It’s a privilege to help – but help yourself, too

The last People's Champion column

Simon Read

I’ve been filming around the country in recent weeks trying to help ordinary people make sense of their finances. It’s been for a BBC1 daytime show called Right On The Money that is set to be broadcast in July.

I’ve met people with ordinary financial concerns, such as trying to save a deposit for a first home or to raise enough cash to pay for driving lessons. Depending on your level of financial sophistication they may seem simple problems. But for those concerned, they are certainly not.

Money problems can seem insurmountable and debilitating when you’re confronted with them.

The process has been a huge privilege and a reminder for me. It’s a privilege when people open up about their financial woes and ask for my help. In the same way it has always been a privilege to help readers of the i when you’ve got in touch with money questions or complaints.

But it’s also been a huge reminder for me that there remain millions of people with little or no idea about how to sort out their money. And rather than writing them off for not being knowledgable enough about finances, it’s important to understand why and help them.

There are lots of reasons why people don’t sort out their finances. For starters there are lots of more interesting things to do. And that means it’s all too easy to put off that bit of budgeting or financial planning.

To those people I’ll say simply this: do you want to make a couple of hundred pounds for a couple of hours work? If you could find the time for that you should make sure you find the time to sort out your finances.

In a couple of hours you could switch to a cheaper energy tariff, get a better value bank account, or switch borrowing to a cheaper deal. Even switching energy could save around £300 a year and can be done in just a few minutes online.

For others, dealing with money issues is a frightening activity. There are two main reasons: people tend to be scared because of their lack of knowledge about money matters, or they’re scared of facing up to the deep level of their financial problems.

To the former I say get informed. Don’t let banks and insurers put you off with their complicated financial jargon. Find out about finances and get control of them.

To the latter I say face up to your problems. It’s the first step in dealing with them and can be the first step in getting on a financially-sound footing.

Being open about finances is the key to money success and the more knowledge you have, the greater your success. In short, get control of your finances to stop letting your money problems control you.