The Vault with Financielle - "I'm a London Shopaholic in the Trenches!" | The Vault Episode 55

Episode Date: March 13, 2025

Send us a textIn Episode 55 of The Vault, we discuss this week’s controversial opinion, “We should be doing all of our spending on credit cards”. We then dive into our listener dilemmas:💸 "I’m a London shopaholic in the trenches”💸 ”I’m in student loan HELL”We celebrate a listener who, after just a few weeks with Financielle, has completely shifted her mindset! She’s gone from overspending to feeling fiercely protective of her money. Now she’s chasing the buzz of saving instead 🤩 With payday around the corner, she’s excited for her first proper month of budgeting and building her emergency fund! 💸✨If you’d like to share your money win, head to the community in the Financielle app or email [e-mail] your (totally anonymous) money dilemmas to [e-mail] and we may feature yours on a future episode 💌Guess what! As a Vault listener, you can get 25% off our digital course, The Money Playbook. This is a step by step guide to being financially well. It has 101 lessons where you'll learn how to budget, ditch debt, build savings and grow wealth. Use this offer code at checkout: VAULTCheck out The Money Playbook course here  💸Chapters:00:00 Introduction00:44 Welcome to The Vault02:13 Controversial Opinions on Credit Cards03:15 Credit Card Spending Habits10:12 Work Expenses and Credit Card Use12:38 First Dilemma: Tackling Debt and Impulse Spending19:56 Making Financial Goals Fun20:12 The 48-Hour Rule and Sinking Funds21:13 Impulse Buying and Wardrobe Realities21:53 Reflecting on Impulse Purchases23:41 The Influence of Social Media on Spending25:02 Authentic Influencers and Fashion Content26:48 Community Wins and Financial Journeys28:51 Student Loan Struggles and Advice37:14 Final ThoughtsThe Vault is an entertaining yet thought provoking podcast that answers our community’s dilemmas and confessions surrounding women and money.Visit https://www.financielle.com to download our app.Watch the podcast on YouTube.Follow Financielle for more:▶︎ TikTok▶︎ InstagramAbout Financielle:Financielle is a female focussed finance app helping women to take back control of their money, ditch debt, increase savings and invest in their future.Recorded and Produced by Liverpool Podcast Studios▶︎ Web ▶︎ Instagram▶︎ LinkedIn

Hey everyone, it's Holly here. Before we get into the episode, I want to share something exciting. That's right. If you're looking to take control of your money, the financial app is your go-to tool. With the app, you can track your spending, create realistic budgets, and hit your money goals faster than ever. In fact, did you know our premium community members save three and a half times more than our free users? That's incredible. Plus, you'll be part of an amazing community where we all support each other on our money journeys. Whether you're starting to pay off debt

or planning for your future, the app has everything that you need to make it happen. So what are you waiting for? Download the Financial app today and start your free trial. Trust us, your future self will wish you did it sooner. Welcome to the vault with Financial. This is a safe space where we talk all

things life and money and no topics of limits. Happy Thursday. Happy Thursday. Good morning. Vault day. Vault day. Best day.

Happy Vault Day to those who celebrate. Which there are a lot of you now. Yeah. Oh my God. There are so many of you. We kind of forget that it's not just us.

So we like do this and have a great time, record it and then crack on. And then when we listen to it back on vault day, we go, oh, we had such a good time. Do other people listen to this? Cause it's just our chat. Like that is a fun, informative, educational podcast. Who are these?

I don't know about you guys, but Holly and I have real issues in our friendship group when it comes to The Vault, because some friends feel that others get more airtime than others. So Charlotte wants to be on air. One of our friends. So I don't know what your dilemmas are and what your controversial opinion,

but Holly, remember. She has to send the dilemma in. Charlotte wants to be featured as one of our case studies or something. And I've got a lot of stories about Charlotte, so I'm surprised that she's not. I was like, what do you want me to share? Why she's not come up.

You be careful what you wish for. That's all I'm gonna say. And if you have got a dilemma, you can message into the vault at financial.com and we will gladly read it out for you. And we'll call you like, Lollet. Lollut. No, no, she'll want a full name.

She's main character energy, she'll want a full name. Okay, controversial opinion time for today. I'm scared for this one. We should all be doing our spending on credit cards. Who came up with that? Do you know what pop cash is? Do you know what half the internet I think is doing? No, just no.

I was going to ask, why should you? Why should you? Well. What would people say? If the finance bros are anything to go by or the like, oh, I nearly said tacky, I don't mean to be so personal. Spammy, TikTok accounts will tell you otherwise that Avios points guys that are sat in the private jet seats

and content creators. Yeah. My points. They've been exposed, haven't they? Where they've shown that people rent, it's not even a private jet, it's like a shell. Like a little studio. Like an internal shell.

But then that page for miles was a private jet with their miles anyway. Like it's not like the first class people. Yeah, yeah, the showing off like, oh, I saw, I love that they outed people. Yeah, people think that they can hack the system, get the points, get something in return, feel like they're getting one over

on the credit card companies, because they're so savvy, of which we have spoken about before. We do know a couple of people that spend a lot of time and energy utilizing those points to the best of their ability because they track. Yeah, it's like a hobby for them. They like it.

