The Vault with Financielle - "I Earn £50k But I Want to Take a £20k Pay Cut” | The Vault Episode 124

Episode Date: July 9, 2026

This week we're getting into the messy reality of mortgage overpayments, emergency funds, and whether a dream job is worth a £20k pay cut 👀This week's dilemmas:💸 "I've Been Overpaying My Mortgage for Two Years — But I Have Nothing in Savings. Am I Backwards?"💸 "I Earn £50k and Want to Take a £20k Pay Cut — Am I Making a Huge Mistake?"Mentions:🏡 Amortization calculator: https://www.calculator.net/amortization-calculator.html💸 Get cashback that reduces your mortgage interest with Sprive (£5 extra for you using code: FINANC)*Got a dilemma that's been living rent-free in your head? Share it (totally anonymously 🤫) in the Financielle app community or email [[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 are tracked links, which tell our partners we sent you and may in future result in a payment or benefit to our site.

Welcome to the vault with financial out. This is a safe space where we talk all things life and money and no topics are off limits. Hello everybody. Good morning. Do you know, Holly and I were actually in a vault last week. A vault? Where we? We went off the toilets with the Ned.

Slaps and said, yes. We went to, we had a couple of meetings in London and went to the Ned. If anyone's not been, I can definitely recommend it. It's the old, I think it's the Midland Bank headquarters, what was Midland Bank. And you can just imagine. like all the bank tellers in there 100 years ago and you'd go in and pay you money. It's given that Harry Potter

you know when you're walking and they're all at the desk like the clerks it's like I imagine that's what that and in my head I was thinking Mary Poppins because to crush the bank and the tuppence

that used to scare me that bit actually Mary Poppins whatever if you go downstairs and then there's a bar the toilets are down there they're not in the vault but the big door of the vaults there

and I was like I'm a fan of shell yeah real life at home we felt that home. We did. We got a lot of tech bros there in the Gile, so not so at home. It would have been more finance bros at Chahawainance bros, I know. But yeah, same thing. We loved it anyway. We'd go back. That was great. Okay, I've got a really good community question for today. I think actually you said this, Laura. Should you swap credit reports before you're married? Oh, I did.

It's like airing your dirty lawn. You're like, you always go, you show me mine and I'll show you yours. Like, should you do that? Was your initial instinct? Yeah, I do think you should. Like, in anticipation of bringing finances together, not sure it's a first day. No. But if you're actually bringing in a folder. I'm presented.

But it is for lots of people who have had or have a bad credit report, the shame that comes with that and the guilt, all that can come with it is massive actually because you do feel like it's a reflection on you. Now, some people, and I've been one of those people, can have, like, what you call bad credit. It's not even bad credit. It's like just showing all the debts that you owe.

And it makes it feel like you're going to be judged as a person because maybe it was through your own decisions. Like it was just frivolous spending or, you know, if you could point to it and go, this was a good time. This was, you know, like I'm proud of it. I'm going to credit it. Some people have not even necessarily, like I said, bad credit, but a credit report that shows a lot of debt on it

because of a partner or an illness situation or a tough time and it kind of is factually it is what it is. So it's nothing to be ashamed of. But, you know, I do believe that when you do want to marry someone, it is for better, for worse. But all cards should be on the table. Everyone should know what they're getting into, whether that be financially, whether it be family baggage.

And I don't mean in terms of children, by the way, I mean in terms of in-laws and relationships and stuff and families, or if it's, you know, a hobby, like, do you go and play a golf all day every day because I need to know that before it's part of that, don't you think? Yeah, I think we're always weirdos. We always say this, like we're on the other end of the spectrum

whereby we talk so openly about money and it's not a taboo and we'll ask, you know, we were at an event yesterday with our friends and a lady came up to me and I'm good friends with her and she was telling me that like we're struggling with money, like why is it so hard? And then our other friend Sarah came behind and said, you're speaking to the right person.

You keep going, like get it off your chest, whatever you want to say. And she was like, no, honestly, she said, actually they're on a football team altogether, some mums. And she was turned to her friend and she said, don't we always talk about how difficult money is and how to manage it? And I thought, oh my God, we've come on so far to hear two people that are like friends, they are, they see each other every week.

