The UK is obsessed with cash. Out of the 15 million adult ISA accounts that were in use in the 2023/24 tax year, almost 10 million were cash ISAs, making up around 66% of the total.

We love cash because it is simple and we know that when we need to access it, we won’t find that the value of our savings has fallen to zero. Put simply, cash is risk-free.

But that is not the whole truth, according to Andy Reed, head of behavioural economics research at Vanguard.

Speaking to Kalpana Fitzpatrick, digital editor-in-chief , on the MoneyWeek Talks podcast, Reed said there is a significant opportunity cost in hoarding more of your savings in cash than you might need.

In the UK, there is over £200 billion of excess cash languishing around, research by Vanguard found.

This does not include savings that it may make sense to hold in cash, like what is needed for an emergency fund or short-term spending..

Reed said: “When you dig a bit deeper and start to ask ‘why are you sitting on the sidelines? Why are you not invested?’, they realise that there is a risk-return trade-off that they’re making and they tend to say they prefer a more conservative approach. They feel like cash is safer.”

Reed says this is partially a result of inertia.

“[Savers] are going with the flow. They’re maintaining the status quo. The status quo feels safe. It doesn’t feel risky. But what they don’t realise is that investing is risky, yes. But not investing is also risky.”

That is because every moment that your money is not growing, it is being eaten away by inflation.

This has been particularly true in recent years as the UK, and many other western countries, have had to deal with price growth above the 2% target.

In Britain, inflation reached a recent peak of 11% in 2022, while the latest data shows it reached 2.8% in May 2026.

As cash ‘stuffed under the mattress’ earns 0% interest, it will be worth less in real terms after years of inflation. But cash in savings accounts are not entirely safe either.

“The risk is that your cash is not going to keep up with inflation because the interest on cash can be very low while inflation might be higher and so your purchasing power is going down over time.

“But inflation is out of sight, out of mind for many people, so they don’t realise the hidden cost of cash.”

That is not to say that cash is inherently evil and all your savings should be diverted to investments.

Reed says: “Cash is a story of too much of a good thing. You need enough for emergencies, say your dishwasher breaks, or your car breaks down, you also arguably need cash in case of job loss.

“That’s where highly liquid assets like cash are super valuable because they give you that flexibility to withstand bumps in the road.

“But having cash above and beyond those short-term emergency needs means you’re incurring opportunity costs. What you’re giving up by not investing is quite a bit larger than what you might realise.”

Listen to MoneyWeek Talks for our full interview with Andy Reed, where he discussed how emotions can affect investor behaviour, the barriers to investment in the UK, how different generations invest, and much more.

You can watch the podcast on YouTube, or listen to it wherever you get your podcasts.

About the podcast

MoneyWeek Talks is a podcast that helps you unlock the secrets to financial success. Editors Kalpana Fitzpatrick and Andrew van Sickle are joined by influential guests – from CEOs and entrepreneurs to economists and policymakers – to share their top tips on managing money, investing wisely and building wealth.

Subscribe to the MoneyWeek Talks podcast and get ready to make it, keep it and spend it with confidence.

Jeremy Grantham is an expert in stock market bubbles. In the 1980s he spotted the Japanese bubble. He also, rightly, refused to rush into the tech bubble that popped dramatically during the dotcom crash.

Now, with all eyes on the astronomical valuations AI firms are commanding, does he think a bubble is emerging?

In the latest episode of MoneyWeek Talks, Grantham told MoneyWeek editor Andrew Van Sickle that historians a century from now will be writing about this moment in the same way they write about the South Sea Bubble, one of the first and most significant financial crashes in history.

Grantham points to SpaceX. He said: “The SpaceX prospectus is actually unbelievable. Mining asteroids and colonies on Mars and moving through space and a projection of revenue streams, 90% of which seem to relate to AI.

“And it’s not clear that their version of AI, which is at the moment having its bottom kicked around the block by Anthropic and the rest of the boys is going to be even around. Forget 90% of this colossal income stream of the biggest enterprise in the history of man.

“And of course, they’re running at huge losses at the moment. What an act of faith, I mean, give me a break. Talk about tulips.”

