The Vault with Financielle - Early Retirement And Guilt-Free Spending | The Vault Episode 49

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

Send us a textIn Episode 49 of The Vault, we discuss this week’s controversial opinion, “Your 20s are NOT for building wealth, your 30s are” before diving into our listener dilemmas:💸 "Should I give up on my early retirement dreams?”💸 "I earn £180k but feel guilty spending”We celebrate a brilliant win from one of our community members! After using Monzo Flex for "cash flow purposes" and accumulating £300 in debt from holiday spending and shopping, they took control by doing a smart bank switch, earning £200, and combining it with extra funds to pay off the balance entirely. They’ve now officially closed it—legend! 🎉If you’d like to share your money win, head to the community in the Financielle app or email [e-mail] your (totally anonymous) money dilemmas to [e-mail] and we may feature yours on a future episode 💌As a Vault listener, you can get a whopping 25% off our digital course, The Money Playbook. This is a step by step guide to being financially well. It has 101 lessons where you'll learn how to budget, ditch debt, build savings and grow wealth. Use this offer code at checkout: VAULTCheck out The Money Playbook course here  💸Chapters:00:00 Introduction00:46 Welcome to The Vault Podcast03:22 Controversial Opinion: Wealth Building in Your Twenties05:08 The Power of Compound Interest13:14 Retirement Planning Dilemma22:27 Community Win: Overcoming Debt23:11 Popcorn and Cinema Hacks24:35 Bank Switching Success Stories26:25 Emergency Funds and Financial Hacks31:03 High Earner Dilemma: Spending Guilt38:46 Budgeting Tips and Final ThoughtsThe Vault is an entertaining yet thought provoking podcast that answers our community’s dilemmas and confessions surrounding women and money.Visit https://www.financielle.com to download our app.Watch the podcast on YouTube.Follow Financielle for more:▶︎ TikTok▶︎ InstagramAbout Financielle:Financielle is a female focussed finance app helping women to take back control of their money, ditch debt, increase savings and invest in their future.Recorded and Produced by Liverpool Podcast Studios▶︎ Web ▶︎ Instagram▶︎ LinkedIn

Oh hey, Laura here. I'm just starting off this episode of The Vault to tell you about the Money Playbook. I used to be terrible with money, designer shoes, fancy meals, all on credit. But everything changed when I realized I needed to take control of my money. That's why I created the Money Playbook, a step-by-step guide to help you take control of your money, ditch the overwhelm, and create a solid plan for your future self. With three stages, survive, build and grow, the playbook walks you through everything from paying off debt to building wealth. Start your journey today by grabbing the money playbook for 25% off with

the code VAULT. Check out the link in the podcast description. I promise you won't look back. Now, let's get to the episode welcome to the vault with final child this is a safe space where we talk all things life and money and no topics are off limits hello hello howdy howdy i do you know we've not talked about this on here yet but um how are you finding having two vaults like the vault unlocked is now our project that we finally did it feels like there's a podcast coming out every single day the race I wake up and it's like

Apple podcasts the vault unlocked the other day I was like another one what day is it Neil was like Monday I was like

shit and then Thursday came around very quickly another one it's like just showing you how quick time flies by the way like gremlins

yeah but listen now I'm waiting for the feedback to be like there's too many can you slow down I've got a backlog but um I've not got 10 hours to listen to but I did actually also if people have a little look on YouTube we did and we all do little bits and bobs of this but did some behind the scenes footage of us filming that one filming the one when we come here, obviously. And we talk about actually what that journey was. And I mentioned how I'm annoyed we didn't try it earlier, but we got a million different things.

And the, you know, we've got Calvin here. Calvin can attest to this. The quality of the production of this one meant we were just really reluctant to do any more because it's a podcast primarily. We want it to like sound right. We want you to, sound right we want you to but we didn't want to come here and film these ad hoc ones because it's a bit more intimate it's on like my couch at home it's going it's just me it's a deep dive into some topics it's not as

formal and then I was trying to get everyone on it and you were like no no it needs to be a deep dive otherwise we're just replicating the vault um but we're getting lots of requests for different topics I think we might we might do a couple of guest ones maybe we've got some people in mind that we think would just add so much value for you to sit down and chat with them about their money journey yeah i think they could be really juicy like i think people would love those and not every week we talk about behind closed doors that doesn't get shared and so yeah there's a few people that i'm like oh if people could hear their story and what they've got to say and you know that's cool that could be a thing let us know what do you want but like I said there wasn't there weren't tears but there were I was

close to it trying to work out how to get the quality right and the and then even like I've had it where we film it in the kitchen and then there was just this day in the winter where it was well either it's dark so then you get a delay and you can't film it and then and then it was, well, either it's dark, so then you get a delay and you can't film it. And then it was like so much light that I had to move to a different room. But if you just crack on and do what people are asking for and then suddenly like we've now got two podcasts a week. I know. So, but yeah.

