The Vault with Financielle - "I earn £113k and I still don't know whether to rent or buy" | The Vault Episode 121

Episode Date: June 18, 2026

What's the first thing you cut when money gets tight? Coffee? Eating out? Nails? 👀This week's dilemmas:💸 "I'm 42, buying a house with my younger boyfriend — should we go big on the deposit or invest the rest?"💸 "I earn £113k and I still don't know whether to rent or buy"Got a money win or a dilemma that's been living rent-free in your head? Share it (totally anonymously 🤫) in the Financielle app community or email us at [[e-mail]] 💌You don't have to figure this out alone. More honest money chat at financielle.com 💖💸Connect with our Partner🫶 Protect yourself and loved ones with our friends at Lifesearch **The above is a tracked link, which tells our partner we sent you and may in future result in a payment or benefit to our site.

Welcome to the vault with Finan Channel. This is a safe space where we talk all things life and money and no topics are off limits. Howdy. Howdy? Howdy. Oh, I did a salute. That's not it, is it? Howdy. It's like tipping your hat.

Yeah. Tip your cat. My lady. Me lady. Howdy, Maloney. I'm not asked you in a while. I don't know if this has just been financial team chat or on pod chat about her butter TikTok.

She's got a butter TikTok guys. Has it popped off? Have you told people about it? So. Do you want anyone to feel? follow it. Yeah, please everybody. So I can get a sense and free butter.

That's my goal. What's the handle? It's called butter file. Svel it. Butter, P-H-I-L-E. Yeah. Good one. And so far I've just made like really weird, random, like montage videos of butter.

So really she wants to grow this account so she can leave Fanchel to be a butter influencer. She wants to travel the world. world and moved to Paris, maybe Normandy, have my own cows, make my own butter. Soid, life plan. So if you have any butter recommendations or if you could follow that account and grow it, we would really appreciate it. But I will be doing vessels for butter. And I'm going to test like really, what do you mean? Basically, like I'll use anything as a vessel for butter. All the thing that you put it on to eat it. I thought you meant like a cup, a dish.

No, like I'll use anything. What's your most rogue? vessel to date. I do like butter and chocolate. Oh, just about to say, how does that go? It's nice. It's not that rogue, but it's nice. Spread butter on top of a little chunk of chocolate. A slice of butter, a piece of chocolate. See, this is what I can't appreciate, right, the slicing of it.

It needs to be thinly spread butter. When I see how thick sometimes you have it. It's not cheese, but it looks like cheese. Yeah, that's it. A slice of cheese. When you said slice of butter, I was like, no one says that. They say spread. Because when you've got the butter in a dish

A butter dish I have to have like a sharp knife It depends on the time of you To be honest Yeah it does No I'm with you Like I just do a big slice Because I can't be bothered

Doing all of this Because I have like a third of the block On a piece of toast at this If I have two pieces of toast at once It's gone A lot of butter's gone Yeah I'm in a sourdough household Nice

As in Neil has turned into I don't know what Paul Holley would Preping his sourdough mother. Can hear him like slapping the sourdough in the other room And then the next minute is like making his coffee Making his coffee with his machine And doing his latte art and all that stuff

Flatwhite art. Artisan isn't it? And then yeah, then it's a sourdose. I appreciate that when you have a good vessel homemade sourdough It's not like a chunk of butter. No. So it warrants a big chunk of butter

So I am with you and it does depend on the season. If it's winter, it's very hard to spread. It's going to ruin the bread. Yeah, holy bread. Good hack. Put your butter dish on top of the toaster whilst it's... Yeah, that's a good idea. Toaster.

I, so many thoughts, because I'm in my head when I'm buttering a sandwich, I hate buttering a sandwich. I don't keep my butter in a butter dish, and maybe this is what I should do. That's what you should do. Because then I think about it too late, and it's in the fridge, and then I make holes in the bread. Yeah.

And then the other thing that I hate buttering is bagels, because it falls through the middle, it falls off, and I just go, in these big bagel shops, how do they constantly water? it not. Get everywhere. Anyway, we digress again. Okay.

Speaking of butter, which would not be my answer for this question. What's the first thing that you would cut when money gets tight? Put your little segue there. Do you remember when butter went up in, it wasn't that long ago? It was a pandemic time. It went up and I was like, are you kidding me? Oh yeah. They were putting a lurchop pack like in perspex.

But I would never buy a lor pack. No. I feel like it's fake. It's like. Butter washing. Fake butter. Butter washing. What would I cut?

