difference is they’ve blocked spending for some things which are illegal if you’re under 18, like gambling.

Opening an account

Whether you choose Starling or Monzo, Both Starling Bank and Monzo are completely free to open. They are also both powered by their own apps, and it’s really simple to open an account. All you need to do is open your app store (I’m an Apple girl, but the apps are also available for android devices), download the app and then follow the account opening prompts. Click here for Starling (affiliate link) or here for Monzo.

You will need to take a photo of your ID which will be sent for verification as the final step of opening an account with either Starling Bank or Monzo. You’ll also need to record a short video selfie as part of the process, and the reason for this is that both banks use a type of technology which matches the video footage to your ID. Starling Bank says they aim to complete this process for personal accounts within 10 minutes, and Monzo say they try to verify all accounts within 2 hours but it will often be quicker than that.

Fees

Starling V Monzo: Both Starling and Monzo are completely free to open and use with no ATM withdrawal fees or charges.

Paying in and out

Both accounts offer a free current account switching service and are just like high street banks in that you can have your salary paid into your account. You can also pay in via bank transfer or standing order with both Starling or Monzo. Starling go one step further and allow you to pay in cash at any Post Office.

Remember, both Starling and Monzo are just like high street banks – you can set up Direct Debits, Standing Orders, and complete bank transfers from both apps. Both accounts provide contactless chip and pin cards and allow you to add your card to Apple or Google pay. Starling also supports Fitbit Pay and Garmin Pay.

What’s great about the challenger banks is the level of reporting and insights they offer, which are easy to understand and easily accessible within the apps. Monzo will remind you via notifications on your phone when a Direct Debit is due, allows you to set budgets for spending areas, and will also has the capability to send you warning notifications if it thinks you’re spending too fast.

Both apps split your spending into categories like ‘bills and services’ or ‘groceries’. This is an amazing feature because it allows you to really understand your spending habits, easily identify areas of overspend, and take steps to plug those leaks.

The round-up feature that both apps offer is a fantastic way to add to your financial resilience pot – when you switch the feature on both apps simply round up all of your spends to the nearest £1 and add the difference to a pot of your choice. You would be amazed at how quickly this adds up!

Interest

One of the advantages of Starling Bank over Monzo is that Starling Bank pays you interest on any balance up to £85,000. This is paid on your entire balance including any money in your main cash pot area and any money stored safely in your pots.

You can access varying interest rates via the Marketplace with Monzo, but these are paid on savings only, not on any of the money in your main Monzo account or pots. This might be a deal breaker for you if you keep large amounts of money in cash, but in reality even if you only have a small amount of money in your account, Starling Bank will pay you interest on it (free money!) and Monzo will not.

Goals and Pots

Both accounts offer pots or spaces to move money away from your everyday spending area, but keeping it in the same account. For me, this is revolutionary because it allows you to bring things like the envelope budgeting system and mental accounting into the modern digital age.

Before the likes of Starling Bank and Monzo, if you wanted to keep money in a  separate area it would usually need to be in an entirely different account like a savings account. Or literally cash in envelopes! When you move money into pots in either Starling Bank or Monzo that money still physically exists in your account, but it is essentially ringfenced. When you use your card to pay, any money that is in a pot – not in your everyday spending area – will not be touched.

What’s great about this is it gives you a super easy way to give every pound coming into your account a purpose, one of the key lessons I teach my Money Circle members.

In 2021 Starling matched Monzo’s pay from a pot function with their very own Bills Manager. In fact, Starling have taken this one step further; while Monzo allow you to pick a pot to pay bills from, Starling Bank Bills Manager allows you to pick a different pot or space to pay individual direct debits from should you need to. This means you can keep the rent seperate from your other household bills or personal expenses. When a bill is due, both Monzo and Starling Bank pay it from that pot for you.

The day before a Direct Debit is due, Starling will send you a notification that a payment is needed the next day. If you don’t have sufficient funds in the Space to make the payment, they’ll let you know, so you have time to add the funds you need.

Monzo also added a scheduled pay to pots feature in 2018, which Starling refer to as PiggyBanking. Within Monzo, simply start a new scheduled payment, choose a start date and pot, set a repeat frequency (and end date if you choose). Monzo say “You can change or cancel the scheduled payment whenever you want. And you can always withdraw the money if you decide you want it back in your main balance.” (Source)

To utilise PiggyBanking within Starling, open the pot you wish to add regular automated funds to. Choose ‘Add Money’, and enter an amount. Click on ‘When’ to change the first payment date (great for planning your income and pots in advance) and choose a frequency. Starling allows you to choose from daily, weekly, monthly, and annually which makes this a super flexible feature!

Travel

If you travel often, then Starling really is a clear winner for you. With Starling bank there are no fees whatsoever for using your card abroad or to withdraw from overseas ATM machines. Monzo do offer fee free spending, but you can only withdraw £200 per month from foreign ATM’s before it starts to charge you.

Borrowing

Starling bank offer overdrafts and loans up to £5000, dependant on your eligibility. They have a great overdraft eligibility tool which tells you the likelihood of being eligible for an overdraft without having to perform a credit check which will leave a ‘footprint’ on your credit score. If you are eligible for a loan you will receive a notification in your app to let you know, and if you choose to take out a loan with Starling, once the application is completed the money is available instantly.

Monzo have a similar eligibility check for overdrafts up to £3000, and offer loans up to £15,000 available on the same day you successfully apply.

Are Starling and Monzo safe?

Both Starling and Monzo are fully regulated banks and protected up to £85,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The FSCS is an independent fund set up by the government to help protect people’s money. If Monzo or Starling (or any other bank or building society) goes bust, it means you won’t be left out of pocket. The FSCS aims to pay compensation within 7 days of an organisation failing, so your money really is just as safe as it would be with any other high street bank or lender.

Other accounts

If you run a business, Starling bank once again comes out on top for its business account. A business account with Starling is completely free and offers all the awesome features of the personal account with the addition of some brilliant features such as connecting to accounting software like Xero, Quickbooks, or FreeAgent.

Monzo business accounts do offer these features but only on their paid for account. Monzo has two levels of business account available: Lite and Pro. If you want to use the accounting features you will need to hold a Business Pro account which will cost £5 per month. To balance it out, however, the Monzo Business Pro account is offering 6 months free Xero use until 17th June 2020 (for new Xero customers only) which could save you up to £180. If you are planning to use Xero anyway, this offer is essentially worth 3 years of the fee attached to the Monzo Business Pro account.

Starling bank also offers joint accounts as long as you both have personal accounts, something which Monzo have recently added to their features.

Worth a mention

Starling Bank won Best British Bank and Best Current Account 2020, which really is testament to the amazing work they are doing. Starling bank also give you access to their Marketplace on both personal and business accounts where you can integrate several third party financial products. From mortgage and insurance providers to smart pension tools, the marketplace includes a hand picked a selection of third-party products that work with your Starling app. The reason this is so fantastic is because it gives you the ability to see a full overview of many of your financial products, accounts, and services all within the one Starling app.

Monzo do have some third party features such as energy switching and savings accounts, but their marketplace is certainly not as diverse as Starling bank’s. Monzo’s ‘get paid a day early’ feature is worth a mention: if you have your salary paid into your Monzo account Monzo say that they “can advance you the cash one day early. No cost, no hassle. Just more time with your money”. 

Monzo Vs Starling: the best bank ever?

Both Monzo and Starling bank are great options if you’re looking to open an account with a challenger bank. But is Starling better than Monzo? For me, there’s a few reasons that Starling Bank has the upper hand: if you travel often then it’s clear that Starling is your better option, and for those of you in business or self employed their business account offers some excellent features without having to pay the fee that Monzo charges. Their customer support, should you need it, is available 24/7, and Starling’s offering of investing tools like Wealthify and Wealthsimple through the Marketplace make it easier than ever to get started investing without overwhelm, and from as little as just £1.

Starling pays interest on your whole balance, rather than just on your savings as Monzo offers, and integrates with more payment features than Monzo such as Fitbit Pay and offering pay-in at Post Offices anywhere in the UK.

My preference, for all those reasons, is unwaveringly towards Starling Bank. But with that being said, the ability to utilise pots within one account is absolutely game changing for both personal and business finance, and opening an account with either challenger bank will undoubtedly revolutionise your life! Deciding is Starling better than Monzo absolutely has to come down to personal preference and what you need from your bank.

This post was updated November 2021 to reflect updates to both Starling and Monzo.

Hi I’m Catherine! My mission is to reduce financial anxiety and increase financial empowerment & resilience for 1 million women all around the world.

I am a self-confessed emotional spender turned savvy saver! Having worked in banks since the age of 18, I became very disillusioned with the focus on complicated financial products. I discovered Financial Coaching and by incorporating this into my work as a Financial Planner I have been able to launch a hugely successful standalone financial coaching business in the UK.

Read my story here: Catherine’s Story

Resources:

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Book in a complimentary call to discuss how financial coaching can help you move from financial overwhelm to confidence and control. 

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More Info: Recovering Financially from Lockdown

Open a Starling Personal Account

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Monzo Personal Account

The post Starling vs Monzo: The Best Bank Account Ever? first appeared on The Money Panel.

The post Starling vs Monzo: The Best Bank Account Ever? appeared first on The Money Panel.

