Married with a business

We think women need to talk more openly about money. Embarrassing or confusing. Join the conversation. We'll be discussing a whole range of topics. Hi, and welcome to the AJ Bell Money Matters Podcast. I'm Laura. And I am Danny, and this episode is all about love. Anyway, with a partner, with our money. Yeah, we always try to talk about things that are in the news that matter to all of you. And since it's just been Valentine's Day, it seems like a good time.

to find a couple of special guests who could shed some light on what it's like not only to live with your partner, have kids with them, but also start a business with them, which Frankly is not something I would do with my husband. I will live with him and I will have a child with him, but the business part is a Well just COVID having to suddenly be in each other's pockets all the time, both of us working in the same house. We had to have D Math

because i you know you cannot come in the kitchen to make a cup of tea because I'm using the kitchen table. You cannot come in the living room to watch telly because I um yeah, it it got uh fraught.

And I'm glad we're no longer doing that. Yeah, definitely. I think it takes a special type of couple and also some very strong boundaries, like you say, Danny, to be able to start a business together and be really successful in Yeah, I don't know how you don't end up just talking about, you know, who's gonna walk the dog or whose turn it is to pick up the kids when you're coming off the back of quite an important meeting about, you know, the money for the year, the budget. Mm-hmm.

I absolutely have to say that I take my hat off to all That work together, especially if they have started a business together like Claire and Matt Tau. They started the platform Meet Margot back in twenty twenty two from their kitchen table, which again is some fee. The aim was to help more women find mortgage and insurance products that were right for them. And we'll hear more about that and how as a couple they make both their personal and their business finances work.

And we always find around big dates like Valentine's Day, you get loads of surveys and data out about the financial habits of couples. And we'll talk a bit more about that once we've heard from Claire and Matt. But Also, we get the annual survey about how much people spend. And if you were wondering, Danny, it's£56 on average people spend, according to an opinium survey for ClearPay, on Valentine's Day in total. Do you think you came over or under that budget? I'm gonna guess Maybe

Not because you're not romantic. She she adds very quickly. No, we absolutely did. We were way under. In fact, we just bought each other a card this year. But I think that's because we celebrated our twentieth wedding anniversary in December. And we kind of did all the, you know, lovey double. It's enough romance for one year. Yes. Can't cope with more than that.

What I did like in that survey though was um, and it's something that I can totally get behind, and I bet you can too, because one in five people. We're gonna use the day, not to spend money on roses and cash, and I didn't ask you, did you spend fifty six pounds each? Oh my goodness, way up. We

did cards. My costs went up by well, I guess they effectively doubled this year because my daughter now thinks that Valentine's Day is a thing that she should get involved in. So I had to buy her a card to avoid a meltdown on Valentine's morning when she didn't get one. And then I bought sweets for us all to share. So I would say my total cost was probably about six pounds. Okay, I like that. Well what I do like in particular is

A lot of people, one in five people, were gonna use Valentine's Day as an excuse to treat themselves. And that 56 quid that was on average how much you were gonna spend on your partner for Valentine's Day. Well, it was more than that they were gonna spend on themselves. Seventy quid. I thought that was grass. That's so good. Yeah, I that is something I can totally get behind. And um my eldest daughter this year was really lovely. I think she probably spent more than the... There we go.

My youngest, a bit like your daughter, was feeling really left out. So she celebrated Galantines with her galpals. I love that because if you are single, Valentine's Day what it does is just spotlights the fact that you are single for whatever reason and it's depressing. I know, I know. It's a tough day, I think, if you're single and you're not happily single, shall we?

But to add insult to injury, the papers also chose this date to flag up that extra issue that we've spoken about a few times on this podcast, which is the single talk. So this is the extra money that you end up paying out because you are single rather than part of a couple. And think for example one of the biggies is my favourite topic, holidays.

