The Vault with Financielle - “I Want to Go Self-Employed — But I'm Terrified of Getting the Money Wrong” | The Vault Episode 119

Episode Date: June 4, 2026

We asked what you refuse to cheap out on… and Heinz, 3-ply toilet roll and a good mattress came up more than we expected 😂This week's dilemmas:💸 "I Want to Go Self-Employed — But I'm Terrified of Getting the Money Wrong"💸 "I Have £10k Saved — Should I Blow It All to Clear My Debt?"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 💖💸

How can working at your local Tims take you further? Sure, you can level up your teamwork skills. You also get a chance to receive a Tim Hortons Scholarship Award. Ready for what's next? Apply today at careers.timhorans.ca. Welcome to The Vault with Finance Child. This is a safe space where we talk all things, life and money and no topics are off limits. Didn't get the black top blue jeans memo.

No, and I didn't get the Tommy Hilfiger girl memo either. Or is it Ralph Lauren, what is it? Brandy Melville. Brandy Melville. Oh, you love that. don't you? I love Brandy Melville. You get that in Europe though, don't you?

Yeah. I'm looking forward. I'm going to London and my whole trip has revolved around going to Brandy Melville. I'm staying with my friend and I was like,

can we go to Brandy Melville? Can you make sure of that, please? Can you explain to the millennials in the room? Brandy Melville is... I thought she was on the real house, is it like... Trendier gap?

Yeah. It's like... I don't know, it's kind of controversial because it's one size only. And like, gone under a lot of controversy. So that jump in one size only.

Yeah. But it's not, though, is it? It's a size 8 to 10. Yeah, what she means is, yeah, like, they don't do sizes. Yeah. You don't like buy that. Sometimes you go to the thing that it's like one size. It's not oversized so that it's accessible size.

You can fashion it or it's got elastic or whatever. They are literally saying we only want girls eight size 8 to 10 wearing our clothes. It is quite bad. But they do really cute clothes. It's terrible. Take my money. And every time I go to one in Europe, like I've got to get something. And last year for my birthday,

Alex just let me do a brandy Melfield spree. I've actually done the same this year. I'm just ordered. Like a YouTube kid. You're like, right, you can fill your basket. Did he say you could this year? Are you just taking their pants? Yeah, but I've done it online.

Yeah, I have to wait for still. They do really good yoga pants. And it's like 100% cotton. Whereas where you go to other places and it's like polyester. So probably still from like really on. the complex is which is bad. Let's not get to dig into it too much because I'll talk myself out of it. But it's my favourite.

That's why I go on holiday for city breaks. So you can go. Fair enough. Fair enough. Okay, we've been asking our community this week. What is something you refuse to cheap out on? And I'm going to, I'll let you have a think of what your answers are. What do people say?

This is what we've been saying. Washing up liquid. Nothing but fairy. Really? Yeah. To be fair, agreed. It doesn't, nothing else bubbles up as much as fairy. I disagree.

The elbow grease, fairy liquid. What would you call it? Washing up liquid. I know. I go, can you get me the elbow grease, fairy liquid? I was like, that doesn't exist. I can collapse. Fairi liquid.

Fairies got the corner of the market, haven't they? But how much is that? Cheaper than fair liquid. Oh, is it? Okay. And I get it from the pharmacy. Weirdly. They have like a wow

whoopsie, wow section, whatever. Wow. Wow. It is whoopsie, it's not a wow. It can't be whoopsie because it's not broken, but. I know you mean,

random. Yeah, like they'll just have like everything's a pound here. So why? So if it, you want to pay more so it bubbles. Yeah,

because then you don't get like a proper wash. I've had the like older or like little version before and it's like, this is just not doing anything. Yeah. Fair enough. Way.

Fair enough. Picky bits Won't scrimp on Yeah like I don't want an Aldi Pickey bits and they're so expensive Like I've stood

and questioned choices I think I owe you money for girls like Pickybits for Eminus Oh Yeah I owe you I've been sending you in a voice

I owe Ava for our Chinese that we had So Yeah you do Do I owe Ava That this is really Confucii Yeah

I think We've stood together and gone seven pounds for empanadas and something else and you get like four in a pack. It's so expensive. But I appreciate the taste and aesthetic. Okay. Yeah, okay. Hair. Agreed.

Agreed. I've gone to a cheaper hairdresser before. Ruin my hair. Laura, should I interject on that? Do you remember doing that? I tried it. Yeah. OGs may remember.

I think Holly's told his story. but yeah I did and it went very wrong and it was awful and Holly marched me back to this and ask for a discount ask for the money back which literally on Fleabag like the... Is it? They got the story from us because this was OGs the long time. Show her the reference, like. I literally had pictures of Laura's hair and it was like butchered. When I say butchered, I've never seen a worth her.