What’s the one thing that aggravates you about business banking?

This is definitely one of the areas that I really struggled with when I first set up my business four and a half years ago, because I felt really quite lost with:

• Where do I bank?
• Do I have a separate account?
• Do I just keep it on my personal accounts?
• Who do I open that account with?

And I actually had quite a poor experience with another bank in the early stages of setting up the business. It’s complicated enough when you’re first starting out! So I really want to hear from you – What’s the one biggest challenge that you have with business banking? I’d love for you to share with the community your experience of your own business finances.

Today I want to introduce you to Starling bank. For those of you that have been listening to the podcast, or followed me, for some time will know that we have partnered with Starling bank recently. They are now sponsoring our podcast, which we are incredibly grateful for. Starling really changed everything I do about managing my personal finances and my business finances. They’ve been really pivotal, not just in the practical ways of managing money, but in my own relationship with money.

Starling Bank were really pivotal in helping me, through the features that they offer, to get out of debt and manage my money very differently. When it comes to business finances in particular, sometimes we don’t pay enough attention to the business finances because we’re more comfortable to look at the personal stuff, or maybe the other way around.

Today I’m talking to the head of business banking at Starling bank, Symmie Swill. She’s going to share with us some information about the journey of Starling bank, the kind of accounts and businesses that they support, and talk you through some of the features that they have available that can support you in your business finance journey.

Jump to:

• What is a challenger bank?
• What kind of businesses can open a Starling account?
• What features do Starling Bank provide for businesses?
• Can a Starling business account save you money in your business?
• Implementing Profit First with a Starling business account
• How does the application process work?
• What if you have an existing business account elsewhere?
• Tips to manage finances in your business
• Open a Starling Business Account

Hi Symmie, thank you so much for being here with us.

Hey, Catherine. It’s a pleasure to be here. I’m a big fan of your podcast.

Thank you so so much. Symmie, tell us a little bit about your journey and working for Starling bank.

I joined Starling about a year ago to head up their small business banking area. Before that I worked in investment banking. So on the other end of the banking spectrum. I also previously spent eight years advising entrepreneurs and medium sized businesses on how to grow their business, raise money, sell businesses, buy businesses, and really think about their overall banking strategy. Then I moved into strategy and operations to say, “Well, actually, how do we use technology?” How do we build the right products in order to support our small business customers.

It’s really a privilege and an honour to work at Starling because now I’m not only helping entrepreneurs and our customer base, but it’s also great to be working in an entrepreneurial fast moving female led banking environment. So I’m getting the best of both worlds there.

I can’t believe about two years ago I read a statistic that said that it wasn’t until the 1960s that women could actually have their own bank account. And now we’ve got CEO of Starling Bank Anne Boden, a woman who has created this incredible online challenger bank, and is now as you described there, leading this space from a female perspective. I just think that’s incredible that less than 60 years ago we couldn’t even open our own bank account.

I think representation really matters. So it’s fantastic to have and not only start a bank, but lead it. And a large number of her management team are female. It’s such a big difference from what I had when I started where I was basically the only woman in a team of 20, and then the only woman in a team of 50. So it’s fantastic. And I think it makes a big difference for female entrepreneurs as well, to see that they’re being supported.

It really does. Our new strapline on our podcast is “Are you ready to be that wealthy woman?” A lot of women don’t feel like they can be role models or leading role models in their businesses. We often hold on to a lot of guilt and shame that we can even run successful businesses. So it’s great to have Starling bank really pioneering some of that change.

Symmie, when I talk about Starling bank, I talk refer to them as an online challenger bank. What does that actually mean? And how does that compare to a typical High Street bank?

We’re trying to position ourselves not just as a challenger bank, we’re trying to position ourselves as a real bank that happens to be just doing everything easier, fairer, and better for you. There’s two main differences:

• The first main difference is what you can see on the outside. So free accounts, no monthly fees, easy, quick setup, we don’t have branches, everything is on your phone or online. Everything we do is to make banking a lot easier and quicker to do, and much more intuitive.
• And then the second thing is what you don’t see. How we organise ourselves and how we think about the customer. So our entire organisation is customer first, and it’s digital first. We’ve built all of our tech and we’re constantly changing things every single day, tweaking things in response to customer feedback. And that means that we can be really innovative, really nimble and move quickly.

So it’s not just the features you see today that make us different from the high street, but also what you’re going to continue to see and how we can continually evolve and make things better for you to run your business.

Yeah, I love that innovation piece. There’s a lot of businesses out there that will be reading this wanting to create more innovative ideas and concepts themselves. Then to actually have that available through the way that we’re managing money, I think is really clever.

Technology, whilst it has its challenges sometimes, definitely enables us to have more readily available access to things. To be able to speak to somebody for example – the number of times I’ve gone into my Starling app and just spoken to somebody within a couple of minutes. I was having a conversation with a traditional high street bank over in Jersey the other day which I won’t name, but it took me three days to get through to this particular department to get any assistance.

So I love how Starling are embracing using that technology to be able to help to support customers in their businesses.

That’s been a really important part of how we’ve thought about it. We have UK based 24/7 customer service and we think that’s a really important part of convincing people to take that leap.

For a lot of people it is scary to get rid of their traditional bank. So it’s not only the customer service we have in the app, but if you do have any questions there is someone real at the end of the phone, or the chat, or the message in the app. So yes, it’s a big part of what we offer.

Yeah, amazing. And they’re super friendly too! What type of businesses do you specifically support at Starling Bank?

We support sole traders as well as supporting limited companies and limited liability partnerships. We can support charities that are registered as limited companies, community interest companies.

But in terms of types of businesses, we have everything from pharmacists, to lawyers, real estate agents, electricians, hairdressers, I think we have carbon neutral paints, business, some vegan snacks, and of course technology businesses, consultants, and anyone in between!

People sometimes think that we’re really just for tech enabled customers, but we have people from kids to people in their 90s, and anyone in between!

How do the older generation respond to managing their finances using an app?

I think a lot of the older generation have learned, particularly over the last year, how to work technology. WhatsApp and FaceTime to see their grandchildren. When you’ve been shut away, or shielding, it’s been really helpful to be able to do things on your app.

A couple of weeks into lockdown last year we actually released a connected card, which meant that anyone that was shielding could order additional cards for free and load money onto them. So people could go and help them with their shopping, whether it’s neighbours or friends or volunteers. 

Those are the sorts of features that people who were older said encouraged them to get the app.

Yeah, that’s great. Are there any specific features that you provide within the app within Starling Bank that perhaps differ from the traditional High Street banks?

It’s a lot more intuitive and easy to use. We have the spaces feature, which I know you love, which makes it really easy to divide your money up. Pay your profit first, keep money aside for investments, or VAT and tax.

On online banking, we also have the business toolkit, which allows you to take care of all of your financial admin outside from and around your business banking. So you can set up an invoice within the bank account, send it out by connecting in your email, and then when people pay you, it automatically matches up as well.

You can do your VAT, and you can do your tax there as well, and keep a list of all of your bookkeeping, attach digital receipts, and basically organise your financial affairs all within your bank account, which I think is really different and really special.

Does that save business owners then from using software like Xero, or software that they’re maybe paying additional money for?

I think for some businesses using our toolkit is probably cheaper and does all the same things that they need from those from the applications.

There will be businesses that as they grow, it makes more sense for them to use something like Xero or QuickBooks. And for them we have automatic, instant real time integrations with those accounting platforms, which is actually really valuable. And probably one of the most valuable features of the accounts.

That means that while you’re doing everything that’s running your business, your financial transactions are automatically updated into your accounting software, so there’s no need for reconciliations, you don’t need shoe boxes of receipts, etc. We’re really thinking about how do we make your business account part of enabling you to grow your business, rather than it being a task in and of itself.

Yeah, that’s a really interesting point.

I must admit, I haven’t really explored the business toolkit yet myself. We do integrate though our Starling account into Xero, so everything just automatically feeds through which is fabulous. It saves my accountant a whole bunch of work!

And to touch on the pots facilities – within the app itself, we have these spaces which I call money pots. You can put pictures behind them, you can give them specific names, you can put goal target amounts on them. You can automate them so that money goes into them automatically each month, or you can do it manually. And I just think it’s such a revolutionary way of managing money in your business.

If you haven’t listened to my previous episode talking about the profit first model, we’ve interviewed Mike Michaelowicz who is the owner of Profit First. The Profit First model for me is a game changer because it forces us to forward think about how much am I going to have to pay for VAT this month or this quarter? How much of it is going to be taken away for tax? And how much of it do I want to safeguard for profit?

It gets you forward thinking. So rather than budgeting, which is all very much about looking back into the past, looking at what have we spent and then quite frankly just beating ourselves up for the fact that we’ve overspent, it forces you to be forward thinking in your business.

I think for a business owner, cashflow forecasting and predicting what might be ahead is something that a lot of people get really scared about. In my pots, for example, anytime money comes in (and I do this daily which is a bit excessive, I know) straight away I put 10% into my tax pot, 20% into my VAT pot, and the rest goes into my profit pot. Then I leave a floating balance in my main account to cover all my direct debits, etc.

That forces me to think about paying myself first, and also moving money aside for tax and VAT, so you don’t get that scary notice at the end of the tax year when you’ve got this huge big tax bill to pay which forces business owners to then feel in a struggle mindset.

