The Vault with Financielle - 🔥FIRE🔥: Financial Independence, Retire Early | The Vault Episode 27

Episode Date: August 28, 2024

Send us a textIn Episode 27 of The Vault, we discuss the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) trend, before diving into our listener dilemmas:- ”Am I trying to do too much?” - ”My parents keep avoiding their will”We celebrate a community member's huge win in maintaining a strong net worth despite recent expenses on a new kitchen and a holiday to New York, thanks to continued savings and investment growth! 🥳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 💌Chapters:00:00 Introduction and Budgeting Challenges00:23 Welcome to The Vault00:38 British Humor and TV Appearances02:10 Understanding FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early)03:03 The Rule of 25 and Financial Strategies05:29 Sacrifices and Realities of FIRE17:12 Financial Wellness and Excess Journey19:02 Dilemma: Balancing Multiple Financial Goals20:13 Increasing Pension Contributions20:32 Balancing Multiple Financial Goals22:17 Emergency Fund and Investments24:26 Clearing Debt and Prioritizing Savings26:41 Community Win: Net Worth Update27:54 Dilemma: Parents Avoiding Their Will36:34 Normalizing Conversations About Wills40:05 Conclusion 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

I think that's a really good point because sometimes I think when we speak to people and Laura's trying to get them to like pull down the budget if they've on a debt they want the desperate to be on a debt-free journey it's not but we've said to them you need to go and do this like I can't I can't let up hello fresh and you're like these people could have possibly give up my five-star gym like yeah are you kidding Are you kidding me? Welcome to The Vault with Financial. This is a safe space where we talk all things life and money and no topics are off limits. Hello.

Hello. We're all excited to be here, especially Laura that just went... I was like, I'm ready, I'm prepared. I'm here for it. Isn't it like the British thing and it's like, when you go and you're like... I slap. No, so the worst

was watching Lydia's your edits of me on BBC last week not watching the week it was oh yeah what I can't do my hands it's not your fault

it was absolutely mine it's every time you're making a passionate point you do the little praying mantis hand I do the praying honestly Calvin I need to send it to you because what she did is

she sliced it was auction time to be fair and I'm going to promise she sliced it into three so it was so it could fit on three wheels and the start of every one I go

I'm just like you will listen to me I was talking about buying Apple later so it's to stop me from swearing on live TV in front of 1.5 million people so I needed to do

something with these hands but I need hand training so if anyone can give me hand training for the TV about what I do and it was probably connected to that clap if you did like different things and you're like but on reflection I think I'm conscious that sometimes I do this and the hand isn't so I think that was the hold the hand so if I just sit on my I'm just gonna do this next time the Italian hand.

You've got to give people a bit of entertainment. Yeah. Oh my God. I wonder if we could put some conductor music to me. Don't buy a credit card. Don't buy a credit card. You know what I mean. Don't buy a credit card.

Okay, controversial opinion. Fire. buy a credit card but you know what I mean don't buy a credit card fire is sacrificing living life for mediocre gains so clarify what fire is first yeah I was going to say Lucy do you want to explain

what fire is so fire is is it like an online community would you say or is it just a movement it's a movement but it lived on like it lives online really so it stands for financial independence retire early well

financially independent retire early either yeah yeah yeah this is such a cool concept so there's a really cool guy called mr money mustache not just because of his name but he had a blog 20 years ago and it's still there now go have a look great community and he kind of was one of this has been done before but like inspired a community of people to think do you know what like I don't want to work all my life and retire when I'm like in my 70s and hopefully get there and just be a slave to my job and spend everything I make and and a lot of people understood, like, hopefully I got these numbers right. Cause I did not know that was a controversial

opinion, but there's this concept of the rule of 25, which is basically if you have a pot of money and if you live off 4% of it, which 25 is a bit confusing, but this is how it works. If you can live off 4% of it, it never decreases never decreases it stays that so say we had a million pounds and if you could live off four percent of it which is like almost almost 25 grand i think but is this right 100 you need that robin williams like the math the numbers right i might cut some of this out because I don't look completely incompetent but um I'm gonna go back to what the rule of uh what the financial independent is so fire one of the I guess poster boys of it is Mr Money Mustache he had a blog in

