It’s Talk Money Week! The Money and Pensions Service created this awareness week with the aim of encouraging everyone to use the week as an opportunity to talk about any aspect of money.
With current cost-of-living pressures, it’s more important than ever that we talk openly and get support for money worries.
Research shows that people who talk about money:
- make better and less risky financial decisions
- have stronger personal relationships
- help their children form good lifetime money habits
- feel less stressed or anxious and more in control of their money.
Building money conversations into our everyday lives also helps us build financial confidence and equips us with the resilience to deal with any financial problems we may encounter.
This year’s Talk Money Week theme is Do One Thing. I’ve been reflecting on my own money journey and thought it might be helpful to provide some inspiration for some things you might consider as your ‘One thing’.
- Read a finance book – My starting point recommendation will always be Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel, Morgan also has a new book which launched yesterday, Same as Ever.
- Attend an event online or in person – There are loads of events happening to help you learn about your finances. I share monthly updates and a calendar of events over on my substack. Many are free to attend and online, making it easier than ever to access. Of course here at Master Investor we have our flagship Master Investor Show which is taking place on 9th March 2024 and is completely free to attend for subscribers.
- Listen to a podcast – When I started out learning about investing, I used to listen to a podcast called Optimal finance daily – the episodes are around 5-10 minutes long so its a really easy listen and gave me a good understanding of the fundamentals. It is US based so some of the terminology is different but I still found it valuable. For long form content, Tim Ferris has some really great interviews with investors. I also discovered Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO podcast and he has some great guests too. I saw today that his latest episode is with Morgan Housel.
- Play – Many platforms offer practise accounts where you can set up a dummy portfolio to practise with. I started out with a trial account on Trading 212 but if you already use a platform they might have something similar or if you love spreadsheets you could create your own tracker. If you’re interested in calculating your net worth, Netwealth have a useful tool – MyNetwealth.
- Journal – Write about your feelings towards money, any worries, concerns and also things you think you do well with money. If you find prompts useful, here are three to get you started:
1: Think of someone you admire, how do they handle their finances?
2: What is your parent’s world view regarding money, and how does it differ from yours?
3: What steps can you do right now to improve your finances? - Join a community – there are lots of online and in person communities to talk about finances or you could start your own with friends or colleagues. I run a WhatsApp chat for investors – it’s a friendly general chat group of a mix of investors from beginner level through to professionals working in the space. Email me if you’d like to join and I’ll share the link with you.
- Talk to a friend – we don’t talk about money enough but usually if you start the conversation people are happy to share, try it with a friend.
I hope these ideas might give you some inspiration for Talk Money Week and hopefully as a collective we can make talking about money less of a taboo subject.