Like color. Yeah, both. And then she had a black stripe down the middle of the head. Like... They dyed it blonde, but... Really? So the stripe was like four inches either side. It wasn't like you can't sometimes get everything. If you've got naturally not blonde hair, you're going to have some sort of root like it's impossible

unless you're bleaching it for hours or whatever. No, no, it was the worst. And I probably sound very like self-action. This pod and like very confident and stuff. But I won't even like ask someone for, I don't know. Sorry, do you have this in a size age? Yeah, I apologize for existing in like shops and stuff. Like I don't know what it is.

But for some reason, it was that bad that I was like, hell no. They would have to get back and cried. It would have been like 90 quid or something, surely. Everything that you had done. And then I went back in and the head hairdresser or the owner was like, let me see. And I obviously was like, can I take you to, I'm not going to do this in front of everyone. And she literally went, let me get your money back. As if to say, wow, that's horrendous.

It was a cheap hairdress. It was a lot of money, but it was a cheap hairdress. So you shouldn't scrimp on. No. Yeah. A toilet paper. Three people have said this. And they've said three ply all the way.

I'm an Andrek girl. I would find it hard to go elsewhere. In emergency, I'll get the Sainsbury's own if it's not coming my ass to shop. This is where I would love, do you know what a really good idea for our website is? Not like a myth-busting. And I think there's been this before

for like Athlasia brands or designer brands and showing, oh, you think you're buying adanola. For example, it's actually made here. Yeah. And these are the same suppliers. And so, as people said that before, about crazy yoga and that it's the same manufacturer, I think, as Lulu Lemon, for example.

I love that. So the fairy liquid thing. So there is a factory, some fairly liquid may have a factory, but they may also may not. They may go to a wholesaler that does white label goods. And they can tweak the composition and stuff like that. But this is genuinely how each product is made. It doesn't make sense for one person to make everything. We've got different people.

We've got friends that work in wholesale and manufacturing. and I should be listened to this. She'd be like, don't share our secrets. But there's another really good, I know owner of Company of Manchester who does it for all beauty goods, so it's white label. So I could go today and go,

do you know, magic cream by Charlotte Tilbury? I want to make one. I want to make it pink. I want to make it look like strawberry or whatever. And so they will just make it. And I design our packaging, but it's the same. It's exactly the same composition

because the ingredients are there. and it might even be the same price, it might not be the same price, but it might even be them that make Charlotte Tilbury's cream, but it's the branding that's different. So wouldn't it be good if you actually knew underlying that under the brand, what's the same?

So when you talk about you're an Andrex girl, you're an Andrek's girl because of the puppies and because of the adverts, or because of the quality, because is there another non-name brand quality? Oh, I don't doubt there would be. It's the same. And imagine if you knew it.

So I think someone's once told me like, who's got good beans and the same as Heinz? Yeah. Like brands, I love Branson's and I'm like. Do you? Yeah. Oh God. Do you know what I like? No, that was a judge you do you?

What do I need to know? I think I hate, but what is? We absolutely will be buying into a niche bean territory. But there's the point about I, do we want, do we back something because of its quality or because of the brand or both? Because if you could find a non-name brand book quality product that was half the price, that was a lot of the premise behind Beauty Pie. Beauty Pie was created because when you buy, you know, a Charlotte Tillabrate Magic Cream, you're also buying the people they sponsor, the influencers, the marketing, all the above-the-line marketing stuff,

the gold lid, the nice glass container it's in. The Vogue Advert. Exactly. Or you could buy the same formula. I'm not saying they do the same as them, but really, really absolutely industry standard, but just aesthetically different. Food for thought on the skimp thing,

it's what are we actually skrimping on? Are we skimping on the quality? Like, I don't want to dilute the quality or is it I couldn't possibly not have a brand. Yeah. I'm going to find you a washing up liquid now, Lucy. We're going to do a washing gut liquid test at Faisal. Alex will be testing it on me.

Someone said Heinz, Heinz and Helmand only. for sauces. I disagree. In what way? So, my eldest just loves ketchup on things and we ran out of ketchup and it was bacon butty morning

because on a Sunday before she plays out I make a bacon putteys and run out of ketchup and I knit to the co-op and was faced with the price of a Heinz ketchup in a local convenience store so expensive. I was just mortified. £4 something. Yeah, it's crazy.

Not even for the big one. Like, it was just absolute blood money. Yeah. And then there was it in its red. It was a lot. Perotil. They wrote the name in the ketchup. And then I spotted co-op's own ketchup for like,

oh, just like $99p, $1.50, whatever. That's what we're having. Kids can't taste in. Dada, da-da. I could see her just pulling her face a little bit. I was like, is that okay? She was like, what, this ketchup is not Heinz, is it? And I was like, no, it's not actually, it's coach.

