Jordan of Save and Invest UK on Index Funds, Compound Interest and Learning From Costly Crypto Mistakes

This transcript is auto-generated and lightly edited for readability, it may contain errors.

[0:00] Sammie Ellard-King: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Money Gains podcast. This is your host, Sammie Ellard-King, and today my guest is Jordan from the Instagram channel Save and Invest UK. Now, if you’re not following Jordan, I really encourage you to do so. In this chat, we go through everything about his investments, what is an index fund, how to maximize your investments using compound interest. It really is a great episode for those of you that are interested in investing or perhaps are investing and looking to forward your skills. So if you are listening on YouTube, please do whack that subscribe button. And if you’re listening on Spotify or Apple, leave us a review, hit that follow button. It really does help the show. But for now, let’s get started on the Money Gains Podcast. So, Jordan, welcome to the Money Gains Podcast, man. How are you doing? You well? Yeah, I’m good, thank you. How are you? Yeah, not too bad. Thanks for asking, mate. Yeah, looking forward to having you on today. I’ve been following you on Instagram for a while. You’ve got a wicked channel, Save and Invest UK. And um, yeah, I’m just really excited to chat with you a little bit about your history, a bit about your investments. Um, but if you wouldn’t mind talking to the audience, letting them know a little bit about you first.

[1:28] Jordan: Yeah, so um so my name is Jordan. I run a social media channel called Save and Invest UK. Currently we’re on Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. Wicked. And what about your journey before this? What were you doing? Um, so previously I’ve had a um a number of different jobs, but um, I decided to set up this page alongside going to university. I decided to go back into education um as a mature student, and this was like the perfect hobby for me. I’ve always been sort of passionate about investing, personal finance, both personally um like doing it for myself and helping others do it. So it just made sense to sort of like link the two. Um and obviously it’s quite similar to because at university I studied accounting in finance, so it’s quite um a lot of the stuff we touched upon at uni was quite relevant to some of the stuff I was doing on the page, um, which made perfect sense really. So yeah, it was the perfect hobby at the perfect time. Wicked man, what what drove you to set up the page? When I uh the first when I first come to start learning about investing, I um I I was using YouTube a lot, I was using social media a lot, but I found a lot of the content to be to people in America. So I I I really I saw a gap initially really in in the UK market where not a lot of people were talking about investing, helping people start investing, um, the benefits of investing, etc., and sort of general for personal finance tips. Um I saw a lot of American accounts doing that, and when I first started learning about investing, it was all sort of American accounts that I learned from. Um I used to watch a lot of YouTube videos, but a lot of them were sort of tailored towards the American way of investing within 401ks, Roth IRAs, etc. So the terminology wasn’t the same for people investing in England or the UK. So yeah, that was that was probably the main reason why I started to help people learn more about investing when I didn’t believe there was a lot of help really out there. Because in mainstream education, also, there’s not really too much. Well, I’ve never come across investing, even as part of my degree, um, didn’t really touch upon sort of consumer personal personal investing. So yeah, I do think there’s a huge gap in the world around sort of investing education.

[3:51] Sammie Ellard-King: I couldn’t agree more, man, and that’s why there’s you know brilliant channels like yours. That’s why I’m doing what I’m doing as well. You know, the more the better, as far as I’m concerned. And if there’s loads of great people out there teaching people, we’ve all got different audiences, and you know, the more people in the markets, the better. I’ve personally believe that. So, what what what about your own investments? What are you doing at the moment? So, for the past two to three years, I’ve literally just been investing in index funds. Um, I initially started investing in stocks, but I didn’t get on too well with stocks, to be honest. Um, they’re quite time consuming as well to research, and I felt I found that the indexes were outperforming me, so it made financial sense for me to to look at um investing in index funds cheaper, easier, and yeah, I’m happy with my strategy currently.

[4:43] Sammie Ellard-King: Mate, index funds are like the easiest thing, and often, you know, Warren Buffett did that study where he took on someone who was picking individual stocks. The hedge fund said they they would beat him and he absolutely walked it, and all he was doing was dollar cost averaging every month into an index fund and he absolutely walked it. Just goes to show, doesn’t it? You don’t need to be this mental individual stock picker to become an investor these days, do you? Yeah, definitely. It’s such an underrated strategy, too. I don’t think um when people actually talk about investing, I think the common the common sort of thing that people fluck to is stocks, investing in stocks, trying to pick the best company, whereas you don’t even need to do that. You can just pick all the stocks inside an index fund and just sit there and watch it grow over time.

