The Vault with Financielle - “Should I Move Back to London If It Slows My Investing?” | The Vault Episode 111

Episode Date: April 9, 2026

“I panic when my investments go down and have even sold at a loss”… jail or no jail? 🚨This week, we’re diving into these money dilemmas:💸 “LISA or Pension at 34?”💸 ”Should I Move Back to London If It Slows My Investing?”Got a money win worth celebrating? Or a dilemma that's been living rent-free in your head? Share it (totally anonymously 🤫) in the Financielle app community or email [e-mail] 💌You don't have to figure this out alone. More honest money chat at financielle.com 💖💸Connect with our Partner🫶 Protect yourself and loved ones with our friends at Lifesearch **The above is a tracked link, which tells our partner we sent you and may in future result in a payment or benefit to our site.

This episode is brought to you by Tellus Online Security. Oh, tax season is the worst. You mean hack season? Sorry, what? Yeah, cybercriminals love tax forms. But I've got Tellus Online Security. It helps protect against identity theft and financial fraud so I can stress less during tax season or any season.

Plan started just $12 a month. Learn more at tellus.com slash online security. No one can prevent all cybercrime or identity theft. Conditions apply. In communities across Canada, hourly Amazon employees can grow their skills and their paycheck by enrolling in free skills training programs for in-demand fields. Learn more at aboutamazon.ca. Welcome to The Vault with Financial. This is a safe space where we talk all things life and money and no topics are off limits.

How oldy? When you do that intro, I have such respect for you because one, I would forget that. And sometimes when I'm recording for my life, you have to rememmerize that. It's the worst day of my life. It's like a school production time. I have to remember lines. And secondly, other podcasts just pre-record that. Did they do it?

They record it and then they'll just shove it in there. But you do it every time. And you do it. She doesn't stumble and she doesn't re-record. I'm not putting under pressure, but I'm really impressed with that open. Thank you. It's number 111. So I've said that over like 111 times.

Well done. It's somewhere ingrained in the brain. Yeah. It is. You probably said that in your sleep. Yeah. Welcome to the wall. Okay, are we ready for jail or no jail today?

I've got my air smart. I'm bored ready. Okay. I panic when my investments go down and have even sold at loss. Deal. Go on. You take this one. Wolf of Wall Street.

Go on. I don't know what to say. Well, you were very like, jail straight away. Why? Why did you jump to jail? Well, you were the whole point of investing. I think you should mentally be in a propase. Propase.

mentally be in a place where you can see it go down. Okay. Literally. Yeah. That's it. We have to be okay. And like you, none of us like to lose money, but you've not lost money. The value of your investments have gone down.

And we always describe this to people like the feeling when you have an emergency fund and you've got manageable expenses and you've got nice sinking funds and you are saving or you're paying down a mortgage to then have investments that go up and down who, like, it's. Like it just feels different because they just went up and down. And over time, what, you know, what tends to happen is they go up, depending on what you invested in and making sure it's diversified. And obviously there's tons of caveats around that. But it feels different to when you put like, I'm going to, nothing is voucherousy ready. I'm just going to say that.

But imagine if it was like a grand in crypto, a grand in Apple. And then something happens overnight or a grand in Tesla. And then your man does something stupid. And it goes down. And that was your only £1,000. pound, no wonder you'd be worried and you would want to pull it out if you had decided to put your house deposit in investments and then, you know, something happens in the news, something big geopolitical and the value suddenly went down. That was your house deposit. It's not for there.

It's for long term. It's for not your essentials. And so please, if you are going to start an investing journey or if you are on one, make sure that you've done the fundamentals first so that this money doesn't matter money. It does matter, but it doesn't change your today. It's just a for the future. And if you feel like you might lean into the feeling of very up and down, like pick something very diversified. Like, Laura, I don't pick individual stocks where it can be much more volatile,

like something that's diversified, that's for the long term. And then when you, like we talked about a couple of episodes ago where you like zoom in and out on the graph, like it might feel like it's dropped to the bottom of the earth, but it's in there for years. And you still up. Yeah.

