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How can you use ETFs to build an investment portfolio? And what should investors focus on when they’re choosing an ETF? Ed Bowsher finds out from Oliver Smith, Portfolio Manager for IG Smart Portfolios, and Adam Laird, Head of ETF Strategy at Lyxor.

Saving, spending, planning — you've got money questions and we've got answers. Every week host Alison Southwick and personal finance expert Robert Brokamp challenge the conventional wisdom on life's biggest financial issues to reveal what you really need to know to make smart money moves. In this week's episode, Jason Moser joins the show to try and convince a skeptical Alison to invest the growing trend of Augmented Reality. Will he succeed?

As we fast approach one fifth of the way through the 21st century, the world of finance is modernising in ways that would have been unimaginable a few years ago. And not always in a good way. The language of ‘savings’ has evolved to the point of dishonesty and even fraud. On this week’s podcast editor Simon Lambert and reporter George Nixon join host Georgie Frost to look at fancy new Innovative Finance Isas, at savings products that claim to offer 8% returns and to be protected by the official savings watchdog but are in fact risky investments – and the fraud investigation at London Capital and Finance, where thousands of ‘savers’ lost millions of pounds. Simon guides listeners through the dark side of mini bonds and the complex web of companies that savers’ money was poured into at LC and F before it collapsed owing £236m. The City watchdog supposedly overseeing the company is also now being investigated . On a cheerier note, George explains how teenagers are able to invest on the stock market and how easy it can be to get started, plus a couple of new free share dealing services, an old-fashioned holiday trap and whether insurance companies would pay out if your flash car crash is on video and on social media.

Ed Bowsher finds out more about smart beta investing – passive funds that can follow particular investment strategies such as value or momentum. He speaks to Adam Laird, Head of ETF strategy at Lyxor and Steve Goldin, Managing Partner at Parala Capital. Steve gives the rundown on recent Smart Beta performance and also looks at how smart beta ETFs that look similar may actually be very different.

ETFs (exchange traded funds) have revolutionised the investment world, offering a wide range of new opportunities for private investors. A new book on the funds has just been published called ‘The Ultimate ETF Guidebook’. Beginners can easily read the book, and more experienced investors will probably find fresh insight as well. In the latest edition of The Big Call, Ed Bowsher talks to the co-author of the book, David Stevenson.

A will may be considered the expression of someone’s last wishes, but more of them are being challenged. High property prices and increasingly complicated families are being blamed for the rise in disputes, but would you challenge someone’s will? In this week’s podcast, Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost dive into why inheritance rows are more commonplace and how difficult it is to try to overturn a will. Also this week, alongside some money-saving tips for millennials a heated debate kicks off about buying flat whites vs saving for homes at a time when house prices are sky high compared to ages. Simon reveals his lessons from holding Lloyds shares all the way up, all the way down and then all the time that they have bumped along since the financial crisis. And we dig into the case of a car park prang that led to countless phone calls from ambulance chasers – and how this manages to happen.

Investing has proven to be the best way to beat inflation and grow your wealth over the long-term, but how do you get started? And if you do already invest but feel you’ve lost track of your goals or ended up with a jumble of investments, how can you improve things? In this second edition of a two-part podcast special on saving and investing, Simon Lambert and Georgie Frost dive into how to be a smarter investor. They bust the jargon and look at why people should invest, how to get started, what investments you can choose and how to find the right ones for you. Simon discusses his experience of investing, what he got right along the way and importantly the things he got wrong. But why should you invest? Well, between 1900 and 2017 owning UK shares would have delivered an average return of 5.5 per cent, beating cash savings at 1 per cent and property at 1.8 per cent, according to the respected Credit Suisse Investment Yearbook. There’s no guarantee that history will be repeated, but companies should always have the ability to put money to productive use and reward investors with rising share prices off the back of their profits, dividend payouts, or interest on bonds.

As the Brexit crisis becomes ever more unpredictable, Ed asks whether now is a good time to buy some cheap UK shares. Do long-term investors need to worry as they see their portfolios sway up and down? Ed speaks to Oliver Smith, Portfolio Manager at IG Smart Portfolio, and Howie Li, Head of ETFs at Legal & General Investment Management. Howie tells Ed about a new UK ETF that LGIM has just launched which has a management charge of just 0.05% a year and takes a slightly different approach from the more established UK ETFs. There’s more to this ETF than just being cheap. Howie also explains more about five other ETFs that LGIM launched last month.

It might not be on the top of your to-do list when you have a child, but investing and saving for them to build a tidy nest egg for when they reach adulthood is best done sooner rather than later. In the latest This is Money podcast, editor Simon Lambert, assistant editor (and new parent) Lee Boyce alongside host Georgie Frost look at the best ways to save for your children. We discuss investment options, Junior Isas, a pension and other ways, and why 'the hardest step is the first, but it is also the most powerful'. Lee has a target of a £50,000 pot to build up for his new daughter ahead of her 18th birthday in 2036 – and discusses how he plans to achieve this, with a little help from Einstein's eighth wonder of the world, compounding. Elsewhere, we talk about how invest for your own retirement and Fidelity's 'Power of Seven' matrix, as it looks like the pensions dashboard is finally moving ahead. We talk about the collapse of online estate agent Emoov and the future of the industry with the Bank of England's latest Brexit predictions suggesting property values could fall 30 per cent in the worst case scenario. Finally, we reveal the latest British Gas rip off and whether could we have found the answer to expensive boiler replacements.

The technology sector has had a serious wobble in the last fortnight. Ed Bowsher asks what’s next for this part of the market and whether now is a good time to invest. He speaks to Howie Li of Legal & General Investment Management and Hector McNeill of HAN ETF.