the good old days where people actually blogs um and he talked about this concept of other people come up with it before him but he really led this which was, you can save up a pot of money that when you hit a certain number, as long as the pot of money grows a certain percent each year, and you can live off the growth or a certain amount of it. One, you never run out of money, or if you run out of money, it just decreases and it would last the whole of retirement. And you can do that pre-formal retirement. And so retirement is not a number. It's like a stage of your life. And if you can build up enough assets and say, let's, for example, you managed to do that at 40, that's financial independence retiree, because it means you are financially independent. You can live off your own assets, whether that's money in the market, whether that's rental real estate, whether it's both, you have assets that generate an income that you can live

off. And like, that is such a cool calculation to do. It's a really interesting mindset thing, which is you don't have to work until you're a certain age necessarily. Like what's the rule on that? You can, you can work to do it before, but it's not without its sacrifices. Yeah, I have seen a big movement on, I think it was in COVID, it really like took off because people got really geeky with the money.

People had a little bit more time, bit more research, fell into communities a little bit more. Like that's how financial grew really when people, there wasn't much support from the government and people kind of went, whoa, whoa, whoa, what do I do?

Let me go and find people like me that are in a similar situation. and you can see this fire movement but yeah i don't know correct me if i'm wrong some of the people that i see living this movement they have to pull back so much i was gonna say how hard is it to get to that point yeah you've got a pile of it's all individual isn't it depending on how much you've ever made how much savings you've got, like investments, like, oh, but some people living off bread and butter,

I swear to God, for like 20 years so they can retire early. And I'm like, is that really what you want to do? Is that, is that, and it might do, it might bring someone joy and peace and free financial freedom.

But I forgo my freedom for holidays and a warm house over my head and not saying, so say no to social activities we are social beings and don't get me wrong I love a cancelled plan but I want to see my children go and do sports activities I want to see family and friends you know um for drinks and meals out and celebrations because life's for living so I it's not for me but it doesn't mean it's wrong or it's controversial there's there's two um levels of income that you have to think about this firstly you know you have to live on very little to be able to create excess money to deploy into your

investments and pre-retirement investments which means in the uk anyway you don't get that top up from the government you don't get the tax benefit obviously there's equivalents in in other countries as well so it's even harder because you don't get that bit. You have to do it kind of in regular investment accounts, maybe like where you got, you know, your tax break ones like your ISA, they can grow tax free, but you don't get any additional money. The second is, remember what we talked about, it all depends on how much you need to live off in retirement. So usually you would think someone would have to own a home because you don't want to have to pay a home because you don't you want to you don't want to have to pay like rental fees in retirement and your retirement could be at age 40 to 50

whatever it is and what is that number because you went you kind of restrict the minute you stop working you're restricting yourself to living off that future small salary and life keeps getting more and more expensive that's one thing say now compared to 20 years ago yeah to factor in inflation i mean they can because they're super super good at their numbers and they do include it see the five percent mortgage right someone someone could have gone and started a fire journey like two years ago and then gone jesus christ like this is not achievable like it's scuppered my plans and I've lived off bread and butter for two years what I would say is not seen a soul I mean ideal for some of us Lucy what I would say is at least aiming for it is building up a big pile of cash like you can't go wrong with that I guess it's the it's the resident frugal Easter how do you feel about it Lydia this idea that you would

deprive yourself and live on so little for tens of years to then later just not have to work but still live on little I I think it I'm just reading about it I'm trying to understand I hadn't heard of it before you decided talking about it but it says like saving and investing 50 to 70 percent of more or more of your income I feel like you have to be in a pretty privileged position to even start yeah like it makes sense if you're already like you know like Donald Trump but like small loan of a million dollars like to start with yeah for someone in your position you live in a house on your own that person would go okay I'm gonna go and live in a bedsit with seven other people then my rent's only like a hundred pounds like

they would literally go okay take every aspect of my life and reduce everything yeah you could you could do that but you would have to not have a car not eat anything other than like rice every day you would have to not rent anywhere you'd have to live with family existing basically yeah so there is an argument that that's why it possibly is controversial because you could die tomorrow and i hate that when people like they go spend happy because they could die tomorrow we're all in the same position like we're we're all in that we're all in the same boat with that but people literally deprive themselves of like good living conditions health because in America you've got to pay things like health insurance people just

