The Untold Podcast
UNTOLD Podcast is where business, family, and life collide—raw, unfiltered, and brutally honest. No fluff, no fake success stories—just real conversations about the highs, the struggles, and everything in between.
The Untold Podcast
Episode 12 | Money and Modern Life: Why Saving is So Hard?
This week, we’re diving into the brutal financial reality facing millions in the UK. With a BBC headline claiming “1 in 10 have no savings,” we ask: is it actually much worse than that?
We talk about:
- Living hand-to-mouth in 2024
- The impact of credit cards, Klarna, and buy-now-pay-later culture
- The broken education system that never taught us about money
- Rising bills, low wages, and how the system keeps us broke
- Social media pressure and why so many are stuck in the comparison trap
We also get real about our own finances — credit card debt, life insurance, and whether saving even feels possible anymore.
It's honest, unfiltered, and probably the most relatable money convo you’ll hear this week.
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It's just again. It's the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Speaker 2:I saw an article on the BBC News website One in ten have no savings. I reckon it's more than that Exactly.
Speaker 3:They're so disconnected, I think. What did they do? Walk around London and ask 100 people?
Speaker 2:The education hasn't evolved the same way that money has Hasn't evolved.
Speaker 1:at all really has it.
Speaker 3:I would love to know an actual statistic of who is living hand to mouth every single month. The Untold Podcast is proudly sponsored by Aura Surfaces specialists in luxury surfaces for extraordinary spaces, Like creating dream homes, building a dream life takes work. That's why we had to get behind this podcast. Real stories, real challenges and real success. Let's get into it.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the Untold Podcast. Everybody, it's good to have you back. I think we ruffled a few feathers last week, but it was all out of love. I promise you that.
Speaker 3:I think you ruffled a few feathers last week.
Speaker 2:I've been building this nice guy persona for the last two years. I think I smashed it to bits last week. Anyway, we've got Ash in the room. All right, peeps, and we've got Chris in the room. Hello everybody.
Speaker 1:How was your weekend? Probably the best weekend of my life and I did get married at the weekend as well. Not this weekend either. Yeah, it was. It was my best day I've ever had in my life, entire 43 years of my life Not going to lie, apart from the one that we had a couple of weeks ago. Well, yeah, I mean it was a close call, but it definitely went to the top, Definitely went to the top.
Speaker 2:Go on, get it off your chest. Anyone that doesn't know what I'm.
Speaker 1:Crystal Palace obviously won the FA Cup on Saturday for the first time ever, ever, first ever trophy, and it was an unbelievable day out Beauty, wasn't it? Yeah, scars to show up for it and everything.
Speaker 2:One of my earliest memories of the FA Cup was when it was the Mark Bright, ian Wright up front. Who'd they play in the final that year? Man United, was it? Man United, yeah, mate. That was one of my first ever memories of the FA Cup. We all got together and we've done it every year, whether I was a kid or as a grown-up. Big old occasions, fa Cup. Nothing better than the FA Cup day, mate Made up for you.
Speaker 1:It was awesome. The best thing about it was I got to spend the day with my son and just the embrace at the end. As soon as the 90-minute whistle went, we both burst into tears. Just had a big cuddle. You know two full grown men just crying their eyes out and you look around you and everybody's crying, everyone's hugging. It was just unbelievable. Unbelievable. Still not over it, mate. When it's done, right, you can't be, for I can't wait till Monday. That's why I said I might not be on the podcast next week because I've got celebrations on Monday of the parade or whatever they're going to do a bit around South Croydon or East Croydon. Nice, how?
Speaker 2:about you, mate? Did you go to the FA Cup final?
Speaker 3:No, I didn't go to the FA Cup final. I spent my weekend at Paws in the Park with the family and the kids and about 45,000 million dogs barking. No, it was good, it was really nice. Nice little reset. Nice, it was good, it was really nice. Nice little reset, nice little reset. And then on Saturday I got a bit of a nasty thing, but we won't go there on today's podcast. But no, it was wicked Wicked. Really good, really good weekend. It's a good little show. We camped there, took the caravan, got a bit of a suntan tops on my feet, a burnt Rasinda. But that's the joys of love.
Speaker 1:It drunk too much, ate too much and chilled a bit too much how was your sleep, with 45 000 dogs all barking at the same time to be?
Speaker 3:fair it was. I didn't hear anything exactly like literally next to us there was 12 huskies and when they first pulled up these huskies were like howling, like kids and I was like, oh fuck, this is gonna be torture, but it was actually all right. It was actually all right, I know yeah, good weekend, right, I know yeah, Good weekend, Good little reset.
Speaker 3:Really I feel good. I downloaded this app. I kept seeing it on TikTok Stress Watch for your Apple Watch. So I've got this app now and it tests your HRV levels and every hour it says your stress is good, you're manageable, your HIV levels. Yeah, that's exactly what everyone says good, you're manageable, your hiv levels. Yeah, that's exactly what everyone says and honestly, it's fucking brilliant. I feel myself getting stressed and then the app sends me a notification you're getting stressed, go for a walk or something.
Speaker 2:It's mental, like just knowing obviously you know it's like bruce banner's watch.
Speaker 1:Yeah, remember that in the 80s I'll be like forest gum would be running around the whole time, like for the country.
Speaker 2:His watch would go beep and he'd turn into the Hulk, but yeah, no, it's a really good app.
