Ashley Boonin (GoHenry) on Teaching Kids About Money

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[0:00]

84% of kids and teens want Financial education and they rank it higher than English maths and science the demand is there and and it’s not just coming from parents it’s kids themselves they want this if you just let them grow up without any money education and then dump them with 50 Grand yeah it’s going to be a problem why aren’t we valuing this as a society it shouldn’t be the case that you you have to just be born to the right family or happen to come across a right Mentor in life to be better with money that seems unfair we’re creating a school system that is designed for you to get a job and make money you don’t know what to do with it yeah money habits form by the age of seven I taught my four-year-old son the concept of money and now he understands how to spend hello and welcome back to

[0:48]

the Money Gains Podcast this week we have Ashley who is the Finance director at GoHenry if you’ve yet to hear about GoHenry well it’s all about educating your kids around money and they have amazing products to help kids do that but we didn’t just discuss about this we discussed all about his approach to investing what he thinks about how people should actually get into the market as well for a long period of time it was a super interesting conversation you guys are going to love it so stay tuned and let’s get started on the Money Gains Podcast the Money Gains Podcast so Ashley welcome to the Money Gains Podcast man how are you I’m great great feeling great thank you you for having me good to be here I am really excited about this conversation we’ve

[1:34]

been chatting for a while now I think close to a year yeah so it was yeah it was a good 12 months ago but uh I think we hit it off we did we both sort of have this kind of I see when you post on LinkedIn we have this kind of similar thought train when it comes to Personal Finance in general which I just got of really resonated with you but I want to ask you what do we need to know about you to kind of understand where this conversation’s going to go today yeah I’m I mean I’m on a personal mission similar to yours um it frustrates me that people don’t care enough about their own money um I I just think people can be way better educated when it come comes to their own money

[2:21]

habits and how to take care of themselves and and set themselves up for for a great life um yeah it I mean it ALS started for me when when I was about I was really lucky so I was I won the ovarian lottery I was I was born to the right family okay um who who definitely instilled a saving mentality and not not overspending they didn’t invest at all um but but I had a a grandpa who who basically with him when I was 11 he was like do you want to buy some shares I was like what is what is this that that really sparked the whole the whole journey for me and then I dived into every single uh you know personal finance book that there is I probably read them all yeah we should swap notes

[3:10]

after definitely what was that like for you then so did you carry that into school and into further education um no not quite it was it was always extracurricular in that sense I was always reading myself um uh did you know maths economics uh school English literature went on to do economics at University um but always in the background this was an obsession so at University I was I was trying to we talked before I was trying to be like a mini Martin Lewis so I I had personal finance blogs that I was I was blogging every other day you know this is before social media so BL blogging was big back in the day oh yeah it still is not the same definitely no so was yeah that’s really where it all all

[4:00]

began um and you know as my career’s gone on so I went into uh study accountancy um and and eventually found my route joining GoHenry which was a company where I was like wow this Mission resonates you know so the mission I’m not sure if you’re aware so it’s make every kid smart with money and it’s pretty hard to to not love that mission yeah especially when you’re as as passionate about this as you or I are it’s a topic very close to my heart like I Champion that more than anything and I think it’s just so so important obviously your role there is chimor your Finance director at GoHenry uh just to

[4:48]

provide some context for people listening to this like you are dealing with one of the you know one of the UK’s biggest sort of financial institutions right now um what’s that look like for you dayto day man that’s a big you built it up quite a lot there look I have a I have a really good Finance team around me uh so if I can shout out to that team they obviously do a huge amount of of the heavy lifting with me um my role uh tends to be a bit more strategic thinking about longer term um what’s the direction that this business needs to go in um and you know good Finance like good personal finance is kind of it works um by setting goals and influencing stakeholders in order to to get there and reach those goals um

[5:39]

but the dayto day you know we have a we have a great team as I say and we we we do all the normal Finance function I can go into it if you’re interested no I mean more just like what’s a day normal day look like for you like how do you you know was as a finance director it’s interesting because I like understanding like how people like run their lives yeah so so they there will be a lot of reviewing data reviewing metrics right um thinking about um if we’re thinking about a new product launch what’s that going to look like from a from a financial metrics perspective um and and really trying to assess the return on investment in that sense okay um there’s all the day-to-day running of a finance function so it’s cash management financial reporting uh calculating tax dealing with auditors um uh but I I like

[6:32]

the the more strategic side of the the job gotcha and so with that you must be pretty good with your own money right um I I like to think I’m I’m I’m I’m all right yeah I’ve read I’ve read enough I’ve listened to enough of your podcast to know to know what I’m doing now you yeah no I I it’s always interesting because a lot of people like even me I you know I find myself I’m doing a video about something and then I’m like I probably do that yeah you know and I find a lot of people what they teach then they actually need to go and check themselves in their own life as well do do you find you have that problem as well always always yeah yeah so so I was doing a post about a LinkedIn post about a proper Global diversification and I was I was I had