try and get by on as little and I get the goal like it's so admirable to be like I want to be debt free I'd rather be like quite happy now than like not work when I'm like 40 or whatever I don't know yeah you've just got more time

to spend your little amount of money that you've got yeah exactly because this is the point you're going to be staring at a white wall

and also what you're actually going to do like I know we all love the idea of we imagine if we didn't have to work because it's like you know

this nice concept but what if you've been spending all that time yeah what are you doing yeah it's not like you're gonna be on holidays and everything doing hobbies passions yeah yeah I love the idea that and people have asked us I think on Dying Lemons about this before about um like I want to I want to invest but the idea that it's like locked away until retirement feels so far away. And it's a really good thing to think about your pre and post-retirement investing. You know, if you do an ISA in the UK or in other countries, just an account that's not a retirement, like, dated account,

you're at least letting it grow and you get, Holly's tummy's rumbling but I could hear it but I don't know if you can hear it um she needs a break I might have just eaten my lunch my stomach's giving gratitude but just even the fact that you would be mindful of oh I can invest for later but actually what can I do so I can benefit it from it early because you know what it might not be financial independence retire early but it might be financial independence take it fucking easy do you know like oh I'm gonna be 50 and you know so young so much time ahead of him but I might not want to work full-time might not want to do a

stupid hours I might at some point have a job I don't like and go I'm gonna have a bit of a break and so it's the concept of a nest egg which I love for wellness like freedom I get the freedom part that doesn't that doesn't necessarily mean forgoing every life's joy definitely not for maybe not so many gains if people are on a really aggressive debt payoff journey though and they want to go really really lean I would recommend you look at some fire blogs because there's loads of really good tips but let's not go cray cray but if you want to see what uber frugal looks like meal plans what people do you know inventive ways that people you know sacrifice and reduce their costs so that they can get to those higher percentages even if you just find one idea that you go actually i'm going to try that people are

doing that like i'm not this princess like that can't do it all someone's doing it somewhere i think that's a really good point because sometimes I think when we speak to people and Laura's trying to get them to like pull down the budget if they've on a debt they want the desperate to be on a debt-free journey it's not what we've said to them you need to go and do this they're like I can't I can't not have hello fresh and you're like these people which possibly I can't give up my five-star gym like yeah are you kidding me and you're like to read some of these i think it's a really good idea go look at the tiktok accounts go look at like the ridiculous to the extreme and you might be in the middle you might bring yourself down a peg or two because we've all got little babies like looked after

little princesses i have certain things i just like i'm i am a spender i'm a controlled spender like it's all within budget and everything but there is certain things I just like I am a spender I'm a controlled spender like it's all within budget and everything but there is certain things which I hate spending money on and I will go on do it as little as possible like I will get as much concealer out of my oh really do you cut the top off like foundations and stuff do you have the yeah if my moisturizer like I'll cut it in half. I need some bathroom scissors. I'll do that.

And then I was just going to ask, I feel like Lydia is going to have some good stuff of like, okay, what will you just be like, I'm not buying anything. 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 Financial and start your successes along the way click the link in the description to download financial 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 well i think anything that feels female like just because i expect it it's like well men don't have to buy this like i will be squeezing every like little last drop of my tinted moisturizer this primer is bullshit yeah that's the one that makes me very anything that is like beauty regime related things yeah haircuts i'll go like six months i'll do it for you yeah i'll be right

i mean in covid i started cutting my own hair how did that go 3 a.m i mean that was obviously daylight's preferable when cutting your own hair but to that point so if you said to me so i've had my hair cut and colored since i was 16 years old like your mum paid for it until i got my first job and then i paid for it or probably even uni and if you said to me you are on a big debt-free journey you have next to no income you have to cut and or colour your own hair I would be like I have never cut my hair I couldn't cut my hair I love cutting my hair but I guess the point is I could of course I could yeah yeah of course I could I don't have to it's just it seems like a big frugal moment for

me to have done that but like yeah princess you can cut your hair can't cut won't cut my hairdressers sometimes listen to this and I promise can't cut won't cut it's in the budget you might end up with an inch fringe there are a number of hairdressers that someone started to talk about colouring their own hair in the community and all the hairdressers that someone started to talk about colouring their own hair in the community and all the hairdressers were messaging me and Laura behind the back

going I really want to respond and tell them that they definitely shouldn't do that because it ruins the hair but I don't want to come across as low. I did it myself in COVID

it took so long to grow out and it literally ruined my hair so use an expert. But I could I could just go grey.