But then to say to me who's like an acquaintance, really, we're really struggling with money and we keep talking about it. And isn't it hard? And I, you know, the more open you are. I feel like is that a societal thing? Is it changing that way? So it's more acceptable to like, say, to share your credit report or credit history or debt or whatever it be with a potential partner.

but like friends are starting to share it more too. I think there is a little bit of a movement where it's more acceptable to just not be amazing with money and kind of share that worry. Well, listen, I don't know ask the two ladies that are getting married. Like, you might not be getting married next week, guys, but who's going first? What do you think? Well, I think, well, I feel like me and Alex met in uni.

So like you kind of start out on an even playing field. It's not like someone's got a crazy income or anything. Yeah. Like someone hasn't. So I feel like we've just kind of grown together in that. sense. So I imagine it is a bit different when you come together, like when you're a little bit older. Yeah, it's not something I've thought about really until now. But I think I just trust that like if there was a big day, we'd tell me, because we talk about money a lot. Yeah. Not a lot,

but like, I think, I don't think I need to actually see a report like with the folder and everything. Yeah, you've got the trust. But I think if you've said it though, could you talk about money? Yeah. that you've created a safe space where your partner could say, I imagine you've created such safe space when it comes to money that he would feel confident sharing, but I suppose if it's something you've never really talked about before. But like you said, you talk about other things,

you talk about past relationships, you talk about friendships, you talk about family, like money, why would money be left out of that? But that's a very British thing, again, I think it really is. I wonder what it's like in different cultures are people much more open? Like Americans, are they much more open about the financial situations and how much uny debt they've got and this, that and the other, like...

It's going to go on your hinge profile soon, I think. Yeah, that's a good idea. How are you with money? Hobbies, credit score. But yeah, credit report is quite like a formal thing, isn't it, to share? I don't know. But, you know, and just to close this off, when you buy a home together,

or if you take on car finance together, or if you do it, start a business together, if you were going to the lender in those scenarios where it be like a mortgage lender or something, they get to see your score, and they get to see your credit report and your credit history, and they get to judge.

So you would, you know, you would like to think that if you're going to make a big financial decision, which one of them is marriage, but another one could be borrowing a few hundred grand to buy a home or whatever, that you do absolutely trust where each other's are. And what I would love for someone as well is,

maybe don't often print it and share it, but if you're, you are someone who is working through their debt and it is quite private and you meet someone, don't be afraid to be very open because it'll only come out later. And then you'll feel guilt and shame and stuff which you're on a journey and you're improving and you're paying off stuff for whatever reason, whether it was through fault, no fault, life, whatever. I think it's an amazing characteristic of someone, a little bit like a health and fitness journey. Like actually, you know, I've started to work out. I can't do this yet, but I've got a goal to do that in the future.

It's being vulnerable. It's putting yourself out there and going, you know, we're all, us are perfect and I'm on a bit of a journey. And that could bring someone closer together as well. It could be like, oh my God, like this girl's amazing. She's on such a strong financial journey. She's had it actually a little bit tough. But she, that gets you excited about where you could go together. We did that article that we, so on did it in The Guardian and we picked it up and commented on it and directed people to that article about single women are buying homes and men don't like it. And it was specific men. And but I think we went to well, community is doing with Lydia and ask them what, you know, tell us about what the men in your

life think about that kind of thing. And all we got was green flags. And the overarching thing for me is was, I was impressed. I would be impressed. Like, this is a good thing. In fact, I was impressed. That was something that I thought, you know what, this girl's got something about her. She's got a plan. She's following it. She's achieved this. You know, imagine what we could achieve together if she's managed to do this all on her own. So it's a little bit like a similar thing. I think I think transparency is important. And what you wouldn't want is a shock once you're married and once you... We've had a couple of dilemmas like that, haven't it?

People have been like... Oh, we were about to buy a house together and figured out that he was nowhere near it and he was supposed to have saved up this in that time. So I suppose we've seen the fallout of people not being open. I know we've gone to the extreme of sharing a credit report, but I think it also means like, you show me mine, I'll show you yours and just being vulnerable and open about money. But yeah, we've seen the fallout of those

have not been honest and transparent. So I think we're probably all... Yeah, definitely. That statement maybe. Best to get it out in the open. Yeah. What do you people see? So we did a poll on this.

75% said yes. You should. 25% said no. We've had some comments. Someone said, Absa fucking lootly. Someone said, just be honest with them. You don't need proof.

Just honesty. We didn't, but we've been married 25 years now. Separate finances always mortgage aside. That's interesting. Not something I ever considered, but come to think about it. I think it's a good idea. Yes, love this idea. No.

