Share Sounds. presented by Georgie Frost

This week saw the launch of new book - 'Never Go Broke: How To Make Money Out Of Just About Anything', co-written by This is Money personal finance editor Lee Boyce. In this podcast special, Lee is joined from Los Angeles by his co-author, Storage Hunters TV star Jesse McClure, to explain all to Georgie Frost and Simon Lambert. Jesse and lee discuss how they met, how the book was created, and their three-step approach to putting more money in your pocket with a little bit of entrepreneurial endeavour and reselling. The book is broken down into three parts: how to build up a cash pot, learning the resale blueprint and investing the pot for resale profits. Step one is all about properly selling items in your home, making cash legitimately – and safely – online, and even making money from stuff you might think is trash. This is good both for your wallet and the environment. Step two sees Jesse outline some of the tips and tricks he uses everyday as a professional buyer and seller, while step three is all about hunting down spots to buy items to make even bigger profits – from car boots, to charity shops. While it won't make you a millionaire overnight, the pair believe it can be a great hobby, a way to stay afloat, or to set the foundations to becoming a professional at it. The authors also share some of Jesse's big wins and tips for getting started straightaway.

Was the blockbuster Coinbase stock market listing a coming of age for bitcoin and cryptocurrency or a top of the bubble moment? The world’s leading crypto exchange platform listed on the US stock market this week and at one point hit a hefty $100billion valuation, before slipping back to $60billion. That’s still a very big number, especially for a business that made $322million last year. But Coinbase is profitable, its earnings are growing rapidly, it can cash in whether bitcoin and crypto prices rise or fall, and the cryptocurrency genie is well and truly out of the bottle. So, could it prove to be a Facebook or Google of the crypto world? Georgie Frost, Tanya Jefferies and Simon Lambert look at the Coinbase float and what it means for the crypto and investing world. They also discuss the Spac frenzy, how it’s leading to lucky dip investing for some but also more companies coming to market, and whether once you know what’s in a Spac it could ever be worth investing. Also, the team look at low risk investments that could be an alternative to a paltry 1 per cent five-year fixed rate cash Isa and Tanya updates on the women underpaid state pensions. And finally, Barclaycard has slashed customers’ credit limits and left many of them baffled and annoyed, so what on earth is going on?

Life is tough for first-time buyers. House prices were already expensive before the coronavirus lockdowns and defying all logic a mini-boom has sent the average house price up £20,000 further over the past year. At the same time mortgage lenders have indulged in a flight to safety, canning the vast majority of 95% loan-to-value mortgages and bumping up the gap between rates on 90 per cent mortgages and those for borrowers with more equity. 'Once more into the breach' has stepped the Government, with taxpayer aid for banks and building societies to offer more 5% deposit mortgages. But is this a wise move? Should we stop meddling in the mortgage and property market, as short-term assistance ends up meaning long-term pain as more credit is extended and house prices climb ever higher? And could it be that while the 95% mortgage push is the wrong move at the national economic level, on a personal level taking one might prove a good move for some, who could end up paying less than they do in rent? Georgie Frost, Lee Boyce and Simon Lambert discuss the 95% mortgages, the rise in house prices and whether buy-to-let is still a good investment. Also this week, the lowdown on the Barclaycard customer service meltdown as long-standing customers see their credit limits slashed. And finally, you want a shed-office (aka a shoffice) to work in down the bottom of the garden, but can you power it with solar panels?

Have Premium Bonds turned you into a savings winner, or are you one of the losers who have been missing out on prizes for years? We dive into Britain’s beloved savings lottery, looking at who holds the most Premium Bonds, who wins and who doesn’t. NS&I revealed exclusively to This is Money this week that an astonishing 43% of bonds are held by just 4.3% of savers – that’s £56billion out of the £107billion total. Or to put it another way every £2 out of £5 saved belongs to less than one million savers out of a total £21.4million. That may go some way to explaining why close to 75% of Premium Bonds savers haven’t won a prize in 14 years. Georgie Frost, Lee Boyce and Simon Lambert dig into the statistics, deliver a theory on how much you might need to hold to bag at least one prize a year, and look at whether Premium Bonds are worth having. They are certainly popular and that’s why Nationwide has launched a savings lottery – is that worth signing up to as well? In crypto-corner this week, we discuss the crash, the rebound and the slump again, along with banned adverts and Chinese crackdowns: is this the end of the recent hot phase or just another average week for bitcoin to take in its stride? Also, paying bills with commemorative coins – and what legal tender really means, why self-storage is the latest thing in short supply and who's investing Czech Sphinx?

Are you itching to spend or planning to save? Lockdown savers are forecast by the Office of Budget Responsibility to have stashed away £180billion by the middle of this year. That collective cash pile has been built up by those who have been fortunate enough not to see their finances hit by the pandemic, but have seen their outgoings drop substantially. We’ve already seen some big spending themes come out of this, as people splash out on everything from home improvements, to luxury garden furniture, expensive pizza ovens and hot tubs. The expectation is that as lockdown eases and people are released into the hoped for freedom that vaccines bring, they will go on a spending spree. But will that definitely happen and will the economic rebound be strong enough to create a virtuous circle that delivers the much-talked about Roaring Twenties? Or will people be more cautious and adopt their newfound savings habit more permanently? Georgie Frost, Helen Crane and Simon Lambert, dig into the save vs spend debate and look at how the giant behavioural and psychological experiment that lockdown represents might play out for the economy and people’s personal finances. Also on this week’s episode, the team look at both investing in the big themes of the coming decades and buying a holiday let for profit. And finally, if a fence comes down how do you find out who has to pay for it and is there any truth in the old ‘yours is the one on the left’ rule?