Yeah. I could just I'm going grey right now. But I could fully go grey yeah I could just I'm going grey right now but I could fully go grey yeah I would embrace it things like that

that I would never consider dropping yeah like I would never ever oh really I would always find room in the budget

for that I will walk to work yeah but have my hair dyed yeah I will not be not blonde I would go I would forgo beauty

because I try I tend to go make up for anyway because I'm so lazy would forgo beauty because I try I tend to go makeup for anyway because I'm so lazy when I go to because I'm like nine o'clock falling asleep I hate then waking up

and having to go and take my makeup off so if I don't have to wear it in the first place yeah working from home is a good makeup saver yes

skincare regime yeah ugly days are so good for your wallet yeah love an ugly day and yeah for the wardrobe as well

you just like routine coziness. Yeah. Fine, it's not for us. No. But the idea of stashing away money. And pulling back on being so bougie because we are, let's be honest.

And just closing remark, in the financial app, in the budget donut, so if you're a budgeter, you know about the donut. It shows you the percentages that you send towards your fixed expenses your sinking funds and your flexible expenses and then your green bit is your excess and this is the bit that and people do get it wrong so i'm

just going to be really strict and correct you all this is not for i'm saving i'm using my excess to put in the travel fund no and i sometimes say it like that but i don't mean like that what i mean is that goes up into sinking funds your excess is the money that you have that you can put towards things that grow your net worth, which is either paying down your debt, increasing your savings or investing or overpaying your mortgage. Those are like the only things that move that number. The bigger your green bit, the more financially well you are. So we might not get to the fifties and 70% craziness, but actually, and you men do this more than the women, beating your previous month's excess as a percentage of your earnings. If it's 10% or 5% one month, if you can look at your budget and go,

next month, whatever got it to 6% or 7% or 8%. Because as you challenge yourself to do that, you just get used to, well, that bit has to go towards something that mindset of living on less than you make and growing that bit really good for financial wellness building up a big pot of cash um and also thinking about a world where actually what if you don't work full-time until 65 70 whatever what if you go part-time or what if you retire early? And basically that what happened by accident, that needs a plan. I've been on an excess journey recently, actually.

Oh, sure. My goal currently, this is where you'll see I'm a control freak. And actually I'm a saver. I'm going to get, I'm currently at 35% excess. Lucy! I know. Damn. I'm going to clap I'm currently at 35% excess Lucy I know damn

I'm going to clap I know I am not there my goal I say this every day literally every day to Alex

I'm like the goal is to keep fixed expenses as low as possible yeah 100% yeah and like

I'm such a food like creature of habit so like I know how much I'm going to spend exactly on food because you eat the same things every day but it feels so good now like I know exactly

like I will stick to that because I know that's exactly how much I spend and like I can live on that you don't want to change that donut that donut shows 35 I want to see the donut that's one of the highest

I've had people tell me because obviously we can't see so we'll have to screenshot it up and put it in the community and stuff so we might do an excess comparison

next payday shall we in the community what does your donut look like show us your donut I mean show me your donut there's no euphemism there surely

I could always make a euphemism like say anything I'll make it into one have you done a dilemma yet no if you're still with us we're about to do a dilemma. Promise. In a minute.

Okay am I trying to do too much? Okay am I trying to achieve too many financial goals at once or should I just focus on one at a time? Hi girls, I'm 24 and I'm going into my second year of working after graduating and looking at my financial goals, thanks to the financial app, I struggle to know if I should focus on just one at a time or all of them. I'm fortunate to have only about 7k debt which is a car loan. The monthly payment is 206 pounds and I'm currently paying an extra 100 pounds a month to reduce this loan term by about 12 months. My annual salary is around £36k. I have an emergency fund of about £1,000 at present which I'm working towards building by putting in £200 a month. I also have about five sinking

funds that I'm trying to grow for things such as car, medical, hair, holidays, gifts etc. I'm currently putting about £100 into a stocks and shares ISA and £100 into premium bonds. Each month I'm saving around £600, which is a very fortunate position to be in. I have a workplace pension that I've recently increased my contribution in line with the reduction of national insurance through salary sacrifice.