[5:29] Sammie Ellard-King: What do you think? Like, do you do you have any individual stocks at all anymore, or is it just 100% index funds? Yeah, so I do that I’ve been holding from sort of four, three, four years ago. Um, just sort of like your Apples, your Microsoft’s companies that I was familiar with before I started investing in index funds and before I started investing, companies that I’d used as a consumer and that I knew were were quite strong because of um sort of like the global reach, et cetera. Um, and yeah, just how many customers and how happy people were to have um yeah, things like Apple and Microsoft. Everyone’s got sort of, well, a lot of people nowadays have got an iPhone in the house, they’ve got a Microsoft computer or an Xbox. Um so it made sense for me to try and invest in those companies when I had zero knowledge about investing. Um, but that was the only thing I sort of knew that they had sort of a strong consumer base. It’s a great strategy.

[6:20] Sammie Ellard-King: Like a lot of people do that. They walk around the house, they make a list of stuff, and they go, I like these 10, 20 things, and so that’s what I’m gonna invest in. And actually, often because you’re emotionally invested in that company, that’s the ones that do well for you because you know more about them than others. Is that something that you sort of would suggest to people as well? Yeah, definitely, definitely. And I think um it’s important to invest in what you know, and obviously, as a beginner investor, you’re probably not gonna know a great deal of how to do sort of fundamental research, how to how to evaluate a company um using a different, using a valuation model that you’re comfortable with. Not a lot of people know about things like that. So the only way to sort of invest in companies that you do know is to look at it from like a consumer perspective and yeah, and find out the brands that you actually enjoy, like, and feel passionate about.

[7:10] Sammie Ellard-King: What do you think is like if someone was getting started today, what what would you suggest to them to if you were thinking about investing, but you’re like a little bit scared to make the jump? You know, there’s often these people, you know, I’ve seen them commenting on your on your posts, on my posts, you know, it’s often like, where do we get started and how do we find these things? What where would you suggest for them to go? Where would you suggest for them to come out? So the easiest thing I suggest, the simplest thing, um, and the thing that probably doesn’t scare people a lot is just to check our index funds. They are really simple, low cost, easy to invest in, um, and they’re instantly diversified. So they’re probably less riskier than picking sort of a handful of random stocks. Um, they are easy to learn about. There are lots of videos on YouTube, um, lots of financial channels, lots of invest in social media accounts talk about index funds. So I think um as time’s gone on, as the the internet’s grown, I think yeah, things like index funds have become more popular, more of a popular topic on social media. So yeah, I think there’s information about that if you know what to look for, but I think the initial barrier is actually knowing what to look for. It’s hard to know what you’re what you’re not actually doing. So yeah, I think um yeah, index funds, then obviously if you become more confident as an index fund investor and you think, oh, hang on, I I reckon I could get better returns here, then yeah, maybe sort of stock picking is something that that that is right for you. Um but obviously everyone’s different, so I think it’s yeah, it’s important to try and learn what works for you ultimately.

[8:36] Sammie Ellard-King: So you you in a way start with index funds as like your base, and then perhaps as you learn more and grow with knowledge, you can then perhaps like to diversify into individual stocks or bonds or you know, even crypto. Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah. Because I think um index funds probably take a lot less knowledge than stock picking does. So I think for for a beginner, it’s probably easier to learn about investing in index than it is about learning about the different valuation methods of stocks, um, how to compare them, what you’re looking for in terms of cash flow, um, yeah, future predictions, etc. So I think, yeah, index funds are quite all-encompassing, um, easy, diversified, and yeah, I think a great, a great shout for any beginner to look into.

[9:21] Sammie Ellard-King: And what what is an index fund for the person that that’s listening to this and going, yeah, that sounds that sounds great. I’m really enjoying this, but yeah, what the hell is he talking about? Yeah, that is a good question. So an index fund is essentially a basket of different stocks. Um, they’re called index funds because they track a specific index. Um, so for instance, the S&P 500 is the top 500 companies in the USA, and you can find an index which matches all of them. Um, so you get exposure to each one of those 500 companies essentially. Um, and it tracks the same performance. So instead of, like I said before, instead of picking an individual stock, you can invest in a whole bunch of stocks inside one index fund. Um and it’s yeah, it’s cheap, quick, easy. So it’s definitely something um, yeah, that I like personally.