So I just love how you pioneered this. I really do consider you guys to be complete pioneers in the whole way of mental accounting, and the psychological side of money and actually making it so easily accessible to your business owners.

It’s really nice to hear, I think the spaces are my favourite feature as well, they’re so easy to use. And I think it really transforms how people feel about their accounts in that you feel it’s an easy way to feel very much in control. We also have spending analytics to categorise your expenses. So when people flip through the app and see those in combination with being able to plan ahead with the pots, it’s a really easy way to feel that you understand your finances, and you can make good decisions about your business without fancy spreadsheets or really worrying about it too much.

Yeah, I mean I do have one spreadsheet in my business, but that’s literally because my ops manager was almost like, you have to have this Catherine! And I was like, “Okay, I will embrace the spreadsheets!” But other than that I can go into my spending, and I can go back to last month, and I can see exactly under each category: Marketing, VAT, Staff, Admin, Workplace, Food & Drink, Travel, Equipment. I can literally see what I’ve spent every single month in those categories.

It’s really useful to know where you’re leaking money in your business categories. So I know for example marketing was my highest spend last month. That’s fine, because we’re investing a lot in marketing right now. But if I’m looking at those categories and thinking there are a few coffees that have gone through there that maybe I could have saved and that could have gone into my profit pot and be put towards a specific purpose, then it’s really empowering to just have that information at your fingertips.

So how does the application process work? If somebody wanted to apply for a business account, how would they go about that?

So everything’s in-app. There’ll be two parts to that process; we will ask you as an individual to upload your ID and do a short video, and then we will ask you questions about your business.

We’ve put a lot of time into trying to make that process feel like you’re talking to a person. So you’ll be asked to please describe your business. And we’ll ask for a little bit of evidence, that may be your experience, what you’ve done previously, or your trading activities and contracts. If you’re a startup, we’ll ask you to give us as much as you possibly can. For example a business plan or evidence that you’ve done something similar before.

And then you will have a person review this. You might be asked a few questions, and then hopefully very quickly, you will get your account.

Yeah, it’s so easy. I love how you just very quickly said “a little video of yourself”. Some people will be thinking “What? You have to queue up in a bank for like 16 hours to get an account!” It’s so different, isn’t it?

It is. For a lot of people that’s the moment where they realise how different their experience is going to be, because a lot of people just assume that the way they’ve always done things is the way they’re always going to have to do things. Like I said before, a lot of our time is spent challenging things. Why does this process happen? Why do we have to have you speak to a person for this? Why do you have to go through all of these hoops and paperwork? Actually is there a smarter, faster way to do it, that actually gets the same customer result?

And in that application process, what happens if somebody has an existing business bank account elsewhere, and they want to move everything across to it to Starling?

If they have an existing bank account elsewhere, they’ll still have to go through the process of setting an account up with us. So we are a bank, and there are certain requirements we have to do to make sure we understand who you are and what you do.

But we’re also a member of the current account switching scheme, which means it’s very simple once you’ve got an account open with us to switch everything from that previous bank across. Direct Debits, Standing Orders and that takes around seven days. There’s a guarantee that everything has to switch.

The switching scheme is really helpful in terms of getting people comfortable to change accounts, because a lot of people have been with their account provider for years. It’s quite a big thing to decide to open a new account, so the easy onboarding process helps you get over that hurdle. And then the fact that you’ve got that ability to switch everything really quickly takes away those obstacles, and takes away that admin.

I’m so glad you mentioned the current account switch service, because a lot of people think about switching their bank account, and then just think it’s going to be an absolute headache and a nightmare, and then it stops them from making that decision. With that switch service, you’ve got that seven day guarantee, so it’s just so easy then to consider moving your account from one bank to another.

I mentored and coached a lady about two years ago who had this big fear of switching bank accounts because her relationship with money was very much influenced by her mum and her grandmother. Her grandmother actually set up her first bank account, so she felt this real allegiance and loyalty to the particular bank that this account had been set up under.

It was really interesting to explore that with her, what was limiting her or stopping her from moving her account, even though logically she knew it made more sense to move it.

Then we talked about the fact that Starling was founded by a woman, and all of a sudden she was like, “Wow, it’s safe for me to move my bank account!”

So it’s interesting, we can sometimes have an emotional connection to where we store our money. Sometimes we have to challenge those beliefs. Is it true that we have to keep our bank at the same place for the whole of our life? Or is this an opportunity for you to think about the features and benefits you get with your bank?

Make a list of all the things the benefits you’re getting from your current bank, and question if they are valuable to you. Is it valuable for me now at the stage I’m at in my business?

I know that one of the other features of Starling is the Starling marketplace. And I think this is fabulous. Could you just tell us a little bit about what the Starling marketplace looks like.

The marketplace just allows you to integrate the account with other products and services that you may be using to run your business successfully. The main ones are obviously the accounting integrations: QuickBooks, Xero, FreeAgent, and some other popular ones are point of sale payments like Zettle and Sum Up. If you’re running a retail business, it means that you’re instantly getting that transaction information through the app.

We also have things like integrations with Slack. So if you have a finance team, you can get notifications into the Slack channel. We have integrations with insurance companies and legal firms.

We are really trying to think about what our business customers need from a more holistic perspective, and how can we be smarter around using your current account to integrate with some of those other products and services.

I did not know about the slack integration.

It’s quite cool. So it will just put notifications into a Slack channel. So if you need other people to be aware of those payments, they’ll find out when you find out. The integration will give them a notification of that information without them having access to the bank account. They’ll just see that the payments happen, they won’t have access to the account.

Currently only directors can currently have access to the business account, which is something we’re working on. Because we know as our customers grow, that they do need teams to be able to access the business account in a secure way.

That’s great to know about what might be coming.

Finally, then Symmie, if anyone’s reading this and they’re interested to hear from the head of business banking, with your experience and expertise, what tips would you leave our readers with today that would help small business owners in terms of managing their finances?

The main one is probably one you wouldn’t expect from a business bank! Just be really clear about what the purpose and objectives of your business are beyond the financial.

For us, the bank account is really there to enable you and your finances. To enable you to achieve your objectives and your goals as a business. If you take the time to think about what you’re trying to achieve as a business, it’s a lot easier to make those decisions about priorities. What pots do you set up in your account?

Know what you’re trying to achieve beyond the financial.

Some more conventional tips would be around being organised.

Putting some good habits in place. Invoice immediately, check your account regularly.

The bookkeeping feature in the toolkit makes it easy for you to upload your receipts, and manage your finances as a habit rather than whenever you happen to look at the account.

And the final one is to try to find a network of other people to learn from. Whether that’s people that you’ve worked with, or met, or whether it’s things like listening to podcasts.

We have a blog where we have some of our customers talking about how they use the account, what tips and tricks they have. And also some various features and articles around how to manage your finances better. We’re really trying to provide a bit more of a network around our customer base on our website, so we do encourage people to check that out.

Oh, that’s fabulous. We write a blog ourselves as well, and have a fab article on The 15 Minute Exercise to Change the Way You Manage Money in Your Business, and I loved how you talked there about giving every pound of purpose.

This is one of our golden rules – getting financially naked, understanding your numbers, and then actually giving every pound of purpose so that you can bring it back to more than just the numbers. It’s not just about the money, it’s about what that money brings to you that makes all the difference.

If anybody wants to know more about opening up a Starling account, where would be the best place for them to head to right now.

The website will have more details on how to sign up. You can also obviously just download the app and go through the process immediately.

There’s lots on our website around the best features, how to use us, and like I said, there’s a blog on there as well which provides useful information for small businesses.

Thank you so much Symmie for coming to spend some time with us today to talk about how we can manage business finances. Thank you so so much for your time and your wisdom. It’s been an absolute pleasure to talk to you today.

Thank you so much, Catherine. It’s been a lot of fun.

Resources:

Open a Starling Bank business account

Open a Starling Bank personal account

The 15 Minute Exercise to Change the Way You Manage Money in Your Business

How to Use the Profit First Method in Your Small Business

Join The Money Circle

Join Catherine’s Facebook Page and FREE Facebook Group

My Online Courses – Investing for beginners from £1

Catherine’s YouTube Channel 

Connect with Catherine on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook

The post How to Manage Your Business Finances first appeared on The Money Panel.

The post How to Manage Your Business Finances appeared first on The Money Panel.

See the FULL LIST of participating areas.

Appointments opened for booking on 1st October. If you want to take part, don’t delay, as slots go fast.

Jump to Section:

• How to book a Free Wills Month appointment
• Do I need a will?
• What exactly is a will?
• The steps to creating a will
• What areas are participating in Free Wills Month?
• Resources

How to book a Free Wills Month appointment:

• Enter your postcode on the Free Wills Month website to find your nearest participating solicitor who has availability.
  
• Contact the solicitor to arrange an appointment, and mention the Free Wills Month scheme. Due to the pandemic, most solicitors are offering video and phone call appointments, as well as face to face.

Do I Need A Will?

It always interests me how we don’t like to talk about taboo subjects, and death is one of those taboo subjects, right? People don’t like talking about the what if scenarios; creating a will is one of those things. So I want to talk you through the basic principles of will writing and power of attorney.