A lot of editing for Lydia, she's thrilled. Busy me. Okay, I've got a good controversial opinion today. And it is actually controversial. Sometimes I don't make it controversial for us. Okay. Your 20s are not for building wealth. Your 30s are.

I think I found this one, didn't I? And sent it to you. It was like a thread. Was it like a Reddit thread? A Reddit thread. And I was like, look at this. Look at this thread. People are going in on this person. It is wrong, yeah yeah it's not just controversial it's wrong yeah people like don't

care don't worry about it in your 20s yeah you don't need to worry about that now like live your life but then we get so many people um mothers actually of um late teens early 20s where they're sending them our podcasts and they're sending them the playbook and they're buying them the app and they're like I do not want my children to make the same mistakes that I did and all these mistakes were made in my late teens early 20s where I could or should have had some sort of basic financial education I didn't and I'm only just paying off a credit card in my 40s that I've had since I was 18 I do not want them to have the same same thing. So we're not saying you can't have fun in your 20s. Absolutely.

And there is much less responsibility in your early 20s where you don't have to be worrying about childcare and I don't even know. Well, you could even live at home longer. Yeah, like room sharing. But there's three ways that you build wealth. Not having consumer debt because you're not sending money to all the banks, you're sending money to you. So not having consumer debt because you're not sending money to all the banks you're sending money to you so not having consumer debt um buying a home and getting on the property

ladder if you can and um because you're growing capital there and then investing and so those are the three ways you build wealth so you can do that in your 30s and lots of people join us find us and start that then in fact some start it later so you can do it the easiest bloody thing to do though is do it in your 20s because you need less money to do it so just dive like this is the compact like take if you google investment compound calculator not if you're driving or running um but but if you are saving this for later or you sat somewhere just have a little look on your computer on your phone now investment compound calculator and i want you to look at the impact of investing £100 a month across 40 years, let's say from 20 to 60. Let's say it grows 5%, it grows between 10 and 3. So let's say it grows

5% year on year and tell me the figure that you come out at and then do it across 30 years. So we've done 40 years versus 30. 30 is still a long time yeah and i promise you you'll still have a lovely amount of money for the 31 but the 21 for 100 pound a month which i believe most people could find and still go out and have an andos and do nice holidays and stuff and even half that at 50 in fact you could probably try the 50 and i think the 50 would beat the 100 i think 50 a month at age 20 will beat 100 a month at age 30. Because it's the growth, it's not the contribution. And so I want you to live your life, but don't put what Holly says is so true actually.

Not only do you miss out the opportunity cost of this amazing investment and compound growth, you go backwards, you add debt, you cause a problem, you don't save up the deposit, you don't get on the property ladder, which is hard anyway, so I'm going to put that to one side. But you spend, spend, spend, you use buy and pay later, you get consumer debt, you've got student loans,

and then in your 30s you want to try and build wealth, but you've got all this debt, so you can actually double behind. Yeah, like your salary increases, but all your liabilities do as well, so you don't actually feel the benefit of in your 30s when you're progressing up the career ladder. You don't have to, but that's generally what happens.

You're not feeling the benefit. You're just like, oh, I'm paying off my debt that I accumulated in my 20s. So I want to ask the 20s is years olds. I know you're not 20, but you're in your 20s, guys. Yes. Holding on. I think it's mainly about habits it's not like you say like it could literally be 50 pounds it's about building the habits so that when you do have that like

higher income it's like okay this is what I naturally do just time to up it not time to completely learn a new skill yeah when you're like 30 yeah because you'll probably just never get there it's so funny because we caught lucy so early yeah we caught you so early you're like our project is that wicked you're gonna be my brand new project glinda glinda alphaba um yeah we caught you so early so you're a bit of a weird one do you remember when you when you brought a dilemma or you might have been on the dilemma or off it so I'm sharing it anyway and you were like I have too much money like I don't know what to do next like I don't know what my next financial goal is because I'm all right yeah I'm good it was like we don't we're not ready to buy a house yes this was it yeah financially and mentally yeah we're good and we were like we agree but it's like where do you where do i keep

things yeah for options and it's so confusing that's rare yeah for someone your age so it's when i hear and it was only the other day someone said oh my god i think it was a dilemma that was written in and it might come out in the next couple of weeks but the woman was like my i've made my daughters listen to it like i send it to my daughters that are in their teens and in their 20s to like learn this now yeah and then you're not doing what I'm doing yeah I just think that's so I don't it's definitely not sucking the fun out of it it's like it's actually really fun do both yeah it is really fun it's really fun the dopamine hit I think it's the excess thing is like the most impactful for me and it's like every month what am I gonna do with it otherwise I don't even have any plans for that money because I don't want

to buy a house yeah and I've got my holiday sinking fund so well yeah that's when you invest so that's where you know you lean into that and it can be high risk you know yeah if you want to be because you've got age behind and like know, we can be the old people here and we've had our old people in our life tell us this, that time flies and you will be that age before you know it. And actually you don't always earn more in your 30s. You know, I've earned less than I did in my early 30s because of a career change.