Uh most rooms sleep two people. There are very few single rooms and often you'll end up paying the single person premium uh when you go on holiday. So that means your per per head cost is more and actually that can run to a decent amount of money unless you can travel with friends, of course. That gets a bit complicated when you travel with friends, which is what I did last summer. And it it's all well and good until it comes to the sleeping arrangement.

And I have to confess that um I do snore sometimes. And uh what I hadn't realized is that apparently I also act out certain sort of charades in my sleep. And apparently my friend that I was sharing a room with said in the middle of the night I suddenly decided to start running in bed. Wow. Okay. Um I'm gonna note this for our next team holiday.

Not sharing a room with Danny. Yeah, it's tricky. And I think it's also quite hard to find a friend who's at that same stage of life as you that wants to go away without a partner and that wants to do the same things as you and the same budget, of course, because you could have people on very different salaries or just very different expectations of what they want from a whole So it's not as easily said as just, Oh, I'll find a mate and go away with them and and split the car.

No, it's not. But anyone who is single or has ever been single for a protracted period of time and you weren't living at that point with your parents will not be surprised that housing is where you can find the biggest penalties for being single. And here we can be talking tens of thousands of pounds over a year if you are paying, say, rent for a one bed flat by yourself, um, particularly in places like London.

Southeast. And of course, it's not just the rent or mortgage. You've then got to think about heating, lighting, because doing that in a house for one person costs as much as doing it in a house for two people. And it doesn't end there. You've got insurance costs, streaming services, water bill, council tax, because even though you get a single person discount on council tax,

It's not half the cost that you get off, it's just twenty five percent. So all of these costs end up really adding up to that total singularity. And d think about food as well. That's the bit that always gets me,'cause most products are packaged and they're either aimed at a couple or a family, most often a family of four. You know, you think about those big packets of rice you get now serves four or serves two. And okay, you can keep a bit of it in the fridge for a while, but

I it just seems all the time that um companies are thinking in terms of two by two. You know, the animals went in two by two, we're all buying food two by two. Um I've got some friends that have got three kids. And they get really cross because if you're trying to feed a family of five

they're hit with some of the same issues and I I know a lot of people, things like takeaways as well. You can get huge takeaway and you know, you could quite happily share that between two of you, but it then gets more if it's just you.

Yeah, exactly. When I lived on my own I did a lot of batch cooking and a lot of eating the same meal basically for an entire week because you'd buy vegetables, like you say, and then you'd end up having to use them or eat the same vegetable basically for a week long.

Um, there are ways to kind of save on those costs. Batch cooking, for example.

Some people I know of like some older people who club together when they go and do their shopping and so they'll buy, you know, the pack of apples and then they'll split them between them if they're living alone. So there are different things that you can do, but it is another challenge where you can end up spending more money or ending up throwing away some food because you bought it kind of in bulk for a deal and then not ended up using Yeah.

We did um a podcast, um couple of years ago now with um Mimi from Beat the Budget who is just brilliant at talking about batch cooking and ways to Really think about making your money stretch whether or not you are a single person in a couple or with a family, so it is really worth.

But single people needn't panic and think, oh, I just need to jump into any old relationship. That is not the solution to it because that could ultimately create more issues if it doesn't work out and then you need to split things.

But instead you can take some steps to live a financially happier life as a single person. So things like budgeting, giving yourself a savings cushion, which is so important if you're single because you don't automatically have another salary to fall back on should think happen to your finances.

And there's always the option of things like generating extra money, whether that's renting out a room by getting a lodger, or having a side hustle, um, or sharing things like those subscription services we talked about earlier, gym memberships, things like that. with a friend or family member. So there are some hacks to try and cut that single Because uh as we said earlier, um some of the surveys out in the past week or so were also looking into couples financial.