A lot of people think “I’m young and fit and healthy, I don’t need to make a will.” Creating a will is relevant whether you’re single, whether you’re married, whether you’re not married and in a relationship, whether you’re in a civil partner relationship. There are two certainties in life, death and taxes, and we should be talking about this more openly.

If you are under 55 and don’t qualify for Free Wills Month, I encourage you to check out my guide on creating a will to protect your family, or listen to the full guide below.

What Exactly is A Will?

A will is a written legal document, and it sets out your wishes as to what you would like to happen in the event that something happens to you. In order for a will to be legally valid, it needs to be in writing. It needs to be signed, and it needs to be witnessed by two independent witnesses who aren’t beneficiaries within the will. So, for example, let’s say you’ve left some money to your best friend – you can’t have your best friend witness that will because it’s a conflict of interest.

Then you then need to choose executors. An executor is who is responsible for gathering together all of the information about your estate in the event that something happens to you. So it’s important to think carefully about who are going to be the executors on your estate, and if you find you’re procrastinating, I would think about who you implicitly trust? They’re really just administering your wishes so they don’t necessarily have to make decisions, but they have to just be capable and responsible people. If you really can’t think of anybody, then sometimes people may choose a solicitor to be one of those executors, but be mindful that solicitors obviously will charge for that service.

For most people, they would like their partner or their spouse to inherit their estates, and then, if anything happens to both of them together or all the second death would then go to perhaps the children. If there are no children, then it may go to family members, friends, or maybe some charities.

Join The Money Circle today and get immediate access to our digital Money Closet. Never lose important details again! My Money Closet is a versatile digital OR print solution to storing all your financial information in one handy place.

Download or print My Money Closet immediately
Digital file makes it easy to  access anywhere & on the go
Easily update when details change
No filing necessary!

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The steps to creating a will

There are really six ways that you can get started creating a will.

1. Make one yourself – You can literally go into WH Smiths and buy a will writing pack! This is the cheapest way to create a will, and actually if your situation is very straightforward and you’re procrastinating about this right now, that is an option. It isn’t something that I personally would recommend because it’s probably a little bit risky. And the reason it’s risky is because if you haven’t done it correctly, had it witnessed correctly, or you’ve missed something out, then it could be a costly mistake. But what I would say is if you’re really avoiding doing it because you can’t afford to use a solicitor right now, that would be your best option.
   
   
2. Use a will writer – The only benefit of using a will writer is they are cheaper than a solicitor. However, they’re not regulated in the same way. So if you had a complaint they’re not regulated, whereas the solicitor would be regulated. We used will writer for our wills, and we made sure they were a member of a professional organisation. We were very comfortable that they were an expert in what they did and hadn’t just set themselves up as a will writer, which can happen. So if you’re going to go down this route, my tips would be to make sure that they are a member of one of these two professional organisations: The Society of Will Writers, or The Institute of Professional Will Writers. Get some recommendations from other people, and ask them what their experiences were, and maybe see if they have any qualifications.
   
   
3. Use a solicitor – This, in my mind, is probably the least risky option, particularly if it’s a solicitor that deals with probate wills, estate planning and inheritance tax. If you have a complicated scenario; maybe you’ve got children from a previous marriage or lots of different assets, or maybe your estate is worth a considerable amount and is over the inheritance tax threshold. In this case I would definitely go to a solicitor, because you’ll want to consider the most tax efficient way to leave your will to the appropriate beneficiaries. 
   
   
4. Use a charity – A lot of wills can be made at particular times of the year through what they call Will Aid. This is normally around October to November time, and you can actually approach specific charities and in conjunction with local solicitors, they will work with that solicitor to help you draft your will. You then make a charitable donation towards the cost. There are lots of charities that participate in this, like Cancer Research and the Stroke Association, so that could be something you might want to consider.
   
   
5. Get involved in Free Wills Month! – Members of the public aged 55 and over contact one of the firms of solicitors taking part in a Free Wills Month campaign during the designated month to request an appointment. The solicitor will help to draw up a Will that accurately reflects the wishes of the individual or couple. Those taking up the offer are under no obligation to leave a gift to one of the Free Wills Month charities, however, we earnestly hope that many will see this as a chance to help their favourite cause. Appointments are limited and are allocated on a first come first served basis. Once all available appointments are booked the campaign will close, this may be before the end of the campaigning month.
   
   
6. Download the free Will Planner from Free Wills Month – If you are under 55 but still want to benefit from Free Wills Month, you can find a handy free Will Planner download on the Free Wills Month website.

What Areas Are Participating in Free Wills Month?

The following areas will be covered:

Birmingham, Bolton, Bournemouth, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Chester, Chichester, Cornwall, Cumbria & Lancaster, Derbyshire, East Cheshire, Exeter, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Huddersfield, Hull, Ipswich, Leeds, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Liverpool, Manchester, Mid & West Wales, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Northern Ireland, North Wales, Norwich, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Preston, Sheffield, Shropshire, Southampton, Stockport, Stoke-on-Trent, Swansea, Torquay, Wakefield, Wirral and Worthing.

Resources:

Join The Money Circle to access lots of free downloads, money training, our exclusive Money Closet and lots more!

Join Catherine’s Facebook Page and FREE Facebook Group

My Online Courses – Investing for beginners from £1

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Get involved in Free Wills Month

The post Free Wills Month: How to Get Involved first appeared on The Money Panel.

The post Free Wills Month: How to Get Involved appeared first on The Money Panel.

Despite being an expert with money, I haven’t made the most of it.

I’m Emma Wright, a certified life and financial coach with 16 years industry experience working within global financial markets and as a qualified Chartered Financial Planner.

Get in touch with me:

My Website

Instagram

Facebook

I wish I discovered the POWER of financial coaching sooner!

I stumbled across financial coaching in 2019 when I decided I wanted to create a bigger impact on people’s lives earlier on in life, when it really mattered. This desire led me to becoming a certified life coach, before I decided to specialise as a financial coach. It was at this stage that I was told I needed to speak with Catherine Morgan, founder of the Money Panel.

Financial coaching is an unregulated industry so you don’t need to be certified to be a ‘money mindset’ coach. When I discovered that the Money Panel offered a certification programme that would be recognised in the financial services industry, I knew I had to sign up.

How financial coaching changed my life

Throughout my training I uncovered that my own relationship with money was not serving me well. I discovered that I am fiercely independent when it comes to money. This stems from a belief I learnt as a child growing up that ‘you should never rely on anyone else for money’. You learn your financial beliefs by the age of 7!

During my career I have worked extremely hard to make money, often at the expense of time with my family. I then saved as much as I could each month because I feared losing my money. Perhaps this fear stemmed from my parents splitting up when I was just 7 years old and me witnessing both parents losing wealth as a consequence?

On the outside I appeared to have strong financial habits. In reality, I needed the SECURITY of having all of my money in savings account. Despite working with investments I didn’t invest into the stock market until my mid-30s. I missed out on the London property boom because I didn’t feel confident to buy! Having savings made me feel safe. I can see now how this has led to me missing out.

Had I invested just £100 a month for 10 years and earned 4% each year, annually compounded, my £12,000 saving would have been worth £14,774. Instead, sat in the bank, it was worth the same amount as I put in because interest rates have been almost zero for over a decade (even less due to the impact of inflation).

My biggest lightbulb moment came when I realised that I had sabotaged my own success during my career. I uncovered, as I trained with my cohort, that I had an income ceiling. Every time I broke through it, it made me feel uncomfortable. When my earnings went over a certain amount I resigned or changed jobs. I didn’t realise I was doing this until I unpicked it during a coaching session. I discovered that I felt like an imposter in a male dominated world. I didn’t feel I deserved my role.

Financial coaching can change your life too

It really is the small things you do each and every day with your money that will have a far bigger impact on your wealth over time. It’s not just about getting a pay rise or coming into a lump sum, such as winning the lottery!

The reality is that you can be rich, earning a lot of money and not be wealthy. Everyone’s definition of wealth is different, but if you consider where the meaning of wealth comes from, wellbeing, having lots of money doesn’t mean you have financial wellbeing. You can earn a little, make the most of it, be smart and become wealthy over time! It is what you do with your money that truly matters.

After all, how many lottery winners have you heard of that have wasted their win? Why is this the case? If you are used to spending your money, you will likely spend more when you suddenly have a lump sum in your bank account. If you aren’t used to having money, you may find yourself trying to give it away! Unless you work on your relationship with money!

90% of your financial decisions are made by your emotions, not by logic.

Therefore, you need to create the right mindset to support your behaviours so that, overtime, you become the person you want to be, without any effort. In the heat of the moment your money leaks show up. For example, when you pop into Waitrose to buy a loaf of bread and end up spending £100 on things you didn’t intend!

Financial coaching helps you to form healthy financial habits that will transform your relationship with money and re-write your Money Narrative. It is those daily habits that will have an atomic impact on your wealth over time. By learning how to make the most of every £1 you make, plugging your money leaks and investing for your future, you are laying the foundations for your ultimate success.

Just doing the Money Panel’s financial coaching training programme has changed my life. I now run my own successful financial coaching business, Emma Wright Coaching. I no longer work ridiculous hours for a big corporate. I work for myself, around my family and I do all the things that I would be advising my clients to do with their money. I invest and spend on the things that I value.

