34. Carrie Bendall Lives For Today and Plans For Tomorrow
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This week I speak to marketing expert Carrie Bendall.
During a modest but comfortable childhood in Scotland Carrie quite literally learned to watch the pennies and, by helping in the family business, the value and importance of hard work.
Higher education at ‘one of the most magnificent places in the world’ saw Carrie develop and hone her formidable event organisation skills and love of people. A chance encounter at a party Carrie had organised for her father, led to the start of an amazing career in PR and marketing.
A family tragedy in her early 20s taught Carrie how precious life really is and the importance of friendships, a good network and living in the present, ‘I’ve always [invested] in socialising. I’ve always thought that a good thing to do.’
After 15 amazing years in London, Carrie reset her life and career to enable her to start a family, set up a beautiful home and create a wonderful new life in the Suffolk countryside. Learning to budget for fun, life enriching experiences and guilt-free spending, as well as maintaining a degree of personal financial independence, has allowed Carrie and her family to balance enjoying life today without forgetting tomorrow.
Episode Preview
Jason Butler 0:08
Hello, and welcome to the Real Money Stories podcast. Real Money Stories is the only UK podcast which shares personal money stories of everyday people. So their insights can help you to be better with money. My name is Jason Butler. And I invite you to join me as I have intimate money conversations with people from all walks of life. Whether you're just starting out on your money, journey, or world on the track, there's bound to be something you can learn from the stories about taking more control of your money, so you worry less and enjoy life more.
Well, hello there. Thank you for joining me on another episode of Real Money stories. I'm Jason Butler, and I'm your host today. Now this week, I'm really quite excited to be joined by a lady who I've actually been work with on events before. And I found a very, very interesting person. I thought to myself, you know what, as soon as I get a chance to get her on the show, I will. And here she is Carrie bendele Hello, Carrie.
Carrie Bendall 1:12
Hello, Jason.
Jason Butler 1:13
Hi. Now, we did work together on an event. And you know, it was quite fun. And I know you've been around financial services a long time, but that wasn't really my interest. My interest was that I wanted to hear your story about how you started out what you learn about money because I think you know, you you run your own business now and you do your own thing and you're an interesting character. I think you could bring a great perspective to this whole journey. So take us back to the to the early days then, you know when you were growing up so tell us about you know, your early money experiences. Can you remember your earliest money experience?
Carrie Bendall 1:47
Well, I can. I've got one early money experience that sort of lives on. Before decimalisation In fact,
I lived in Scotland and I had to go To pass up a hill to high school, and I would pay the conduct throttling center, get a penny back and I can remember clutching those coins in my hands. Terrified I'd lose one of those would be the sort of before I paid or to bring the money home again. So why are we terrified of losing one then had you had an experience before that? What was the problem? So you had physical coins, you had to buy something, which is getting somewhere to school, and you were worried about losing the money? What was that? Like? It was just because they were so they just seemed so amazing. I throw up the bit, you know, it just looked astonishing. And it probably would look astonishing now, wouldn't it? And then the big one penny coin that was given back as change probably should have been smaller than the throttle a bit, but it was bigger. So it didn't seem to make much sense to me.
Jason Butler 2:47
So that was your earliest money memory. And did you ever lose the threatening bit or whatever it was?
Carrie Bendall 2:51
No, no, I held on to them very, very, very tightly.
Jason Butler 2:56
And what sort of conversations were there around the dinner table or you know, growing up Can you remember those?
Carrie Bendall 3:02
In other words, we didn't really talk about money. We were sort of fairly comfortable, certainly not rich. And I felt very grateful to have been born where I was born. And my mom and dad chose to send me to private school. So they funded education, but they had to make lots of sacrifices in order to do that. And I don't suppose I realized that until I was much older and realized some of the benefits of what I've had in hindsight, did you have siblings? So I had a brother and he went to an academy he didn't need to be paid for whereas I needed to be paid for and I'm not sure why. Maybe Maybe they thought they were sending me to a finishing school or something. I
Jason Butler 3:50
really didn't have any bearing on you. There's so choice of education and you thought you were being paid for did you make you feel special or did you just think hang on? Is this just what they do?