That is not to say that Grantham is opposed to the transformative nature of AI, though. He sees that it is impressive. However, he is cautious about the state of the industry at the moment.

He cited the example of the railroad boom, which he sees as a similar crucial technological advancement that hugely boosted productivity. But the market crashed still.

“People don’t realise that the more obvious and important the idea, the more likely you are to attract too much capital and have a market bust.”

“The railroads transformed our lives. They added enormous productivity. And yet they were so obviously going to do that, that everyone built too many railroads, and everyone lost their money. That will happen in AI.”

He added that looking at the history of the Magnificent Seven and comparing it to their future plans shows two different worlds.

“Looking back, you have seven monopolies. Amazon dominates retail sales, Tesla gets a leap ahead in EVs and so on. They each killed off their junior competitors, bought the exciting up-and-coming competitors, and bestrode the world.”

But the future looks drastically different. Instead of seven monopolies, there is one ultimate goal that they are all aiming for – alongside other firms snapping at their heels. That goal is artificial intelligence.

Grantham says the firms believe that whoever gets there first will have a license to make more money than anyone has ever made at anything in history.

“They’re all saying the main risk is not spending enough. ‘We will spend our vast cashflows’, ‘my 200 billion is bigger than your 107 billion’ – it’s like a kind of gorilla fest in that sense and they all pile into the ring to fight to the death.

“There can only be one. They’re going to fight until someone survives. Now, if you think this is like the seven distinct monopolies, you’re crazy.

“This could be the most vicious fight to the end that we have ever seen, starting now. And there are plenty of signs of it already. In that sort of fight, they do not make lots of money and the stocks get crushed. And then they emerge from the wreckage, like the internet.

“The railroads rose from the ashes, and this will rise from the ashes.”

Listen to MoneyWeek Talks for our full interview with Jeremy Grantham. You can watch the podcast on YouTube, or listen to it wherever you get your podcasts.

About the podcast

MoneyWeek Talks is a podcast that helps you unlock the secrets to financial success. Editors Kalpana Fitzpatrick and Andrew van Sickle are joined by influential guests – from CEOs and entrepreneurs to economists and policymakers – to share their top tips on managing money, investing wisely and building wealth.

Subscribe to the MoneyWeek Talks podcast and get ready to make it, keep it and spend it with confidence.

Stepping away from a professional boxing career just a few years after winning gold at the Commonwealth Games might seem a strange decision for some – but not Delicious Orie.

Orie, who retired from the sport last May, has now embarked on a career in the financial world, which offers him something boxing couldn’t – fulfilment.

Orie spoke to MoneyWeek on the latest episode of the MoneyWeek Talks podcast, which can be viewed on YouTube and most podcast platforms.

He said: “I was no longer fulfilled in the sport of boxing. I signed a very good professional contract, and I was going to earn good money, money that I know I’ll probably never earn again. And I didn’t feel anything.”

Instead, Orie, now based in the West Midlands, is training to be a financial planner and help people reach their financial goals. Ultimately, the decision to make the switch was all about making peoples’ lives better.

Orie says: “One of the things I absolutely loved about boxing was the capability of me to be able to travel the world and speak to so many different types of people and understand people’s culture, appreciate the way they perceive life.

“So I thought, 'Right, as an investment manager, is that something that I’ll be able to get?' Because I value that so much…with the very limited research I did, over time I found out that investment management might not be that thing I’m looking for.

“So [I did] a little bit more research and I came across financial advice where you’re able to have that connection to the investment management world, but at the same time have that connection to people and enrich peoples’ lives, financially. So I thought, 'Right, that’s what I’m going to do’."

How boxing and early childhood experience has shaped his financial career

Despite leaving the sport, boxing nurtured plenty of skills in Orie that transfer to the financial world – namely discipline, drive and "obsession".

It was this drive that prompted his decision to complete his initial financial planning exams in five months, a process which can take up to two years for some.

He says: "When I stopped boxing, I thought, 'Right, let me just take it easy'. Since I was 18, I was constantly pushing myself and my body to the next level. I was addicted to it.

