It’s time to talk about a dirty word.
Money!
It’s Talk About Money Week and when it comes to the M word, it’s often kept under the hush-hush and a private matter. Well, it’s time to ditch the shame and talk about money! On this week’s podcast, I spoke to Talia, money coach at T.L.C about all things budgeting, saving, and spending and why those things may not come so easy to you.
Let’s put our money where our mouth is and talk about money this Talk About Money Week.
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Talia Loderick helps women understand and take control of their behaviour with money so they can stop stressing about money and start ensuring they have enough to live well – now and in future.
Website: https://www.talialoderick.co.uk/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talialoderick/
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/talialoderick/
Transcription:
Emma:
Welcome back to the Freelancers Tea Break, the Short and Sweet podcast that you can enjoy whilst you’re making a cuppa. I’m Emma Cossie, a coach for freelancers, and I’m here to chat to you about tips, tricks and advice for freelancers. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Freelancer Tea Break. This week I’ve got Talia on Talia. I will introduce her properly in a second with her full name, but she has been in my community for a while. I’m not going to say how long because it will age us both, but she is absolutely divine and I’m really excited to have this chat with you and share this with everybody, but let’s give you a proper introduction. So, Talia Lodrick is a money coach based in Cardiff.
Talia offers one to one coaching designed to help women understand and take control of their behaviour with money, that they can stop stressing about money and start ensuring that they have enough to live well now and in the future. So, did you want to expand a little bit more on that and tell us a bit more about.
Talia:
Yes. Hi, Emma. Thank you so much for having me and, yeah, for making me feel comfortable. I love being a member of your community and listening to this podcast. So, yeah, it’s really exciting to be on the show. So, yeah, I’m Talia Logic. I’m a money coach, as Emma says, I’m from Bristol, but I live in Cardiff, which has been my adopted hometown for the past 17 years.
And so, yeah, like you say, Emma, I do one to one coaching with women to help know the women I work with. It’s all about they really want to understand and take control of their behaviour with money, because ultimately they want to stop stressing about money, like having it as this thing at the back of their mind that is always nagging away at them as something they want to get in control of. And they also want to make sure that they’ve got enough to live a good life now and in the future, know that we’ve got enough put away for a good future as well. And then I also deliver financial wellbeing sessions, talks and workshops and money clinics for teams and organisations and community groups. Because I think, yeah, financial well being comes into our lives in all forms. So being able to talk about how can we get handle on our money so that we can increase our sense of financial well being, that’s what I do and that’s what I love to bring to people. So, yeah, it’s really important in that respect.
Emma:
I love having you in the community because it’s always whenever anyone has, like, a financial win, you’re always there, sort of cheerleading and encouraging and also gently reminding everybody the importance of money and things like that. So it’s so wonderful having you in there. Thank you. Tell me a bit more about how you became a money coach and freelance.
Talia:
How I became a money coach. So, gosh, like, I’ve been doing this for about been running my money coaching business, which I call TLC, by the way, because that stands for Talia Logic coaching. But also when I realised that the acronym for Tenderloving Care also stands for Talia Logic Coaching, I was like, this is it. Because that is how I want my clients to feel. That’s how
want to fill with money. I feel like we all need a dose of TRC from time to time, especially when it comes to money. So I love that.
So, TRC, I named my business before starting my business, and that’s absolutely fine. So I’ve been running paleologic coaching my money coaching business for the past four and a half years now. As of May 2019. I actually had the idea a few years before that, like, thinking, oh, this is something I want to do. But it took me a while to kind of figure out how I was going to do it, and that’s fine. Actually, I think it’s fine if these things take us time. Like, I’ve become more comfortable with that over time.
And so, yeah, I think the inspiration for my business came from realising that there was a gap in the market. Because honestly, I’d spent many years, like, I knew what I should be doing practically to manage my money better. I knew that I should budget and save and spend less than I earn, but I just really struggled to make it stick. And that came on top of the fact that I’d always had an interest in money growing up. Not in money so much, but actually in. Sounds so sad, but we all have our interest. My interest was actually really in consumer rights and, like, knowing your rights.