And when you take out a big view and that microscope comes out, and you see the bigger picture, those little, the tiny drops and tiny gains. Like, it should just be a long-term thing. I've tied my self-worth to how much I earn. Get to jail, as in, don't be like that. It's not reflective. Nice, jail.

Yeah. Yeah. Day release. I've felt jealous of a friend's financial success. No jail. Human. You are a human man. Yeah.

If they're doing good, you're allowed to be jealous. You're allowed to feel a little bit. Yeah. We like to be jealous. Tauan, you're last jealous. What do we think?

When I'm watching someone eating something that I want. On the train. Someone eating something good on the train. No, but if someone has, like, when we were on the train

back from London the other week, if someone would have sat and ate like Anando's, I'd have been like, ooh. I'm always that person. I got on the train. and I wanted to go and stand a premium

so I had to go sit in a seat that I wanted and I got on the single tables where it's like just, just me. And they announced it early. So I got on it early and I was meant to go via Itzu and I didn't. And then a couple got onto the next table and they had the biggest Ittsu goodie bag

of your life. And they would have just, and at the time I was like, shall I go, you know, shall I go to Wits or not? I thought you're going to say, shall I ask them to. Oh, ask you.

It was so nice. You probably would have given me service. You don't need that ramen, do you? My honestly, jealousy... When I was younger, probably would have been... Leaning over the aisle. Jealous in I was younger probably would have been around things like handbags, clothes, cars, blah, blah, la. I can't give a shit now.

I really couldn't be. Food. Food alone. Food and holidays. I'm jealous of if you go on holiday and it's rainy in the UK. But I think I'm okay with myself and myself worth and... Not that jealous anymore. Yeah.

I bet they're younger than else. Whoever's written this in. Whoever's written this in. Yeah. Oh no, it's not a dilemma. It's jail. No, no, jail. Okay.

I feel guilty spending money on myself even when I can afford it. Jail. I'm saying no jail because I'm terrible at this. But you shouldn't. Yeah. But I do. I don't want to go to jail. I like it when you feel guilty because you have spent on yourself and you shouldn't have done.

Yeah. Sometimes where it's like, should I get on my own draft or should I buy that fluffy teddy? I'm going to buy the fluffy teddy. I'm like, oh, I need some moisturiser. But I'll just do it without for a few more days. Because I don't want to buy it because there's so many other things that we need to be doing. Like, we need to do house stuff. I need to do this.

Krusty skin instead. My mum will come mad at that because she's all about the beauty purchase. You have a moisturise and delivery to work? Family walks that group. She said, I've run out of my clinic. or a moisturiser. And I'm tone her all at the same time. Do you want to borrow something?

You've not responded to it back. Oh, base time to this morning. Oh, okay. And she was like, are you agreeing? Well, it's so overwhelming. She's into beauty. So she's like, so this is a great brand and this is a great brand. And I'm just literally going, mom, I feel ill you talking to me because I'm so overwhelmed

with all the things and brands that you've just mentioned. So she was like, should I just go and get it for then and pick some? I was like, that would be great. I do new. concealer and foundation and mascara. And so I will say, I know the three calls. I know. So I'll just give her the problem.

That's so good. I don't mind paying for it then. Whereas if I was in the shop and choosing for myself, it'd be highly likely that I'd just go, I don't want to spend it. So I'm going. Whereas my mum's going to do it, I'll get a bill.

So I'll pay a bill. Yeah. You know what I mean? My thing at the moment, I keep just getting everything. For like this last six months, cleansers, moisturisers, everything, I get them from TK.K. Max, so I can never find them again.

Oh, yeah. I really like that. Or I go online to get on us and I'm like, oh wait, this cleanser was £60. No, thank you. Oh, yeah. I paid £10 for it. That's upsetting. I know. I need to stop because it's making it be sad. I get what you mean. You'll never be able to source it again. And if you do it, it would be 100% of the cost and you don't want to do that. I walked into TK. Max and the beauty of it. I need a toner because I'd run out. I could not. There was 7,000. Seven thousand. You could do with our toner. Yeah. All the skincare people are. My mom's like, no, you can't. You need a bit and CCM as well.