It leans into that like organizational tactical spreadsheet type of behavior. But if we're talking about the standard person on the street, you're not going to get massive rewards in terms of spending on your credit card. You're arguably going to go the other way where you end up leaning on it a little bit too much. Oh, I missed that minimum payment this month, or I'll just put the holiday on it. And it kind of snowballs into unmanageable debt. Yeah. There's so many arguments that are like positive ones for putting big purchases on

credit cards where people want that extra protection. You do that, get the protection under the Consumer Credit Act. You get a lot of that protection with chargeback, by the way, as well, on a debit card. But lots of people do want, like for that big fridge or that holiday, that big purchase,

you get so much extra protection, up to 25 grand. That means if it's faulty, if it's fraudulent, if the company goes bust, lots of different things, you can use your rights under the Consumer Credit Act. But you also have a lot of those rights under charge back as well, so you could arguably use your debit card. But all you're spending, yeah, I think you're hinting at the points, means, prizes grade, which so few people win. One of those examples is where it falls down is that like a Harvard Business Review study

proved that we spend more with credit, meant like literally spend more. So it's not like you're just switching out, oh, I'll use my credit card instead of my debit card. Because you have this line of credit, you are like factually proven to spend more when you use credit. The percentage changes depending on if it's credit card or it's buying up a later, if it's loans and stuff, but we spend more.

So even if like, say you spent 25% more, but you've got 5% cash back or 5% worth of points. You're still down. You're still down, you still not beat the system. Maybe you spent 25% more, but you got 5% cash back or 5% worth of points. You're still down. You're still down. You still not beat the system. And so the way I always say, people look at this is, do you think Amex is stupid? Do you think they're a really shit company?

Like, have you seen how successful Amex are? I'm pretty confident they're still a debt-free business, by the way. Last time I looked, they were like Visa, oh, Visa and MasterCard. I'll have to look at Amex actually, but do you think they don't know what they're doing? Or do you think they know that if they give you some aviose points here and there, that you will spend more on that card and ultimately it'll leave to more revenue for them? Do you know what I find really interesting? The concept, and we're weird, we always say

it, we're financial weird, like we've got this system and methodology and it's different and it works. Do you know when you go on holiday and you get the bill at the end of the month and you review your past behavior? At the end of the week, I wish. At the end of your stay, so if it's a two night stay, put it on the room, we're having dinner in the restaurant, put it on the room, we're having drinks,

put it on the room, all that stuff. It's like, it's not your money. So it's like, put it on the room, we're having dinner in the restaurant, put it on the room, we're having drinks, put it on the room, all that stuff. It's like, it's not your money. It's like, you put it on the room and you have to then at the end of the week, day, month, you have to review your spending behavior and you have to be like, shit, we literally went da-da-da. And everyone goes like, how much do you think it is? What's it going to be? Yeah. But people, and I know these people, our friends as well, do that every month with their credit card. They sit in at the dining room kitchen table, going through the statement of their past behavior.

I've got to pay the credit card bill, I would die. Like I would just, I'm stressed thinking about it. Do you know what I mean? Do you want to play the holiday game every month where you're like, how much should we spend? What were we feeling that day and we went a bit bougie or whatever it might be. Every month, that's how you live your life

and that's how you manage your money as a family. So it's quite alien to me that concept. Kevin at the Plaza and Home Alone. Yeah. You spend $500 on room service, which is like a drop in the ocean. I'm like, bargain, bargain. Peter, you've left first class to Paris.

You're flying. Do you know what I mean? That comes, that's what it is. You literally get a statement, you review the statement and then you pay the money. And I'm like, why? Why would you, why are you baiting? And it is, they've been sold the dream of like this point.

So it's quite, you know, it's the black card, it's the whatever. It's an alien concept to me, but a lot of people do it. It's probably the normal, so then paying on debit for absolutely everything, just don't get it. What about the people who are saving up sinking funds and everything, and then paying on credit card,

but just moving from sinking funds? Is that fine? Or is that? Well, it's an extra bit of admin. Why would they do it? just moving from sinking funds. Is that fine? Well, it's an extra bit of admin. Why would they do it? Do the benefits. Is that what you mean? Are the benefits, the protection? I think a few people in our community

do it for the protection point. If anyone ever says. Yeah, and I get it for the big ones as well, especially. Again, the higher your emergency fund, do I really care about a 50 quid top that I've bought with a credit card for the protection? Again, I've got my own consumer rights about if the top doesn't get delivered

over the company goes bust or stuff. But also I can take a 50 quid loss. It's interesting, that's the payoff for me. There is a bigger risk with credit cards that you go into more debt, that costs you money on interest, that costs you your income, that costs you money on interest, that costs you your income, that slows you down financially. That, depending on the amount of money, that

outweighs the perceived risk of, oh, it's better to buy something on a card. That's where you start to look at the value of the thing that you buy in and it might hit a certain ... At what level would you like that to go on a card? And interestingly, it might sound a privileged thing to say. For what I spend even on some quite expensive holidays, got a family of five, I still don't put it on card. I don't put it on card. I have travel insurance all the time, so I'm protected in some insolvency cases and I pay on debit card, so I've got charge back.