And I remember being, I don’t know, 1011 watching watchdog with Anne Robinson. I loved that sort of stuff. Really interested in it. When I was like late teens, early 20s, I’d be watching all of the consumer shows. So yeah, the Watchdogs and Alvin hall, the money guru when he was on TV, early user of the Martin Lewis Money saving Expert website, all of that stuff. So I actually learned practically what I should be doing to manage my money, but I really struggled to make it stick and I kind of was always going through what I call these boom and bust cycles personally. So, like, earning money, getting money in, spending money, overspending money, ending up in debt, paying it off, and then starting that cycle all over again.
Talia:
And I was just really frustrated in myself. And it wasn’t until, gosh, probably around my early thirtys. So I’m in my early forty s now. I should say that probably gives people a timeline. But yeah, I became interested in psychology and behaviour change and why we do what we do as human beings. And I was like, oh, this is really interesting. Maybe it’s not just.
Talia:
Maybe it’s not just that I’m practically bad at these things. Like, maybe there’s something deeper looking at. I started to kind of look at my relationship with many on a deeper level, like, really exploring my emotions and beliefs around money and kind of what I could do to change my behaviour from that side of things. And I actually found a coach to work with, a financial coach in the UK. She really pioneered financial coaching in the UK, and it was a great. Transformative experience. And I thought, I would love to do this because this is what I needed.
Talia:
And I think other people would love this service as well, like a coach who specialises in money. Because actually, until working with a coach myself, I’d kept my money worries to myself,
because we don’t talk about money. And especially the older I got as well, because as you get older, you’re in a job, you’re earning good money. So I would think, well, I’m educated, I’ve got a good job, people assume I’ve got it all together, especially with money, but I haven’t, and that makes it really hard to ask. For help. And I kind of carried around that sense of embarrassment and shame. And coaching really gave me the opportunity to explore that, and it did.
It made me think coaching, like specialising in money, it’s an actual thing. I want to do this for a living. How could I do this for a living? Oh, you’d need to start your own business. And I’d be like, oh, really? Oh, is that even possible? Eventually I did.
And, yeah, TLC, I very quietly didn’t launch it. I just published, I hit publish on my website in May 2019. I was like, that’s it. I’m a money coach now, and that’s what I do now. And now I have to find clients because I have a website, so my business is official. And how do I go around doing that and putting a business together? And I was so glad to be and still am glad to be a part of your community, Emma, because that has really helped me figure things out in terms of running my own business in the years since then.
Emma:
I think money is such an emotive topic, and shame was one of the words that you used there. And I know that’s one that comes up a lot. And I think there is kind of the perception that you either have, like, investment advice or financial advisors for people who have a lot of money or maybe at the other end sort of debt advisors and people who are there like citizens advice kind of side who deal with.
Talia:
So they do debt advice and they did the consumer rights information as well. Great website, and you can see on Facebook over the phone as well. Yeah.
Emma:
But the people in the middle who have an income but they don’t feel like they’re at the investment stage and they’re feeling secure enough or their debts aren’t life changing or life limiting at the moment.
Talia:
Yeah, they’re not working with a negative budget, say, where you just don’t have enough coming in to cover everything that’s going out, which is a very real situation for many people at the minute.
Emma:
And it can feel almost like, oh, who am I to ask get a money coach when I don’t have loads of money to be spending? But I love what you say about living well and I think we all need help in every other area of your life. You don’t feel uncomfortable getting a coach for those areas to improve, whether it’s a career coach or a health coach or anything like that. There, there’s still a
lot of work, I think, to be done around money and understanding it and embracing being able to get that support from a coach about it.
Talia:
Yeah, I think so. I think part of the issue is finding for me a big part of my business, like a key thing that I do is actually just giving people a judgement, free, safe space to talk about money. That is what we need. We need a space where there is no judgement because it’s hard to talk money with our loved ones. And by loved ones mean friends, I mean family. Because actually with the best will in the world, we’ve all been guilty of this. I’m not perfect, but instead of listening you can ask for help or you just want someone to listen to you, but instead of listening you’ll get advice and instead of support you can feel judged.
Because actually if we do talk about money, we talk about the practical side of money. That’s our actual resulting behaviour with money. So, you know, you say, well, I’m really struggling. People go, oh, you should just budget, oh, you should just save because I do it and it’s really
easy and it’s like. Yeah, well, obviously, if only it was that easy, though. But because we’re not talking about what’s missing for me, what I think is missing from the conversation, why we do what we do with money. So our emotional side of money and our beliefs around money, the things that actually drive our behaviour with money.