I do overthink things like that. And then when Carl needs the hair stuff, he likes happens to get off Amazon because they don't often, I don't even know what it is, but they don't even know what it is, but they don't sell it in like boots or whatever. Maybe it's cheaper on there.

I don't know. If he needs it, just orders it. In fact, he orders two. Yeah, same. I'll order nails. I'm like, oh, we need foundation. I'll scrape it for you. I bet it's all on Amazon as well.

That's true. I would always buy Neil. I'd be like, Neil, you've run out moisturize. I can see it on the thing. like I'll buy another and I'll just go on Amazon but me I'm like hmm I'm like Alex Titcher just uses all of mine

that's a hack I hope you've got a joint beauty fund we're going to stop now but I was I mentioned this to Carl because sometimes he's simple sometimes he's a dithera sometimes it can be you sometimes it can be me right and and I think both are okay but I did

read something that was talking about like decision paralysis and that more successful people just make, I think it was Emma Greed actually, we're talking about this, just making a decision quickly. Yeah. And so when you,

when I do it sometimes, when you go, oh, I need a moisturiser, but eventually you're going to need one. Eventually you're going to. And a successful person apparently goes, need a moisturiser. In fact,

probably says, mum buy me a moisturise so that they don't have to do. They delegate, which is what I've done. They delegate, but they also just don't overthink it. They make the decision.

Because if it's the wrong one, so what, you've got an extra moisturiser. Yeah. If you can afford it. And if it's in your, budget, it doesn't derail anything. And I did think that, because what happens is if you don't buy it there and then, and this is true of anything, it's not just Holly's Mystrizer, it's just an example,

is it'll rise to the top of your brain when you're in the car or if you're in the shower or if you're on the school run. And it's another thing that you're not able to do, whereas if you'd have just done it, it's done. Yeah. Good point. Well made. I should follow it. Just love T. I just love going to TK. Macs, so I make it a nice activity. Go and get a nice coffee. when you've got two kids on a weekend. Do you go with Alex? Stop! No, I go about myself.

I'm like absolutely not. Alex, Alex, the stylist from Morning Live, loves TK.K. Max. And I was like, that's a new stylist. I'll introduce you, you can go together. I hate TK.M.X. I hate it. How the hell does she navigate around that hell? You do have to rummage.

It's awful. I went the other day, I was like, this is like a clown attire. I think I've picked a few things before. Tried them on and then put them all back on. Yeah. I don't get that. Maybe she takes all the best stuff. You can get a lot of Zora stuff in there.

Can you? Yeah. I do that in Zara as well. And good gym stuff in TK.K. Max. Noted. Okay, Mike, go now. Well, I did actually go to the day for looking at Ava's birthday stuff. She doesn't watch this.

Our cool daughter and niece, so I can say it. And there was a big Korean beauty stand and I was like, Ava was all the Korean skin care. That's what I get from TK. So that's what she's getting for a birthday from me. It's the best. It's the best. It's just not for me.

I'm not worthy. She'll browse in TK. Macs for someone else. Yeah. Okay. time for our first dilemma. Quick financial win. One listener said speaking to Chelsea at Life Search

made sorting income protection and life insurance so easy and she finally feels like a boss with her cover sorted. Want the same piece of mind? Head to financial.com forward slash protection to get your free quote today. Lysa or pension at 34. Hi girls. I'm self-employed as a beautician

and currently have no pension. Do you have any skincare and makeup tips for us, please? I'm 34 married, UK-based and have three children. I'm feeling really confused about what I should be doing for retirement. Do I just put £4,000 a year into a lifetime I set and get the government bonus? Or am I better putting the money into a pension instead? I'm so confused about where the money should go and what the right option is. Realistically, I can afford about £350 a month.

This is purely for retirement purposes for when I'm over 60. I have a low mortgage and I'm currently paying off all of my debt thanks to your app. Hopefully by 2027 I'll be completely debt free. I just don't know where to start once I get there. Should I prioritise Lysa for the 25% bonus or is a pension better long term? Great bloody question. Love this one. Love this.