You're probably more financially well now. Oh, 100%. But just like it's the Mel Robbins it's like no one's coming there's not going to be for most of us

like a lottery win or a big bunch of cash everyone thinks a big payday is coming I'll do it later you could be their own payday the other day in our family group

I think it was when the weather was really bad and I said something like oh but don't worry when we're all rich and like a lottery went on, I started to write it. And I deleted it because I was like,

Holly, you could go and do that. Like, you don't have to wait. Like, if I want to go and live in a different country, like, we have got stuff in place whereby we could sell our home. You've just chosen not to. But it's not this, like, pipe dream. I stopped writing stuff like that because it really irks me. Because I was sounding like, oh, when I've got my shit together.

Like, no, I have actually got my money and shit together. If we wanted to make a decision to go live in a hot country, we can do that. Like, stop saying when I'm rich. That's what I wrote. And I thought, oh, I'll just give myself the ick. Just give myself the ick. And you just shared it with hundreds of thousands of people.

I hate that because so many people live their life like, oh, when I, if I. No, no, like we are all very much in control. Especially if you're in the financial community and you're doing all the methodology and tracking your access and tracking your net worth and all those kind of things. Like a lot is possible. You can stop this chat. It's like on the health chain, like we're the youngest we'll ever be today.

We're the youngest we'll ever be. I love being in our friendship chain, we're the youngest we'll ever be today. We're the youngest we'll ever be. I love being in our friendship group because we're the youngest. We are the youngest. I particularly am the youngest. I'm like our friends are 10 years. I am. Our friends are 10 years older

so when people are generalising, I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm 35. They all look that young. They look the same age as us. I know. But it is the youngest I'll be today. So like,

you know, not liking yourself on a photo or not getting a bikini on because of how you feel. It's very, very similar. It's, oh, when I've lost weight,

I'll, and actually, I'll be happy when. You don't know when or if that ever will happen. Imagine if, you know, we're the fittest

we're ever going to be and I don't want to put a down on it. It's more that just do it now because that'll come really quickly really quickly and you can set yourself up to be in the best possible position so like don't be super frugal in your 20s and do nothing like this is your time to spend some time working in a place or trying a new job or going back home for a bit if you want to save some money like yeah like do do the things you don't need a lot use that calculator you don't need a lot and for anyone to say don't do it now do it in your 30s mathematically incorrect

firstly yeah but also morally because you're like you said you could be diverting someone down a path that puts them further behind and then like the majority of our wonderful millennials because we're millennials so we're in there with you come to us and go and fuck's sake I've had debt since I was 16 I don't feel sorry for millennials

everyone always feels sorry for Gen Z's and I'm like no they've got more information at hand than they've ever had before we were promised the world yeah

and we've got it but we were shown the hills that was what life we were all going to live when she didn't go to Paris she should have gone to Paris

Lauren should have gone to Paris I love that there's Jason off because he's a waster Whitney went to Paris this is like who?

I've not seen the hills the only thing I know of the hills she would love the hills you would love it Lauren should have gone to Paris the only thing I know

of the hills is Stephanie Pratt moving to Maiden Chelsea yeah segwayed she did that was her didn't have that on my bingo card did she go out with Spencer? The only thing I know of the Hills is Stephanie Pratt moving to Maiden Chelsea. Yeah. Segwayed. She did. That was her. Prass the pond.

Didn't have that on my bingo card. Did she go out with Spencer? Yeah. Jesus. Now he's with Vogue. Yeah. Who I love. For a minute I thought you meant, no, no, that's her brother.

Spencer Pratt. Oh yeah. I was very confused. I was like, no, no. Oh god, yeah. Brother and sister. Was it a tedious link? Tenuous, not tedious.

Oh. I think for Calvin it Tenuous, not tedious. Oh. I think for Calvin it might be feeling pretty tedious right now. Okay, time for our first dilemma. Should I give up on my early retirement dreams? Hi, financial. It took me 20 years to get a decent job, a middle-class income, and an 18-year mortgage. I have no debt and a six-month emergency fund sitting in a flexible savings account with a high interest rate. I also took my employer's pension offer, which,

as Financial says, already makes me an investor. Recently, I started paying £200 a month into a low-cost index fund, which feels like a good start. I follow the 50-30-20 rule and focus on intentional spending. I hope you listened to last week's podcast. Sorry. My ultimate goal is to overpay my mortgage and retire seven years early. I'm 50 now, so retiring at 60 feels like a dream worth working for. However I feel like my bubble is about to burst. My employer has just announced redundancies and I'm terrified I'll be out the door. With career gaps and the likelihood of finding jobs that offer less pay I've crunched the numbers. If I lose this job I'm out of the game and won't be able to retire early. My dilemma is should I live a frugal life and work less or should I stick to the nine to