I do not need the consumer credit act on my side. I'm happy. I would rather use those other two avenues. Like I'm not saying I'd rather lose, you know, however many thousands on a holiday, but the perceived, my perceived risk of debt is so high. The risk of what it can do to you as a family and what it can do to you as people means the protections. It's really hard for a lawyer to say this, the protection's not worth it, but I'm making up the protection in other ways. So like I'm very happy to not put lots on the card.

My husband's got one for work and then he, well, the other week and he's like, so just put it on the credit card because, and I was like, what? Depose? Sorry, what did you say? Say it again for those in the back. And he was like, I just had to put it on the credit.

And he like said it and he was like, why did I do that? I was like, I don't know. He was like, I panicked. I just, I can't remember what it was. And I was like, so now we've got to go through that statement because it's like, you've got work things you've got, now you've got personal things mixed in there

and oh, it's all messed up. Look, what now? a lot of people do actually have a credit card for work expenses, because workplaces are so bad at paying expenses. You're expenses back. Can't have it on one for years. Obviously he doesn't travel as much now, but when he traveled, sometimes,

this is more recently, so not in the early days, but the company would pay the expenses on the last working day of the next month. That's so cool. So two paydays away. Like if you happen to have traveled on the first of the month, it was the last day of the next month that they would pay.

So that's eight weeks. That is so bad. And we're talking hotel rooms, dinners, taking clients out, petrol. No. Like food. Oh my gosh., petrol, like food. I don't like that. Sometimes, oh, his bill sometimes was thousands. I think that's how.

And he, that's how he got a card because. I think sometimes that is a gateway for people getting into debt, where they're too embarrassed to say to their employer, do you know, like this is. Oh yeah, that's a good script to give people. What's the script, Holt? This doesn't marry up.

What should they say? You have to go away and you need to fund it all and just claim it back. People, that's literally the everyday, isn't it, for people? And so what do you say? What should they say? You have to go away and you need to fund it all and just claim it back. People, that's literally the everyday, isn't it? So what do you say about that? I don't know. I don't like confrontation. Take my money, I'll pay for it, it's fine.

Don't mention it. Don't beat me back. Keep the change. That's what I'm saying, okay? Do you know what I mean? A lot of people will have reverted to, like Carl have had to go, the math isn't math and I can't sustain that.

I'm going to have to get a credit card and then sow the cycle. Cause it's a personal credit card, isn't it? No, what benefits did you get? Nada. The interesting thing about AMRs as well, especially for us that are north of Watford, is every house is usually like most AMRs

are like you virgins or BA. You can't fly out of the North easily. We've had a voucher once because of COVID for some BA flights and honestly it was the biggest pain in the ass. We couldn't go anywhere. And then everything was more expensive or lengthier and in the end we were like, this is a burden not a curse. We'd give it away to anyone. We ended up going to Barcelona via Heathrow. Which was with kids, which was so annoying because you got to go down and then back up again. I know you don't go back up again, but it felt like we're going out of our way.

Yeah. To enter Heathrow of our own choice. Oh my God. Don't do it. Okay. Time for our first dilemma of the day. I'm a London shopaholic in the trenches. Hello, Vault ladies. First off, big fat love to the podcast.

I've watched all the episodes now and just joined Finite Child as a premium member because I'm determined to get my money shit together. So I'm not constantly stressed the week before payday. I've got 2.5K debt to PayPal and 3.5k on a credit card. I've kicked Klaana and PayPal Pay in three to the curb. So now I really want to tackle the remaining debt. I'm in the hopeful process of getting a promotion that would take my salary to 40k. I live in London with my boyfriend and we split bills proportionally. He earns more than me, so he contributes more.

I really want to tackle this debt this year, but my problem is impulse spending. I know I'm such a rubbish spender and I constantly make excuses like, oh, this will be the last purchase and I'm stuck in the cycle. I've tried the 48 hour rule, but my issue is I still want everything after 48 hours. Cue that's the honesty, by the way. I read the 48 hour rule, but my issue is I still want everything after 48 hours. Cued us with the honesty by the way. Are there any other workarounds for really knuckling down and being super strict on not impulse spending?

I've got sinking funds and an emergency fund covered. So now it's just about getting the ball rolling with trying to reframe how I see spending. Any tips for a London shopaholic in the trenches would be so appreciated. Thank you. Lucy, you have done so much content on this one. TikTok, have you got any thoughts?

First thing that springs to mind is socials. It is so difficult to navigate this life at the moment. The only thing I think of. She's saying shopaholic though. Yeah, I think living in London, like I go and see my friend in London every now and again, and it feels like a city break. And I'm like, how do you live this life every single day?

Yeah. Like shops walkable, like good shops walkable, Yeah. Tubable. And like even where I live, obviously it's like, it feels like a teeny town, especially compared to London. I walk out and I can spend at least like 10 pounds on a lunchtime walk.

Like, oh, I need to grab this, like a top of shop, wherever, wherever. Gales. Gales. And I'm like, if I lived in a city, it would be game over for me because you couldn't even go on a walk and escape. Yeah.

