Original Broadcast: This is Money
Pensions are a topic that dominate the financial landscape and for the past decade This is Money readers have had Sir Steve Webb on hand to answer their questions. A former pensions minister, Steve has been our weekly columnist for ten years and helped guide people through the maze of retirement finances. Steve joins Georgie Frost and Simon Lambert to talk about what's happened over those ten years and discuss what you need to know about pensions. Whether they've been about saving for retirement, turning a pension into income, working out what the quirks of the state pension mean for you and much more, Steve has both helped the readers asking the questions and the millions who have read the answers. Aided by This is Money's pension and investing editor, Tanya Jefferies, Steve has also undertaken campaigning journalism, exposing among other things the underpaid women's state pension scandal, which got us a mention in parliamentary reports. Also, Simon reveals how to strike the best deal on a new car with the help of our industry insiders who know how much the salesman or woman will really knock off. Plus, if you get an inheritance you don't need, can you pass it on with incurring an inheritance tax liability yourself? And finally, just how good is Barclays' seemingly generous offer to pay you £1,000 for switching — and who exactly can get it?
Guests: Sir Steve Webb
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Original Broadcast: This is Money
Simon Lambert interviews Marcus and Alexander Blunt, the brothers behind travel firm Heidi, to find out how they turned a start-up into the UK's second biggest ski package holiday firm in eight years — and survived the pandemic's threat to the business along the way. Eight years ago, brothers Marcus and Alexander Blunt were passionate skiers frustrated by the difficulty of trying to organise the mountain holidays that they and their friends really wanted. Deciding on a ski resort, sorting flights, accommodation, transfers and getting friends from different parts of the country to the right place at the right time, had Marcus building complicated spreadsheets to work things out. After one mammoth piece or organisation, they had a lightbulb moment. Maybe it was time for a package holiday firm that allowed people to tailor their ski trips to what they needed, find the best place to go to and put customer service centre stage. With both the brothers working in the travel industry, they decided to figure out how to test their concept and the appetite for it, and then they launched their start-up in 2018, while doing full-time jobs — and both having babies born that year. They made a pact that if they could do £500,000 worth of sales in their first year, they would quit their jobs and go all-in, explains Alexander. From there, in the space of less than eight years, Heidi has grown to become the UK's second biggest package holiday firm. That's no mean feat considering that the pandemic hit just two years in — and halfway through the ski holiday season. Marcus and Alexander tell Simon how they turned their business idea into reality, how they grew Heidi, the lessons they have learnt along the way and share their tips for other aspiring entrepreneurs.
Guests: Marcus Blunt,Alexander Blunt
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Original Broadcast: Motley Fool Show
President Trump’s tariffs have been overturned, throwing the market into even more chaos in 2026. We discuss our initial thoughts and go through Doordash’s results and what new technologies we think are game-changers long-term. Travis Hoium, Lou Whiteman, and Jon Quast discuss Trump's tariffs, GLP data, and inflation; Walmart’s earnings; Doordash’s results; Real/Not Real; and stocks on our radar. Companies discussed: Walmart (WMT), Tesla (TSLA), Doordash (DASH) Hims & Hers (HIMS), Lucid (LCID), Mobileye (MBLY), Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL). Host — Travis Hoium; Guests — Lou Whiteman, Jon Quast.
Guests: Lou Whiteman,Jon Quast
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Original Broadcast: Motley Fool Show
We got the final filing of Berkshire Hathaway’s stock holdings this week and it once again showed Warren Buffett selling tech stocks to buy consumer goods companies. Then we discussed Netflix’s latest saga buying Warner Bros. Discovery, and why homebuilders are building fewer homes. Travis Hoium, Lou Whiteman, and Rachel Warren discuss Buffet’s final stock buys, Netflix gives Paramount one more shot, and homebuilder trends. Companies discussed: Toll Brothers (TOL), Apple (AAPL), Netflix (NFLX), Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). Host — Travis Hoium; Guests — Lou Whiteman, Rachel Warren.