Speaker 3:Actually, it's a really good app. It's a really good app. It's not sponsoring this podcast yet, so I'm not going to mention what it is. Yeah, but what about you, des? What have you been up to?
Speaker 2:Mate, I went to TikTok headquarters on Wednesday to be in this agency. No one knew who we were and we got a phone call saying the head of TikTok shop has opened a meeting with who the effing hell? And they named our agency, the AffiliNation, or we weren't at the time, but we are now and how can we help them? So we got a phone call saying right, we want to learn more about you. Come up. We went up there, mate. They rolled out the red carpet carpet. We had a tour of the building, which was stunning, by the way, I can imagine it was like 23 degrees in london, in farrandon. So we went up onto the rooftop and had a meeting on the rooftop, overlooking, overlooking london.
Speaker 1:Stunning, mate, stunning I'll see the video. To be fair, it looks like a really nice view and all it was gorgeous.
Speaker 2:it was gorgeous. And then came back, uh, they asked us to run a webinar for the entire TikTok creator network, which we're doing this week and we're going from strength to strength. I thought I'd give you a business update rather than a family one, because you two had nice personal ones, so I thought I'd give you a business update. But, mate, no, we've had a hell of a week, a hell of a week, it's been great.
Speaker 1:There was me thinking he was going to say I went to the pub and watched the FA Cup final in Brighton of all places.
Speaker 2:I did. I did that as well. I wasn't on the rooftop.
Speaker 1:No, I don't think.
Speaker 2:Anyway, I might have been at some point, but I'll tell you what else I did this week. Let's get into the meeting. I saw an article on the BBC News website that said one in ten have no savings.
Speaker 3:I reckon it's more than that.
Speaker 2:Exactly. I looked at that and went bullshit, and this is from the financial regulator. And then, in classic newspaper style because this is what I tend to do I went looking, looking, looking and then later on, probably about two-thirds of the way through the article, there was also another 20%. A further 20% have less than £1,000 in their bank, which basically means you don't have any savings, doesn't it? Yeah, so that 1 in 10 becomes 3 in 10. Yeah, Now, if you're taking the nation as a whole, the older generation, they've all got bloody savings because their outgoings are gone and they've had the things that they've been working hard to achieve all of their life. But the younger generation, never in a million years.
Speaker 3:This is a very interesting topic, because there's several reasons for this, I think. One is the fact that it's really hard to make ends meet at the moment. The price of everything's going up. And the second thing is it's so easy now to live on the never ever. I think now you can go in costa and put your coffee on a klana and pay it in free now, that's that's mad, that's mental.
Speaker 3:That is mental, isn't it? Let's be, I get it. You go and buy a car. You can't. Even if you add 25,000, 30,000 to drop on a car, it's cash flow, isn't it? You keep the cash, et cetera. But yeah, some of these things, now, everything you can put on free and it's so easy to do. It's chicken and egg, isn't it?
Speaker 2:You're right, no-transcript. But when you are being paid two grand a month and your rent is 1,200, what chance have you got? No, what chance have you got? And the fact that this is news shows how out of touch the elite are, because the BBC and the journalists, they're all private school people. They're all rich, rich, rich people. They don't seem to think this and when they go, oh, one in ten has no savings. How outrageous.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I bet you it's closer to five in ten.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I bet you it's closer If you ask. I mean, who did they ask? This is the thing. Who did they ask for that survey?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yes, according to the financial regulator, so they should have.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but what do they know?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But again, like we just said before we went on air, you read the stats that resonate with you, I think, and they believe. Just because someone's put the stats doesn't make it true in a lot of cases I don't think.
Speaker 2:No, I agree, it's got to be a sample, isn't it? So what they found? A total of 2.8 million people have persistent credit card debt. I believe it's more than that. I believe it's well more than that Easy. More than that Easy, more than that Easy, definitely, definitely. I have persistent credit card debt. Do you too? Yeah, well, that's 100% of people. Nearly 12 million people feel overwhelmed or stressed dealing with financial matters.
Speaker 1:In other news the sky is blue and water is wet.
Speaker 2:I mean, what the hell?
Speaker 1:The worst thing is some dickhead's getting paid to write that. I know, With a quill. This is what pisses me off. You get all these things that you read everywhere and you just think to yourself oh, a survey has been conducted and it come out across the blah, blah, blah. Well, you didn't know that anyway. You didn't know that everyone's fucked financially. You didn't know that the grass is green and the sky is blue. Like it annoys me that people get paid to do that as a job and it's, it's just the same and it's they're so.
Speaker 3:They're so disconnected, I think, from the real. What did they do? Walk around London and ask a hundred people yeah, they walked around Knightsbridge, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, it's funny, though knocked on everyone's window that had a Ferrari.
Speaker 1:Excuse me what?
Speaker 2:did you do for a living? I mean, not only have I not got a thousand pound in savings now, I can't remember the last time I ever had £1,000 in savings, no, we do these side hustles to make this extra money Since I started this thing in 2022, yeah, things are better, but prior to that, yeah, you live hand to mouth, though.
