If Christmas always seems to end up on a card, or follows you into January, this one's for you. I used to be the person at the bank extending overdrafts at this time of year. This is how I'd pay for Christmas before it arrives, even if you're starting late, and set it up so next Christmas, and every birthday and holiday after it, is already paid for.

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Want the maths done for you? Make the Memories is my holiday and celebration budget planner: your Real Number, every big event in your year on one page, the gift list, the hidden costs, the conversation scripts and the review page → https://mariecowgill.com/0021-planner-podcast

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💛 FREE UK DEBT SUPPORT

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If you're struggling to cover essentials or keep up with repayments, you don't have to figure it out alone—or wait until things get worse.

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StepChange — free debt advice:

https://www.stepchange.org/how-we-help/debt-advice.aspx

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MoneyHelper — find free, confidential debt advice:

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/money-troubles/dealing-with-debt/debt-advice-locator

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📚 SOURCES

One in five UK adults borrowed to cover Christmas 2025 (YouGov, January 2026):

https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/53851-one-in-five-uk-adults-borrowed-to-cover-christmas-holiday-spending-in-2025

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What makes for a merry Christmas? Kasser & Sheldon (2002), Journal of Happiness Studies 3, 313–329:

https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v3y2002i4p313-329.html

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Still carrying a bit of last Christmas? The system I use for paying off debt → https://youtu.be/sT4KCwi3WA8

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This video shares my personal experience and general information. The right route depends on your circumstances.

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MORE FROM ME

Start here → https://mariecowgill.com/starthere

All free resources → https://mariecowgill.com/resources

The Freedom Playbook → https://mariecowgill.com/playbook

Work with me → https://mariecowgill.com/workwithmarie

Everything else → https://mariecowgill.com/start

Earning decent money and still can't get out of debt? This is the debt payoff plan I use myself, step by step, built to survive real life instead of a perfect month.

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Paying off the smallest balance first is the advice you'll hear everywhere. It helps, but not much if you're still spending more than you earn each month, or a big chunk of every payment is going on interest.

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So this covers the whole picture: debt snowball vs debt avalanche, which debt to pay off first, whether a 0% balance transfer or a debt consolidation loan would actually save you money (with the maths on screen), and how to work out what your life really costs each month. Plus the one situation where I wouldn't throw every freed-up pound at the next debt.

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It's UK-based, so you'll hear council tax, StepChange and MoneyHelper. If you're somewhere else, the steps still apply; look for the free debt advice service in your own country.

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Before you pick your first move, it helps to see where your money is actually going. The Freedom Leak Map is a free workbook that shows where your money, time, energy and opportunities are quietly leaking, and which one to fix first → https://mariecowgill.com/0020-leakmap-podcast

⠀

💛 FREE UK DEBT SUPPORT

⠀

If you're struggling to cover essentials or keep up with repayments, you don't have to figure it out alone—or wait until things get worse.

⠀

StepChange — free debt advice:

https://www.stepchange.org/how-we-help/debt-advice.aspx

⠀

MoneyHelper — find free, confidential debt advice:

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/money-troubles/dealing-with-debt/debt-advice-locator

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📚 FURTHER READING

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Balance transfers — fees, eligibility and what happens when the introductory rate ends:

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/everyday-money/credit/deciding-whether-to-transfer-your-credit-card-balance

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Debt consolidation — affordability, total costs and risks:

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/everyday-money/credit/debt-consolidation-loans

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Which bills and debts to prioritise:

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/money-troubles/cost-of-living/bill-prioritiser

⠀

This video shares my personal experience and general information. The right route depends on your circumstances.

⠀

MORE FROM ME

Start here → https://mariecowgill.com/starthere

All free resources → https://mariecowgill.com/resources

The Freedom Playbook → https://mariecowgill.com/playbook

Work with me → https://mariecowgill.com/workwithmarie

Everything else → https://mariecowgill.com/start

⠀

This channel is education and general discussion. It reflects my own experience, research and opinions — not personalised financial advice.

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I am not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, and nothing here should be treated as a recommendation to buy, sell, hold or avoid any specific investment, product or provider. Any numbers or examples I share are illustrative of my own situation, not a guarantee or projection for yours. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future results, and all investing carries risk, including the risk of loss.

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If you're making a decision about your own money, please get regulated financial advice specific to your circumstances before acting.

