Perhaps your grown-up children have flown the nest and you're thinking of turning the empty space to your advantage by renting it out? Or maybe you just want to give yourself or your loved ones a bit of a treat?

A nice thought, but where's the money going to come from?

We know it's all very well making these suggestions for adding a little extra bounce to your financial cushion, but where do you go for help?

It could be as simple as tracing a forgotten company pension or finding out how to rent a room and find a trustworthy tenant.

Log in to our webchat with Maxine McKenzie from Directgov to find out everything you need to know about how you can unleash hidden cash resources at the touch of a button, and turn your 'empty nest' into a golden egg.

For more information visit www.direct.gov.uk

With the credit crunch hitting everyone in the pocket now is a great time to look around and see how you can get your hands on some extra cash. We've therefore got two videos for you to watch to help you start enjoying some of life's little luxuries again. Just click on the following links to watch:

How To Rent A Room
How To Trace A Lost Pension

H: Jayne Constantinis, host
M: Maxine McKenzie, Directgov
W: Will Stengal, Directgov

H: Hello and welcome to the Personal Finance Show, I'm Jayne Constantinis. Now then, are you planning for your retirement, and wondering whatever happened to all those different pension schemes you used to pay into? Or maybe the kids have long ago flown the nest and you don't know what to do with all the empty space? Well whatever your situation, if you're thinking about your retirement then stay watching because on today's show I'm joined by Maxine McKenzie and Will Stengal, both from Directgov. Thanks very much for coming in to talk to me. And we're live of course so if you've got a question for either of the guests then type it on the box on your screen, send us your name of course as well and we'll get through as many as we can during the course of the show. Maxine, this idea of renting out a room to make some extra cash sounds really interesting doesn't it?

M: Yes it does and it may seem like quite an attractive option for some people at this time, but what we would say is that there are a lot of responsibilities that go along with that and Directgov's a really good place to start for finding out what the requirements are if you are interested in renting out a room in your home

H: Ok, good place to start

M: Yes

H: And talking of that, let's have a look at this short clip –

Video footage

"Mum look, it's Squeaker."

"Ah. Are you going to take him with you then?"

"What? I'll be laughed out of college!"

"Ok, well, charity shop. Going to be strange you not being here. Ever so empty."

"Why don't you rent the room out? You could do with the extra money, get more used to the house."

"Yes but –"

"Directgov – website, loads of info. Look it up."

"For advice about issues with your home or in the community visit Directgov."

H: Great. Will, tell us about any other money saving tips – it's the top of most people's minds at the moment

W: Yes –

H: On the site

W: You're absolutely right Jane, I mean there's quite a lot on the site really and that goes for people who want to take courses, to improve their career chances, looking up new jobs as well as sort of thrifty advice making the most of the money you've got. Tracking down money that you may have lost track of. Generally looking round and making sure your investments, your pensions, and everything are in tip top condition

H: So this business of tracking down money that you've forgotten about

W: Yes

H: Sounds ridiculous doesn't it that anybody would forget they've got money in a pension scheme. Tell us what kind of situation people find themselves in?

W: Well I hope I'm looking sheepish because I'm one of those people and I guess quite a few people are like me, in the course of our careers we've moved around a lot, we've had different employers, companies themselves have changed and been taken over, so certainly I've used the service already to trace the pension, because I sat down and thought well where am I? And lost track of the paperwork. It's very easy now on Directgov that all I had to do, and all anybody else has to do is just sit there and think ok, who did I work for, when, and you just, online and very soon you're tapping in a few answers and away it goes, and you get forms back. In my case a few weeks later I'd got the full details and I now get regular annual updates of what's going to save me several hundreds of pounds, and eventually maybe even a bit more than that

H: So that' a few minutes time. Few weeks to get the paperwork through and you're quids in. It is quite a complex area, pensions isn't it? I mean I'm already now thinking of employers that – where I'm not sure what happened when I left. How simple is it on the site, because I think people are probably concerned that there's a lot of red tape, a lot of jargon to get through

M: Yes well one of the things about the Directgov site that we know our users tell us that they love, is that it's written in simple, plain English, so that subjects precisely like pensions that can be incredibly complex and off-putting for people to try and you know, understand, are made very, very simple just by using straightforward language and breaking down the information in a way that makes it much easier for people to get to where they need to go

H: Questions flooding in so let's get straight into them. Antonia has asked us "why doesn't my previous employer tell me if they owe me money from my own pension?"