[10:07] Sammie Ellard-King: So you mentioned before that you you started with individual stocks. Any any mistakes, any like bad stories in there that you’ve lost a bit of money in that, but also, you know, you learnt from essentially? Yeah, yeah. So um when I first started investing, it was sort of the end of the um there was a big boom in cannabis stocks. I’m not sure if if you’re aware of that. Um, sort of a few years ago, just before I started investing. And um, yeah, cannabis stocks had just taken off really. I think there was sort of more legislation in America, parts of Europe are looking more legislation. So there was just a massive boom. Um, and I got on the back of this. I invested in a company called Aurora. I don’t know if you want to give me a name. I know Aurora, yeah. Stock with Aurora, and ever since, ever since that day, I think it’s sort of 90% something down. So that’s probably the biggest loss. But I didn’t invest too much in it when I first started investing. I was quite a cautious investor, so I did try and spread a lot of my money across a variety of different stocks. Um, so I didn’t have too much in it. It’s not like I lost out hundreds or thousands. Um, but yeah, that one is the one that is down the most by far.

[11:13] Sammie Ellard-King: But that’s the thing, man. You learn, right? Like if you’re riding on the back of a wave, it’s probably too late if you’re just hearing about it because you know, half half of the industry’s already pushed that stock really, really high. It perhaps is better to wait for an opportunity when it is 90% down, but you still think that it’s gonna be a good company in the future. You know, we live and learn, right? I’ve done it, man. I you know, some of the stocks that I bought in halfway in the middle of COVID are still down sort of 40-50% now, and I’m just gonna have to hold them, even though they’re great businesses and I believe in what they’re gonna do long term. Um, I’m just keeping adding to them a little bit here and there, just to kind of try and, you know, and some of the positions that I opened when they were all the way down at the you know, middle of last year, they’re now like 70-80% up, but overall it’s like you know, still down quite a bit. And these are just lessons that you learn, right? Like sometimes jumping on a fad, i.e., you know, the latest crypto coin comes out and everybody’s raving and ranting about it and sure it shoots back up. But by the time you’ve jumped in, you’re often too late. Um, so it’s better to be a bit more cautious when you’re individually stock picking, especially with all of your money. Um, any crypto in there?

[12:29] Jordan: Yeah, so I actually started with crypto. That was how I first sort of learned about investing many years ago. Um the end of 2016, the start of 2017, that was when I first um sort of started learning about crypto. I think that was when I think 2017 was when Bitcoin started really like flowing um and it was all over the news, etc. Um, so yeah, I started off so sort of with the really risky option of ICOs, initial coin offerings. Um I bought a variety of them. Um some of my one of my friends actually introduced me to them. That was the first um, that was the first investment I ever made was into an ICO that was made in England. Um, a coin that was made in England. And obviously, because Bitcoin was in the news at the time, everyone was saying, oh, this could be the next Bitcoin, etc. etc. So me and my bunch of my friends sort of jumped on it. Um and initially it skyrocketed. Uh, I think it went up sort of like 2,000% initially at the uh as soon as it was listed on an exchange. I had a I had one other do pretty much exactly the same as well when I um invested in that. But then sort of the other four or five just went to part, some of them vanished, completely vanished after I put money into them and they were supposed to go be launching on an exchange. Um so yeah, I’ve had sort of a bit of a horror story, but also some success stories in that. But then it it motivated me to look at sort of safer options. So after the ICOs, I began investing in Bitcoin and Ethereum. Um, I do also have some Cardano currently, which I’ve just kept from years ago. And to be fair to those cryptos, they’ve actually recovered, they recovered since that time. Um so I’ve been quite fortunate with those. But then I always was looking for sort of less riskier ways to make to invest my money. Um, I’ve always considered myself sort of a risk-adverse person, but I never really had the knowledge of how to invest, what to invest in for a risk-averse person. Um, so it was just about learning for me. And I think although crypto was a different part of my investing strategy, it definitely taught me a lot and it motivated me more to look into sort of other avenues of investing. Um, and I’m not sure if I’d have gone back to uni and opened up the page if I didn’t start investing in crypto, because I don’t think I would have ever stumbled across learning about investing, maybe. I don’t know, maybe I would have a few years later, maybe it was just sort of a a thing that um that would have happened later. But um, but yeah, so I still currently hold Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Cardano, um, but it’s only a small amount. Probably less than around a thousand pounds, maybe just less than a thousand pounds in total. So a small portfolio. Um so yeah, what about yourself?

