The Vault with Financielle - "Should I Invest in my pension or property?" | The Vault Episode 91

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

Send us a text“30 free hours childcare is a scam” - we unpack this week’s controversial opinion, then dive into your dilemmas:💸 ”I just won a car…”💸 ”Should I Invest in my pension or property?”Got a money win or (totally anonymous) dilemma? Share it via the Financielle app community or email [e-mail] 💌You’re not alone in figuring this stuff out. Get honest, helpful reads at financielle.com 💖💸Connect with our Partners*🫶 Get life insurance with our friends at Lifesearch. Speak to a female advisor here.✍ Write a will that is tailored to you with Octopus Legacy.🏡 Meet our Financielle approved Mortgage Brokers.*The above are tracked links, which tells our partners we sent you and may in future result in a payment or benefit to our site. Chapters:00:00 Welcome to the Vault00:15 Cozy Studio Vibes00:52 Jigsaw Puzzle Addiction04:30 Childcare Controversy09:30 Winning a Car Dilemma18:53 Entering Competitions: Worth the Cost?19:07 Community Wins and Personal Finance Success Stories19:28 The Importance of Emergency Funds20:00 Building and Maintaining an Emergency Fund21:19 Balancing Fun and Financial Goals22:06 Planning for Potential Emergencies22:58 Insurance and Emergency Funds: Finding the Right Balance23:52 Sinking Funds and Financial Peace of Mind26:24 Pension vs. Property: A Financial Dilemma28:14 Financial Advice for Young Professionals32:35 The Power of Diversification and Future Planning36:39 Understanding and Maximizing Pension Contributions38:41 Closing Thoughts and EncouragementThe 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

Welcome to the Vault with financial help. This is a safe space where we talk all things life and money and no topics are off limits. Hello. Hello. How are we doing today? We're good. I'm doing okay. I feel like it's very warming to be in the studio and this like nice, cozy.

Yeah. Is it, Bucle? Oh, Bucle, that was the one. I know what you mean with Borg? We described it as Borg. Yeah, off camera. You describe the couch as Borg, and I don't know what I'm going to stand by that. No, but you can get like board jackets, can't you and stuff?

And that's this fabric. I think so, yeah. Well, it's nice and cosy. We need a aesthetic fire in the background maybe now. I like doing that when you're in your house and it's Christmas and you put the fire background on. Yeah, yeah. I've got a new hobby and it is also ageing me about about 80 years. God.

I've got a jigsaw. I love a jigsaw. Because I've been using my phone lock thing that we spoke about last week. really well. Basically, it's a physical barrier. You can't go on your phone unless you go outside and tap your phone on this little tab. You don't have to keep it outside, but Lucy chooses to keep it in the car so that she really wants to get into a phone and she has to go out into the cold. Yeah. There's a big spider on our path at the moment as well, so definitely not going out there. I thought I don't message me back for three weeks. So I got a jigsaw because I was like,

I need something that like calms my mind, which is not just watching a screen. And I I'm literally addicted to it. Like, all day I also can think of as jigsaw pieces, like connecting together. I love jigsaws. Every year when we go to France, the family whose house is staying have just wall to ceiling jigsawes in this wardrobe. And I just love it. And like it's nice that, you know, it's nice about a jigsaw. You might not like this, Lucy, but that other people can come in and come out and do a little bit.

Do you get annoyed? I was going to do that a bit. Well, obviously, me and Alex turned it into a competition. And I, sometimes I think he's got a bit bored with it now. so like I can have the glory of finishing the jigsaw. We've currently got a dolomites. Oh, that would be nice. And I sit literally pull the coffee table like into the couch basically.

And I sit with the fire and I've got like a Christmas scene. Is it light enough to see the jigsaw? Like if you got the right lights on it? Sometimes I refuse to put the big light on. So I do do a torch. Oh wow. With your torch on your phone. I do like a jigsawat and the good thing about it them is they're really accessible.

So in our local library, you can get them out for free and then give them back. And then you can get them at all charity shops. Like it's not an expensive hobby or like activity to do with your family. Yeah, because it's a bit like a book. Like once you've done it, you may want to do it again, but you probably want to move it on to the different ones. The fact that you can gift it or redistribute it is quite a good idea

and people are willing to because you don't want to redo them. Did you pick our jigsaw that we did this year in France? Because it was hell on earth. The Marvel one. Well, the only reason I picked Marvel was I thought some of the kids at some point may be interested in doing it because they had lots of, because some are really dull, aren't they? Yeah. But it was really hard

because there was like really, really big characters and then tiny characters and lots of characters looked the same like the number of blue and red. Green and green and greens and then the blue and red ones. There were Spider-Man and there was Captain America and they were all blue.

Yeah, it was I picked it. But I think it was more because of the Marvel. The boys liked it. It was good in the end and I liked that people just dropped in and out like it was quite past. Some people like a few of us own in. So we'll come down and go, you've not done much.