Well, I spend a lot of money on holidays. Yeah. So I always say like in terms of my waterfall budget, like where does the money go in terms of like expenditure? Obviously, house is top and fixed expenses like bills and whatnot. And then my next biggest expense is groceries on a monthly basis. I would have to cut back on that and just not on it to the local. Sainsbury's three times a week to top up on the shop that I didn't correctly do at the weekend,

which we all do, we're all guilty of. But yeah, holidays, even though I don't want to, so I would desperately try and find ways to cut budget in other areas. Like, I don't have a big clothing, but some people will prefer to spend on things like clothing, you can't cut those. That's what I mean. So by chunky area that if all, if shit hit the fan and it does in life, the holidays would have to be cut back. Yeah. And I hate saying that out loud, but it's a fact. That's where, you know, bit of our excess does go. Investing. I'd be like, do I want to invest?

I'd go on holiday. I'd probably go on holiday. Yeah. Yeah. It's important. Maybe investing. I don't know. Do you know one thing I would find incredibly hard

and people actually have to make these decisions all the day is like kids' activities. So as they're getting older and they get really passionate about it. But they and they get good at it that, you know, it's really expensive to do. Like the kit that they need, dance is the worst. I mean, I love the person that runs. My daughter's dance school, but we call a direct debit. Yeah. So the direct debit because everything, it's so expensive.

Not the dance school, the costumes, the events, the different bits, the different bonds, the fees. Like Teddy's football is £25 a month. Yeah, no, no chance. And Laura's like she could only dream that that would be your child. We're just wading her from a ballet solo because the two-toes are like, quite by a car. So we're like, no, I just don't think dance is for you. She's very talented.

She may be. She can do it at home. So I can imagine when people, some people listening to this, I will be on a really, really tough lean journey. It could be a mat leave. It could be a health issue. It could be a paying off debt. And you do have to make sacrifices.

And it is really tough. Like if you said to me, I had to cut something for my children right now. I would find that really, really hard. If you said to me, you had to cut back on. I think fitness stuff might come high up for me. I know I can keep. fit without, you know, I could cut back to some classes, not buy as many fit clothes and stuff. Holidays is probably something that, I think, where you feel like it's for a period

of time, some of these decisions are a bit better. But other than that, like Holly says, I'm actually not that boozy with, like, eating out or clothes or stuff, so there's not a lot of room. Yeah. Yeah, that probably seemed really, like, arrogant when I was like, I'd just cut back off holidays, ha ha, ha, ha. And Laura Crack, that's quite rightly is. Some people have to choose between I'm not going to get my hair done because I need to pay for my kids this. I'm not going to go on any holiday or have any sort of fun or go out at the weekends with my friends. I'm never going to go out for dinner. I couldn't dream of going out for a coffee. You're making really hard decisions, especially when you're in a debt payoff journey as well. Or the math isn't mathing with

your life at the moment. The money that's coming into your household doesn't cover your expenses. And it might be for a short period of time. But I can only imagine having to make those really tough decisions of like do we you know how much do we scrimp on the food shop like we're not actually eating very well right now because we can't afford to it's hard to eat healthy it is usually it's for a period of time hopefully um because i feel like lydia actually you did an article on lydia oh yeah yeah on holidays what was that like doing that romanticising a UK holiday um somebody was like trying to just reach their money goals they were deciding i'm not going to go away this year but and they were getting loads of FOMO, seeing everyone's like holiday pictures and stuff.

Yeah. But you can, you know, romanticise. Lucy's the queen of romanticise it. Romanticize going away in the UK or just like making, having a nice time at home. Yeah. You can so do that, especially like on those days where it's a nice day or like there's some pictures of like Wales and Cornwall and it may as well be like New Yorker. Granted like weather in this country plays a part in it, but sometimes you can go overseas and not get the weather. but I do like that.

I think when you can align it with a goal and it's like, I'm not doing this because I'm doing this, it's romanticises the new making the most of it, isn't it? And treating it like a holiday. We spend so much money on holidays. And honestly, I think I've said it before. Last year I went to Wales,

we went to Anglesey for a long weekend. We were blessed with the weather and I think it definitely made a big difference because we were on the beach every day. The kids were panel boarding. We were panel boarding. We had the best, best, best time. And we romanticised it.

as much as we possibly could. And the kids still remember that as one of their favorite holidays last year. And we went to Corfu, we went to Tenerife, went to France, Belgium. We were lucky to travel,

really lucky. But they still remember Wales as like the thing. You're almost more relaxed. Yeah, there's no pressure. Yeah. I think you're absolutely right.

