Iona Bain: Hello. I am Iona Bain and welcome to A Little
Iona Bain: Bit Richer, brought to you by L& G. We all
Iona Bain: have goals in life, whether it's holidays or weddings, buying
Iona Bain: a home, starting a business, having children enjoying retirement, whatever
Iona Bain: your milestones are, they need money. And that can be
Iona Bain: a challenge when it feels like there's not much to
Iona Bain: spare. So what can we do now to help us
Iona Bain: afford the life we want in the future? Well, here
Iona Bain: to guide us through all this is Bola Sol. Bola
Iona Bain: is a financial advisor, money columnist, and the author of Your
Iona Bain: Money Life and How to Save It. She's on a mission
Iona Bain: to demystify Money Matters with her no- nonsense approach, which
Iona Bain: has led to her expertise being featured in Forbes, the
Iona Bain: BBC, the Financial Times, and The Guardian. She's here today
Iona Bain: to help us build those solid money habits so we
Iona Bain: can plan for life's major milestones. Welcome Bola.
Bola Sol: Oh, thank you. What a lovely intro. Thank you for
Bola Sol: having me.
Iona Bain: It's lovely to have you with us. Having goals and
Iona Bain: dreams is one thing, but actually being able to afford
Iona Bain: them is another thing entirely. So, how can we make
Iona Bain: sure that we've got the money that we need to
Iona Bain: live the life we want? Where do we start?
Bola Sol: I think what's important is to ask yourself questions first,
Bola Sol: which is what type of life do you want? And do
Bola Sol: you have to realize that that may look different for
Bola Sol: everybody? Such as what type of house do I want
Bola Sol: to live in and do I want to have a
Bola Sol: family in the future and what does that look like?
Bola Sol: Does that involve children and how many kids do I
Bola Sol: want to have and how do I want to work?
Bola Sol: Do I want to be permanently employed? Do I want
Bola Sol: to be self- employed? So I think what's key is
Bola Sol: that you start with those questions, so you kind of
Bola Sol: draw out your particular life and you can use it
Bola Sol: as a way to somewhat work backwards. And then from
Bola Sol: there you can say, okay, in order to have potentially
Bola Sol: that house that would cost me this much, and maybe
Bola Sol: to live in that area, once you add in all
Bola Sol: the other bills, it would cost that. And once you
Bola Sol: start adding in all of those things, you can start
Bola Sol: to say, in order to live that life I would
Bola Sol: need about this much a month and this is how
Bola Sol: much I'd need a year and so on. And then
Bola Sol: you can build your life that way.
Iona Bain: How do you know what your goals are and what
Iona Bain: you're maybe just aspiring to because your family and your
Iona Bain: friends and society tells you that you should have them?
Bola Sol: Do you know what? As the youngest of six children,
Bola Sol: it's taken me a lot to say what life I
Bola Sol: want for myself. I tend to observe them and I
Bola Sol: look at, oh, I'd like this, I wouldn't like that.
Bola Sol: Not from a place of comparison, but just from a
Bola Sol: place of observation. For me, for example, am I willing
Bola Sol: to work let's say 60 to 100 hours a week at a
Bola Sol: particular job where I'm making good money in order to
Bola Sol: have the house that I've never had? Or would I
Bola Sol: be willing to take something a bit more humble for
Bola Sol: the sake of, should I say, my sanity or my
Bola Sol: peace of mind?
Iona Bain: So if you have certain goals that you want to
Iona Bain: achieve, but you are on a particular salary or you
Iona Bain: have a particular income, shall we say, how do you
Iona Bain: square those two things? Because sometimes we can have quite
Iona Bain: out there goals and ideas. How do we make sure
Iona Bain: that we dream big, but that we're also realistic?
Bola Sol: The first thing I think we need is patience. Even
Bola Sol: I'd say patience before we have a plan because at
Bola Sol: times we have ideas, but we don't factor in how
Bola Sol: long it's going to take. If it's things like I
Bola Sol: want to buy a particular house. And then of course
Bola Sol: I'd say plan financially where you are right now, even
Bola Sol: income wise isn't where you'll be in a few years.