And so for me, creating my coaching business was really about giving people that judgement, free, safe space to talk about money, about their relationship with money and their fears and desires around money as well, and kind of to make sense of what’s going on for them around money, and then ultimately to take action to figure out, okay, this is how I behave with money now. This is how I’d like to start behaving with money, okay, let me figure out how I’d like to change that and then let me put it to the test. Let me experiment and see what works for me. I think having that space, that supportive space to kind of figure things out and start to experiment and figure out how to be good with money in a way that works for. That’s what we’re missing a lot of. And yeah, I love to be able to offer that space to people.
Emma:
It’s so much more empowering. I know the easier thing is to stick your head in the sand, but it is not easier long term. And it’s much more empowering to know what the situation is and then know what actions you need to take.
Talia:
Yeah.
Emma:
And one of the reasons we’re talking about it this week is because it’s Talk Money week, which I think is something that you’re a huge kind of supporter of in terms of talking.
Talia:
Yeah, I love the idea of it. There’s the week where we’re encouraged to talk about money. Yeah,
talk many weeks it’s the 6th to the 10 November. It’s normally in November. So this year it’s what, second week of November. And it really is all about encouraging people to be more open about up money with the people around them. So whether that is talking about pocket money with your kids.
Know, sorting out your pensions and as a freelancer, I know that’s something you talk about as well, Emma, like running your own business and sorting out your pensions. And so the week, yeah, it’s all about talking about money, being more open about it, letting people know, like, OK, this is when and where you might need some specialist support with it, as I just, I think it’s really important and I love know there are many weeks and awareness days in the UK and I think money is important because it underpins all of our lives. So money impacts our health and our relationships and it impacts where we live and what we do for a living, it impacts our physical and mental health and it totally impacts our relationships with our kids and our friends and life partners.
Emma:
So I think thinking about money and being able to talk about it in a safe way with the people around you is really important and I think money doesn’t make you happy as such, but not having money does make you unhappy in terms of, like, it makes you so much more stressed. And as a freelancer, we’ve all been through those times where. Oh, we’ve had a couple of good months. Suddenly. Oh, no, we’ve got a bad month. And then it’s panic and it’s stress.
Talia:
The feast and famine. The feast and famine, yes. I’m sure many of us running our own businesses have been there. Yeah. That feast and famine is very real. Yeah. We all have our busy periods and then our quieter periods, so, yeah, trying to live with that and trying to manage your finances around that when you’ve started your own business.
And I think, for me, one of the things I realised is, like, well, wait, you’ve kind of. You’ve struggled to get a lid on your personal finances when you had a job and you were getting paid regular money. So it’s no surprise that you might struggle to manage your business finances when you’re dealing with the feast and famine of a regular income. So you got to think about your budgeting, haven’t you? And your record keeping and pricing your products and services and working out how much to pay yourself, how much to put aside for tax, because we all know tax season is coming up and then when to invest your business finances, to invest in the people and the tech to help you grow your business. So I think it’s so important to recognise how you manage your personal finances. Absolutely shows up in how you manage your business finances and to kind of be compassionate to ourselves about that.
Because sometimes we’re like, oh, I should just be able to figure this out ASAP. And it’s like, it’s fine if it takes you time to figure it out, because you’re doing a lot and that’s okay. Here’s your permission slip if you need it. I was just going to say, managing your personal and your business finances is a confidence issue as much as it is a capability, your actual knowledge issue as well. So confidence and ability, it’s both sides of the coin, I think there.
Emma:
So I think there’s so many different areas of freelancing where that shame can pop up around money, whether it’s talking about pricing, whether it’s talking about those peace and famine moments, or what happens if you have a tax bill that you can’t pay and things like that. But even for me, I’m getting much better at the impulse purchasing in my personal life, but in my professional life. Oh, throw me a subscription for a very cool, shiny piece of software that’s going to make my life easier.
Talia:
Yes, please.
Emma:
And then you forget the subscriptions and it’s so bad it just stacks up and then suddenly. You realise you’d signed up for them all after you’d got paid last time, and then they all hit you again and then they’re all going to come out the next month.
Talia:
Absolutely. Do you know what my thing is? It’s not like the subscriptions is a thing, but also, I think, for me, I love learning and so I’m like, oh, there’s a course I could do, I could learn more about this. Oh, there’s an event I can go to and, oh, how about I spend a training day and spend two, two grand perfecting this thing? And I’m just like, you can’t spend all of your money on the learning because actually doing the coaching as well, or whatever your own business is, is as important. And obviously, sometimes your brain can just be too blooming full. We can all learn all this stuff.