[15:00] Sammie Ellard-King: Hey guys, Sammie here. Just a quick one. If you wouldn’t mind heading over to upthegains.co.uk, hitting the subscribe button in the top right hand corner, and entering your email into the box. For your troubles, you will receive a free net worth calculator worth £25. Now, this net worth calculator, if you enter your assets and your liabilities, will tell you exactly how much you are worth today. Now, what you can also do is set yourself some financial goals and track your net worth along the way using this tool. It’s totally free. So head on over to upthegains.co.uk, hit the subscribe button, pop your email in, and you’ll be sent straight to your inbox in a matter of minutes. Now, back to the podcast. I’m I’m similar to you, mate. Like I have uh I have like four or five percent of total wealth in in cryptocurrency. Um that’s because it’s gone up quite a bit recently. It was actually like two one, two percent, but it’s grown. Um so I may be trimming that in the near future just because I don’t really like it getting above that kind of area, you know, 80% 75-80% in index funds and on the rest of individual stocks, because I do love I do love the business side of it. Um, and I feel like if you are an individual stock picker, you do need to love the in business side of it, you need to understand the fundamentals of that business and where it’s going. And if you don’t have that, at least some really decent knowledge about that, then you know, often, especially like it’s okay if you’re picking Apple’s and Microsoft’s, etc., because everybody knows they’re giant blue chip companies. But if you’re picking the more like I love my software and fintech companies, and you know, you need to know the ins and outs of these businesses because you know you don’t want to be picking a business which has got you know 100 million worth of debt sitting on its balance sheet and it is hemorrhaging money, but on the surface it looks great, so you know there’s loads of these businesses out there. Um so yeah, that’s that’s that’s me, man. It’s uh I’m like you, like I I went risk on hard at the beginning um because I didn’t know what I was doing essentially. I didn’t even know what an index fund was like nearly 10 years ago now. Um, and then over time I’ve slowly just reapportioned everything into into a bit more just slow and steady wins the race. I’m not here to, you know, it would be lovely to you know hit the jackpot tomorrow with one of these things, but at the end of the day, index funds wins. Exactly.

[17:34] Jordan: Yeah, yeah. You know, of course, we’ve all it’s a journey really at the end of the day. You’ve got to find what works for you. And for me personally, I don’t know if you agree, but um the best way for me to actually find out what works for me is by actually going and doing it um and finding out for myself. So I’m happy I’ve had these experiences and it’s helped me learn and it’s probably helped shape me into the investor I am today, which is a really confident one. So yeah, happy. Even the best investors in the world make mistakes, and I think that’s really important. Like, you know, if you’re if you’re if you’re picking individual stocks, 25 of if let’s say you pick 20, you know, five of those are probably gonna do quite badly. But if you pick better, if you pick well out of 10 of those, and they do really well, that’s gonna offset the losses that across your entire portfolio. So you you know, you don’t have to be this master investor to you know every single time make a correct decision because you know, hedge funds out there, everybody makes really bad decisions every now and then. But you’re right, like you you learn by doing, um, and so getting yourself some knowledge and jumping in, um, even if it’s with like a couple of pounds now, you know, you can invest with a pound these days. Go out there and learn, watch what things do, you know, keep your eye on it for a bit, and as your confidence grows, you can start to increase your your monthly contributions. Um, do you have ISAs? Um, how are you how are you proportioning sort of your accounts at the moment?

[19:01] Jordan: Yeah, so um I only have a stocks and shares ISA and I have a help to buy ISA. Um, I had the help to buy from a few years ago. I probably should transfer it over to the Lifetime ISA, but at the same time, because I’m actually intending on using it within the next couple of years, I I don’t see the obviously there’s no real benefit of me um trying to invest it in in that sense. The Lifetime ISA does have sort of a bigger benefit limit, but I’m not contributing too much to it. Um so it doesn’t really matter in terms of yeah, I’m not missing out on any money essentially. So yeah, the help to buy, I’ve got a few grand in there um just to help with sort of yeah, when I when I try and jump on the property ladder. And then yeah, the stocks and shares ISA really, they’re the two sort of ISA accounts I have. Previously, when I was younger, I had a cash ISA. Um, but currently I don’t I don’t really see the point in cash ISAs currently. Um they’re not they’re not offering competitive interest rates. So I don’t yeah, I don’t really see the benefit. Obviously, there is tax benefits for people who have lots of money saved away. Um, but that that isn’t me, unfortunately. I’m trying to grow grow money, and I find best to do that in a stocks and shares ISA. So um, yeah, just the stocks and shares ISA and help to buy currently.