Ooh. She sounds like a perfect financial student. Oh my God. Like the nails emoji. Can well as this i'm trying to save for a house deposit slash going traveling with my target being around 15 000 pounds currently at 400 pounds but i'm not saving every month for this should i be focusing on one thing at a time in order to reach my financial goals quicker or should I can try or should I continue to try and hit them all she's a juggler I'm tired I'm tired just listening to it because she's achieving so much more than I

ever did at 24 I feel like she I feel like I would have been I wasn't her I wish I was her in terms of my knowledge of all these different areas but she seems really keen and I'm so proud of her yeah

you know like she's killing when you say like oh we always go oh they're doing so well like 24 yeah she's got like

a very mature that salary is crazy by the way congratulations yeah like you know maybe you're in the city as well and that disappears quite quickly.

But kudos to you. Like that is a huge salary for like your early job. Feels like she's nailing pension, auto-enrollment. I love the fact that she increased the percent to capitalize on the national insurance. I didn't do it. I didn't do it. Did you?

No. Basically, for those listening, what happened was national insurance got reduced and so it kind of put 1% back in our pay packet and most of us have just spent more. Hello. But she's done that.

So there's just really good financial decisions. I feel like crack on with your pension. That's automation. So we need to move on to other things. Sinking funds are just your budget. So that's not savings. That's not doing too much at once.

Don't get overwhelmed with your sinking funds. We obviously recommend using a digital bank, one with pots that you can kind of, when you've done your budget, you've got your sinking funds, you move them over and have those as part of your normal budget. The interesting thing for me, these are the conflicting things. £1,000 emergency fund, small. Needs to be more stocks and shares ISA and premium bonds it's kind of like

premium bonds isn't invested but she's like she's like doing a little bit great but but like you're spreading yourself two things

but that's stocks and shares ISA premium bonds mini emergency fund that's not going anymore and then I love this house deposit stroke travel fund that's extreme like is that in case you flipgers fund that's not going anymore and then i love this house deposit stroke travel fund that's extreme like is that in case you flip a coin that is not that is not intervailing travel budget is not going to buy a home but just in case i fancy dubai then i'm gonna go there

um and so i think the the however given given her age, I love that. It's a bit like a fuck it. I don't know why. It's like, I've always said this, a pot of money is the biggest, like, win. It's just the biggest, what's it called? It's like choice, freedom. Flex. Yeah.

There's a word somewhere like at the back of my head. It's the biggest flex because like you said, choice, freedom, you know, if you want to buy a home with it, if you want to travel the world with it, if you wanted to move jobs to a different city, you've just got money there. And so it also would probably form a bit of an emergency fund. I feel like where she needs to get to is that emergency fund needs to be higher, least one month's expenses and then grow it from there depending on the type of job you've got how many jobs there are

you know how whether you live at home or not we don't know it doesn't sound like the outgoings are humongous no and she's saving quite a lot with the amount of excess

that she's got I don't know she's on 34 and she's saving 6 she's pulling out of home she's on 36 saving 6 investing 200

putting 200 pounds oh she's got a car as well oh she might be at 200 putting 200 pounds oh she's got a car as well oh she might be at home putting 200 pounds a month in the emergency fund but yeah she's got 7k loan

for the car which she's working on paying that back she might be we're guessing but and she's saving towards the emergency fund

so I'd take that back because I thought she just saved it and then that was it yeah same I thought she'd like shut shop on that I would if, if it was me, yeah, like consolidate the two different investments that are going out. I would maybe put it into one because they're

like, do you know? Well, and there's more distraction. Or I'd just pause them. I pay off the loan quicker. So let's follow the process. So she only has two, she has two small emergency fund. So she needs to get that to one month's expenses. Like a thousand pounds just not going to touch the sides. And she's got a bit in her stocks and shares,

as I said, she's got a bit in her premium bonds. We answer what we would do. We will clear them out and we would build up an emergency fund that makes you just like feel good. And we'll continue