From a self-employed beautician, I just think you are so cool. Yeah. You can't see. If you know what is. That's that described because I do it to Nealini. Clarket. You're on Spotify now.

Do people know that? You're on video on Spotify by the way. What's this? This is Clarket. Who? Clarket. Dylan. Do you know?

I don't think I do. You just laughed. Yeah. It's just like, Leslie. First. Do you know what I've never felt it all in my mind. Married at first sight.

Yeah. Julia Ruth. Yeah. Yeah. I did it to Neil the other day. It was like, oh, I hate it. her and you've just done it. I was like, it's not like unique to her. The millennial thing would be like snaps for someone.

Oh yeah. That's millennial. That's millennial. Is this Gen Z then? I don't know. Clocking it, did you say? Yeah. Clocking it. For those people that I'll listen and aren't watching, they're doing silly things with the hands. And Holly's doing this. Holly's doing it wrong when she's old.

What did you do? What are you doing? Oh. With a little bit of this. What are those things? The Spanish. Just stimming. rackers.

Basically, I'm not down with the kids. That's all you need to know. But the person that is down with the kids is our listener. Yeah. She is. Yeah, she is. So, yes, you think you're asking the right questions. And the really interesting thing about saving for retirement is there's two exercises

that you kind of need to do and try and meet in the middle. One of them ultimately, and this is very scary actually. And you can go to, I always direct people to money helper.gov because it's the government website and it's run by the money and pension service, super, super helpful for really understanding and calculating these couple of things you need to do. One of them is how much you're going need in retirement and starting at that end and coming backwards first, right? Because what do you need to live off and what pot of money do you need to produce that income? So typically, and this is like absolute high, high level, loads of caveats. But what you do when you get to retirement is you end up

with a chunk of money. And what we hope is that money will generate growth every year. If it was like putting cash, it would be an interest rate, but if it was in the markets, it would have growth. And so what we hope is, and I'm making this up, but if you had a hundred grand in your pension pot, then really, if you could like, if it was growing at seven to eight percent per year, you could take seven grand out of it and the hundred would still be left in. And you take the seven grand out of it and the hundred's left in. Or you might take 10 grand out of it. And so every year, net impact is it's going down by three, but eventually will die. And that's the brutal reality of how you calculate how much of a pot you need. You work out, well, what do I need as an income in

retirement? Well, I have a paid off house. She said she's got a lower mortgage. What will my needs be? How much will it cost to live? And there's certain calculators you can use to try and work that out. And then you work out how much pot do I need? So truthfully, what you then do is, okay, how much do I need to put a way to build up 100? You're going to need more than 100, but that's just an example. So that's one way. And she might work backwards and that says, oh, actually you need to put 10 grand a year aside or you need to put 8 grand a year

aside because, very mind, 100 won't be enough. That's the working backwards. And so then you know how much I need to do. And a lot of people do this. Our auntie did this when she was working out her gap. It's called the pension. It's not the pension gap, but it's a pension gap where I'm on track for this, but I'm going to need this.

And that helped her decide, okay, with my excess, I'm going to put in an extra three, four, five hundred pounds a month more. And in fact, when I get a bonus, I'm going to put money in because she wants to close the gap between what she is predicted to have and what she needs. So that was a long-winded way of explaining that the pot of money at the end that you're aiming for is important. But it's also tied to reality.

So she says I can afford, did she say, for $4.50 a month, I think, to put, she can afford to put that away. Three 50 months she can afford, right? So there's a reality here that she might need, really she should be putting away more, possibly, but the reality is she can't, you know, at this point in time. And what we hope is that we are more money, the kids cost us less, we become mortgage-free and we've got extra cash. So there's lots of different ways that you can optimize your investing for retirement

and you're saving for retirement. But she's looking at what can I afford now and putting it towards the best place. So for anyone thinking about retirement, and I think we've got some really, really good articles on this on financial.com, so search for them. There's two calculations you need to do. There's what do I need, and then there's what can I actually afford and see if you can kind of bridge the gap. So then, again, another really good article we've got is this like Lysa Issa Sip debate. And it was something that when Holly and I did a chat with industry actually with people like Vanguard, A.J. Bell, Lloyd, Scottish Widows. We were talking about this is what you guys tell us.