[7:23]

had some Vanguard funds and I would realised I was quite heavily exposed just to the UK FTSE right which you know you’ve always got room to improve and there’s always there’s always uh reasons to assess yeah yeah you know so I treat I treat I don’t know if you I bet you do this so I treat um personal finance bit like uh a company might look at their balance sheet so so I’m looking at it every month you know what’s going on uh what are the movements and where do we need to course correct do you do the same not every month um more probably three to six I’ll have a re-evaluation of like okay that’s less obsessive than me yeah I used to be like that um I’ve positioned myself more for

[8:14]

longer term growth so I don’t necessarily mind if something’s down or up in that period because I’ve set it a Target which is probably five or 10 years out yeah um so I sort of look at it check it more of like maybe I need to realign because I have like a portfolio allocation so for someone to listen to this like when you have a investing portfolio you can either just buy one fund or you could have a multitude of different things inside of it I have a lot of different things yeah and they’re all weighted so when I mean waiting it’s like percentage waiting um that’s smart actually having that longer term perspective because when I when I was much much younger and I I you know I’m saying early 20s and I started really seriously investing because I was

[9:01]

earning earning an income I would I would obsess I would look every day at what’s going on and that’s it’s not healthy because I started like that you feel the generations emotionally and you’ve got to you’ve got to be emotionless at times you do you do H I think though people need to go on that Journey because actually I went on that Journey realised I don’t want to be like looking at this all of the time it really me business interests me as it does you I’m sure um but having that kind of like just needing to have your finger on the post all the time is exhausting but going through that for a year and just understanding how markets work and you know this news report comes out or

[9:49]

this economic report comes out and this happens to this section of the market that’s really good information to know because you can capitalize on certain opportunities but it is exhausting so fair play once a month like a friend of mine is the same now he’s been doing it every day for donkey years and he doesn’t work in this industry or the finance industry at all he just loves it so I think you need to find the balance for you and I people get miscued with investing that they need to do that and there are options where you can be involved by the minute or even 10 seconds right through to buying a fund and never looking at it again for 15 years yeah so there’s like very different styles of investing and

[10:37]

it’s always interesting to hear sort of how people do it but just to be really clear on on you know although it’s better to to have a longer term perspective and not look at it every day it’s not the same as just bearing your head in the sand and not engaging yes completely agree with you 100% have your finger on the poles and there are strategies where you can sort of like level it up a little bit like my strategy allows me to squeeze a few extra percentage out of it but it does mean I need to be a bit more on it and I need to know what’s going to happen and understand the business inside out before I put my money into it so that’s kind of a you know a decision that I made because I love it but for someone that’s just you know John the mechanic that just wants exposure and crack on

[11:26]

with his life and doesn’t really want to know about it it’s important to still have that exposure in my opinion but not necessarily you don’t need to learn loads to still be able to do it he can the ideal is just set it and forget it and check in probably on your sort of cadence every six months or so yeah yeah I think I think it’s it’s healthy that way don’t get me wrong I still have a I have my alerts on you know if I you need switch those off no because I see things sometimes personally I you know this is not Financial advice in any way shape or form but if I see a stock or a fund go down an enormous amount for me I see that like Christmas and my favourite coats on discount and I’m going to just buy a load more because I’ve keep cash

[12:13]

back in Reser and Reserve to do that yeah um because I have that long-term approach so it allows me to sort of change the way that I do things so for me I have I don’t have anything set up for to tell me when it’s gone up only when it’s gone down by an enormous amount and then I’m happy to for me uh that’s the way I look at it but I feel like based on where you are and how you’ve got here like obviously you have an enormous passion for personal finance and Company Finance as well having knowing what you know practically everything you’ve learned is American or needs an O for dictionary to understand right it’s how Financial education is we’re trying to simplify it you are trying to simplify that’s going to be my question Ashley um obviously GoHenry’s on a mission to

[13:03]

completely flip that on his head starting with the younger generation to build a generation of kids who are financially aware which I just think is amazing and why GoHenry and why that mission yeah yeah it’s it’s interesting the so let’s go back to the mission make every kid smart with money why is that the mission so you must have heard there’s a Cambridge study that that looked at at what age our money habits formed um and they’re basically cemented by age seven so right now we have we actually have a national curriculum on financial education but it’s Secondary School only and if you’re not a state school so if

[13:49]

you’re an academy or free school or private school it’s it’s effectively optional right but we would say that’s almost too late m first of all it should be mandatory and second of all it should be primary school as well um if that’s when your money habits formed so you’re you’re quite you’re quite an unusual case actually because you you started to learn quite late in life but I think from your interactions with your with your listeners and your viewers um you will see that you’re a rarity and wouldn’t it be better if we just all learnt at the same speed from an early age with the same curriculum with the same guidance as I said before it shouldn’t be the case that you you have to just be born to the

[14:38]

right family or happen to come across a right Mentor in life to be better with money that that seems unfair we’re creating a school system that is designed for you to get a job and make money but you don’t know what to do with it yeah yeah there’s an amazing so we’ve done research internally so we we we probably have one of the largest datab spas of of children uh dealing with money um I think the stat we’ve got is 84% of kids and teens want Financial education and they rank it higher than English maths and science wow yeah that’s incredible you know you’ve got you’ve got majority of 18y olds leaving school reporting and feeding back that