Imagine what it can do for you? You too can achieve financial freedom if you first work on your relationship with money.

Resources:

Get my book

Register for my FREE Financial Coaching Masterclass

Join The Money Circle

Join Catherine’s Facebook Page and FREE Facebook Group

My Online Courses – Investing for beginners from £1

Catherine’s YouTube Channel 

Connect with Catherine on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook

The post Discover the POWER of financial coaching first appeared on The Money Panel.

The post Discover the POWER of financial coaching appeared first on The Money Panel.

Your Life Path number is THE main number we work with in Numerology, it equates 75% of what is going on in your life and business and can be worked out using your full date of birth. Some Life Path numbers are more business orientated, some more entrepreneurial and some are more focused on success and wealth. Other numbers may be more focused on creative or humanitarian energies. These numbers can be just as successful as the number next to them, but they need to approach how they do this a different way – a case of ‘Impact over Income’, ‘Service over Success’.

The purpose of this article is to highlight that by not knowing your numbers you could be missing out on making the most of yourself in your life and business and potentially leaving money on the table.

So I want to ask you 5 questions.

1. Are you following your business purpose?

The Life Path number can also be called ‘The Destiny Number’ – which is exactly that your destiny – the path you are here to walk in your life and business. We work with other numbers – there are numbers that help us navigate this path. There are numbers that your life ultimately wants you to be. There are numbers that are easy to be, but you don’t need to spend time doing (however much you may fancy it).

This understanding and knowledge, when translated into your business purpose and potentiality, is potent. All of the gold, magic and juice are found in these numbers and you can move forward from this place. I am working with the energies of The Leader, The Builder, The CEO, The Humanitarian and The Architect of Change. This is my business treasure map which enables me to focus on my business cash flow, income and profit from understanding these energies and how they play out.

2. Are you working against the tide in your business?

There are better times and easier times to do things. As business owners we can get stressed out if we do not do better than last month and last year. What are the results YOY? YTD? MTD?

Nature works in cycles and we do too. There are times to grow and times to consolidate. The concept of ebb and flow needs to be factored into our lives and business, but if we are always full steam ahead it cannot be taken into consideration. Understanding the cosmic currents help you understand what the soil is currently fertile for in your life and business. When you understand the personal year, you are in you can actively seek and take the opportunities that are offered to you. The unique experiences, challenges and opportunities of each cycle all add important knowledge and coping skills to your business toolbox, enabling you to work with, instead of against, your personal year from a financial viewpoint.

3. A Niche not a Nation

I often say, ‘Get Big, Get Niche or Get Out’. There is so much noise online, and we are subjected to 165% more information than our Grandparents generation ever were. Considering this, the power of the niche is a real thing.

Since understanding the energies of my numbers, I have managed to carve a niche for myself and I am comfortable to stand in this niche. My numbers are very dynamic and entrepreneurial, they are about originality and uniqueness. So, bringing a discipline such as Numerology into business works for me. Understanding my numbers has literally given me permission to stand in this niche AND it is working for me and my bottom line. In line with your numeric energies there will be a niche for you too.

Catherine is working with a master number – she is literally here to change the world one person at a time, leave a legacy and create an empire and with her mission to impact 1 million women we can see that she is working with her energies

4. Stay in your lane

In the past I have put others on a pedestal and looked to them for the answers, I have stopped doing this as I now know that my numbers hold the answers. Do you suffer from ‘comparisonitis’ comparing someone else’s chapter 43 with your chapter 3? Firstly, we never ever know what someone is actually going through and if their life and business is working as well as it looks through the filtered lens of social media, then they are probably working in the positive of their numbers.

The only person you should be putting on a pedestal is yourself and from that view point you will have the ability to understand your numbers and trust yourself, the process of life and the journey you are on. Building your business revenue from a place of authenticity.

5. Do you really understand who you are?

From trying to serve all the people all of the time and looking at what other people were doing and comparing myself to them I had completely lost myself. When I left University in the early 1990’s I was full of optimism and energy and excitement for my future, nothing could stop me. 20 years later I felt quite jaded from life. I was running a business as I knew I had to be self-employed (life Path 1) but I wasn’t using all my skills and talents. Fast forward a few years I feel confident in who I am, who I am here to serve and have the energy and focus to put my head down and make it happen. As understanding my numbers increases my numbers!

To understand how you could be leaving money on the table in your business, work out your Life Path number by downloading my free guide – ‘Discover Your Life Path number’

The post How Knowing Your Personal Numerology Numbers Can Help Your Business first appeared on The Money Panel.

The post How Knowing Your Personal Numerology Numbers Can Help Your Business appeared first on The Money Panel.

Effective Time Blocking Consists Of:

• Routine
• Planning Ahead
• Day Theming
• Task Batching
• Time Boxing
• Celebrating!

Time Blocking for Parents

Raise your hand if 2020/21 has seen you working more evenings and weekends? Or sat at your desk/dining room table/sofa/kids bedroom floor staring at the screen wondering how you’ve achieved so little today! You’re certainly not alone. A recent survey revealed that 60% of people work longer hours than they want and 24% say it’s hard to relax and not think about work.

I have worked from home for several years, and I began utilising time blocking to organise my working day and week soon after realising that I was losing several hours a day and didn’t know why. Because working from home offers such distractions as:

• Getting odd jobs done around the house
• Making endless cups of coffee
• The sofa!
• Too many impromptu solo dance parties (just me?!)

And these are all before the kids got sent home to join in the fun!

In such an uncertain and changeable year, the one thing I know with absolute certainty is that effective time blocking can save your sanity. But let me be clear from the beginning that working a full time job (whether self employed or employed) from home and remote teaching children of any age simultaneously is an entirely different beast.

Side note: if you’re interested to hear why I won’t call it homeschooling I’m happy to answer in the comments!

Perhaps one of the most important tips I’m going to share is around celebrating your wins, however big or small.

If the last 12 months have taught us anything, it’s that;

• Our mental health deserves and needs to be protected
• Family is everything
• Working from home requires a level of discipline
• Being a teacher is hard!

With all of the above in mind, I want to begin with the importance of a good routine if you have children at home.

Routine

We’ve all heard that children thrive with a routine, right? When all the daily routines we are used to are unceremoniously removed it’s so very easy to react a little bit like a rabbit in the headlights.

I always thought it was simply in my nature to not like routine. I am a bit of a free spirit: I like to explore things I find interesting, and prefer to be the authority than respond to it. For years I actively rebelled against my own attempts at structure feeling as though I was tying myself down.

If this sounds like you, don’t despair! It’s not that you’re ‘just not a routine person’, it’s simply that you haven’t found the right routine for you. I can’t tell you what time you should wake up, how long you should spend in each block, or any of the other things which gurus reveal as secret formulas. Our home lives are unique, you and your family will have different needs to mine, and our jobs require varying things from us.

In a nutshell, make sure that your routine includes:

• Time to complete important work. This might sound self explanatory, but there is nothing more motivating than feeling super productive. And the best way to feel super productive is to complete a task in its entirety. An important element of time blocking is batching, which I will explain later. If you haven’t read ‘Eat the Frog’ I highly recommend it.
  
  
• Time to relax. “What? When? Have you met my kids?!” Okay, I get it! With two very small (and *ahem* spirited) children at home, and with no second adult in our household to answer any of the 85,000 questions I get asked in a single day, I understand exactly how difficult relaxation can be to work into your day. That doesn’t it make it any less vital. It doesn’t have to be hours, in fact it doesn’t even have to be one hour. 5-15 minutes of time spent with just your breath can do wonders!
  
  
• Time to indulge in a passion. I have found that combining this with the above works perfectly for me. I love to read, so I make sure to spend at least 15 minutes every day reading. I find it relaxing and it’s something which is just for me.
  
  
• Time to explore an interest. This one is often also combined with the above two steps (see how this works!) Again, this could be 10 minutes researching something of interest, watching a YouTube how-to video, reading, or indulging your favourite hobby. I combine my relax/passion/interest time because it works for me. You can do the same with your own hobbies, but there is plenty of science to back me up when I say please try not to rely on screens for your relaxation. If you watch a YouTube video to learn something new, great! Make sure you carve out another time to get your relaxation in.
  
  
• Some flexibility. Small children are unpredictable. There will likely be some non-negotiables in your diary (meetings with set times, etc), but where you can try to make sure that your plan can be at least slightly fluid. I have a set time at the end of the day which is solely for ‘snagging’. These are things that were in my diary for the day, but for some reason out of my control didn’t happen.
  
  
• Time to sleep. Again, I’m stating the obvious here I know. But I know first hand how easy it is to slip into an unhealthy relationship with your bed, especially when you have young children. Personally I know from years of experimenting that I thrive best on 7.5 hours sleep per night. My youngest wakes around 6am every day, so I wake at 5am.
  
  If that instantly sounds like hell, I get it! I have 30+ years behind me of self confessed night owlery. If no one else in your house is awake until 7, 8, or even 9am then there is absolutely no need to be awake at 5am in my opinion!
  
  What works for me is carving a little quiet time into my morning, knowing that the rest of the will be anything but! Waking before everyone else also gives me time to Eat that Frog, meaning by the time my kids wake up I already feel like a productive queen bee!