Oh, well don't you've done loads. I've been here for three hours I've done a lot you just don't realize I know I've reorganised them all I must admit I got into hacks at the end which was when you when it's really hard at the end

you can and it's the stuff that they all look the same you can order them by like shape have you seen that oh my god this is a hack so well so you because there's only about three or four different types of jigsaw shapes

so you put them all on the line of all the ones that have like one sticking up at the top you put them all in the line and group ones that are similar and so then you start at the left of the jigsaw and you go okay that piece I need one with a sticky up bit I'll go to that cue and you go that one note that one note that one note so you can only do it near the end yeah yeah it did sweet that's what got what I was done I wouldn't be able to finish it

so you have a scene on while you're doing your jigsaw is that what it is yeah Christmas scene gorgeous it's got like Christmas jazz oh I like that I'm going to put it I want to get home actually yeah 26 going on 85 yeah That's the right age to be. Okay, controversial opinion time. 33 hours childcare is a scam. I'm going to pass over to my colleague on the right because I no longer have children that I have to pay for their education.

Yeah, you know, about the, I think you were probably a bit jealous when it came out, though. I was thrilled. Because you didn't get the 30. No, I got 15 and I was absolutely thrilled for people when it came out. And when Labor kind of pushed it forward as one of those. big items that they were going to push through. I was like, this is a long time coming. This is incredible for women mostly because women are always punished.

Like when you become a mum, there's loads of stats behind it. I think we've done a blog on it as well. If you go to fan-inshell.com and search up 33 childcare hours, one of them will pop up. But it really punishes women when they can't get back into work. If they're not the main breadwinner, they'll generally take time off to be the, you know, the core parent, if you like, taking part-time hours. instead of full-time ones.

Like you, men actually, when they become parents, their career trajectory, like, increases massively and their take-home pay increases and promotions increase, whereas for women, it absolutely goes backwards. So I was like, this is amazing for women, this is amazing for families. Is it all it's cracked up to be like,

you tell me because I'm not in the detail? I think that's the thing. I think, look, when we look at our friends over in the States and what women have to go through, families have to go through when the woman, like, I mean, we just don't even need to start getting into how bad politically they're doing right now, how poor they are when it comes to state support. It's really interesting, without going to detail, but I'm fairly interested in American politics

because we've spent a lot of time there over the years, and mum's always been interested in it, and in the US, you've got the Republicans and the Democrats. So aside from like what's going on now, historically, you've kind of what they call left and right wing. But the Democrats, which are left wing in America, are very central everywhere else. So like Labor, the left wing party or the more typically left wing, but they're far more left than the Democrats. The Democrats are far more central. So it's really ironic. It's like people pick a side, like they're picking a football team. But if people really sat and thought about what the Democrats campaign for,

it's the vast majority is what most people would want. And it's, and there's certain things that happen in the States that you can't comprehend that they've got there. And one of them is the healthcare situation where, you know, we have the NHS here and we just take it for granted massively. But, you know, there's so much controversy and there's so much changing and there's so much that basically like private companies get involved and make big profits and access to insulin, like just basic stuff. So that's crazy. But on the childcare side, it's just universally accepted that maternity leave isn't a thing that you essentially get between six and eight weeks maternity where like if you've had um even the most basic of births you are still

physically recovering you're never mind mentally recovering and you've got a newborn baby and i feel like you don't hear a lot about um nurseries over there like daycares you don't see like it must be a huge industry because you're taking in six and eight week old babies the care that's required and it's just it's just absolutely crazy and lots of people do try and save and try to do things, but there's never any work benefits that you have paid maternity, not to that kind of level. So, you know, I've got that in my back of the back of my mind where it's like, actually, we do have a pretty good deal here in the UK. But the 30 hours free childcare has gone up from 15, but it's intended to do two things. One, get people, especially women, back into work

sooner. So a lot of women don't go back to work or go back to work part time because they're precluded from doing because they're like, why am I earning this money and then handing it straight over to a nursery to look after my child? And so, second, it is the cost of living crisis because childcare has gone up and bills have gone up and so childcare is also unaffordable. So there's two reasons. But there's just a lot of technicalities that we won't go into, but it's not 33 hours blank all year round. It's only in term time. There's also extra supplements that you generally have to pay to the nursery, which is not the nursery's fault, but the hourly rate that they get from the government is less than that

if you were paying normally for an hour. And so you do pay for extra things like food and extra nappy is an extra nice things, the nice things that you get to do. It's like a surcharge. A lot of people don't like that, but we know quite a few people that have worked in the childcare industry. And, you know, they're not making billions of pounds in profit. This isn't an amazing profession where they're like rinsing it financially. They need the extra money. And so the offering for the government doesn't kind of stack up and help. So it is a something will take. And it definitely reduced our bill. I mean, our bill was around £1,000. pounds and with that help it's about 700-ish now and 300's gone back into our family part in fact

ironically that 300 goes now into mining cars pension equally so we're very lucky that as a family we didn't need that for like food or we didn't need it but other people would like that but at the same time I feel like I'm doing something fiscally responsible with it which is looking after me and my husband in our older age that hopefully the state doesn't have to but that extra 300 you know five years ago might have gone to help us buy a home or help us like pay for the groceries or heating when things are going up so I'm hoping it obviously helps a lot of families so a scam is a strong word but I think like like Holly said I think the government dined out on this we're going to help I remember it was I was like oh my God this is amazing and it's also stupid because it's

based on the term after your child turns a certain age let's say it was three in this scenario I know there's different ages as two. Why do you do that? It's stupid because I had one child, middle child was born in May. So the next term after May is September. So she was born in May, but we've just missed the Eastery, I think, term. It's April, yeah. So then it's September. But my youngest was born at the end of August.

