Money Clinic with Claer Barrett

Latest Episodes:

Investment Masterclass: Isa investing is changing Oct 17, 2023

Show notes

Isas, or individual savings accounts, in the UK are tax-free vehicles that have made millions of investors richer since their launch in 1999. The government is now considering a shake-up that would simplify “a complex landscape” of Isa products - but questions have been raised about fractional shares, which are traded by tens of thousands of younger investors. Host Claer Barrett discusses the basics of using Isas to save and invest, as well as what the government might have in store, with Jason Hollands, managing director of the online investment platform Bestinvest, Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at Hargreaves Lansdown and Brian Byrnes, head of personal finance at the savings and investment app, Moneybox.

The Money Clinic podcast is a general discussion around financial topics and does not constitute an investment recommendation or individual financial advice. For that, you'll need to find an independent financial adviser.

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HMRC clashes with young investors over Isa rules

Don’t lose the exponential benefits of fractional share trading

Jeremy Hunt plans Isa overhaul to boost share ownership

How to make Isas even nicer

Time for Isa investors to hold fractional shares

If you would like to talk to Claer about a future episode, please email the Money Clinic team at money@ft.com with a short description of your problem, and how you would like us to help.

Follow Claer on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram @Claerb

Presented by Claer Barrett. Produced by Philippa Goodrich. Our executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Investment masterclass: what’s one of the world’s leading investors buying? Oct 10, 2023

Show notes

The renowned economist and investor Mohamed El-Erian is chief economic adviser at Allianz, the parent company of Pimco, one of the world's leading providers of bonds and fixed-income investments. He’s also a contributing editor at the Financial Times, but his smiling byline photo on his weekly columns about the global economy is often at odds with the warnings and predictions he makes. He tells host Claer Barrett why he’s taking a wait-and-see approach to equities and gives his take on investment strategies in a high-inflation environment. Revealing some of the solutions to world problems in his latest book, Permacrisis, he also explains how a telling-off from his daughter was behind his decision to quit a top job.

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For the FT’s review of Mohamed El-Erian’s book, Permacrisis, see here

The plight of the ‘permacrisis’ and what to do about it

Investors should still expect a bumpy road ahead

If you would like to talk to Claer about a future episode, please email the Money Clinic team at money@ft.com with a short description of your problem, and how you would like us to help.

Follow Claer on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram @Claerb

Presented by Claer Barrett. Produced by Philippa Goodrich. Our executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Help! My parents are being targeted by scammers Oct 03, 2023

Show notes

It's hard enough sorting out the personal finances of a loved one who’s died. It’s even more painful when you suspect they’ve been targeted for their vulnerability. In the second of Money Clinic’s two-part series about what’s been called ‘sadmin’, the FT’s Miranda Green tells host Claer Barrett about the nasty surprises that she uncovered in her father’s personal finances after he died. Miranda found her Dad had been targeted by brokers selling him pointless insurance products, while her Mum had become the victim of several fraud attempts. So what are regulators and campaigners doing to protect vulnerable people from predatory selling tactics and scams?

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Sadmin - the side hustle nobody wants

Services mentioned in this 2-part series:

https://www.gov.uk/after-a-death/organisations-you-need-to-contact-and-tell-us-once

https://www.mylostaccount.org.uk/

https://www.deathnotificationservice.co.uk/

Telephone preference service: www.tpsonline.org.uk

Information commissioner’s office: https://ico.org.uk/

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/money-legal/scams-fraud/

If you’d like to talk to Claer about a future episode, please email the Money Clinic team at money@ft.com with a short description of your problem, and how you would like us to help.

Follow Claer on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram @Claerb

Presented by Claer Barrett. Produced by Philippa Goodrich. Our executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dad died nearly a year ago: I'm still grappling with his personal finances Sep 26, 2023

Show notes

When FT columnist Miranda Green lost her father, she expected the grief to be long-lived. What she didn’t expect was that she would still be attempting to settle her father's financial affairs nearly a year later with multiple calls to banks, building societies, insurers and utilities. She tells presenter Claer Barrett about her experience of inconsiderate call handlers and poor processes in the private sector and Claer puts Miranda’s concerns to Eric Leenders, the director of personal finance at UK Finance, the trade body that represents about 300 financial services organisations. What are they doing to address the problem?

Want more? Free link:

Sadmin - the side hustle nobody wants

Services mentioned in the podcast:

https://www.gov.uk/after-a-death/organisations-you-need-to-contact-and-tell-us-once

https://www.mylostaccount.org.uk/

https://www.deathnotificationservice.co.uk/

If you’d like to talk to Claer about a future episode, please email the Money Clinic team at money@ft.com with a short description of your problem, and how you would like us to help.