Bola Sol: So hopefully you are looking at could I make more
Bola Sol: money and what does that look like and what skills
Bola Sol: do I need to do that? So for example, maybe
Bola Sol: at work you could start saying, could I get more
Bola Sol: training on particular things because you now know you can
Bola Sol: add that to your CV. So I'd definitely say patience
Bola Sol: and planning. And also as well, don't exchange time and
Bola Sol: energy for money constantly. It's really important that you learn
Bola Sol: to work smart and not just hard. Nothing wrong with
Bola Sol: working hard, but at the same time it can't always
Bola Sol: be the only option.
Iona Bain: Yeah, you can work really hard and earn a really
Iona Bain: good income, but if you spend all that money on
Iona Bain: the stuff that doesn't really matter to you, it's not
Iona Bain: going to count for very much.
Bola Sol: Yeah.
Iona Bain: So how can we build up those really solid money
Iona Bain: habits in our day- to- day life to help us
Iona Bain: achieve those milestones that matter to us?
Bola Sol: I think a great daily habit is to check your
Bola Sol: bank balance. It just gives you a good refresher of
Bola Sol: where you are. Also, budget. Budgeting is extremely important. No
Bola Sol: two budgets are the same, I always say that. And
Bola Sol: what's key is that you are looking at what you've
Bola Sol: budgeted versus what you actually got.
Iona Bain: Well, let's get into that because the word budget means
Iona Bain: different things to different people and it's got this quite
Iona Bain: kind of fluid definition sometimes. What does budgeting mean to
Iona Bain: you? How would you define it?
Bola Sol: Oh, so I always say a budgeting forecast is a
Bola Sol: bit like a weather forecast. Meaning, the whole point is
Bola Sol: you can prepare as much as possible and it gives
Bola Sol: you a sense of direction as to which way your
Bola Sol: money's heading. However, you also know that there might be
Bola Sol: outliers, for example, where you could get a parking fine
Bola Sol: if you drive and you didn't expect that to happen,
Bola Sol: but you now know, okay, I can reprioritize my finances
Bola Sol: accordingly, which is why I always tell people in your
Bola Sol: budget have a miscellaneous section, could be 50 pounds, could
Bola Sol: be 100 pounds for things that you didn't expect to cover.
Iona Bain: So understand what your money is doing. But are there
Iona Bain: specific tools and techniques that you would recommend in terms
Iona Bain: of how you actually go about organizing your finances?
Bola Sol: Oh yes. So there's the budgeting rule, 50, 30, 20, which is
Bola Sol: 50% on your needs, 30% on your wants, and 20%
Bola Sol: on your savings, investments and so on. That's a rule
Bola Sol: of thumb. Everyone doesn't have to cover it in the
Bola Sol: same ratio. But the whole point is you are able
Bola Sol: to know the difference between your wants and needs. And I think
Bola Sol: putting it into a budget will really put things into
Bola Sol: perspective. So for example, I need to pay my mortgage
Bola Sol: this month, do I need a new pair of trainers?
Bola Sol: I'd like a new pair, but I don't need it
Bola Sol: and I think it's important to differentiate.
Iona Bain: But it's really tough because we're not really incentivized by
Iona Bain: the culture around us to think about those longer term
Iona Bain: gains In that way. You're not going to be encouraged
Iona Bain: to make over- payments on your mortgage or to put
Iona Bain: more money into your pension necessarily when you're going about
Iona Bain: your everyday life, but you certainly are going to be
Iona Bain: encouraged to go and spend money on clothes or go
Iona Bain: traveling or do all the things that are fun in
Iona Bain: life and that we want to create space for. So
Iona Bain: how do you try to keep those longer term goals
Iona Bain: in mind even when they're not really sexy and celebrated
Iona Bain: in our wider society?
Bola Sol: People think because I speak about money that I must
Bola Sol: be so excited to go all the time. Yeah, let's go.
Bola Sol: And I'm like, no, some parts are not sexy at
Bola Sol: all. Some parts are very mundane. But one of the
Bola Sol: things I tell myself is there's going to be a
Bola Sol: reward at the end of this particular season. It could
Bola Sol: be a quarter, for example. And I'm like, I'm going
Bola Sol: to do something really fun to celebrate that. And I
Bola Sol: think we all need things to look forward to.
Iona Bain: Treat yourself within reason.