So he got it two days after. So like, you know, we're lucky that we got both sides of it. But I think a lot of people find it confusing in how, to work it out? How can you budget for children? And how will your bills change? The nurseries don't know. Like they find it really hard to work out. What's my bill going to be when I get these three hours so that you can plan? It's really hard. They're highly paid. Like they don't get paid enough. Like nursery workers work so hard. The hours are much longer. Much longer. You're much more one-on-one with children. Like in a school, and it's not easy. I'm saying

being a teacher, God, I imagine one teacher to 25 plus kids is hell on earth. So God knows how you do that. but you really like kids are falling over you're changing nappies like you're feeding children you're then washing the hand like it's so physical a job and there's such long hours and the hourly rate is not acceptable I don't think for the amount of care that they give I just don't think they're appreciated enough in that the government don't recognize it as a high like should be more of a high paying job it's quite a low paying job for the amount of work and there's not enough acknowledgement in the young young like childcare industry or whatever but I was talking about like how you plan for these costs and how much it costs for childcare.

Someone that I used to work with literally worked out on a spreadsheet when she needed to give birth by so that she didn't have to pay for another year of childcare. So they wanted the baby to be born pre 31st of August. Would that be right? Would that be right? So you wouldn't have to pay another year? I'm just laughing because...

So demanded a C-section from her consultant because she didn't want to pay for another year of childcare. And so I had a C-section before 30th century. of August. Savy. Yeah. I must admit when I was pregnant with Ali, he was born on his due date, which was the 28th of August. And so he will be the youngest in his school year. But if he was born on the 1st of September, we'd have to pay for an extra year's nursery, an extra year. So it could have that made sense now. I've just got it. Yeah, financial impact. Yeah. If you're born on the 1st of September, you're going to do an extra year than someone born on the 28th.

I think ultimately I'm pleased it was brought in but you have to do so much planning for children and potentially having children and then when you actually have them and then putting them into childcare and then you know you may have said that earlier hall but now we've got after school wraparound care you know we're very lucky actually where we work for ourselves we um you'll know this because we start work at five past nine because we need to the school room we're not having to do the breakfast clubs like when I was working in the city or when we worked, you know, in Manchester, you would have to do before school clubs and after school clubs,

and it was still tight. So you're paying before you're paying after. So it's, you know, you don't get three hours for the wraparound care, but you do just have to pay for it. It's tough. It's just always another cost. Like it says, it doesn't actually stop. I was like, oh, I don't pay for childcare anymore.

I do. I pay for wraparound care. What do you pay for ever? Just more meals in the day. Everyone always says like high school kids. It's like, how much have they spent for love? You've spent six pounds on lunch today. Yeah, well, they cap it, but she's got a little starling, like, um, kiddie card that's

in our, you can, it's called kite and you can do it as a space. And so she's not all the time, but sometimes they'll get a ding and she'll go into, like, the corner shop and some rubbish for like a fortune. Um, but no, high school there, it's like, yeah, just feeding them and then their activities then, but at least they're a bit more self-sufficient. It's, it's so expensive. And like I said, I'm super privileged that we saved a bit of money and actually were able to lean into investing.

Again, that's because we did financial, it's because we did the playbook, we've paid off our debt, we've got our savings. But so I'm grateful for it. But 300 pound in my back pocket at 250 is game changing if you want to be able to save for things, save for school shoes, safe for holidays, and pay for food. Like it's a, it's a welcome receipt. But I've just, yeah, it's like, I think it's the shock that people get and they go. Oh, so it's not actually 30. Yeah, that's the conversation's eye here. Sell it in as this big thing, but actually.

it's like smoke and mirrors and good luck if you can work out how much you meant to pay. Yeah. Can I ask what are you going to do with the excess when you really don't have to pay for nursery child care? Obviously you'll have to pay for wraparound care for Elliott when he goes to primary school. But what do you envisage like doing with those, that excess cash? So I was asked this by someone on TikTok, something similar, which was actually to do with our junior ices. And our junior ices were saving for the kids and we want to save 21 grand by the time they're 21. And that will belong for them. So, you know, we will have to manage those discussions over the next few years,

which is my preferences it would be to like maybe buy a car. You know, I'm hoping they don't want me to buy a car and then them have $21,000. But they might need a car before then. So then that's like gone out the window, although they get access to it between 16 and 18. And then, or is it like a deposit for a house? Is it a starter for that? That would be a good thing because it's starting them off on that journey. But someone said, oh, is it for you?

union. And I went, oh, no, it isn't actually. And so I think that what will start to happen and we need to think about it for Ava even earlier is I want to save as much as I can to help contribute to the union. I would like our children not to have to have student loans or to have as little student loans as possible. So I think the, it was before I said, oh, we've diverted it back into our pensions because we've got a percentage that we want to hit. But I think the bigger conversation is how much do we need to save the three children to potentially go into further education of some sort and that's scary yeah yeah a lot of money sobering yeah especially of how expensive it is now yeah yeah exactly it's not just the the fees is it it's you all staying at home

yeah not living out anywhere and um you're gonna do it at a cheaper university or you're gonna get on these apprenticeships and someone will pay you to work and it's all to think about and Honestly, for someone who, like, helps to run a finance brand, university hadn't entered my head until she said, oh, is that what it's far? It's like, listen. Yeah, that's interesting. No, it's not.