But you should definitely be very open with finances like wage, pension, savings and goals. I think that's the thing, goals. Like you naturally jump to talking about what you want in the future and finances are always tied into that anyway. They're a huge part of it. If you're not on the same page, you're not going to get the goals that you want. Interesting. Definitely here for the hinge.

Yeah. Yeah. Do you know what? People listen at home message. us about that. Like, I think, is it on Spotify? People can message us, can't they let you and we can message about it. You can comment and we can reply on. I'd love to know what people think because actually that's quite polarising.

Obviously, we've asked the community in the app, they're skewed a certain way as well or like through our mailing list and a newsletter. We asked the poll. Is that where the poll was? Am I been Instagram? Yeah, listeners tell us because I think we could be definitely a section on hinge going forward. If it was embedded, then you couldn't lie as well.

like experience, get on to us. Oh, yeah. You should be able to match me based on credits. That's such good idea. 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 of the day. I overpay my mortgage by 300. hundred pounds a month, but I have absolutely nothing saved. Am I being an idiot? Hi ladies, I have a confession to make. I've been overpaying my mortgage by £300 a month for the past two years. On paper, it feels like the right thing to do. I'm saving thousands in interest and knocking years off the term, but I have absolutely nothing in savings,

not even an emergency fund. Last month, my boiler needed a repair and I had to put £400 on a credit card because I had no cash to cover it. And now I have to. I'm wondering, am I completely backwards? I earn 34K, my mortgage is £850 a month, and after bills, the overpayment, I don't have a lot left. I just always assumed paying down debt was the priority, but now I'm not so sure. Should I stop the overpayment and build up an emergency fund first, or is there a way to do both? Such a good dilemma. I know. And I know that thousands of community members and financial

the vault listeners will be screaming in the car being like stop overpaying your mortgage you're just so proud though

because you know that they weren't like we've all been there I am Mrs. impatient with life like I

did an Iron Man on five months notice because I didn't want to wait what's that like seven to can't I mean

that add up 17 months to train for the year after I was like I'm going to do it this year do I have a bike

no can I swim in a pool in Marbea maybe like I'm missing impatient and I have been there as well. I think because before I started on my money journey a long time ago, overpaying a mortgage was like a really exciting thing to do. And when you see the

figures around how quickly you can pay it off, how many years you can knock off your mortgage, especially in those early days of a mortgage when basically the majority of your payment is interest at a tiny bit goes off the capital, which is like the actual loan. It is demoralising. And so knowing that these overpayments can help is really, is exciting, but really, and so I've been there and done that, literally had like no emergency savings been in my overdraft, but oh, I'm going to pay an extra 50 foot off a mortgage. You know, what you come to realize is little and often and consistency is really where we should be at.

And I always call money, especially when you try and jump ahead. And in fact, no, just generally, it's like snakes and ladders. And there's sometimes you're moving forwards and sometimes you're sliding back. And sometimes you're moving forward and sometimes you're sliding forward and sometimes you're sliding back. But one of the most effective ways to keep moving forward is having that emergency fund to fall back on, making sure that you're budgeting properly. And the overpayment is excitable and the sexy thing, if you will, that's like, oh, I'm paying down, overpaying. It's like dopamine hit, isn't it? And does all of that money come off? Is it the principle?

Principle. It does, yeah, an overpayment does, because basically what you're doing is you're contracted to pay a monthly payment, which is at X percent interest. So there's some really good, we should have one on our website, actually. We'll just see if we can get one done because the name is shit. It's an amortization calculator or an amortization schedule. It sounds scary. Awful. But all it means is, it's like death.

How long do I have for that? Well, Mort is death. It's a mortgage, isn't it? It's a French word for death or something. Delightful. Payment until death. So. That's why Lucy's not going on a mortgage.

She's like, that's negative energy that I don't need in my life. They don't need that. But it shows you can see it in a schedule on like Excel, or you can see it in a graph, the graph's a little bit better. And you can visualize how much per month you pay off your principal and how much you, because the mortgage payment stays the same, but it kind of like the proportion of it splits.