You tell us that this is confusing. Yeah. What do I do, Lyce? So a moment. Do we do a nicer. And ultimately, I think even the fact that you're thinking about it is a win and doing something about it and not just saving in cash for the long term for your retirement. Pray and holding on for deal life and hoping it all works out.

You're already doing better than most people and you're in a good place. So there's just a couple of things to consider. And again, look at this article to slowly and work through it. But what you're thinking about is things like tax rates. So when you're a higher rate tax earner, pensions are a really good method at the moment anyway for saving some money. I don't think, I'm not making a judgment on the beautician thing. I'm very clear, but lots of beauticians don't earn and go up into the 40% tax because,

quite frankly, it's a tough, tough job. And she talks about maybe only being able to save $3.50 a month. So that makes me think she's not on a super high income. But if she's on a higher income, have a look at how much if you put into a self-invested personal pension, you can save on tax. So have a little look, have a consider about that. The other one is that Lysa so you can put 4K a year into a lifetime ICER. And you have to open it by the time you're 39, so she's 34.

So she's got the window. And then the government will top it up, like the 25%. So you'll get £1,000. So it sounds like with what she can afford to do, she would come under that even anyway. Making sure it's the stocks and shares. So to be very clear with a lifetime ICER, you can open a cash ICER and you can open a lifetime ICER. And so you have to do the maths. But typically over a longer period of time, stocks and shares, ISO would give you the better return than a cash one.

So a lifetime ISO can be a stocks and shares ISO. How many times have I said ICE. I know. But that's what we kind of brought in industry, didn't we? How complicated they make it. They have all these vehicles and to do different things. But it's just too overwhelming. Like which one do you choose?

They seem good, but they're overwhelming. And so the benefit, I think of the, because you say it's for retirement, I think a regular stocks and shares isa will be bottom of my list if I was looking at that, because you don't get that top up. And so stocks and shares, I says, without the lacer element, are great if you want it for shorter term. So if she was saying for me, I want a lump sum at 50. Yeah, you'd go. Then I'd be going, a lifetime I say you're not going to get access until you're 60. So maybe that's not for you, but she says it's for longer term. And so I would look at a self-invested personal pension and a lifetime ISA and you will do the calculations on what's right for you.

If I'm you in this scenario, maybe I'm going, I'm presuming I'm a basic rate taxpayer. So I might go lifetime I so if it were me. I'd get that absolute top up and it'd be invested in the same place that the SIP would be anyway. If I could put any more away though, the next thing I would do is probably look at pension. And have a little go at that calculation. Message us if you need help with it and we might do it with you behind the scenes. We could come back and share it on a different podcast.

But doing that calculation of how much you're going to need and working backwards can help you sometimes readjust your budget and go, do you know what? I said I could do 350, but actually, I'm going to do 500. Yeah. Because I know, you've modelled it and you've gone because I need this much.

Yeah, I'm behind actually. Yeah, yeah. And there is room. And it's not normal to be behind as well, like so many people. It is normal to be behind. Sorry, did I say it's not normal? It's not normal. Like, you're not normal.

No, it is so normal. You feel you're behind? Yeah, I need to have a, I check it, and then I forget about it. And then I go about my day, and I've got a direct debit that goes to my, I've got contributions for work, and then I've got my... You've got extra? You do an extra into it? I do extra, but I still, I'm worried about it.