But you've just helped another sinking fund that I need. Yeah. I think uni, saving for uni is a terrifying one because they just keep increasing. And I saw the other day that the protests because the cost of university is going to go up again and job losses in universities and like it's all very much up in the air. And I think even back in the day, having a grant, it was quite. competitive to try and get one of those you have to hit certain markers for it or scholarships or whatever it is they're going to be a hell of a lot more competitive now because it becomes so

expensive well lucid was the year that they made you all do it from home or didn't even do them but still charged your full fees yeah my last year was all online unbelievable couldn't get any equipment out that we needed anything for the same price yeah yeah ladies welcome to the great lock-in of 2025 a time for you to intensely focus on goals and self-improvement. With the help of our friends at AJ Bell Doddle, the next few weeks will be dedicated to helping you lock in on your investing goals. Everybody talks about the importance of investing, but it can often feel overwhelming. Not anymore. With Doddall's low-cost, low-effort investing app, there's no better time to start, and the financial team will be

holding your hand every step of the way. The lock-in investment challenge will help you pick an investment goal and set a plan to hit it, teach you how to practically invest using the Doddle app, improve your money mindset with our habit stacking techniques and create a plan of action for 2026. What's not to love? If you want to join the financial investing challenge with Doddle, download the financial app now. And just remember, investing comes with both risk and reward. Okay, time for our first dilemma. And this is a really good one. It's in the community, so I think you will have seen it. I just won a car. But I'd love some advice. I literally entered online line a month ago. And this morning, the radio station called me and actually delivered it to my work,

which is obviously amazing, but it's smaller than I need. It's electric, which is fab, but it's a Chinese brand that nobody has really heard of, which in Germany means higher repair costs if needed. So as much as it feels incredible to have a brand new car sitting on my driveway, that doesn't cost much more than my 26-year-old one to ensure, I'm considering selling it. The internet says I could get between 13 and 19k for it, which would wipe my debt, let me buy a decent sized second-hand car since my old one likely won't pass its next moat, help me move out of the house I share with my ex, and maybe even leave me with a bit left over. But it feels like I'm cheating. Like I won't have earned my debt-free status. I mean, it would take me years otherwise to get there,

but this feels like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. What would you do? Who wins a car? Oh, just for it to say. Congratulations. Yeah, well done. Must enter more competitions, everyone. I remember when I was younger. Do you remember in magazines?

They used to be like, I'm talking like sugar. Was it sugar rush or sugar? It was sugar. I don't look at loose it. I don't look at Lucy. Think of like a young, a young Cosmo, but like for kids, teens. And there used to be a page that was like ring to enter this competition. And I remember when it, when they first.

came out and I was like mom can I ring like to enter this competition she was like yeah fine no worries and I like I did it once but then I did it like two times three times in her bedroom upstairs in our old asphalt and mom and dad hadn't cracked on like now you're going to look at like how much is it going to cost but I think I'm sure at the time it was like three pounds per entry which back 25 years ago would have been like a 10 or an entry and I just didn't understand the concept that I have to pay each time I entered this competition I just bring the phone and it's my answer. I never win anything.

The only thing that we always laugh about, what did I win a jar of jelly beans because I had the longest chip. It was like the longest. She did. She did, she wanted. Yeah, it did. It is.

These jelly beans lasted about a week because no one liked them. It was a longest chip. It was Sloinski's balloon. Yeah. Is that the right place? Yeah, in London. In Biggerly Circus, yeah.

She won the biggest chip competition, the whole restaurant, so she got a large takeaway cup of jelly beans that lasted forever because no one wanted that. That's what I want. I want. skis once. Oh yeah. That's good. Bingo skiing. It wasn't like just random. Imagine that in the local bingo hole. Skies in Wiggin. Walking out. It was skiing. That was a great prize. It was. That is good.

I remember that. I remember I getting off the bus like, with my head skis. Yeah. No, use them again. What, have you ever won a competition? I've won vicariously through my dad. Go on. So do you know those like rogue Instagram pages where like someone starts up? No, like someone starts it up in like your town. and it's like every Friday we do like a live thing it was really weird because it was all legit she must have like got stuff from somewhere cheaper my apple watches from that because basically she was quite small like she didn't she only had a few hundred followers so like it was pretty good odds like my dad won like one of those insane bottles of brandy like the

remy martin yeah i've got my mouth wide open he's run like full toolkit iPad It was like his friend's daughter that was doing it So we were all there like Oh yeah, let's go The secret competitioner It was so good but she doesn't do it anymore No wonder she was losing Go away on my iPad

Apple Watch See my Apple Watch is from that That's hilarious It was stolen No Oh She literally got everything She's thinking

She's like Don't think so Lydia You ever wanted anything in a competition Not that I can remember No I'm going to go start Entering some though aren't you

Yeah the amazed ones are the best ones yeah the omaze ones get me yeah we've talked to them before we always talk about who would yeah would you sell the house would you keep it and you'd always sell it they're always on a floodplain

always on a flood plane what was the question should she sell the car oh yeah she won a car so um aside from the competition right for everyone picture this at home

so you come into some money this is an asset that's worth some money you come into some money and you have debt and it's a really interesting point that she says I don't think I've I feel like I've cheated I feel like I've worked for it

and she's got a bit of a point and it's not because you don't deserve to get a leg up or you don't deserve to get help sometimes people get a bonus from work sometimes people sell to get an inheritance there's lots of ways that people come into an amount of money it could be a tax return

tax refund sorry but if you don't grind out the wins and the building the emergency fund and going without and cutting your budget and paying off debt for a good enough time, there is a danger that you didn't learn anything and you didn't cut your teeth at something and you slipped back into bad habits. So it's definitely worth being mindful of that. Not that you cheated. Like there's no rules. Everyone gets different legs up in different ways and some people have it harder than other people. It's just not fair. It is that way.