She was like, oh, it's, you can tell at Mom, it's really, really different. And it ruined the sandwich for her, obviously. But it was so much, so much, but she knew, she knew. Yeah. On taste, did a taste test. I loved that, I used to love that program where the two guys would do the shopping and they'd fool people and be like, oh, I only drink Diet Coke, yeah. I only drink Diet Coke and they all the how much they spent on the weeks, weeks, weeks,

weeks, and then they were like, part of the fact you're going to die because you're drinking so much of this shit. I am a Diet Coke girl, so I'm allowed to say that. They'd like take the branding off the bottles and do taste tests and stuff and a lot, I would say, 80% of the time, people couldn't tell the difference. But there were a few key items that came up time and time again. I think probably Diet Coke was one of them. Did it with like a cereal for the kids didn't put it in like a clue?

But there's some things that like from a taste perspective. Yeah, like a good mayonnaise. as we well know because we only buy the olive oil one now from MN S it's like four pound a pot

we go through one a week like it's expensive and too expensive once bought me everything I talked about I did it on the pod before soy sauce that's not just the Sainsbury

or the ASDA soy sauce and it's an actual decent you know soy sauce one with the red lid there's another one a taller one that's gold

and if my food is game changing it like changes any rice amazing with sushi amazing with gillsas and I have literally since a student

we're talking like 15 years I've just always bought the cheap one she was like oh I spotted saw I know she just brought it around she knocked on my door weeks ago she looked in your cupboard

and judged you I spotted so sauce sauce and you covered and it was rubbish so I've bought you this one I'm like either way with sauces like I want the cheapest possible sauce and it to be that really sugary

oh you like taste like good or it's £4.50 mayonnaise from Mennesse like I could take or leave Heinz Yeah, you're not valid. And helmonds. No, helmonds is shite now, only because it's not made of olive oil, though.

Once you move on, don't, just don't do it. Don't go to an olive oil mayonnaise. It's so good, you can eat the whole jaw. Yeah, don't do it because you will never go back. It's incredible. If I go to someone's house and they'll give me helmonds, I'll be like, no, thanks. Because it's rank once you realize how real mayonnaise is meant to be made. It's just full of seed oils.

Someone said coffee. Yeah, people love coffee. Like they, yeah. Couldn't imagine drinking, like. Or they don't imagine cheap coffee or they couldn't imagine going without. I think like doing a scrimp like, oh, I like my coffee, it's my thing. And if you think, we talked about that on Pons before as well, like, if you're not that bothered, like it's a lot of money. But if you're bothered, you get it in that budget.

Yorkshire tea is my thing. And then when you go to buy a big box, you kind of go, oh. Oh, it's so expensive. Compared to like, I don't know, a Stry zone or an Astrosone or whatever. Big difference. There's a big difference. There's a big difference. Yeah.

Versus this t-shirt. Be resentful of making. a brew. I went away not last night before and I stayed with my friend Susan. We wanted to buy tea bags for the room because we wasn't sure whether there'd be tea bags. And they were all quite expensive so she picked up a box of Tetle's because they were the cheapest for the small one. And we had a nice cup of tea before bed and then I made one in the morning and then we didn't have it. We left it and walked out. And when we were packing up, I was like, I don't forget tea bags. And she was like, yeah, that's fine. And it was like, if it would have been a Yorkshire,

I'd have been like, you are coming home with me because it wasn't very good. I was like, that bad. A lot of people have said good quality food. We sacrifice elsewhere to prioritise this. School shoes only have to buy one pair a year. Also buy a good pair. So they don't, yeah, they don't cheap out on these.

So this isn't like cutting things out. It's like you need the bougie version of this. All the quality. Yeah. Unless you've got children like mine, they get hold of them in the first week. Glasses. too important to damage your eyesight.

Agreed. Skincare, SPF, mattresses. That is a big one. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You've got to have a good mattress. I used to be a person that would be like, reluctant to spend on things like that because I'm like,

I don't know, like, sounds really vain, but you don't see it. Like, it's like hidden in your bed and game changing. I was an adult two years ago. When you invest in a good one. Just like you were in every day. Like bedding was one for me. Like I would always just get like, I don't know, like habitat. And my mum's like, she buys the boogiest like cotton, highest cotton thread thing.

And like, yeah. And because she's like, you sleep in it every night. And you're like, oh shit. When you realize the shit that you actually spend money on and shit that you don't spend money on, you kind of go. So that can hang up in a wardrobe or things that you sleep in every day. Every night. Yeah. Yeah. Holidays, hotels can't cope with cheap some beds and buffets. That was actually from your mom. Does it? Oh, you know. Would it be Jen as well?

Yeah. So she's talking specifically about the sunbed, the type of sunbed that you sit on. I know, I can see it. It's blue with white on the outside. She needs to know how thick. She will go searching through the gallery. Yeah.