It does play on my mind a little bit, and I check it every so often. And then obviously, the value of it's going up. Like you just have to keep a close eye on it. Not all the time, but I like to have a little nosy to be like, have I closed in that gap? Where am I up to? Yeah. And the fact that you're doing extra,

like a lot of people don't realize this, but you can invest through work, but you can invest yourself. You know, you can do a direct debit, you can do a one-off transfer into a pension that you open. It doesn't have to be connected to work. And, you know,

if you're in a couple, you can have that conversation with your partner. If they are steaming ahead and you've had career breaks and you've had Matt leaves or you earned less than them, that's a full-on conversation that can happen. That's where I was came into play. That's why it came about that I'd overpay on mine

because we realized the value of Neil's pension compared to mine and the gaps that I'd had, and we've talked about a lot of times with having two kids on maternity leave, not realizing that I wasn't, I just didn't realize. It's so easy to do. My employer was paying into my pension contributions on Matt leave, but I wasn't paying in with my contributions. And even though it doesn't sound like a long time,

nine months to 12 years each time, because it wasn't in the market. And I wasn't getting the, I was getting the contributions. top up from the government, but it was on a lesser amount. And from the employer, but not on you. Yes. And it wasn't, it's time in the market.

It's an investment. People forget that. It's being invested. It should grow. So yeah, have a look at that and think about it, especially if you're going to be taking any sort of time off. And, you know, people always forget the older generation that are taking time off to even look after grandchildren or them elderly parents.

That impacts on your pension. Again, you might not well be paying into pension. If you're, oh, I'll work part-time so I can look after my grandkids one day in the week. You're like, well, I can, but I'm going to have to keep my contribution the same because otherwise I'm going to be missing out. People forget that bit as well. Yeah, yeah, it's really important to look at and keep an eye on. Well done.

She's done to me. Yeah, great, great dilemma. And give us your skincare tips, please. I know, God help us. Okay, time for our second dilemma. Personal finance, let's face it, can be boring. But at Fanchel, we do it differently. From guilt-free spending to the perfect payday routine,

Our blogs help you feel confident and in control of your money. Head to financiel.com to get informed, entertained and empowered today. Should I move back to London if it slows my investing? I'm excited for this one. Okay, hi, financial. Firstly, I just want to say how much you've helped me from sinking funds to setting up my will. I'm a loyal podcast listener and really value how practical your advice is.

I'm looking for guidance on my next steps, particularly around housing and long-term planning. I'm 34, single and work as a project manager in software, earning 44K. I have no consumer debt or student loan and have about 70k in savings across a cash isa and a lifetime Isa. I'm originally from London, but I've lived in Manchester for four years. My family and most of my close friends are still in London and I come from a working class background, so anything I do needs to be financially sustainable on my own. I can currently afford to rent a loan, but moving back to London would make that difficult

without reducing how aggressively I can save and invest. One option I'm considering is flat sharing in London whilst trying to increase my salary by moving jobs. My longer term goal is to buy a home within commuting distance of London, but doing that on a single income feels increasingly out of reach with current prices. I'm also unsure whether I should move more of my savings into investments or keep the flexibility, and I'm feeling a bit stuck on how to move forward confidently. For more context, I currently, I currently have about 47K invested across my pension and stocks and shares, I sir. As I started working later and I'm trying to invest more aggressively now to strengthen my retirement position. I feel ready for the next stage of settling down but want to balance quality of life with long-term financial security.

I'd appreciate your perspective on how to best think this through. Well, she's a financially astute girl, isn't she? She is. God, I'm just romanticising, like, moving to London, 34 single. Like, every time I go to the city, like, we did solid projects. We saw, like, gorgeous coffee shots. You saw, actually a friend that we'd not seen a long time when we went down. We saw this girl crossing the street.

And I was looking at going, she's happy and smiling and looks nice. Oh, she's waving at me. Oh, we're hugging. Do I know her? Oh, I know her. Yeah. And it was like in the sea of people who didn't know her to see her. And she made the comment and she was like, I'm trying to get, she was with a colleague,

trying to convince to go to a glass of wine and she was like, are you down tonight if you're not got the kids? It was like this like dream get away for a night because being parents had and when you suddenly young free and single in the city, the best thing she'd wanted was not to not to go before a young friend single. It was to cover quiet night and hope. But I can imagine if your family down there as well and if you know ties and I showed to Manchester as wonderful as it is, there's this, you know, desire to go back. I'd go back to London, but... You'd go back.

Yeah. Yeah. Being their family and everything. Yeah, friends and stuff. I get that. It's hard. I can imagine though, like it must feel like a bit of a break coming back, like coming up to Manchester.