So bearing that in mind. But it's interesting that she's got a car that sounds like it's on last legs and she is going to need a new one. She says it's too small for what she needs. I was the only thing that stuck out to me, because there's a part of me that was like, look, it's not a Ferrari. It's not cheap, but it's not a really expensive, like 40 grand car. She said between 13 and 19K. So let's say she could get 19 grand. That's an awful lot of money. But it's not a, it's not a twin, it's not double that. It's not like a 40 grand car. It's about 19, 20 grand max. And it is feasible that she could. have that car and then just keep it and let's just say this will be perfect for me

I don't need to do anything else I'm just going to keep this one but she says it's too small so I'm hanging on I want to see what Holly says in a minute but I'm hanging on to that and going I don't think she wants this car and I think she's got a really good plan for if she sold it she'd get a car that it would be fully paid for that would be more what she wants she would be able to pay off debt she'd be able to have some savings it ticks a lot of boxes she just so if she if she thinks she can manage money well and going forward build a really big emergency fund and build these sinking funds for the car that won't be as expensive as that one so it's going to need stuff doing to it from time to time what's the

next goal in mind rather than like saying oh no no I'm going to punish myself and I'm going to keep that car because I need to learn how to pay off debt if she said I love this car it's amazing and it's just what I've always wanted. I actually, on that, just because of her preference, I would flip the whole thing and go, I wouldn't blame you for keeping that car, but knowing that the price I have to pay for keeping this beautiful new car

is grinding out this paying off the debt because sometimes it's so easy to think, oh, I'll just clear it, and then it just all falls apart because you don't actually end up doing it and you end up running up the debt. I mean, you're in a similar position, not with winning,

but you had to decide whether it's like, you savings to pay off a car and the danger you could have said no I'm going to do it the hard way yeah to learn yeah and I think she might have got that from pods where we've said before like you need to go through the pay verbatim you need to go through the pain of paying off debt so you never do it again yeah so I get what she's saying like she feels bad because she's not maybe not got she sounds like she's gone through a little bit of it she's on a money journey so you've obviously had to start at the beginning and work your way through but yeah you feel like you've got this like magic bonus out knowing you're not deserving like we always

feel like we're not deserving of something when it's kind of like handed to us but you've already got a plan like you've very financially astute you've listed out all the things you're going to do and I think you've kind of made the decision but you just want to give us permission for you to like carry it through because you wouldn't have thought about it so much and listed out all the things that you're going to be able to achieve and one of the things you mentioned and I think you've messaged on the community before um about getting out of your partner's ex-partners house oh yes oh god yeah yeah sorry that's emotionally draining it's not healthy for anyone you could be stuck there for a long time it could be damaging to your mental health

all those things so notwithstanding all the other amazing things that you've said that's one big thing that can help you get a leg up and get out kind of get out of that situation so I'm like the minute you said it I was like sell the car like you've got no affinity to do it no attachment you literally entered a competition it's not like someone a family member's gone I'm going to gift you this car and I want you to run it into the ground it's my gift to you and you're feeling guilty like just get rid of the car just get rid of the car a little gift I know she is like on a money journey she's looking after money she's in a position where she wants to get out of a property that she's sharing with

the next ding yeah good vibes we don't we're sometimes especially women i don't think are like accepting that good things can happen to you sometimes yeah you're like oh there's got to be a catch to this like no no good things can just happen to good people sometimes so you've already got a great plan like we're here and we're here for you to sell the car i'm like i'm well on board of this enter don't enter competitions too much so cash too much but wow just Listen, some competitions are free to end to like, just have a little go. If you're not in it. Be open.

You're not going to win it. Okay, community win time. Love the pod. You've helped me so much over the last six months. I've finally had the courage to get to know my numbers. I have a month's emergency fund squirreled away for the first time ever. I'm working towards paying off my final outstanding personal loan. And I even have a sinking fund in place for my car's annual service.

Finally, there's light at the end of the tunnel. thank you oh i honestly emergency funds are just a game changer like they feel like very boring when you're not in the fan show world you're like why would i have that but we always talk about not many people in the UK have money set aside for no purpose as in a house a kitchen a holiday like we're always saving for something tangible like to have an emergency fund is like the ultimate adulting move superpower it really is it's in your corner and it's in your friends corner because you can help someone out You just have options, you have choice. And so often we talk about like returns and numbers and savings

and sometimes it's the intangible. Yeah. When we did their net worth earlier this month, it's a monthly reminder of how much you're having savings and how that makes you feel. And it's a good little barometer, like how I'm still feeling? Like we should always keep checking. Do I need more?