But, yeah, sometimes I’m like, actually, I need to just kind of best myself in doing now and not to spend money on another course, as great as I’m sure it would be. So, yeah, that’s where I can have the temptation to splurge.
Emma:
We’re all guilty of signing up for courses and then not implementing them before we’ve signed up for the next one. We’ve all done it.
Talia:
That’s it. So not implementing.
Emma:
So I wanted to go back to talk money week and about. Oh yeah, why it is so important to be talking about money. I loved as well that you touched on a few different things as well there, like talking with your kids. I actually think talking, well, you might be able to say if it’s a different one, but it seems to me like talking to your partner might be the hardest time to talk about money. But I could be wrong. Do you find it’s different things?
Talia:
I think talking about money in general in our society is hard because. Yeah, it comes with a lot of, I guess because people don’t listen and they give you advice because they want to help you. So I think it can come from mainly a very well intentioned place, but ultimately it’s like not actually listening to you, just telling you what you should do, which isn’t what coaching is. Coaching isn’t telling you what you should do, it’s helping you figure out what you would like to do and then helping you do that thing. So coaching is very much about, it’s not directive, it’s helping you understand and listen to yourself. So I think there’s that. So with partners, obviously, it’s like, oh, this is the person I choose to spend my life with.
And then you put your lives together and you’re like, oh, well, do we have the same attitude towards money? Do we think that paying our rent every month or our mortgage payments is the priority thing that we must make sure we’ve paid every month? Or actually, does my partner have an attitude of where you would pay everything at the last minute? Maybe when you got the final notice letter. That’s an interesting. It’s a hard conversation to have, but it’s like, oh gosh, if that’s their attitude to many. But I’m the sort of person, if I haven’t got three months worth of rent, mortgage and bills payments put aside in my account at any one time, feel like I’m really worried about that.
Having that conversation is going to be really valuable before you start to build a life together, isn’t it? So start small. I think money dates with your partners to start having these conversations tentatively can help. And just. I think a question I like is what did you learn about money from your parents and guardians and carers growing up? Because whether we were overtly taught stuff by the adults in our life, we learn stuff. We observe stuff as young people, as kids, through modelled behaviour as well.
So that’s probably just a really interesting starting point. Like, yeah, what did you learn about money from your parents and carers and guardians growing up? And maybe kind of writing that down and your partner writing that down and then having a read and just comparing and seeing what you think about many as a result of that.
Emma:
Because it can be so many. There’s so many different beliefs. I always remember Denise Duffel Thomas saying about she had an uncle that she didn’t want to out earn because it would emasculate him. So that became a glass ceiling, a financial glass ceiling for her, because there was that belief that she couldn’t out earn the top earning male in her family. And when you dig down into beliefs like that, you go, well, actually, that’s not even based with any fact or truth. It’s just a family belief that had never even been uttered. Sometimes it’s not something that’s explicit.
It’s just a feeling.
Talia:
Sometimes it’s not explicit. But also, that might be a family thing and not a truth. But actually, if
we think about our society and we think cultural, like, I am black, my background is Jamaican, my heritage. So there’s cultural money mindsets that come into play there about if you are a woman and do you want to be the breadwinner, or is your role there to serve the others around you? These are really real things, and they come from somewhere. It’s our culture, it’s our society, it’s our heritage. And understanding that, I think, is really helpful building that self awareness, actually, it’s like what you believe and trying to understand that so you can say, oh, okay, that is my belief.
Is that belief serving me? How can I kind of set myself up for a win, or reframe that belief or just try and understand it better? Is that story that I’m telling myself around many true? I think, yeah, that’s really important.
Emma:
So during Talk money week, their theme is do one thing.
Talia:
Yes.
Emma:
And I know that is a struggle for both you and I because of the ideas, all of the things. So I know we briefly chatted about this before we jumped on, and I think there was one that you wanted to build on that I’d mentioned. So I’ll just mention it now and then you can. Fantastic. So I think mine is get more comfortable talking about money as a freelancer. So whether it’s putting your pricing on your website, whether it is feeling comfortable about sending that invoice, or like we had someone in the group recently who asked, what if someone keeps coming up with extra tasks and do I charge for them? Just feeling comfortable having that conversation, saying, hi.