[15:26]

they don’t think they’ve had enough financial education the demand is there and it’s not just coming from parents it’s kids themselves they want this you know they’re very aware and and and they enjoy it they enjoy it more than English science maths it’s interesting because like a lot of the kids like for example um my sister’s sis my my girlfriend’s sister their kids are extremely financially Savvy and they’re picking a lot up of social media and things at a very young age how old are they 16 and 14 okay and their knowledge versus my knowledge at that age is the there’s Oceans Deep yeah um and I just find it so fascinating and they’re all very interested in it and they’re asking me questions and I’m like you’re

[16:15]

16 this is amazing I happily talk to you about are they’re throwing you at all throwing me yeah I think so but like in a good way you know I’m like your mom’s not asking me this but you are like wow um and I just find it fascinating how that Generations now and I think perhaps it’s technology and wanting to see the world be a better place and that whole mentality you know I was sitting on a park bench with a bottle of lambrini at their age so let alone like worrying about my personal finances one of my favourite things to do at the moment is listen to podcast while I’m out walking the dog and as you can imagine especially those about money one of my favourites right now is coming from PensionBee one of the UK’s leading pension providers the pension confident podcast is a monthly show hosted by the wonderful Philippa Lamb who is joined on each Episode by a panel of expert guests

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they cover topics from pensions to mortgages right through to ISAs the pension confident podcast is available wherever you listen to your podcast or you can check out the show notes below for a direct link when it comes to the show it’s important to remind you that everything discussed should not be considered as Financial advice and when you invest your capital is at risk tune in to the pension confident podcast right now society’s definitely changed in that regard are you seeing that yourselves in the way kids are interacting now with personal finance inside GoHenry so GoHenry I think you you know has um they have what we call money missions so they’ve got inapp gamified content um to help with financial education so parents uh can encourage their kids to to take the lessons and do the quizzes and you know it’s a bit like

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Duolingo but for personal finance um we we did some research with St Andrew’s University on the behaviours of those kids who take those lessons if a child completes all of money missions level one which I think is about want to say eight eight or nine lessons short lessons we’ve shown that um they tend to save 50% more after that than before 50% 50% more wow so the so it’s a very real impact that it will have on these kids’ lives and they will take that going forwards um and so it really is about just instilling the

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habits sooner rather than later so your your your girlfriend’s sister’s kids they get that right you got it you didn’t I know don’t tell him yeah um no but it’s um that’s amazing that they’re engaging yeah um it’s cool and uh and hopefully hopefully they’re instilling good habits that’ll that’s the thing it’s it’s talk about sort of business return on investment a little bit of uh engagement at a young age is going to pay dividends for their whole lives yeah and society and Society yeah and and and actually if we do sort that out by the time they get to investing age it’s actually going to make all of us hell of a lot more money because because they’re

[19:27]

going after in our retirement yes but also if they’re putting money into markets that generally means that our investments ourselves will go up because there’s more money circulating into business and economies and things will get exponentially better for us all if that happens and I just think it’s it there’s just no reason why that shouldn’t work you know and this is something that we could start to see in a matter of you know 5 years from now if we manag to sort it out and kind of leads me on to my next thing I know Louise your CEO or co-founder um has been the go Henry Manifesto is a something I really enjoyed reading but that’s obviously you guys petitioning the government for compulsory education

[20:14]

yeah in schools yeah big deal yeah how’s it been going uh it feels like a like a like an uphill struggle at the moment but we’re really pleased to see the governments actually doing a school curricul review um we’re obviously putting Financial education you know firmly on the table if anyone else wants to join us on this this Mission you know please just Google uh we’ll leave a link to it in the show notes please sign up uh so so anyone can can make suggestions to the government on on how the curriculums should change um so we we’re obviously uh advocating for um mandatory uh and primary secondary school education um because it’s important I I agree it I sat in on

[21:05]

the labor committee for for labor basically and this was the number one topic um and it was very interesting to see how they planned on approaching it you know for them it was like we have to put it in schools which I was like fantastic brilliant but the maths behind it you’ll love this being a finance director for me is the big problem that I don’t think that they have addressed and I think that may be one of the biggest stumbling blocks that we come across here and I the problem for me is that you’re probably looking at in the hundreds of millions of pounds simply to train the teachers to be able to deliver education and then my other problem with it second problem with it is the census of that information what are you

[21:53]

actually going to be teaching these kids yeah because if it’s coming from elect trust is or alltime low with with government as it is so how are we going to trust that you are going to give those kids the right information that’s not like textbook toe the line sort of approach which you know hasn’t served us well in the so what’s your thoughts on that and have you thought about that as a company as well yeah so we uh to be clear there there is already a a national curriculum for financial education the issue is that it’s not mandatory um our our our our thinking I’ve just had a complete brain freeze repeat repeat the first bit of the question again yeah so the your go