It's the final quarter. If your January goals quietly went poof somewhere around March, you're not lazy and the goal probably wasn't wrong. This is a coaching session to set one you'll actually carry to 31 December.

For five years I sat in the one-to-ones in a business accelerator, watching up close who hit their goals and who didn't. This is what I used with them, alongside what the research says. By the end you'll have one stretch goal, three actions you control, and a 15-minute check-in each week to keep it going.

Grab a pen and paper. You'll need it.

_

If you'd like help picking the one move that matters most, The Freedom Build Plan is free. It has you choose the kind of freedom you most need right now, then turns your goals into one clear 90-day move. One move, one system, one clearer direction.

→ https://mariecowgill.com/0017-buildplan-podcast

For the bigger dream behind your next three months → https://youtu.be/ZvUaM5Xv1gc

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SOURCES

Bonezzi, Brendl & De Angelis (2011), Stuck in the Middle: The Psychophysics of Goal Pursuit. Psychological Science

Dai, Milkman & Riis (2014), The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior. Management Science

Locke & Latham (2002), Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation. American Psychologist

Sitkin, See, Miller, Lawless & Carton (2011), The Paradox of Stretch Goals. Academy of Management Review

Seijts & Latham (2005), Learning Versus Performance Goals: When Should Each Be Used? Academy of Management Executive

Harkin et al. (2016), Does Monitoring Goal Progress Promote Goal Attainment? A Meta-Analysis. Psychological Bulletin

Brendl, in Kellogg Insight (2012), Mastering Motivation: the "track what you've done, then what's left" tip, from a co-author of Stuck in the Middle

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MORE FROM ME

Start here → https://mariecowgill.com/starthere

All free resources → https://mariecowgill.com/resources

The Freedom Playbook → https://mariecowgill.com/playbook

Work with me → https://mariecowgill.com/workwithmarie

Everything else → https://mariecowgill.com/start

What's your one goal for 31 December? Tell me in the comments.

Why does a pay rise still leave the month feeling tighter? The usual plan — work, save, retire — isn't adding up for many UK households. I'll show you what I learned in banking about that trap, and the three moves I'm making to give my family more choice.Nobody ever asked me if I wanted to work until I die. Did anyone ask you?The Pensions Commission says 15 million people in the UK are under-saving for retirement, while the State Pension age is rising. But the moment that changed how I see money came from a conversation at the bank. Some people are playing a completely different game.I'm not telling you to quit your job. I'm still building my own way out, and the order of these three moves matters. At the end, one question will help you work out where to start.The Freedom Leak Map is free. Four short audits — money, time, energy and opportunity — help you see what's quietly escaping and pick the first leak to fix. No shame, no panic, just data.→ https://mariecowgill.com/go/0015-leakmap-podcast—SOURCESOffice for National Statistics — Labour market overview, UK: September 2026 (pay growth; payrolled employees)Resolution Foundation, August 2023 — real average pay against the 2008 peakPensions Commission — interim report, May 2026 (retirement under-saving)Department for Work and Pensions — State Pension age timetable, 2026–28Henry Ford, interviewed by Samuel Crowther — World's Work, 1926—MORE FROM MEStart here → https://mariecowgill.com/starthereAll free resources → https://mariecowgill.com/resourcesThe Freedom Playbook → https://mariecowgill.com/playbookWork with me → https://mariecowgill.com/workwithmarieEverything else → https://mariecowgill.com/start—Which move are you on? Tell me in the comments — and the one thing you'd want help with next. Your answer might be the next video.This channel is education and general discussion. It reflects my own experience, research and opinions — not personalised financial advice.I am not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, and nothing here should be treated as a recommendation to buy, sell, hold or avoid any specific investment, product or provider. Any numbers or examples I share are illustrative of my own situation, not a guarantee or projection for yours. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future results, and all investing carries risk, including the risk of loss.If you're making a decision about your own money, please get regulated financial advice specific to your circumstances before acting.

Small business owners spend about 11 hours a week on admin, and only a bit over half of that goes on sales and actually growing the thing. That's the Amex SME Business Barometer's 2026 figure, not mine — and after five years coaching entrepreneurs, the sentence I hear behind it is always the same one: my biggest problem is time.