Carrie Bendall 4:00
I think it was just I just felt it's what was what was done. I went on that bus with a few other people from my local area and we all went to the same school and we had such a wonderful time. And then when I was 16, I was I was a bit heartbroken because my father was a dentist in Greenock at the time, and he decided he couldn't handle being in Greenock anymore. There were sort of terrible things happening. Then dockyards was shutting. People were sort of coming to his surgery, I mean, had lots of whiskey, and he just felt that he needed to get out of it. So at the age of 60, we moved from Scotland to Birmingham, and he started a dental practice there. And I can remember how hard he works. seeing patients I can remember my mom working as a receptionist, I can remember me working as a receptionist. And so I guess I grew up in a sort of hard work. King background and always realized the importance of working and earning money.
Jason Butler 5:07
Right. So so it was kind of a like a family business didn't really follow you. Your dad was a professional man. It was a it was a family business. He kind of all hands on deck.
Carrie Bendall 5:15
It was all hands on deck. Yes. So sometimes it was quite hard to, to help. But yes, it was it. You know, it was a good practice and good, fun and lovely patient.
Jason Butler 5:28
And so who was the what? What sort of messages did you pick up from? You know, you said you didn't talk about money. But you knew your dad worked hard. And you and your mom helped and you had your sister. You had this big sort of change at 16. But what sort of, as you were sort of going to sixth form college or whatever it was you were doing then what was your approach to money then what was what was your kind of general
Carrie Bendall 5:52
sort of sight sight? and other sort of money story from that time was where I learned the importance of working hard and what I want work helping in the dental practice. I went to work in delicatessen in Minnesota, suburb of Birmingham. And I actually disliked that intensely. I thought it would be fun. I thought it'd be fun and that it would all food and things and just sort of delicious things. But it was it was very hard and it was cold because the refrigeration and I felt that three pounds an hour wasn't enough. So I went next door to manage negotiate for pound 50 an hour. So I've always sort of had that sort of drive to sort of find something a little bit better to do. I didn't do terribly well active education. So I ended up at Wolverhampton Polytechnic, which was one of the most magnificent places in the world. As far as I was concerned then, really, we all had to make our own fun, because there weren't many, much there wasn't much going on in the Students Union. There weren't many places to go to. So we ended up settling Are our own sort of party house, I guess. And we used to have parties and people used to pay pay money to be fed because we all put money into a pot. And we even serve people arriving from Harper Adams as a cultural college and instead of money, they bought potatoes. So we were all joining in together instead of funding things together.
Jason Butler 7:25
Right. So So how did you then did you did you go to university Did you say
Carrie Bendall 7:32
Wolverhampton Polytechnic? Oh, yeah.
Jason Butler 7:33
yeah, yeah. Okay, but you didn't have to pay that was it before we had to pay and stuff? Yeah.
Carrie Bendall 7:38
Didn't have to pay. We got a grant. So some money arrived. And yes, and my father continued to sort of fund my existence as well. So I didn't have a job while I was there and didn't seem to need one. I just worked in the holidays. So I didn't know I was lucky enough not to have to sort of work and work and work and study and study and study.
Jason Butler 8:01
So did you put a lot of effort into the socializing and spending money that way? Or were you very formal and had loads of jobs or what?
Carrie Bendall 8:08
No, I always, I've always put lots of money into socializing. I've always had things to do. People love parties. And yes, I still love people and parties.
Jason Butler 8:21
Yeah. Okay, so you had fun while you're at poly? And did you come out with a qualification in the end? Or was it just one big
Carrie Bendall 8:30
Degree in geography in American studies. And that wasn't really going to lead me anywhere. I kind of did geography because I wasn't able to do geography level and I love geography. But when I left there, I
I ended up organizing a party for my my father. And at that party, I met my first boss who ran a PR agency in Birmingham, and she said, Who's organized the party? And I said, Well, I've all ghost parties. Do I need a party organizer? Can you come in? My world was just fabulous. I went and joined this PR firm in Birmingham and spent three or four months there. And then she said, I want to open up in London. And I was 21 at the time because I you know, I was thinking, oh my goodness, how am I going to do that? So I was given the opportunity to go to London stay with one of the PR consultants who was working in the firm, and I helped set up an office in Drury Lane. So that had to be celebrated with another party, which was held at the Theatre Royal,
Jason Butler 9:36
Drury Lane. So let's get this right. you organize a party for a friend, he goes so well, and there's a lady who happens to run a PR agency. He wants a party organizer, she employs you on the spot and then you have to have a party to launch the London office.