Bola Sol: Exactly. Because I constantly have this feeling of what does
Bola Sol: the future look like and have I prepared for it?
Bola Sol: When you are younger you hopefully have people guiding you
Bola Sol: to say, have you done this? Have you done that?
Bola Sol: But as you get older they get quieter and there's
Bola Sol: a sense of trust. So part of me always says
Bola Sol: I don't want to let them down but I don't want
Bola Sol: to let myself down. So sometimes I'm like, Bola, what
Bola Sol: were you doing?
Iona Bain: You've got to be the grown up in your life.
Bola Sol: I love that. Literally, you have to be the grown
Bola Sol: up in your life because no one's now marking you.
Bola Sol: It's just you.
Iona Bain: Yeah. And if you don't get things right, the only
Iona Bain: person who's going to suffer is you.
Bola Sol: Exactly.
Iona Bain: And Bola are there practical things around building up an
Iona Bain: emergency fund and looking more closely at your income and
Iona Bain: managing your credit that will help with you achieving your
Iona Bain: longer term goals?
Bola Sol: So everyone needs to have an emergency fund no matter
Bola Sol: how much money they make. And what we classify as
Bola Sol: an emergency varies person to person. It could be a
Bola Sol: family bereavement, it could be a job loss. But having
Bola Sol: three to six months of expenses is imperative because it
Bola Sol: stops you, in my opinion, from panicking. It allows you
Bola Sol: space to think and to say, right, okay, this is
Bola Sol: what I'm going to do first, but at least I
Bola Sol: know I can cover this for this amount of time.
Bola Sol: And then review your outgoings. Sometimes we don't know how
Bola Sol: many subscriptions we have or what we're paying for, or
Bola Sol: sometimes we realize, look, we don't really need that, but
Bola Sol: we're still paying for it because we can afford it.
Bola Sol: Just because you can afford it doesn't mean you should
Bola Sol: pay for it. Ask yourself what's the use there? And
Bola Sol: of course, managing credit is vital. It's good to show
Bola Sol: that you could manage different forms of credit as well.
Iona Bain: Because actually you need to show that you can borrow
Iona Bain: smartly so that you can do things like take out
Iona Bain: a mortgage in the future. But people can develop credit
Iona Bain: phobia, which is very understandable.
Bola Sol: Yeah, absolutely. But go into anything with discipline. Some people
Bola Sol: can say, oh, I'm going to spend 15K on a
Bola Sol: credit card because I know that I'm being paid 5K
Bola Sol: a month for the next few months. And I'm like,
Bola Sol: do you? Things change. And when they do, whether that's
Bola Sol: through your work or through life circumstances, so don't throw
Bola Sol: caution to the wind when it comes to credit, but
Bola Sol: I believe how you manage 25 pounds is the same
Bola Sol: as how you manage 250 and 250,000. And of course those seem
Bola Sol: like, oh, at 250, 000 I'd manage money differently. But it's
Bola Sol: about the habits that you set and what's important.
Iona Bain: How does our money mindset play a role in creating
Iona Bain: our habits for better or for worse?
Bola Sol: I always say it's important what you tell yourself about
Bola Sol: money internally and also externally, what you say to other
Bola Sol: people. I try to tell people all the time, do
Bola Sol: not have negative self- talk when it comes to your
Bola Sol: money. It does two things. One, it may make you
Bola Sol: less confident with how you use your own money, but
Bola Sol: it also can give you an excuse to continue to
Bola Sol: make bad mistakes, knowing you could make better suggestions and
Bola Sol: solutions to your own life and money. So even if
Bola Sol: you're not having the best time with your money, you
Bola Sol: can say, I'm getting better with my finances every day.
Bola Sol: And getting better doesn't necessarily mean that you never have
Bola Sol: a debt or anything like that. It more means that
Bola Sol: you are now making better conscious decisions. So I think
Bola Sol: how you talk about your finances in relation to yourself
Bola Sol: is incredibly important.
Iona Bain: I completely agree. But when we are thinking about the
Iona Bain: future, we can get quite anxious about how much things
Iona Bain: will cost, which is very understandable in this world where
Iona Bain: everything is incredibly expensive seemingly, and sometimes those goals and
Iona Bain: dreams that we have can seem impossible. So how do we
Iona Bain: reduce that anxiety that we might feel around money and
Iona Bain: the future?