[20:51] Sammie Ellard-King: That’s interesting. Like uh you know, I’ve seen a lot of people come out recently and say cash ISAs, what’s the point? I I do agree with them to some degree, but then in other terms, like I wrap my money into that and I keep my emergency fund in a cash ISA. So it’s great for me to sit there and just just keep ticking over. I’m not fussed about whether or not it’s you know growing essentially. It’s a pot of money which is there to save the day as long as it’s getting a solid bit of interest on it. Occasionally, I’ve thought recently whether or not I’d be better off moving that money into a you know an easy access because some of these interest rates with like chip and plum, it’s like four, four, four point five, four point three percent at the moment. It’s like it’s like quite good. So you’re like, oh well, maybe you know, I’m better off moving my money over, but then you know, you then you lose your tax benefit essentially by having it in there. So, you know, it’s one of those things, you know, it’s whether or not you’re you’re an organised person and be asked to keep moving your money around. That’s that’s you know, it’s whether or not but I agree, you know, tax uh, you know, stocks and shares ISA is an absolute must. You know, it’s so good for people, 20 grand a year, tax-free contribution. Um, and you know, you’re free from capital gains tax when you do, you know, decide to withdraw your profits, which is fantastic.

[22:11] Jordan: Yeah, um it’s really generous as well, the 20 grand, because um a lot more people in in America invest compared to the UK. Um, and they have a similar account called a Roth IRA, but you’re only allowed to put, I think it’s around six thousand dollars in there. Um so when you compare that to twenty thousand pounds, it makes a big difference. And yeah, when you consider sort of the tax benefits associated with growing that um long term, yeah, it really makes a huge difference. So any any investor I’d suggest opening up a stocks and shares ISA, it makes yeah, it makes perfect sense. I see you talking on your profile. Quite a bit about you know appropriating the right amounts and and working out your funds. Like if you’re you know at the moment we’ve got a real problem in the UK, it’s you know 40 40 uh I think it’s 40% something like that, have got under £100 saved at the moment, which is extremely high. Um, you know, if you’re in this position and you’re thinking, how on earth can I get started, um what what steps would you advise people to take?

[23:12] Jordan: Yeah, that’s a good question. So in terms of um in terms of basic sort of money management skills, I think there is I think there’s a lot of education still on social media about just basic personal finance things around budgeting, saving, managing your money more effectively. Um I think obviously within the current climate it’s it’s it’s not ideal, and obviously you can only do what you can do. Um, but taking time to educate yourself a bit more, even if you aren’t at the position where you are now financially, where you’ve got money coming in that you can sort of put into things, you can budget better. Um, but if you are in a situation where all your money is just going out on bills, then it it still would be beneficial for you to become sort of financially educated. Down the line, you never know what might happen in a year, two, three, four years’ time, um, maybe even 10 years’ time, etc. So I’d say get that sort of core financial education built so you know what to do with money. Even if you aren’t currently practicing it, you know what you should be doing essentially. Um and then yeah, just look into sort of any any long-term savings is best invested in terms of the returns, averagely speaking. So um, so for any short-term money, savings, etc., um, but then long-term money looking to invest in it to try and grow it. Uh, because I think, yeah, if you’re trying to grow money in a savings account, it’s not really gonna outpace inflation currently. So you’re probably just gonna um you’re you’re fighting yourself essentially because you’re trying to contribute money to to grow your wealth, to to have a more prosperous life, essentially, but inflation is the value in it so much that it’s almost futile the money you’re putting into a savings account, um, especially currently with how much inflation is towering above the the interest rates. Um so yeah, for people who are sort of on a low income, I’d definitely say get financially educated and get educated about investing, even if not now, but for the future, um, because you will be able to make a success of that at some point. And if even if not if not you, sort of kids, um, other family members, um, you can pass that knowledge on to them. And that sort of knowledge, it really is invaluable, I think.

[25:25] Sammie Ellard-King: Where do you think are the best places for somebody to start? You know, are there any books or resources that you recommend? Yeah, good question. I personally, this is um my preferred learning style. Um, I’ve always been sort of a keen video watcher. Um, and it helped that I had someone who I knew who had invested already, so I was able to ask him some questions. Um, but don’t feel don’t feel like you need to have a friend in your life. I mean, there’s social media accounts like ours. I’m always answering questions. I don’t charge for people to ask me questions. You can ask me as many questions as you like. I’ll always try and find the best answer whenever I’ve got time. Um, so yeah, trying to find people that you know that you can speak to and have a conversation to and ask a question to. I think that’s important. But also YouTube. Um, I watched a ton of YouTube videos before I started. And actually, after I started, I was still sort of learning the ropes. Um, and yeah, there were there are a lot of YouTube videos out there. You can obviously tailor them to shorter videos or longer videos if you’ve got a shorter attention span like me. So I try and watch them on like a faster pace or I try and watch a smaller vid, uh smaller in-length vid. Um, but they really helped me initially, to be honest. And they and they were easy to find. It’s just a click away on YouTube, index funds for beginners, invest in for beginners. Lots of things do come up. Um, and even more so now for people in the UK, there’s more and more stuff appearing relevant to people um that want to invest in the UK. So yeah, they’re the two sort of main ways I learned. I had a mentor and yeah, lots and lots of YouTube videos.