Speaker 3:I know Even my friends that are relatively successful and they work from a young age and they're quite sensible with money, they're still like oh yeah, credit card, credit card, credit card. I'll put it on a credit card and that's the. Do you know what I mean? That's the thing. And now the kids are growing up at 18. They can get a carner account and they can do all sorts of things and just I will pay it. Put it on the never, never, go next, go next, go next.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I just think it's so wrong, yeah, that this is being promoted to young kids so they want you to be in forever debt. They do, cause that's where they make their money from.
Speaker 1:It's all the interest rates, so they make their money. So the more people are in debt, the more fucked society is, the better off the government are and the banks are and everyone that's lending the money in the first place. That's it. It's just again. It's the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Speaker 2:When was the last time wages were in line with inflation, it was around Tony Blair time, wasn't it Around 98, 99? I don't know. I won't be speaking about it.
Speaker 1:I mean that's going one way back. For me, that's it yeah.
Speaker 2:But when the cost of things is higher than the money that you've got, your option then is go right, okay, well, I'm going to have to borrow, whether that's credit card debt, whether that's a short-term loan, whether that's a long-term loan, yeah. But then it becomes habit coffee, and it becomes things you want.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's dangerous it's so easy to do. Now I've got. I've got this big thing about when I was growing up 18, 19 going to par, the pars bubs puff, getting out bars and pubs sounds like he's been to a par tonight.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly 18 and 19 now, we used to write how much money have I got? I can afford 80 quid. Tonight I'm going to take 80 quid in cash and you go and once that you know right, 20 quids in a separate part of your wallet, blah, blah, blah. Now the kids cause it's all cash I was going to say you're good.
Speaker 1:I used to go out and absolutely.
Speaker 3:You tap, you tap, and then you've had a few drinks and you're oh, I'll buy a round of shots, boys, 30 quid, 40 quid. You wake up in the morning and you're done. You've done your money because you're incoherent, because you're drunk and all your money's gone. And it's like this whole just tapping on a card. It's not real money, is it?
Speaker 2:It doesn't feel real. I must admit, that was me on Saturday, that was me on.
Speaker 1:Saturday yeah me too.
Speaker 2:I had my budget for what I was going to spend at the boozer, but before you know it I stuck 30 quid in the pot for a sweepstake. Who did I pull out I can't remember Someone toilet oh, harland, that's who I pulled out, toilet Anyway. So wasted all that. And then the drinks bill came in and I looked at it and I thought, right, I've got enough to cover that. I'm going to take it out of that. And it became a different thing. And then you start thinking well, that's it, I'll just put it on that card for the rest of the night. It's only when you wake up in the morning, even if you check Most of the time. I never used to check, yeah.
Speaker 3:And I think this whole tapping, tap, tap, tap mentality in the cashless society is is a big reason why no one's got any savings. Because it's nice to feel and see cash, isn't it? You used to have it in your drawer, in your bedside table or something, and you've got a bit of cash there. And the kids as well. I think I much prefer giving my daughter cash. She's 11 now. She goes to dance on a Saturday.
Speaker 3:We drop her into town, she goes to Claire's and does her things, and she prefers cash because she can feel it and touch it. She knows what's left, whereas when she's relaxed, oh yeah, well, just tap that, I'll just tap that, just tap that, and she's like oh, it's all gone. You look at, then you log into the app oh God, how much have I actually spent? Yeah, and I think that's a series of things to come, with the younger generation growing up, that cash is no longer a thing. So you don't touch real money. You see it in your bank balance, but you don't actually get to touch it and feel it Interesting. We were taught.
Speaker 2:If you want to buy something, save up for it, yeah, now.
Speaker 1:That's exactly how I live my life. Yeah, I live like that every day. If I can't afford to buy something else, I don't buy it.
Speaker 1:Good for you, and I do have savings, yeah yeah, you know, I see it around me all the time Family members, friends, children, like everything. They all just spunk everything they've got because it comes down to this champagne, lifestyle, lemonade budget. You know, and my big main blame for it is is covid, because since covid, everything's gone up in price by an absolute shitload and no prices have come down. If they have, they've come down by nowhere near what they should have done. So everyone's having to pay more money for everything, even though it shouldn't cost more. Like you're probably paying more for your goods, it probably you don't have to pay for them. Your suppliers are probably probably still charging you much more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, exactly. It happened the same time COVID and Brexit. Yeah, exactly yeah.
Speaker 1:But also, you know, I know we're on social media, but social media has got one big, big answer thing to answer to, because I've seen it personally. Well, got themselves in loads of debt because they wanted to live the lifestyle that they saw on social media. They were Blunt's Yaga trainers, they were buying five 600-pound jumpers and they were earning 400 pounds a week, you know, and they racked themselves up. I think it was about 16 grand's worth of debt within about six months. And that person was 20, I think 23, 24. And the age group is the age group that are now. That was a while ago, so he's nearly 30 now, and then they're all doing it because they're all seeing it on social media. It is just like everyone's getting blindsided by what they think they should have in life rather than what actually you do need and what chance have any of them got of getting their own house Exactly.
Speaker 3:Or getting out of the shit they get themselves gambling as well.
Speaker 1:Gambling's a big thing. Everyone's. It's so easy, like everywhere you look now there's a fucking gambling site. Football's on t-shirts, football it's on all the hoardings you go down the road. It's on the side of the billboards and the bus stops. It's in every single magazine. Every time you there's advertisement for gambling. Come in, deposit £10, we'll give you £50 worth of free bits. You earn £50 out of them, free bits. You think I've only spent a tenner. I've had a right touch. Just put another £30 in my account quickly. It becomes this big repetition of gambling and then you're borrowing from Peter to pay Paul and the whole world. The whole world is just set up for everybody to completely shaft themselves financially off.