Planning for Time Blocking

A good plan is key. I love a physical planner and pen. But as Operations Manager for an online company I also recognise that things can change and evolve rapidly so I also use digital tools to plan.

Time spent setting up your week is possibly some of the most valuable time you will spend each week. Carve out some time each week to plan ahead – I do this on Sunday morning, but you can choose a time that works best for you.

Specifically, I use Trello and the Law of Attraction planner. I love Trello because of the ability to move tasks up and down my list at will, clearly label them, and share task status with others in the team.

Day Theming

Day theming is exactly as it sounds. Give each day a theme, and assign tasks based on those themes. My Trello board is set up with a list for each day. Within each list are cards with my specific tasks.

Each day of the week is dedicated to a specific area within the business – this means when I need to add something to the to-do list I know instantly what day to add it to. Need to complete a social media task? That’s a Monday job. It also means that when I need to give a time scale on a task I can do that accurately.

At the end of each day I set tasks on the next day’s list as ‘to-do’. These are the tasks that I’m going to complete the following day. Anything not marked as ‘to-do’ will remain on the day’s list until the following week!

Your week will likely look vastly different to mine, but my week includes:

• Monday – Planning, Scheduling, and Strategy.
  We have our team huddle on Mondays, so this works well for me. I also love the feeling of scheduling a week or more ahead on Monday, because it starts my week with an organised and accomplished vibe. I use Mondays to get to inbox zero, pick up on things that have come in over the weekend, and diarise anything new for completion.
  
  
• Tuesday – Websites and tech work.
  A huge part of what I do is making sure our websites and tech work seamlessly for our customers and clients. Any updates which are needed, tech and website tweaks, and even full re-designs happen on a Tuesday!
  
  
• Wednesday – Audience specific work.
  At The Money Panel we serve a wide variety of people, but these can be broadly distinguished into financial professionals and non financial professionals. The work we do for both audiences is simply incredible, and to achieve the positive impact which underpins everything we do, I dedicate a day each week to any tasks which serve one of those broad audience bases.
  
  
• Thursday – Audience specific work.
  As above!
  
  
• Friday – Podcast and Writing.
  We put a huge amount of work into our podcast and blog at The Money Panel, which has just reached 100k downloads, and for which we are forever grateful to our podcast mentor Anna Parker-Naples. There are lots of moving parts which go into organising these and making sure we are always delivering the best possible content we can.

Task Batching

Task batching works incredibly well alongside day theming. Again, just as it sounds, task batching involves completing similar sets of tasks concurrently. If I have graphics to create, a workbook to design for a course or programme, or anything else creative these tasks fall under the umbrella of ‘Canva’ work.

These might be design tasks for several different projects, so on the surface might seem unrelated. Batching tasks together in this way allows you to get into flow and almost always results in achieving more in a smaller time.

As an example, on Friday of this week I have 3 podcasts to complete. They each will be scheduled and repurposed into blog articles. I will also create quote graphics from each episode, be sure to share the go-live date with any guests we have interviewed, and lots of other tasks related to great podcasting!

Batching these tasks is as simple as:

• Upload all 3 audio tracks to our podcast software
• Create 3 blog articles
• Create shareable quote graphics

NOT batching these tasks would look like:

• Upload 1 audio track
• Create 1 blog article
• Create shareable quote graphics
• Repeat x 3!

I can absolutely guarantee that the second method would take at least twice as long as the first!

Your business will have several different needs, so I advise spending some time writing down all the tasks you tend to complete on a recurring basis. You will then be able to identify themes and work from there.

Time Boxing

After I have checked my tasks for the next day, grouped them into batches, and marked them as ‘to-do’ in Trello, I write these tasks into my physical Law of Attraction planner. The LOA planner has some amazing features, but by far the best in my opinion are the weekly spreads. Each day is broken down into 30 minute slots from 5am to 10pm. This makes time blocking a dream – I can see at a glance:

9:30am – 10:am ‘Emails’

10am – 10:30am ‘Snack time’

10:30am – 11:30am ‘Social media scheduling’

And so on. You could absolutely achieve this same effect within Trello or an online tool, but for me I find that writing things down enables a higher level of thinking, and therefore, more focused action. Writing down my day cements it in my brain, and allows me to see instantly if I am overstretching myself.

The big difference this year to previous years working from home is that instead of blocking for ‘school drop off’ and ‘school pick up’, we are now having to block in times for remote learning, snack time, and play time!

Blocking your day into half hour slots helps you to see immediately if you are expecting too much of yourself. Often attributed to Bill Gates, the quote goes “Most people overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a lifetime.”

If you’ve ever got to the end of the day feeling like you haven’t stopped but have barely scratched your to-do list, you’re likely overestimating! Be realistic with your time, the demands on your time, and your personal needs. Tune into yourself and observe. I tend to lose focus after around 2pm, so I make sure to block some time for a wake up activity (5 minute dance parties are a regular occurrence here!) and I don’t plan in any tasks which require intense concentration after 2pm.

A Complete Guide to Effective Time Blocking for Parents in 2021 – Celebrate

Celebrate your wins each day – trust me! Ending the day feeling incredible that you got just ONE thing done is far more motivating than trying to sleep while worrying about all the things you haven’t done. Celebrating your wins is also one of the most important ways to avoid burnout.

Accept that you are human, that the demands on your time have increased, and that all achievements are just that. Achievements.

I pat myself on the back and congratulate myself (literally) every day that I wake up at 4:45 because (trust me!) that is an achievement in itself. So celebrating that helps me to start my day feeling like I’ve totally got this, and that vibe follows you through the day.

At the end of every week I reward myself for all my hard work with a Netflix binge. Every other weekend (when my children are with their dad) I dedicate an entire day to my passion: reading! Finally at the beginning of every month I decide on one bigger thing I will reward myself with at the end of the month. This could be a massage, a new candle, or something else.

(side tip: I don’t watch TV during the week for a few reasons. 1. Getting up at 4:45am means being in bed by 8:45 and asleep by 9:15. This means that once I’ve put my kids to bed, read stories, fetched another glass of water, and tidied up there really isn’t time. 2. It’s too tempting to watch until gone midnight! 3. I find TV contributes to brain fog for me, so I save it for the weekends when the demands on my brain are lower!)

Effective Time Blocking, Task Batching, & Day Theming

Do you use any of the methods I’ve included in this guide? Share with us in the comments any techniques or methods that you use which I haven’t mentioned here.

The post A Complete Guide to Effective Time Blocking for Parents in 2021 first appeared on The Money Panel.

The post A Complete Guide to Effective Time Blocking for Parents in 2021 appeared first on The Money Panel.

In 2019 I spoke with Faith Archer, a personal finance journalist, about this topic and she shared with us some incredible tips for how to save money on food, but in 2021 I want to cover how our relationship with money and money narratives has a direct impact on how we spend on food.

Why do we overspend on food?

Faith tells us that there are a lot of reasons why we overspend on food.

• Waste is a big one; if we buy too much that we aren’t able to use each week or month. I think one figure I read was that the average family wastes £70 per month on food that goes to waste.
  
  
• Habit is another factor. There’s an element for many of us of doing the weekly shop almost on auto-pilot. We buy the same brands and cook the same meals without really thinking about it.
  
  
• There’s also the element of convenience. If you’re trying to juggle a family and working and other life pressures, often we can end up buying expensive convenience and perceived time-saving foods.
  
  
• Using food for purposes other than fuel. We want to nurture our families, so we can read about new fads and load our trolleys up with supposed super-foods that no one ends up wanting to eat. Then there’s the obvious treat or celebratory reasons, so we may find that we’re buying extra food outside if the remit of ‘does everyone have enough calories to thrive and survive’.

I would add to this that our relationship with money and our values also play a huge role in why we overspend on food. 90% of every decision that we make comes from our unconscious beliefs – things that we haven’t even really ever thought about.

Bringing some consciousness and curiosity to some of those beliefs can be so inspiring and transformational and can really help to get rid of some of those self-sabotaging beliefs that stop you from making healthy decisions and making good decisions around money.

If your subconscious belief is that you are not good at managing money, then your brain looks for ways to prove this belief. Couple this with the very conscious belief “We always overspend on food” and you have your self sabotaging cycle. The brain believes that you are not good at managing money, and you know that you have overspent on food in the past (even if it is the recent past). Therefore when you attempt to implement a classic food budget or spending plan, your brain reverts to the subconscious belief that you are not good at managing budgets or spending or plans.

This is why inevitably we found ourselves in a situation where we continue to overspend despite our best laid plans to reign in the cost of our food spend. “We always overspend on food” is your comfort zone, it’s what the brain knows to be true because it’s what it has always been told and it has ample evidence to prove it!

The first step in managing that food spend is to bring some awareness to the feeling behind it. In fact, it’s not until we do the mindset and relationship work around money that we can then move on to the practical steps. We manage the emotion and then we manage the money.

How to save money on: Our values

When we think of our values, we often think of the big overarching life values: kindness, freedom, health, family etc. But what we don’t do is link those values to our everyday lives.

For example, let’s consider ‘Jane’. Jane grew up with a modest background, there was always ‘enough’ for the essentials and the odd treat here and there. Food played a big part in Jane’s childhood experiences; dinner was a family event, and her dad always went to lots of effort to cook a wholesome and enjoyable meal for the whole family. They would often sit at the table for an hour, using the meal time to discuss their day and other topics. Jane remembers mealtimes fondly.