[26:56] Sammie Ellard-King: Uh mate, there’s I’m the same as you, you know. I’m I I’m I’m uh I’m a visual person. I couldn’t sit there and read a 2000-word blog, I can write it, but I can’t read somebody else’s work. I just my brain doesn’t compute like that. And so I can listen, so I’ll walk the dog, podcast in, pick a load of stuff up, and then I may find a topic which they were talking about, and I’ll watch a YouTube video on that topic to further my education in that little tiny subsection. Yeah, that’s a really good idea. It’s it’s really interesting way of like of people like you know, everybody’s different, but there are so many free resources out there these days, which we didn’t have, you know. When I was first learning about money nearly a decade ago, there was nothing like this. There was Martin Lewis in the UK, and that and that was pretty much it. Um, and it it it’s changed now for the better. So, like, we’ve we’ve got wealth of uh of knowledge at our fingertips about wealth. So uh encourage people to get out there and learn as much as you can and ask questions, man. Like that’s what you said. Like you were asking questions, you get people asking you questions. This is the best way of learning. If you don’t know, ask someone. Don’t feel like bad asking us. That’s why we do what we do because we want to help people as much as we possibly can. What do you feel at the moment? Obviously, the the current climate’s pretty crazy. You know, we’re seeing interest rates rising, we’re seeing mortgage payments going up, you know, everybody seems to be pinching every single penny that they’ve got. Um what do you think about side hustles and the importance of those right now, especially if you can’t invest?

[28:33] Jordan: Yeah, that’s a good point. Because um, yeah, a side hustle obviously opens up a different income stream for you. So if you are sort of spending all of the income um that you’ve budgeted within your job, um a side hustle can help provide an additional income source. Um, and that could be enough for you to start investing, for you to save up um for a holiday, for you to put into sort of kids’ education and whatever it might be. I think a side hustle can um yeah, give you that uh additional source of income, but also provide a sense of financial stability. Um, even if you were to lose a job, which obviously could always happen, um, the side hustle could still be there and you could still collect that income stream. Um, so I think they are really important in today, in today’s society, as you said earlier, touched upon the um fact about people have not having so much in savings. I think a side hustle could help people sort of look at um saving more because it’s it’s extra income essentially, it’s not income that you’re budgeting. Um so yeah, any extra income could be saved, invested, or spent on any anything you want, or a mixture of the three, essentially. Um so yeah, and I think in 2023, with everything that we have around us, um with the internet, all the resources we have available to us, I think there are so many side hustles out there now. Um I mean, I just sat to look this morning, I saw someone walking dogs, I think that’s quite a popular side hustle now. Obviously, our um social media pages, I consider mine as a side hustle as well. So I think, yeah, whatever works for you, you can do something um like physical, you can do something over the internet, you can do something without showing your face ever, you could do something with where your face is sort of the main interaction, the main brand. Um, yeah, I think there are so many different possibilities today with all the resources that we have. I think there could possibly be a side hustle out there for everyone. Um, and there are small side hustles. So even if you didn’t want to put a lot of time into doing something, there are surveys, um, doing market research, small things like that where you might find sort of 10, 20 minutes at a time spare. You can channel into something like that where you earn sort of a little a little bit of money, but it’s a bit extra. Um and it’s something for you to obviously play with. So yeah, I think there are a ton of different side hustles available now. Again, you could do some research on YouTube, etc., and you’ll find you’ll find a wide list of things that could be relevant to you. Um, and yeah, like I said before, I think just going out there and doing stuff is probably the best way I’ve learned what worked for me. Um, so yeah, I’d encourage people to look into side hustles, look into what works for them and trying to explore a side hustle that matches their interests. So my social media account obviously is something I’m really passionate about, I’m really interested in. So it made sense for me to try and do something with that um and try and make sort of a small extra income by doing something that I enjoy and I’m passionate about, and at the same time helps people. So yeah, find something that you you enjoy and that could be profitable, whether it’s a small amount or not. Um, but yeah, obviously look at how much time you have too and try and factor in what what you need um and what you have available to do to do a side hustle because there are so many different ones out there. Um it’s just about finding one that works for you and your time, basically.