five routine but spend my money and enjoy life after all I won't reach my goals anyway I hate that last sentence I do no because it really right dilemma I don't know about you I had like tick tick I want ding ding ding because it was I've not got any debt I've got an emergency fund it's going to x percent yeah I've got any debt I've got an emergency fund it's going at X percent I've got this plan I've got an 18 year mortgage and then I don't know

like maybe that the pessimism or maybe that helps keep you on track as well a little bit when they're like oh like I've done all the numbers

and clearly just a math person like this is this is the plan very black and white is what I would say at the end the second half of your dilemma

is like, you've written yourself off. Dream life. Yeah. Boom. And then glass half empty which lots of us have but it's a glass half empty

which is, you know, if redundancy happens which is so real for lots and lots of people, it's game over rather than, oh,

there might be a job. There might be a little blip in the road. There might be, but there might be a job with a higher pay. I know. We've gone, and there's lots of us do that as humans. We automatically go to worst case scenario rather than best case.

And so it's really hard because what is the dialogue we're asking us? To give up on the dream, like to not retire early? We can't. First of all, you don't know if redundancy is going to happen for you. Yeah. Secondly, you don't know. You might go going to happen for you yeah secondly you don't know you might go and find another higher paid job you could retire earlier literally like they're kind of just saying i'm not going to get a higher paid job or even a job similar yeah it's going to

be less pay yeah do the really interesting thing i find is this concept of retirement because 65 now is so young if you can prioritize your health prioritize your well-being live a nice life and have a low stress job which is like game changing what would you do anyway because there's because there's there could be a like a halfway home which is if you do have a reduced income you might get to 65 and 60 and be like I'm not quite there but I'm really happy I might reduce some hours now I might you know change my role I might do this 65 and 60 and be like, I'm not quite there, but I'm really happy. I might reduce some hours now. I might, you know, change my role. I might do this, that and the other,

but I don't have to be like, right, I've ticked it because it's like, unless you've got, you know, they might have a super big plan for what they're going to do. I truly don't ever appreciate the daunting, what's the word, like how daunting it must be to approach retirement age yeah yeah and I don't think we as like a society help people through that enough no especially like financially you know years ago with my nan retired like that was so standard to just finish work and

kind of like walk away whereas everything's much great everything's more expensive now so people can't I would say just walk away no no you can't people don't have paid off mortgages no they they carry debt they cost of living is high so it's not as it's not like oh finally I don't have to work anymore it's no no I'll be looked after by the government and that that pension that I've been building yeah building by paying national insurance for all the years I've worked. He's going to look after me. It's not like that anymore. It's much more terrifying to know what the costs and childcare costs. And if you ever accumulated any money to grow, to give to your family,

is that going to be taken for your care? Yeah, there's a load of stuff that's not supported. Graduated. Retired. Retired maybe like 10 years ago when things were obviously the last few years of prices of everything has increased so much and go back to work had to go back to work because yeah well it's just not and there's a lot of things like that and i think that's part of this is which is the unknown so um people separate yeah and suddenly have to fund like

kind of retirement without so many divorces now in the 50s with men and women in the 50s divorcing yeah because it wasn't a done thing you know 20 years ago I mean I kind of support it

I like that people are like embracing this like second part of life and saying I'm not sticking in a relationship I'm not sure I stay but you've got to fund like a life on your own

but also nowadays jobs are much more flexible so people can work from home can do flexible hours can pick up shifts here and there that can kind of bolster and give you something to do as well so they're being um is it she or he i'm saying he then suddenly i don't know why she's being very black and white correct and i think like it feels like that's her logical you're allowed for a little bit but there's so so many. And so when you're building in any kind of forecasts,

it's also looking at assumptions. And so we've talked about this before. She obviously likes planning. So plan some different scenarios. Plan a scenario of your income going higher. Plan a scenario with income going lower. And build that in because, like I said, 60 is still so young. So if you were to fully retire at 60, that might not be the right decision for you,

even if you could financially do it. But, I mean, we've got a goal setting unlocked episode that you can go back and look at. And it might be a really good one for you to do, actually, because at 50, looking at what the next 20 to 30 years look like is a really good, and it's in there, it's hidden at the end of the episode. So you have to hang in there and do the full episode, but we've got a really good tip that helps you think about what your goal should be. And it leans into what life should be like. If you put life first and picture that and kind of work your way backwards, it'll help you focus. And part of that might be, well, actually I've always really wanted to be a mountain

ranger. So my plan is to retire to a lovely cottage in Wales and I will work and it'll keep me active and it'll keep me in a friendship group and a social group and it'll earn me this. So it's not always

a monetary goal. Like Laura said, it's like, what is the life that I want to live? And then working backwards from that, what money do I need

to fund that? And it might be like, not very much at all. Yeah. You know, you've got, oh, I need 50 grand in this and I need 20 grand in this and then I'll be okay it's like no no what do you actually want to do

like I want to volunteer at this and there was this black and white wasn't there which was do I enjoy going out for eating and holidays or do I be extra frugal knowing that I might be behind my goal and it's like oh I want a blended yeah I do not want to be not going out for dinner because you're doing so well this isn't this isn't you saying i'm 50 i've got loads of debt i don't have my own home i'm starting from the beginning and we've helped loads of people like that and that is a different you know kettle of fish i've also got a six months six month emergency fund that is exactly what this like a redundancy is for yeah exactly they've done the work six months yeah you'll find a job in less than six months. Yeah.