Today as an adult with her own children, Jane continues this tradition. Jane values family. But the behavioural result of this value is that the family food spend feels excessive and is a constant source of financial worry for her. But Jane also spends a lot on TV Subscription services – the household has 4 different TV subscription services totalling £75 per month.

When Jane sits down to think about her money beliefs, she realises that she values family far more than she values her TV subscription services. So she decides to cut 3 of them and keep the one which offers the most documentaries (because she also values knowledge) and redirects £55 to her food spend pot. Now, instead of spending all of her allocated money on food and then ‘overspending’, she has given herself permission to spend more in line with her values. She is spending more on food, but she no longer feels guilty or that she is overspending.

How to save money on food

The first step is awareness. Taking some time to bring some consciousness to your money beliefs.

The next step is exploring the benefits of the beliefs you have, and then the challenges that belief is bringing up for you. This is where we start to align our beliefs with our values.

Sometimes we can find it difficult to think of the benefits our beliefs have, but this step is important. For example, if the belief is that you are bad at managing a spending plan the benefit could be that this makes you do lots of research around spending plans, apps, and techniques to use. This then serves you as you may have a wider knowledge of what techniques and apps work best for you than someone who has not been driven to do this research.

The third and fourth steps are to re-write your money narrative, reshaping your subconscious beliefs and allowing you to think differently. Then we start to explore the future. What do I want to do, when will I do it, and how?

Finally we go back to our values and make sure that our re-written money narrative and beliefs aligns with our values. We go back to these values when we begin to look at the practical aspects of managing money.

The Money Circle

So often it is our unconscious beliefs about money that hold us back. The thought, beliefs and emotions we attach to money, or perhaps more importantly, to making money. These beliefs we have grown up with may not even be true. (Imagine that, things we learnt in our childhood that aren’t true!)

Is too much money a bad thing?

Is not enough money a bad thing?

Is it greedy to want more?

When we think about our approach to money we need to see the bigger picture, because:

When we fully understand our money journey from our past to our present, we can then truly start planning for our financial future with confidence, not trepidation, fear and anxiety.

But we cannot plan for our future without understanding and accepting our past and our present.

How these stages of our journeys have affected our mindset, and will continue to do so unless we challenge ourselves to confront our beliefs about money.

Inside The Money Circle family we provide the emotional support to make the behavioural changes needed to implement the practical steps.

• No longer feeling overwhelmed by the next money task ahead of you. Re-shaping and actually changing those inbuilt money blocks you have just accepted and never challenged over the years.
• Releasing the feelings of guilt, shame, judgement, of not being good enough.
• Losing the fear of the intimidating financial jargon that you have carefully avoided for your whole adult life!
• Learning how to manage your money so there is always enough left at the end of the month for fun stuff. (Without feeling guilty!)
• Releasing the feelings of guilt, shame, judgement, of not being good enough.

Hi I’m Catherine! My mission is to reduce financial anxiety and increase financial empowerment & resilience for 1 million women all around the world.

I am a self-confessed emotional spender turned savvy saver! From a young age, my relationship with money has always been fraught with difficulties.

Read my story here: Catherine’s Story

Resources:

Join The Money Circle membership

Book in a complimentary call to discuss how financial coaching can help you move from financial overwhelm to confidence and control. 

Join Catherine’s Facebook Page and FREE Facebook Group

My Website 

My Online Courses – Investing for beginners from £1

My YouTube Channel 

Connect with me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook 

The post How to Save Money on Food first appeared on The Money Panel.

The post How to Save Money on Food appeared first on The Money Panel.

Are private school fees tax deductible?

I’m often asked if parents can claim any tax relief on school fees. Funding private school feels can be a challenge, but there are ways to ensure that challenge is do-able!

Are private school fees tax deductible? The short answer is no, but there are several ways to pay less tax and pay less in private school fees at the same time. Win-win! In this article we cover:

1. Set up a family business
2. Use offshore bonds
3. Use money from a pension
4. Pay upfront for a double discount

Hi I’m Catherine! My mission is to reduce financial anxiety and increase financial empowerment & resilience for 1 million women all around the world.

I am a self-confessed emotional spender turned savvy saver! Having worked in banks since the age of 18, I became very disillusioned with the focus on complicated financial products. I discovered Financial Coaching and by incorporating this into my work as a Financial Planner I have been able to launch a hugely successful standalone financial coaching business in the UK.

Read my story here: Catherine’s Story

How to Afford Private School Tuition

The FT estimates the average annual cost of sending a child to Private school at £4,800 per term — up 25 per cent since 2012! Depending on when you start sending your child to private school, these costs can be met through income or from savings or both.

You may not be able to get tax relief on school fees in the UK, but how can you reduce the costs of paying for private school fees? Here are our top 8 tips:

1. Set up a family business

This is best done when the business is established. It involves Grandma and Granddad setting up a family business and then naming the children as shareholders. The private school fees are then paid by paying out dividends to the children. This is tax free for the children because so long as the children don’t have any other earnings or income, they can use their personal tax allowance. For the 2020/21 tax year that is £12,500 p.a.

The grandparents put income-generating assets in the family business, such as property or investments. It is also important that the grandparents create the business and not the parents.  Parents cannot gift to children without incurring a tax charge. Otherwise it is seen as a gain for the benefits on you as the parent.

This is a great way of paying for private school fees if the grandparents would prefer to help the grandchild during their lifetime rather than leaving their wealth as an inheritance. However specialist tax advice would be required and there would be expenses to set the business up.

2. Don’t just use ISAs, start investing into an offshore investment bond

Most people are aware of the benefits of investing into ISAs. However many overlook the benefits of using offshore investment bonds to pay for private school fees.

Many are put off by even the word “offshore” investing. Fear not, it is really just the tax wrapper that we are referring too and does not mean that you are investing into some dodgy tax avoidance scheme! Speak to a financial adviser who can help you with selecting a reputable and safe vehicle.

Grandparents can invest a lump sum into an investment bond, name themselves as the trustees and the children as the beneficiaries.

• The bond is then split into a number of policy segments (normally a few 100)
  
  
• Each individual policy segment would then be encashed to pay for the school fees each year/term
  
  
• The grandparents can invest over the years into an investment bond (a minimum of five years is needed for stock market investments)
  
  
• When the child reaches private school age, they can assign the policy segments to the child
  
  
• Assuming that the grandparent has invested wisely into the stock market and reviewed it regularly, any gain made on the bond is taxed on the CHILD and not the grandparent.

The grandparent can be in total control of the investment until they chose to assign it to the child.  Long term investments can also benefit from stock-market related growth.

3. Take money from your pension

Under the new pension rules, at the age of 55, you can take 25% of your pension pot as a tax-free lump sum. This could be used to pay for the private school fees. If you are a higher or additional rate taxpayer, taking it as a lump sum is tax efficient as you will not have any additional tax to pay. You could leave the rest of the pension invested for your income in retirement.

It would important to seek financial advice in this instance. This may impact on your income in retirement and could affect the amount of money you could contribute to a pension.

4. Offer to pay the private school fees upfront

Some private schools offer the option to pay in advance as a lump sum, known as ‘advance funding.’ This could protect you from hefty inflation rises on fees in the future. Private school inflation rises are often far greater than your loaf of bread rises!

Another option that some schools offer is an investment scheme. You pay a lump sum in advance, then the school will invest the lump sum in low-risk investments. The returns on the investment are tax free for most schools, so long as they have charitable status.

if you made the same investments as a parent, you would get much smaller returns because it’s more than likely you are higher rate taxpayers, and would therefore have to pay 40-50 per cent tax on any investment returns, or capital gains tax.

But the fees in advance scheme means you pay nothing and you, your child, and the school then share the benefit.

In return for paying upfront the parents are given what the schools class as a discount. And the school keeps whatever is remaining of the returns once they have offered the discount to the parents.

5. Start financial planning right now!

Ideally, financial planning for private school fees starts from day dot. 

A combination of making the most of your own ISA allowances, (£20,000 for the 2020/21 tax year) and alternative investments can help to plan early. The benefit of starting early is you benefit from ‘compound interest.’ You can smooth out the rocky ride of the stock market by drip feeding money in each month.

Think of it like buying clothes. Some months you buy them at full price, other times in the sale. The same applies to the stock market. Of course, if we knew when that would be we would all be rich! So by buying into the market each month, some months you’ll be buying high and some low. It spreads out the highs and the lows, reducing the overall risk.

It could even be as simple as creating a ‘School Fees’ pot within your bank account and setting up regular amounts to be shimmied into the pot! If you haven’t come across banks with pots features, check out our detailed review and comparison of the top two challenger banks: Starling Bank and Monzo. Trust me, these banks are revolutionary!

6. Tap up Grandma and Grandad 

A mini “starting fund” could be created with grandparents contributing as and when they wish.

If you die with an estate valued at more than something called the ‘Nil rate band’ the beneficiaries inheriting the money will pay 40% tax on the excess. You have annual exemptions which is an amount of money that can be given without any tax implications. For grandparents, they can make an annual gift of £3,000 per year. This is per grandparent- so £3,000 from Grandma and £3,000 from Granddad. It will not be taxed under the Inheritance tax rules. That is £6,000 per year that they could gift towards school fees. They can also go back a year and use last years £3,000 if this was not used. So that is £12,000 for this year.