[33:00] Sammie Ellard-King: I couldn’t agree more, man. You know, these days and age, as you say, you know, if you’ve got an extra 10 minutes, you could be doing a quick survey on your phone. Uh even if it’s a couple of quid, you know, you do one or two of those a day. Um, you know, that’s that’s a bit of extra cash, or it’s your lunch paid for, and there’s there’s ways of look uh of these there’s so many ways these days, as you said, with the internet that you know people can introduce side hustles. And I do think it’s important, you know, if you get the rug pulled out from underneath you and your job and you’ve got nothing to show for it, if you’ve got a a business project that you’re working on that’s sort of starting to tick over, like you know the that’s income that you wouldn’t have, or if you do stay in your job and you, as you say, you know, holidays, you’re investing money, there’s so many avenues you can explore there. And I just think it’s really important that people consider these in this day and age um that we’re in right now. Um, I’m gonna touch a little bit about uh you’ve you’ve done some wicked posts on uh compound interest, um, and I think it’s something that people uh don’t really understand properly. Um and it’s so easy when you explain it to somebody. And you know, when I show my you know my my my clients and my friends you know compound interest calculator, and I I press the button at the end and it shows you all the numbers, people are like, what? That exists. I’m like, yeah. So what what would you say is compound interest and and and how to make use of it?

[34:30] Jordan: Yeah, great question. So compound interest is definitely probably one of the most exciting prospects about investing. I get so many inquiries about it. Um I get people asking constantly about how to earn compound interest, etc. So compound interest is interest earned on interest already earned, and it crews more for the longer, for the more lengthier time that you’re investing. So dependent on um when you invest, you will receive some interest that year. The next year you will then receive some interest on the amount that you have invested, plus the amount of interest you received from last year. Um and that amount just keeps growing by more and more. So 10, 20, 30, 40, even 50 years down the line, um, those amounts grow exponentially. They don’t grow sort of in line with each other, they grow by more and more each year or each period. So yeah, it is a way, it’s the way to turn a little bit of money into a lot of money. Um and it just takes time, really. So um, yeah, I’d say if you even if even if you start small with compound interest, I think um one pound with a 10% return after 40 years turns to about 50 pounds. So you can really see how how small amounts even add up over the long term. Um, and you’ve got to think with a 10% return, that one pound would have grown by just 10p in the first year. So not not a great deal to start with, but then in this in the last year, it’s growing by a five pound. So you can see sort of the differences of how how it grows over time. Um but yeah, compound interest works best over a long period of time. Um, and uh, yeah, compound interest and time are sort of the main, they need each other to work really. You can’t make compound interest work over a short amount of time. Unfortunately, I would love to be able to sort of grow money at a fast rate in a short amount of time. But yeah, it does require lots, lots of time. Um, but I think it’s it’s worthwhile, and yeah, and it can outpace inflation um massively. So it’s definitely something worth looking at for the long term.

[36:32] Sammie Ellard-King: It’s wild, isn’t it? Once it gets going, uh it’s scary. I posted something the other day, it’s like 300 quid a month, and in total, in year 36 you hit 1.1 million, but your entire contributions during that period was 121,000. So the rest is interest. So like in year 34, 35, 36, that’s actually like more than doubling based on interest, which is just mad. Like, so your your your interest is literally just spiralling down this hill. Like, I I I liken it to a snowball, kicking it down the hill, yeah, and then by the end, it’s an absolute unstoppable beast because it’s just earning on it’s just earning interest on interest on interest on interest on interest, and that’s literally all it is, right? Yeah, it’s mad.

[37:24] Jordan: And with time it gets to a point where the interest outpaces what you’re actually contributing, so you’re earning more in interest than what you can actually physically contribute yourself, um, which is fascinating, I think. It’s it’s something that um when I first learned about compound interest, it changed my complete view of thinking about the what the world. I was like, okay, cool. If I do this for 20 years, I’m gonna be laughing come the end of that 20 years. And I think if someone gets you into that mindset, that that that things are like, cool, I’m knocking this off, knocking this off, knocking this off. But what I think think people forget is that like you know, if something happens to you in 10 years’ time, five years time, 15 years time, this money isn’t like gone. It’s not like you can’t touch it until you want if you need it, use it. Like it’s it’s growing for a reason. You know, ideally left alone until you know you can hand in that that letter to your boss and go, you know, I’m off to sit on a beach, um, which is what we all want a bit of time freedom. But at the end of the day, if you do need that money, you know, it’s not just shut away and you can’t access it, you can go and withdraw that money and use it if you really need to, but ideally not, right?

