Your Cash Is Quietly Losing Value. Here’s What Recruiters Should Know About Investing.

UK savers lost almost £7 billion in real purchasing power to inflation in 2025 (Yahoo Finance / Fidelity) — most of it from people who thought their money was sitting safely in a bank account. As of mid-2026, the average UK easy-access savings rate is around 2.12%, while inflation sits at 2.8%. That gap isn’t dramatic in any single month. Over ten years, it’s the difference between building wealth and quietly falling behind. Christian Mather, Director and Wealth Planner at One Day Wealth, came back on RecTalk to explain what this actually means for recruiters — and to lay out, in plain terms, what investing is, why it’s less terrifying than most people assume, and how to start without needing to become a finance expert first.

Note: This post is for information and education only. Nothing here constitutes personal financial advice. Speak to a qualified financial adviser before making investment decisions.

Saving and Investing Are Not the Same Thing

The distinction sounds obvious, but most people treat their money as either “in the business” or “in the bank” — and assume the bank is the safe, sensible option. It is safe, in the sense that the number on the screen doesn’t go down. But safety of the nominal number isn’t the same as safety of value. If your money grows at 2% in a savings account while everything you buy gets 3% more expensive each year, you’re losing ground, just slowly.

Investing means putting money into assets — equities, property, funds, bonds — that have the potential to generate returns above inflation over time. The trade-off is volatility: the value of investments goes up and down in the short term in a way that cash doesn’t. The psychological challenge is that this volatility feels like risk, even when the long-term direction is upward. Christian’s work with recruiters involves untangling that feeling — helping people understand that short-term price movement and long-term wealth destruction are not the same thing.

Why Most Recruiters Delay — and Why It Matters

The most common reason recruiters give for not investing isn’t that they can’t afford to. It’s that it doesn’t feel like the right time. There’s a deal to close, a team to build, a new desk to fund. The business needs the cash. Or there isn’t quite enough spare to make it feel worth starting. Or the market looks uncertain right now, and it might be better to wait until things settle.

These are understandable feelings. They’re also the reason people reach their mid-40s with significant business success and relatively modest personal wealth. The delaying logic is self-renewing — there’s always a reason, and the reasons are always plausible. What’s harder to see in the moment is the cost of waiting: every year that compounding isn’t working for you is a year that’s very difficult to recover later.

Over 3 million self-employed people in the UK are currently not saving into a pension at all. Among higher-rate self-employed taxpayers, the figure is 61% (Gilt Edge). In most cases, it’s not because they can’t afford it. It’s because it keeps not being the right moment.

The Basics Christian Breaks Down — Without the Jargon

One of the things that makes Christian useful for recruiters specifically is that he explains financial concepts in terms that don’t require a background in finance. A few of the most important:

ISAs. A Stocks and Shares ISA lets you invest up to £20,000 per year into a wide range of assets, and any returns — growth or income — are completely tax-free. For recruiters who are self-employed or running businesses, this is often the most straightforward first step into investing, because it’s simple, flexible, and sheltered from tax without requiring a complex setup.

SIPPs (Self-Invested Personal Pensions). Unlike employees who benefit from employer auto-enrolment, the self-employed have to actively set up their own pension provision. A SIPP allows you to invest in a wide range of assets while benefiting from tax relief on contributions — meaning a £1,000 contribution effectively costs a basic rate taxpayer £800, with the government topping up the rest. For higher-rate taxpayers, the relief is even more significant.

Equities and funds. Rather than picking individual stocks (which Christian flags as high risk and often counterproductive for non-specialists), the more robust approach for most investors is diversified funds — products that spread money across hundreds or thousands of companies, sectors, and geographies. The goal is to capture the long-term growth of markets without betting on individual winners.

Volatility vs. risk. This is one of the most important distinctions in investing. Volatility means short-term price movement — your portfolio going down 15% in a bad quarter. Risk means the permanent loss of capital. For a well-diversified, long-term portfolio, volatility is normal and expected. It’s only destructive if you panic and sell at the bottom. Understanding the difference is what allows investors to stay the course when the headlines are alarming.

Practical Steps for Recruiters Starting From Zero

• Open a Stocks and Shares ISA this tax year. Even if you only put £200 a month in to start, you’re building the habit and using your annual allowance. The account structure matters — starting inside the ISA wrapper means any future growth is sheltered from tax.
• Set up a SIPP if you don’t have one. As a self-employed person, nobody’s doing this for you. The tax relief alone makes it one of the most efficient places to put money, particularly if you’re a higher-rate taxpayer.
• Choose boring over exciting. Low-cost index funds that track broad markets have consistently outperformed most actively managed funds over the long term. They’re dull. They work.
• Automate the amount before you see it. Set up a standing order from your personal account to your ISA or investment account on the day you pay yourself. Money you don’t see doesn’t get spent on lifestyle creep.
• Ignore the short-term noise. When markets drop and financial news gets dramatic, the worst thing you can do is sell. The second worst is to not start because the timing feels bad. There is no ideal entry point — the best time to start is always earlier than you think.
• Get specialist advice, not generic advice. A financial planner who works specifically with recruitment professionals understands the income patterns, tax structures, and business dynamics that a generalist doesn’t. That context changes the recommendations significantly.

Real Talk

Leaving large amounts of cash in a savings account isn’t the cautious choice — it’s a slow leak. The risk of doing nothing is just less visible than the risk of investing. Christian’s message is simple: start earlier than feels comfortable, diversify properly, stay boring, and let time do the work. That’s it. The rest is noise.

This post is inspired by the RecTalk episode with Christian Mather: Wealth for Recruiters: Investing, Freedom Numbers & Financial Security. Watch the full conversation on YouTube. For personalised financial planning, visit One Day Wealth.

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