You've not paid, you know, so much money to be here that you're not like, be grateful. Like, you're another ice cream, blah, blah,

whereas we were, you know, Betsy Code, we talked about it on the green, playing football, going to the bakery. Like, they remember all those things

and it is what you make of it. So, yeah, don't worry this year if you're having to cut back on certain things, you absolutely can romanticise it. And I do believe that Lydia, who was travelling, was going to Norfolk, and I was like,

are you kidding me? People, like, fight tooth and nail to get an amazing little cottage in Norfolk for the summer. I was like, you have to romanticise this and, like, do it for me because I want to go to all the amazing, like, little restaurants and bakeries

and ice cream places. The canal boats, isn't it? Yeah, and I think she was suddenly clicked in the community area. I think I was one that said, like, you need to go and find the best, places to eat on Instagram and like tick all these little things off that you've never done before and she was like actually do you know what we haven't actually explored it that much we

just kind of go and stay and in the UK like switch onto holiday mode yeah I think lots of us that are lucky enough to travel where there's like a plane and an airport and you get in the hotel and you go yeah yeah so like but when it looks familiar you maybe you don't as much like decide at the point that you're on holiday like do you not take your laptop or do you know have you're out of office formerly on or do you go I'm in holiday mode now that's quite yeah what was the answers do a damn jigsaw yeah jigsaw means holiday yeah yeah we'd love a jigsaw until we're on day four and then we're about to go home and we're we've got like we've got to finish it and laura chooses the most whoever chose that last year was horrendous it was no it was a bit marvellous we thought the kids could

help but all the characters are like this big and everyone was green like why there's so many green I honestly I do I do love a jigsaw do you know why because I can't remember my phone and I can't be answering emails. I can't. But the other thing is and I don't talk to the kids and they need something and I'm like,

what do you want? They need a bath. I got out on it. And I'm like, you'll have to wait. It's quite addictive. I've nearly done. It's like 10 o'clock at night.

I'm like, okay. I've been here 12 hours. I'm not a toilet break. What I do like about. Mommy, I'm hungry. Not unless you finish that corner. What I love about a jigsaw is it does bring people together though

because whenever was, because we did, I did a Harry Potter one a bit ago with them. Well, actually I decided it. No, it was Dr. and so Ava was doing bits of it. But it was on the kitchen island. And it took that long that it was like probably a two, three day thing.

So anyone that came in the house would try and do a bit. Yeah, it's a communal thing. I like it. I like a drink, so. Yeah. Okay, this is what our community said. Coffee. Never realized how much I spent until it stopped.

Treats, date nights, takeaways, even bougie items on food shops get reduced to own brand. M&S food shop back to Aldi We go. Dining out, takeaways, subscriptions are the first to go. hair, nails, brows, et cetera, just never my wax. I'm not giving up on that. She's got a non-negotiable. Yeah, and that's okay. I think we've talked about it before,

but because where we live, there's no sort of like delivery or Uber-Eats or this kind of stuff, but you see Uber-Eat drivers like just picking up a coffee for people. And I find that wild. Like, that is beyond, that is boogey beyond belief

that you won't even step down the street and go and get yourself a coffee. I know. That's the thing. I like it hot. Yeah. And they're like getting it there. It's like social interaction.

It's not that good. If you get a coffee and then you drive, drive, drive, drive, drive. And then it's never as good. I like a cappuccino. So like all the foams kind of disintegrated off it. And that just kind of is a bit more like regular coffee. But coffee is an easy one to go. It really is.

I know it's the more cliched one. But I love that someone said that because, I mean, in the coffee, I got a coffee on the way into here. And it was a nice treat. But I would have found. a brew a treat as well so I didn't have to have it but there was on the menu

this like strawberry matcher thing which just looks aesthetic but I can't imagine to taste nice correct me if I'm wrong guys pink lemonade four pound 20 that's insane

pink lemonade the bot that was on the same menu and it looked pretty so it was like on a blue screen with a pink clear plastic lid it was nearly all ice in the ad

yeah that's the thing as well pink lemonade four pound 20 like that is next level craziness. I'm financial poor. Like sometimes I'll like we can, I can obviously afford that. I'm really lucky that I can. Absolutely not. Yeah. The kids sometimes come to me and like you can see their friends like parents just like, buy them anything and I find myself going, I'm not buying that. I'm not

buying that. And then I'll literally be like, Holly, you are an absolute div. You can absolutely do it. It's more like the principal. No, it's like a social experiment, I think. Yeah. How much can we get them to pay? Literally. I was in prep this morning. They had frozen matcher, like slushy matcher. It was nearly six pounds, five, 60 or something. It's ice. Whereas Pratt do a meal deal, by the way, for seven.