I'm putting a bit too much there. should about leaning into something else but just um like I was chatting with the guy that I work with the BBC and he's amazing he was talking about oh like I was like I bought a house I was like has it going he was like oh home under life like the boyling me doing and this you do and this and doing it's like every time I get savings got every time I get paid I have to put money back into savings and I was like yeah but some point you're going to run out with these things and it'll just be sat there like this is what it's there probably like if you didn't have it yeah this would be a credit card this would be overdraft this would be stressed this

would be buying, I'll pay later. This would be, you know, borrowing money from friends and family, where you just taking money from the Registry of it and paying for it and then you build it back up again. And there will be a month where suddenly the home money thing doesn't happen. Yeah. And you go, oh. And then it builds and builds from there.

And time the reminder of how, yeah, important an emergency fund can be. Just makes you feel immediate. Yeah. And for all those that are in build that are constantly writing, I'm bored. I'm bored. I'm bored in build stage. We get it. We've all been there.

Like it is boring as hell, I'm not going to lie. But once you get there and you start to then go, I can start investing, like, that you get that buzz again, that dopamine hit. So I know a couple of people had written on the community of the day, how do I stay motivated and build phase? Oh God, it's hard, but yeah. It's small goals, small incremental ones,

taking, we welcome a break every so often of like, I can't keep doing this every month, so this month we're going to pull back and do so, especially if you're stopping doing anything fun. If you're like, a bit of self-punishment, like you don't need to go there, you can have a nice balance, it depends how quickly you need to get to that, to the stage that you're in.

And deciding the right number as well, because it's so personal. So I like playing a game with, it's a great game. Welcome to my exciting life of what could go wrong. It literally is sit down, whether it's you on your own or you in a partner and go, okay, let's go through all the things that are fairly likely could go wrong. You know, it might be that the boiler breaking or the roof leaking or something if you're a homeowner that you'd be responsible for, and how much do you need to cover that? If you were to lose your job, how much would you need and how long would it take you to get

a new job in your field, in McDonald's, because of the varying levels of emergency. Because when you start to quantify emergencies, they're not always huge financially. They're not always as big as you kind of think they are. It may be around, like, if you got poorly, if you had a mental health issue, if you, you know, one in two of us are going to get cancer at some point. like there could be life-changing things that for a period of time mean we need to rely on an emergency fund

and obviously one of the things we always say is have a look at how insurances can close that gap so if you're sat there and built and you're building this big emergency fund but actually you could get some income protection insurance and critical illness cover that if something was to happen to you fitness-wise, health-wise,

you could have that break. You don't need as high an emergency fund because you've got coverage there. You know, it might be the same with like I'm someone who doesn't have, for example, boiler insurance. I deliberately wanted to build up an emergency fund to cater for that so that I can reduce all these different warranties and insurances and stuff they're paying out for.

But if you are someone who would much rather pay, you know, $20 a month for boiler repair and cover that someone will come out, if you're not confident, if you don't have a like, you know, if you're not dad ring mine, but any will ring someone else, he won't be able to do it himself. But, you know, if you've not, if you want the extra piece of mind, you can reduce your emergency fund a little bit because you've covered it with different insurances. Same with pets. Pets is a massive one.

think of all the things that could feasibly go wrong and have a look at your cash savings ago how is that going to make me feel and it will either make you increase it or it'll make you reduce it with confidence and then you kind of move on to to grow because it's then always there it's always there nice it doesn't like the feeling is like no other having an emergency fund it's like admiring it like you're looking through pictures on your phone like we look at our say our cash I look at my stand spaces like so a message yesterday saying, I do listen to you. So what am I getting for my, which, who should I go with for my like spaces, like syncing fun things? And I was just like, I nearly

sent a screenshot of mine. I was like, that's really personal. I'm not doing that. But I just literally like scroll through it. I always forget with the, um, and I was a little lower because we've, total. Yeah, the total at top of spaces. I don't include that. Well, it's not an emergency because it's mentally spent because it's an emergency. Well, it's a sinking fund. We've recently paid out for our holiday. So my travel fund. But if I looked at how much cash went into my travel fund this year. My travel space is like Carl and her, I don't be able to. Paddle boarding.

Paddle boarding. You can put a, you can put a... Mine's like a palm tree, I think. I think mine's like a superimposed image of me and Alex in Amsterdam. Of course it is. It's so funny. This is my TV license. Carl's put, I'll be as a baby watching the TV, TV license.

I nearly made a joke and be like do anyone even pay that but I do like I went with the BBC I'm definitely paying for their own TV license

like that was just a joke like because it was such a thing when we're younger wasn't it like do you do you pay

for your TV license they're coming to get you the student's one was always funny like we don't watch it ever yeah that's what we did but why did

why did they always go after students like they always knock on the door for students like surely they have the least money we're watching you we're coming for you but that like

sinking fun total again is peace of mind total that isn't including the new emergency fund but if I needed you know X thousand pounds access to that cash I just want me going on holiday I just won't be having a nice Christmas I won't be able to pay for my car insurance in full because I've got access to the cash so yeah it's like it just it starts small it's boring at first it's laborious and then suddenly you look back and go oh yeah like at the end of the tunnel she said yeah one said on the wind didn't they 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. Should you lend money to family and friends? What is an F-Off fund? How do I build my emergency fund? Well, we're so glad you asked. Head over to financialo.com where we tackle the money topics you actually care about. Okay, time for our last dilemma. Should I invest in my pension or property? Hi girls, I love your podcast and I listen every week. I'm 24 and living in London on a graduate salary. I have just started a new job and need some advice on where to put my money. really lucky situation at the moment, I live in my parents' flat since they live abroad permanently. So apart from bills, I don't have any major living expenses. Because of that, I've been putting away what I would normally spend on rent into savings and the stock market. My company has just