Let's say you've got £1,200 pound mortgage payment. It might be at the moment that £1,000 of it is interest and $200 is going off your mortgage. I know, and that's how awful it is. Oh, 100%. Sometimes it's like, can be worse than that. Again, but as you get further through the term, so like, again, these are not real figures,

but next month it might be that £201 is going off your mortgage and £99, £9,9 interest. And then the next month, it might be that £202 going towards your mortgage and £98 is going in interest. So that is set in stone and it's planned according to the interest rate throughout the term, obviously you can change interest rates

at different points. That's it. any overpayment, what that does is it knocks down the total that you owe. So say if you paid 50 quid overpayment, the total that you owed would reduce by 50. So next month's payment would change. Sometimes the amount changes. Sometimes just the interest proportion changes. It depends on how you've set up your mortgage.

But it's not interest because you've already contractually paid your interest. So an overpayment is literally a bonus and it just chips away at that big amount. And that's why, you know, we might even have a code for Sprive. We'd work with them once last year, but we really like the product and we get, we don't get anything for it, but you guys will get £5 off your mortgage, I think. But Sprive is a cashback app that's designed to help you pay your mortgage in the background. So when I do my Asda Shop, which I need to do later today, I'll, you know, my Asda Shop might be like 100, 150 quid once every 10 days or something.

That I buy through the app, I buy a voucher. And then I get, I think you might get like three percentish off as to. Yeah, it changes per the, like whoever you're shopping with. But we used to do cash back ones. And we switched it to the mortgage one because I was like, what were we going to do with the cash? Yeah. We'll probably use it to go to like a holiday or like in a sinking fund or whatever.

But it was quite exciting to think or we could, it's something that we were spending anyway so we never spend because we can pay off our mortgage. It's grocery shopping every week or Christmas presents or whatever it might be or a holiday, whatever Sprive have on there at. So that would be like something that she could do. And I think aiming for the overpayments is an amazing goal and it's way more focused than most people.

But doing the work, getting in there early, building up that emergency fund, building up that muscle, what we'd like to get to is you build a solid emergency fund and make sure that you debt free and make sure you're investing in the background because that's the thing. This is all about balance. And so if you focus all your excess, as we call it in the budget, or your excess on property, you are focusing on one asset class. So making sure, and she doesn't say that, but I'm sure, hopefully if she's employed,

she'll be investing in a pension anyway. If she's not, she's self-employed, something she could think about. It makes sure that her excess money is not just going to one asset class. It's going to both. But then she might be doing 500, 600, 700, 700, $700 a month overpayment. Because everything else is in order. And she won't feel this, like, stress of, I've overpaid, but actually, can I eat this last?

It's called Fanan-Shelpoor, isn't it sometimes? And I think me and Neil are guilty of this, or I am definitely where I want to do too much. I want to do too much with what we've got. And then you feel like you've not got anything. And you're like, I have got something. I've just decided to deploy it early on into this and then I can't get access to it.

So, you know, our mortgage, and I've talked about it, a lot, our mortgage rates are changing in August. I've written a blog on it as well of how we combat that increase. We're getting closer to the mortgage guys. Those that have listened for a while in the countdown. I'm not going to be very well in August. No, we've, we've, We're so prepared for it. Other people aren't and they don't know it's coming and then it's a shock and a surprise. We've known about this a long time. We decided to start overpaying so we could get used to it in our budget. It's very familiar. And I think it's even going to be more than what we've overpaying. Unfortunately, it's just how the market is. And we have to weather that. Like, you know, we put a lot towards our investments. We put a lot to, I've got a sip that I like to, like, I don't want to say overinvesting, but contributing as well as our employee contributions. And I just said to the other day, I was like, I think we're trying to do a

bit too much. I think we need to pull it back a little bit. I think you get the bug of like that dopamine hit of inventing. Seeing those things go up. Yeah, it's exciting. You see the calculators. You see the graph like it's and your net worth and it's very exciting. But actually how do we feel? And I think sometimes I feel a bit like we've probably done a bit too much. And we are financial help because I'm like we've got not much flying around everywhere. And I would quite like a little bit more of a cushion sometimes. Like we've got good sinking funds all healthy. Like but sometimes I'm like, oh, I would like to maybe have a bit more of an emergency fund

or I have a bit more of this. Like I'm constantly, but you change every month the way that you feel it's what's going on in the world around you. It's what time of year it is. Like is it holiday season?

You want a bit more going to hear. So then you're feeling. So what's going to happen is you're going to deplete and you did again a blog on it but you're going to deplete the, basically all our blog is a holiday's financial life. It's very personal.