Talia:
Yeah, I’d love to do that work. Just to let you know, that’s outside our original quote. So I will add on that would be an extra blah, blah blah. Here’s the updated invoice. It doesn’t have to be. A deep, personal conversation. Sometimes it is just literally saying, yeah, say, fine, here’s how much it is, and it’s just an exchange.
Emma:
Sometimes it’s not always deep and meaningful, but I think there was something you wanted to talk about a bit more with what your one thing would be well off the back of what you’ve said about that.
Talia:
So, yeah, do one thing is all about helping people think about, like, Do one thing. What is the one thing that you could do that you can commit to doing, no matter how small, that could help you to improve your financial well being and to have that conversation with other people actually around you would be really interesting. It can be something tiny, because I think a lot of the time, and I see this, I know this myself from personal experience. I see it from working with
clients. People think, like, with savings, for example, people say, oh, well, and to, I’ve got no many to say, there’s no point saving a pound a week. So I’m going to say enough saving it until I’ve got more money.
And I could put away 100 pounds a month. And it’s like, hey, if you started with a pound a week and then you got to the end of the year and you had 52 pounds saved, you would not regret having that 52 pounds saved. You would love it. And do you know what? Because you’ve built a habit, like, you have told yourself, I am a saver. Because I am saving. Do you know what I mean?
You’ve created that habit. You’ve created that belief. That’s great. Even if you’re like, oh, I could have saved more. It’s like, yeah, but you committed to something and you did it. So it can be as small as that. You don’t have to aim for the biggest thing, which I think, yeah, we just do a lot of the time isn’t.
It’s like, you can do the smallest thing in terms of, oh, gosh, clients and running our businesses, know, setting our boundaries out around that, and it can feel. And I had this. I presented, like, a situation to the community earlier this year, and you were also helpful, Emma, around a client that was just, like, constantly that I loved working with, but their finance department was paying me late more than half of the time, and I was like, This is just a lot. And I’m a one woman business. I was like, I don’t have the headspace to have to now. I was, like, sending them invoices and then anticipating that they weren’t going to pay on time, which, yeah, you just don’t want to be in that situation.
So it’s like, okay, I need to, with this client, remind them of the payment terms and the boundaries. Because actually trying to take the emotion out of it is like, just trying to be factual, I guess. Like, okay, these are my payment terms. This is what I’ve put in place. If you can’t meet them, that is unfortunate. I really love enjoy working with. But I’m afraid that I won’t be able to if this can’t be addressed in that way.
And if you’ve kind of made those plans, those payment terms, those terms and conditions, and you’ve been clear and upfront or reminded your clients about them, then if it all goes wrong and they’ve kind of stepped over your boundaries, like in a business perspective, you get to remind them of them. And because you’ve created that in advance, you’ve kind of taken the pressure, hopefully taken the pressure of what could be a really emotional situation by going, oh, well, I’ll
just refer you to my terms and conditions I’ve created in anticipation should this situation happen. So you’re not anticipating it happen, but should this situation happen, I shall refer you to my payment terms and, yeah, you can take it from there then. So I think that’s how we can try and help make a plan to help ourselves and just if something goes wrong or not, as we would like, we can then just roll out that actions plan and get less worked up about it so that we can concentrate on the many, many other areas of our business that we’ve got to deal with.
Emma:
I just don’t understand in this day and age when people can pay their employees on time every
month, why they then drag their heels 90 days, even 60 days. It’s ridiculous.
Talia:
Honestly. It’s like, do you not want small micro businesses to win? Like, what are you trying to do to us? That is ridiculous. But yeah, it happens. And I mean, because I do like with the one to one coaching, it’s fine. I have systems set up for that.
But yeah, when I go and do financial wellbeing talks and workshops, yes, it’s interesting. Some places are really well set up for working with other businesses and other places are not. And sometimes it is like, and you’ll know this, Emma, like the larger corporate places that just aren’t set up for dealing with today’s band of microbusiness and freelancers and small business owners, they’re just not set up for it. Their systems are pretty inflexible a lot of the times.
Emma:
It’s also incredible how often their finance department, apparently all on holiday at the same time.
Talia:
And I’m like, how are your employees getting paid? Because I know I need to pay my bills this month, next month, and all the months after that as well, just like you do.
Emma:
I’m a big fan of payment up front or part payment up front, because.