Yeah. And like things are a little bit less expensive. Yeah. Intent, less intense. Yeah. Yeah. We get this a lot, don't we like the debate of what? where home is and the lifestyle that you want and then the maths. And unfortunately, with London

and with those prices, maths is maths. And so that doesn't change. Like, I mean, fortunately, she's in an unbelievable position. But it is no mean feat to be able to get on the property ladder in a commutable distance and to be able to live on your own. We've talked about that about people, you get used to a certain way of life. And then suddenly, like, if you want that, it's location, location, location, isn't it? It's like, if you want that, you might need a flat share and lots of people do that very, very happily

but some people if you get used to you, like especially at 34, you're used to your own company and suddenly you have to compromise, isn't it? Flat share, your standard of living might decrease. That's all I was thinking with that

because the salary is good but I just know in London it just goes. Like everything's just expensive to eat, to drink, to socialise, to buy a house, like bills, like everything. And yes, your salary will inevitably go up because that's just what happens, but it eats away.

So if you're feeling very financially stable, it sounds like you are very aware that that can possibly change and you're going to have to make compromises like doing the flat share. She's not saying, oh, I'm just going to go and rent on my own. Oh, she's really expensive. Yeah. But then if you've got property on your mind, that's a really big mountain to climb on your own,

even though that you've done so well with all your kind of investments. And I love that you're thinking. I suppose the balance is thinking long term and preparing for that, but also living your life. She's like debt-free, both student loan and consumer debt-free, unbelievable. She's got like a large amount of cash savings whilst, yes, that's still not enough for Australia to buy home right now in London and on the commuter belt. It's probably not far off and it's family.

So lots of that is drawing me to go do what she wants to do. In situations like this, and she also wants to move for the highest salary, which is also much easier to do in London than it is elsewhere. Well, sorry, that's a light. it elsewhere, but the money is in the commerce and the commerce is in the city especially. I would be really interested to see whether, for me, as long as people don't go backwards financially, if they can maintain. So if she can either live on her own or live in a flat share and not eat into saving, so be able to earn enough to even like for a period of like three,

six months, just break even. She's got really good savings behind her. And her goal is to to earn more. Because what that does is, if she can at least do that, never mind that she maybe still put some money aside a little bit. She can then focus on the pay rise. And if she can get the pay rise coming in, that starts, the house deposit stuff in the background.

So for me, when anyone's making a decision like that, it's modelling it, our favourite things to say, like try the different things. What does living alone look like? What does flat share look like? You know,

is living with family for a period of time something that you do or don't want to do. She's not offered that as an option. So maybe she's like, I love my family books. said she had to do it on her own, didn't she? I'm assuming that means she couldn't rely on them. Maybe I'm not sure. Yeah, maybe she can't. But yeah, having having that as the basis, can you, the only ways up, like if you're trying to go for extra pay rises and go for extra money, can you move and not have to dip?

Because you'll don't, you'll, you sound like someone that would be annoyed if you've made all this financial progress in using it. Now, by the way, some people would for a period of time, which is, I've got to go back, was to go forward. She mentions it, like, providing for the future is really important, growing investments for the future is important, but I still think not at the compromise of a nice standard of living, because you've worked really hard. Like, this isn't, this isn't me sending, you should go and live there and eat out, but you've got loads of debt. Like, you've, you've, much further on that journey. And you are young enough that you've got time for a pension pot to grow. I would be reluctant to have, if you want to buy a house in a time frame of five years

or less, I'd be reluctant to keep things in investments, wouldn't you? Yeah, you're going to have to get be careful with the capital you don't want to put it locked away somewhere where you can't get access to it even though you've got to keep backwards yeah or you're going to keep an eye on retirement i think i love that you do at 34 like you should be making sure that you've got a pot that can stay when you're older but you've got a big money like go coming up so it's all about compromise and flexing the budget up and down dependent on what's the imminent goal and it sounds like it's house purchase yeah and i like i've always said this to people like i like house purchase at some point so it's not essential but