But you're having to, you're sharing that blog that you're having to deplete your car emergency car fund because you knew this day would come and you've been saving for it. But not so soon. And you're having to deplete some of your emergency fund. And then you've got, you know, some holidays are going to be coming up. But you're about to start on that. And there's some trips here and there planned.

So that, but this shows why personal finance is personal, because all that anxiety starts to build. And we find, for example, over summer that we, because we do spend a lot of time overseas. And we want to be able to enjoy that and we don't want to be too stressed. And both of us work a little bit extra. Like I do some BBC work and that doesn't happen at all over the summer and some of Carl's work doesn't happen over summer. So actually it's a little bit tight and we automatically make sure that the sinking funds are full and the holiday funds full and there's money in the current account and the budget is a little boozy like it's extra. Because you know it's going to be spending. You can do an ice cream. And like you want to enjoy that bit and we're not on a debt-free

journey. We're not on an emergency situation. But what we do is we don't invest for the kids usually over the summer and we don't need to do the extra sip investing and we don't overpay our mortgage systematically anyway we'll only do it through Scribe because we're leading into investing at the moment but I think you're right and I think pulling automate

especially when you're in grow automating what you can so knowing that you are investing but it's not an extra it's just the regular stuff and you're thinking from when it goes in picking one thing

makes you feel like you actually moved it even if you're doing everything and it all works picking one thing paying off it putting money back into that emergency fund yeah I think your goal needs to be an emergency fund, like put to bed personally, and it's not financial advice, obviously, but if I was in

your situation, I would be pausing the overpayments on the mortgage and building my emergency fund because, like you just said, your boiler brakes, your car dies, we've all been there. You've paid it off the mortgage then. So now you're not, you're not only in debt in one place, which is your mortgage of which, like, we try not to view it as debt because it's a little bit different. You've now, you have actually got debt now. Like, you've worked so hard probably to not be in debt, but you've not built, you know, financial, the whole thing is building those strong financial foundations. It's really boring for people that listen to it every week and have done it for years, but they'll be shouting into the TV, to the car stereo, on the walk, whatever, going,

you need an emergency fund and just look into the community, you'll see so many messages of people saying, I really didn't get the emergency fund thing and I found it quite annoying to save up for it. But the minute that I needed it, the sense of relief is like unmatched. So, yeah, the advice, I think between us all probably on this one is get that emergency fund sorted and then look at all the other things that you can do, but also makes you diversify your investments. Don't just worry about the mortgage and property side of investing, but what are the other ways in which you can grow your money as well? Very good, though.

Yeah, I'm excited for you. And like, power to you. Like, she's single, 34K, paying off a mortgage. Yeah. And she's been doing that for the past 300 pounds a month for the past two years. That's not to be sniffed out. There's a hell of a lot of money going off. Capital, what is it? Capital, our principles.

Yeah. Well done. Too far in the financial journey. take a step back. Yeah. Whoa. Whoa. She's like, in survive.

Technically you are in survival. Like, I don't want to disappoint you. And some people get a bit offended when they're like, I'm in girl. Laura's like, you're actually not. No. And they're like, what do you mean? Holly's favorite one is survive anyway. She'd take out a credit card just as she could play the game and pay it off again.

Gross. That's like dopamine. I mean, survive. Bill's not as like fun as it. It's not. 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, time for a second dilemma. This is a good one. I earn 50K as a medical professional and I want to take a 20K pay cut. Hi girlies. I'd really appreciate some outside perspective because I feel very torn at the moment. I'm a medical professional and I've been practicing for around seven years. financially I've always done well on paper. I currently earn around 50 to 60k but if I'm being completely honest I've never truly enjoyed the job. Over the last couple of years especially I've become really burnt out and my mental health has taken a hit. I've struggled with anxiety and insomnia directly linked to work and it's got to the point where I know I can't keep going as it is. I recently left my practice and started locum work which has given me a bit of breathing space alongside that I've taken on a short term part-time

maternity cover contract for some stable income until the end of the year and pick up some extra shifts to top things up. Now for the dilemma. I have an interview coming up for a clinical non-client facing role and it honestly sounds right up my street. It still keeps me in the profession and uses my skills and knowledge but removes a lot of the aspects of the job that currently make me anxious. For the first time in a long time a role actually sounds exciting rather than something I'm dreading. The catch is the salary is only around 30k. Financially, I'm not in a bad position. I have around 31k saved across easy access savings. I invest £200 a month into a stocks and shares I set, and I've made a decent start on my pension. My partner and I intentionally bought a house well within our means, so our mortgage is relatively small.