“When I stopped boxing, I was like, 'Right let me be present', only to realise that probably about two months after I stopped boxing, I cannot do normal things…I have to consistently push myself to a point where it feels a little overwhelming.”

His early childhood helped pique his interest in financial literacy too.

Describing himself as a business “nerd” growing up, he adds: “I loved business at the time…I’m not talking business in the sense of making money, more in a sense of understanding the inner workings of business and why business and trade happens."

He adds: “I think it stemmed from, as a child, as a family, we didn’t have much, and you sort of question that as a kid.

“You think to yourself, 'Why is that my mum would work 50-hour weeks, 60-hour weeks, and I could barely afford lunch?’”

Why financial literacy gives you ‘control’ over your life

Although he walked away from a lucrative career in boxing, Orie’s biggest regret isn’t hanging up his gloves.

He says: “People were saying, ‘You’ve walked away from potentially multi-millions of pounds’, and I could look them in the eye and say ‘yeah’, and genuinely feel so clean within me.

“Like, ‘Yeah I know I did’, so do I regret boxing? No. What do I regret? I would say investing. Not investing early enough.”

He adds: “If there’s one message I can give and send to the younger generation, [it’s] open up a junior ISA or something. Just do the most random job, do some pot washing, open up a bank account, under your parents or whatever, just put some money in…£10 a week, £20 a week. I promise you, it will pay dividends, huge dividends when you’re 30, 35 years old.”

That’s not the only piece of wisdom he has for the younger generation either. Orie is passionate about spreading the message that financial literacy gives you agency over your life.

“I say this to the younger generation – a pound of debt that you get into is a piece of your future that somebody controls…if you are not in control of money, money will control you,” he says.

“And this [applies] from somebody who’s a high net-worther to somebody who is just about scraping by, it doesn’t matter where you are on that spectrum.”

About the podcast

MoneyWeek Talks is a podcast that helps you unlock the secrets to financial success. Editors Kalpana Fitzpatrick and Andrew van Sickle are joined by influential guests – from CEOs and entrepreneurs to economists and policymakers – to share their top tips on managing money, investing wisely and building wealth.

Subscribe to the MoneyWeek Talks podcast and get ready to make it, keep it and spend it with confidence.

The world is in the midst of an oil crisis. The war in Iran has thrown the markets into turmoil, with the price of oil soaring to around $100 a barrel.

The oil shock has repercussions that are far wider than just the price of petrol. In this episode of MoneyWeek Talks, editors Kalpana Fitzpatrick, Andrew Van Sickle, and Cris Sholto Heaton make sense of what is happening now, explain where the crisis could go next, and what you should do to protect your portfolio. Tune in now on YouTube or on most podcast platforms.

About the podcast

MoneyWeek Talks is a podcast that helps you unlock the secrets to financial success. Editors Kalpana Fitzpatrick and Andrew van Sickle are joined by influential guests – from CEOs and entrepreneurs to economists and policymakers – to share their top tips on managing money, investing wisely and building wealth.

Subscribe to the MoneyWeek Talks podcast and get ready to make it, keep it and spend it with confidence.

Inheritance tax is a tricky topic. Taboos around speaking about money and the emotion that comes with thinking about death create a perfect storm for misunderstanding it. But with such complex rules around inheritance, it is a topic well worth talking about – and sooner rather than later.

Lisa Conway-Hughes, a certified financial adviser and founder of LCH Wealth, speaks to Kalpana Fitzpatrick on MoneyWeek Talks about how the inheritance tax regime is changing from April 2027. She reveals her biggest trick to help protect your pension. Tune in now on YouTube or on most podcast platforms.

About the podcast

MoneyWeek Talks is a podcast that helps you unlock the secrets to financial success. Editors Kalpana Fitzpatrick and Andrew Van Sickle are joined by influential guests – from CEOs and entrepreneurs to economists and policymakers – to share their top tips on managing money, investing wisely and building wealth.

Subscribe to the MoneyWeek Talks podcast and get ready to make it, keep it and spend it with confidence.

What force will shape the world in the next 20 years? The answer is China's drive to financialise, according to Diana Choyleva, founder and chief economist at Enodo Economics.