And you get a drink and a sandwich and some like crisps off fruit or snacks or whatever you want. Like it is getting absolutely crazy. It's crazy. It is a social experiment. I love the thing they're at when people out, these brands on TikTok where they pour the drink and they show you how much drinks actually in it.

And we're always meant to get the small because the medium and large aren't that much bigger. It's the cocktails. suddenly join the big ice cube. It's like, but I'm like, I'm pulling it out on the bottom and it's like, she's like,

oh, sorry. Oh, you're like, no ice, please. Yeah, no ice. Warm. Ice on the side.

Ice on the side. I have my eyes in a separate glass. Nails, dining out. Cleaner. Is a new one? I'd have to give up the cleaner.

I clean before she comes anyway. It's like a running joke. I'm literally like scrubbing the bath and my mum's like, You are ill in the head. Dining out, I love cooking, so I try to make weekend dinners extra bougie. Botox. Oh, yeah.

Yep, dining out, takeaways, subscriptions, Netflix and alcohol. Alcohol's so expensive. It's really expensive. Expensive socialising, gigs, direct debits. What do? Yeah. Just cutting off every direct debit. Maybe just check your terms and conditions.

but you cancelled day. Clothes, hair, lash appointments, brows, nails. It's a lot of beauty. I just felt saying a lot of beauty on there, isn't there? Because the non-essentials. Yeah. Like it's...

I think it's a good thing to maybe one month. Go without. But try and do it yourself at home so you're not like completely breaking up with it. You're not missing out. You just... Yeah, someone wrote in, didn't they? About doing their own manicure.

I saw it pop up on our Instagram. Someone said, oh, I've done my at home manicure. and it's great. She was like, I'm really happy with it. They buy lamps. Yeah, she learned how to do

buy a little side hustle. Literally. The interesting thing with those is like trying it for a period of time. Some people got,

oh, I could never. So I go, well, try it. Try it. Like, try, you don't try everything,

try something. Susan and I this morning were chatting Lucy about the you glow up article about like the summer glow up and the actual

cost of it and we were laughing about how she was like, oh my God, I felt so seeing like all of us do especially if you, depending on

you're going away with, where are you going? Like, they're going to Mar-Beyer soon, and she has an amazing selection of summer clothes. And so she doesn't feel they need to go out and buy a loads more, but lots of people would do new outfits for the fool, knew this, new that, and the beauty regime. And she's like, it's like lashes and eyebrows, and I'm like, and then we wear sunglasses the entire time we're away. Yeah, and I'm at the bottom of the pool with goggles, pretty mermaid. She'll be in there with the kids, like, she wouldn't even know.

She is a player. Not a player. She's a, she is not. She's a player. She plays with games. She's like a social secretary. She's like the animatio. You know, like the animation team, entertainment team.

She's got her in a bun and she's getting in that pool with her sunglasses on. No one's seeing her lashes and her eyebrows. I think she had a bit of a thing about that. But, you know, they're the things that, for some people, the kind of thing that you try. I was like linking it a little bit like if you did a no spend challenge. Like if you wanted to save a grand quickly,

what would you do? do and knowing that you could reintroduce back in, it's always less pressure to cut it and then go, fine, too much time it's going back in, but I'm just having a break. Yeah. And then go. Botox is an interesting one. I don't have it done myself, but I think our friends would struggle because you hear them saying like, I'm desperately need to get my Botox because it makes such a, they think

it makes such an impact on their experience. Yeah, yeah. So I think that would be quite hard. Anything aesthetic that you truly believe makes a huge difference, must be. be quite hard. Whereas like a nail, you can just like paint your nails or color your eyebrows. Some of us, well, yeah. When you got rid of it, we just decided that.

I did a little shimmer. I did that in bed last night and then I had to sleep like this. Because I can't be, I can't dry them like whilst I'm conscious. Oh really? I went to a spa day and I have had my. She gets bored. Gels taking off on my toes like at the end of last summer. And I painted my own toes.

Fell asleep. And it was like, textured. Because all the fibers of your duvet were stuck to it. You had fairy toes. Literally. It was a great spot day for me. I'd walk around with my feet like this. If you're stuck in consumer debt, listen to this.