Speaker 2:And pay the establishment.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, think about how much interest. Oh disgusting, Do you know what I mean. You pay the like. I've got a couple of credit cards. One of them, the interest is like 60 odd quid a month on it and that's like, oh yeah, it's all right, it's only 60 quid a month, but when you look at that it's £600 a year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly now I'm getting credit card for yeah, and that's it, and you're not paying off the actual and you're not paying off the credit.
Speaker 3:Yeah obviously I'm a bit more sensible than I used to be, so I'll pay a thousand off here and there and get it down and sort of sit in the middle with it, but then I'll use it because I'll need it. And that's the problem. I'm using it because I need it. I'm not using a credit card because I get the air miles where a lot of people that are savvy, they'll use a credit card American express to get the air miles and they're put off and then pay it off at the end of the month. I put the shopping on it.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm trying to teach my kids at the moment is there's such a thing as good debt. There's such a thing as good debt and if, if you want savings, maybe invest them and stuff like that. So some of Some of those savings might be going into investments, but still it is brutal. There's no education for these kids to know better either. Like you said, exactly like you said, in the olden days you'd take out cash and that was your budget, that was your thing. I used to take out cash. I didn't take a card, and if I ran out of cash I would walk home rather than get in the bus. You know what I mean. But then cards came along and again I'm like Harry Potter learning a new spell. I go woo-hoo, look at all this money I've got on this card Kids.
Speaker 2:The education hasn't evolved the same way that money has.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it hasn't evolved at all, really has it. The education hasn't evolved at all. That's another podcast. On next week's podcast. That is another podcast.
Speaker 2:Totally, I've heard it.
Speaker 3:I saw something the other day and they were saying I can't remember who it was he was saying it's really the first time ever in history that education has been a complete waste of time. They should be teaching them out. Like I said to you earlier, there is predictions that a one-man business can turn over a billion pound a year using AI. One person can run a billion-dollar business because of AI and how it's done. Kids should be taught this stuff.
Speaker 2:They should but they're taught not to use AI because that could be cheating. Yeah yeah, they're too scared of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah amazing, yeah, but I think the education is another podcast episode. It could be quite good to begin to yeah.
Speaker 2:I like it Again because it's the next generation coming through who are being let down.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because they can't afford anything no. And it's mum and dad. And again, this is one of the reasons why we, as parents, we're not getting to live the life that our parents lived, because we're the bank of mum and dad for a much longer period of time.
Speaker 3:Well, I saw something the other day. I think it said 55% of first-time buyers last year buying houses only could do it because of the bank of mum and dad. I think it was 55% of first-time buyers in the last year.
Speaker 1:Funny how the bank of mum and dad's drawing up now and they're giving 100% mortgages again, aren't?
Speaker 2:they yeah, yeah, yeah that would have been nice 15 years ago.
Speaker 3:But this is a good one. Talking about savings, what do you both class as savings?
Speaker 1:Tenner, I think to class yourself as having proper savings, you've got to be able to pay your mortgage for at least a year. You reckon a year, yeah. Because otherwise I think, the way it is now, I don't think you can pull yourself out of a hole if you dig yourself into one, so I think you've definitely got to have enough money in there to survive.
Speaker 2:Three things go in shit that you can cover in a month.
Speaker 1:At the moment.
Speaker 2:The dog's got something in his eye that's a vet bill. We've had to declare a car off-road. It's only our little runaround, and in the summertime we barely use it anyway. So rather than pay the 300 quid to do the MOT, let's just get it off-road and we'll cover it later. Yeah, things like that, the loft extension that we could carry on topping up. If we had savings, we could cover those things off. Yeah, but we don't. The business is going great, but everything gets reinvested. We're still living the same way now as we were two years ago, really. So yeah, I would say, because that's what savings are for. They're for a rainy day, aren't?
Speaker 1:they, like you said, to cover you.
Speaker 2:But when a rainy day happens and you've maxed out, your credit cards suck it up. You've only got one car. You know what?
Speaker 3:I mean, that's it and I would class it. I would say I'd be comfortable if I could live the life I'm living now for three months without having to worry about it. That's what I would class as a reasonable. Your idea is better. I'd much rather have a year's worth of money in the bank, but if I could have three months, because you never know when your boiler's going to break down, no, and it's irreparable, and that's 1,800 quid. Two and a half grand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what we're finding out is that he's much more risk averse with his money than me and you are.
Speaker 3:Yeah, good for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's a nice thing, but he's got burns on his face from lighting flares.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I wasn't on Saturday.
Speaker 3:There you go. I think it's interesting as what? Because I wonder what in that article they classed as savings.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean that might be like fucking 250 grand or something.
Speaker 2:No over a thousand it was over a thousand.
Speaker 1:Of course it was yeah, yeah, yeah, but that's not savings in today.
Speaker 3:No, Do you know what I mean With today's prices? With a family of five, that's six weeks worth of food shopping. A thousand pound, isn't it, Gen?
Speaker 1:Genuinely covers about 60% of my mortgage. Do you want to take my missus shopping with you, because my missus spends near on that in a week? Well, no, but that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:There's only three of us. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:One of them's only about two foot tall.