And so she'll do that because she needs thick mattress on the outdoor sunbed. Yeah. She will then go to the reviews on all the different places. She'll then go and find a Facebook group that may or may not have that about that hotel so that she can one get a view of the hotel. hotel, but to the clientele, because she will absolutely judge and decide whether that's for her

or not. We're going on holiday with them. And I immediately said my biggest selling point to her was the sunbeds by the pool. I've got padding that. And she was like, sold. And I would also say the sunbeds aren't very good. I'm not having you hold it against with the whole holiday. Like if they weren't good, I'd like to say, managing the expectations. Dishwash your tabs. Another fairy washing up liquid. Butter dishwasher. Tats like you. It does. As long as it works.

I need to come back on the dishwasher tablet one, right? Because if the thing doesn't clean, fine. Right. But if scientifically it cleans, you're not even seeing bubbles. You shut the door. There's no camera in the dishwasher. Oh, I'd quite like it. I'd quite like it.

No. But we're not allowed to use our dishwasher. Our dishwasher is banned in our house. Oh, yeah. You're not a dishwasher gal, are you? Why? You wash everything by hand or Alex does. Yeah.

Why? because I've got a load of like random like cutlery and plates and it's all like hand wash only so I'm like well we're not turning on for that and this yeah and also I hate like Alex does all of this Alex does the washing up that is his job and like I hate not having something yeah I would hate to be like oh that's sat in there waiting to get turned on with food on it like that makes me feel it okay my my dishwasher she was on twice a day I just like well that's the thing there's only two of us yeah yeah I get it No, no, I'm still pitching this. You can put on an empty dishwasher. You can have four things in it. No. It's not that expensive, especially on a light wash. Can they kill the planet?

She's thinking about the planet. She's not, she's thinking about a bowl. She doesn't want to crack it. Do you know, this is a long-winded way to explain this, but do you know, coriander and people love it and people hate it? And like, if you love it, I love it. I can't understand, like, how it tastes like soap to you. If you gave me a dish that had been washed in the sink and dried with a tea towel and put away,

and a thing, I could smell it and I could know. There's this certain smell. I don't know what it is, but. Something going on in my room for that. Alex wash up. Yeah, he's really good at it. He's really good at it. He's really good at it.

He's got no whole choice. You're doing great, sweetie. Nappies. Is that? Disagree. I'll do. These ones, we're really good for our kids. Wedding rings.

We wear these forever. No. No. Disagree. bruised. I think we paid a lot of money for it. I know the question isn't, by the way, do you agree or not? We're just giving up. Sorry. Sorry. This is like none of our business. You do you. This is, you're entitled community to answer whatever. And then finally someone has said cakes. They won't cheap out on cakes. Yeah. Won't cheap out on cakes.

That's your thing. Yeah. Artisan bakery. I've got a hack for cakes. We seem to keep doing it when it's in it. There's loads of people in our family. As you well know, we could list them all out on here. There's loads. Always a birthday. And the best value for money cakes that we get are the Sainsbury's taste the difference. They're like this big. We get a lemon drizzle. We get a chocolate fudge and we get a red velvet every time because everyone's like, I like that. It's a good mix. It's something for everyone. I swear to God with the Necta card, I think the two pounds something eat. Can we get these as a sponsor? Yeah. But they're so soft and fluffy and I don't understand that because they're obviously not freshly baked.

No. The mass produced. But the taste are different. So in my head, I'm like, This is a bougie cake, but they're like two pounds each. And then you look at the big birthday cakes. 20 quid. Yeah, my life. So, anyway, good hat. Try it. Should we do a dime?

Or have you got any more? Do you have anything specifically that you wouldn't cheap out on? That hasn't been said. No, just the mayo, I think. Holidays, probably. Every time, every year, I go, we're not spending the same one. When we do our review, we're not spending the amount of, on holidays, we spent this year as I watered it, we need to go, we need to find a cheap deal.

That's always my thing that I say. And I spend 20 minutes looking at cheap deals and then I literally turn my computer off. I'm like, I cannot. I just cannot. This is a little niche, but my husband's got the, you buy cheat, you buy twice kind of mentality. And it is very true. Especially with kids of like trainers and stuff. So when we've bought like supermarket trainers or fashion trainers, which like my little one loves

like these Lightning McQueen trainers and we've managed to buy them again from Sports Direct because he ruined the first ones and these ones are definitely going to get ruined where his Nike ones and his or these ones just hold up really well and it's not for the brand

but whenever we've bought like rugby boots and when I've bought proper trainers for sport I've definitely like he's been always big on we'll just end up a place and then we use them a lot and so I think that's probably true with anything like if you're going to get the wear

out of it and it can fit into the budget or if it's worth saving up a little bit than doing it. Yeah. Maybe. And then, yeah, I'm fascinated about the food and household's goods one. I think there's a bit of a thing to explore. Yeah.

