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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. Jenn Thomas with Motley Fool Wealth Management joins us to answer your questions on how much you need to live that sweet FIRE life, building up (and where to stash) your emergency fund, whether tis nobler to invest or pay off student debt or your mortgage, and much more

Rising more than 14%, the S&P 500 had its 2nd-best start to the year this century! But meme stocks and inflation also became headline stories for investors. Emily Flippen and Jason Moser look back at the 1st half of 2021 and share why Procore’s IPO and opportunities from the pending infrastructure legislation should be getting more attention, and why Forrest Li (Sea Limited) and Dan Springer (Docusign) are early frontrunners for “CEO of the Year”. They also discuss why Peloton and Quidel both need a strong 2nd half, and why they’re keeping their eyes on the cannabis industry and the ongoing semiconductor shortage. Plus, Jason and Emily recommend several books for investors’ summer reading lists. Also, best-selling author Dan Heath reveals how creating a powerful experience for customers can deliver economic upside for businesses, the key to making better decisions, and other insights from his book, 'The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact'

Yet more people caught up in the underpaid state pension scandal have been unearthed by This is Money – and tragically, in the two cases we highlight this week, they weren't alive to see justice. Two bereaved daughters received sums of £42,000 and £71,000 because their mothers were underpaid state pension for more than a decade before dying in their 90s. The payouts are all thanks to the intrepid work of investment and pensions editor Tanya Jefferies and our pensions agony uncle Sir Steve Webb. They join deputy editor Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost to talk about these latest cases, and what it means in terms of inheritance tax and care fees – could you, a family member or friend have been caught up in the scandal? We also talk about pensions in more details – do you know what yours is invested in and what it's worth? It will matter even more than usual if the Chancellor gets his way and taps into our retirement pots and parcel it out to fast-growing businesses, transport projects, real estate and carbon-friendly investments. We also discuss the new green savings bonds from NS&I: how long is the term, what's the rate and just how green are they? There's a chink of light for easy-access accounts and if you leave Georgie and Lee to organise the podcast, they will inevitably add a section in about sport - we talk about this booming trend during Euro 2020.

Russ Mould, Investment Director of A J Bell, looks at the performance of the UK market in the 5 years since the EU referendum vote, finding its performance poor against all major markets. He feels, however, that might be about to change with aggregate profit estimates being significantly increased in the past three months alone. He is particularly optimistic if growth and inflation surprise on the upside.

5 years on from the EU referendum, Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University asks if General de Gaulle was prophetic in realising that the UK would not be a good fit for the European Community. He considers how Brexit is changing the balance of economic power. 30 years since he arrived in Slovakia as adviser to the Prime Minister, Tim reflects on post-communist Central Europe and why tensions are mounting between the EU and Hungary & Poland. And he looks at the launch and impact of GB News.

James Cameron-Wilson celebrates a Pandemic box office record, with Fast & Furious 9 taking over £6m in the UK over the weekend, a film he found hugely entertaining despite its preposterousness. In at #8 is Supernova, a road movie with Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci in the mould of The Father, which slipped down the charts. Outside the top ten he was impressed with the Ben Wheatley horror pic In The Earth, filmed in just 15 days in lockdown on an estate near Henley.

Steve Caplin, Share Radio's tech whizz, discusses with Simon Rose problems with the NHS app as well the tourists charged over £2,000 for visiting Brighton Pier. He tells of a new flying car in Slovakia, how Google is warning users of "data voids", how Lego is making bricks from recycled bottles, how you can ride in a balloon to the edge of space (for $125,000), the glasses that simulate a 140-inch screen and the crowd-funded device enabling you to use a laptop outside.

Nike just does it, Google delays removing cookies, Visa makes a big buy, Peloton ventures into wearables, Accenture surges on earnings, and FedEx stumbles. Motley Fool analysts Andy Cross, Emily Flippen, and Jason Moser weigh in on those stories and share a couple of stocks on their radar: Virgin Galactic and FactSet. Plus, Washington Post space reporter Christian Davenport talks Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and the business of space

Home buyers are engaged in a last minute race to beat the stamp duty deadline – with some facing a potential double false economy. House prices have bounced over the past year meaning that the £15,000 maximum saving of a year ago would now come on a property that potentially costs £50,000 more. That has led to claims of a false economy, but it would be doubly so for any buyer who then missed the deadline too and ended up with an extra £12,500 tax bill, as they only get the tapered bit of the stamp duty holiday - not the whole thing. Georgie Frost, Lee Boyce and Simon Lambert look at the last minute stamp duty rush and what might happen next to the property market, with Simon outlining that it’s not just a tax cut driving the pandemic boom. At the other end of the property ladder, the team look at how to make sure you don’t end up paying off a mortgage in retirement and what you can do if you are approaching your pension years or in them with a home loan still to clear. It’s likely that those borrowers could face higher rates than the rock bottom mortgage ones now too, but will rising inflation send interest rates up sooner than people think? Meanwhile, what can a new £50 note and what happened to the value of the last one introduced in 1981 tell us about inflation? And why is continental Europe so much happier about taking big notes. And finally, if you wanted to beat inflation, you wouldn’t usually buy a nearly new car; but there are some now six-year-old motors out there that have held their value better than others and amazingly some that are worth more now than they were in 2018. We reveal which.

Adam Cox has designed this session around building muscle mass - not reducing body fat. He focuses on being resourceful for having the mind-set to succeed, ensuring your protein diet is appropriate, and targeting key muscle groups with exercises 'out of the comfort zone'. And he refers to a useful app to help you get you underway.