Follow Claer on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram @Claerb

Presented by Claer Barrett. Produced by Philippa Goodrich and Laurence Knight. Our executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco, with original music from Metaphor Music.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

FT Weekend Festival live: What next for UK property prices? Sep 19, 2023

Show notes

It’s a year since Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget sent the property market into a tailspin. No sooner had house prices begun to recover than they were dealt another blow by higher-than-expected inflation figures. At the recent FT Weekend Festival, the FT’s House and Homeeditor Nathan Brooker asked YolandeBarnes of the Bartlett Real Estate Institute, Andrew Montlake, boss of mortgage broker Coreco and buying agent Henry Pryor for their predictions on where prices will go next. Money Clinic dropped in on the discussion to hear what the experts had to say.

Free links:

UK mortgage lenders push through further rate cuts

Festival panel sounds death knell on the housing ladder

Bonuses, Brexit and Airbnb: impacts on house prices

Has London’s property market reached the bottom?

If you’d like to talk to Claer about a future episode, please email the Money Clinic team at money@ft.com with a short description of your problem, and how you would like us to help.

Money Clinic is presented by Claer Barrett and produced by Philippa Goodrich. Our executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s global head of podcasts.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Money Clinic live: How to get a pay rise Sep 12, 2023

Show notes

We all want to feel properly rewarded for the work we do, but getting a pay rise is a tough nut to crack. How do you even start the conversation? At the recent FT Weekend Festival in London, presenter Claer Barrett put listeners’ questions to Isabel Berwick, host of the FT’s Working It podcast and Jonathan Black, FT columnist and director of the careers advice service at Oxford university.

If you want more:

FLIC, the FT’s financial literacy charity: https://ftflic.com/

Working It newsletter and podcast: https://www.ft.com/working-it

Jonathan Black’s careers advice column: https://www.ft.com/dear-jonathan

If you’d like to talk to Claer about a future episode, please email the Money Clinic team at money@ft.com with a short description of your problem, and how you would like us to help.

You can follow Claer on Twitter and Instagram @Claerb

Presented by Claer Barrett. Produced by Philippa Goodrich. Our executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. The FT’s global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The dark side of the US sports-betting boom Sep 05, 2023

Show notes

Sports betting is a relatively young industry in the US, in effect launching after a 2018 US Supreme Court ruling struck down a federal ban. Before then, those who wanted to gamble on sports legally had to travel to casinos in Nevada, or three other statesthat were exempt from the ban. Lifting the federal ban has led to a US sports-betting boom. How will regulators respond? It’s a subject that Oliver Barnes, the FT’s leisure industries correspondent, has investigated and he spoke to Brooke Masters, the FT’s US finance editor, about what he found.

Want more?

The dark side of the US sports betting boom

Disney turns to gambling

UK sets out biggest shake-up of gambling industry since 2005

If you would like to talk to Claer about a future episode, please email the Money Clinic team at money@ft.com with a short description of your problem, and how you would like us to help.

You can follow Brooke on X, formerly Twitter, @brookemasters

Follow Claer on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram @Claerb

Presented by Brooke Masters. Produced by Jake Harper. Our executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Investment masterclass: Are bonds back? Aug 29, 2023

Show notes

Last year was one of the worst ever for the bond market. Fast forward to today and many people in finance say that despite the volatility, it is time for investors to get reacquainted with bonds. But what exactly are bonds, how do you go about investing in them and what are the risks? Brooke Masters, the FT’s US financial editor, stands in for Claer Barrett to discuss those questions and more with Edward Al-Hussainy, a senior analyst at Columbia Threadneedle Investments.

Want more? Click on these free-to-read FT articles:

Investors pile into bonds

Bonds are no longer the safe option

The appeal of longer bonds

How bonds ate the entire financial system

If you would like to talk to Claer about a future episode, please email the Money Clinic team at money@ft.com with a short description of your problem, and how you would like us to help.

You can follow Brooke on X, formerly Twitter, @brookemasters

Follow Claer on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram @Claerb

Presented by Brooke Masters. Produced by Jake Harper. Our executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Money Clinic introduces Unhedged: Hot new bad idea Aug 22, 2023

Show notes

Zero day options are now almost 50 percent of the options market. But what are they? And why would anyone take these bets? Today on the show, host Ethan Wu and Alphaville’s Robin Wigglesworth discuss the latest way to gamble on the markets and address concerns that it all might blow up. Also we go short the Republican debate and long the Bloomberg terminal.

For a free 90-day trial to the Unhedged newsletter go to: https://www.ft.com/unhedgedoffer

Follow Claer Barret on Twitter and Instagram.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Money Clinic introduces Unhedged: China slows down Aug 15, 2023

Show notes

China’s economy has been growing faster than almost any other for a generation, so a slowdown is unfamiliar territory. Today on the show we look at three indicators — the CPI, exports and property sales — and try to understand why growth in China is finally slowing, and what it means for the rest of the world. Also, we go short cable news and long Argentina as a perpetual lesson in economics.

For a free 90-day trial to the Unhedged newsletter go to: https://www.ft.com/unhedgedoffer

Follow Claer Barret on Twitter and Instagram.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.