Using their annual gift exemption and adding this to the starting fund would aid their own tax issues and also help future generation planning – a double win!

If the grandparents do this – get them to just write down on a piece of paper the date and amount it was given and keep it with their Will. Hint – Do not staple anything to your will as it could invalidate it!

7. Timing of the private school fees 

Consider when to send them. Switching to private school at the age of 8 could save you a third off fees. So think carefully about whether private school is needed from day dot.

Alternatively, consider grammar schools – Using private tuition to get your child into a grammar school could be far more cost effective for you

Private schools are not right for every child! Take time to consider both the personality and academic abilities of your child before making a big financial commitment. Once you commit to paying, its hard to go back!

8. Probably the best one for most parents… Haggle!

“A third of pupils at independent schools are receiving some sort of reduction in fees,” says Ms Hamlyn at the Good Schools Guide consultancy. “This is obviously the savviest thing hard-pressed parents can do.”

Many schools will not publicise this so if you have a bright child but money is tight, consider a bursary or scholarship. Around one third of students receive some kind of scholarship.

You may also receive sibling discounts if more than one child attends the same school.

This blog has been written as a guide to investing and is not a personal recommendation.

Resources:

Join The Money Circle membership

Book in a complimentary call to discuss how financial coaching can help you move from financial overwhelm to confidence and control. 

Join Catherine’s Facebook Page and FREE Facebook Group

My Website 

My Online Courses – Investing for beginners from £1

My YouTube Channel 

Connect with me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook 

The post 8 Simple Ways to reduce the costs of paying for private school fees first appeared on The Money Panel.

The post 8 Simple Ways to reduce the costs of paying for private school fees appeared first on The Money Panel.

I’m not advocating having loads of credit but if you need to apply for credit, improving your credit score is important.

If you’ve ever been declined for credit it can be pretty embarrassing! So these 20 top tips to improve your credit score will not only help you improve your credit score, but also increase your confidence with what to do and when.

What is a good credit score?

Different lenders have their own standards for rating credit scores.

Despite the differences, if you have a good score with one of the main credit score agencies, you’ll more than likely have a decent credit score with a lender.

A good credit score with:

• TransUnion is 781 out of 850
• Equifax is over 420 out of 700
• Experian is over 880 out of 999.

Your credit score doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be approved for credit or offered the lowest interest rates, so it’s worth bearing this in mind.

How do Credit Scores Work?

The interesting thing is that each company calculates your credit score differently. This is based on how much risk they are prepared to accept and how much profit they can make from you!

They will look at your credit history based on their own analysis and give you a score. So the better your credit score, the more likely you are to get accepted and also for some products like unsecured loans, get preferential interest rates and terms.

This is because a credit score is like predicting the future. How likely you are to repay the amount borrowed. A high credit score would indicate you are a ‘safe bet.’

For my full breakdown on how credit scoring works, read this.

1. Look at your score

You have 3 different credit scores: 1 each with Experian, Equifax and Transunion. Each one has its own stats and criteria, resulting in a slightly different score with each one.

Don’t pay for access to your score! To access your;

• Experian score – Martin Lewis Credit Club
  
  
• Equifax score – ClearScore
  
  
• Transuinion score – Credit Karma

2. Get registered on the voters roll.

Lenders check the electoral roll for evidence of fraud by making sure you live where you say you do.

If you’re not eligible to vote in the UK send the 3 main credit reference agencies (Experian, Equifax and Call Credit) certified copies of your proof of residency and ask them to put a note on your file. 

3. Make monthly payments on time

Even if it’s the minimum payment! Paying your internet bill, mobile phone contract, and other contracts on time is a great way to prove to lenders that you can manage your finances.

Missing just one or two payments can impact you for years, and I often hear this from people who simply forgot to pay their card one month! Set up a direct debit for the minimum payment each month JUST to make sure you never miss a payment. Then you can make manual additional payments each month too.

If your payment date falls consistently on a day that doesn’t work for you financially, call your lender or provider and ask them to change your payment date.

4. Pay bills by direct debit

Use direct debits to make sure you pay on time each month. Missed or late payments stay on your credit file for up to 6 years.

If the late payment was beyond your control ( for example the direct debit wasn’t set up on time) as long as the payment is made promptly and you contact the provider, your credit file can be updated. 

5. Check who you are ‘financially linked’ with.

If you’ve applied for credit with someone in the past, this will show up on your credit report. If they have poor credit score then it may impact yours.

Contact the credit reference agencies to tell them if you no longer hold the product. When a relationship splits, split up with them financially as well!

6. Stay within your available credit limits.

It may sound obvious but going over your credit limit will show on your credit file and have a negative impact on your credit score.

7. Reduce the amount of debt owed over time

If you have savings, using those to reduce your debt could be a much better use of that money than leaving it sitting in cash.

Too much existing debt hurts your file, so if you have cash available that can be use to pay the debt down, use it.

8. Transfers

Pay off debt if you can rather than transferring it to another provider. 0% transfer deals certainly have their place, and if you’re not in a position to pay off entire balances these can be a great way to save money in the short term. But in terms of your credit score, paying off the debt will always be better.

Ideally, you should pay off any outstanding debt before applying for new credit. Banks and credit card companies might think twice about lending you more if you already have a lot of debt.

9. Check for mistakes on your credit file.

This includes old accounts registered at old addresses. This can cause problems so make sure you change addresses on accounts as quickly as you can and close down any ones you don’t use.

10. Check for fraudulent activity.

Someone who has committed fraud and used your address for example could impact your credit score, even though it wasn’t anything to do with you.

If you’re worried about potential fraud showing on your credit file, you can check on the CIFAS website. It is now free. If you find something the first step is to speak to the company that logged the CIFAS record against you.

11. Don’t apply for lots of credit in a short space of time.

Space out your credit applications as the more applications you make in a short space of time, the more likely you are to get declined.

12. Close down any unused credit, store or debit cards.

Lenders look at the amount of credit you have available as well as how much you owe. Contact the provider and close down the accounts. They’ll want to keep you as a customer so be prepared for this!

13. Build your credit history with a credit card.

If you’ve never had credit, a lender will find it difficult to decide whether to lend to you.

It might be worth applying for a credit building credit card. Making a couple of purchases and paying it off in full each month shows them that you can manage credit responsibly.

Make sure that you don’t forget to pay it off, and don’t get seduced into over spending on the card!

14. Minimise applications by using eligibility calculators.

You only really find out if you’ll get credit when a credit score check is done.

Limiting full credit score checks is important, though. High volumes of searches can impact your score, but you can find out who is most likely to give you credit by using eligibility calculators that don’t leave a footprint on your file.

15. Make sure your rent boosts your credit score

If you pay your rent on time. If so you can sign up to the free rental exchange scheme and by paying your rent through the scheme, this can improve your credit rating. Find out more details at creditladder.co.uk

For lovers of Starling Bank like me, you can now find Credit Ladder in the Starling Marketplace within the app. All you do is create an account with Credit Ladder, tell them a little about your rent (e.g. how much it is , the date you pay it etc) and via the Starling Bank connection Credit Ladder will automatically detect this payment each month and add it to your score.

16. Get your name on household bills

Bills such as energy bills or mobile phone contracts demonstrate your ability to pay bills, so get on them!

The caveat to this is to be aware of financial links if you are living with friends, in shared accommodation, or sharing with other students.

Being named on bills together shouldn’t financially link you, but a joint ‘bills’ account will!

17. Don’t withdraw cash on credit cards

It can indicate poor money habits to lenders, and they don’t look favourably on it.

The interest charged on withdrawing cash from credit cards is much higher too, so this alone is a good enough reason to avoid!

18. After bankruptcy

Add a short statement by post or online explaining why you got into debt (illness/redundancy) Avoid job hopping. (all about habits) Bankruptcy will disappear 7-10 year after.

19. Space out applications

Wait at least 90 days between applications as a minimum, ideally 6 months or more.

20. Soft eligibility searches first

Some lenders will do what’s called a soft search to tell you whether they’ll be likely to lend to you, how much, and at what rate. Sometimes you might see this called an elibility calculator, or soft search. Lenders can’t see these soft searches when they do a full credit check.

Be aware though that when you look at your score, soft searches will appear. Look out for the words “administration check” or “quotation search”: these normally indicate something that lenders don’t get to see.

21. Keep your ‘credit utilisation’ low

This is how much credit you have available to you vs how much of that credit you have used.

For example, if you have a card or account with a limit of £5,000 and you’ve used £2,500 of that, your credit utilisation is 50%, so you’re using half of your credit limit.

Usually, using less of your available credit will be seen positively by lenders, and will push your credit score up. If possible, try to keep your credit utilisation at 25% or lower.

Resources:

Join The Money Circle membership

Book in a complimentary call to discuss how financial coaching can help you move from financial overwhelm to confidence and control. 

Join Catherine’s Facebook Page and FREE Facebook Group

My Website 

My Online Courses – Investing for beginners from £1

My YouTube Channel 

Connect with me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook 

The post 21 Top Tips to Improve Your Credit Score first appeared on The Money Panel.

The post 21 Top Tips to Improve Your Credit Score appeared first on The Money Panel.