Twitter:

@KalpanaFitz

The main beats that I cover are:

Pretty much everything around investing and personal finance.

So don’t waste time telling me about:

If it’s to do with finance, I will look, but anything else I will delete.

The biggest influence on my journalism career to date is:

I don't believe you can be influenced by just one person. For me, I tend to take a little something I respect or admire from almost everyone I meet or work with.

The proudest moment of my time working in financial journalism has been:

It has to be my two books just released: Invest Now (a beginners guide for anyone who wants to start investing) and a children’s book – Get to Know Money – which teaches children the basics of money in a super fun way. I’m super chuffed about these, but they also support much needed financial literacy. 

The piece of advice I'd give to someone starting out in financial journalism is:

Take responsibility for your own learning. Read money books to learn about the niche we cover and  listen to podcasts. And ask your colleagues questions - everyone is busy, but they will always have time to answer your questions. Finally, get into social media - work to build your profile. Basically, you have to put in the work if you want to grow and succeed.

My favourite media outlets for financial news are:

I tend to read most things to be fair, though I do pick up a lot via social media. 

The best/worst times for PRs/press offices to contact me are:

Ping me an email whenever you like. 

My relationship with PRs could be improved if:

My overflowing inbox would be grateful if they didn't email me the same press release each day to ‘get it on top of my inbox’. If it’s good and relevant, I will have seen it and will use if if and when I can.

My favourite financial expert is:

Well, if I must choose just one… Faisal Islam (BBC).

The financial interview I’d most like to arrange is:

I would absolutely love to interview Steven Bartlett around financial education and entrepreneurship.

The piece of financial services research I’d most like to read is:

I’d like to see more about diversity in finance – how is it changing, and why is it still an issue?

My view on the humble press release and how it could be improved is that:

Keep it relevant and stick to the facts – and give me a phone number and email of someone on the other end who has time to talk and is not on holiday/voicemail.

My dream job in financial journalism would be:

I love being a financial journalist, and my dream was always to write a book  – I've ticked that box twice over. Beyond that, I try not to dream too much (although, fun fact – my name literally means ‘dream’).

The one piece of kit I cannot do without as a financial journalist is:

I’m old fashioned – I love good old post-it notes and tend to leave myself little notes and reminders everywhere. 

Given £1,000 I’d invest in cash/gold/shares/property/cryptocurrencies/other:

I’m going to be boring – I'd probably just stick it in a simple index tracker fund. 

You won’t know this, but I’m really good at:

Making chapatis – it’s a skill I've been building for years and I've finally reached perfection. 

You won’t know this, but I’m hopeless at:

Singing…

And finally… what’s your go-to karaoke song?

… and on that note, I tend not to do any karaoke.