You know, I can turn right and be like, I'm going to walk through the fields. Yeah, yeah. You can't do that in London. Yeah, no, it's true. The temptation is't do that in London. No, it's true. The temptation is all around. Everything's, it's impossible. We always laugh because like we go down to London

with work and I'm always like, how do people live here? No one talks to me on the tube and no one's looking at me in the eye. And Laura's thing is like, I always say, oh, I don't know how people can do it. She's like, no, you feel sorry for people. And I do, I'm like, and she's like, you feel sorry for Frank that's going back

to his penthouse in like Mayfair. Cause he sat on the tube and he looks a bit sad. He might have just lost like half a mil, you know, with his portfolio. You definitely have, like I've lived in the city and I've worked in the city before. And if you're a metropolitan person, it is amazing. We talked about that, like, you know,

whether you like shows or whether you like the buzz of lots of different people. Arts and culture. There's so many benefits to it, but that all costs money. She says shopaholic, so she must mean things. And so we've got the impulse spending unlocked out there so people can watch that. And Lucy, you and I worked on that together to work out of all the content we have on it

and all the stories we have, like how do we help someone? And a couple of things that spring to mind is firstly, understanding the emotional trigger to the impulse spending. Why are you shopping? And only you can answer that, we can't answer that. And some of the examples we give are things like, are you bored? Like, are you shopping? And only you can answer that, we can't answer that. And some of the examples we give are things like, are you bored? Like, are you wandering?

Because actually, if for example, it's, I'm bored, I wanna get my steps at lunchtime, then choose a different route, choose a field, find the field in London. Like the change, you might set yourself a fitness goal, you might go to the gym on your lunch, you might work through your lunch and finish early, you might take steps and like go to a museum,

whatever the things are. But if it's a boredom thing and you're physically walking, you know, try and address that. The other one is if it's social media and scrolling and you're being influenced, really looking at like some of these apps, you've seen some really, what's the app that you use? I've got Opal and it kind of blocks apps.

So for the most, mine weirdly is WhatsApp. Like I spend so much time. Some kid groups, that's why. Activity groups. And you just then get sucked in and it's distract, it's continuously distracting. Boom, boom, boom, messaging all the time. But you can put restrictions on Instagram, TikTok,

any app, you literally choose from your phone. What's the trigger? What's the thing that's draining my time, resource, energy, mind, mind. You can just set a blanket ban on it and it just comes off. If you're either through boredom or because you, the other example that you gave, Lucy,

before on the pod I did was validation. Like if this influencer has got this coat and you want that coat because you wanna feel like that influencer, you wanna feel as as modern as up-to-date as Trendy that the social media will fuel that and then there's usually a link that you can click to obviously Buy that thing then you can do the the there's a couple things There's the treat the symptom which is like take away the Instagram thing because that's the trigger for it But it's not that's not treating the it's not curing

Yeah, which is really and I find this a lot when people are big shoppers, it's a self-esteem thing. It's because I need to look a certain way. I've seen the girls on Instagram look like this. I want to look like this. And there's nothing wrong with that. But what the way that you come about it is you're never going to buy enough. No, there is not enough things in the world. You've seen the richest people in the world don't find fulfillment in buying things.

You can get a dopamine hit from it, yeah, but that falls off. So this is where your budget comes in. So if you do like to buy things, you can still buy things, but you set yourself a budget for them. And don't make it too tight that you're not gonna stick to it. We'd rather you have a slower journey, but have permission to spend.

Because what we find is when you have permission to spend. You won't spend it. You won't spend it, not as much. It's like payday, you can never find anything in you have permission to spend. You won't spend it. You won't spend it, not as much. It's like payday, you can never find anything in Zara. We always talk about it in the minute. You've got no money, you're like, jump a skirt, coat bag. They're amazing, they're all amazing.

Payday comes around and you're like, awful. It's not real money. But if you are the London shopaholic, which is going to be your anonymous name, I like that, there's a reason you're wanting to shopaholic, which is gonna be like an anonymous name, I like that, that there's a reason you wanting to shop a lot. And things like low or no spend challenges can help because it's for a period of time. So the 48 hour rule didn't work for you. I think that's because you still find a need to buy things.

I promise you, if you can disconnect from this buying for 30 days, 60 days, something like that, and you really work on yourself and your self-esteem and your value, and you don't connect your value to things that you buy. You'll do it less. You won't get that like treat reward system from it. You'll kind of break that cycle.

It's really hard to do when you're trying to- You need to like flip that dopamine hit to be like either like saving or selling something on vintage like money. Like what is it going to, what's the goal? Sometimes when there's not a clear enough goal, there's no real drive to save money or to not spend. You know, if there's no goal, you're like,

what am I doing it for? Like I have fun spending money, so I'm gonna continue. If it's like, we want to go on this holiday or we want to be debt free, like making that goal fun, like putting it in the app, personalize it, get it up on the fridge at home, like color it in, whatever it is, to make it like that aesthetic thing to replace.