And I shouldn't be surprised at all, but one from wealth managers RBC Brew and Dolphin found that one in ten couples rarely discussed their finances together, which astonishes me, but then I suppose maybe I shouldn't be so shocked because previous Money Matters research has consistently found that people do still think of money

as a really uncomfortable issue to discuss. And I know that lots of Rouse, in fact most of the Rouse in my house, come from talking about money, whether it be because my hair appointment or my husband has spent a bit much on books or whatever but you can kind of understand why maybe people want to shy away from talking about money but then of course if you don't talk about money you can just

you know, store up a huge can of worms which can open unexpectedly at any point. Definitely. And we know from our previous research that actually for women not talking about money can end up detrimentally impacting. Either because they end up shouldering more of the financial burden or because as a couple you haven't planned out your financial future together, particularly when it comes to things like career breaks for having children, the impact that that has on a woman's pension, for example.

how you're gonna split those childcare costs. And then also later in life, you know, when it comes to retiring, how much money you have to retire on, when you're gonna do that, there's really so much value to be gained from being aligned on even those big picture things, even if you decide to leave aside the day to day. about who spent what on a takeaway coffee, which is my husband's bugbear. Ha ha ha.

We know that women can end up being much better off financially if they start having tricky conversations which we acknowledge are not always easy to have, but it's better to rip the rip the plaster off and have those conversations rather than store up a bigger problem for later.

Because I know certainly in my house before I started doing Money Matters and learnt from you, Laura, um, I would end up taking a lot of the sort of unpredictable expenses. So things like School shoes, school uniforms, and that kind of stuff.

Stuff that you can't Totally budget for because You can't be absolutely sure when your children's feet are suddenly gonna grow or when suddenly you look at their trousers and think, Ha ha ha Yeah, there's an awful huge gap between the bottom of the floor and where the trousers sort of start. And I think that that is something that y a lot of women don't take into consideration.

It is much easier to be able to budget if you're just paying, you know, the gas bill, which comes out by direct debit once a month and you know how much it is than suddenly having to find you know, birthday presents for five different children who your kids are going to a party for. Oh my god, I think that is my biggest expense at the moment is presents for four year olds' birthday. I'm definitely spending more on that than I'm spending on my own friends. Presents, all presents for myself.

Maybe I need to take a leaf out of that survey's book earlier and just spend a load of money on treating myself for a day. But one couple who have to talk about money is Claire and Matt Tab.

That's because they don't just live together, have a family together, they also started a business. So Meet Margo was set up to help women get mortgages and insurance products that work for their It was a labour of love and s was set up from the couple's kitchen table, which added another layer of complication. So how do they separate home and work and how do they make their financial lives work, both at home and in their business? Danny has been finding out.

Okay, well thanks so much for joining us. Look, let's get to know you a little bit because you're a couple. You founded a company together. Uh in fact you set it up from your kitchen table. I'm at the moment sat at my kitchen table. Had you worked together before club?

Well, yes, we have worked together before, but uh it it's it's interesting'cause we work from home together. So we've got a remote company of fourteen staff. So we're at home together. We've got two young boys together, so we're parenting together. Um and yeah, we've worked together in a capacity. Matt, you can probably jump in and talk about your career before this that brought us together. So yeah, I know I uh I previously played sport and moved to Belfast to to play for the local team here.

met Claire and then part of my ex outsport we set up a a couple of coffee shops. So we had a drive thru and one sipping. Um I was hands on and Claire worked in in PR so she helped with marketing and the PR side of things. I think it when Matt started in financial services this w I was on maternity leave so had two young boys, two under two, and obviously it's a very vulnerable time w with when it w well, vulnerable anyway, but when it comes to your finances.

And I think Matt was starting into um you know Fe feel around. and in his experience of financial services and I was on the marketing side of things and what I could start to see as a young mum of two, um, feeling vulnerable about finances and all of that and and and not really being the most confident when it comes to finances, I I for the first time feels felt sane because there was all these women coming through to Matt on social. And asking.

certain questions and being confused about the same things that I felt confused by. And and I guess that's where we then started to realise actually we could work together on a more formal capacity. So it was where the idea for Meet Margo came from, um, in terms of helping more women in home ownership. So what does Meet Margot do for those people that don't know?