One financial user said budgeting the financial way helped her clear over two and a half thousand pounds worth of debt and finally feeling control of her money. If you're ready to do the same, download the financial app and join our community today. Okay, time for our first dilemma. Oh, God. Sorry, guys. I've lived a life. I've lived alive to the show what time. It's only, you know, half an hour in. I'm 42, buying a house with my younger boyfriend. Should we go big on the deposit or invest the rest? All la, ladies. My life took a bit of a turn

a couple of years ago. My relationship ended. I left work to go self-employed and a few months, after a few months of living at my mum's, I've moved into my own place. Recently, my boyfriend also in and things are getting serious. I'm 42 and we're planning on getting a house together next year. I'll have about 18K equity in my place and we've been saving together and should have 20k in his Lysa by then. I was too old to open one by the time I got focused, which is a bit gutting. We'd be looking for a property around 200k so we could potentially use just the savings as a deposit, just my equity or combine the two for a bigger deposit, which would lower our mortgage fees and term. My question is, should we go for a bigger deposit or a minimum deposit and put the rest

in a stocks and chairs, ISA? I feel like that ISA would have better returns. And should the worst happen, we wouldn't have everything tied up in bricks. We'd also then each have our own little F off fund. What do you reckon, girls? Fantastic dilemma. Big news. Yeah. Congrat with a younger man. I love that for you. And that, you know, that's something that you both aligned on and both excited about. Obviously, we love reminding people about when you buy a house with someone that you're not married to, there just things to think about.

There's things about, you know, are you both buying equally and contributing absolutely equally? I know that's kind of timed up a little bit in the question, but how you buy it is really important. Speaking to your solicitor and your mortgage lender about how you structure it, if one person's putting more in for those listening at home, there are things that you could do. There's ways you can buy it. You can buy it. joint tenants or tenants in common two different ways, but it's basically how you own it proportionately.

You can sign documents to sing, you know, aligning the equity correctly and who owns what, who's entitled to what in terms of growth. So that can be quite important because, you know, you're not married. And obviously if something was happened to one of you, you would need to make sure,

one, that there's like insurance in place and life insurance to cover things like the mortgage, because if you've bought it as a two and something happens to one of you, you're not married. so that the assets don't automatically pass to each other. So just bearing that in mind and fronting it up because it's okay to buy property, not married,

just understand the consequences to that. So then this is a classic playbook question, a financial playbook question, because we give a consistent answer, which is not like a financial gate-kept thing. This is universal personal finance kind of principles where we want people to have strong foundations before they start taking on risks,

risks may be investing or it may be buying a property where your money's locked away. So when we go through the playbook, we talk about having one month's mini emergency funds and one month's expenses in the bank and whether that's separately or together, you can have a think about that. Then we want you to look at consumer debt because consumer debt is such a drain on your income that when you are looking at right move and thinking about the nice property that you're going to buy, having two cars on finance and having credit card bills and maybe dipping in your overdraft or maybe something on finance, maybe some buying our pay later,

looks messy to a mortgage lender. It really does. Like they don't mind, obviously, sometimes they like credit because it can help look like you actually know how to borrow. But a lot of your income's going to, like, crap, really. You know, it's not going to show for it. Not really. I know you might have a couple of car leases, but other than that, like, it's not an asset that you own. And so it also can limit how much you can borrow. So being as debt-free as you can and are able is really, really important. Then, having a larger emergency fund. So we absolutely want people to be having like three, six months worth of expenses depending on, are you self-employed? Have you got a reliable job? Are you employable?

If you got sick, what are your plans? Do you have income protection money? All those kind of elements that help pick what the right number is for you. Because lots of people don't have that bigger emergency fund, do they? No. The smaller one. But the bigger one, I would say most people in this position go house deposit. Yeah, I'll skip a step. I'll skip a step. I'll skip a step. I'll skip a step and think that I've got savings, but then they mix up savings and house deposit and then presume that the whole chunk will be kind of rolled forward and used forward. So this is personal finance.

So this bit is down to you to decide, but if it were me, I would want the biggest emergency fund that gives me comfort, but then still allows me then to buy the house, but the emergency fund's priority and split equally so that you both have it in your own name. So I think cash ice is a really good idea because your savings are going to be able to grow tax-free.

And then having it that way, there's no point putting loads down as a deposit in terms of equity and cash, buying the house. You've no money, but you've got the house. You've bought the biggest house you can. One of you lose is your job. Oh, and then the roof, bloody is awful because something will happen.