W: Well I think that – good question that again I think I've got some first hand experience here. I mean it's a complicated world out there, we all move around a lot and companies get taken over too, so actually most of the time I think this is down to just losing track of people, and that's the great thing that you can go onto Directgov and you put in those basic details that you can remember, you're not having to track down every dot and comma here, but actually oh yes, it was this company, they did this thing and this was the address I knew. That's probably enough to be starting with. So it's as simple as that really, that people can go back and from thereon in they get the sort of experience I had about here you are, you're back on the records now and they're very good at keeping in touch after that

H: I was going to ask exactly the question that David has sent in – "how many years after you've worked with the company can you claim the pension benefit?" Maxine?

M: Well you will need to, once you find the particular company scheme that you work for, each scheme will have its own rules about when you can claim and when the pension kicks in, so that's something you will find out once you've actually chased the pension

H: Ok. Dave says he's not very organised when it comes to admin – I think we're all admitting that we're not either – who is?

W: We're with you Dave!

H: What information, and I think you can reiterate what you've just said, what information does he need to know to trace an old pension? So you've said company name –

W: Indeed. Basically you need as little as just the company name, what they did, the date – the more information you have, the more you can give, then the better off you are, then the more accurate the service can be for you

H: Yes

W: But certainly you don't need to have reams of information at your fingertips. The reality is of course, if you've lost track of it it's probably because you've lost some of that information, so for many people this will just be stretch back in your memory, what was that company called, where were they, what date was that and what type of business was it? If you've got more than that, give more than that and you'll get a better response to it

H: And it's all very clearly laid out on the site is it –

W: Absolutely

H: Filling in various boxes. This may be a silly question, but I'll ask it anyway – if a company's gone bust and you used to work for them, does that mean all the pension's all gone and that's –

W: No not necessarily but again it's about tracking down that pension because companies may have been taken over by others, things have moved on, it's not just you that's moved, it's companies too so again that's through the tracking service and they'll be excellent at giving you detailed advice. A lot of the questions you'll have may be very specific to the company concerned, so really the prime thing is, knowing who to talk to in the first instance, and the service that Directgov offers sorts that one out for you, it says these are the people you need

H: And I'll just similar sort of question here, but about looking for lost funds for somebody else – Sean says "my granddad may have some pension funds to claim, but wouldn't know." Can Sean search on behalf of his grandfather?

M: Yes well I had this experience myself as I used the pension tracing service to look for an old pension for my father whose moved to Florida, he's retired to Florida, and the answer is yes you can. The online form will ask you for your contact details and then the potential beneficiary's contact details, and obviously with the right permissions you are allowed to make the enquiry on their behalf

H: Oh that's good because you might be concerned that there'd be some sort of confidentiality or data protection or something like that that would mean you wouldn't be allowed on somebody's behalf, so that's –

M: Yes, with the right permissions

H: Yes

M: That's part of the service

H: How very nice to retire to Florida,

M: Yes

H: Let's just have a little clip here about some other people who are planning to retire someone else even warmer I think!

Video footage

"Look at this"

"What?"

"Service charge for our place in Grenada. And I thought retirement meant no more stress."

Lenny and Norma have had a shock.

"I'll find a way."

But Lenny thinks he might have an old company pension.

"Oh, I can't find anything, no records, nothing."

"Have you tried Directgov?"

To find out if yours is one of the millions of pounds worth of unclaimed pensions, pop in the name of the company and the dates you worked, and within a few days you'll be sent contact details of your pension scheme.

"I told you I'd find a way. Here's to our Caribbean hideaway!"

H: Caribbean hideaway, that sounds nice doesn't it? Especially on a day like this!

W: Very nice

H: Interesting that we're talking about retirement today because I think a lot of people who are approaching retirement age are actually with the current financial climate very concerned, so wouldn't a windfall like this be very welcome? What else does Directgov offer in terms of services for – specifically for people looking at retirement fairly soon?