Speaker 3:If you're conservative, you can buy pasta, and eggs and literally live off. The same thing I'll tell you what.
Speaker 2:At the last Des Hamilton Roadshow, one of the business owners there who built a software thing. He basically quit his job, went full-time running a business from scratch and I said, well, how did you get by? And he went. Me and my girlfriend sat down and went right, what is the cheapest we can live for and how long are we willing to live for it? He went. So we lived on pesto and pasta for about six months until we got the business off the ground. I'm like mate, that is discipline, isn't it? I love a bit of pesto and pasta. It's part of my heart.
Speaker 2:I can be out every day for six months.
Speaker 3:A bit of mozzarella and basil in there.
Speaker 2:I'll be there on Saturday. Fancy a curry. No, eat your pesto.
Speaker 3:It's hard to be disciplined with money, though, I think, especially in today's world. I think I work every single day. I work really, really hard. I'm going to treat myself, and you do, and then that's the way I live. Everybody's different with money. They have different values of money. The way I see it is, you can't take it with you, so I don't think I'll ever be Like my parents, my parents oh, we're worried about your inheritance. I said you've worked for it, spend it. That's it. That's what I've done. You've worked for it, spend it, spend it. Go and enjoy.
Speaker 1:They've moved to Spain that's exactly what I say to my Mrs and Mum and Dad.
Speaker 2:To be fair, it's right, though, isn't it? We don't want you working your whole life and then giving it to us. Yeah, let us work for our money. You enjoy yours, yeah, yeah that's it.
Speaker 1:That's why I've got life insurance, so I can leave some money behind. But I used to be exactly the same Until I had my little boy. Then we became a one household income. Then that's when my mind changed. I used to go out on a Friday night and spunk all my wages up the wall in booze, and that because I didn't really have any responsibilities. Yes, I've got, obviously, children from my previous relationship, but they didn't live with me and they lived with mum and paid maintenance and everything, but always used to just any money that I had spare used to get wasted. Until 18 months ago, I didn't have any savings at all. If my car broke down, I was walking. Yeah, you know I'd have to go off my arse off to get the money back. But yeah, I just literally just overnight. I just decided well, hang on, I can't keep wasting money because we need it and and it's just completely transformed my mindset on on whether or not to waste it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a rich dad, poor dad, reading that book, maybe think about money in a completely different way. And now, yeah, I'll refuse to have any life where I don't live the life I want and I'll get to take care of the kids.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean. Why not have?
Speaker 2:both.
Speaker 3:And a lot of people would say oh yeah, but if money's a struggle, focus your energy on where you can cut back, whereas I put that on the flip side. If money's tight, what can you do to make more? Instead of trying to go backwards, try and go forwards. Obviously, sometimes if your missus has got a subscription for £100 worth of flowers to be delivered every week, then that's not a necessity is it you got Claire them flowers in?
Speaker 2:didn't you? In the end, £102.
Speaker 3:But do you know what I'm saying? I brought that up as a thing because you were talking about it the other day. It comes to my head, he was only talking about £20.
Speaker 3:Jesus Christ, edit that Claire don't listen to that £102 a day on flowers, jesus Christ, this agency must be doing well. No, but do you know what I mean? There's certain things whereas, especially in business, if things are tight, I think you need to re-evaluate, like, what can you do to make more? Yes, not cut back. It's like what they say when things are tough. You need to invest more in advertising, but don't waste it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's things I resent paying money for.
Speaker 3:I resent paying money for Like taxes, yeah, council tax Usually car repairs.
Speaker 2:Oh, come on, I bought the car to work. What do you mean? It don't work, yeah, and debt is another one. I've, like, worked hard. If I won five grand tomorrow, there's no way I'd stick all five grand into the debt that I've accrued. I know I should, but I won't because I want to enjoy that.
Speaker 2:And that is money wasted. It's not money wasted, it's money I resent paying, yeah, yeah. So yeah, that's it for me. Make more money, pay it all off where you don't notice, I think, because we are being squeezed so hard.
Speaker 1:I think that's what everyone's mentality kind of is, though, isn't it Like if I get money, I'm going to enjoy it, because fucking everything I earn gets squeezed the life out of anyway, and I end up paying about 495% taxed on every pound I pay, yeah. So then when you do get money, you just think well, yeah.
Speaker 2:We need a treat. Yeah, deserve a treat. Yeah, we need a treat, yeah Deserve a treat.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, we deserve a treat. We work hard. Why can we not spend it? And that's, I guess that's a dangerous mindset. Yeah, but where'd you go? Where'd you turn? Where'd?
Speaker 2:you turn, what do you do? And you only live once.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And when you die, your debt dies with you?
Speaker 1:yeah well, it doesn't know, does it go to your missus or your? Oh, I'm dead, mate. I'm with my missus, right? So you've gone from spending £100 a month on flowers to leaving that £100 debt a month to Claire brilliant but the same thing.
Speaker 2:I've got life insurance, haven't you?
Speaker 3:we're covered, yeah yeah, yeah, I think life insurance is quite important. I mean mine's astronomically expensive, but if I was to get it by a bus tomorrow, every one that I leave behind would be fucking cushy yeah don't talk to me about expensive.
Speaker 2:I've got half a bowel, for God's sake.