It always does. Someone didn't tell you something. There's a leak somewhere, there's damp somewhere. And you've nowhere to go, no emergency. You can't handle an emergency. You've just got this big house and all your money is tied up in a house. Yeah. But the other way around, you don't want to have an excess amount of money and cash savings

and have borrowed the maximum you can because the long-term impact of that is you're going to pay a load in interest or a load more than you would have, both in terms of the length of term and the amount of interest rate that you're going to have because you've got lower loan to value. So it's a question of balance. is and if you went to a financial advisor they'd probably say invest it because you return it's a math question for them where sometimes we're more of like what does it what do you oh yeah I forgot you actually asked about returns into the ice so didn't you but

I think you were right to go through the playbook stage because I skipped a step and I literally was very like granular on the question I was just thinking this or this and like personally I would want to put more down on the mortgage because I want to pay it off quicker I don't want It is a debt, whether we like it or not. But it would hope it would go up in value. But, yeah, financial advisor would probably like, well, your returns and investments are like going to be what, like maybe 7% and how much interest are you paying on the house? And like, they would work out as a maths equation, whereas we would be like,

well, how would you feel? Like, how would you want to feel? And also, it's a simple maths equation. A more complicated math equation is incorporating risk. So a true, like a really basic bitch math question is, there's a 4% mortgage rate and you may get 7% returns in the market. Therefore, obviously, you should invest the difference. What isn't played into that is a few things.

One, the risk of you needing that, and there'll be a very, very complicated math equation. You could probably do which factors this in, which is the risk you need the money at some point and you don't have that. So then you have to borrow. So then you borrow that at an interest rate, a high interest rate and the other math elements to it. And the risk that the market doesn't perform at that level in the time. time that you predicted because there's ups and downs of the market. And so what I always say with the mortgage is there's a guaranteed return. Like you are, if you're overpaying your mortgage on a 4%

mortgage, you're effectively making 4% definitely. So it's, so there's a math, not only is there a math, reasoning for it. That's absolutely how you feel. Yeah. And some people, when we say they should they overpay a mortgage, should they invest? And it's like, well, think of the pros and cons of either and why not, if you can, why not do both? Because, you know, it means you're diversifying your investments across different asset classes, you know, equities in terms of the market and then property. It means some of it, depending on how it's put into investments, is liquid. So it's in bricks and mortar to get that money out, you either have to borrow or you have to sell. Whereas to get access to an ISA, you can get it usually immediately, unless it's a fixed rate one. If you put

into a pension, you can't get at it. You decided to get a better kind of longer term return, a lot of a tax benefit, but you've decided to lock it away until 60, well into your 60s. So there's a different question for all of them. It's just, you're right, it's not always the immediate return that you can get. But sometimes, and this is, I guess,

where people in the gross stage of the playbook are, you divide and conquer. Yeah. You do a little bit of each. Yeah. Like, just for, to compare, like, we've got an emergency fund and it's split in half

and it's an easy cash is. So, like, Laura, recommended that early on, as your F-Off fund, and I think they even mentioned it as well. They said should we keep some back in and I would have it as a cash ice, having like accessible funds that aren't at risk of going up and down, stable is worth the peace of mind versus the kind of volatility of them possibly going up and down. Then over and above that, for me, that's the question of splitting it proportionally.

So making sure you do put a good enough chunk down. Like we've seen, you know, stuff in the press about 5% mortgages, but the interest rate is going to be tough on some of the money. those. Having a balance is the key. Okay. Before we move on to our second dilemma, I'm going to pass the floor to Laura. And she's going to pitch to you why you should press the subscribe button. Subscribe well, since we did it last week, so many hundreds and hundreds of you did do this.

You subscribed. So, no pressure. There's a lot of you that haven't. So some of you got off your bums if you were not driving. No, I'm kidding. But it is really, really important to us. So if you could like, follow, subscribe on the platform that you're on and others, I can't tell you the difference it makes.

It shows this product, this podcast to more people. We, you know, this podcast, I'm being very open with you guys here. This is like not a moneymaking scheme for us. This is because we love doing it. You'll see that we don't have every episode sponsors. You know, we have got the app, which is, you know, we've got a business where we've got subscriptions. This is all about you in the community

and you are the reason that we keep doing this podcast because it feels like this intimate chat where we talk about your dilemmas and we want more people to be able to listen to it and we want to be able to make it bigger and better. And the reason that lots of big podcasts do ask you for this is because the platform then shares it to more people. So please do do all that.