It's all about giving women the confidence to take the next step with regards to their home ownership journey. So what from from those early days, what we realized was there was all these women reaching out, asking the same questions, being frustrated by the same things. And we kinda took a deep dip dive into right, why are they asking these questions? And it's interesting we started noticing patterns around.

Okay, you know, there's a lot of people just about to have a baby or they're trying to move up the ladder and um you know they've had the baby and they're worried about their finances or the Instantly become divorced. And when you look at all these patterns and their economic shocks, they're impacting their financial resilience.

And when you look at that with regards to home ownership, you absolutely do need hand h handheld when it comes to trying to navigate the proper navigate the the the property market. And there was nothing out there to to kind of help women. So I guess that that was our main kind of mission behind right, let's set up a brokerage.

specifically for helping women and regardless of all these challenges that they face. And that's been the core that's been the core part of why we're we're doing what we're doing.

Matt, did you feel more in tune with all the women that were coming to you and asking these questions because of what Claire was going through at home? Yeah, ultimately and and initially we had I think about ninety percent of my following were were females and the majority of people reaching out to me initially were females. So I go through a lot of stuff with Claire about how to approach it. And we and as Claire said, it it became clear that

I knew the finance side of things and and the product side of things, but Claire really knew about who we were talking to, how we were talking to them and why we were talking in that manner. You know, it I think there's a a financial lack of education in schools for sure where

Yn math, let's take, for example, we're not taught about interest rates, we're not taught about buying a home, and it ultimately is life's biggest, for most people, life's biggest investment, right, and now going on a monthly basis.

So the the the manner in which we we started to talk to people changed and Claire took control of that. Um I'd come to Claire and and all top line, look, we've had A byproduct of that is we're going to look after more people as a business, but it really is a an educational platform that um we've done via social media. I think just to to to back up with Matt said there, it's about making it relatable. If I put my if if I think of my own experience.

not necessarily confident with finances and would pretty much shut down if I'm being explained a product that I don't really understand or don't find that I can relate to the person telling me about the product. And so for us it was And and this all stemmed back to my experience. I I um was

part of a creative agency, uh spent years within news publishing creative agency environments and it was always about putting the consumer first and understanding what really makes him tick. So I think being that young mother, two under two. worried about finances not really relating to them and and looking at right actually when it comes into mortgages.

I completely just shut down of a story from when I was younger and when I got onto the property ladder quite young. And it it's just about making it relatable and about breaking it down jargon free and And not as intimidating and and and that's basically how we've we've kind of the success of Mate Margot's really taken off. Now one of the questions I was going to ask is do you play to each other's strengths? But just listening to you two bounce off each other, i it's clear that things just work.

Yeah, we've got our separate sides to the business where Claire's brand, marketing... Um trying success. And I'm more operational hands on. Um but we we do have that that crossover as well where we were at an event last week and I was making notes. Think these would be really good ideas for uh educational pieces for social and claire, and then Claire takes that little bit of information and and runs with it. So we uh

Uh we're sat at the kitchen table now, which is where I usually sit and Claire's got our office. So we generally have conversations through re three rooms at times, but we kind of stay in our own lane. But there is a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little It it's having clear it's knowing your boundaries and I mean I I I've I it's taken time. Don't think that this is just you know, when we first started out in this

um journey. It it is all consuming to work with your partner every single day, um, you know, parent together. Th there's no off button. There really is no off button. And that's why we do like our alone time as well. But we don't we don't get very much alone time.

Um but yeah, I think it's not for everybody. I think you need to know you need to know what type of relationship you have that, you know, going into it if you could work together and and I think that's something that we knew from from previous experience of having the coffee shops and um our roles are very different so we can help each other out when we need to, but it's it's clear what I do and it's clear what Matt does.

How do you juggle everything? Because as you say, you you've got no off time. You you're working together, you're working from home, you've got kids together. How how on earth do you juggle all of those things? It's taken time um when I was predominantly advising, but we've built a team now of as Claire said, there's fourteen of us.