[22:42]

ahead andry Manifesto it the training for these teachers in school yes yes yes yes yeah yeah so um look I’m a I’m I’m a parent uh of kids and so so I can see the my my son’s in a primary school I can see the workload on the teachers um we’re not advoca advocating that overnight teachers need to be able to to teach Financial education will completely get it’s going to take time to get there um so what we’re advocating is that there are external providers who come into schools and provide that content and over it’s going to be over a longer time period we’re going to get to that point uh within a psh class that that the teachers can start to teach this stuff as well but there are plenty

[23:30]

plenty of organizations out there that are already able to provide um and come into schools to teach Financial education yeah some brilliant ones already um it’s just a lot of schools L of kids there are there are but but to go back to a much earlier Point kids value this above all else I think if you ask parents they they would feel the same yeah sorry why aren’t we valuing this as a society yeah everyone okay I can’t talk for everyone it it feels like a lot of people agree that this is important and meaningful stuff and could pay dividends over over the much longer

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run I don’t think it’s controversial it’s not controversial I just think they don’t realise how much it’s going to buy cost them yeah and and then sudden there’s a 27 billion pound hole that they mysteriously didn’t know about I won’t go into Politics on this too much but uh was 22 so I’ve just saved you five saved me five brilliant we stick that into Financial education Please Mr K D um the problem I have with that is that you know there’s being Cuts made in so many other areas yes for us this should be a priority but are there other priorities ahead in their own manifestos and their own thinking and that may well be the case and I I look I’m I’m not a politician I’m not a civil servant so I

[25:06]

can’t I can’t talk to how government is going to prioritize this it’s obviously being part of go hemry we think this is really important and we need toate for this we have to have fight this fight until we’ve for till we’ve won so you’re on board 100% you know I am and uh I think it’s massively important but for me we should we should shout out if there are any politicians list listening and they want to experience the money missions we are more than happy to accommodate that I think a digital solution is the right way to go because kids are on technology more than ever I mean it’s very difficult to get you know my girlfriend’s sister’s kids there we go nailed it uh off the devices sometimes and so if they’re on the

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devices why do we not meet them where they’re at now um and that would save hundreds of millions of pounds for training teachers create a first class digital solution you know in conjunction perhaps with you guys or utilizing the same Frameworks that you’ve already built do you want to come join GoHenry I know I know what you’re saying I know what you’re saying um look we would obviously love to work with government we think our content is great um it’s it’s being designed by teachers by Financial Educators um so we’re always open to a conversation have to be mindful though that not every school can afford iPads and and phones very true in

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the classroom so there’s a balance to consider here but GoHenry is always going to be willing to work with government to to spread the message still less of investment I think than necessarily those training programs stuff it might well I haven’t done the numbers I think but in my head that seems like a more sustainable and long-term approach because then if something changes they then have to retach you know thousands of teachers whereas you can just update an app and then send out an email so we like it’s interesting you make that comment our money missions tends it tends to be Evergreen content so we’re not talking about specific tax policy right so so it should it should just be good Financial education and good habits um and a general understanding of money

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and debt and spending and saving and investing without needing to get too specific and then needing to change the content every six to 12 months one of the cool things is the cards that you do for the kids and that’s the kids love the cards yeah they’re really fun so they love the personalization so they could put stick their name on it we got you know over 45 designs gets printed on demand per per child um you upload a photo or is it no so we’ve got we’ve got pre we’ve got 45 uh different Custom Designs um and we we often run campaigns um with with Partners um for example in the past we’ve done Sonic campaign we’ve done a Pokemon campaign we’ve done spiderverse campaign um so there will be there will

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be unique custom designs as well kids select the design that they want put their name on it whatever they want Nick name maybe um but yeah it it makes it really tangible um and they can go out and use these cards these kids as well yeah so it’s a it’s a prepaid debit card so um with contactless so you can go out and and you know actually learn how to interact with money so GoHenry has always prided itself on the fact that it’s the it’s the only it’s the only place where where Theory from the money missions meets meets actual doing and learning by doing learning and you can progress and the parents can monitor as well which is amazing and I love that feature it’s like the back end you can see where the kids spending if you’re 18 right and you’ve had no money education your

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entire life yeah parents have just bought I mean it’ be great would it your parents have just bought everything for you your entire life all of a sudden at 18 you’re going off to University or going to going to learn a trade and all of a sudden you’ve got to figure this all out well that’s what happened to me yeah that’s what exactly what happened to me it’s not right you you need to you needed to have an amount of money on a on a regular basis however small 10 20p 30 I I had that I had that I think it was more the like shock of like no one’s here anymore here’s loads of money from the government and student loan like good luck without any education to manage that that’s the the tough part yeah yeah you got to you’ve got to learn by doing you got to have manyi budget

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um and you you’ve got to learn to save and you’ve got to learn to to to not overspend yeah and it’s like you’ve got to be able to make mistakes as well yes massively especially when you’re young and you can afford to make those mistakes totally yeah I was listening to ramit uh speak on Ramsey speak on Steven Bartlett’s podcast yesterday one of the things that he does with his kids is like you know he gives them a set amount and he says we’re going to go grocery shopping here’s the list how do we make this happen they make mistakes brilliant and then you can then talk them through that you know if we’ve got £100 we’re going to go out for a family to dinner where are we going how are we getting there how’s the whole process work you pay and it’s like a really cool and suddenly they’re having real life interactions which they could also use you know they go ahead and recard for or something like that as well if you set