We really appreciate your support. And it worked last week. So those of you that haven't yet, your fellow Fan of Shell, listeners did. And if you have done it, messages and tell us. Yeah. And share it with other people as well. Like there's so many dilemmas that come through. Is there a WhatsApp group that you put this into? You're all in a girl's WhatsApp group. You're all in too many. Like put it in the PCFA one or put it in the gym one or put it in the neighborhood watch one. Yeah. But share it and also

tell people, like if you've got a, this helped me in this way. And if you've got a dilemma, you can email to the vault at fanishal.com and these girls may or may not workshop it. but, you know, I love the fact that we debate what you share with us, but you do as well. And then when you send, I love it when you go, and this is what I would do. We always send it back to the person. So they always get, if we think it's all right, sometimes it's a bit rogue and we go, okay, we'll keep that for us. But your support is greatly appreciated. It is.

Did you know that over a third of women in the UK have no protection in place compared to just 16% of men? We've partnered with Life Search so you can chat to an advisor for free. and get the cover that you deserve. Head to fanashel.com for slash protection to get your free quote today. Okay, now we can move on to the second dilemma. I earn 113,000 pounds and I still don't know whether to rent or buy. Hi ladies. I'm a single professional with a salary of 113,000 pounds.

I currently live with friends and I'm paying 1,300 pounds in rent. So naturally buying feels like my next best option. But what I can afford in London or so. Surrey is only likely to be a stepping stone house. And I think buying might waste me more money on mortgage interest with the flat not increasing so much in value. Whereas with renting, where I'd pay more but not own it, I'd still have the flexibility and could pay into a higher interest savings account.

I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on this. Thank you so much. 113 is such a niche number. I know, yeah, it's. Very specific. I like it. And it's great to hear women earn in this money like you can. Yeah, it's quite inspiring for the community members to come. I want to be a single professional learning that. You can. We know people that do, don't we?

They're incredible. We do. And property is a minefield for so many different reasons that on the continent people don't buy as often. Like it's a very established rental system. Whereas, especially in the UK, with property prices and how they've grown over the years, over the past two, three decades, really, are parents, especially if you are working class or lower middle class, made wealth through property. So, you know, the fact that you can own something, you know, with the bank, you don't own it yourself, but with the bank, and then it grow over the years just by you staying there and kind of paying down this debt. You know, there's not many other ways other than obviously

investing, but that normal people, if you're already having to pay an expense every month, you know, to get this, what's called capital growth, which is the value of the property goes, that grows up at the same time. It's massive. and it's not happening for our generation as easily. There's so many variables, there's so many, you know, London properties or city centre properties or certain types of properties, new bills that have never regained their 2008 prices

and we're in 2026 now. And so they're not always the gold mine that they have been for the generations, but we've just got this like property, property, property. So it can be difficult. So the only way we can answer it, is one, what we would do, but two, the things that are personal to your life. So these are the things that could impact it.

So flexibility is a massive one. You know, you guys both don't own your properties. Obviously, I know Lydia, you live in, your partner owns his property, your renters. And we've always said to you, there is nothing wrong with that. Because it gives you absolute flexibility. It buys you patience. You may overpay a little bit versus what you would pay on. a mortgage. But actually, early mortgage life is really high interest anyway that you don't own

most of the home. And for a period of time, that is very empowering. And actually, you can set up a system where, and this is the point of what the, or the listener said, I would put the difference in high interest rate savings. It's when people don't. Yeah. So when people go, I'm going to rent, we're going to see how it is. But then there's still no extra investing, extra saving, extra planning that goes on that you end up as someone that hasn't benefited from what we call capital growth and growth of your net worth because all your income has gone on your rent. So whilst it gives you flexibility and patience and deciding where you want to be, decide, you know, you might meet someone and then buy, you know, buying a property on your own is quite difficult. You might be able to

afford a property, but it's not the one you want. So you feel like you're compromising to get on the ladder. And with all the fees that can be involved, you know, you only get that first time buy a deal, you know, wants that mortgage and that's time. duty. Thereafter, you know, it's very expensive to keep moving home. It's not like it used to be where you would just make money and move on, make money and move on. So it can be a good idea.

The flip side of that is at some point, we, I would love for people to be able to own a home, one because it's diversification of assets, which we just talked about. So it's making sure that you've not just got money in cash and you've not just got money in investments, but you have money in property as well. But also it's like stability when you've found the right place. You know, a big thing about renting is you could, you landlord me. choose not to continue with that property and there's just this uncertainty of whether you can stay there. And so if you, if that's your home, like we've seen it before with like families with

kids and they need to be there and they can't be anywhere else and there's, and the property shortage in our village you cannot rent at all. It's so, so difficult. And if you do it, it's really expensive. Yeah, it's overpriced even. And so when you get to a point where you know where you want to be, you want to stay, there are so many advantages to becoming a homeowner and there's that stability. So I always stay. like, I don't know about, I don't know what you think, like, check in with the chapter of your life that you're in and what's affordable versus what the future holds. I'm romanticising her life, living with friends at 42. Is she 42? Or is that a dialogue before?

