Share Sounds. related to Financial Education - 15-18

Welcome to a special episode of The Financial Outlook: the investment section of the Managing My Money course. What's the difference between saving and investment? It's all in the risk. We talk about shares, bonds and funds, and which perform best over the long term. The Managing My Money course has 16 sections in total, and is presented by Glen Goodman and Annie Weston. You can enjoy the whole course, produced in association with the Open University via Share Radio's home page.

Dame Meg Hillier is Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, which has published its 25-page report into Child Trust Funds following the recent National Audit Office analysis. HMRC is asked to follow a series of recommendations to link young adults to their unclaimed accounts, including getting account providers to take more action. Young adults from disadvantaged households are most in need of the c. £2,000 waiting to be claimed in their Child Trust but an estimated one million 18-20 year-olds are not claiming their money because they don't know anything about it. As we said on 22nd May, don't waste the Child Trust Fund harvest! Background music: The Plan's Working - Cooper Cannell Image by Richard Townshend

“The [Child Trust Fund] scheme has been closed to new entrants for over 12 years. In this time HMRC has been focusing resources on evaluating and improving existing schemes. We will continue to keep the need to evaluate old schemes under review.” So said Andrew Griffith MP, Economic Secretary to HM Treasury in reply to a parliamentary question from John Ashworth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. But this is not an 'old scheme' — there is currently over £1.7 billion sitting in mature accounts belonging to over 900,000 mainly low-income young adults throughout the UK who don't know anything about their good fortune! Their Child Trust Fund harvest is seeing too little action at present: but it's not too late to get it sorted, and the current focus from the National Audit Office and Public Accounts Committee will certainly help. Background music: 'Hopeful Freedom' by Asher Fulero

As 60% of UK money will be in the hands of women by 2030, it is important to understand the issues that the next generation of women care about – and how this impacts every aspect of their lives. This next gen can encompass girls and women from 13 to 39 (and beyond), and their views can differ widely from their mothers’ and grandmothers’. The younger generations are much more aware of environmental, equality, gender, and diversity issues. This may well impact on how they spend, invest, and consume. They are much more likely to research companies online, placing stock on good customer service and value for money rather than brand loyalty. The brands they interact with also have to have good credentials in terms of how they treat their staff and workers along the supply chain; information for which is sourced through social media, online, or through their offline networks. In this programme Tamara Gillan is joined by A-Level student Emily Astley, and her mother Patricia Astley, Executive Director at Julius Baer. They are both passionate about how the next generation of women will rise, and they share their views on the differences between generations regarding money, changing definitions of success, and purpose.

How much pocket money should children get? We're hearing the average is £7.55 for 8 to 11 year-olds and £9.01 for 12 to 16 year-olds. But when should children start getting money and how can it be used to teach them about finance?

Tuition fees are increasing for students, low-income families are losing grants, more competition for jobs, high house prices - what does all this mean for kids out there with big dreams? And what do they think of their chances in a post Brexit Britain? Joining Georgie Frost today are three young men who are helping shape the next generation of business. Adam Bradford is an award winning social activist, Louis Howell is a Youth and Community Trainer, and Jacob Sarkil is former young mayor of Lewisham and a youth leader and social entrepreneur.

Sarah looks at the idea of fraud and how people are most likely to be targeted. Figures show an increase of 16 per cent for 2015 compared to the year before, but how can you help to lower your risk of being a target. To discuss this Sarah is joined by young money champion Amelia Murray, Mike Haley from CIFAS and Steve Proffitt from Action Fraud.

It's festival season! Before you grab your wellies and tent, listen to Sarah Pennells and our Young Money Champion, Rachel Healy, discuss how to cut and keep the costs of festivals down. Bronnie Hughes of Student Money Saver and Nick Hill of Money Advice Service share tips and tricks of using vouchers to save and give us the do's and don'ts when it comes to protecting your valuables.

Shop Floor, in association with the Inspirational Development Group, opens with an insight into the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. Lord John Browne, QE Prize Trustees and former Chief Executive of BP, explains what the award represents for the profession and why there needs to be a social change to encourage children to become engineers. Neil Pickering, Industry and Customer Insight Manager at Kronos, analyses how British businesses can avoid wasting over £60 billion a year on unnecessary admin, while Leeson Medhurst, Head of Workplace Consultancy at 360 Workplace, explains why office space can affect a company's productivity.

We get into the nitty-gritty of Annie’s spending patterns, and help her out of her financial pickle. We look at our essential spending and how to cut back on non-essentials. We talk about putting money aside for big one-off purchases, and the ups and downs of online shopping.