We should do a test. I'm going to get you with some very liquid. Or disoher tablets. And some plates that have been washed in the water in the dishwasher or not. I know what you mean about the smell, by the way. Yeah. I know what she means. Should you lend money to family and friends?

What is an F-OF fund? How do I build my emergency fund? Well, we're so glad you asked. head over to financialel.com where we tackle the money topics you actually care about. Okay, time for our first dilemma. I want to go self-employed, but I'm terrified of getting the money wrong. Hi ladies. I've been thinking about going self-employed for a while now, and I think I'm finally ready

to make the leap. The work side of it doesn't scare me, but the money side absolutely does. I have no idea how much I should be setting aside for tax. I don't know whether I need an accountant or whether I can manage it myself. I don't even really understand the difference between being a sole trader and setting up a limited company. I just don't want to get six months in and find out I've been doing it all wrong. What do I even start? Cool to go self-employer as well.

I know I feel like it's something that we cover quite a bit and lots of people thinking about it. Lots of people will do stuff on the side and you have to try and navigate it. But the best kudos to you is that you're thinking about it now because we'll get down the line and go, oh my God, what should I have done? and there's a few things that are super, super important. One is obviously you are versus being employed solely responsible for your tax to HMRC and your national insurance. So typically when we're employed, we can be really lazy and our employer takes our tax and takes our employee national insurance contributions off us and hands them to the government.

Does our pay slips, does our P60? And like we just don't have to think about it. So it's quite a leap to then, you know, whether you are sole trader or. a limited company, you have to account for either your own tax and or your company's tax, because if you're a limited company, you may employ yourself, so there's employee tax,

but you're also a company, so there could be taxes with your company as well. So that's the big one, because it trips so many people up. And so whichever way around you do in it, make sure that you keep strict records, make sure that you keep a business bank account. It doesn't have to actually be a business bank account.

If you're sole trader, you can use a personal bank account because sometimes you get charged for business bank accounts and it's just unnecessary. It's just a fee game for the banks, I think, sometimes. But keep it completely separate because, like, your hair and your nails and then a business invoice is just really hard. One, for an accountant if I can sell, but two, software, because, and there are ways around it, but what you can do nowadays is use lots of accounting software. There's zero and quick books are probably the two of the more popular, but there's more

and more on the market all the time. They will import your transactions and categorize them for you and do a lot of the work. So that ultimately you may not need an accountant necessarily if you've got quite a simple self-employed journey and self-employed business. So keeping a separate bank account that money goes in and out to is really, really, really helpful for records. You can really help an accountant if you use them or really help with them software if you stick with that.

So having a separate bank account for the business. business and acknowledging and knowing that you have to pay your own tax with that. And again, the software can help you calculate it as you go. And you earn all year. And then at the end of the year, you kind of calculate what tax is owed. And then you kind of get until the following January to pay it. So that's the second point. You have to be organized and you have to put it away as you go. So many people don't do this. And they go, it's not, you know, I don't have to pay it till then. So why should it be in their bank, not mine? Some people like to pay it early. I definitely put someone that always has done with my self-employed income because I might have the rental

income, I don't want it to pay it next January whenever else is running around and trying to pay it on time and I don't like it being in my bank account and that makes me feel better. I don't need to earn interest on this. I'm okay with that. I'll learn interest over here but not on tax savings. Because the risk of not doing it versus getting the interest is like they're just people like to push the problem down the line don't they? Yeah and like a business will be better then. So when I've got more money, you know, especially when you are on a bootstrap business where you are taking money and putting it back in, you may. be tempted to use your full income. So say if you like, make £1,000 on a job and let's

not include VAT for VAT purposes for now, you know, an element of that income, depending on how you're set up, will be tax and national insurance that you do need to pay, obviously, less some expenses. So you don't have a thousand to put back in the business because some of it should be put aside for HMRC. Some people are tempted to use the full to put it back in, to then make more money and it, yeah, it may feel entrepreneurial, but stress-wise, you spend that money now. So you have to re-earn that money back and it's not gambling. That's the wrong word.

But you know what? You're trying to catch up again. You're trying to, I need to make more, need to make more because I'm going to have this tax bill. And so, and I've seen, you know, I mean, tax bills can end in suicide for some people. This is really extreme, but we've seen it in the press. We've seen people struggle with it because you just don't know. And so best practice from the beginning, creating a sinking fund, creating a space in your bank account for tax.

can really help. There has been MTD, which is making tax digital, if you are a high self-employed earner, you know, fairly high thresholds for your property and your self-employed income, you have to account on a more regular basis now. So you need to have a look at that new law, and make sure you, an account for it just means like submit your figures you don't have to actually pay, but it can keep you accountable and it keeps you up to date with what you may be earning as you goal maybe owe to HMRC as you go along. So having a little look at like, these are just things that, you know, if you are going self-employed and a business owner, you didn't have to think about this as an employee,

now you have to. I think like critical illness cover we've talked about and I did a blog on it not so long ago about self-employed women. It was specifically aimed at people who are self-employed are looking to and the types of protections that you can put in place because like Laura said at the beginning, it's all on you. Like your income levels are on you. So if you are poorly, if you're not well,

There's no death in service cover. There's no... Absolutely not. There's nothing there. Health. You go and get... You know, go on to financial... com store forward slash protection.

