Ask us anything: Christmas edition - would you take £1m or £5k/month?

0:01You know what I love, Damo? Things that save me time. You don't have YouTube Premium, mate, so I just don't believe that. Granted, I'll give you that one. However, I've got one for you. A great time saver in personal finance is Money Week magazine. They spend a lot of time distilling the biggest stories in personal finance down into consumable chunks, so you don't have to scroll and scroll. They give practical tips on savings, investments, pensions, the UK economy, the global economy. It's like your five a day, but for finance. If you want to give Money Week a try, you can get six issues in print and the app absolutely free by visiting moneyweek.com forward slash money.

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0:51Welcome to our Christmas special. So we're just going to do a bit of celebrating today and we're going to answer some listeners questions. Merry Christmas! Oh, I got a hat. Covered in glitter, mate. You got all the toys. All the toys. Sewing kit. Have some of that. What are Santa's favourite sweets? Elf bars. It's pretty smart. Elf bars, aren't they? Vapes. Oh, I don't know. What is it? Jolly babies. Jolly babies. Oh, I don't get it. Neither do I, mate. Daniel asks, thanks Dan, What would you choose? One million pounds lump sum or 5K per month until you reach one million pounds? What would you choose?

1:34I'd definitely take the one million lump sum. Yeah. In a heartbeat. I think that like the caveat of like the 5K until you reach one million means that the obvious choice is you take the million because you can use the million straight away, can't you? Have they said 5K for the rest of your life? Yeah, well that's it. If it's 5K the rest of your life, but is that linked to inflation or not? Because 5K for the rest of your life right now, 60K a year, that's great, that's 6 % on the million. But if you took the million and invested, I still think the 5K for the rest of your life would win out. But if it was static, that 5K becomes less and less every year.

2:05And in 30 years, you might be like, I need more than 5K. Yeah, 5K is gonna be worth that, yeah. Is it the only money you can ever have as well? Yeah, with the million you could definitely, because you know the value of it today and then you can make more - You can invest it, you can use it. Yeah, you know - Compound interest on that? No, that million you can draw, you know, 30, 40K a year off it without really touching the million. So yeah, a million pound lump sum straight away. All day. What's Jason asking? Jason's asking, what would be the first thing you did if you lost all your savings and had to start again?

2:43Cry. Yeah. What would I do if I started again? You just have to start again. You just - And you'd be like, you'd be where I am pretty much. Opening your ices and - All right, all right. I know how well you're doing. No, I would, yeah, emergency fund first of all. And then - Oh, you would build up your emergency fund. Well, yeah, you're starting again, aren't you? You've got nothing. That's the first thing you do, build up an emergency fund. Well, that's the first thing most people should do, really. I would be investing into global index funds, but I would also be building an emergency fund on the side.

3:15I would probably, if I had to start work, start again, I'd get a second job. I'd start grafting because in my head, I'd be like, I'm behind. I would do what I did in my twenties where I was just working like a dog. You know, I would have - Multiple jobs. Yeah, I'd be down the Chinese again, going, you know, getting that job in, living off that cash, walking everywhere. Making your car smelly. Just, yeah. Yeah. If you're at the same age as well, yeah, I would want to play catch up real quick. So I would probably have that same mentality. But if we actually look into it in a deeper way, if you lost all your savings we'd be pretty screwed because your savings are quite diversified so it'll be pretty hard to lose all your savings everything would have to go wrong oh yeah like the crypto market would crash the stock market there was an argument yeah I'd be eating cat food and remember when I watched that film The Road and I was like this is a deep film and by the end of it you were just shaking you know where he's got his papa that little boy yeah you know that one and they find all the cannibals yeah it would be like yeah it would be pretty dark times yeah so I'd sharpen a stick and start going savage And that is why we are diversified because yeah, if you lose all your savings, then everyone's in trouble.

4:23Yeah. Everyone's in trouble. It'd be the end of the world. Yeah. Merry Christmas.

4:32Finally, I want to ask you something too. So we've covered loads this year and I feel like you've been on a bit of a journey. Yeah. You've always done well financially, but I feel like now your finances are doing well, if that makes sense. Yeah. You know, you've opened an ice and you've got good habits behind your ability to earn cash. What are your goals for the next year? Next year, I want to diversify a bit more, get a Lysa, a lifetime ISA, and also want to get on a property ladder. We had a good property episode with Rob Dix. Yeah, I learned a lot. And so I guess I kind of want to get into the market, but do a lot of research first, a lot of research.