Carrie Bendall 9:50
Yes, it's kind of party party party. I just had to budget carefully for what we could afford.
Jason Butler 9:57
Okay. And how were you living when you move to the Big Smoke right? You know, you've gone from Scotland to Birmingham to now you've got yourself in, in London, you this party organizer of a PR company, and you're 21? I mean, how are you coping with you? What? Are you renting a room or something? or How are you coping with the money? Was it just coming in and going out or
Carrie Bendall 10:15
I think my salary was somewhere around 3000, 3500 a year, which sounds not very much tool, doesn't it? I was renting a room from one of the consultants who worked at the firm. And I stayed with her family and just paid a small amount of rent and then just gradually, you know, from that day on, just gradually worked my way up until I sort of kept on learning more and more going to bigger, better jobs. And yes, so there's just kept on going that way.
Jason Butler 10:46
Amazing. So So basically, you were just were you were you saving money at the stage or were you building up credit card debt? So I mean, what was your approach where you just manually when your honor or you're very careful, even though you're having a good time, I mean, you know,
Carrie Bendall 10:58
well A slight a big sadness actually comes in at this point there's my mother died. And she died at the age of 48. And that point I thought, well, life's a bit too short to worry about too much. So I didn't worry. I didn't take life too seriously. Yes, it was incredibly sad that we lost Mum, but life was for the living and we just carried on I would look up at the lovely blue skies as I walked over Waterloo Bridge.
And I just carried on next party. That's right. Yes. Always, always, always.
Jason Butler 11:34
Under this stage. Will you still your dad was still working was he was still in touch with him.
Carrie Bendall 11:40
Yes, yes. He remarried In fact, and yeah, so always kept in touch. But his life took an interesting departure because he got very fed up with working for the National Health Service in the UK and decided to go to retire at 58 and to spend two years waiting for his pension to come in by working in the He went to work in Seychelles. And he worked. He had a dental practice that that was a beach heart, basically.
Jason Butler 12:08
So he was living the dream then right?
Carrie Bendall 12:10
Well, he was living some kind of dream. It didn't earn very much money. And he did things like learn how to scuba dive and stuff like that. So yeah.
Jason Butler 12:19
And what did you think of him when he went to do this? That's a big change, right? Because obviously, you lost your mom, you said to have a new relationship? And what What effect did that have on you and you're working and spending thoughts because you were still in this man's garden is now time to just just keep enjoying life? Who knows? And your dad moved on to different things. I mean, did that did that color your thoughts about working and saving and spending and like,
Carrie Bendall 12:41
I would always earn enough. And if I got to the point where I wasn't earning enough I'd find a job that would pay me more. So at this point, I'd moved from a PR agency into a into a firm because I thought why, how can I sort of serve people in this period Our agency. So my clients don't really know about these clients. So I decided to go and work as they would say in hops. And I worked in house for an IT company. And I started in a IT company and gradually worked out from a PR executive in that company to to getting more and more responsibility. And then I moved somewhere else and became head of PR and move somewhere else and became a head of marketing. Because if you don't get a good brief as a PR person, you need a good marketing strategy. So I said to somebody, I said, I'm not getting a good enough brief here, I can't do a good enough job. And they said, Well, you'd be the marketing person. So I've always sort of worked really hard. I always used to get in at 7am leave at 7pm and just was always there and just knew how to work hard and knew how to sort of climb the ladder. And yes, I was one of the things that I wish I'd done then was save a bit more but was the mentality that you don't know how long Got to live it's not really saving isn't something for a rainy day is that something that's ingrained?
