What are you paid now?

Our wealth coach Sara Jane Maxwell knows her stuff and is always up for a laugh, even when I spring a terrible role play on her live on air. More on that shortly.

A Pension Before They Can Walk?

We started with a BBC story that stopped me in my tracks. A couple in Swansea, Richard and Caitlin Brain (what a surname), have already set up pensions for their two children, aged 20 months and five months. Fifty quid a month each.

It’s called a Junior SIPP, and parents open it for their child, just like a Junior ISA. The catch: the minimum pension age is rising to 57 in 2028, so that’s when they can touch it, and it could move again.

Here’s the bit that made me say “wow” more times than is professionally acceptable. Put in around £10,800 by the time they turn 18, add nothing more, and the article reckons the pot could grow to about £135,000 by retirement.

“That’s the power of compounding,” Sara Jane said. “The earlier you start, the more you end up with.”

It isn’t for everyone, and plenty of families are just getting through the month. But if you can afford it, she suggests splitting it: £25 into a Junior ISA, £25 into a Junior SIPP.

Why not just the ISA?

Because at 18 it’s entirely your child’s. “There’s no ‘I’ve looked in your Junior ISA and you’ve spent 700 quid in the bars,'” she said. “You don’t see it anymore.” Would I have been sensible with 20 grand at 18? We both know the answer.

Check Who Gets Your Pension

Your will doesn’t decide who gets your pension. That’s your expression of wishes, filled in when you set the pension up, possibly naming a partner from 30 years ago. Check it and update it. Don’t let Maureen in Tarporley or Jeff from that holiday in Crete walk off with it.

“How Much Do You Earn Now?”

Then the main event. You’re in a job interview and they ask: “What are you paid at the moment?”
Sara Jane has a big problem with that question.

“I can’t think of any reason an employer would ask, other than to find out what they can get away with paying you,” she said. “There’s a saying: people know your worth, they just hope that you don’t.”

A listener (let’s call her Joyce) emailed to say she’d answered it three times, thinking she had to, and believes she was paid less as a result.

Sara Jane’s advice: don’t get defensive, get curious.

“Oh, what a curious question. I’m really interested in what makes you ask me that. How is it relevant?”

I played the pushy interviewer. She just asked again, “How is that relevant?” and I was stumped.

Dreadful role play, brilliant point. Most interviewers will simply move on, and it beats inflating your salary, because you don’t want to start a job with a lie.

She believes women lose out most, having once overheard men on a train say, “If we need to pay him more, we can take it off her.”

Her other tip? Ask about salary early: “I don’t want to waste my time or yours.”

Start a Hype File

To remember her worth, Sara Jane keeps a hype file: a phone folder of screenshotted kind comments and testimonials. “We’re not trained to save the good stuff,” she said. On a rough day, one look tells her she’s doing okay.

And wealth isn’t just money. When a man asked my care-worker friend why she didn’t get a better-paid job, she replied: “I change lives every day.” Sara Jane loved that. For her, wealth is freedom to choose your life.

So, should you tell an interviewer what you earn? In Sara Jane’s words: “I think not, if it’s for somebody to then undervalue you.”

Work with Sara Jane: visit wealth-coach.co.uk, Instagram @yourwealthcoach_, or just Google Wealth Coach Cheshire.

Catch Phil In The Morning, Monday to Thursday, 10am–12pm on Mix 56.

This blog is for general information and isn’t financial advice.

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