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We’ve all felt it, that moment when you look at your bank balance and think ‘I’ve spent how much?’ But what if you looked at an entire lifetime’s worth of spending? What would the damage be and how painful would that number feel? According to a recent piece of research by Atom Bank, the cost of living an entire near 81-year lifetime in 2021 would be a whopping £1,543,834. That includes £169,159 spent on children, £266,742 on buying the average house and £69,793 on Christmases. The bank compared the figures to what the same lifetime would have cost at a 1971 snapshot, with £14,738 on children, £2,371 on the average house, and £4,177 on Christmases. Beyond highlighting just how much house prices have skyrocketed in 50 years – if they had only kept pace with standard inflation the average home would cost £38,000 – what does this tell us? On this week’s podcast, Georgie Frost, Lee Boyce and Simon Lambert discuss that and why a snapshot like this – vaguely precise as it may be – can help us understand how inflation works and how it can drive up prices. Lee picks out the inflation across each decade to show that and Atom’s figures that see the cost of the average lifetime rise to £19.2million by 2071 sharpen the mind. Inflation is looking large again, but Omicron has made it look like a Bank of England interest rate hike may be back off the table this month. The team discuss that and whether the variant and restrictions to tackle it will cause more economic problems and what those with travel plans can do. Next up is the Great Resignation – another phenomenon thrust to the foreground by the pandemic – what’s going on, why are people quitting and should you stay or go to get a pay rise and better working conditions? And finally, is your home hotter than Lanzarote? It’s cold and frosty outside, but inside a surprising number of British homes it’s shorts and t-shirt weather.

The unemployment rate falls but job growth disappoints. Salesforce reports better-than-expected profits and promotes Bret Taylor to co-CEO. Square changes its name to Block. Jack Dorsey steps down as CEO of Twitter. And Docusign plummets on weak guidance. Motley Fool analysts Maria Gallagher and Ron Gross discuss those stories and weigh in on the latest from Ulta Beauty, Okta, Allbirds, and Chipotle. Our analysts share two stocks on their radar: DoorDash and NextEra Energy. Plus, toy industry analyst Jackie Breyer talks holiday toys, supply chain, and bumper cars for toddlers!

The financial planner’s financial planner talks Roths, asset location, and managing sequence of returns risk. He also tells the story of how he got into the financial advice biz, and offers some career-development and time-management advice.

With markets roiled by the new Covid variant and the Fed Chairman admitting inflation may not be temporary after all, Russ Mould of A J Bell asks if we are finally seeing the Taper Tantrum central banks have been so nervous about. Quoting the US Misery Index and the Fear Index, he feels investors - to whom absolutely rather than relative return is most important – should not think that what has worked for 10 years will necessarily work in future. He has some suggestions for protecting private investors' portfolios.

Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University discusses a paper from John Penrose MP which could galvanise the debate on poverty, tackling the underlying causes, rather than treating its symptoms. He reflects on Nigel Farage's interview with Donald Trump on GB News, wishing Trump had faced a rather less friendly interviewer. And, confessing his own bias, he looks at the timeless and messy issue of the politics surrounding abortion, explaining why it is so divisive.

James Cameron-Wilson on the latest UK box office numbers. Opening at #1 is House of Gucci with Lady Gaga, directed by Ridley Scott, pushing Ghostbusters: Afterlife into second place. Disney's 60th animated feature, Encanto, opens at #3 while a special screening of the Cole Porter musical Anything Goes was #7 ("like the best seat in the theatre"). James's pick of the week is Jane Campion's The Power Of The Dog on Netflix. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, James reckons it will pick up many Oscar nominations.

Steve Caplin looks into the latest tech, with Sainsbury's opening a checkout-free store – again, this time in competition with Tesco. South Korea is introducing dancing, singing and farting robots in 300 nursery schools, there's a singing cactus that's ruder than expected, an air taxi that will make you feel you're Superman, a camera the size of a grain of salt, the oldest iron and fridge that are still working and a way of using two lenses at once on an iphone.

Adam Cox is joined by Mathilde Mackowski, leading “sexpert” and co-founder of the Sinful Group, to discuss why UK couples are having less sex around Christmas and why this trend may continue post-pandemic. They look at why it is so important to take time for both ourselves and our partners, even during busy periods, and Mathilde provides some advice on some of the ways in which couples can remain sexually intimate over the festive period.

We all have both good and bad memories: how often do you re-visit either? If you can focus on the former, it can lead to a sense of optimism and better decisions going forward. Adam Cox uses regression in this episode to help focus on those positive memories, so that they can act as conscious anchors on which to build better decisions for the future.

What makes a good consumer story to take up the cudgel on and fight a reader’s corner – and why don’t companies and organisations just do the right thing? A year ago, This is Money started its Grace on the Case column, where reporter Grace Gausden fights for reader’s rights and tries to solve their problems each week. Over those 12 months, roughly £381,000 worth of victories have been racked up – more than £1,000 a day. On this week’s podcast, Grace takes us behind the scenes of the column and talks about the cases she has tried to help with. She joins Georgie Frost and Simon Lambert to discuss the biggest issues that have emerged, and how things have played out when This is Money took on firms and organisations for readers. Also, on this week’s podcast, do you know how much tax you pay? Most people only have the vaguest idea based on their headline rate, but what percentage or amount do you actually pay, and where are the sneaky glitches in the tax code that catch people out. Plus, the LitterLotto where you can win money by putting stuff in the bin, whether Black Friday is a con or a golden opportunity, and finally, would you swap items in your shopping or lifestyle to beat inflation?