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it up in the right way for them so my my my son is he’s four we were in Legoland and did you do the cars and get the driving license yeah OB obviously a banger I still love it to day so proud of him you know only kids go round and around without crashing into the wall it’s so good I’m a big key he he he would stop at the traffic lights when it turned red oh yeah nice it’s a good kid oh you are you get fully involved it’s great I used to love that so they’ve got well you remember this um in the in the pirate area there’s a there’s a one pound machine where you can squirt I don’t know targets oh yeah oh love that so so my son said can I can I go on that I said well it’s a it’s a pound I said

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did you bring your money because he’s got he’s got a money box at home it’s not a lot in it but he he he’s put money in there we bought it for him when he was about two I think he was given it actually when he was two and just puts a spare change in there and it’s helped with his learning to count obviously I would do that right um but I said have you have you brought your money and he said oh there was no tantrum it’s quite un ususual and he said no um no I said okay well you know when we come back you can bring your money and and and you can play on it as many times as you like it’s your money you do what what you want with it and this was only about two months ago three months ago every couple of weeks he brings it up he goes next

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time we go to Legoland daddy you know I’m taking my money with I’m like he’s nailed it he’s got it he’s got it he’s got he’s got the concept that money is a tool you know it’s used for things and I have some and it’s there and it’s ready to use for a future point in time and I want to go and squirt some people and some things with it there we yeah I think there’s like a big thing for parents when it comes to their kids with this and they don’t necessarily know what to do for them and it’s I come across it all the time like what do I do do I save money for them in my accounts do I open things like a Junior ISA and I suppose for you

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as a as a dad as well like you obviously know what to do but I think for someone listening to this for a parent listening to this what are the options available for them to say for their children yeah look I’m not a I’m not a financial advisor so I I can’t everyone’s situation is going to be different um I’m aware there’s there’s a whole range of options so you could you could uh invest in a Junior ISA you can invest in your own ISA you can put money into a into a SIPP for a child you actually start their pension yeah exactly uh you could if you’re lucky enough you could set up a trust for your for your child but um bondy you’re hitting on on what can be sometimes controversial is what I often

[34:10]

hear from from my friends who are parents is why would I open a Junior ISA when I and you’ve heard this as well when I could just put money into my own ISA I’m not filling the 20,000 annual allowance so what I’ll do is I’ll top the money up into my own ISA and then when they’re of an age where I think they’re mature enough and I don’t don’t necessarily think that’s 18 it might be 19 20 21 after University then I’ll give them a lump sum the problem with that um is I think you solving the wrong problem so I I completely sympathize with parents doing that and and I understand why they do that they’re very cautious they don’t want their kid to make mistakes with potentially a larger pot of money that even they had when they

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left school but the problem is they’re solving the problem of how do I make sure my kid doesn’t do something silly with their money I’m just going to wait until I view them or deem them to be mature enough whereas this the problem they should be solving is how do I educate my child to make sure that they’re comfortable with that money I’m very much in the same camp view on this yeah and I get I get I get the completely every child you know your own child every child’s different um and I get exactly that sentiment that parents have but I would just ask that they consider if they’re solving the right problem yeah I do I agree with you because it for me it’s like well if you just let them grow up without any M money

[35:47]

education and then dump them with 50 Grand yeah it’s going to be a car going be a problem yeah and like everyone’s going to go to ither or buy a fancy car or do something or just blow it you know on on Mindless rubbish not although your girlfriend’s sister’s children did I get that right yes it sounds like you know there will be cases where where they’re interested they’re mature um they get it um there will be cases but there’ll be other cases that won’t because of the lack of Education in that they might be great kids but they just might be rubbish with money it all comes back to the beginning right and and and I and I I also get that some parents will think well I’m not confident with money so you know I’m not going to trust my child but

[36:37]

again I’d ask them to consider um changing it yeah change the cycle oh completely make sure that they learn if you’re asking that question that’s the right question to answer mhm but the answer doesn’t come from changing the strategy it comes from your way of parenting in my opinion yeah and also the way that you handle yourself with money those shouldn’t be a reflection of how you treat your child in my opinion and I actively reply that back to these questions sometimes I get a very fruity answer don’t tell me how to parent people people they know their own children better than you you or I do yes they do but then have they had do they know them stuff this stuff themselves MH and if the answer’s no well then you

[37:25]

haven’t tried yeah so I think that that’s the the kind of conversation I have with this I guess imagine two different scenarios back to yours your scenario where you say we put money into an Isa for you and here’s a lump sum on a on a final day right when they turn 18 versus we’re putting money into junior Isa for you and we’re going to actively talk about it the whole way like we’re not going to surprise you on your 18th birthday with with with a TR of money we’re going to talk about where it’s being invested what’s happening with it you know at 16 they’re going to be able to have access to it not to withdraw the funds but certainly to determine where it goes and then you’ve got another two years until they’re 18 before they can actually access the funds it’s really incumbent upon parents I would say to to