[38:41] Jordan: Yeah, definitely. And that’s one of the key benefits of a stocks and shares ISA. You can literally um withdraw it at any time. So there’s no sort of locking into a set period of time. If you did want the flexibility of being able to withdraw money at a time that’s that’s right for you, you can do that whenever whenever you want, really. But yeah, like you say, it is best left for the long term. Um, so yeah. I know you’ve been a busy man, but you used to make me absolutely crack up with some of your uh reels that you used to put up with the the words over. I want to know purely from a personal perspective, are they coming back, man? Um, I’m not sure. I’m really not sure because when Instagram first introduced reels, they were popping, they were really popping, they were pushed to the top of the algorithm and they used to get a lot more views. Um but since then I found them really time consuming and they didn’t pop as they as they used to do, essentially. So yeah, I’ve never really got the the same engagement as I do consistently with posts now. Um and yeah, I just find them too too time consuming to make. And on on um on TikTok especially as well, they they really they I’d say my best performing like video reel on TikTok is probably a few thousand views, whereas I’ve got text videos on TikTok which have millions of views, so it makes sense for me to do sort of more text content. Obviously, that’s what people want to see. Um although I did enjoy making reels, and they are yeah, they are like entertaining, exciting.

[40:09] Sammie Ellard-King: You’re great at them, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I do I do like them to be fair. Maybe one day they will return. It depends how the algorithm goes, it depends what the content depends how the content moves. I guess social media and and content’s constantly changing, so you never really know what’s what’s going to be next. So maybe it could be something in in the future. Um but yeah, I haven’t got any plans to do that just yet. Just yet. I had to ask, mate. I love them, you know. They were just out, I think it was in COVID, they were just purely cracking me up when you really needed it, and you’re also learning something as well. So, like that for me is great. You’re learning with a smile on my face is the best way, to be honest. So, yeah, yeah, no, but you you know, you’re right, you know, things are changing so quickly these days, and I think you need to be aware of that in your businesses, in your uh in your finances, every everywhere. Always be knowledgeable about what’s going on, even if it’s a slight out of the rhythm change on on Instagram that affects the way that you know you do things on there, or it could be you know the tax thresholds change and you know your your dividends are less this year. You need to be knowledgeable and staying with your finger on the pulse is is important, I think, especially in this day and age. Is there any um is there anything you read or anything that you go to like every day to learn or find out stuff?

[41:26] Jordan: Not really, to be honest. I’m not like you said before, I’m not personally, I’m not a keen reader, so I will watch YouTube videos um and I do watch the news from time to time, although I don’t find it too productive. Um but in terms of actual sort of education stuff, the m my main education source is social media nowadays, which is quite crazy to think about, probably from people who who’ve never really touched upon social media or never really looked at social media in that light. Um, but the accounts I follow now on social media, I think I get way more knowledge from them than I ever have um yeah, doing anything, probably at school or at university, because on social media as well, you pick your your feed essentially, so you’re choosing what you want to see, um, and you can choose what you want to learn about, which is you could you can’t really go to somewhere and choose what you want to learn about, you have to learn about a whole subject, um, a subject matter essentially. Whereas, yeah, on sub on Instagram you can follow accounts that talk about the same things that you want to learn about. Um, and yeah, and obviously it’s in a social media um format, so it’s a lot less formal. There’s no sort of expectation on you to have to learn this for an exam coming up, or you need to learn this to do this next week. Um, the pressure’s really off, so you’re just using your spare time really to to yeah, follow accounts that provide value to you. Um, and that’s that’s my main sort of learning source right now. If I do see some stuff on Instagram that I’m that um sort of sparks an interest in me that I’m that I like the sound of, I then might go away and have a look at some YouTube videos about that or Google some sources and read read a bit more about that. Um if it’s something I’m really interested in. But yeah, I’d say sort of my main source for news currently is is social media. And I think a lot of world’s changed, right? Yeah, of course, yeah. I think a lot of people are heading, uh especially younger people, are heading that way too. I think um obviously you’ve seen social media with like the fake news um when they sort of blur scares me, mate.

[43:26] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah, yeah, yeah. When they blur content, which is supposedly fake news, because I think they’re doing that because more and more people are learning um using social media as their sort of number one educational tool, the tool they use for news. Exactly, yeah. So um, so yeah, I think it’s something that’s growing, and I think yeah, more and more people are using social media to learn more, which is positive for accounts like ours too. Yeah, no, yeah, I’m not complaining. But um, yeah, for sure, man. Okay, well, listen, thank you so much, Jordan. I’ve really enjoyed this. I think there’s tons of golden nuggets in there for people. Often it’s great to, you know, we we it’s good to go back to basics and tell, you know, talk to people about how we can get these things started. But um, if people are uh interested in finding out a little bit more, well, where can people find you?

[44:12] Jordan: Yeah, so the has the uh tag is at Save and Invest UK. Um, Save and Invest UK, all words. Um you can find us on Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Nice one, man. Cool. Thanks for coming on, Jordan.