Jason Butler 14:05
So so the trauma of illusion your mom together with your natural socializing sort of tendency and people sort of liking that that college your view about saving and because you're always earning you were spending what was coming in but but at this stage had you got yourself in a pickle with credit cards and things like that? Or were you did you avoid that problem? Because most of us have a bit of a detour down there called you so don't we?
Carrie Bendall 14:31
I did spend more you know too much. And yes, it it was on credit card, but when I kind of thought eek, what am I going to do about it, I better go and find a job that pays me more money. I kept on sort of bailing myself out. Okay. So you know, and that and it was just a happy time. It was a sort of, a lot of my time was spent socializing at work, because that's what we did. up in Charlotte street quite a lot in London, which is you know, they call it Fitzrovia, don't they, and just enjoyed sort of meeting people and talking to people and networking in a way that isn't perhaps done as much these days because networking happens online, doesn't it, but we had to go out and meet people and really have things like mobile phones, to keep in touch with people. So we just, you know, we just did it did what we wanted to when we wanted to do it.
Jason Butler 15:28
Now, obviously, a big part of what affects our spending in money decisions, excuse me, is our environment. So how much of was how much of your spending and lifestyle was was influenced by the people around you? And how much of it was innately about what made you happy?
Carrie Bendall 15:46
We all did the same thing. You know, we worked really hard and we played really hard. And that was just the way our way of life at the time. And you know, most of us were single, most of us were just wanting to sort of go go into A wine bar and have a bit of supper before we went home rather than have to cook it when we got home. We would serve. The weekends are spent less less and less partying but recovering ready to start on a Monday and go through to Friday again.
Jason Butler 16:16
Yeah, so this stage in your 20s you were living in London. Hmm. Excuse me got drivers. And you were you were renting a room? What changes happened in your 20s?
Carrie Bendall 16:28
Um, well, I went from from a room in a family house to sharing a flat with a very gorgeous Jewish lady. So there's another sort of embarkation on a money journey. And I was lucky enough to spend my sort of working years living with her in a glorious apartment, Swiss Cottage that again, I yes, I paid for the room, but just had delightful sort of surroundings. So that felt wonderful. And I sort of moved around. Beat into these, you know, another sort of owned property of that stage and just sort of pay the rent. One of the things I could remember is one of the companies I work for gave me the choice of either contributing to, to pension, or contributing to first home fund. And one of the things I really wished I'd done at the time was not contribute to first home funds but to contribute to a pension from from the youngest age possible, really. I know now, that that would have that would have sort of given me a much better, you know, pot where I am now.
Jason Butler 17:44
So, so then, I mean, did you you weren't bothered about buying a house or anything? You were just sort of happy to do that socializing and enjoying living in London? Um, then sort of how did you progress as you're getting older?
Carrie Bendall 17:58
I met The person who was going to be my husband, and we met in London, and we started looking for properties together and the properties at that time were absolutely SILLY PRICES. And we made the very big bold decision not to buy in London we bought in the countryside we bought in Suffolk. And that's something we will never regret because we've managed to find a beautiful home, which we bought from a building society because it had been repossessed. And we've got it's very low rates, and we've lived there now for since May 92. And we're just gradually sort of worked on it. Made it made it better each time we have had a bit of money to spend on it. And that's, that's, you know, how we've sort of been for what, 25 years something that no,
Jason Butler 18:51
yeah, no, I've seen that house. It's beautiful. It is a lovely house and I can see why you bought here, you know, drove past it and thinking what a lovely, beautiful, just a lovely feel to it, isn't it so that was your If that was your forever house, right? So was that a big stretch for you? Did you still stay working in London? Or did you relocate your jobs? or How did that work?
Carrie Bendall 19:07
Well, we both went to London for a while we sort of would commute into London on a on a Monday on the train where there were very few people at the station. And we come out on a Friday and do it that way. And we sort of rented a small property in the in the barbican's keep us going in the week. One of the biggest wishes that we have now is wish we'd taken on a mortgage in the barbecue and at the time as well as the mortgage and suffer but we decided to be a bit more prudent and not not funds to to homes in that way.
