Charlie Nunn, the chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group – the UK’s biggest bank, providing one in four current accounts – admits he “hates budgeting and always has”. So instead of poring over spreadsheets, he looks at his current account as soon as he gets paid and decides how much to move into savings. “Do it as soon as you can,” he says.
Nunn recommends automating the process. “If you’re able to carve out a little bit and put it somewhere else where you won’t have access to it and be able to spend it, I think that’s the easiest way to start having a saving mindset,” he explains. That could mean a standing order from your current account to a savings account, organising cash into envelopes, or using round-up tools that put spare change aside when you spend. His motto: “saving little, saving early and saving regularly”.
“Lloyds Bank CEO Charlie Nunn hates budgeting but offers five money tips including automating savings and joint account transparency.”
Beyond day-to-day savings, he urges people to build an emergency fund for surprise bills such as a broken boiler or car repairs. How much? It depends on your circumstances, but he advises setting aside one to three months’ salary if you can.
His approach to money was shaped by his childhood. His parents divorced and his mother raised four children, which meant he grew up “constantly worrying about what we were spending money on and managing money carefully – which ranged from looking for cheap food in the supermarket to thinking carefully about holidays and what we did in our spare time”.
That prudence extends to his relationship. Nunn and his wife use a joint account and have “complete transparency” over money. His red flag in a partner? “Someone who isn’t careful with money,” because he has always been “relatively prudent”.
As a father, he has tried to teach his children the value of money, though “they take no advice from me because I’m their dad”. Instead, they have pocket money “which helps them budget and they live within their means”. He has noticed that two of his children are more comfortable spending while the others are natural savers – a pattern he says reflects what the bank sees among its customers.
Despite concerns about a bigger financial picture, Nunn does not think younger people are generally financially irresponsible. The full interview, part of the BBC’s Big Boss series, explores the end of Halifax and the future of bank branches – but Nunn’s core message remains: automate, save early, and be open about money.