launched their pension scheme. The base option is that I contribute up to 5% of my salary and they double it, so 10%. On top of that, I can also contribute extra myself, even though they don't match at the moment I've maximised the match 5% from me and 10% from them. I'm also adding another 5% from my own salary. So all together I'm putting in 10% and they're also putting in 10%. Now I'm at a crossroads. Since I don't have rent to pay, should I use this opportunity to put even more into my pension or should I focus on saving and investing towards buying a house in the next 5 to 10 years? My parents might be able to help with the deposit but it's not guaranteed. I also worry that I might be naive about being able to buy in or around London giving today's housing market. So my question is,

what's the smarter move right now? Building up my pension while costs are low or focusing on shorter term saving and investing for a house. Thanks so much. Love the pod. What a savvy. She's 24. Yeah. Savvy 24 year old. Love that she loves the pod. Love that she's on it. Love that she's sat in a rent-free house in London. Yeah. Everyone else was amazing. This is going, Jesus Christ. Yeah, everyone's like, could I be a roommate, please? Yeah. No, put her parents on around.

They're in there. They're on holiday. They're abroad. So maybe she likes that. It's such a really good question. And the way I answer things like this is like, because we're playbooking always, always. Like people listening, you're probably bored of it. But it's really important to show how it works.

So she lives, budget is the first stage. She lives to a budget. Great. You understand that you are managing your salary. and that you've got syncing funds for things that are coming up. You obviously have a low cost of living, which is amazing at the moment. Perfect. And then you need to make sure that you have an emergency fund.

She sounds debt-free, but she's not mentioned debt at all. So we're going to presume she's debt-free. So she needs a really good emergency fund because at any point, parents could be like, oh, we're coming back and there's no room for you or, you know, we're selling that flat. You need something to move somewhere. And so an emergency fund and picking the right cash value emergency fund for her is probably quite important so making sure that she's got that built up she may have already but we're just

going down the flow so then she's in a place where um she doesn't need to buy anything right now um so she's in grow generally because she's not actively saving or actively buying i know she's asked that question but she's not actively doing it she's not like i'm going to buy somewhere in two years what shall i do so she's in grow which is where she is over investing into her um investing into the pension. She's not got a mortgage to overpay. She's not talked about stocks and shares I say yet. It's part of the question, isn't it? But she's doing 20%, which she's not said how old she is, but that's amazing. 24. Oh, she did. Without fail, every week, there's a comprehension catch out. She's 24. She's doing unbelievable. Yeah, so doing 20% at 24 gross with the

employer's contribution. She's just nailing it. Like, she'll be fine pension-wise. It's been a great year for investments, you know, we know they go up and down and there's always talks about this crash and that crash, but you've got to invest little and often to be a part of that and to invest a lot and often as she's doing is, is amazing. So she's very aware, though, at some point, like with the home thing, we are, you don't have to buy a home, but if you don't have a home, you have to have a plan for rent. And, you know, it sounds like she would quite like to own a home at some stage. So she's in a really good place pension wise. She's could actually think about a lifetimeizer, because Lifetime Issa is a really good vehicle that can

help you buy a home and the government contribute to that. And if you don't end up buying a home with it, you can access it at 60 anyway. So it's kind of like the pension timeline is very, very similar because she's asking, should I invest it in a pension or, which obviously you get a tax break on the pension, but you get this contribution in Elysa that you could then, for every four grand you put in the government, put a grand per year. You've got £5,000. It contributes to a house deposit. If she then never, then never goes on to buying a house deposit, as long as she doesn't withdraw it because you can get penalised, can't you? She can use it in retirement. So if it were me, I would, because I'm doing so well at my pension, I would like to build out my options for

buying a home because she never knows like she might buy with someone else at some stage. She might buy buy with friends. She might buy her with her parents. Like there's lots of different ways that she may end up buying. And what do I say to you, Lucy? Cash is. King and options. Yes. You're like, I'm going to say queen. Cash is king and it gives you options. And so the only time we don't like cash being the only thing we do is if we're not investing it as well. And so we're missing out on growth on the tax benefits.

So I feel like that's what I do because it's still based on the fact that she will buy home, but it still saves the money for retirement. It's not like she's saying, I might want access to that cash before 60. Where should I put it? Because in that case, I wouldn't necessarily put it into a lifetime. I said because you can't access it before it. Yeah, I was going to say the risk is that she's so future proactive that she's still so young. There's locking it away, but it's been invested.