to do sinking funds because therefore... The budget. The budget, but the not bougie ones ones again because let's think about this car let's get rid of that car you don't want to go traveling with a car loan you don't want to buy a home with a car loan the quicker you pay off the car loan the quicker you can then ramp up your saving for a home and this is the same thing with um if you try to pay down pay down a loan save for a house save for traveling and invest you're just not going to be good at anything you're just not

making any progress like you're just nudging along i mean she seems quite motivated but yeah i'd be tempted and you are investing through your pension so you are getting some benefit of that but yeah i we were just a massive fan of one thing at a time you're doing amazing yeah that was the dilemma wasn't am i doing too many things at once and i think our answer to that is probably yes but you're not like you're in a really good place so don't worry too much let's just pull it back jail no this is more like a um yeah extra purgatory it is a little bit because i think i think she's going to fly I feel like she'll do so so well

imagine what the excess she's doing 300 yeah paying just over 300 pounds a month and she's doing an extra 200 in investing and she's doing 200

into emergency funds so if she could I think emergency fund first get it a bit bigger then flip to the car loan get it gone sooner than that 12 months even put all your

excess over there and then she's going to sell the car because she's going to go traveling yeah sure yeah so that's it as well so then she's going to have um lots of money 15 grand holiday fund yeah so done done easiest dilemma ever okay community win so i've just done my net worth for the first time in two months we spent our kitchen sinking fund recently and had a holiday to new york last week but with but with what i have managed to save in the last two months along with other investment increases it hasn't made as big of a dent as i thought it would i'll take that as a huge win yay so she ended up like dipping into

it but it grew anyway. Yes. I'm laughing at the kitchen sinking fund. I thought she meant kitchen sink. I did. I thought she was like through the kitchen sinker, saving up for this debt. No, she actually meant a kitchen sinking fund. You can grow your net worth and go to New York. Like this is a thing. It is possible. Is that fire she's living off the... Not quite yet, I don't think. But listen, on the way to,

because with everything she's paying off and building and investments growing while she sleeps, like that is passive income. That is, I put money into the stock market, I go to sleep and when I wake up, it's sometimes down, sometimes up. But after a few wake ups, it kind of history shows as it goes up.

If you'd like to tell us your win head to the community in the app or email it to the vault at financial.com okay next dilemma my parents keep avoiding their will hi girls there's been a couple of dilemmas lately surrounding wills and estates and i wanted to get some advice on a similar topic my parents have worked really hard throughout their lives and live a lifestyle on the higher end of comfortable. I don't really have any idea on what their net worth is but they have the assets including property and investments but also things like vintage vehicles which total around £60,000 alone. I'm not sure if that makes it a complicated estate. My dad is 68 now, not old, but not a spring chicken. And they are very

reluctant to make an updated will. They do have a will from about 20 years ago, but so much has changed since then. They don't even live at the same house and have sold and bought other assets in that time. It's something that they continue to put off and say they'll do after each holiday. But even though it wouldn't be an ideal situation if they never updated it, it's something that my brother and I would just get over and have to sort out. However we have a sister who is quite honestly an utter nightmare. For years she has caused the entire family some serious stress and trauma with her behaviour and lacks any sort of accountability at all and constantly plays the victim. Her finances are a mess and she's been fired from three jobs this year, has had countless CCJs and has even had energy companies cutting her off. My parents have always made a point of treating us

equally as children and I feel like and I feel they may be procrastinating sorting the estate in hope that she'll turn things around but after 20 years of the same behaviour I don't I don't have any hope that she will. my worry is that my parents will keep waiting and never update their will and as previously mentioned this this itself wouldn't be a huge issue my brother and I have a good relationship and could sort things out if it was just us but I know if that if but I know that if there is no clear instructions on their wishes my sister would drag it out for as long as possible and make the entire process laborious and difficult I know laura

has mentioned in a previous dilemma that a trust can be set up almost like a monthly allowance but my sister doesn't have anything medically wrong with her she just she's just irrational and lacks responsibility where do i even start with this how do i approach this with my parents without sounding that i'm greedy oh my god the um no we have talked about we talked about trust before that was in yeah she was quite correct it was in the context of um our listeners sister has never had a job had learning difficulties and basically the um parents wanted to make sure she was being taken care of after. It sounds like we've more got a chaos, chaotic black sheep maybe, who, listen, I'm not like, no shade on the sister as well. Like we're all entitled to be chaotic and we don't know what's going on in each other's lives.