Nobody is going to gift you a free Wednesday. So anything you change has to fit inside a life that is already full — whether you're on your own, running something next to a day job, or you've got a team around you.

This is the 10% rule, from a business point of view. Six questions to ask about your own business, each one pointing at a different place where time or money is quietly going missing — and most of them are places you stopped noticing years ago. At the end you pick one thing and make it about ten per cent better this week. One fix, not six.

I'm Marie. I coach entrepreneurs, I'm Chief Operating Officer of a finance group, I have two small children I want to do the school run for, and I'm building The Freedom Game around the edges of all of it. So I'm not going to hand you a plan that needs a clear weekend.

If you know something is leaking but you couldn't say where, that's what The Freedom Leak Map is for, and it's free. Four short audits — money, time, energy and opportunity — that you tick your way through, then score each one out of five. The highest score is the leak you fix first. No shame, no panic, just data.

→ https://mariecowgill.com/go/0014-leakmap-podcast

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SOURCES

Where a source is selling the fix, I've said so.

Amex SME Business Barometer 2026 — admin hours

Zylo, 2026 SaaS Management Index — software licence usage (Zylo sells licence management)

Department for Work and Pensions — UK workplace pension auto-enrolment, 2012

Gloria Mark, UC Irvine — interruptions and attention

Paul Graham, 2009 — the maker's schedule and the manager's schedule

HeyBRB — UK owners on the one task they'd automate (HeyBRB sells automation)

Xero — invoices with a pay-now button (Xero sells invoicing)

Bluevine, 2026 — what AI is saving small businesses

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MORE FROM ME

Start here → https://mariecowgill.com/starthere

All free resources → https://mariecowgill.com/resources

The Freedom Playbook → https://mariecowgill.com/playbook

Work with me → https://mariecowgill.com/workwithmarie

Everything else → https://mariecowgill.com/start

—

Which of the six is yours? Tell me in the comments — and tell me what you're going to make ten per cent better this week. I'll check in.

This channel is education and general discussion. It reflects my own experience, research and opinions — not personalised financial advice.

I am not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, and nothing here should be treated as a recommendation to buy, sell, hold or avoid any specific investment, product or provider. Any numbers or examples I share are illustrative of my own situation, not a guarantee or projection for yours. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future results, and all investing carries risk, including the risk of loss.

If you're making a decision about your own money, please get regulated financial advice specific to your circumstances before acting.

Two people earn the same money. Ten years later, one is financially free and the other is still saying "one day". The difference is four questions about your own life — and after asking hundreds of people all four, I can tell you almost none of them could answer even one.For five years I ran an accelerator for entrepreneurs at one of the big UK banks: twelve hours a week of one-to-ones, workshops every fortnight, and most of the hours in between in the room while people built the lives they said they wanted. Before that, years in Premier Banking and Lending, across the table from hundreds more people and their money. The same pattern turned up in both places, and it's why this video exists.So this is for anyone who says they want financial freedom or time freedom and can't yet put a picture, a number or a date on it. The four questions themselves. How to actually answer each one — they sound simple and they are genuinely not. Where people go wrong on every single one. And the piece of proper psychology that turns your four answers into one specific step you can take this week.I'm doing the exact same audit on myself, in public, from genuinely not being there yet. My percentage is in the video, and it'll be back every month — whether it climbed or dropped.—Everything in this video runs on The Freedom Audit, and it's free. It's the exact workbook I filled in on myself: your normal Tuesday, the Borrowed Dream Check, what that life actually costs each month (your Freedom Number), an honest look at where you are today, the size of your gap — and your first freedom move for the next seven days. It takes about twenty minutes. There are no impressive answers on it, only true ones.→ https://mariecowgill.com/go/0010-audit-podcast—MORE FROM MEStart here → https://mariecowgill.com/starthereAll free resources → https://mariecowgill.com/resourcesThe Freedom Playbook → https://mariecowgill.com/playbookWork with me → https://mariecowgill.com/workwithmarieEverything else → https://mariecowgill.com/start—Which of the four couldn't you answer before sitting down with the audit? Tell me in the comments — that is the whole point of doing this out loud.This channel is education and general discussion. It reflects my own experience, research and opinions — not personalised financial advice.I am not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, and nothing here should be treated as a recommendation to buy, sell, hold or avoid any specific investment, product or provider. Any numbers or examples I share are illustrative of my own situation, not a guarantee or projection for yours. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future results, and all investing carries risk, including the risk of loss.If you're making a decision about your own money, please get regulated financial advice specific to your circumstances before acting.