I love how she did the phone thing though, so help us out at least, like you did the phone list a lot, that was like- The 48 hour rule. The 48 hour rule, but you know, what do you do if, so on to it. So what are they gonna list? I mean, I feel like the 48 hour rule isn't the same

as like the writing it in a no-spend challenge. I think the 48 hour rule, if you do really want it, that's when you just make a sinking fund for it. And if it is something that you can't take out for sinking fund right now, and it's like, it's on sale, I can only get it now. You just can't get it. Yeah, you could snowball that list,

you know, like, and do when you hit certain times. But I do think doing a no spend or a low spend and like doing that extreme challenge, whether it's a week, two weeks, a month, I think that does reframe it for you. And it does just like- You realize you don't need the thing. Yeah.

You need that time of like not having any of it. It's always easier to do that than like, I'm allowed one impulse purchase a week. you don't need the thing. You need that time of not having any of it. It's always easier to do that than like, I'm allowed one impulse purchase a week. Pretend we're going shopping with you, like on your shoulder, right? I need a new winter coat. I need one, guys. Do I need one? No, I've got one.

I just want a new one. I've got a couple of different options. They're not all as aesthetic. I've got an aesthetic one that was cheaper that I bought when I was cold out and about. And it looks good for like on camera and filming and stuff, but it's not warm. And so really, oh, I would love that.

I would love a whistles version of that. So do I have 300 quid? No. I don't have that. So I'm, I don't need one. You know, it's just, we can convince ourselves of anything. And it's amazing what you can do when you go, no, I don't need that thing.

And then when you walk away and you get home and I'm like, and you're like, I don't have anything to put away. Patting yourself on the back. Also just remind yourself of everything that you've impulse bought and how that, at the start it was like a dopamine hit, like, oh, I've got this new coat. But it just fades into the back of your wardrobe.

Everything in your wardrobe was probably like a dopamine hit. Really exciting at the time. Yeah, now it's like, oh, you probably hate your wardrobe. I think definitely printing off your statement from the month before, going through all the things and being really honest with yourself that you impulse bought. Adding it up as a total and be like, what could I have done with that money?

Where would that have been better to go paying off my debt? I could have, say it was 500 quid that you impulse spent throughout the month. I could have knocked 500 quid off my debt. Yeah, she was really humbling. Like she could probably do a really big, vintage REB journey with all of it. If she's a shopaholic, self-confessed, she's probably do a really big vintage or eBay journey with all of it. If she's a shopaholic, self-confessed,

she's probably got loads of stuff. Look at how much you actually get for it. I was like, you bought it for this and you actually sell it for this. The item that you won't go and look how much people are selling it for and vintage, and I bet you don't buy it. And ironically, she's got six grand debt to go.

She can absolutely lean in. Obviously, hopefully, the shopping might be derailing some of that so we can get after it, but some of that 6K was not with money that you didn't have. Like it wasn't your money. You know, someone else's money. I think when you think about that, like I actually can't afford it.

Cause you can't, like you, cause you will be able to put in your budget what you can afford and you can spend that. The minute you start to exceed what you're putting in your budget, you're afford and you can spend that. The minute you start to exceed what you put in your budget, you're spending money that's not yours. That's where the credit comes in. I think sometimes that's quite a harsh lesson

for us all to learn, which is, if you are putting this on credit or if some of it ends up on credit or you run out of money at the end of the month and you need to rely on credit, you literally use someone else's money. Literally can't afford it. It's so hard in this day and age.

Back in the day, I was trying to think who were we influenced by? And it was like magazines, you know, like to spend money. Which was slow. Yeah, and they were rich and famous people so you were kind of were removed from them but now it's so dangerous because Rebecca down the roads are now an influencer and she's buying a haul.

She's taking it back. She's taking it back. Oh, she's getting it paid. She's getting it sent for free. Literally, oh, she's getting it sent for free. So you can compare yourself to normal people going, if she can afford it, why can't I? We literally live $10 down from each other.

Whereas back in the day, Victoria Beckham's got the thing, well, I can't afford that because it's Victoria Beckham. Whereas you compare, you're making yourself compare to your peers, but it's not the truth. It's not as much as you like it. The cycles are so much quicker as well because it's not the truth. It's not as much as you like it. The cycles are so much quicker as well because it's just all instantaneous.

Something used to go in a magazine and you could go to the shop and it'd still be in stock. Whereas now that's all seasons of blur. Like you used to work in fashion buying. Seasons of blur now. There's no seasonality. There's no massive seasonality in terms of like Christmas, Easter, but they're all blending into one.

Drops, drops, drops, drops. And you've got influencers creating Pinterest boards, like boop, and you can buy the Pinterest board. So not only do you just wanna buy one item, those trainers, you wanna buy the jeans that they put with it, and the bag, and the hat, and the scarf, and the, it's just so accessible, and there's links to it all.

It's just, there's no friction. There's not much friction anymore. I was really enjoying them. I really liked Victoria McGrath. She's a wigger in the fro, who just hit a million subscribers on YouTube, it's amazing. And I really enjoyed a recent video of hers

where she did a Net-a-Porter haul. But she's so honest with it. She works with them, she gets credits with them. And she just made a comment, which was, I am completely mindful that all you see sometimes is me with new deliveries and new things. What Victoria's got a PhD in fashion, like she's very knowledgeable when you hear her talk about.