Holidays abroad are back on… or are they? The much-heralded green list proved to be something of a damp squib, with the only popular British holiday destination on there being Portugal. There was no place for Greece, France, Spain, Italy, the US, or other regular stars in the list of Britons’ favourite travel spots. Some rushed to book trips to Portugal, but travel giant Tui reported this week that holidaymakers are cancelling and delaying bookings and rival On The Beach scrapped all its summer holiday departures before the end of August. Concerns over Covid variants and worries about countries being rapidly pulled from the green list for travel are likely to prevent many from booking, but there is still a big desire from many vaccinated Britons to enjoy one their beloved trips abroad. So, will there be a surge of bookings, a last minute wait and see game, or a race to grab the few remaining staycation places during the summer holidays? Georgie Frost, Simon Lambert and Grace Gausden look at the state of play for the travel industry and holidaymakers – and how to protect your hard-earned cash if you do book. Highlighting the need to do just that, Grace explains why Teletext Holidays is under fire for still not refunding some customers for last year’s cancelled trips. Also, Simon runs through his anecdotal inflation theory and why trying to buy bikes or garden furniture, find a builder, or fill up a car tells a very different story to the official 1% inflation rate. He also explains why worries over higher inflation are causing markets to throw a wobbly. And finally, we all know about how the Bank of Mum and Dad has to fund many of their children when it comes to buying a home, but what if you need to help your parents buy a property? A reader asked if there is a potential tax trap – the team explain the answer.

The headlines are telling you the property market is running hot, that the stamp duty holiday extension is stoking the fires, and buyers are ignoring the economic slump to pile in. There’s just one problem: your home is on the market and you aren’t even getting any offers. Perhaps you are in a property coldspot. As property watchers will tell you, the house price index-driven view of a national housing market is something of an illusion. In reality, there are lots of different local property markets and they don’t all blow hot and cold at the same time. At the moment, while some areas are running hot, others are cold – and it’s not as simple as city vs village, or urban vs rural. Even within London, there are some areas with high demand and others just a few miles away where it is tough to sell. On this week’s podcast, Georgie Frost, Adrian Lowery and Simon Lambert look at how to take the temperature of your local property market and how that can help you buy or sell. They discuss what next for house prices – and whether they can possible keep rising at such a robust pace from here, or if we could see more stability and an end to Britain’s casino property market. Also on this week’s show: how to invest in companies that will help improve the environment, the FCA’s warning on thrill-seeking young investors and the best Isa investments of all time. And finally, the electric car grant has been cut and will be axed for all cars costing more than £35,000. Is this foolish as we try to wean the nation off petrol and diesel, or a wise move to stop subsidising those already wealthy enough to buy an expensive brand new motor?

The UK’s official inflation figure more than doubled to 1.5 in April, it emerged this week, as the stronger than expected recovery continued to push up the cost of living. Meanwhile a wave of demand is meeting a shortage of supply for some items, sparking fears of an inflationary spike. But while this is bad news for the pound in your pocket – which will buy less – and for savers, who will see their measly interest rates fail to keep up with how inflation erodes their cash, wasn’t the whole point of all that money printing and rate cutting to get a stronger recovery and inflation back towards the 2% target? Georgie Frost, George Nixon and Simon Lambert look at why inflation has become a hot topic, how it will affect savers and investors, and what it could mean for the game we all thought we could stop playing for some time: when will interest rates rise? George runs through the impact for savers, who now can't find an account that beats inflation, but he explains a trick to get a better rate through laddering; and Simon discusses what inflation could mean for investors and why the jam-tomorrow growth stocks that have delivered over the past decade may not be the ones to hold for the next ten years. Or will they? We also discuss moonshot investing and how backing disruptive companies that if they get it right, can absolutely take off and compound spectacular gains, has paid off for investors such as Scottish Mortgage. Simon highlights the academic research showing why most stocks don't make money and the most successfully often fall by 40%, as Scottish Mortgage's James Anderson highlighted in his recent fund manager's note. But is this attitude the same as that of the bitcoin true believers, who have been having their faith tested again this week?

On Monday, we take a step towards normality – you can get your hair cut, have a beer outside at the pub and visit a clothes shop. But what about the future of the office? Will we ever go back full-time, or is a hybrid model more likely – and if you're tempted by a shed office, what should you look out for? On this week's podcast, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost discuss the future of work and the pros and cons of WFH life, including the 'shoffice.' Elsewhere, should you claim home working tax relief and how much could you get for doing so? And what can you do if you want to change career, whether that is a huge leap or a 'bridging' one. Plus, are workers heading for a horrible shock when it comes to retirement and what can be done to navigate it?

Financial scams are on the rise. The coronavirus lockdowns have seen a fresh burst of investment cons with fraudsters impersonating legitimate companies to steal tens of thousands of pounds. Unwitting savers are being lured into fake savings and investments, such as fixed term bonds or share schemes, and transferring large sums to fall victim to clone fraud. What’s behind this burst of crime and how can people protect themselves? On this week’s podcast, Georgie Frost and Simon Lambert discuss the rising tide of fraud, how to stay safe and what more can be done to combat it. Also, on the show, the pair look into the cases of the mortgage prisoners, trapped paying high rates ever since the financial crisis while others have seen their monthly payments slashed. The Deliveroo float is also on the agenda – why did the shares slump as it hit the stock market? And finally, campervans are in hot demand, making this a good time for VW to be launching its new mini Caddy California: with sleeping space for two and an optional tent that turns into a home on wheels for all the family. Would you want one?