Jason Butler 19:39
What is ease with hindsight, right, but but surely that gave you more flexibility just to weather the storm, if any of you lost your job, or was that your thinking?
Carrie Bendall 19:47
Yeah, that's right. But, you know, we both sort of managed to hold on to jobs for a very long time and I didn't I didn't retire until I decided to have a child. Right. And then when I retired out to suffer, can Since then, that's when I sort of started working for myself. And, you know, I never really stopped working. I just didn't go into work, I would work when I was sleeping, I would find things to do and meet people. And, you know, just again, sort of networking, find things to keep me busy, keep my head in it.
Jason Butler 20:20
So when you come together as a couple, this is always an interesting thing for me, when I talk to people, and you know, I've spoke to a lot of people about this. There's always an interesting thing. There's either I have a couple seem to sort of sit at the chat, and talk about the roles of money and their values and who's going to do what, but more often than not, they kind of morph into a, they do have kind of what I call a softer merger, and they one person sort of takes or more of a lead than the other and, but sometimes you get people to completely keep this finances separate as they were before, or they just have a little sort of a meeting in the middle. So how did you guys approach it when you got together?
Carrie Bendall 20:58
Well, we've got completely different personalities. One of us likes to say that which isn't me. And Tony was like that, which is me. So we do keep it quite separate from that respect for bank accounting and things like that. But I'm very, very grateful I have somebody who's very good with money, and has projected cash flow out to the nevernever. And always saved and saved and saved on the third, a third, a third principle. Yeah. No, you know, it always saved way more than I would ever thought of saving. And accumulate is a wonderful pension pot as well. So, you know, it sort of worked, all right, because we've got two different styles, but you know, we're in a very sort of privileged position now. So, obviously, there's always that secret in the I've always when I was younger, I envy people who could make you know, two pounds worth 10 because probably similar to you, I will was like to enjoy life when I was young.
Jason Butler 22:03
But But what To what extent did your more carefree attitude when it came to making key decisions and your different money style, because it's not always a negative, having a bit more of a free attitude, take a bit of a risk, try new things. And to what extent did that influence your your husband, and sort make him think of things in a different way positive for me.
Carrie Bendall 22:26
But he's always put a budget aside for parties and our wedding and various things like that. Whereas I've just sort of probably been a bit more so a less, less using savings but earning money to spend rather than sort of, you know, have that sort of very due diligence approach to it.
Jason Butler 22:46
So what you mean is he he indulged the things that matter to you the socializing, they're having nice times experiences, but he just including integrated into the structure approach that he approached his money with?
Carrie Bendall 22:59
Yeah, that's right. Yeah,
Jason Butler 23:00
so my guess is that the fund budget, as I call it, the fund knew was probably bigger than it would have been. Had he not met you.
Carrie Bendall 23:06
Absolutely.
Jason Butler 23:08
And this is one of the things, isn't it? It's learning. You know, with my smart spending system, we talked about giving yourself permission to spend on fun, that's okay. But do it at the beginning of the month, decide how much it's going to go in the area, rather than wondering where when, and this is the, this is the misnomer when it comes to controlling spending, you have to spend money on farm, if that's important to you, but not at the expense of the other things that matter as well. Right?
Carrie Bendall 23:29
Well, well, that's right. And it might you might be coming across a bit frivolous, see when it comes to money, but I always know where I am, how much I've got, how much I've got coming in how much is going out. You know, I'm always aware of how much money sitting in a bank account right now. And I'm always always aware of what needs to be done. So you know, I've never taken a frivolous approach to the money management side, although I've probably spent far too much money on socializing but I don't regret one penny expenditure.
Jason Butler 24:01
So who's Okay, so it's interesting. You said, I've probably spent too much I don't regret any of it. So who's telling you you probably spent too much? Where's that coming from?
