Feeling lonely?  Want someone to amuse the kids for a while? We could all do with a home robot at times. But as we are seeing with driverless cars, it's taking a while to get the technology right.  That's why we created our very own robot reporter who has already  provided customer care and financial advice,  investigated the Internet of Things and tried recruiting staff. In this final edition, robot reporter Best Buddy becomes a home help.  
Written and produced by Nigel Cassidy and Phil Lowe
First broadcast on Share Radio Breakfast

Robobiz 5 Companionship

How Risky is your Portfolio? 
 
Smart investors know that risk and returns go hand in hand. But is the degree of risk you are exposed to appropriate for your time of life and investment goals? In his latest Money Talks podcast, Nigel Cassidy talks risk with Prof. Janette Rutterford of the Open University Business School, and David Miller, executive director and award-winning fund manager at Quilter Cheviot. Nigel discovers that financial risk covers far more eventualities than being defrauded or the impact of any future market meltdown.  It seems just following your personal inclinations could make you overcautious with your investment decisions  -- and seriously harm your future wealth.

MoneyTalks: Risk

Top tips and advice from author Diana Jordan and solicitor Susan Keppe for separating parents who want to minimise legal fights and save their money and sanity.

This podcast draws on its contributors many years of first hand experience leading people out of divorce misery. People blame solicitors for being greedy but former solicitor and author Diana Jordan concedes its the nature of divorce law in England and Wales which is to blame. This obliges family lawyers to work in an adversarial system, even though a good outcome ultimately depends on the parties involved sitting down and working out what is best for the children and how to fairly split shared assets like property and pensions. Far better to make mutual decisons, however uncomfortable, than leaving these to a complete stranger -- aka the judge. Solicitor Susan Keppe is a great fan of mediation but explains an initial meeting can be very useful in helping people to understand what lies ahead. Diana Jordan also has several tips for saving money on solicitors until it is really needed for the settlement itself. All of her advice can be found in her new book, details of which can be found at *dealingwithdivorce.co.uk *The podcast is a lively, easy and legal jargon-free listen and is recommended for anyone who finds themselves or their family in this difficult situation.

Money Talks: Dealing With Divorce

Sweeping new internet privacy rules are here in Europe.  And  our inboxes are still groaning with pleas from organisations desperate to hang onto our data. Yet it seems recent events have destroyed many people's trust -- and the  changes heralded by the EU General Data Protection Regulation  are already starting to take a toll on jobs in data marketing, which is being turned upside down.  Here's my take on GDPR, commissioned by BBC World Business Report and its US public service broadcast partner Marketplace

Gdpr3

Can a nine and eleven year old figure out how to work a Sony Walkman? What's a cassette?  Great fun reliving my analogue youth telling the story for BBC World Service of one of the world's best selling electronic devices -- now celebrating its 40th birthday. Gadgets and gizmos guru Steve Caplin gives his insight and Phil Lowe relives the delights of mixtapes and that strange halluninogenic effect when the tape started playing weird stuff from the other side.

40 years of the Walkman for BBC WS

Chatting to an LA ice cream merchant Joe Nicchi -  who is so fed up with "social influencer" freeloaders, he is not only refusing all requests for freebies he's charging them DOUBLE for an ice cream.  From BBC World Service Business Matters and World Business Report.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016tl04