Speaker 1:My premium's a fruit of the room I'm so glad that I sorted mine out years and years ago. I've had mine since I was about 20, probably yeah, Otherwise mine would be about £450 a month now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've heard about the life you were living when you were 20, mate, I don't blame you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Sounds like a wise investment. Yeah, that's why he's letting out flares in Covent Garden. Look at that, I've got life insurance.
Speaker 1:I wonder if that covers. You actually Must look into that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no. It's amazing what they do and don't cover. If you're buying life insurance, make sure you check the small print and don't go to that company on comparethelifeinsurancecom that's offering it to you for £3.99 a month.
Speaker 1:Chances are they don't cover anything, but then you won't know because you'd be dead. So it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2:No, that's exactly right. What was really interesting about this article were the comments. The BBC don't often leave the comments open on their art of things, but we had over 2,000 comments on there. But we got seriously. What do we expect? Wages never keep up with inflation. Interest rates the public receives on its savings is always below base rates.
Speaker 1:That's true, it's not worth saving, is it?
Speaker 2:No, I know lots of people that do have savings, that stick it straight into premium bonds, even though that is probably longer odds than the lottery. Yeah, yeah, it's ridiculous. Things will always get more expensive and people will get poorer until we have a serious discussion about how the financial system operates and whether certain institutions like banks should be allowed to make profit. The game is rigged.
Speaker 1:The only people that are reading those comments are people like us.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's not the people that do anything about it, is it?
Speaker 3:the thing is as well. If you look at a mortgage, it's scary. You buy a £300,000 house and you take out a mortgage for, let's say, you take out a mortgage for £300,000 on today's exchange rate, over 30 years you're actually paying £580,000 for that house and it's just like whoa. But if you can narrow that down to 20 years, it makes a huge difference and that's the kind of stuff they should be teaching in schools apr and how it compounds over time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, mate, I quit my job and I think it was a month after that our remortgage came in and it went up to 1800 pound a month.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm thinking jesus christ, yeah just quit my job here about two years ago wasn't it no, a year ago I was, yeah, I was exactly the same thing about another six months left I think, before we can start the talks again.
Speaker 2:But even then you're thinking bloody hell, nearly two grand a month on the same mortgage that we've had for six years, and it's just, it's brutal. And then the council tax goes up and everything's going up. So we were meant to have this life go right. We quit our job, we got this freedom. Should we go for coffee? No, just put the kettle on. All right, you know, I mean, it's one of them oh, it's a brutal thing, isn't it?
Speaker 3:and I think it's tough, like, obviously we're talking about savings and people not having savings. I bet you that the people that had savings five years ago don't have that anymore. I would love to know an actual statistic of who is living hand to mouth every single month.
Speaker 2:I think the number would be scary.
Speaker 1:I was going to say I don't know, I'd want to know.
Speaker 2:To be fair, Especially under 40 years old.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, it's mad especially under 40 years old. Yeah, yeah, it's um, it's mad. I'd love to have savings, but then, oh, it takes you so long to build it. I think the thing is, once you see it building, oh, we'll put more in there that is the difference.
Speaker 1:That is the difference once you start, once you never add savings, then all of a sudden you start getting them.
Speaker 1:It becomes a comfortable feeling that you like yeah oh, I don't want to spend that, I want to put more in there. And then you start getting more savings in there and then you get that comfortable, like I don't, I'm not. I'm sitting here saying I've got hundreds of thousands of pounds because I haven't, but I feel much more comfortable, like comfortable and like I gave. I quit my business, I mean like four weeks ago. I could never have done that if I hadn't saved all the money that I and I've been lucky. I've only got that savings because I've had two jobs, yeah, and I've been running my business and tiktok. So all of my tiktok money has gone into a savings well, another business account. So I suppose it's not savings, it's the business money.
Speaker 1:But yeah, that's two jobs you know it's two jobs, so I've just been able to save one of those jobs money. Now I've obviously got one job. Hopefully that money is going to stay the same and I can top up every month and use that money. But yeah, it does become much easier once you start seeing your bank balance slightly increase, because you do get that thirst for that safety bubble to stay there, really, no, it's true.
Speaker 2:I mean, I've triggered a memory of a conversation I used to have with my mate about firefighters. And we used to talk about firefighters and my mate would look down on them and go, yeah, but they're lucky, aren't they? They've got two jobs. They can earn a bit more. That's not luck. Who goes into this?
Speaker 1:going. Oh lucky you, you've got two jobs.
Speaker 2:Jesus, maybe the firefighters service was actually actually ravaged and they got no choice but to have two jobs where they should be resting.
Speaker 3:It's nuts, I know someone that's just gone and they're doing enough to keep the wolves at bay, both working full-time jobs, him and his partner. And I spoke to his daughter the other day oh, where's your dad? Oh, he's at Tesco's. I was like what? No, he works there. I was like what? No, he works there. I was like why? He said because he wants to be able to buy us a holiday.
Speaker 3:So he's having to work evening shifts at Tesco. So he does seven till about 4.30, comes home, has some dinner and then does six till midnight, five days a week to try and earn a little bit more money so he can take the family on holiday and it is a little bit more money because he gets double taxed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was going to say, yeah, do you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:But that's the world we're getting. Like you had to do a second job because your job wasn't paying, you wouldn't have the savings, like you just said, without the second job? No, and there's me thinking I'm running a business, I'm working what? 12 minimum hours a day and I'm thinking to myself oh, maybe I need to go and get another job in the evenings. I've got more time in the evenings to go, and that's just the sad state of affairs that we find ourselves in.