In this episode of the podcast, Diana speaks to MoneyWeek's Cris Sholto Heaton about how the AI race differs in China versus the West, the transformation of the country's equity market, and the breakdown of globalisation.

You can watch this episode on our YouTube channel or subscribe to it on any podcast platform.

About the podcast

MoneyWeek Talks is a podcast that helps you unlock the secrets to financial success. Editors Kalpana Fitzpatrick and Andrew Van Sickle are joined by influential guests – from CEOs and entrepreneurs to economists and policymakers – to share their top tips on managing money, investing wisely and building wealth.

Subscribe to the MoneyWeek Talks podcast and get ready to make it, keep it and spend it with confidence.

Charles Jillings, co-fund manager of Utilico Emerging Markets Trust, discusses the outlook for emerging markets and the long-term investment opportunities in infrastructure and utilities.

In this episode of MoneyWeek Talks, Andrew Van Sickle speaks to Charles about how emerging economies are dealing with Donald Trump's tariffs, the after-effects of the war in Iran, and why countries like Brazil and the Philippines are overlooked markets.

About the podcast

MoneyWeek Talks is a podcast that helps you unlock the secrets to financial success. Editors Kalpana Fitzpatrick and Andrew Van Sickle are joined by influential guests – from CEOs and entrepreneurs to economists and policymakers – to share their top tips on managing money, investing wisely and building wealth.

Subscribe to the MoneyWeek Talks podcast and get ready to make it, keep it and spend it with confidence.

What is stopping the UK from investing? It's a mixture of three main factors, according to Henry MacLeod, co-head of digital distribution at BlackRock.

In this episode of MoneyWeek Talks, Kalpana Fitzpatrick speaks to Henry about the state of investing in the UK, how we can debunk myths about risk, and whether AI can help you become a better investor.

Watch the full episode on our YouTube channel or on any podcast platform.

About the podcast

MoneyWeek Talks is a podcast that helps you unlock the secrets to financial success. Editors Kalpana Fitzpatrick and Andrew Van Sickle are joined by influential guests – from CEOs and entrepreneurs to economists and policymakers – to share their top tips on managing money, investing wisely and building wealth.

Subscribe to the MoneyWeek Talks podcast and get ready to make it, keep it and spend it with confidence.

Europe has lagged behind the US for years now, but what would it take for the continent to recover?

Daniel Avigad, manager of the TM Lansdowne European Special Situations fund, speaks to MoneyWeek's Andrew Van Sickle about opportunities in European equities, solving the continent's growth problem, and the consequences of populism.

You can watch the episode on our YouTube channel or subscribe to MoneyWeek Talks on any podcast platform.

About the podcast

MoneyWeek Talks is a podcast that helps you unlock the secrets to financial success. Editors Kalpana Fitzpatrick and Andrew Van Sickle are joined by influential guests – from CEOs and entrepreneurs to economists and policymakers – to share their top tips on managing money, investing wisely and building wealth.

Subscribe to the MoneyWeek Talks podcast and get ready to make it, keep it and spend it with confidence.

Vietnam is one of the most exciting emerging markets, according to Dominic Scriven, founder and chairman of Dragon Capital.

In this podcast, he spoke to MoneyWeek's Cris Sholto Heaton about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for Vietnam, the current climate for investors and how his Vietnamese language lessons led to him founding the largest asset manager in the country.

Watch the full episode on our YouTube channel or tune in to MoneyWeek Talks on your preferred podcast platform.

About the podcast

MoneyWeek Talks is a podcast that helps you unlock the secrets to financial success. Editors Kalpana Fitzpatrick and Andrew Van Sickle are joined by influential guests – from CEOs and entrepreneurs to economists and policymakers – to share their top tips on managing money, investing wisely and building wealth.

Subscribe to the MoneyWeek Talks podcast and get ready to make it, keep it and spend it with confidence.

Improving the relationship between money and mental health is one of Clare Francis's missions in her work at both Barclays and the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute.

It is also a personal story – Clare lost her husband to suicide in 2011. Ever since, she has been driven to improve how we deal with our mental health when it relates to money.

