The north-south divide has been highlighted by a new survey which shows Southern families are spending more time talking about money than their Northern counterparts.
Brighton is named as the top UK city for people discussing money issues (1 hour and 37 minutes a week) and young adults are now ‘talking money’ twice as much as six months ago. The top four cities for money talk are located in the southern part of the UK.They are Brighton, Bristol, Norwich and London. The bottom four cities for talking about money are Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield and Edinburgh.
On average, families living in southern England spend over hour and a half (1hr 32mins) discussing money each week, compared to an hour and 17 minutes spent by families living in northern England.
One in ten (8%) families across the UK admit to always having money matters on their mind or talking about them out loud, research from RCI Bank has revealed. The bank’s data reveals that on a national level, a quarter (25%) of families are now spending on average over 21 hours per year more thinking and talking about money than they were six months ago, with one in ten (9%) spending at least two extra hours per week doing it.
Jean-Louis Labauge, chief executive of RCI Bank, said: “With political and financial uncertainty continuing to be felt following the Brexit vote and the recent US election, it is clear that families across the UK are keen to voice their money concerns, with the aim of strengthening their financial situation. While it’s encouraging to see southern families taking up the money talk mantle, hopefully families in the north and the UK’s older generations will be upping their money talk in the future.”
Top four cities for money talk: City
Time spent on money talk
Brighton
1 hr 37 mins a week – 20 mins more than six months ago
Bristol
1hr 36 mins a week – 8 mins more than six months ago
Norwich
1hr 35 mins a week – 34 mins more than six months ago
London
1hr 34 mins a week – 31 mins more than six months ago
Source: RCI Bank October 2016
Bottom four cities for money talk: City
Time spent on money talk
Newcastle
1 hr a week – 25 mins more than six months ago
Leeds
1hr 07 mins a week – 31 mins more than six months ago
Sheffield
1hr 09 mins a week – 19 mins more than six months ago
Edinburgh
1hr 14 mins a week – 21 mins more than six months ago
Source: RCI Bank October 2016
A shift has not only been seen regionally but demographically as well, with the younger generation aged between 18-34 almost doubling the amount of time they spend thinking and talking about money in the last six months, jumping from 46 minutes to 1 hour 35 minutes per week. In contrast, adults aged 55 and over spend just over one hour per week talking about money, an increase of only nine minutes compared to six months ago.
When asked to explain their new found financial openness, over a third (34%) of UK families stated that thinking and talking about money more often makes them better savers, with a further third (32%) saying they are able to find better deals on their finances once they share ideas with each other.
The research also revealed that despite families talking and thinking about money more, only a fifth (21%) of adults would trust their partner the most to give them sensible advice around money. Nearly a quarter (23%) of adults trust their parents to give them sensible money advice, three times as many as those who said they would trust their bank manager (8%).
RCI Bank’s research also revealed that a third (31%) of adults are also saving more per month than they were last year, and just 15% are saving less. Of those saving more, people are putting away an average of just over £62 extra per month, totalling £750 over the course of a year, and just over one in ten (11%) adults are saving at least £100 more per month than they were in 2015.
• Research was conducted by Opinium Research between 7 and 11 October 2016 with a nationally representative sample size of 2,000 UK adults.