My partner is very supportive and completely understands why I want to make this change, but he's understandably nervous about such a significant pay cut, and honestly, so am I. At the moment, we live comfortably. Nice holidays, meals, meal, treating ourselves without having to think too hard about it. On our friendship group is generally fairly high earners too and if I'm honest I think there's been some lifestyle creep over the years. One thing that weighs on me is that my partner is a lower earner and doesn't have a huge earning potential long term so we do heavily rely on my current salary. I also worried that whilst I may end up much happier in my working life, I could feel stressed or sad in other

ways if our finances become noticeably tighter or our lifestyle has to change significantly. Another factor is that we currently don't have children, but that's something we'd like to have in the next two years, which also makes me question whether now is the wrong time to reduce my earning power so much, especially with any potential maternity leave down the line. I suppose I'm just wondering if anyone has made a similar move prioritising peace and mental health over salary and whether you regretted it or found the trade-off worth it in the long run. Thank you so much in advance. Wow.

We're all like, we've got a fellow overthinker here. Welcome to the crew. I'm also wondering. I'm also wondering. She's a good company. I think we've probably been in a similar situation. Like we left, well, you did definitely like a much more well-paid job to start financial in the only way that we could go about it and know as a family that we're going to be okay.

is by following the financial method and making sure that we had things like a robust emergency. She's got... Yeah, which you've kind of said. Yeah. But she did real off, you know, we're really comfortable financially

because I get to do this and I get to do this and I'm talking about her investments, her this, that and the other. That might stop. Like, you feel very financially well now. You've listed those things off like, how important are they to you like being able to invest and do this and the other

and go on the holidays because it is a significant pay cut whether we like it or not and she's acknowledged that and her partner doesn't have like she said the potential in the long term to grow but you might have the potential to grow you know that's her starting salary

for this new role that she's looking at there might be opportunities for her she's talked about you know she's been doing shift work and I imagine she can do bank work and anything and kind of be quite flexible and top up though the basic salary that she's got if she feels like it's not enough but sometimes I'm kind of like

you just got to give it a go and see it suck it and see you might be like do you know what all the financial security that job gave me didn't outweigh me feeling like this every single day. And that's what she's going to find out. And you only know when you take the leap of faith. She strikes me as like a list person like for and against.

Yeah. That's what I would. Pros and cons. And we, because there's like a conflict here between maths is maths and how we feel and our, and our personal finances, like the personal side of our life. And there's a cross section for me.

there's like where they overlap and there's there's a point where frankly this is going to sound really hard how we feel doesn't come into it's got to pay the bills yeah so there's a there's a line of you know like we'd all like I just think for mental health I should just drink coffee every day and go for walks we'd all love to do that one way yeah but like obviously most people would want to do that obviously most all jobs it's not a proper job if it doesn't come with some level of anxiety, boredom, monotony, like, that's not a real job if it doesn't. So that within all our roles, like we all have to find that tipping point of, is it giving me enough?

And it's like quite a privileged place to be when it's way more aligned with you and your freedom and what you'd like versus if you have to work in Tesco every day. You have to work in McDonald's in the evening and you have to, you know, you're working as a cleaner or you're working as a police officer, like whatever even if you like like it, there's a level of at which that you have to earn to fund your life, to fund children's life

if you've got children to support. Keep a roof over your head. Literally. And so like it's a very privileged place to be which is like, oh, you should do the thing that you feel good at the solar line. And so that's why

in the financial app we tell people do like model it, do multiple budgets. Lay out the scenarios. I'm not woo-woo. You know I don't like manifestations. in terms of the woo's sense of it, but I do like practical manifestation, which is make that more real,

bring it closer. What does it feel like? What does it feel like? What does it look like? What does your stomach drop? And do you just drop on the initial because it's so different? Will you look into the future?

We're usually going to go on three holidays a year. We're only going to be able to do one. It's going to be in the UK. Or we don't go on them. Or, you know, when can children happen and what does it look like then? What's the earning trajectory in your field, as you said, Hall?

But model it out, because I'm also an advocate and I can't say who was chatting to about this. We'll say off her. But someone in our life sometimes seems really stressed and has got a really difficult job. But when I actually chatted to her about it, she actually loves it. And that happens a lot. And sometimes that's just part of it. I work so much better under pressure.