Clare, savings and investments director at Barclays, spoke to Kalpana Fitzpatrick about money and mental health, why Brits should start investing, and how to build long-term financial resilience.

Watch the full episode on our YouTube channel or tune in on any podcast platform.

Alongside her role at Barclays, Clare is a trustee of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, a charity whose mission is to help people with mental health problems protect themselves from financial difficulties and get out of debt.

This episode contains mentions of suicide. If you or someone you know needs support with their mental health, you can contact the Samaritans.

You can call them for free on 116 123, email them at jo@samaritans.org, or visit samaritans.org to find your nearest branch.

About the podcast

MoneyWeek Talks is a podcast that helps you unlock the secrets to financial success. Editors Kalpana Fitzpatrick and Andrew Van Sickle are joined by influential guests – from CEOs and entrepreneurs to economists and policymakers – to share their top tips on managing money, investing wisely and building wealth.

Subscribe to the MoneyWeek Talks podcast and get ready to make it, keep it and spend it with confidence.

Former Lioness Jill Scott shares her investing journey and discusses how she is working towards the ultimate goal of building wealth for her future.

In this episode of MoneyWeek Talks, Jill tells Kalpana Fitzpatrick that while she has always had an eye on the ball, she has not focused enough on her finances. But now, as a retired professional footballer, she has turned her attention to investing and shares how it has been a real eye-opener for her.

Plus, she has some great life tips to motivate us all to hit our life goals. This episode is the inspiration you need to get up and get going.

Watch the full episode on YouTube or any podcast platform.

• Find out more about eToro's Loud Investing initiative
• eToro on YouTube

About the podcast

MoneyWeek Talks is a podcast that helps you unlock the secrets to financial success. Editors Kalpana Fitzpatrick and Andrew Van Sickle are joined by influential guests – from CEOs and entrepreneurs to economists and policymakers – to share their top tips on managing money, investing wisely and building wealth.

Subscribe to the MoneyWeek Talks podcast and get ready to make it, keep it and spend it with confidence.

Which funds should you consider putting your money into this year? Fidelity's Tom Stevenson reveals his top three picks for 2026 to put in your ISA or self-invested personal pension (Sipp).

In this episode of MoneyWeek Talks, he tells Kalpana Fitzpatrick why he recommends these funds and how you can work out what's right for you.

Plus, he shares his views on why keeping exposure to UK and US equities matters in a well-diversified portfolio.

Watch the full episode on YouTube or any podcast platform.

Tom Stevenson's top funds for 2026

Coming up with fund recommendations following three strong years for the stock market is challenging, Stevenson told MoneyWeek on the podcast.

This is especially the case because you don’t want to catch the top of the market and recommend people buy funds just as the market turns for the worse.

That means looking outside the more traditional places is more important.

Stevenson explained: “We saw that the US stock market, which had led markets higher for many years, started to fall behind a bit last year, and other markets picked up the baton.

“We saw strong performances from European shares, but also from emerging markets, and the UK market which also did well last year – that was the context in which I was thinking about which funds to recommend this year.”

The investing trends seen in 2025 are expected to continue into the year ahead, Stevenson said. He anticipates more investors will look to diversify their holdings out of the US, which has been a strong market but also an increasingly expensive one.

Stevenson predicts investors will instead start to put more money into other markets around the world that may provide better value – ones that are cheaper, but still have good growth prospects.

Dodge and Cox Worldwide: Global Stock Fund

Stevenson’s first pick capitalises on his prediction that more investors will diversify their holdings out of the US.

He chose the Dodge and Cox Worldwide: Global Stock Fund as, unlike other global funds which have a very high exposure (around 70%) to the US, this one is much less exposed – US stocks only account for around 50% of it.

He told MoneyWeek: “Given what I said about this rotation out of the US continuing this year, that's one of the reasons why I like this fund. And it's also got a bit of an emphasis away from the types of shares which have done really well, specifically the sort of technology and AI stocks which have driven very high valuations in the US.

“[The fund] actually invests in other sectors. It's got a very wide range of companies all around the world, from Taiwan to the UK to Europe, as well as some in America. That's my number one pick.”