That was the previous day. Okay. Maybe she's like, I don't know, early 30s, I'm just getting, living with your friends at this time of your life, having a bit of disposable income, being able to, like, travel and have the option to invest. And like, what an amazing time of your life. You know, and I hope that you don't feel under pressure to buy a home just because society tells us that that's what we need to do. Your parents might be telling you or your friends might be telling you. Yeah, you're watching what's going on or you're at that certain age where you should be

buying a house now. It might not want to own. It might just be like something that you've always wanted to do and now you feels like the right time. But I like your perspective of, like, she's already thinking ahead and planning and I think we're more answering the dilemma maybe for people that aren't and are just like flying by the seat of the pants. She's got a bit of a plan.

If I don't buy, I will be putting these. difference in a high interest savings account. So that one day, when I absolutely do feel ready, I will have like a cash lump sum there ready to go. Oh, I always say cash is queen, like having as much, it's never a bad idea. And when we say cash, obviously, making sure you're making the most of it

and you're using your tax wrappers and stuff. Because you could buy now. Yeah. And you're choosing not to? Couldn't think of anything worse right now. Yeah? Than the admin. Yeah.

You're happy as you are. So don't rush. And also, we'll change your mind about the house. We have like commitment issues. Yeah. See? Yeah, but it's a big deal because like it's a bigger, you know, it's a bigger commitment than marriage sometimes. You can get out of a marriage. You can't use it out of a mortgage. You know, you can, the way you borrow, the consequences of it, you know, locking that fixed amount into your budget. People have different views on where they want to be. You know, it's like I said, we always, at some point it is quite stable to have put down roots. And they don't actually even be forever roots, but having this diversified stuff. But, you know, it's like I said, we always, at some point, it is quite stable to have put down roots. And they don't actually even be forever roots, but having this diversified stuff. But, but. It's not always a bad thing. People go, oh, I'm going to rent, I'm going to pay down a landlord's mortgage. Yeah, but they're providing you with housing.

I'm actually paying for a service. But there's a massive housing shortage for people that aren't able to borrow because there's a lot of other systemic reasons as to why people cannot get on the property ladder. That's not people's fault. But what they do want, there's a shortage of, you know, housing, like it's an expense. You know, you don't say that can't, well, you might say that counts tax or waste money, but you have to legally pay it. And you pay someone for your heating.

You pay for a service. Housing provision, for a period of time, it is a, is a service and that's okay and some people are all right with that. And if that was more rental properties, maybe rents wouldn't be as high as well. So it's a, it's a tough one. I think it's a like we talked about plan ahead and always have options available. And I've seen it, unfortunately, where people will choose to rent, they'll buy in the future and they don't prepare for that future. And suddenly they go, oh, my landlord said that the house is available to buy. I can't afford it. Or something's come up right where I

want it but I'm not going to get proofed for my mortgage because I've not saved up enough. Not planned for it. So don't dillie daddle in the middle. Yeah. Yeah. You love your landlord. Didn't he come around and change like a light bulb the other day? What was it that you did that you didn't know and you? Do you remember? I can't remember. I feel like some niche like he's really not. My God. Was there like a leak? I don't know. There was something funny. You're like, oh, we just needed to do this. But it's so nice to find that landlord that you can ring up. He gives us like discount in December and everything. Oh, my God. That is so lovely.

I know. I know. Good egg. He is very nice. Thank you, Richard. Shout out to Richard. I'm sure I'm missing. Okay. That is all for this episode. The Vault is now closed. And just a quick disclaimer, The Vault is just a chat around life and many topics. We are not giving financial advice. Are you one of those media strategy people clicking through slides, scrolling spreadsheets? Yes? Good. This is for you. Because on Spotify, there's an audience that's different. Locked in. Loyal. Invested. They're called fans. Fans don't just listen to music They feel seen by it Like it belongs to them So when your brand shows up on Spotify

That's who you're talking to And you're right next to artists like me Lizzo So are you ready to talk to fans Spotify advertising You're among fans Hey y'all's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair Ever order furniture online

And wonder what if Like what if it doesn't hold up That sofa was four days old You should have ordered from Wayfair With Wayfair there's no what if Just style you love And quality you can trust Visit Wayfair.ca

Fair, every style, every home