She's an OG blogger, fashion blogger. She talks about like the stitching and the cuts and like she knows her stuff. She's not just prancing up and down in nice outfits. She knows her stuff. And what she said is, and she does do this for all of us. She said, I love looking at how you can put together different pieces effectively,

like what are good investment pieces? What really isn't a good use? But she said, I'm mindful that that's my job to do that, but that's my job. Like I'm basically a walking magazine. It's not my life. Like it's not real, real life. It's for a magazine shoot.

And it made me think of that, that actually, that's how we consume fashion content nowadays. I don't remember the last time I read a magazine, I go there and she called out the fact that this isn't real, this like nice little haul, I would never go out and buy all this because I have variations of these things. In fact, she tried some pants on and she was like,

I'm gonna send these back, because I have them. They're four years old and they're still out. I wanted to see if they're still the same fit and the same coat and stuff. And she sent them back. Try and follow like authentic people. Yeah. Or funny people. Maybe just like block all your fashion people

for a bit and just see how you get on. Good luck though. Tell us how you get on your own. We want a debt free like scream from you guys. Shout out. Community win time. I started Finitech L only a few weeks ago and already I feel totally locked in.

I love the term locked in by the way. How apt. I used to overspend so easily but now I feel fiercely protective of my money. I'm constantly looking for ways to increase my emergency fund so I can eventually pay off my debt. I'm getting the same buzz from my saving that I used to get from spending. And now the thought of spending on anything frivolous is quite horrifying.

It's my first payday tomorrow since starting the journey and I'm so excited for my first proper month of budgeting and saving. That is literally like poetry. They're like, just take a look. You need to speak to the dilemma girl. I was just about to say, shut my eyes, that is the win from the person that you just read the dilemma.

Well, the dish alcoholic is gonna write in in three months' time and give that exact one. She was like, in my head I was like, she needs to speak, let's connect you both. Like you can say, when she was being fiercely protective of where her money goes, you want all the person to switch to feel fiercely protective about where their money goes.

The screws are. Yeah, mine. You want her to feel that protective. Like once you, if you're in that mindset, nothing's stopping you. Nothing is stopping you. Well done, that was amazing. If you'd like to tell us your win,

head to the community in the app or email it to the vault at financial.com. Final dilemma. Just a quick one, Laura here. If you're wanting to take back control of your money, ditch debt, make better decisions, and build wealth for the future, the Financial app is for you.

With Financial, you can track your spending on the go, hit your money goals faster, and create a realistic budget that you can track your spending on the go, hit your money goals faster and create a realistic budget that you can actually stick to. Not to mention, you'll be part of an exclusive money community who share tips, offer support and celebrate your successes along the way. Click the link in the description to download Financial and start your free trial now. This is your sign to take control of your money today. Okay, I'm done. Let's go back to the vault.

I'm in student loan hell. Hi ladies, I need some help, guidance or maybe just a kick up the arse with my student loan. I left university in 2017 after completing a four-year undergraduate and a one-year postgraduate course, so I'm on Plan 2 and PG. When I left uni, I think I had about 59k worth of student finance debt. Now I have 80k. And loads of exclamation marks. I was under the impression that student loans wouldn't affect my affordability until a lender pulled out of a mortgage offer recently after finding my student loan. I pay about £250 a month of my paycheck back to student finance and that's on a good month. I work in public service so I often earn a lot more than my basic salary due to overtime. But my gripe is that when I see I should be getting around £800 in

overtime, I end up getting £200 because student finance has taken their cut of my hard work. I appreciate that I do need to pay it back and I'm frustrated that the interest rate keeps going up and up. It's not what I originally grew when I started uni. My question is, is there a better way I can manage this? It's so disheartening losing so much money each month and having even more taken when I do overtime. I've even halved my pension contributions just so I have some money left over each month since that's something I can actually control. I'm 31 now and my loan won't be written off until I'm 55. I've even looked at moving abroad because I was previously told that you could move

for a few years and it would get written off, but that's no longer the case. I started tracking my net worth in the app and checked my outstanding balance for student finance in December and then again in January. It's gone up 394 pounds when I just had 200 pounds taken out of my pay towards it. How can it go up that much within a month? For reference, my interest rate for my undergrad is 4.3% and my post-grad is 7.3%. Side note, I'm not even using my degrees in my current job, which makes it an even more bitter pill to swallow.

Any guidance or harsh words to say I've just got to lump it would be great. Hero. I just need- You wanna read these out to the government, don't you? If people just- Yeah. The system is broken. Yeah, and Holly and I speak from a position of privilege

because we both were able to get further education at a time when it was much more accessibly priced, much more accessible. Yours was much more accessible than mine. I went pre-top-up fees, the introduced top-up fees, as we've always shared on here, we were fully supported by parents. We did have student loans,

but we had maintenance loans. So they were very, very small. Fees were paid, but they had interest rates on them. And I always remember people at the time going, it's a cheap, like I possibly might not have needed a loan because I worked two jobs during uni. It was kind of like my absolute fun money, but on reflection, just like everyone does

with student loans, like you just spend it on rubbish. I went on a skiing trip, I've said that before. And it wasn't that good, I had to go on a coach and then I flew back. I think that was worth the money I flew back. I was like, I'm not coming with you guys, see you later. But I remember at the time people talking about, don't worry, it's not carried for mortgages. It's the cheapest little bit loan that you'll ever get. Like it's not bankruptable, like all these things. It's good debt, with the G word. And honestly at the time as well,

like interest rates have been low for a very long time and it tracks like kind of the base rate and stuff usually. So it was a cheaper debt, but I remember like graduating and checking what it was because at the time, like my foot, like I was paying it off straight away. And I was expecting it to be the total of what I've borrowed, but interest starts occurring from the very first payment.