If she's putting all the money into a pension, if something changes, like she meets someone, she wants to buy a house together, like she arguably could be on the back foot of right, now I need to save for a house deposit. And she said her parents might be able to help, but might. things change like would you like to have some disposable cash or like accessible cash of your own should your circumstances change you might want to go working abroad you might want to go like you're so young it would be nice to have some options of put it into account where you can get access to it and maybe not getting penalised I think you've got enough cash to spread your risk

across and diversify which is like such a wonderful place to be and it's so rare for a 24 year old so take it with both hands like indulge in diversification at your age of investing there's so many people, even our age, do not have that luxury. That's such a good point about she's, about she so much could happen, you know, and having access to investments or cash, whether it's a stocks and shares, ISA, whether it's a regular cash Isa, I'd be really intrigued to know how big an emergency fund she has because obviously the lifetime ISA locks it down for a first

time buyer and a particular size house as well you there's a cap on the price and so in london like actually she might end up that's a really good point for a london purchase the minimum house that she buys and if the government don't increase the threshold might kind of not yeah the house might be too expensive and she might not be able to use the lifetime ice her anyway so um having having a think about what options you want and model not modeling it where you like doing numbers but list the different things that could happen in the next 10 years yeah travel children starting a business, family get pullet, you get pullet, like what are all the, like we talked about with the emergency fund before, what would you do in this scenario? And the different accounts,

like what a cash ice is giving out at the moment, like what a lice is giving out, what, like looking at the market, what's the return on stocks and shares, isas across the board. Yeah, because if you do it into an, either of stocks and shares or a cash icer, the big point is, especially if it's not a fixed one, you get access to it, whereas if it's pensioned or lised, it's locked away and if you take out of a licence, penalties and stuff. So, yeah, like, sometimes it's better to sacrifice a bit of return in return for access. Yeah, for the freedom. Yeah. So, yeah, you're not getting the government contribution and your tax back. And yeah, it may not be in as aggressive fund. If it's in stocks, you can have, by the way, not people don't realize this,

but you can have a pension and a stocks and shares ice are invested in the same thing. Exactly the same thing. Let's call it like fund number one. We've put 100 quid in fund number one, but in a pension and we've got 100 quid in fund number one but it's in the stocks and shares isa what you should be able to get the same returns the only difference is in a pension obviously you get a tax benefit so something is being contributed and obviously you get an employer's contributions but she's maxed those that anyway so she can't get any more she's she's maxed those so i'm like put that in my brain we don't get financial advice so this is subjective this is holly's yeah what would you do i'm done like my pension started i'm like because you're so young and it's high enough

contribution. She's so young and so consistent and has maxed them out. So it's like what's next. And I think we've already talked about, but like modeling examples of what. Yeah. How amazing to be diversifying your investments at 24. Like she is living the life. You think these influences are living the life. No, that's the life. She has paid tax on all the fun stuff that they get. Like don't get it twisted. Like they're not living the life. And Laura speaks to a lot of them. No pension. No investment. No emergency fund. tax bill for the holiday that they went on that they didn't know they had to declare. But I think if you're sad to home and she's very clear that she appreciates how privileged she is,

but you can on a different, on different levels, be in a similar situation. Like, you can grind your way to a place where you are having the, we get these down lemons all the time. In fact, we get this one that often, this is a different skew with like the parents that we don't read them out all the time because we have them and we do try and answer them. We do answer them privately all the time. But I love it when someone gets to go and goes, what do I do? What do I do? And it's like, what do you want to do? And it's very empowering for people to have those options. And you want, if a house comes up that you want, if you want to start a business, if you want to go travel around the world, but you've no cash, you can't.

Yeah, that's what I tie everything up. You know, you don't want to tie, because she's so young, tying everything up to retirement. She's tick that box, like, let's come down and wrong. But She's the OG influencer like if you want to be influenced by someone, let it be this person. And a little take home for everyone. Have a little think about what, if anything, what goes into your pension? Gross. What percentage are you contributing? What percentage is your employer contributing if you have one?

Just have a think about that number because 20 is high. There's higher, don't it wrong, but 20 total is high. And there are lots of like compound calculators that you can look at online, especially on government websites where you can see, you know, the contributions and the percentage. and then that are in the market and then how you can alter it. But have a little look at pension calculators enough. Like I think there's one in the pension bap isn't there where it can be like, I've got this much in at the moment, how much will I have at retirement age?

And I went, shit. I literally went shit. Yeah, a lot of people doing the go, right, okay, at least I know. Many help have got a really good one. Most of the banking gaps now are starting to put them in where you can get a pension. So have a little play around with it. Don't bury your head with it. A lot of people just go, ah, just worry about it later.

If you have the facts, and you know, like Ruth is a really good example in the community of someone in their 50s went, just worked out of that my pension is not going to do anything to me. And now she's closing the gap and she's doing it. And it's like she just needed, basically she needed to know what that gap was and up to the percentages. Not too much that she can't enjoy her life, but not little enough that she then worries. But the earlier you know, the more chance you've got time to do it.

So I just get horrified when people so young just put the head in the sand because I'm like, No, no. Of all the people, you've got the power to make really small changes that could potentially have a demontorable impact on your retirement. If you're not sure what you're contributing, DMOs, like we can help you navigate, like, what it looks at, how you can calculate it. It's quite easily explained online as well, but if you want to walk through, you know, this is hypothetically, my pace like was this and this is what's going in, it's really good to work out what that number is.

And crucially, like, then increase it where you can, like, know that you're improving it. so oh i'm excited for it i feel like it's overwhelmed sometimes when it's options but these are all strong options and we love to know what she actually chooses yeah that's all first episode the vault is now closed and just a quick disclaimer the vault is just a chat around life and money topics we're not giving financial advice