Our partner life search, give them a call and just say this is what my job's going to be, freelance market or whatever it might be. What protections would you recommend that have in place? We can't tell you what you need, but you can certainly go and have a look and speak to them. I think it'll just give that extra peace of mind.

I think when you're like... It is hard being a business owner. So the more risks and the more stress you can take off the table the better. You can build up this, you've taken the leap from employment and you can build up this nice, like, layered approach, you know, what do you have in emergency savings?

Are you putting your tax to one side? Do you know where you stand with your numbers? Do you have critical illness cover and all health insurance in place? Those kind of things, they kind of catch you in case things go wrong. And even if nothing goes wrong, you sorted so you feel a little bit better anyway.

One less thing to worry about. Like when Laura and I started the finance, we had an emergency fund in place and that, and, you know, lowered our fixed expenses. Lower expenses. It could possibly be squeeze everything, make sure we didn't have, you know, bills going out that were connected to car finance

or things that we absolutely had to meet every single month. Everything that we'd started with, we could flex up and down. You know, we worked out how much we could afford based on the emergency fund and that type of thing. Like, it's really difficult to go self-employed. And it's not to put you off because life can be, it can be life-changing to go self-employed

in the best possible way. The question, There's absolutely more for an accountant, but we should definitely answer is the self-employed versus limited company thing because a lot of people do get overwhelmed with that. And there were, they used to be quite stark differences. The company used to be quite a lot of,

when it comes to money, there used to be a lot of tax advantages to be in a limited company. But there are a lot of legislation changes to kind of make them very similar if you're a solo trader, sole trader, but like if you're a solo worker, so if you're a consultant, if you're an influencer, if you work for yourself,

then a lot of the obligations are similar. So what you do with the limited company is, whilst you can limit your liability, which is helpful depending on the kind of business that you run, you create extra complications and layers. You have to file accounts with companies' house. You have to do certain filings. There's certain rules and obligations in place

that can just make it a little bit more fafy. So be very clear with an accountant from the off, start off on the right basis. You don't have to pay an accountant on an ongoing basis. you've got quite a simple model, but pay for that upfront advice that from the beginning you get it right. Because imagine having to unwind it later. And the last thing is pension contributions. So so many self-employed men and women set off in this journey and money is tight. And they've left employment where they don't get that pension contribution and they say they'll

sort it later. And they just almost certainly never ever do. So by thinking of it as a tax early on and you don't need a company pension, you don't need a work style pension. You can just just open a state of self-invested private pension, treat it like a bill. You know, you might be paying for Canva, you might be paying for zero, you might be paying for business insurance, whatever you may need, pay your pension at the same time as a proportion of your income. You're going to be able to build for the future as well as then going all in on your business. I'm excited. Yeah. I wonder what she's going to do. Tell us. Struggling to make it to payday, the financial app helped me track my money, pay off debt,

and finally feel in control. I've built savings, I've started investing, and I actually feel financially well. Download the Fanishell app and start your money comeback today. Okay, time for our next dilemma. We might need some notes being taken if you need, there's a couple of numbers. A couple of numbers. Okay, I have 10k saved. Should I blow it all to clear my debt? Hi, financial. I'd love your advice because I think I know what I should do, but honestly, I'm really nervous to actually do it. I've recently joined the community and realised my finances are a bit of a mix between survive and build all at once. So for context. In summer 2024, my old car, a proper banger, completely died in a pretty scary situation, right at the same time that I lost my job.

I used basically all my emergency fund to get through while job hunting and was borrowing my partner's car until I started a new job in October. Once I started working again, I needed something reliable quickly and couldn't afford to buy outright. So I rushed into a finance deal and now I really regret it. The car was about 17K. I put down 3K which I'd saved quickly over a couple of months and then financed 14K at 10.9 APR over four years. When I actually sat down and looked at it properly, I realized I'll pay about 5k in interest, which just makes me feel a bit sick. Here's where I'm at now. The settlement figure is about 14K, which would save me around 3,000. I've got about 7.5k in an easy access cash savings brackets I'd like to keep 1K as a mini emergency fund.