5:06So I guess that journey starts in January. Tomorrow. It starts tomorrow. Everything's tomorrow, but yeah, it starts in January. Manana. Manana. Are you using the Lysa to buy the property? Yeah, that's well. Yeah, saving side of it to help you build it up. What do you worry about the 450 ,000 pound cap in London? Because obviously I hear that, you know, that obviously doesn't get you much property. Again, this is like we discussed with Rob, I might not buy in London. Come up north. Come up north. I mean, I might go retire up north. We'll move this whole show up north. Yeah, we'll get the whole crew up.

5:38For listeners, we'd film in London and I have to travel down to film here. And yeah, I think if Tomei moved up near me, then we might get swayed to bring the show on the road. Get the whole team up. What do you think, Will? Will the producer's saying no. No. Come over here, Will. You come tell us what your degenerate plans are for the year. Well, first of all, I don't know who brought you up, but you've got to have coasters on the table. They've got that ice cold beer on my nice wooden table. It's also Will's house that we film in. Next year, love to make some money from making money. Instead of just paying for this to have like...

6:14Yeah, exactly, it's great fun. But you gotta do what it says on the tin. What have you learned this year though, Damien? What has the podcast done for you? Ah, I met loads of interesting people that have kind of like shaped and changed my perspective on things. You know, I think you learn different lessons at different points in your life. And the one thing that I've been transitioning away from is like investing is the thing that will make me rich to I'm the thing that will make me rich. and for people like Timothy Armour and people like that to be like, trust more in your own ability to generate wealth and not put it in the hands of the market and think, if I wait 30 years, that's, you know, going to produce the returns.

6:55So that's kind of my shift, I would say this year. Can we talk about your shirt? T's wearing a shirt that's, it's like a shirt, but it's longer. Yeah, it's like a dress shirt. It's a Nigerian traditional attire. It's got splits up the sides. Yeah, it's got splits up the sides. It's got... For Christmas? For Christmas. Is it a Christmas thing? No, no, but I mean, I go to Nigeria most Christmas. I'm not going this year. I go most Christmases and this is what you will wear because it's insanely hot on Christmas. Jump in the pool, you know, like sun beating down, kill a goat, kill a turkey and then...

7:24What would I need to do to be able to wear one of those? To rock out. When you go to Nigerian weddings, which are like seven days long and everyone turns up late, which is why I'm always late for stuff because it's in our culture. Not my fault. Essentially, whoever the bride is, she's Indian, she's white, They wear traditional, like Julian clothing. Cause they are super cool. Yeah, they are. And they make you feel like a shake. Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah, Arabic king. What's Christmas day gonna look like in Damo's household? Nut roast? No, no, there's some meat going down. There's some meat.

7:56This year we'll be going to my missus's, my partner's. She don't like me calling her missus. My partner's mom's house and they cook. So yeah, I like the nut roast though. I'm quite partial to a nut roast. They serve a giant cashew, which just comes out of a cup. And then they just carve it like it's a ham. I generally don't know if you guys are being serious. Just a giant nutmeg. Actually. Genetically modified cashews. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is ridiculous. I mean, yeah. Is there any meat in it? It's not true. I knew it. I was like, they don't have giant nuts. We stuff it with pecans and walnuts.

8:28And that's actually what we're gonna launch in 2024. And it's, I mean, it's gonna bring back veganuary. Yeah, the giant nut roast. What will Christmas, what does Christmas day look like though, Feuty? Well, I haven't done a Christmas in London for like 10 years. But I don't know. You got your little mum though. Oh no, that's a lie. In COVID we did a Christmas here and we just, you know, drinking, eating, lots of food, get the family cousins over and stuff. This is basically what his family do every week. It's like Thanksgiving. Yeah, we've got a big family. I've already got like three family Christmas dinners planned.

8:58There's one on Boxing Day, one on like Christmas Eve and one on Christmas. So yeah, it's going off. But normally in Nigeria we would like fatten up a turkey, cook it, eat it. oh and a goat I killed turkey I didn't kill a goat though why would you kill a goat because they're bigger they kick and they look at you and they look at you with like fear and they're like why are you doing this to me I thought we were friends so we've got the perfect solution for you the giant cashew nut roast after that ridiculous conversation I just want to say thank you so much for everyone who's watched engaged liked commented left reviews for the podcast I don't think any of us when we started it thought that, you know, in 15 episodes we'd be chatting and it would kind of be where it's at.

9:41Yeah, thanks guys. Really appreciate all the comments. I read them all. I don't reply to any of them, but I'm going to get, no, but I'm going to start engaging more. So in a new year's resolution, I'm going to reply to your YouTube comments. But yeah, we love it. When you guys DM me, I actually do appreciate it. So yeah, thanks for all the support, all the love. And thanks for sticking with us on this journey of making money.

10:06Bye.