Fidelity Special Situations

Stevenson’s second pick is Fidelity’s Special Situations fund, which is mostly focused on UK stocks.

Why invest in a UK fund? Stevenson said it’s because the UK market is undervalued – and very different from the US.

He said, unlike the tech-focused US, the UK is “more in sectors like pharmaceuticals, banking, mining – quite old economy sectors, if you like, which have actually started to do quite well.”

“And the main attraction of the UK, for me, is that it's very cheap compared to the US. So as investors are moving out of the US and looking for other opportunities, then they're going for markets like the UK, which is, which is really, really cheap – I think the Fidelity Special Situations Fund is a really good way of accessing that.”

Lazard Emerging Markets Fund

Even though emerging markets have underperformed the American market, Stevenson believes they could make a comeback in 2026.

“We've seen in the past that you get long periods in which either the US does well or the rest of the world does well. We've had a really long period in which America has outperformed, and I think we're now getting to a stage where that rotation is happening and emerging markets look attractive.”

Stevenson added that there are more good, long-term reasons to invest in emerging markets too. He said they tend to have higher growth rates, and young and growing populations.

Furthermore, emerging markets tend to be most attractive when the US dollar falls back. As interest rates come down in America, Stevenson thinks “the dollar is likely to continue to fall, and so we think that's a good backdrop for emerging markets”.

The fund picked to capitalise on this is the Lazard Emerging Markets Fund, which Stevenson says has a good track record of investing in these markets.

About the podcast

MoneyWeek Talks is a podcast that helps you unlock the secrets to financial success. Editors Kalpana Fitzpatrick and Andrew Van Sickle are joined by influential guests – from CEOs and entrepreneurs to economists and policymakers – to share their top tips on managing money, investing wisely and building wealth.

Subscribe to the MoneyWeek Talks podcast and get ready to make it, keep it and spend it with confidence.

Investing can get a bad rap for being inaccessible. But it doesn't have to be that way, says Yana Shkrebenkova, CEO of Revolut Trading.

MoneyWeek's digital editor, Kalpana Fitzpatrick speaks to Yana about how fintechs can make investing more accessible, the importance of financial education, and why women may be better investors than men.

Watch the full episode on our YouTube channel or any podcast platform.

MoneyWeek Talks is a podcast that helps you unlock the secrets to financial success. Editors Kalpana Fitzpatrick and Andrew Van Sickle are joined by influential guests – from CEOs and entrepreneurs to economists and policymakers – to share their top tips on managing money, investing wisely and building wealth.

Subscribe to the MoneyWeek Talks podcast and get ready to make it, keep it and spend it with confidence.

Ever wondered what your relationship with money is? Well, it could be a little more complex than you think – childhood experiences, the wrong influence, or simply not understanding how it works could be holding you back.

Financial psychotherapist, Vicky Reynal, talks to Kalpana Fitzpatrick on how you can change your money mindset, avoid arguments over money and how to come out of the guilt trap when it comes to spending your money.

This episode is therapy! Watch it on YouTube or any podcast platform.

MoneyWeek Talks is a podcast that helps you unlock the secrets to financial success. Editors Kalpana Fitzpatrick and Andrew Van Sickle are joined by influential guests – from CEOs and entrepreneurs to economists and policymakers – to share their top tips on managing money, investing wisely and building wealth.

Subscribe to the MoneyWeek Talks podcast and get ready to make it, keep it and spend it with confidence.

Is passive investing damaging the economy?

In this episode of MoneyWeek talks, Andrew Craig, founder of Plain English Finance and author of How to Own the World and Our Future is Biotech, talks to Kalpana Fitzpatrick about the dangers of over-relying on passive investing.

He argues that while passive investing has a place and is perfect for anyone who is just getting started on their investing journey, active investing plays a critical role not only delivering returns but also in helping the UK economy thrive.

Craig also tells Fitzpatrick that young investors starting out could be damaging their wealth by confusing trading with investing.

“The problem is, they get their fingers burnt when trying to trade and then they do not invest,” he says.

Watch the full episode on YouTube or any podcast platform.