My lifetime ISA has about 10.6K in it. If I withdraw it, even with the penalty, I'll get back just over 8K. So I'm not losing any of my original 8K contributions. My plan would be to use my savings and withdraw from the LISA to clear the car completely. And logically, I know clearing 11% debt is the right thing to do. But I'm really struggling with the idea of wiping out the majority of my savings. A bit more context. I earn about 42k and my fixed expenses are really low. My partner is in the armed forces so we live in subsidized accommodation, which means I can build my savings back up quite quickly. We're also engaged, but realistically won't be buying a house for at least six to nine years, likely once he leaves the forces. So the Lyset isn't something I'll need anytime soon. I think it's

just the psychological side, seeing my net worth drop so much, even though I'd be saving thousands in interest. Am I right to rip the plaster off and clear it, or am I being too aggressive? P.S. When I rebuild the house deposit, what are your thoughts on using a stocks and shares, ISA instead of using a lifetime ISA? Given we're six to nine years away from buying, I feel like I might get better long-term returns than a LISA bonus, but I'm not sure if that's the right call. Oh my God. Slow the hell down. Not you. Not you. There's a lot going on.

There really is. And what do you, like, going back to when she like panicked back, panic got the car. 17K car on a panic. Like this is what happens. If this, when someone says, I just needed it. Reliable needed it. Reliable needed it. I, you massively empathize, but you didn't need that.

And this is not to cash aid at you. I'm so glad that. you've brought this dilemma, but for anyone listening, that's what you'll say to yourself, needed it, reliable emergency. You know, she was borrowing her boyfriend's car and suddenly couldn't. She was borrowing it for ages, then suddenly it might have been because she needed it for the job, obviously, but like that is such a massive jump. And she's now considering quite drastic action to undo that particular decision. And I don't know, it's probably a bit more, old school finance.

Like sometimes I think we miss whether it's on our financial socials, whether it's on like our chats in the community, but reinforcing old school financial. Don't take on car finance. It's not a good idea. Don't get into consumer debt. You'll be unpicking it later. Slow down. Do things slowly.

Take a breath and be the tortoise, not the hair. And that's so so important because what we're trying to, what she's now doing is going, oh, I have to go back before I go forwards. and she's very, like I'm getting the vibe, like, I have this vibe. I'm like impatient. Once I've decided to do something, I don't like waiting. I just want to be able to fix it. And sometimes it's a good decision.

Sometimes it isn't. A big caveat to this massive answer, the answer to the question is that there's lots that we don't know. So I don't accurately know what her lisa penalties would and wouldn't be. I know, like, she's giving us some figures, but the caveat is like, we don't know what it made. We don't know what the penalties would be. She would lose it, lose out because that's exactly what they're trying to do. They're trying to disincentivize. people taking it out.

And I also don't know what the underlying terms and conditions of the car finance are. So, for example, she's talking about paying off the car finance loan. She could sell the car. She could start again. So, like, she's, yes, there's 14K that she owes on the finance. That's the settlement figure. And you then own the car. We're still with the car.

Like, the car doesn't have to. So she's on about the way she would pay off 14K is clearing her. lifetime isa, like maybe walking away with eight if she can. Maybe a seven with the emergency fund. I can't think where she's going to get the extra money fund. She had emergency fund of seven and a half and then she's got eight in the license. Is that right? She's got...

I think so. I even took some of these notes, but there was that many. I'm not taking all those. I've written 8K left and after penalties with the ice lifetime ISO maybe. Yeah, she's got 7.5K in easy access cash savings, which she wants to keep 1.5K for an emergency. And then Lysa, she'd get back 8K. So she can clear it, but she also doesn't need to take the car, to keep the car.

She could, if the car's worth a similar amount, sell the car, pay the car finance and start from zero. Yeah. She has seven and a half, eight. She's got emergency savings. Yep. She could keep one and a half and use what, like six, seven, whatever was left to buy a car for that amount. Yeah. And so like sometimes having someone else pop your balloon a bit.

it and throw that answer in which is you could do this, still remain with your life there, still have that and not have any, not have that really, really high, there's higher, but that high car finance. I think she should probably listen to me like another pod where we were always like quite gone co with the savings point, but I would be really feeling comfortable for someone to take their investments out to do something like this.

Yeah, especially when she says. For something that's optional. Yeah, and she says that her expenses are really low. and she's got a good income. So I actually think she'd be able to, like you're not in financial distress here. She could build that easy access cash savings up again. And ultimately,

she has said her goal is to buy a house. So we don't know what they're going to do with a lifetime ISO rules. They may change them. They may make them more flexible. There's a lot of lobbying of government because they're inherently unfair. The size of house for some,

certain part of the country is incorrect. They might be talking about scrapping the retirement element of the lifetime ISO. What she's saying is that buying a home is in their future at some point. So I don't know, we answered this, like, what would we do? Because obviously it's not financial advice, and she can do whatever she likes.

She asked us what we would do. If it were me, I would absolutely look at that car and see, with the terms and conditions, can I sell it and pay off the finance with it? And I would go out and get a four or five grand car. Yeah. I reckon, like, my husband's car at the moment is probably worth about $4,000. It's a 14-year-old car.