And if someone doesn't want to do house purchase, I want to make sure that they're at least investing much more than they would otherwise. And so, because if you've got a house, you're paying down a mortgage, you're investing in an asset. If you are renting, we want to make sure you're doing extra investing because you're not missing out on that equity growth. And that's like the thing that we need to look at. But you have time with being 34. And also make it a priority in your job search. So some of the pension. and retirement benefits in some businesses is crazy. You know, small businesses can't always do it and startups can't always do it. But some of these like government jobs, bank jobs, you wouldn't believe their pension. Like it's absolutely crazy. And it can be a first question that you ask,

like what are the retirement benefits? Because what you might find is by moving jobs, you can earn more, you end up putting more into your retirement and you can go back over there and bulk up your house deposit. I don't think many, Someone brought that up the other day,

didn't they with us asking about what the pension benefits here, working here, what the retirement opportunities, like what does it look like? What do you offer as an employer? And is there any way to change that? Can it increase? And yeah,

I think people are out savvy enough thinking about how to hack different parts. Yeah, like you can, what are your goal and what the ways you can hit it? And it's not always just on you. And the income that you get, it could be. Yeah,

there's other ways that you can make it happen. So I think, don't you think we're moving back to London? What do you think so? London? We love that. Neil told him, Woody, that I was going to London. Oh, is it Alba?

Alba. She went, London. And I was like, I can't explain the Coronation Street joke to you, but you are so nothing when you said. She was like, London like that. And we're like, are you kidding? Yeah, yeah. I was, we've got too many kids between us.

I'm like, who said what, when what day? And it is, when we do go down, we were fascinated. We were watching like kids that go to school in Central London. I love that. Any city. Any city I never go to. No, Paris. And there was like this gorgeous school in the middle of the streets.

I'm just used to like walk into school around the corner. And then these kids are like taking the underground and like. Yeah. Just so savvy. Like worldly. I'm like my kids could never. Can you imagine crossing a road? My kids can't cross the road now.

I cross it with them every day. I'm like, are you kidding? We're still not, we're still not got it yet. Like, come on. Well, you know, when I, the idea of like moving to a city, whether it's Manchester, whether it's Leeds, whether it's Birmingham, whether it's Glasgow, all the different cities. City life is something that's, you know, quite romanticised a little bit, isn't it?

I just remember you Lucy were like, I don't ever want to live there at one stage. I don't take the box. And I was like, I don't think it's for you. I know. And then the more I would go into the city, I'd be like, oh my God, get me out. Do you like dipping in, though, to see your friend?

I like dipping in every now and again. Yeah. But being on the train home, you smug. Yeah, you like get me out. The fields out of the out, out of the window somewhere. Yeah. That's why, like, Manchester wasn't right for you. Like, where you are, is right for you.

No. but you can still access it easily. It was funny though because, you know, I'm always like that. If we're going down, like, I'd like to eat somewhere nice, eat somewhere different. And then my friends were just gone to London last night. And I expected to let's go out for someone nice dinner. She's like, I'm staying in the hotel and I'm in bed earlier watching 24 hours in police custody.

Ahead of a big meeting today. I was like, oh, okay, that glamorous London line. Yeah. Yeah, that's the only thing you glamourise it. And then you go down and overstimulated. I want to stay in a hotel room. I'm like, yeah, it's not for me. It's when I go down, it's like a city break every time.

Yeah, this is your everyday life. Yeah, this is exhausting. Yeah. And expensive. Yeah. It is. Not for me. People love it.

Not for me. People love it. People love it. I always, especially like if you're of an age, oh, God we're old, but being accessible to the family that's right for you. So some people don't have family, it's friends and their friendship group and that kind of culture. but if you are close to family, there's something about them being within reach, which is quite nice. Yeah, that is nice. There's quite a few stories about that recently where people are trying to

out what's important to them and seeing if the maths and the budget can fit. So hopefully you get what you want and you get the right answer, but you've done everything right. And you're actually an inspiration to lots of people listening to this right now. So she's proof that it can be done. Definitely. Okay. That is all for this episode. The Vault is now closed. And just a quick disclaimer the vault is just a chat around life and money topics we're not giving financial advice