And we're very lucky to have the team that we have where in essence we've built a business. So on certain parts of the business it they can run themselves from an advice point of view on the mortgage side of things and then we've got the protection team. But that has taken time and obviously it's it's great to build a business and not a job, but there's costs that come with that and you have to walk before you run at times. But

Um it was five to eight this morning. I was cooking breakfast for the boys and Claire's talking to me about uh a C V and I was like I I've gotta focus on the breakfast right now. This is this is family time. So we we we say it, we cut it off and then we

We've had times where we'd both be working eleven, twelve at night, sat on the sofas, TV's on, no one's watching it, but laptops on our knees. But we've we've got to a point now where we still have have the odd one, but it's we we just understand that We've got to do the work as and when needed because it can be a stressful situation, you know, mortgaging or buying a home. So we need to have that accessibility for for clients.

Yeah, I think tag teaming as well because you're always gonna have you're always gonna have that phone call from school to say, Right, someone's so sick and it's just having It's having that understanding. So Matt and I would be very right. Listen, I've got more meetings in the diary today, so you go and do that. And it is literally just tag team exercise and it's something we're quite mindful of, even employing a team.

And just that understanding that, you know, especially as parents, you just need that flexibility. Absolutely for early pickups. Stuff goes wrong all the time and it just it is what it is. And I think that's one thing that I really take from being a founder that I you know I'm really, really glad that I'm my own boss in a sense because I don't have to be asking all the time that, Oh my goodness, is it okay if and we'd always

our team knows this as well, that they they've got the flexibility there if they need to go and do the pickups or somebody's not well and they can't log in for today'cause we get it. We're going through it every day ourselves.

Now for even for couples who don't work together like you do, we wanted to talk to a couple because it's around our Valentine's episode and it's brilliant to have both of you on. So just In terms of making your finances work because it is It can be tricky, but clearly because you run a business as well, you have those conversations from a business perspective. So how do you mesh your own finances? Do you have a joint account? Do you have separate accounts? How do you make it all work?

Yeah, no, no, we we only probably in the last year we've gone joint account. So previously, uh since working together we we pay ourselves fifty fifty, so everything's split down the middle. And now in the joint account it's a bit more official that X amount each month goes in the joint account from both of us, fifty fifty. All the direct debits are taken from that. It leaves some funds in our own account, you know, for

for living, doing things we want to do for investing personally, but the day to day family expenses, mortgage, car, things like that all come out of the joint. And then getting it was a good it was a good process really. We w opening up on it, we've got uh a spreadsheet which details what IR expenditure is currently. And then we've also got a target uh column as well of of what we want to review. So little things like

A Spotify account and I have a Spotify account. And if we got a family one, it could save a few quid each month. So little things like that. And then we found that I had I had an Amazon Prime account and Claire had an Amazon Prime account. So we're like just you know, just by communicating and and having the conversations and relaying back to it every uh every month or so.

Just means that we're not spending money where we don't need to be spending money and uh you know, rising cost of living, we're we're all working as hard as we can to to have the lifestyle that we want to have. So we want to make sure that we're not just wasting money in certain I think as well having that.

bringing it all into one pre pre doing that, we probably, you know, I'd maybe cover the childcare and w we'd have clear roles and responsibilities of of who covered what what, but it wasn't really official. And I think since doing that, there's less kind of not that we always talk about money, but there's less kind of tit for tat or or arguments or anything like that. It just makes it

It's a bit of a relief nearly, knowing that right, that's going in and you you can clearly see, Oh, it it's looking a bit tight this month or you know, so and so's birthday's coming out and we and we love a pot as well. So having a pot that is just, you know, birthday's coming up.

things going wrong around the house or needing a tower replaced for the car, things like that. Um but I mean that's took us a while. We we talk about this like we've been we haven't been doing it for ages, but since we have been doing it, it it definitely has it's been fun. How how come it took you so long?'Cause obviously you've been working together for a while, you know, you've got kids together. Why is it only recently that you you did that? Did you just not have the conversation before?