Bola Sol: Start with good habits, which is budgeting. But also if
Bola Sol: there's someone who can hold you accountable, whether it's a
Bola Sol: friend, a partner, maybe someone that you speak to finances
Bola Sol: about on a regular basis, so you can say, oh,
Bola Sol: how's that going? Another thing, I actually think more people
Bola Sol: should look into coaching. Sometimes just talking to someone can
Bola Sol: really make the difference. If we had a fitness goal
Bola Sol: and we felt we couldn't get there on our own,
Bola Sol: maybe we'd get physical trainer. I think the same needs
Bola Sol: to be done with our goals. I have clients where
Bola Sol: we work together once and that's all they need. Maybe
Bola Sol: they'll be back in a year or a year and
Bola Sol: a half or never. But the whole point is that
Bola Sol: conversation has now given them a sense of direction. Again,
Bola Sol: the budgeting is great, good habits are great, and so
Bola Sol: is accountability, but don't be afraid to have a conversation.
Iona Bain: So it's also about accepting that you can't necessarily do
Iona Bain: it all on your own. There's a lot you can
Iona Bain: do, but actually you don't have all the answers. You
Iona Bain: need to know where to go to get the answers,
Iona Bain: and that could be a coach or it could just
Iona Bain: be going online and getting more informed that way.
Bola Sol: Yeah, absolutely.
Iona Bain: And also people who have been in debt or are
Iona Bain: still in debt can feel a lot of shame. How
Iona Bain: important is it to try to strip that back so
Iona Bain: that you can start to make more positive decisions?
Bola Sol: Debt is a part of your finance journey, it's a
Bola Sol: part of life for many people, and I think there's
Bola Sol: too much shame around it. This idea that we should
Bola Sol: always have everything together and have no debt, especially in
Bola Sol: an ever- changing economy, is really hard. But it's about
Bola Sol: how does it make you feel and do you feel
Bola Sol: bad or do you just feel like, look, I'm going
Bola Sol: to get out of this. It's going to take me
Bola Sol: a while, but I have a strategy in place and
Bola Sol: I think more people need to do that and give
Bola Sol: themselves grace.
Iona Bain: And compassion.
Bola Sol: Yeah, absolutely. But also strategy. You don't want to live
Bola Sol: in a state of being in debt either. You don't
Bola Sol: want to just say, oh, this is the norm. You
Bola Sol: kind of have to find a balance. And I think
Bola Sol: what's key is anyone who has any debt, especially debt
Bola Sol: that's not, should I say, urgent, try not to build
Bola Sol: on that debt. And I speak to many people who
Bola Sol: the debt grows and it grows, and I'm just like,
Bola Sol: you have to find a way to stop. If you
Bola Sol: cut up that credit card, you wouldn't be able to
Bola Sol: spend anymore, and that's what you now need to do.
Bola Sol: And also maybe you now need to be in a
Bola Sol: season of saying no because you genuinely do not have
Bola Sol: it, and that's probably better long- term than building up
Bola Sol: that debt.
Iona Bain: So much of this is about just trying to take
Iona Bain: those calculated risks but not do so in a way
Iona Bain: that's actually going to put you in a worse position
Iona Bain: in the future potentially.
Bola Sol: Yeah, definitely.
Iona Bain: What are your thoughts on lifestyle creep? Because that is
Iona Bain: something that can definitely sabotage our longer term goals. As
Iona Bain: our income goes up, then our lifestyle can adapt to
Iona Bain: become more lavish and become more expensive with that higher income.
Bola Sol: If your income goes up by 50%, could you make
Bola Sol: sure that your lifestyle only creeps up by 20? Leaving
Bola Sol: a buffer. Some people truly make the mistake of let's
Bola Sol: max everything out, but where does that leave space for
Bola Sol: the future? Then there's a change in the economy and
Bola Sol: it's like, oh my gosh, we can't afford that. So
Bola Sol: I would say be aware of lifestyle creep. Doesn't mean
Bola Sol: that you shouldn't treat yourself. I'd say always keep things
Bola Sol: underneath maybe 40% of the total of what your income
Bola Sol: has been raised by because you just don't want to
Bola Sol: be in a position where you are essentially then living
Bola Sol: paycheck to paycheck again to keep up with that life.