I have missed with financial sometimes things are on fire like I was a problem solver and where the job and there's a little bit of that you know working through the night and getting up early

and having extra stress which actually is a little bit of a badger on her as well and it makes you feel a bit alive like you put yourself in uncomfortable situation and so sometimes I'm not saying this isn't not the person who's written the dilemma in but sometimes

the thing with anxiety at work is managing it because sometimes we are the problem not necessarily the job And so for anyone that's listening to this and they're in a in a role that they're not really happy with and they're getting stressed and they're getting anxious and they just think for their mental health, they should do something else. It's a female thing more than anything. How much are you controlling of that? Are you not pushing back?

Are you not respecting boundaries? Are you not leaning into the things that you enjoy doing? Is someone else piled on work on you that you shouldn't be doing? Because we hear that a lot in dilemmas. So in the role that you are at the moment that is significantly, I mean, it's almost double in. pay? Yeah. What is it that's causing you anxiety?

And can you control any of that? Now, it might sound like it can't because it might be the client facing stuff is just too much. And maybe she can't protect that. But just make sure and the lists that you've looked at that because an ideal word is, well, does you do the job you like and you get the higher pay? And don't not think that can be a thing. Don't think it's either of.

I was just about to say, I hope that it's not so black and white. Maybe there's other roles. Maybe she's just found that one and gone. Well, that'll do. Like, it's getting me out of the job that I really don't like at the moment. And I feel like that can happen. There might be, like you say, halfway house where it's a little bit more aligned with what you want to do and the pays there as well. So maybe it's not taking the first job that comes because you're just desperate to get out of that one.

It might be like take a little bit more time. Yeah. Or like you said, put changes in at the workplace. It's like, I don't want to do that bit of my job anymore. Speaking to your line manager, like, how can I make this work? They might really want to keep you and find a way to move you into another job. Or like, I don't want it to be so black and white for you. And it might be.

Like in this situation, you know, we're optimists. Like we want to be like, we could find a solution for you to not have to drop 20K because it is a significant amount of money in this climate. You know, we always talk about what you can and can't control. A lot of it you can't with things like mortgage rates, council tax going up, petrol going up, like food going up. You can only control your income. And I do think that it's a health thing to model out

and to look what that looks like because extra money worries will bring stress. how can you navigate that? What will it be like? What will you be able to do and not be able to do? And just see how that kind of feels. Like you said, it's not probably a black or white thing. There may be some sort of compromise. Option A, B, C, D, E, FG.

Like, there's so many opportunities in the world. Sometimes we just stay really narrow. Get a really good recruiter as well that can like negotiate for you. You might be able to negotiate the sale. And she comes with loads of experience. She'll be able to do this other. Can we look at, you know, you just don't know. You actually don't get.

And I feel like men are actually much better at this. than we are. Like my husband's much more like, I can go for that job. And I'm like, I could never go for that job. And I've probably got more experience, like, in some roles, but women don't feel. So it might be that it's not such a significant drop and you'll be doing a job that you like. I wouldn't give up on that. I don't want you to just use A and B.

Like, like Laura said, can we find you some more options? Yeah. But ultimately, the first step, modeling out different options will make you feel better because, like, you know, it's like us if we could do our budget. Say if I said, oh, I would quite like to, um, buy a holiday home. And so, okay, well, we'll get it. There'll be a mortgage payment on that.

It'll be this. And the cost will be this, cost for this. And then we do the budget and then we end up like minus 300 a month. And I go, oh, can't do that. Can't cut anything. Yeah. You know, even if we cut A, B and C, that's still not possible. Whereas you might look at a budget and go, do you know what?

For one less holiday a year and for changing how we shop and actually for not doing those social things that we can do it. And we've had that before. We've had people, you know, fund IVF. We've had people leave jobs, leave relationships, like modeling it out, at least brings it closer to you and gives you a little bit more context. So try there. And then this is all a game. Like, can you optimize expenses? Can you optimize income? And can you overlay your happiness most of the time across it? And I feel like she'll come to the right. And she's so sorted. Like she's done the things she needs to do. Like maybe this is time for a little bit of a change

because she's done the work. She's got the emergency savings. Expenses are manageable. Like they're in a really good place. Yeah. Exciting. 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 money topics. We are not giving financial advice.