I was like, what? And even then I was like the first step of, I feel like I've been screwed over. And now you fast forward to now, which the cost of university now, and the fact that we've got someone who's done a four year undergraduate degree and then a year post-grad,

and she's not using it at all, helps to show why so many people are disillusioned with the system and frustrated with it because it's not their fault that they're not using the same thing. It's because you pushed into this educational field, get a degree, you'll get a job, and then you come out the other side and life's different. I'm also conflicted because it's a level of education for lots of people. So many people from working class or even lower middle class backgrounds don't have access to investment banking, lawyers, doctors, unless they get private, unless they get university education and go that way. They've not, they've not got daddy's friend,

you know, in at the office that can get them an internship. Doesn't work like that. So it's much harder. And so I always hate the idea. I will say, I don't know what to say to my kids. So they've to work out what I thought they wanted to do and where their skill set was. And then we are saving and coming up with a plan

to try and tackle it. So I'm opening with that because I just empathize massively. It's a massive bubble. It's so misunderstood and we get, I say we get a couple of these a week. This dilemma we've got, obviously we've picked yours and we're wanting to help you but. And people you speak to as well, everyone's worried about it or stressed about it

or fed up about it and vocal about it. Everyone's in the same position. It feels like everyone's been hardodwinked a little bit. I feel like the goalposts have changed a lot whilst people are still stuck in the system. Things change as people enter a four-year degree and then they go, oh, it changed. And you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

So for example, interest rates change. No one thinks that would happen and we've had a really bad interest rate environment for people with loans and mortgages and stuff. So that would never have been factored in. So this is where she's saying, I'm paying it off and it's going up by more than I paid it off.

That's correct. It's all driven by interest rates. So you've got that element to it. And you've also, so you've got that, and then you've also got like thresholds changing. So the government are constantly looking. So recently they brought down the threshold, even though inflation has been going up,

down the threshold at which you would start paying it. So a lot of people suddenly were brought into paying it off and hadn't previously been paying it off. And so the threshold's gone lower. So you have to earn less and suddenly you start paying it off. And different rules that she's already spoke about. I think definitely.

Whereas I see student loans, I think there's the harsh words, which is the Mel Robbins, no one's coming. Like this debt isn't getting like written off tomorrow. Everyone got prom. Everyone at uni. It's not going anywhere immediately. I think my, we had a finance module in my degree

and I'm 99% sure that the lecturer even said, don't worry about your loans by the time you come to pay them off, they're going to rent them off. Literally. I swear to God. Follow me for my financial advice. I can see it now. A special lecturer at Manchester. I can see it. She was a finance, she was like a finance specialist and I can literally see her saying it and everybody like, oh good. No.

Yeah. No. And there's still nominal amounts, but no. So it would, no. And it was just still nominal amounts. But no one is coming to clear it. What there are is at the moment, there are rules about event. Basically, there'll just be points where you just never pay it off. Because you need to, it's all linked to your earnings.

So as she's getting over time, as she's getting pay rises, more money's paid off. But for many people, the maths doesn't work out and you just never end up paying it. And I think there's one thing that's great about that, like it doesn't impact your ability in terms of like, it's not, so some people aren't putting it on their net worth,

it's completely her choice to put it on. But all it is, it's a limiter on your income, a student loan. It's not a debt that if you have to pay it, you can't choose not to, because it comes out your salary. So it's not like a, it's not impacting in terms of borrowing

when it's like looking at how much you have, but it does impact your affordability. And they found her low and like, how frustrating. They never knew. But it's because you can say, oh yeah, I earn 50 grand a year salary. But actually the last, like do you have any dependents? Like children impacted?

Do you have car finance? That impacts it, stuff like that. But also like, do you have student loans? And that's the limiter because they push that all through their affordability calculators and go, and they also put stress tests on loans. So they say, okay, save your paying 250 or whatever a month. With interest rates go up, how much would that loan be?

And then if our interest rate goes up and your mortgage goes up, ooh, you know, it can really impact you there. So you're being squeezed from a lot, it is impacting. What should she do about it? I think that I always say this to people, forgive yourself the decision to go to university, especially if you don't use it, because that's gone.

That's out of your control. It's like, for us, if you're like, things change. I took it alone, like, no. You know, and maybe it was the price that you were meant to pay to learn something differently or to get a particular job or a particular opportunity, but it's done, like, try and see it

as a maths equation going forwards. The pros, graduate ones, interesting, because you may, given given it's a high percentage loan, and I honestly, I don't know this bit and I'm going to learn this so that especially if it can help people in future, but sometimes that's not wrapped up into student finance. Some postgraduate loans are actually private finance. It's not your student loan. I don't know in this case, so I can have a check. But it may be that that's one to go after. It's a high percentage. It'll be a lower amount because it's the one year one. So she may feel positive about making progress on a debt-free journey towards that

particular loan. But unless you choose actively to overpay your loan, you're not going to outrun it. Like it's always going to outrun you because of the volume it sounds like. You can earn your way out of it and you might end up paying it off through your earnings but I think you need to look at the calculators and it'll show you, are you ever going to pay off? Because if you're not, I think it's a mental, this is more of a mental game.