And actually, I think that's the case when people have got that emergency fund, they're like, oh, I'm going to need, and they're like, find a job next week. They don't want to use it,

that's why. Like, shit! They also don't want to use it. And like, to her point, what she won't do is, like when you've got a salary, she's investing some of that, but what she won't do

is invest her emergency fund. So she's kind of saying, I'll miss out on that. And I love that. I love that. Oh, you are like a star student. You'll find your way, definitely. But you, you don't know that you can't retire early so that's the answer to the question you don't know that build some different assumptions which is I said listen

to that episode that talks about um set some different goals and look at different variations of it because likely none of them will happen it'll be like a combination of them all out and you might fall between one and the other can you tell how relaxed we are about this dilemma like not to like undermine demean it a little bit yeah because I know

I get the sense that you're extremely worried but you've set you have foundations in place that I would say 90% of people don't have like take some comfort in that

like you are doing really well and you're not just going to let life come at you I get the impression you have set things in motion that for when this thing happens like you said that emergency fund you've built up because there was always a risk that you were going to be made redundant or fall ill or yeah or whatever you know yeah and like I'm gonna you've done the work like already a couple of

extra tiny things is um you may if retiring early is really important to you like if you're like I'm done at 60 I really want that, you can change home and you can change some of your lifestyle as well. So it sounds like you're pretty frugal, but you can adjust because all being financially independent is basically, do you have enough money to sustain your needs? And so you may or may not have options there, but you can change that number as well.

You've got a few different forecasts you can play around with and different assumptions. I like that. You got after saying I was going to keep Monzo Flex for cash flow purposes I ended up racking 300 pounds of debt on there from holiday overspending gifts and pointless shopping yes sorry I'm interrupting this to be like this is she's right and this is what we say people are you are so human and you are so normal and this is what happens people say I'm just gonna keep it in case and it's never just in case it's always for real normal human things and so you're not in financial jail for doing it but I told you so I hate to say I told so but I did however she did a bank switch

to get £200 which I paid it off and with some of my excess I have now officially closed it yay bugger off Monzo it's like a dip in the toe dip in your toe

and it's actually boiling water you got burned look at that and your bank switch was you get out of jail so everyone make sure you look at the

look in the app get the talk about bank switches Lucy Lucy have you completed your bank switch first ever one

in what three years did you get the free cinema tickets hack that I told you about I will be going to watch Bridget Jones's Diary yes

but else Unsure on the 3rd you know you can get half price popcorn as well. I didn't get it because popcorn gets stuck in your teeth. Oh,

got real teeth issues. How do you claim this? Sorry for all this. It's on the voucher. Shut up. Oh, Holly. I bought popcorn

last night. Full price popcorn. We bought a large popcorn and I was like, we don't need a large. Neil's like, we do need a large. He freaking ate

over 75% of it. And then you had to sit there next to him, listening to him eat it. Things as well. Of which, by the way, just to digress a tiny bit, Cineworld have got a really good kids meal deal. Yeah, it's great. They're closing it only.

I know. No, I got to the Warrington one. I went to view. Maybe they don't do the book one. It's Odeon there. Oh. I got different functions. Cineworld, I meant. I lied. You meant Odeon there? Oh. I got different factors. Cineworld I meant.

I lied. You meant Odeon? No, I meant Cineworld. Cineworldly? No, there's one in Warrington as well. Oh. But it might be View. I'll have a look at that.

Anyway. Anyway, you didn't get hard pressed. There was a really good switch. Look what other deals you get with it. So Lucy and I got free six cinema tickets each. My husband and i both did the switch that's 400 pounds into our family 12 tickets and 12 cinema tickets and now lucy's telling me it's half price popcorn so we're gonna go after this episode it's still probably like

nine quid isn't it yeah so i feel like i have i've well and truly hacked the system and for how much work oh nothing Neil did loads of direct debit stuff but I didn't no it was very easy to be fair it was a lot of work for me because I did it wrong at first

this is not the first time she's done it wrong this is not her first rodeo she's very good at messing up bank transfers the first time of this switch as well oh Jesus and then I had to do it again

read the small print is all I will say take your time plan it out properly but it's worth it genuinely is worth it £400 went to our emergency fund

and I also swapped my bank account which had my like graduate overdraft on I wasn't used I didn't use it but I was petrified of it for some reason

just in case it would accidentally run up it would activate it there you go so now I've got and you used the hack I think I mentioned it to you before