No, I I think It was just we were just in a in a routine with we knew right you were it wasn't that everybody both of us knew who was paying what, so it wasn't necessarily it was just a little bit messier, if you if you get me. Um and then it we very much just I think I had a thing with having a joint account as well because again from previous experience just of mine and I just kind of wanted to keep those

even though we have a mortgage together, but in my head I just kinda wanted to keep them separate. But I think definitely from bringing pulling the finances together it's It's a team approach, isn't it? It's a team approach like everything else. So That you still have separate accounts so that you can

you know, if you wanted to buy something for Matt and you didn't want him to know you could do that. And and certainly my husband would be horrified if he knew how much I spent at the hairdressers and yet I know that he's got a car boot full of books'cause he's obsessed with second hand books and I've stopped him from bringing any more into the house. So if we didn't have our separate accounts along with our joint account, we could have some arguments.

I think and I've seen that happen with friends as well and I think it's it's important to have that independence where I know of a month's, you know, oh I've got Matt's birthday coming up or actually I wanna invest more this month and you're not having to not at the

you you'd be having to answer to anybody, but I think it's just important to have that little bit of independence. And you know, that that is because you you don't necessarily know how much I spend on at the hairdressers, but I don't know how long you that you know how long I'm I'm actually going later today. I get fifteen minutes and and is everything okay? Where are you? So if we're going by the hourly rate.

So what about if you want to um thinking about investing, thinking about, you know, saving for those bigger things like pensions and stuff, because you guys know all about the gender gaps, you know, I mean that's one of the reasons behind setting up Meet Margot. So what about your pensions and investments? Do you split those sort of 50-50 down the line or are you coming at it from different positions to start with?

We've got our own investment accounts, but we would talk and say, and we're quite competitive, so Claire... I'm I'm women at the minute. I did. I invest in a lot of female led CEO um and it's obviously it's paying off. Yeah, so we'd be we we would talk about it and we we both say, right, we want to put X amount in uh of our remaining pots so it Rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n rwy'n

in essence been a bit paycheck to paycheck with regards to corona costs of a holiday. Uh and by booking earlier, you know, you you should be making some savings as well. I think as well on the holiday thing, we have been experienced in Justice Finders. Um and I'm sure other founders have got the same thing, but this guilt with booking anytime in advance, and I think it really it comes down to not knowing, oh, but a year, a year away, what's the business going to be looking like?

Should we really be taking time off? And and obviously as part of as part of Meet Margo, we recently launched an app to help people through the remortgage process. And we literally for about A year and a half, we were like, We can't we can't book any leave because we just don't know where that's going to be at or what's going to be happening. And so it was always very this this. guilt on our shoulders about booking any time and taking time away from the business.

And now we've kind of got over that because we're like n the business is more stable, we can we can take the time off. We need the time off as a family, as a as a couple, to come back at work and be more refreshed and Yeah, I can't that that is a top tip of mine. Just book the book the holiday because the business it will should be still standing when you're back. Um but yeah, that that that's my top tip.

So taking time off is a great tip. Have you got any other advice for people looking to set up their own businesses or looking to set up their own businesses a couple I think it's it's just having that honest conversation and knowing y the type of your relationship. You know, there's no point forcing it if you know absolutely on a day to day basis you could not work together because you really it it you know, we we work together well, but there is times that it is testing and it

It's about not bringing if there's issues at home, not bringing them into the business. If there's b issues in the business, not then bringing that into home. And and that is really, really hard to do and and to separate those two lives. Especially when you're working from home on top of that. And I think the other thing would be Matt you would back this up as well when it comes to uh getting investment. So in the early days when Matt and I were trying to get investment to build the app.