Talia:
Especially the PayPal. Like spreading the word, isn’t it? Like letting people know, letting other business owners know? You can. If you decide that you want payment up front or part payment up front, that’s a perfectly normal and feasible thing to ask for. It might mean some people decide not to work with you. And that’s okay, because then you can spend your time working with the people who are happy with those payment terms that you’ve put in place to make sure that you can stay in business.
Emma:
And you can also use things like go cardless. Is it go cardless now, where you can set up, like, a direct debit, essentially.
Talia:
I’ve heard of that from you. And actually, when I used to be, a few years ago, I was a brownie leader, which I loved because I loved being a brownie when I was a kid. So Brownie guides. But, yeah, we used go cardless for parents and guardians to pay brownie guide subscriptions. Yeah. It’s interesting. Like, community groups are, like, automating all of that digital payment stuff, and they used to go cardless.
Talia:
So gone are the days of the late 80s, early 90s, where your parents would hand over three quid for your subs, like, every week when they did brownies, or worse, pay by cheque. By cheque. Do you still have a chequebook?
Emma:
I don’t have a chequebook. I got paid by a client, by cheque this year.
Talia:
Whoa.
Emma:
It’s not something I normally accept, but there was a situation we had to. I would highly recommend. Nobody gets paid by cheque, because not only is it a pain that you have to go into town and put that cheque in, and there’s so few banks now that let you do it. I’m with Monzo, therefore we don’t have banks. So I had the option of either paying it in by posting it.
Talia:
A lot of the high street banks will let you take a picture now, which is pretty savvy, isn’t it?
Emma:
Like, take a picture, but you could put it in and then discover a week later that that cheque wasn’t working or anything. It’s just not worth the.
Talia:
Yeah, I can’t say I’ve been paid by cheque, thankfully. So that has not happened for me.
Emma:
So, yes, one of the other questions I was going to ask you, and I think we’ve already covered it a little bit, was, what are some of the most money mistakes that people make? So I was wondering if you. I think we’ve covered a few, but are there any you’d like to add to the list?
Talia:
Well, mistakes. I don’t know if I’m like, oh, is it a money mistake? I think it sounds a bit, I don’t know, judgmental. I think so. I don’t think there are many mistakes. I tell you one thing that people. Do do, which is just interesting and funny and think the stat.
I don’t think anyone’s updated it since it was done a few years ago. But more people get divorced than change bank accounts. So more people in the UK will go through a divorce than change the bank account. So listen, that same bank that you signed up with when you were so like, I’m in, I’m in my early 40s now, so I signed up with my first bank, probably that was Midland bank as it was then. Now HSBC in 6th form, college in the mid ninety S and then I was with them until. I was with them until the 20. 2016, maybe?
Yeah, something like that. Listen, what is that? 96, 620 years, 20 years, people stay. And so it’s
like, well, okay, is that bank that served you when you were looking for fresher deals when you’re at six form college? Like student mail card and stuff, is that same bank? The bank that’s going to be the right bank for you as you go to uni, as you leave uni, as you join the workplace, as you maybe start work, maybe meet a partner, settle down, have children, buy a house, et cetera, et cetera. All things that people can do in that time spot.
It’s like, is that bank going to be the same right bank for you? Like, start a business as well? Is that bank going to be the same right bank for you? Probably not. Guys, let’s shop around here. We do not need to be so loyal to our bank account that we are loyal to them longer than we are the actual people that we’re choosing to settle down within our lives. That’s hilarious.
I always find that one quite funny.
Emma:
And the new banks. And I think we’re going to see, because I think actually someone in the membership mentioned this morning that nationwide are revamping as well.
Talia:
Yeah, they’ve rebranded.
Emma:
That’s a whole other podcast that rebranded. But Monzo, Starling Metal. I think there was another one as well.
Talia:
Do you know what the other one, this kind of new way, Starling metal, all the challenger bank to digital banks. Yeah, I use Monzo.
Emma:
Yeah, I’m a big fan of Monzo. And when you were saying earlier about the saving as well, if you are using Monzo, turn on the round up your payments into your savings because that is incredible how quickly that stacks up. So you haven’t seen it before. Say you spend 80 P, the extra 20 p goes into your savings pot. But that could really stack up over every single purchase you make.