W: Well I think it's a fair question, we rightly focus on the financial side but let's not forget that retirement's actually a pretty positive thing, so there's an awful lot on the site – what are you going to do with all this time that you've got? Are you going to take up a new hobby? Are you indeed going to carry on working and if you do, do you want to do some part time work in a completely new field that's always interested you, and what effect would that have on your finances? A lot of people obviously move abroad, and we've got plenty of advice on the site to how to do that, and also once you've done it, how do you remain connected back to the UK? So there really is no shortage, and if you want to be a volunteer, there's a whole section n that too, so there really is a wealth of information that will help you make the most of retirement and really enjoy it

H: What seems very attractive about the site from people that I've spoken to who've used the resource is that in many areas you're bombarded with information from all different sources, and you don't quite know – well not who to believe but – how to cut to the chase, how to cut through all of that noise and find exactly what you need in very simple terms. It seems that that's what you've set out to do

M: Yes exactly, that's what we set out to do at Directgov. I mean we are the government's online source of information and services. You can get to Directgov through the internet, through your mobile phone or through digital television. It's the latest information from government, so you know it's up-to-date. It's available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so it's really at your convenience which we think is tremendously important, so yes, cuts through a lot of what's out there to give you exactly what you need to know

H: And I think particularly for financial advice where people maybe are concerned that they're being sold products or something. It sounds like everybody should have it on their favourites list, you know the place to go for information

W: We'd certainly subscribe to that. I think it's really important to pick up on the point Maxine made about convenience there, and when it comes to financial matters, people can be quite edgy, so if you're on Directgov actually you know this is genuine, real advice, and you can also dip in, read when you want to, start thinking about the information. There's no pressure here, nobody's forcing you to do something when they tell you to do it. You're in control on Directgov

H: Let's just take a question from Steve and getting back to our lost pension money. He says he's worked for many different companies and always opted into the pension scheme. How can he find out if there's any money owing to him?

W: Well type in Directgov.co.uk, trace a lost pension, you'll be on the right page, it will explain everything to you. A couple of clicks later you'll be filling in some basic information like what was the company, when, what did it do? Press that next button and you'll be in amongst the service that tells you these are the people you need to contact. And it's not just a one-off thing, you can do that for a number of companies, so you will shortly end up after that with full details and as I say you'll be back on the register as it were, people will know where you are, they will then keep you up-to-date. Os you can do that once, it will take you about 5 minutes and it'll be coming through the post to you

H: And this could all happen within a few weeks, that's –

W: Oh absolutely, absolutely

H: That's what sounds very attractive about it

W: I'd say days but let's not over-promise here. But absolutely, a few minutes online and then you'll be getting things back in the post, and then when the regular cycle of that pension fund comes round, you will be getting the annual statements, it'll set out how your pension stands, what the forecast for it is, how much money you would get if it were tomorrow or next year, or five years away

H: Yes, fantastic. Sounds like we all should do it.

W: I think we should

H: Be a nice windfall before Christmas wouldn't it?

W: Retirement is there for us all, and it's not something you want to leave until the year before. Think about it now, help the finances, plan ahead

H: Yes. And just very finally, you've touched on some of them, but we just – clarify for me which other money matters can Directgov help us with? I think people are generally aren't they beginning to look at the bank statement and see where they need to make cuts and adjustments and so on

W: Yes absolutely, there's consumer advice generally to make sure you're spending well, and there's alternative ways of boosting your income, we've mentioned renting out a room as one example, there are many others. There is the idea of looking ahead at different careers and courses, what happens if you're taking another job on top of the one you've got, what other ideas can you come up with generally and what impact would that have both on your finances and your tax situation or your pension situation? That's all there on Directgov, as well as some more general, thrifty tips around how to live a little bit more economically perhaps, sensible driving, making the most of how much money you're pouring into the petrol tank – that sort of thing. It's there on Directgov

H: Great, thank you very much indeed.

W: Thank you

H: Very, very interesting

M: Thank you

H: And thank you for those questions, and thank you for watching, and of course if you want to go to the site that we've been talking about, it is direct.gov.uk. Thanks for watching. Bye bye

With the credit crunch hitting everyone in the pocket now is a great time to look around and see how you can get your hands on some extra cash. We've therefore got two videos for you to watch to help you start enjoying some of life's little luxuries again. Just click on the following links to watch:

How To Rent A Room
How To Trace A Lost Pension