We had so many doors closed on us because of our um status as a married couple. Um we've been told, you know, regardless of how brilliant your business idea is and how great you are as founders. purely because you're married, we would not invest in you. So a lot of doors closing and a lot of comments one comment from an angel that am I really am I in front of me? a proper co-founder or just somebody that supports math on on marketing. And so yeah, it's it's having a thick skin for that kind of

kind of stuff and your relationship status, it will come under fire. They'll they'll there'll be a lot of doors closed and that's okay, they're not your people. So just move on to the next. Um but that that was something we experienced in the early days.

It's been absolutely brilliant talking to you both. Thank you so much for your time. No, thank you. Thank you. I love that they have it sewed together as colleagues and yet still have the same issues as any other couple. But did they share confessions, Danny? They absolutely did and both were illuminating for different reasons. And before we let you go, we ask everybody um when they come onto our podcast for either a financial confession or dilemma. Um

I don't you you're clearly competitive. Who wants to go first? Ladies first. No Matt, you go first. Mine mine a recent one for me was though we were We had a load of friends and as couples went to a charity uh charity ball. And I'm quite keen to put my hand up in the silent auction and ended up £650 lighter for... For a weekend away. No, a midweek stay. And we really struggle for childcare. So I didn't really think it through on you know the feasibility of it. So uh if anyone's looking for

Two night stay midweek in in beautiful island. Just uh give me a show. Midway. Honestly. I we're still not recovering over this. It's how about you, Plaire? My financial confession would probably be in a past relationship, um, not taking anything to do with the finances or not holding, you know. just finding it easier to not be engaged on that side of things until it wasn't.

And I had it and I'd mentioned earlier in the podcast about um I'd settled down with an ex partner quite young. Uh we were in Northern Ireland and we bought a house so much cheaper over here. And then the financial crash of 2008 happened, we had split up and financially the mess that that caused and It took me years to recover.

So learn from me, kids. Love and trust are great, but it's not your financial plan. Be, you know, transparent with each other, be actively involved in your finances. Know what type of mortgage you're setting up, know how that impacts you. And because you never know when, you know, should things go the other way or a way you don't expect, you you need to be able to handle it.

That's brilliant advice and um midweek stay, Matt. No, we don't demon. Maybe myself, just go for a a bit of R and O. That's probably why. That's probably why, but Yeah, I think that's a a really important one from Claire, isn't it? In terms of some people who f maybe feel that they've been burnt in the past financially, don't want to be so open. But when you find the right person being open and having those conversations about money that we were talking about earlier.

Yeah, thank you so much to Claire and Matt. What an absolute brilliant couple. And Meet Margot is such a great business. And um if you are be needing a mortgage or insurance product and you know, y you're a woman wanting a an extra bit of help and that's what they're all geared up for, then do That is all we have time for this week. But just a reminder that you can find some really brilliant resources on the AJ Bell Money Matters website. We've got articles on the single tax

Financial tips for every stage of your life. An excellent podcast about finances and divorce. one about the perils of cohabiting and one about surviving economic abuse. So wherever you are in your financial life, hopefully we've got material available to help you negotiate.

And next month is home to International Women's Day and AJ Bell Money Matters has some very special research on women and finance. So keep your eyes open for that on our social media channels. Just look for AJ Bell Money Matters on Instagram. Facebook and LinkedIn. We've also got a very special guest on our next podcast. Jenny Halpin Prince is a force founder of our own PR agency and two incredible charities.

Lady Garden, which helps highlight gynecological issues, which can impact women's careers, and Access Aspiration, which gives youngsters a chance at work experience to open doors to their future careers. So definitely join us for that. And until then, thanks for listening. Before you go, please remember this podcast is for educational. And the views expressed don't necessarily reflect those of AJ Bell. The podcast isn't telling you if a certain investment is suitable.

Forget that the value of investments can be And you can lose money as well as it's not. It's also important to remember that how you're taxed will depend on your individual circumstances. The way an investment behaves in the future. If you want help, go see a qualified financial advisor.