Yeah. To kind of park it and go. Detach from it a bit. Yeah and don't be worried about overtime. Sorry, I was just about to say. Don't not do the overtime because you'll get some. Yeah, and don't be worried about overtime. Sorry, I was just about to say. Don't not do the overtime, you'll still get some. Yeah, I was about to say, what is it that you use in the overtime for,

if it's gone from 800 to 200, there's like a tax, you pay tax anyway, would you keep killing yourself? I don't know if you are, but to do the overtime, if you know that the reward's only gonna be 200, you might go, I'm not gonna do it then. I'm just gonna enjoy my life. Yeah, and listen, I know some people that go,

there's no point me earning over that, because I get punished for it. But don gonna do it then. Yeah, and listen, I know some people that go, there's no point in owning over that because I get punished for it. But don't see it as a punishment, it's just that you'll go over a threshold like you would for tax purposes or whatever it might be or national insurance. You can never have to see it like that. Yeah, and it is hard knowing that every pay rise you get,

there's always gonna be that extra claim on your income, but you'll get more. You'll end up getting more off the back of it as well. So it's a super tough one. I could love to know more about if people got student loans, actually a message in the falloutfinancial.com, what are your plans with it? Do you pretend it doesn't exist? Do you keep an eye on it? Yep. You for the first time looked, didn't you? I don't know if we've talked about it before. And I like-

It's probably got up, it's probably like doubled. But like, when that's maths, like it's going to. You protect your head space with it. I just think literally 99% of like my friends were all in the exact same boat. And I'm just like- So just let it be. I've just detached from it.

And I'm like, I wasn't gonna make another decision. I wasn't not gonna go to university. It wasn't like, I knew I wanted to go. Looking back, I've not got like a degree that I need, but I did it, whatever. It was fun, I enjoyed it. And like it's got obviously got me here. And you met your partner, you met some friends for life. You lived in an amazing place. Exactly, and it's kind of got me here and you met your partner you met some friends for like a living amazing place exactly

There's and it's kind of what's done is done So what are we gonna do about it now? I don't like beat myself up about it the fact that I've probably got nearly 100,000 pounds worth of student debt. Mmm, like is insane. But I'm just kind of like It's a number. It's a number doesn't's better that high than it being like 30 grand. And it's reachable and you're like, oh. And that's where this is like treating it as like a business exercise. This is where you could do calculators.

There are so many helpful ones online, which is like, is it absolutely worth it? Because if it's within reach, I think we'd all be tempted to go after it. Whereas if it's not, and there's so many other people in the same boat, and the fact that other than it limits your earnings, in terms of like it limits your affordability

because it reduces your income, doesn't limit your earnings. Like you can still go get a higher job and a higher job and a higher job. And yes, they'll keep taking a percentage, but they were gonna do that anyway. It shouldn't hold us all back, should it? So, and the big thing,

which we just don't know what's gonna happen. There's so many people on that boat. You never know. You never know. We're all praying. But the good thing about it in the UK is, because it's different to the States. States is like, there's a whole lot

of different schemes out there, but it's just automatically taken. So the decision to overpay is the only one that most people have. And given it just doesn't impact us in lots of different ways, I think a lot of people tend to crack on. Cash is king.

The more cash you have at some point, you might turn around and go, you got a hundred grand, I'm gonna take it off. You might do. You might not, but having the option, like I think what you don't want is people just going, oh sod it and then like being rubbish with the money over here as well.

And yeah, yeah, yeah. That answers itself out. So I do remember that mentality of the feeling like, oh yeah, if you just go traveling for a while, it gets clear. Everyone's like, oh yeah, yeah, we'll just do that. So do rumors of, well, we never know what's going to, I mean, God, what we can see in both the UK and the States,

no one knows where politics and policy is going to go. What you can control is one, your mindset, and two, your money. And those are the only two things you can control. So I feel like I hope we answered her dilemma. It's probably right where they're at with the finances and the fact that it did go up more than you paid off, but you've done nothing wrong. and just control what you can control and don't let

it deter you from your financial goals. I'll take your part Holly, I feel like, you know, don't kill yourself on overtime if you don't want to. The fact that she's doing the maths and like- Don't limit your earnings, like make sure you earn as much. But also the one mini red flag for me, super, super hard, is you slow down your pension. Pension, I know. Pension is your wealth. So just make sure this is where the budget's

super important because there should be room in your budget to do a proper pension investment. Don't be pulling that back so that you can live, laugh, love, as we keep saying it over here. And if then you need to earn more, and you need to earn more. Yeah, the minute I heard half my pension, I was like, oh, you got me.

That is all for this episode. The vault is now closed. And just a quick disclaimer, the vault is just a chat or online for many topics. We are not giving financial advice.