MoneyWeek Talks is a podcast that helps you unlock the secrets to financial success. Editors Kalpana Fitzpatrick and Andrew Van Sickle are joined by influential guests – from CEOs and entrepreneurs to economists and policymakers – to share their top tips on managing money, investing wisely and building wealth.

Subscribe to the MoneyWeek Talks podcast and get ready to make it, keep it and spend it with confidence.

More on investing

• What’s the difference between active and passive investing?
• How to approach active ETFs

Vietnam: Asia's new tiger economy
In this episode of MoneyWeek talks, Thuy-Anh Nguyen, director and product specialist at Dragon Capital, gives Andrew Van Sickle the inside track on Vietnam. Having grown up in Hanoi in the late 1970s, she has first-hand experience of the country’s extraordinary transformation from a war-torn planned economy to one of the world’s most dynamic emerging markets. By 2005, MoneyWeek was highlighting Vietnam as Asia’s other Communist dynamo. Now it is growing faster than China.

Thuy-Anh tells Andrew how liberalisation triggered a growth spurt, what Vietnam did to ensure the economy maintained momentum, and how it dealt with the Donald Trump administration’s tariffs earlier this year. We also explore some of the key holdings in Dragon’s investment trust, Vietnam Enterprise Investments Limited.

MoneyWeek Talks is a podcast that helps you unlock the secrets to financial success. Editors Kalpana Fitzpatrick and Andrew Van Sickle are joined by influential guests – from CEOs and entrepreneurs to economists and policymakers – to share their top tips on managing money, investing wisely and building wealth.

Subscribe to the MoneyWeek Talks podcast and get ready to make it, keep it and spend it with confidence.

More on Vietnam

• Vietnam: a high-growth market going cheap
• The best ways to invest in Vietnam – Asia’s communist dynamo
• Vietnam, Asia’s new tiger economy, is roaring. Investors take note

MoneyWeek editors Budget 2025 special episode
In this special Budget episode of the MoneyWeek Talks, MoneyWeek editors Kalpana Fitzpatrick, Andrew Van Sickle and Cris Sholto Heaton chew over what was announced and what it means for savers, investors, workers and homeowners. We gave the Autumn Budget a big thumbs down — but why?

MoneyWeek Talks is a podcast that helps you unlock the secrets to financial success. Editors Kalpana Fitzpatrick and Andrew Van Sickle are joined by influential guests – from CEOs and entrepreneurs to economists and policymakers – to share their top tips on managing money, investing wisely and building wealth.

Subscribe to the MoneyWeek Talks podcast and get ready to make it, keep it and spend it with confidence.

More budget news

• Budget 2025: the winners and losers
• Autumn Budget 2025: what was announced?
• Autumn Budget quiz: How closely were you following Rachel Reeves’s tax-raising speech?
• The Autumn Budget as it happened: updates and analysis from the MoneyWeek team

The state pension triple lock is estimated to cost the government around £15.5 billion by 2030, putting the policy under intense pressure with many industry experts calling for it to be scrapped. From April 2026, pensioners will get an above-inflation state pension boost of 4.8%, thanks to the triple lock.

The mechanism is considered generous and expensive. For a desperate chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who needs to plug an estimated £20 billion deficit, removing the triple lock could be an easy way to free up cash.

But Steve Webb, who was the pensions minister when the triple lock was introduced in 2012 under the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government, argues that it helps tackle pensioner poverty and it is right that the policy stays put.

Speaking on the latest episode of MoneyWeek Talks – which can be watched on YouTube or downloaded on any podcast platform – Webb says: “I became pensions minister in 2010. But in the previous 30 years, the state pension had been falling in value relative to what people earn, so it just went up with inflation most of the time.

“But the problem with that is if you earn and earn and then stop earning, then the thing you fall onto when you stop earning needs to be connected to some proportion of what you were earning. Otherwise, you just fall off a cliff and your standard of living crashes. So, the state pension needs to be pegged to a proportion of what people are earning and for 30 years, [prior to the triple lock] that had not happened.”

Webb, who is now a partner at consulting firm LCP, argued that before the triple lock, the state pension was getting worse relative to what people were used to before they retired.

