Claire Walsh, the Head of Advice Strategy at Schroders Personal Wealth, tells of how her parents' frugal approach to money and their insistence that she take responsibility for her own spending as a teenager, shaped her money beliefs and laid good financial foundations.

Financial services entrepreneur Alan Smith tells of how his relationship with money was influenced by the childhood experience of his family going from living a life of opulence and luxury, to one of living on the breadline, following the collapse of his father’s property business in the 1970s.

During a modest but comfortable childhood in Scotland, now marketing expert, Carrie Bendall, quite literally learned to watch the pennies and, by helping in the family business, the value and importance of hard work.

In this episode, I speak to leading economist, broadcaster, writer and author Liam Halligan. From humble beginnings growing up in an Irish family in North West London, Liam saw his dad work hard to build a construction business during the tough economic times of the late 1970s.

This week I speak to lifestyle writer and author of Open Up: The power of talking about money, Alex Holder.

Alex’s story starts with a humble working-class childhood in northern England. Money was tight and peer pressure to have the latest fashion brands caused Alex some embarrassment as a teenager.

This week I speak to financial services entrepreneur Robert Gardner.

Rob’s story starts with him growing up in South America, generating cash from collecting returnable soft drinks bottles, trying to buy food before prices rose while he was in the shop, and rushing to change his father's salary from the local currency to US dollars before it fell in value.