or maybe you found it yourself but you can there's websites where you can the hack I think I've mentioned it to you before or maybe you find it yourself but you can there's websites where you can sell it smalldirectdebits.com or dot com.uk it's just like a quid and it's not

because I've done charities before which listen I'm all about giving to charities but I already give to charity and to get out of them is really hard give blood and you need to be able to do it

to be able to switch them around and stuff so yeah I did that the direct debit website I've just told it's free money and i'm not that hacky i'm not a hacky person i'm a lazy person yeah i don't quit i don't put in the hard work for the hacks it went into an emergency fund because we had to use it for something it

topped the leak and then what did you also emergency fund yours is too high you're all right no it's not oh yeah oh yeah sorry how much do you let's share because actually this is that a lot of people were asking about a particular sinking fund and it was dentist sinking fund because a lot of people forget that because it only comes around once every six months yeah and you generally 90% of the way get away with just the fee and then suddenly there's an emergency treatment do you want to i put like 4040 a month in my dentist fund okay and that covers like

maybe two fillings a year okay however I had to go full emergency fund because I didn't want to disrupt my dentist sinking fund because what if I just need

a regular filling she didn't want to use the dentist sinking fund for a dentist you need the dentist one you need a dentist emergency fund tell me you're a financial nerd she's like

I can't use it because I might need it no no you need it now like it's such a fun dentist because that would have fully just rinsed my dentist emergency fund I still need to I still need to pay like

what if I need a regular filling I'm here for it I'll be here yeah go on so it ate massively into your emergency fund half of my wow emergency fund has been spent on one tooth which i specifically asked can you just take it out and she said no it's like cut my arm off i just don't want it anymore

take it off i love that you're a pleader with a stick but that you get to a point where when you've been so proud of your emergency fund and you get to a point where when you've been so proud of your emergency fund and you have to use it you are angry I'm going to make it bigger now

yeah I'm back with but this is where like to be able to find 200 quid pop into it isn't easy and a bank switch

is quite easy and so if you don't want to share it go to the community ask our prevalent or like repeat bank switchers.

And there's lots of people that know the stuff. And Sarah helps, a community member helps us write our money deal blogs. She writes it with us. You never give her credit for that, Sarah. She's the queen that writes the blog, we don't do it. She's better at finding the deals than we are. That's what I said, I'm lazy. Like even if it's my job like sarah

does it much better than any of us but she finds the bank switching deals and it drops into um the community uh sorry the blog area of like the first week every month go and check it out go and do it there'll be a good one in this scenario someone's been able to clear monzo flex like gone done like that's just i forgot what we were talking about well done but can we just talk about me and Lucy for a minute and our hacks because we're really

proud of ourselves because Lucy has failed bank switches I think three times because she didn't read the fine print about direct debits

I'm sure one time I read it and it changed it probably did though I've got a little list I've got banks I've already got bank interest rates which is on my list I'm still not doing it from last week I'm got a little list I've got banks I've already got

bank interest rates which is on my list I'm still not doing it from last week I'm going to do a fixed one like you said this week that's because you want you like

you want the bonus you want the bonus to come but you want the restriction of I can't get access to it like so weirdly we did lock hours away and we needed it

we did we did an extension we messaged Saling and we were like oh we need we didn't think we needed it and we've locked it away and we needed it. You did an extension. We messaged Starling and we were like, oh, we need, we didn't think we needed it and we've locked it away and we need it. And they didn't come back to us within a certain amount of time. So the financial ombudsman made them pay us £80.

I was like, this is not a hack. No, it's not. Don't try it. No, no, no, this is not a hack. And then you didn't need it. You didn't use it. No. You actually found the money. So it was truly a hack. And then you didn't use it. No. You actually found the money.

So, it was truly a hack. Because then you're going to get your bonus. Yeah. I love how they paid the penalty but still didn't give you your money. No, they were like, really sorry about that. Can't give you the money. No, really sorry we didn't come back to you and give you an answer. I think we just ignored you.

And then your 250 is going to drop because mine did last month. So, we made like 300 and a half quid. Follow me for more. I'm still angry at you, Stalin, though, for taking away the interest on the spaces. So we have to talk about that another day. If you'd like to send us your win, head to the community in the app or email it to the vault at financial.com. We're very proud.

Yeah, yeah. Well done. Okay, second dilemma. Just a quick one, Laura here. If you're wanting to take back control of your money, ditch debt, make better decisions and build wealth for the future, the Financial app is for you.

With Financial, you can track your spending on the go, hit your money goals faster and create a realistic budget that you can actually stick to. Not to mention, you'll be part of an exclusive money community who share tips, offer support and celebrate your successes along the way. Click the link in the description to download Fan and Shell and start your free trial now.

This is your sign to take control of your money today. Okay, I'm done. Let's go back to the vault. I earn 180k, but I feel guilty for spending. I'm 29 and I earn around 180k and I've saved around 150k. Oh, jeez. Sorry, can we take a moment for the high earner in our community? That's like, wow. So I've saved £150,000 over the last few years from commission checks. I'm consumer debt free and I have a mortgage in London with around 72% LTV. What's LTV?