Speaker 2:I've got a TikTok shop agency if you're interested, mate.
Speaker 3:Well, I've already said to you, I'll do TikTok, I'll do some TikTok stuff, if you want me to.
Speaker 2:But that's the funny thing, though. So I've been running these communities since late 2022 for people that need a bit more money. That's been my whole gambit for people. I'm not going to earn you thousands, but I can help you earn hundreds, which will make your bills easier, and we've got so many people, initially in my Facebook group and now in what was the school, and now in the Discord, where this is their third job, so they've got their full-time job. Then they'll work in a bar and in their spare time, they do a couple of hours on TikTok or Amazon FBA.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how did it get that bad, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then they've got a family.
Speaker 3:We're living to work. We're not working to live. We're literally working every hour under the sun just to keep the lights on.
Speaker 1:God, this is getting depressing, this one.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, it is mate, I don't mean it to be depressing.
Speaker 1:No, it is, though, isn't it? It's a fucking sad, sad state of affairs. Why do you think so many people are moving abroad?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's not just for the sunshine that we spoke about the other week, is it?
Speaker 1:It's because they're just getting absolutely shafted living here?
Speaker 3:My mum messaged me the other day. She said we've just been for a lovely lunch on the beach Three courses, two large coffees, two beers and a large glass of wine 28 euros. So what did you have? She said at the start it was like meats and cheese, then for main chicken, chips and salad, and then dessert was some Spanish dessert lead dessert.
Speaker 1:No, that's French.
Speaker 3:I'm like, do you know what? I've just been in a petrol station and bought two meal deals for the kids. It was £18.50, do you know?
Speaker 1:what I mean. This is it, mate. You cannot buy anything in this country anymore that you feel like is good value nothing, no, it is you should buy a football shirt at the end of the season. They go half price, or something.
Speaker 3:What is a football shirt now?
Speaker 1:60 fucking quid.
Speaker 2:It's in the new Arsenal one 60 quid. The new Arsenal one 85. Is it really? And they bought four of them out.
Speaker 3:Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:They still don't win nothing.
Speaker 3:But without being all doom and gloom. I can say that now, without being all doom and gloom, try and pick it up a bit. There are things that you can do. There are things that you can do Buy fake football shirts from Turkey and sell them, yeah.
Speaker 2:Or go and buy some duty-free fags and sell them if you make money doing that that's not the right way to do things Sorry.
Speaker 3:No, but do you know what I mean? I think the first part is actually sitting back and being like oh shit, I'm one of these people that are in the less than 10% who don't have any savings. That's quite important. What can we do? What can we do to do that? What would it look like? How would our life look if we had 10 grand in a bank for a rainy day, or we could book that holiday or stuff? What can we do now to make that a thing in the future? And I think it's having the conversation, isn't it? It is.
Speaker 2:Stop competing. Yeah, stop competing. Stop being suckered in by social media lifestyles. And that is easier said than done. My God, that's easier said than done. There's a guy I follow. He's brilliant. He's only been doing this for two weeks. He's basically took a picture of his garden and asked chat GPT to do a better version and then decided to copy it without having any experience. Rank Scottish accent swears like a trooper. I got no fucking experience in making a garden.
Speaker 1:But he's Scottish.
Speaker 2:Sorry for anyone Scottish listening, scottish listening, but uh, he's already built up something like 250 000 followers on instagram, 80 000 followers on tiktok, because he's brilliant he's been himself and someone's gone.
Speaker 2:How come you're still rotating? It's like six days in. He's like, because I work full-time, mate, I'm doing this like an hour a day and editing. Don't be thinking, I'm just like winging this. This is really hard work. Yeah, people just don't know, they don't put the concept behind the fact that he's probably sitting on his sofa at 1 o'clock in the morning in cat cut editing a post-it after working in the garden for a couple of hours After working in the garden?
Speaker 3:yeah, they don't get it it's hard to do it as well, and it's hard to keep the consistency. That's the thing as well.
Speaker 2:It is my people see content and they just swipe, swipe, swipe, not realizing the effort that's gone in behind every single post that gets made.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, yes, if you're sitting on your phone one day and a video comes up and you feel like being an horrible bastard of a troll.
Speaker 3:Yeah, think twice yeah yeah, yeah, that is a different podcast, but it's, yeah, it's. It's hard, it is difficult to elevate yourself to the next level, but I think the first it's the same with everything. It's having the understanding that okay, yeah, that might that might be a problem. Maybe I do need to stop ordering, stop putting stuff on. Buy now, pay now. Try and clear the credit cards down 50 of the way before you go further. Take chris's mentality if I can't afford it today, then I don't buy it yeah, I've got a piece of paper on my computer.