Guests: Lou Whiteman,Rachel Warren
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A part of a person which is not fully in the control of that person can give rise to actions which you might regret, such as binge-eating: it's call the 'disassociated part'. Adam Cox links it to a metaphor of vampires, possibly welcomed by good intentions and perhaps when looking for a comfort blanket, but which give rise to negative consequences. His advice is: don't let the vampire in.
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson says that #1 Wuthering Heights, written and directed by Saltburn's Emerald Fennell, is not a close adaptation of the novel and has attracted criticism for casting Jacob Elordi alongside Margot Robbie. However, it is thoroughly entertaining, has a great score and production design and is also quite funny. He found it a cinematic delight and feels Fennell is a national treasure. #3 Crime 101 with Chris Hemsworth and a great cast is a rare LA movie actually filmed there. James enjoyed it. Not only is it a good crime thriller, but the characters are very human. On Blu-Ray for the first time is the Oscar-nominated 1974 East German film Jacob the Liar. A darkly comic movie set in a Jewish ghetto in 1944, it is in similar vein to the much later Life Is Beautiful. The disc comes with lots of great extras.
Guests: james cameron-wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
Russ Mould of A J Bell says that AI interest has switched from looking for winners to searching for potential losers. But it's been indiscriminate and has included quality software services and data analytic companies. They have a walled garden of data, sticky customers, high margins, predictable cash flows and consistent dividend growth. In fact, their share prices peaked last year, probably because they were on very high ratings compared to the market and thus had a small margin of safety. The question now is, when are the doubts priced in? What multiple would you be prepared to pay, given that the market is on a 13.5 PE and that they mostly have proprietary data which can't be scraped by AI?
Guests: Russ Mould
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Political commentator Mike Indian marvels at the Prime Minister's extraordinary survival act over the past fortnight or so, despite the circling vultures. His new cabinet secretary, Antonia Romeo, has just been appointed to disprove the talk of an inner circle "boys' club", but it's a moment of maximum danger for the Labour government with public anger at central government and the elite at a peak. Starmer probably only has weeks left, particularly after the astonishing U-turn over cancelling local elections and the revelation that the legal advice on this only came to light just ahead of Reform's court case. However, the battle for Starmer's soul is not over. This week also saw the unveiling of Reform's "shadow cabinet", aiming to show that they can be seen as a credible political force with a broad team ready to govern. If they do as well as predicted in the local elections, this will make life for the party more complex and expose them to yet more scrutiny. It would be ironic after what has transpired if there is a low turnout.
Guests: Mike Indian
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin is surprised by research showing that children are mostly watching YouTube on television. 20 years on, the V&A is mounting an exhibition on YouTube. The GPT-4o chatbot, which served as virtual boyfriend and girlfriend to many, was turned off the day before Valentine's Day. Hollywood is nervous about the Seedance 2.0 AI video generator which has produced a clip of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fighting as realistically as if from a big-budget action movie. Somebody has paid a quarter of a million dollars for a toy car, though admittedly a Ferrari. A proposed airship wind energy system will need to rise up on a 2km cable. Apparently 1 in 15 cars have a ghost number plate that can't be read by traffic cameras. A crowd-funded badge will let you display photos or even videos. Elon Musk has switched his future city from Mars to the Moon. And Steve warns of a new "gifting" scam.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: Thought for the Week
There are a host of big issues facing young people, but lowering the voting age to 16 is not one of them. Student debt post-graduation is one of the biggest: as Gavin Williamson says, 'Saddling young people with eye-watering debts before they have even begun their working lives is more than unfair: it amounts to a levy on ambition'. Why can politicians not get out of the mindset of pandering to the elderly at the expense of the young? They need to learn what inter-generational rebalancing means. Background music: 'Something Is Wrong' by Sir Cubworth
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