It's loan to value. So I'm presuming she means that she's got like 30% equity. So of the home, 70% of its mortgage. I save 10% of my basic salary and about 50% of my commission. I contribute 10% to a pension and invest every month. It sounds ridiculous and I totally acknowledge my privilege, but my dilemma is this. How do I draw the line on spending when I don't have a compelling reason to, like becoming debt-free? Where is the line? I'm constantly torn between enjoying life, seeing shows in London,

traveling abroad, buying clothes because I can afford it and being way more aggressive with savings and more frugal. I've always done a budget ever since I was 17. Well, but when I see shows or a pair of shoes I haven't budgeted for, I just think screw it. I'll put it on the credit card, pay off next month and not go into debt. Or I'll take it out of my 5k emergency fund and top it back up later. How do I know when I'm on a slippery slope of being too lavish, even when there's no negative financial consequence? Why shouldn't I enjoy the things in life that I love if I have the money? I've never come close to being in debt, but I do feel guilty every time I splash the cash. I can't help but think there's always a better financial decision to be made. Any advice? Welcome. Oh, that's a fascinating dilemma. It is, right? For everyone listening at home, I want you to take this minute. We're going to help someone out that's not like lots of us. And so it's really, I think it's hard not to judge and,

or not to think, or then not to go, oh, you're doing it, it doesn't matter why you've been worried about it. Cause it's, we're all, it's all important. We've done it doesn't matter why you've been worried about it because it's it's all important it's how you feel and this person's situation is not like most of us so I want you to try and

imagine earning that but live in London I'm already there you're already there I'm on Made in Chelsea yes yeah

but and listen there's part of it that's like you can spend that quite quickly £180,000 after tax and this is not the violin. I'm not like, I feel sorry for them.

But it goes and not on the things that you think. So just be aware of that, especially if they're living alone, if they're contributing that completely on their own. So try and let's level up the earnings that we've got. Let's pretend we're that person, right? I think, so she's struggling with guilt she's not struggling with money at the moment she's struggling with spending and guilt but it feels like her budget's not right i'm just trying to say her budget she's budgeting but she's not because

she's dipping into her emergency savings too tough it's too tight or put on credit card i'm like no no you might be budgeting but it's not it's not you're not doing it right she's not doing it right it's because the wonderful thing about the budget, whether it's on a lower income or a higher income, is if you've got the excess bit right, you can have lots of things. Once you kind of got out of emergency and survive and you're not in a stressful place, you can spend today, you can spend in the future on your holidays and stuff,

and you can make good financial decisions like overpaying your mortgage and invest. And what that's good for is at any point, and she's got an emergency fund, like 150 grand is amazing. She could lose that job. You know, she might get poorly. She might become a mother. Lots of things can set her back.

So she's just at this pinch point where she's doing really, really well. But the rug could be pulled under her. And she's budgeted before, so she'll be able to do that. But for now, she's kind of got the budget of maybe like a 50 grand salary or something. Do you know what I mean? She's probably got not a lavish enough clothing budget, not a lavish enough eating out or theatre. And she likes to do that stuff.

Yeah, that's her passion. You can build a budget with a donut that has spending there and investing. And if you're like, she's already at 10%, you know, maybe that could be a bit higher like 15ish percent or something the minute I heard that I was like I would be up in that more

but can she because it sounds like she's saving a lot but she obviously overspends she needs to get to a point where she's tweaking where she's I would test her to say

can you have spending money left over and still spend so like it's too tight she's not being realistic obviously she's not being honest with herself about how much she spends because she's having to she's too tight she's not being realistic obviously you know she's not being

honest with herself about how much she spends because she's having to she's giving herself she's allocating but she's not looking at the previous month and going what did I actually spend and she's she's she's putting a figure in and we've all done it you're wishing that you yeah yeah I wish I spent 200 pound on groceries a month I don't I've got a family of four it's unrealistic and prices go up. I need to look at the look before and see how much I spent on my food budget. That's the realistic food budget.

Could I try and squeeze it a little bit? Probably. But I have four mouths to feed in a country where the food is particularly expensive. So let's be realistic. We did this with them,

with beauty, because I had not, all I did with the them with beauty because I had not all I did with the hair and beauty thing really was put hair in it for the family and the girls

weren't having theirs done that often really and Carl's was ice and cheeks it's a guy's haircut and mine was every other month it'd be a cut

and it would be colour every other month and stuff and I really started to want to look after my skin better and then I was also realising that I'd not put anything for makeup And I really started to want to look after my skin better. And then I was also realizing that I'd not put anything for makeup anywhere.