Carrie Bendall 24:10
Well, when I think of some of the things that maybe I've thought about we could be doing that if I had sort of a master a nice little funds, you know, particularly now when we're sitting sitting at home living at home in this COVID-19 era that we find ourselves in. You know, there are certain things that I think I'd like to do that I'd like to be build a pizza and then the garden and stuff like that. What is
Jason Butler 24:38
the essential thing you must have a pizza oven? I get it. Yeah.
Carrie Bendall 24:42
I think it's back to my fun funds. You know, if I want to spend a bit of money doing something that my husband doesn't necessarily agree with, then I could just go into it couldn't. But at the moment, it's always a joint conversation, and I probably don't wind to get to do some of the things I'd like to Yeah. And
you know, It's
who knows what's gonna happen next in this world we're in. So we just need to sort of pull the reins in a bit and just see what happens.
Jason Butler 25:09
So I just want to touch on because one of the things a lot of my listeners, I have a quite a lot of female listeners on this show and this whole issue of women and money as I Oh, we've got two daughters, right. So I would say man is not a plan. And a woman has to be able to have some sort of doesn't have to make a big deal of it. But I think a woman does need to be clear about what her options are. And it's interesting you when you had a child that was a big change is always a big change for for women because they're often having, you know, obviously having having two children, they're having to have more time off. How did you manage that transition from our kind of feeling in control and spending and earning and the savings and did that did that? How did you navigate that?
Carrie Bendall 25:53
Um, well, my husband was very concerned how that would happen because I was obviously living the highlife in London. We were both We're coming out to to South Africa weekends. And a lot of people I had our daughter later in life 37 and a half I had a daughter. And I, it just happened very easily. I just wanted to enjoy every single minute of being a mom. I wanted to be with her rather than work. And it was a no brainer for both my husband and I he was going to do what he actually at the time had a very good job in the city. I was facing redundancy, and I got pregnant just at the right time, of course. And then when it was time to think about going back to work, I just said you don't want me back do you pay me off so they did a nice little sort of generous little out go come of that situation. And you know, I just decided that I would spend the time on being a being a mum and think about what to do. Next and because of my sort of sociable, going out nature and networking nature didn't take me too long to find to find work.
Jason Butler 27:10
So that was that that was that was perfect for you. It was a very good timing right?
Carrie Bendall 27:14
was excellent timing for me. Yes. There was no question that there wasn't there definitely wasn't going to be a househusband around it was going to be me was doing the house stuff.
Jason Butler 27:22
Yeah. And then but also, how did you cope emotionally or psychologically with this no longer working full time in London, that whole different change of routine to suddenly Yes, you'd have to pay off and you knew you had money in the bank. And, you know, you'd been sort of paid in advance, etc. But, you know, some women do find that difficult to navigate that changing circumstances, particularly if the subsequent after the birthday, they've got a different or they're visiting a different earning path to what they had before. I mean, did you get that pretty easily?
Carrie Bendall 27:52
Yeah, I mean, again, we had a we had a baby budget, which was put in place. So my husband made sure there was sort of funding parole, the kind of stuff that we needed. And when I got back to work, I just sort of worked to fund some of the stuff that I wanted and didn't have to ask permission to go by.
Jason Butler 28:12
So, so in and then obviously, because your daughter is now what she's what 1718 which is 1919. Crikey. JOHN goes quick. So I'm probably quite old Jason. I'll tell ya, I've got a 21 year old right now. And I look in I think, hang on, how did that happen? So, um, so how have you How have you tried to sort of Teach her about money? And is that been sort of a joint effort? Has it been something you've really thought about? Or is it just kind of, you know, sort of show and tell.
Carrie Bendall 28:47
Interestingly,
she's come to a number of financial planning conferences with me and discovered that financial planning is an area that is extremely interesting and Didn't they teach us all this about money at school? And there's a there's a there's a very much a savings instinct, when should I start a pension now mom, and I'm thinking, Okay, so there's sort of, I guess we've we've talked about money, we've sort of helped save money we've sort of partitioned money to do certain things with and just tried to sort of pass on some some, you know, tips and there's also a drive to earn money, you know, when the pay packets have come in, from working in a cafe. So, that sort of that's been quite nice and quite educational itself.
