Ollie Smith: So, welcome back to my special mini two-parter on financial literacy. This time around, I'd like to ask my MoneyCoach guest Abi about practical and positive steps to becoming cash savvy.
Abi, part of being good with money is saving, isn't it? But there are so many tools out there nowadays to help people do that, it's actually very easy to feel overwhelmed. How can someone choose a saving strategy that's right for them?
Abi Collier: I think, first of all, it's working out what you're saving for. It's really hard to actually save money if you're not motivated by an end goal. So, say, for example, you're buying your first car, work out how much it's going to cost you, how long you've got to save for it, divide that by the number of months and start putting that money away. It's just all about starting it. There are lots of tools that can help, but I think not knowing your goal is kind of a bit of a downfall for most people.
OS: Sure. And just moving away from the saving app side of things, there are some clever little things that might help people feel just that little bit better about making their money work for them on a kind of emotional confidence level. Can we just discuss a few? I mean, I had in mind not just sort of clearing unwanted direct debits which can take all of five minutes. But getting deals on phones or SIM-only packages or using rail card, how aware are people of those things and how can they take best advantage of them.?
AC: Yeah, I think people just aren't aware at all of all the savings they can make. We live in a world where people just want to do things straight away. So, taking that time to go back and look at what you're spending is actually really important. So, I think to, kind of, take advantage of all of those deals, it's about working out where you're spending your money first. Once you then know that, you can then know how you can make savings if you're paying for things twice, for example, and kind of just take it right back to basics basically. Don't sort of go for all these new fad things. Just work out what you're spending (indiscernible) those things, and then that will make it a lot easier for you.
OS: And then, finally, could you perhaps just give me an example of one thing someone who stumbles across this video could do to feel better about their relationship with money? There are lots of things that we've discussed there and that might in itself feel very overwhelming for someone who is suddenly faced with a to-do list of things to tick off and perhaps get perfectly right. But it doesn't happen like that in life, does it? So, what's the one thing that perhaps someone could do at the end of this video to help?
AC: Yeah, absolutely. I've kind of already mentioned looking through the list of what you currently spend, and that's probably the main thing I'd say to take away. But as a bit of a side note, I think just opening the conversation with your friends and family, start breaking the taboo on money, start chatting to people about it, because they might be able to give you tips, but equally, you might be able to give them some tips and just sort of knowing how much affordability everyone has will mean you won't be able to spending anymore as well.
OS: Abi, thanks so much. I think you've been absolutely fantastic guest and brought some brilliant insights to this topic. Join us again for more personal finance basics.
Until then, I've been Ollie Smith for Morningstar.
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