Talia:
Yeah, you’re just automating your savings then, aren’t you? You’re setting it and you’re forgetting it. But that’s a really interesting one, Emma, actually, because that clearly really works for you and it works for a lot of people I know, but that doesn’t work for me. I’ve tried that feature, not with Monzo, but with another provider, and it didn’t work for me because there was a bit of a lag. This was a few years ago, there was a bit of a lag in you making the spend and then taking it from your account. So I was always just like, why is this random account, like, why is this random amount now going from my account to my savings pot? I didn’t like it.
Talia:
It didn’t work for my brain and my logic and how I understand things. So that feature didn’t work for me, but it clearly works for you and many others. So I think, again, it’s not a mistake, is it? It’s a learning. Like, oh, okay. How can I want to save more? Okay, is there something that can help me do that?
And, yeah, there’s tech and there’s apps that can help you do that. Or there’s, like, a good old fashioned piggy bank that can help you do that. Like, guys, just find the solution that works for you.
Emma:
That is so, because it’s not. There isn’t one budget that works for everyone. And I tried to do. What is it called? Do you need a budget? Yeah, I tried to do that. Didn’t work for me because it was too rigid.
And I’m not rigid. My ADHD brain needs the flexibility. And if you try and put me in anything rigid, I will rebel. Whereas that, you will have other people who really need that rigid one.
Talia:
It’s. And who flourish with it. Yeah.
Emma:
People won’t have a session with you and be like, this is the only way to do it. You’re very much like, right. Let’s find a way to do it for you.
Talia:
Yeah. And I will help my clients where they need to. Like, okay, so what is your goal here? You want to save more? Okay, let’s look at the options, and I will help you as you literally, I’ll get my clients to run through all the options available to them, because I think that’s something that we just don’t do often enough as well. We’re either like, I can do that or I can’t do that. And it’s like, but what are your options for action on this?
What are your options? You don’t have to commit to it yet. You just have to kind of do a brain dump. Like, no matter how out there it is and just giving people the space to get. Oh, yeah, actually, I suppose I could do that. And what about that option, et cetera, et cetera? So, yeah, one of the key things is, yeah, savings.
It’s the basics. It’s the savings, it’s the budgeting. It’s like, you’re not bad at these things. It helps to figure out how to do it in a way that works for you. Some people like a spreadsheet. Some people like a budgeting app. Some people like good old pen and paper.
Like, what’s the way that works for you, that makes you, that gives you that clarity and insight on what money you’ve got coming in and what money you’ve got going out? That’s it. That’s what we’re trying to get to here. So there’s no one perfect way.
Emma:
Okay. There’s so many gems in this, so I hope everyone has taken away something really helpful. More importantly, Talia, where can we find you online? And tell us a bit more about where’s your website? Which social networks are you on? That kind of thing?
Talia:
Yes, so you can find me online. I’ve recently updated the website that launched my business in 2019. So it is now lovely and jazzy and new and updated and I’m really proud of it. So it’s Talialodrick. Co. UK. So Talia, T-A-L-I-A Loderick.
L-O-D-E-R-I-C-K. Hopefully that comes across clear enough to you all. Talialogic. Co. UK. That’s the name of my website. And then you will find me on socials, on Instagram and LinkedIn at Talialoderick.
That’s my handle. So those are the platforms that I like to hang out on. Connect with me on socials and have a look at my website.
Emma:
Brilliant. Thank you so much. And, yeah, I think we’ve probably were both joined in urging people to. If there’s a difficult money conversation that you need to have, Use this week as a good excuse to do that, because that’s exactly what it’s there for.
Talia:
Yeah, just, like, take the first step, I think. And that saying a problem shared is a problem halved, like, whether you’re an employee. Actually, some workplaces are doing a great job now in supporting employee well being. So maybe there’s someone at work you can speak to. Maybe there’s just someone in your friendship or acquaintance circle that you feel like you could open up to. There are amazing debt advice charities in the UK as well, like Citizens Advice and national debt line and step, you know, just take that first step, I think, in trying to find someone to speak to, whether they’re personal to you or they’re an organisation.
Emma:
Thank you so much for coming, Talia and everybody have a wonderful week talking about money.
Talia:
Thanks, Emma.
Emma:
Thank you for joining me for this episode of the Freelancer Tea Break. I hope you found it useful. If you want to connect with other freelancers, do come join us in the Facebook group the Freelance Lifestylers. It’s completely free and really lovely and supportive. You can also find out more information on freelancing at Freelancelifestyle.co.uk
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