So I want to break this down. So firstly, there is a will and it sounds from, you've not explained that the step brothers and sisters, that there's just three children. And so obviously in all cases, when it comes to wills and inheritance, like just get a lawyer when it's the right time, because this is a lot of money that you're dealing with and a lot of complications and a lot of law and then a lot of statute law and case law and it all gets, it all gets built on top of each other. And so you have to get proper advice for this

point. And this would usually be expected if it was a significant estate. But if everything's quite normal, I say normal where all the children are the same, the mum and dad married, there's no remarriages, because don't forget things like deaths and marriages nullify wills and you have to get a new one anyway. But they have one. So there's a will and the properties listed on it are incorrect. And we always recommend that you revisit a will either every five years

or if something big happens like- A big life event. You know, a birth, a death, a marriage. Those are the three things because the law can impact it. So it's absolutely best practice. i don't think they would be avoiding doing the will connected to the sister because if the intention is to treat equally we're just talking about the assets that are listed and i know a will so helpful to be able to understand what assets someone doesn't

doesn't have if we don't talk about money how do you know about extra properties or pensions or bank accounts or life insurances? And, you know, that time when if you pass away, your family are left in absolute stress. And so if you can make it easier for them and provide like, you know, a composite list, that's helpful. We did a blog a while ago and it was a founder of a will company. And the blog was about the will is not for the person that passes away it's of no benefit to them it's for the people that are left behind

so maybe positioning it to the parents like oh i listened to this podcast i read this blog the other day and don't show them this one no so we're going in for them um the blog's actually really good though if you look in the app and just search in the blog section Wills it'll come up and you can kind of say oh I read this blog the other day and this founder

of the Will company created it because his mum passed away and there wasn't really a Will in place that caused a lot of stress and anxiety for the family

like wouldn't it be nice if we could maybe update yours I'm going to do mine brother is going to do his like we'll all kind of do it together I was going to say that

I was going to say if your parents are in their 60s you know you're not a 16 year old, it sounds like. And so, and you hopefully,

if you've not got one or if you're ready to update yours, try and suggest you do it all together gently. It's such a delicate subject. And obviously, as I always reiterate to people, no one's entitled to anything. Do not act or relax.

Like there's so many people that go, oh, you know know because she's going to come into some money so we'll we'll wait for that no no no like you don't know one if there's any money and two of it would even come to you and the fact that it would it would even been talked about in the presence of these people like you don't want these people to pass away so you can get money it's just it's just gives me such an ick that inheritance is just such it should be a blessing and it should be not expected. And it's something that so many people plan for.

It really annoys me. Yeah, just you wait. Like I'm going to come rolling into money and never actually come. Surely it's just like, if you get your own shit together, it's a lovely bonus. Yeah, it should never be,

when people, God, rely on it to live or to exit. Well, so often we've seen it and it doesn't materialize and like you know it's it's so so i feel like the the stress of your sister and how she manages her money if she is a fully competent adult she's not very competent but if she's if she's well enough to look after her own affairs whether she's good at it or not then um it won't really be your problem and an estate what happens when both people pass away in a marriage is it's dealt with by probate and assets are sold inheritance tax is paid if it's due which in vast majority of cases 95% cases it isn't and so the classic cars and the businesses

and the houses kind of get sold and um you know a will is followed and so you won't know what's in the will if you haven't seen it in a long time or if you don't see it before they pass away until it's shared but it just doesn't really matter do you like what's in it is what's in it and she just sounds like she just wants to be organized as well i feel like there's a little bit inside you can tell that she's just like it's not up to date so it's not right it's not maybe she's, so it's not right. It's not maybe, she's worried that it'll get split differently,

but yeah, all the new assets that they've kind of come under and their wills, it's out of date, isn't it, effectively? The rules still apply, wherever I is, probably going to get split equally

between three children, but she just wants to know that there's a clear plan for when they pass away because it's hard enough anyway. And I think she recognises that emotional turmoil is difficult anyway, but to have someone that could, it could draw her out and take a long time because they've got all these new assets that aren't in the world.