“So, the point of more generous indexation post 2010 was to undo 30 years of damage.

“I’m not embarrassed or ashamed; I am proud of the fact that the state pension has been over-indexed, so we link it now to the best of growth in wages, growth in prices or 2.5%. This has nudged up the state pension a bit, relative to the average wage.”

The UK state pension is the least generous in the G7 group of the world's most advanced economies, with UK retirees receiving around 22% of average earnings from the state pension, much lower than continental neighbour France (with 58%) and Italy (76%). Webb says he does not think the triple lock system will last forever, but for now, it is there to do a job.

The triple lock: a boost for pensioners

In April 2026, 13 million pensioners will benefit from an above-inflation rise to the state pension, thanks to the triple lock. For those getting the full new state pension, it’s worth £550 a year. The increase is an extra £120 compared to what it would have been if it had been uprated by inflation only.

The rate of the full new state pension is expected to increase to just over £240 a week.

The full basic state pension is set to rise by around an extra £440 a year.

“There is an argument that the triple lock is a sop to the grey vote, this is all about older people, and that young people should not have to pay for this, but they [young people] need a good state pension, don’t they?” Webb says on the podcast.

In a report earlier this year, the Office for Budget Responsibility pointed out that public finances are exposed to inflation shocks and earnings growth – that, with an aging population, means state pension spending, after health, was the second-largest source of upward pressure on government spending.

Labour has so far pledged not to touch the triple lock in this Parliament, but its future could still be at risk in the coming years. Plus, we have seen many U-turns on policies from Labour, raising fears the triple lock could well one day be on the cards as Reeves continues to face cost pressure.

In case you missed it, the first podcast episode of MoneyWeek Talks with Rishi Sunak is also available to watch or listen to now.

We need a cultural change, not a policy change, to get people to invest more, Rishi Sunak, former prime minister, tells MoneyWeek.

In the debut episode of MoneyWeek Talks, the new podcast which is available on all platforms and to view on YouTube, Kalpana Fitzpatrick talks to the former UK prime minister about why everyone needs to get to grips with maths to ultimately be better with money.

“In government, there is a lot of focus on various policies, but something I have come to realise is that the government can change a lot of policies, tax incentives and regulation, but actually that doesn't move the needle – what you need is cultural change.”

He suggested people were more likely to start investing if they had more confidence with numbers, and stressed that everyone, of every age, has the ability to be strong with numbers.

Current chancellor Rachel Reeves is reportedly entertaining the idea of reducing the tax-free incentive for cash ISAs in the hope that more people will put their money into stocks and shares ISAs instead. While nothing is confirmed and is unlikely to be until the Autumn Budget, Sunak, who was chancellor between 2020 and 2022, feels more education is needed to get people to start investing and use stocks and shares ISAs.

"There’s a professor at Stanford [professor Lusardi], and she is one of the world's experts on financial education. And what she figured out almost 20 years ago, there are three foundational questions you can ask people to see how financially literate they are.

“One of them is about compound interest, the second one is about inflation and how it affects us and the third is about risk and diversification," Sunak tells MoneyWeek.

The Richmond Project

Sunak is now on a mission to get everyone confident in numbers and believes it will help overcome barriers to financial literacy and boost the economy.

Earlier this year, Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, launched The Richmond Project, a charity dedicated to boosting numeracy skills and helping everyone feel comfortable with numbers so they can apply those skills in everyday life.

Everyone can be a numbers person, he says. “We want to break those barriers down”.

While financial education is now set to be part of the curriculum as part of citizenship classes from September 2028, Sunak argues that it all starts with good maths and numeracy skills – with that foundation, people can make better decisions around picking the right mortgage, budgeting and investing.

Tune into the podcast series on our YouTube channel.

Artificial intelligence and financial advice

Last month, tech giant Microsoft and AI start-up Anthropic appointed Sunak as a consultant.

Commenting on whether AI could boost numeracy skills and help people with their finances, Sunak said he thought there was a huge role for AI in boosting access to financial advice, but stressed that, without the confidence to grasp financial concepts and understand that what you are being advised on is correct, getting to grips with numeracy is essential.

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