Mine's a similar age, by the way. It's probably worth a little bit more. we are not buying new cars in the back of mine I have talked about we might start building up a sinking fund but I'm not going to go out

and buy a 10 grand car like we just don't need it we live and work so locally I want my money growing not going backwards and you've got a you've got like a sinking fund for car repairs

because you know that that's what you're going and that's okay and that's okay and I have no plans to need a 17K car for reliability unless I drove to Cardiff and I drove to Glasgow

and I need to travel in it so it still needs to be reliable I also get a breakdown cover because should it, I'm not going to go out in an unsafe car, but there's just, there's just options. And so then if you did that and if you were brave enough about doing that, then we get to the future of saving up for a home. The big kind of rule of something that the personal finance industry use when it comes to saving versus investing is you do want a longer period of time for the investing because history shows as it goes up and down. If you time it wrong and you

don't have a lot of other savings. So to invest a house deposit, me personally again, is what I would do. I wouldn't be doing it. I would keep my pension for my investments. And I would save up in a high interest cash ISA, my house deposit. You seem a bit wobbly with the lifetime ISO. So part of me is like, if you're definitely going to buy a home, maybe carrying on with a lifetime Icer is important. I don't think she said whether it's the stockshund shares one or not. I think she just said lifetime Isa. But be comfortable with the Lyser because at the moment, if you put it in, you can't take it out without a penalty, she may be better just having a big cash icer that she piles money in, gives her options,

gives her emergency fund, could be a house deposit at some point in the future. I'm going to get married as well, so it's like they've got a pot of money. They need money. You need money and they need access to it. I know at the house, she said six to nine years, but that we know with these dilemmas that come through, shit changes and people go, right, I actually want to buy a house in like two years time and I would hate for her to pull those, the bit of investment that she's gotten that lighter out to fund something now and you come up with a really good

possible solution for her. But I think her last question was something about a stocks and shares iceer, wasn't it, as well? Yeah, it was whether she should keep her money in a stocks and shares ice her because they're not going to be buying for quite a while. It's completely up to it. The cash iser versus stocks and shares icea, like I said, it's always like proximity to needing that money. So the further out, the more risky you can be in terms of putting it into investments. And also this is a layered approach. And this is what I tell everyone about investing, which is it's about how you feel about it and the context that you're in. So if I have 50 grand cash in savings and Holly has £500, and then someone gave us two grand cash, I may be more tempted and feel better about putting $2,000 into investments.

But Holly's like, ooh, if that dropped 30%, how would I feel? I need that? Because I've only got 500 quid. Whereas if my two grand dropped 30%, it's like, I've got $50,000, it's all about the content. It's all about the context. So you can, like, you can be riskier when you have less to lose. And so that's, you know, that's why the wealthy invest, and that's why they do risky angel investing or risky property deals.

Because they sat on a bit of cash as well, and they've reduced their exposure because they're diversified. So suffice to say, all that is, is if you work through the financial playbook, and if you build up strong financial foundations, have emergency fund money, do not have unnecessary car finance or consumer finance, then look to build up house deposits. Whilst investing for retirement, at least in the background, you build up to a point where over and above that, do what you like. Like, you know, be risky, don't be risky, lean into it,

but you come at it from a real position of strength. And I find when, especially when I chat to women about that, men definitely as well, but when I chat to women about that flow, they go, oh, that makes me feel like I'm not some crazy like, oh my house deposit is in the stock market and Trump's done something over here and someone else has said something over here it's like well that's not my house deposit that it is that's the bonus

conservatory that I might put on. I'm not looking at that. Yeah, I'm not looking at it because everything else is kind of in the right place so but I would encourage you to maybe think about ripping the band-aid off. Yeah, let's give you some like

in a different way. Sell that car. Yeah, don't cash in all your savings to keep the car. The car's going to go down in value. Yeah. Like be bold, go buy a bit of everyone around start, reduce your savings right down and go, let's start again.

What cause should she get? I'm thinking like a nice little golf. I was going to say, I'm not, I don't know anything about cars. I do think it would be a really piece of content for us to do actually. Maybe we should look for like, look on some reputable websites that provide recommendations in brackets. Yeah, if we had 5K today spend on a car, what would we buy? What would a mechanic buy?

What a taxi driver buy? You're like, you know, what mileage should be looking at? because so often, like, someone will say to me, oh, I need a reliable car. Why did you pick that one then? Do you know it's reliable? Because I don't know it's reliable. I just look shiny and you doesn't mean reliable.

Just because it had a bow on it. This is me facetious and she doesn't say that. But yeah, like maybe we should have a little look at what that reliable, medium-sized car is that can kind of get you for me to be safely. And no finance. And no finance. 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.