I would have to dip into grocery for makeup. You're all in there. Like, I'm not even buying it. Like, my mum loves buying makeup. So I'd be like, I need a foundation. Can I have one? And she'll buy it and then I'll send her the money. And so I was basically lying to myself

about how much we as a family, and my husband and I share skincare, we were actually spending on it. So we recently readjusted the budget. I'm not going to share but it feels high yeah you're like oh but it's what I'm spending and as a proportion of the budget it's not crazy but in my head it was the you're on a debt-free journey like the old law of like you're saving you're trying to invest you're saving for a home you're on maternity leave yeah you don't want someone to look over your shoulder

and look at your budget and be like what's that? because to someone else to a previous you it might be obscene and to someone else it might be obscene

but again as a proportion of the budget if it works so like you said there's no point lying to yourself do you invest have you got a pension blah blah blah

yes yes yes okay so what else are you going to spend and what would be interesting is some of it her spending sounds like she wants to like I like going to theatre so I'm are you going to spend and what would be interesting is some of her spending sounds like she wants to like I like going to theatre

so I'm going to go to it sometimes is she spending because it's a bit naughty what we've seen in all this is when people budget a little higher they don't always use it

you don't spend it yeah it's a psychology thing it's like a reverse dopamine hit where you're like oh it's when reverse psychology definitely

you always say it on payday you're going to Zara you can't find anything in the middle of the month when you might not have much money left in the old day there's loads of things there's loads you want to buy everything it's all psychological all psychological you've got birthday money in your hands lucy how much how many times you've been given birthday money not been able to spend it every time i've paid my birthday money into eat the cash. Yeah. Like last week. Yeah, from May.

Yeah. Lucy's the perfect example of it because it's been given to you. You've got permission to spend it. It is so difficult to spend it. Whereas if it feels naughty and it's like, go on, I'll just get it.

I'll put it on the card. It's a dopamine hit. It's not the thing. So one thing I would say is really question the things that you're spending money on. If you love the theatre, if you love this, that and the other,

put it in the budget. Put it in the budget, yeah. the theatre if you love this that and the other put it in the budget put it in the budget how many shows do you watch a month three put it in the budget and enjoy it and when

because her mentality like she says I know I can afford it I can just pay the card off next month that's a really dangerous mentality because if you can afford it

it goes in the budget if you can afford it why are you putting it on a credit card yeah it's because she's not putting it in the budget backdrop

this episode is over no but i like the um let's empathize with this person because it's just maths oh for a lot of us like hearing those salaries you'll be like are you kidding me why are you even struggling after a few years we'd all be in the same position yeah as a financial person we'd all be like questioning worship many people would never sit and question what they spend the money on on those salaries they just happily just try and make it to the end of every month and the expenses go up the car gets better the house gets bigger the holidays get more extravagant and then all of a sudden the job goes and the rug's pulled under and then it all

goes to shit i think i would like to see see some, like a healthy challenge from us is, you're doing okay. Great emergency fund. Please stop paying into that more. Unless there's something else in your life, please stop that more. You can call that one a day. Don't be a Lucy.

£150. £5,000. In savings. But then she says five. She dips into that five five thousand pounds emergency fund also if you need a bigger emergency fund like yeah i think she's calling them different things like the 150 is definitely a yeah an emergency fund but but um she also might feel better if she's actively overpaying that mortgage and if she's actively investing more than 10 so what would be good is when you've got goals like that,

it does bring down your excessive spending a little bit because she's going to something. She's just drifting. There's no job. We always say your money needs a job. So I would be like, okay, how much emergency fund do I actually need? Pull that down to what it needs to be. How much do I want to put into my...

You might be able to put a lump sum into paying off the mortgage. You can do usually 10% a year and stuff. Play play around with that have a look at your investments and increasing that and changing it each budget yeah giving them jobs diverts the money from overspending if you think you are overspending the flip side is if you like that spending and it fits into your budget into your like income put it in the budget you might not be overspending you just not budgeting properly and if you're a budgeter, which sounds like you have been, I feel like we just need to play around with it a little bit. I just want to go for dinner and a show now.

I do. Can we all go out together? Well, no, I want to go out and do a budget with her. In her house. In her house. Actually, she's taken us out to a theatre. I've pictured her in a penthouse apartment in London. Drop us a DM.

Battersea Power Station. Drop us a DM. Let me drop your location. Our location is in the pool. Yeah, she's in the pool at Battersea Power Station. Drop us a DM. Or let me drop you a location. Or a location pin. I'm not. Yeah, she's in the pool at Battersea Power Station with Harry Styles. Like, this is what I pictured.

You can see him in his swimming pool. Okay, any final words? I still like the non-judgmental, like, let's all have empathy for this person that's not bragging about how much money they've got.'re like oh I'm struggling because money is difficult hard to manage whether you get 1800 pounds a month or you get 18,000 a month like it's maths but I would love to know what she does for a job between that and commissions like it's obviously sales based because I'd love to inspire like if she would find out what she does, I'd love to inspire those people that may want to earn that one day.

She's doing amazing. That's all for this episode. The Vault is now closed. And just a quick disclaimer, The Vault is just a chat or a live for money topics. We are not giving financial advice.