Iona Bain: And if we hit a setback in terms of achieving
Iona Bain: our goals, how did we bounce back from that? How
Iona Bain: do we ensure that that doesn't cause us to spiral
Iona Bain: and give up on our future?
Bola Sol: I always say, when you are going through a setback, take time
Bola Sol: to grieve that setback. Don't go straight into, okay, let's
Bola Sol: just move on. Because when you don't process that setback
Bola Sol: and ask yourself everything you need to within it, that
Bola Sol: setback can happen again because you haven't actually learned from
Bola Sol: it. Sometimes you need to sit in that feeling and
Bola Sol: sit in, what caused this? If this were to happen
Bola Sol: again, would I deal with it differently? And from there,
Bola Sol: you can now say, how do I want to move
Bola Sol: forward? Because in life, we all have setbacks. No one
Bola Sol: is exempt from them. And those people who are willing
Bola Sol: to fail and learn, whether privately or publicly are the
Bola Sol: ones who are able to dust themselves up and get
Bola Sol: up again. But I'd say make sure you deal with
Bola Sol: it and realize that that thing was a failure. You
Bola Sol: are not a failure. Do not make it so personal
Bola Sol: and about you.
Iona Bain: Yeah. Whatever your past mistakes are, the most important thing
Iona Bain: is that you say, whatever happens, I'll be able to
Iona Bain: manage and I will cope with it and we can
Iona Bain: move forward.
Bola Sol: Yeah.
Iona Bain: So Bola, what are your top three tips for staying motivated
Iona Bain: and making sure that you are on track to achieve
Iona Bain: your goals?
Bola Sol: I would say romanticize the discipline, not the dream. Because
Bola Sol: so often it's easy for us to think about the
Bola Sol: dream and not the discipline that's required to get there.
Bola Sol: Whether it's you waking up super early and you're not
Bola Sol: a morning person. You have to stay on top of
Bola Sol: the discipline and people say, follow the plan, not the
Bola Sol: mood, especially with your finances. Sometimes you don't want to
Bola Sol: put money away every single month for maybe a debt
Bola Sol: repayment or a future financial goal, but it's key that
Bola Sol: you do for the sake of where you want to
Bola Sol: get to. Number two, keep building good habits and keep
Bola Sol: refreshing on those good habits. So just always remember, it's
Bola Sol: a marathon. It's not a sprint. It's so important to
Bola Sol: keep learning and to keep growing. And my third tip
Bola Sol: is understand which season you are in and learn to give yourself
Bola Sol: empathy based on that season. You have to be so
Bola Sol: kind to yourself when the economy changes or people can
Bola Sol: have plans, and then maybe they're made redundant from a
Bola Sol: job. People could have plans to buy a house and
Bola Sol: maybe they found out that they're with child earlier than
Bola Sol: expected and know it will all work out. When you
Bola Sol: look back, you'll be like, hey, this worked out. But
Bola Sol: it's about how did you treat yourself? Sometimes there's seasons
Bola Sol: for you to rest more and there's seasons that you
Bola Sol: need to come out swinging and fighting and making sure
Bola Sol: you're working hard. But no matter what, give yourself grace
Bola Sol: in the season you're in.
Iona Bain: I love that message. Bola, thank you so much for
Iona Bain: joining us.
Bola Sol: Thanks for having me.
Iona Bain: Thank you so much, Bola. We got so many good
Iona Bain: ideas there for how we can plan our financial futures.
Iona Bain: Next time, financial content creator and advisor, Rotimi Merriman- Johnson
Iona Bain: will join us to give us some great advice on
Iona Bain: how to start building your investment portfolio. I'd love it
Iona Bain: if you could follow the podcast, leave us a review
Iona Bain: and help others get a little bit richer too. You
Iona Bain: can keep up with the show on TikTok and Instagram at Legal &
Iona Bain: General, where we'll be sharing loads of behind- the- scenes
Iona Bain: content and you can catch our full video episodes on
Iona Bain: YouTube. Thanks for listening. Until next time, see you soon.