Speaker 2:So when I'm working on my computer I've got like a thing there and it says if you're not changing, you're choosing, and it relates to this. So if you're in this situation and you've got no situation and you've got no savings and you've got no extra income coming in and you're still churning through the day job, how do you see this ending? How do you see put yourself in a year down the line? How are you better off a year down the line if you're just carrying on doing the same thing Because you're choosing that lifestyle? At that point Nobody's coming to help you. You've got yourself into this situation for whatever reason. That's probably not your fault, yeah, but it's got to be you that gets yourself out of it. So you need to change, whether that's working harder in your job, getting a second job, trying a side hustle, doing more, shifting sideways, being creative, whatever it is. If you're not changing, you're choosing that life. Yeah, and in a year's time, where things are worse, you've got to look at yourself and think shit.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you explained that, actually, because I saw that sign on your desk weeks and weeks and weeks ago and I wondered why you had it there. But now it makes sense. I couldn't work it out. I was trying to figure it out in my head. What the fuck does that even mean? Yeah, and now you've actually put it. Do you want a fatter copy? I've got one. It does, though. It does until and this is the thing until someone says something like you don't really understand what it means. But that does make total sense, yeah, total sense. You are choosing to be the way that you are.
Speaker 2:Specifically for me. I'm still choosing to be a fat bastard.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I'm choosing to get fatter.
Speaker 2:But it is though, isn't it? Yeah, everything in life. You've said it perfectly in a post you did once yeah, everything in life is meant to grow. Everything in life, yeah, and that includes us as humans, and if we're not growing, we're fat you need to water it.
Speaker 3:Everything needs certain ingredients to grow. Whatever it is, it needs a certain amount of sunlight, a certain is. It needs a certain amount of sunlight, a certain amount of water, a certain amount of this, a certain amount of that, and we've got to grow. And that comes from the inside out. And whether that's your finances Like I'm shit with money, I would love to be brilliant with money I'll put my hands up and say I'm terrible with money. I don't have £1,000 savings More. The other way, I'm £1,000 overdrawn. But the last sort of six months I've realised that Obviously, I've put everything I possibly can into starting a business and I'm hoping that with hard work, determination and consistency, in another six months' time I can pay myself back the investment I put in that. Then that's my savings back.
Speaker 2:That's it, mate. So you're making a conscious effort to choose to change. Yeah, see what I mean? So if you were in my community, I would say to you you've given yourself a label as being I'm ash on shit with money. Get rid of that, exactly. And it sounds like you are. Yeah, so that's good man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's it, and I think a lot of it comes from the inside. Like I've done this. I don't know if I told you um, someone asked me a question the other day what's your internal fear? And I was like don't have one. And then we went through like an hour conversation and we went through this. He's like okay. And then I put the same prompt. We got some things. I put something into chat gpt based on everything I said. He said you've got an internal fear of not being yourself because you're scared of people rejecting you, not being liked, et cetera. You've got to get rid of that. So now I'm working with ChatGPT as a life coach over 90 days to do little things every day, to become more thing. It's quite powerful, though Don't you fucking sit there laughing? You don't fucking use it.
Speaker 1:I've got a real issue with chat TV. I've just started using it. I mean, I can't understand why people don't use it, but I just can't. I can't get people talking to it like it's a fucking human, because it's not, it's a computer. It's not, and when you say it out loud it sounds fucking bizarre. I'm sorry, I don't mean. Well, I did mean.
Speaker 1:I did mean to laugh because I find it quite funny, but yeah, I just I don't get it. I don't get it. I mean, I call mine knobhead, that's my undername. You got you giving yours a proper name, haven't you?
Speaker 2:I call mine slave yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he'll know if I do. No, but like it does go pretty deep, yeah it does. And you can't take everything that ChatGPT says. You've got to double-check it, you've got to. But when you put all these sort of deep questions in it and you've been using it for 18 months and it learns how you write and you read and et cetera, like I started using it for like I had a journal and I was writing in every day and it was I forget to do it, and so so I decided to put a folder on chat GPT this is my daily journal and it sort of, and then after the week you can say summarize my week and it will summarize your week without you having to read back through the pages. And it's fucking brilliant for it.
Speaker 3:And there are life coaches out there. I'm going to use that one, though. There are life coaches out there that are worried that, like all these life coaches that have done a three-day course and stuff, they're now being blown out of the water because someone can do exactly the same on ChatGPT.
Speaker 2:Mate, they're not the only job that are shitting themselves because of ChatGPT. Let me tell you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but quite right, they should be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, quite right, they should be.
Speaker 3:You can't embrace it.
Speaker 2:Because you can explain your deepest, darkest fears to a computer that you wouldn't do to a person, even if they are alive.
Speaker 1:Don't forget, somebody might be the other end of those listening to those darkest, deepest fears. That's the issue.
Speaker 3:I'm worried about. Well, this is it. It is a massive thing. Oh, remember my card details and my free number, and password on the back.
Speaker 1:It's not really a robot.
Speaker 2:It's a group of people up in Crawley.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I need a bank account. I just used mine for remembering websites.
Speaker 1:I used it this morning, didn't I? I've got such a bad memory Right. Can you do me a favour? Remember this website and then, when I ask for it, tell me it? That's, that's brilliant right, we digress.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's another episode, though. Let's talk about AI. Yeah, we'll do AI. I like that. I tell you what. Let's do AI next week?
Speaker 2:yeah, because that is a good point to leave it yeah.
Speaker 3:I enjoyed that. Boys, that was good. Yeah, it was good. Went off a few woo over there and here, but I think it was good usually does though, doesn't it yeah, right, I've been Des, that's been Chris and that's been Ash oh dear, see you next week. Cheers, all cheers guys like comment share, give us your feedback. If you want to call us out, then do it. We're all here for it.