Here we are at session number 28 , and we’re going to be talking about a new website called Wayfinder from the Institute of Financial Planning. More about that in a minute, but first an apology because I did say that I’d be talking about Long Term Care planning this week. That’ll now be next week for reasons which will become clear.

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I’m recording this on Saturday 14^th September 2013, and on Tuesday 17^th – just three days’ time – I launch a new website aimed at financial advisers. It’s called Advisertech and is a membership site where advisers will, for a small monthly subscription, join me in learning about how online content marketing and  social media can benefit their businesses.

I have the privilege to know many of the top advisers in the UK and beyond and there are still far too few advisers who really know how to use the internet to get their message out. Because of my success with MeaningfulMoney, I get asked all the time to speak at conferences and to consult on how I do what I do. I tend to turn these invitations down because I still have my own practice to run and clients to look after.

So I have set up the site hopefully to leverage the internet and teach my colleagues in a way which is affordable to them and beneficial to me!

So, with three days to go and lots to do, I still have to get a podcast session up for this Wednesday – bit of a panic!

Then yesterday I got an email out of the blue from the lovely lady I am going to interview, Bridget Greenwood of Financial Social Media UK. She has been tasked by the Institute to get the word out about Wayfinder and asked if she could hijack my podcast to talk about it. Interviews make for less preparation than solo shows, so I hope you’ll forgive me for taking the slightly easier option. She helps me, I help her, you get decent information about a new online financial resource – everyone’s a winner!

More on that in a minute…

This week’s reviews

Another 5* review this week from moneystepper:

“This is a great podcast for beginners to personal fianancial and money management. Pete is a great host (knowledgable, engaging and amusing)and the format allows him to go into a good amount of detail on the weekly topic. I particularly enjoy the occasional contributions form Justin Urquhart Stewart. Keep it up Pete.”

Thanks Graham (for that is moneystepper’s name) He describes himself as a qualified chartered accountant and avid money saver and wealth creator. He’s writing some great stuff over on his site which is at moneystepper.com – go check him out.

Sponsor Message

This podcast is brought to you with the help of Seven Investment Management, a firm of investment managers based in London. They put their name to my show and to my site and videos because they believe in what I’m doing, and I’m very grateful for their support. You can see what they’re up to at 7im.co.uk

Introduction

OK, I’m going to be talking to Bridget Greenwood from Financial Social Media UK about Wayfinder from the Institute of Financial Planning or IFP. The Institute is important to me. It is my professional body of choice and they are the licensing body for the Certified Financial Planner mark. If you listen back to session 8 on how to find a financial adviser I say there that the Certified Financial Planner license is the mark of the best advisers in the world.

I happen to be chairman of the South West branch of the IFP and I’m speaking at the annual conference in a few weeks, about podcasting, would you believe.

So it’s my pleasure to help the IFP by getting the word out about Wayfinder. Let’s crack on with the interview

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Interview

I haven't transcribed the interview – hope you don't mind. Head over to the IFP Wayfinder sit to find out what we were on about!

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Listener Questions

I have a couple of listener questions this week, which is always exciting. The first comes from Andy Kalyvas a listener form the US:

[Andy asks about having two current accounts (he calls them checking accounts) and how to set up the family finances when he gets married.]

OK, in the UK we call checking accounts current accounts. My suggestion of how to do this, which was back in session 3 was to have two accounts.

The idea is that you get paid your salary into one account and from that account all your direct debits are paid, your regular bills. You should know how much all these are going to total up to in that month. Leave that amount of money in your bills account and transfer what’s left into a separate current account. It doesn’t just have to be bills. If you have regular savings going into a pension or ISA or whatever, leave enough in your bills account to cover those too.

This just enables you to know that all your bills are covered for the month and means you only have to then budget the amount in your spending account. It’s a kind of auto-budgeting fro the regular bills.

Now as to how you work this when you’re married or in a long term relationship, every client is different. Some couples pool all their finances – Jo and I do that – we have two joint current accounts and use the system above. Or I know couples who have a joint account for all the household bills, and they feed that from their personal accounts each month and spend the rest of their money separately.

You need to work out what works best for you, but it’s a case of making your life as easy as possible by automating the key tasks like bill payment.

All videos in a row – meaningfulmoney.tv/inorder

The next question comes from Suleman Sidat -take it away…

I've just got a quick question with regard to ISA accounts.  I'm just starting out investing, and at the moment I have one investment property, and now I'd like to take advantage of the ISA allowance by investing in an ISA Stocks & Share account.

I've looked around the web and see many companies offering these – at the moment I've looked at HSBC Invest Direct, IWeb, Hargreaves Landsdown, The Share Centre… and it's all very confusing! They all seem to have similar fees, which would vary depending on how often one would trade.  Do you have any advice to offer with regard to where to go to open an account and what things to look out for? Though I've never invested in stocks before, I'm not unfamiliar with them, however I'm not sure where to open an account and what I should be looking out for.

Also are there any books/magazines you'd recommend that focus on investing in stocks, shares, funds & properties?  Any discussion forums? 

OK, Suleman. You’re looking for low cost and easy admin. As you say, all these platforms do much the same thing – they allow you to buy funds/shares/other things and to trade them when you want to.

I would encourage you not to trade too often. Don’t always be looking for the best investment out there. Instead, find a good, broad-based investment fund to start out with. It should spread your money across the world and into all kinds of different assets. Search for multi-asset funds and see what you can find. If you go down this route, you will trade very rarely – maybe once a year, so trading costs aren’t a massive factor.

Look at IC-Direct. This is a new site for self-directed investors which uses the Fidelity under the bonnet. There is a bit of a social overlay too so you can discuss your fund choices with other users. The only fee is 0.45% plus the underlying fund charges. It isn’t the cheapest around but it isn’t the most expensive either.

Any of the others you mention will be fine I’m sure. Just check access to your money, total cost of ownership and choice of funds available.

As for books and magazines, try Fundology by John Chatfeild-Roberts [affiliate link] for a great intro to investment funds. There is a Financial Times Guide to Investing which I haven’t read but which will talk a lot of sense. For property investment check out The Property Podcast and the book written by one of its hosts, Rob Dix. The book is called Property Investment for Beginners. Don’t read Moneyweek which makes me want to cut my wrists, but you could try Money Management. It’s quite high-brow but you might find it useful.

If anyone else has some ideas of resources that Suleman could benefit from, please leave them in the comment section below

Summary

OK, folks – bit of a different session this week – hope you enjoyed it and found it useful.

Back to normal next week talking about Long Term Care – for definitely this time. If you have any questions about that then leave me a voicemail at meaningfulmoney.tv/feedback

If you like what you hear on this podcast, please leave a rating or review on iTunes by going to meaningfulmoney.tv/iTunes. This helps others to hear about the show and to subscribe, because it keeps me near the top of the rankings.

I hope you enjoyed this session. Thanks for listening – I'll talk to you next time