[38:14]

to actually give the money to the child it’s in their name it’s not in your name if Granny and Grandpa are are giving money for birthdays and Christmas I it’s there’s something that feels strange about it going into the parents account rather than to the child themselves or family and friends are giving I get that a lot too like what happens if I have a problem and I need to access the money yeah well then but it’s not your money it’s not your money yeah and they struggle with that as well and then again that goes back to the like well you probably need to sort yourself out so you can then be able to educate your children in the right way because they are just going to follow you and your habits and the way that you manage with these things they’re going to pick up a lot of things from you I should say rather than follow you because a lot of

[39:00]

kids don’t follow their parents but um I certainly haven’t great parents rubbish with money that’s just the facts um and so I think it’s important that when it comes to Junior ISAs you just understand that the options are available for you and if you’re willing to go on that Journey then I will see also see it as well that you know something’s better than nothing because if you’ve got that money for even if it’s a few grand that ends up being in there that’s a brilliant opportunity that is often isn’t afforded to kids exactly just by having that locked away and you not being able to touch it if you’re not that great with money is probably a good thing a a lot of your content I’ve noticed is about

[39:50]

this it’s trying to educate on it’s trying to visualize in simple terms what is compounding how work exactly I mean it takes such a long time for compounding to happen but kids have got potentially 20 years before they need to access this money yeah and also it converts into an adult ISA at 18 so then if you’re then telling them H that actually this money doesn’t need to be withdrawn or you could withdraw some of it for your first car or something like along those lines but the rest of it we’re going to continually add to and this is the practice and this is what happen with mine and look at the these things then I if I was 18 and I was shown that I would have lit up and I know I would because I’m that type of individual i’ get overly obsessively I get obsessed with it

[40:38]

basically and just want to be doing it more and more in a good way yeah of course it can only be a good way and I mean if I’d have done that 18 now don’t think we’d be sitting here I’d probably be on a piña colada in Barbados but uh you know have to wait another 20 years for that to happen now but I think that’s what I would say is that you know you’ve you then giving the opportunity a lot of my content I say that you know if you carry on by the age of 40 sometimes those contributions end up in the millions yeah um and that I saw that one the other day the 200 p a month 200 pound a month 200 p a month ,000 a month ,000 p a start in the Junior ISA and then2 200 a month with an 8% return by the time you reach your 44th birth day is 1, 5,12 it doesn’t feel real and that that’s the difficulty compound is a is

[41:28]

it it’s a hard concept to grasp because it takes so much time to get there yeah it’s 66% of the country no 64% of the country right now don’t understand compounding yeah that doesn’t surprise me there’s a research from Andrew Craig who friend of the podcast a brilliant guy and I just that blows my mind and if we can fix that and bring that down to 30% there going to be a lot of a different country it really would yeah I mean right now um interest rates are a little bit higher than they’ve been you know historically yeah especially over the last you know since the financial crisis um but even even at 4% whatever you can get longer term it’s hard still to visualize what that actually means um go

[42:19]

hemry actually has a it has a it has a feature that I really like that that I don’t think gets talked about enough you you know the concept of Bank Mom and Dad right that Mom and Dad are going to help you out yeah but go hemry the app effectively has that so you can pay parent interests to your child and you can set the interest how you want so not to 100% interest APR you know per year if you wanted to um using something like that will will will you pay the interest based on their savings correct so smart give them an allowance okay right each each week or each month tell them you know if you hold some money back in the parent paid

[43:08]

interest in this savings pot I’m going to pay you 25% APR or whatever you want to set it at just to make it real yeah so it’s it’s a meaningful amount you know maybe tens of Pence per month or or a couple of quid but they see it but they’ll see it yeah I think it’s I think it’s um it’s a good tool to actually teach compounding in a in a bit more real time yeah because then we can you could do those calculations with them and show them the growth well I can’t do the calculations yes you can you’re a finance director of course you can I mean it more like you could open a compound interest calculator online yes you can and just very basically show like you know it by the time you is that one of your that’s one of your favourite

[43:57]

links isn’t it I love it yeah I bet we use the same one calculator site I’m not going to promote it it is just it’s great and I encourage everybody to go and have a play with this listening to this yeah go and have a play have a look at what your savings rate from your bank will give you and then go and have a look at say basic Returns on the stock market 8 to 10% have a play with that over periods of time with your M monthly contributions and tell me it does not blow your mind I’m on track to have over 5.5 million in retirement and I’m not saying this to brag guys I’m saying this because I am an everyday person just like you so what does that actually mean well it means that it’s actually possible for you to build life-changing wealth too no matter where you’re at on your journey your age your knowledge or even your Current financial situation so

[44:45]