I've spent nearly ten years helping other people get closer to financialfreedom. I am not financially free myself. This is the honest reason why — including the part that's uncomfortable to say out loud.Most content in this space comes from someone already on the other side of this, explaining the system that worked for them. This is the opposite. I'm starting from here, with the actual numbers, while it's happening.In this video:— Why "I did it successfully for other people, hundreds of times" isn't the same thing as doing it for myself— The real reason I never built it for myself, and why "I was busy" isn't the true answer— What losing my biggest contract taught me, after surviving three rounds of redundancy and already knowing exactly how fragile that structure was— Why the standard advice — save, pay off debt, then invest — doesn't fit the actual maths anymore for a lot of people— What I'm committing to from here, starting next week_Next episode I'm doing my own Freedom Audit, on camera - working out what my version of freedom actually costs, as a monthly number, and telling you what it is. Every month after that, I'll tell you how close I am. Up or down.If you'd rather start now instead of waiting for me, the Freedom Audit is free and it's the same one I'm using myself:→ https://mariecowgill.com/go/0007-audit-podcast _
MORE FROM MEStart here → https://mariecowgill.com/starthereAll free resources → https://mariecowgill.com/resourcesThe Freedom Playbook → https://mariecowgill.com/playbookWork with me → https://mariecowgill.com/workwithmarieEverything else → https://mariecowgill.com/start—If you're in this too - somewhere between knowing what you should be doing and actually doing it - tell me in the comments where you're stuck. Not the tidy version. The real one. I read every single one._This channel is education and general discussion. It reflects my ownexperience, research and opinions — not personalised financial advice.I am not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, and nothing here should be treated as a recommendation to buy, sell, hold or avoid any specific investment, product or provider. Any numbers or examples I share are illustrative of my own situation, not a guarantee or projection for yours. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future results, and all investing carries risk, including the risk of loss.If you're making a decision about your own money, please get regulated financial advice specific to your circumstances before acting.

Big dreams stay dreams, and it usually isn't discipline. You can describe the business, the book, the move in detail and still have done nothing about it for months.

For five years I ran an accelerator hub for entrepreneurs for a major UK bank. About twelve hours a week of one-to-one coaching, workshops every fortnight, and most of the hours in between sitting in the room while people worked. So I heard people say out loud what they were going to do, and then watched, on an ordinary Tuesday, whether it happened.

Almost everything written about dreaming big and doing nothing assumes the hard part is starting. From where I was sitting, starting was almost never where it fell apart.

So in this one: what the research on fantasising about your goals actually found, why "just start" works for some people and does nothing at all for others, and the three things the people who did move had in common — none of which need you to feel motivated first.

I'm not going to tell you it stops being uncomfortable. It didn't for them and it doesn't for me. What changes is how much of it depends on how you feel that day.

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If you already know roughly what needs to change but everything feels equally urgent, that's what The Freedom Build Plan is for. It's free. It has you pick the kind of freedom you most need right now, choose one move for the next ninety days instead of ten, name the blockers honestly so you can build around them rather than blame yourself later, and set the one action you'll take in the next seven days.

One move. One system. One clearer direction.

→ https://mariecowgill.com/go/0009-buildplan-podcast

Its own line is "this is not about doing more, it is about choosing the right move", which is most of the argument of this video in one sentence.

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MORE FROM ME

Start here → https://mariecowgill.com/starthere

All free resources → https://mariecowgill.com/resources

The Freedom Playbook → https://mariecowgill.com/playbook

Work with me → https://mariecowgill.com/workwithmarie

Everything else → https://mariecowgill.com/start

—

What's the dream you can describe perfectly and still haven't started? Put it in the comments — and if you want, put the next physical action beside it. That is the whole mechanism.

This channel is education and general discussion. It reflects my own experience, research and opinions — not personalised financial advice.

I am not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, and nothing here should be treated as a recommendation to buy, sell, hold or avoid any specific investment, product or provider. Any numbers or examples I share are illustrative of my own situation, not a guarantee or projection for yours. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future results, and all investing carries risk, including the risk of loss.

If you're making a decision about your own money, please get regulated financial advice specific to your circumstances before acting.