Like I get where her bit of anxiety comes from, especially if she's got a loose cannon in the family. So everyone being clear and concise will just make that process much more easier. It's like I do feel for her where she feels like the parents are putting off doing it possibly until her sister gets her shit together and she's not going to do it, is she? And that shouldn't, first it puts no responsibility on you. And if there's a difference in the will,

if they have decided to leave more to your sister because she's got less because she's been rubbish with it, that's unfortunately their choice to do it. But it sounds like you don't know that. And hopefully, you know, it's just going to be a straightforward in the future split. But I like Holly's idea.

See, like they do need to try and do a will. Lead by example. But take them to the party. Yeah. Take them with you. We always say we're going to have a funeral party like at our house and be like, right, what's everyone's funeral song?

What are we eating at yours? Like, what do you want to be dressed in do you want to be cremated or buried like just make it a bit more accessible because it's quite dark to be sat doing it on your own my husband was like what do i want to do i was like why are you asking me he's like uh cremated or buried i was like we're gonna do cremated he's like okay yeah like like we're picking a menu for like a holiday or something we're gonna go for options yeah yeah yeah I've already picked like my casket really well it's a peak no hang on there's a bit of context to this because my auntie works for a funeral director like we didn't just like get the brochure out in fact we didn't get the brochure out no we actually did get the brochure out I In fact, we did get the brochure out. We did get the brochure out. No, we actually did get the brochure out. I want like a wicker one.

I was literally just about to say. It's good for the environment. They're expensive, you know. Biodegradable. Wicker. Biodegradable. But I'm going to get cremated anyway. So half of me is like,

can you not just put me in a cardboard box? Wait, so what happens then? They burn it. They burn it. You're so biased. It's money. It's all these people that buy a ridiculously expensive

casket i'm going to put all the funeral directors out of business i'm really sorry but why would you buy a really expensive coffin that's gonna go and get cremated this is not free all those cardboard boxes i've been hoarding yeah but it's so true you're literally gonna burn it five seconds later you get in it at the funeral home and then they burn it ten minutes later this is a morbid thing to say but that means that when people scatter ashes it's also like

the casket yeah I'll never think of that weren't you glad you tuned in to find that shell today just think of the nuggets we're normalising

every day is a learning day we're normalising but I want wildflowers like woven into the basket well I said I didn't want one because I thought it was a big waste of time and my answer was appalled but I want wildflowers like woven into the basket well I said I didn't want one because I thought it was a big waste of time and my answer was appalled

and I want to go off in a firework which is another like and land in our hair the most un-environmentally friendly thing and land in our hair

because she's going first and we're all looking up set me on fire and then put me in a firework boom honest to god and have champagne that's my thing I don't want anyone to be stood morbid I've been to enough funerals in my life whereby you stood in a firework boom honest to god and have champagne that's my thing

I don't want anyone to be stood morbid I've been to enough funerals in my life whereby you stood in a like miserable labour club and everyone's just

like really morbidly labour club you're so annoying what we're gonna do is we're gonna circulate a copy of Holly's will so you can all take inspiration from her plans

and then share yours be more Holly sorry she's the chaotic sister actually I'm not because I'm quite frankly she's the chaotic sister actually I'm not because I'm I'm actually not the chaotic sister

I'm the this is what's going to happen and I've said it enough times to everyone that if by God if you get it wrong I will haunt you like

don't if you bury me in a bra I'll haunt you Calvin you did laugh at that one like how can you empathise how can you empathise empathise

but to our listener A Star you are asking the right questions and you are getting you and your family shit together and everyone will

thank you for it so well done to you and your brother and hopefully you still learn some primary give her some financial tips

yeah send her to us gift her the app give her this episode she'll hate us put her in the car just wait a minute wait a minute

just go turn it off hang on it's kind of familiar it's familiar in fact if anyone wants to strategically place a dilemma

for someone in their life and you want to not fabricate it but like shush out names or shush it do it and tell us

and we'll we'll do it was that like episode 15 when my husband wrote in about the Spotify yeah she did it did shamelessly

yeah you planted that still not sorted it need to get a live admin together sorted what? sorted me? okay that's all for this episode the vault is now closed just a quick disclaimer I'm sorry. Me?

Okay, that's all for this episode. The Vault is now closed. Just a quick disclaimer, The Vault is just a chat on life and money topics and we are not giving financial advice.