Sammie how do I sort that out well I’ve created something super cool which literally takes one minute of your time I’ve left a link in the show notes to a free money personality quiz which will provide you guys with a free tailored content plan based exactly where you’re at on your financial Journey once you filled it out you sent the steps to start getting you results from day one and then once you’re ready you can then move up to the next step very easily too it’s not judgy in any way it’s totally free to do and it’s actually really good fun too simply head down to the show notes and click the link there where it says to do the quiz and get your free money action plan right now now back to the show you know sometimes when you look at it like 25 and 30 years you’re making more back in a year than if you invested in a stock market and had an average years return for example then you would for your salary taxfree from a stocks and shares ISA if you were to

[45:34]

withdraw that uh gain that year which blows most people’s minds to Smither Rings yeah and this is like me putting in 150 quid 200 quid even 50 Quid in a month for a long period of time so is one of those things once people get past that and then they go oh yeah but then how do I do that I said well you’re already doing that if you have a workplace pension so because you don’t see it net income come into your account and it’s already come out still still happens yeah it’s just it happens for you so what happens if you just set it up so it does it for you automatically as well and it just happens why do why do you think people don’t I I did a LinkedIn post last night people in this country

[46:24]

don’t invest in the stock market as much as they do in the US so I think it’s 25% of people do versus 60% in the US outside of pension outside of pension confidence think it’s a big one um you know Money Box did a study recently went around the country asking about investing confidence and it’s just extremely low across the board um but they’re much more confident about managing money and savings and weirdly credit cards and things like that as well so I think it’s one of those things where it’s difficult to is it must be coming down to an education piece and in America you know they have Dave Ramsey ramit you know Tori Dunlap there’s leaders in CNBC exactly on

[47:11]

television every day um so it’s pretty hard to miss these people you know they’re given that kind of level of aist Celebrity Status whereas here we have Martin and that’s it we’re trying to change that now you well you know I’m joking you know we’ve got a long way to go to even be close to Martin um and you know rightly so he’s done a fantastic job for this country but other than him that’s it and there’s still 68 million people in this country and for me there needs to be a few more having those types of conversations that connect with different groups and individuals and you diversification across different communities and cultures and I think it’s massively important um that we just continue to try fight that good fight and that will

[47:59]

change things M for lots and lots of people social media is doing that and it is helping and you a lot of my investing content does very very well because everyone and I break it down for the everyday person so they can understand it people want to learn they want to learn they do really want to learn and they do really want to change which is encouraging because if that was a problem would’ be fighting a pretty hard fight but they just a lot of it they need to be broken their beliefs and shown what’s possible that’s why your habits are formed by age seven largely it’s pretty hard to then break that yeah the I read a really good study um I’ll send it to you um it’s from an organization called tyer they are they took a sample of several thousand Brits and said to

[48:53]

them I’ve seen you’ve actually had similar content to this they’ve said to them you know what is the likelihood over a 10-year period of losing money in the stock market yeah you know where I’m going with this yeah and and the average Brit says oh the likelihood of having less money at the end of 10 years is about 30% so they’re saying in a third of all cases for every 10year periods they’ll have less money than they started with investing in the stock market the reality which I’m sure you know but I’ll tell your listeners the reality is in the FTSE 100 the probability of a 10year cycle resulting in less money it’s about 3.5% so to reframe that 96.5% of cases you’re going to have more

[49:42]

money than you started with that’s pretty good odds MH and in the S&P 500 it’s almost every 10e cycle um you will you will have more moneyy yeah so the there’s a there’s a perception problem um that we need to overcome that the stock market is risky it is of course you know I’m not a financial advisor it’s going to be different for different people their perception of risk is important here but do they understand risk do they have the data to even the historical data which isn’t a guide for the future but what we can see is that people even historically completely overweight the risk of losing money than the

[50:31]

reality 100% And it’s like 0.01% after 20 years in the S&P 500 I mean I’ll take you word for it but that doesn’t surprise I’ve not read that one I’d love to see the FTSE one I haven’t seen the FTSE one and it’s just mad like if you can install that into someone you know that there’s like less like there’s more likelihood of that financial institution going bust than there is than you losing Mone money in in a stock market which is mental and so I think for we just need to continue banging the drum it’s not like it’s going to happen overnight it’s going to be multiple bang bangings of drums yeah um over a long long period of time for us to be able to sort of cut through and for me I’ve always said this like if I

[51:19]

can change 1% I’ve done my job that’ be a lot of people it’s a lot of people right so if I that’s my goal but if Financial education mandatory on the curriculum will change a lot of people’s lives 20 30 40% it goes into exponential levels I I totally agree with you yeah yeah and there’s multiple petitions out there to to sort this out that’s why that’s why GoHenry does this so we’re obviously a paid for service but the mission is make every kid smart with money this is the best way to do it yeah I think you guys are just doing a fantastic job I I love the brand I think that it’s cool I think Louise is great you know every time I listen to her I just think I get so inspired um and you need someone like

[52:08]

that to carry forward a company and it’s lovely that that you know she’s so passionate about this topic and I think it comes across in everything that you guys do um so yeah that’s why I really wanted to have this chat today cuz I think it it’s one that just gets overlooked a little bit in our circles even though everyone sort of goes yeah I’m totally for it they don’t really have the chat and so it’s nice to be able to sit down and just actually go you know let’s have a chat let’s just talk about this properly look if people want to help right how do they help write to their local MP tell them that you know I care about personal my kids being financially educated in Primary School in secondary school it being on the curriculum it

[52:55]

being Mand join us you know the the curriculum review is happening right now you know right in offer your suggestions all of this will help yeah it will it really will is there anything else that we’re missing about GoHenry that we haven’t sort of touched on today because there’s some really cool features there that I think a lot of parents listening to this and a lot of future parents will love um yes um not not not specifically GoHenry but but I would just encourage um everyone like you do like I do to to talk to young people about money don’t don’t shy away from the conversation they’re smarter than than you think they can handle it you know when you’re out and about if you got young kids I mean my

[53:44]

son loves doing doing contactless and it forces a conversation you know what is that where does that come from you know he’s four he can get it everyone else can get it we just got to talk it’s such a taboo in this country we’ve just got to talk a bit more openly about money yeah they do in America it’s so weird like it’s completely we’re so stiff up a lip and money doesn’t go on trees type I mean they w’t surprise you that obviously I’m going to say GoHenry is a good app for for forcing this conversation yeah because it’s going to do the spending the giving the saving all with parental controls it’s got the gamified money missions but most important thing again I repeat it is just talk to your kids about money

[54:31]

yeah I completely agree with you actually I’ve absolutely love this conversation it’s been great um I think on your LinkedIn you are love talking about these types of topics I you do you go really deep yeah you go really deep they’re really interesting and it’s nice to see someone that like cares about the future of kids but also showing their actual way of doing it yeah and what could be a possibility for you if you were to take this type of action which I think is is cool to see um what’s one of your favourite topics are talking about in personal finance do you think such a curveball um what do I love talking about right now what I really love talking about is making sure that people

[55:20]

actually think about their pension so you you brought up Auto enrollment before most people are putting money away without thinking about it too much the piece that that bothers me is that if you never log in to your pension platform and you just assume that it’s all good you actually run the risk of of being put in a default fund that may not be appropriate to you so if you’re in your early 20s your employer has picked a cautious fund because that’s the one fund that’s got to apply to all all of the employees in the business going right to pre-retirement if you’ve never logged in you might only be earning 2% a year when you should consider that if you’re quite young you might want to consider

[56:10]

Investing For The much longer term with a greater exposure to equities getting 7-8% a year um but if people don’t engage they just get that piece of paper from the employer and they never log in again oh yeah yeah they they are harming themselves potentially to the tune of tens of thousands hundreds of thousands over the course of their career so I’d really you know I’d really want people to log in to their pension and just Che still your money it’s your money it’s what I try to tell people they’re like oh it doesn’t yeah 57 you know yeah I’m like so yeah yeah like what if you get there it comes comes back to understanding compounding you know a 30 40y year career at 2% versus 8% people need to go on the online

[56:58]

calculators and do that 100% I went through it with my uncle the other day like we went through his pension went through everything properly just had a little look at it together because you know family we look after each other and he has a like a really solid pension and now he’s actively putting money into an Isa and we did the calculations and worked it out and he was like well even alone with my Isa that’s mental then I put that on top I’m actually earning more from that now than like when I retire I’ll be earning more a year yeah I was like yeah that’s what’s possible and he like mind blown so I think people do need to factor into their compound interest calculations their pension as well because you are going to have that and that is still money that’s moving towards you and yes you can access your ISA anytime you like sell tomorrow if

[57:46]

you wanted to and take the money out but your pension is obviously the you know locked up by the time we get to 57 and you it’s probably going to go gone up again but it is 57 as of 2028 um and so I think that’s going to be important for people to factor into their kind of Life calculations like design your life like what do you want it to look like in 5 years 10 years 20 years time retirement age and make the calculations and work backwards to try and get yourself to that point but you got to engage it sounds like your uncle has but um for the first time everyone needs to engage which is awesome like I’m so happy he did um CU he’s gone through life just going a yeah pension yeah and now he’s got to a certain point and he’s like I’m quite good money I should probably sort this out yeah he’s had his

[58:34]

letter through and seeing how much he’s got and he’s like whoa okay I need to pay attention to this because it’s a lot of money um see yeah I think it’s been a such a really cool conversation we’ve kind of really spanned across Financial education for kids loads about go Henry and what you guys are up to I definitely encourage people to get involved in the manifesto we were 100 % link to that in the show notes it’s something that’s really close to my heart and we will actively help you guys as much as we possibly can uh as you know we we we always do um so Ashley yeah where can people find you man LinkedIn LinkedIn that’s it he’s good on LinkedIn people definitely go and check him out there and obviously GoHenry as well go and check out GoHenry yeah um brilliant business in in in our eyes so thanks very much man I’ve Loved this thanks for having me it’s been a

[59:22]

pleasure cheers thank you wow what a conversation with Ashley that was I particularly loved how he’s actually teaching his son about the concept of money from such a young age I think he’s four and he is getting it already it’s amazing what you can do when you start teaching your kids at a young age brilliant conversation but make sure you stay tuned next week we’ll be back with another episode and we’ll catch you guys on the next one peace