Jason Butler 29:40
And it's always a problem if you've if your children have had and let's face it even even mean modest households, it's still far more comfortable than 30 4050 years ago. It's always difficult isn't it to teach children the value of money when they don't know they haven't really seen true hardship. I mean, if they haven't had child shall I know some people have grown up in fact Where there is real serious now food banks and real struggles, but the majority of the population is not experiencing that and it's difficult to teach children what isn't essential you know, the importance of work
Carrie Bendall 30:14
it's interesting because
my daughter's birthday falls at the time that all these charity programs Come on, you know, comic relief and and children in need and all those kind of things. And pretty much without fail, she's asked for money to go to those organizations rather than to be bought presents. So if we've had a party, before her with all of our friends around she said, Please don't buy me a present please just give a donation to children in need. And
Jason Butler 30:47
so she's starting to sort of think beyond you know, she's you've got her in that situation where she's starting to think beyond her situation.
Carrie Bendall 30:54
She's always thought beyond her situation and without fail, she would rather give giveaway, so Were then sort of have something to sell. Yeah,
Jason Butler 31:02
yeah. Just to make sure it doesn't get too carried away with it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay, well, that's lovely. I mean, so there's this challenge that everyone has okay. And there's no right or wrong. It's whatever you think he's right. So that's, that's nice to know that you've talked about charity and stuff like that. So, um, if you were to think now, I mean, about sort of what you've learned about money in the time you've grown up, how would you sort of set that up into three, four points, you know, just for our listeners to sort of what you know what you wish you'd known what you know, now what you wish you'd known when you were 18?
Carrie Bendall 31:36
Well, it doesn't grow on trees. You have to work hard for it. You have to work really hard for it in some cases, and it is a precious commodity. It will run out if you frittered away, and you just need to sort of keep it safe from the graph enough. We none of us know how much longer we've got left. People are living longer so the money is going to have to last longer, isn't it
Jason Butler 32:00
But, I mean, if you were thinking about, you know, something that people, younger people now perhaps people in their 20s and 30s, what would you think bear in mind is things have a slightly different now than they were and put aside the COVID situation which we will hopefully eventually come through. But what would you What do you think people need to really put their time and effort into to make sure that they have a great relationship with money?
Carrie Bendall 32:26
Saving, you know, making sure you save enough making sure that it becomes a habit, making sure you got a rainy day fund. You know, somebody once said to me, You need about six months of earnings in the bank to cover disaster happening, you know, and disasters happening now, isn't it? I guess so. I think it's just having that that that funding to be able to cope with life's ups and downs, and I feel very lucky to be in the situation I'm in at the moment when lots of people are suffering Sitting around and people are suffering big time, aren't they?
Jason Butler 33:03
But yeah, so you've actually hit on a really important point, which I always recommend to people, it's part of my new book that's coming out is gratitude for what you do have as opposed to what you don't have, wherever you are. There's always someone who's got it worse than you. It could always be worse. And there's for every downside could be an upside, right. So it's that optimism and being grateful for what you have now. So that's a that's a great point to end on. Carrie, I could speak to you all day, you know, your eye or an interesting person, some great little gems there for different people. A couple of great nuggets there. appreciate you spending your time at a busy time and we will put a link to your on the show notes to your website. Because usually you do events and all sorts of stuff, don't you? I know you do your audience research, you do customer research, you do a lot of stuff for different types of firms. So unless you want to say a website or whatever, we can put that in the show notes and people can contact you if they want to make contact with you
Carrie Bendall 33:58
about your services. I'm happy to be at the show notes. Now, I guess somebody Google's Carrie Bendel, they might find me.
Jason Butler 34:06
Yeah, not too many of you. You've been a superstar. Thank you very much for being on today. It's really been great to talk to you.
Carrie Bendall 34:13
My pleasure.
Jason Butler 34:18
Thanks for listening to Real Money Stories with me, Jason Butler. If you like what you hear, please do tell your friends. And more importantly, please rate us on your preferred podcast app, because it really does help us get the message out there. So until next time, good luck with your money journey.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai