The Vault with Financielle - “Should I Pay Off My High-Interest Loan First — Or Save Instead?” | The Vault Episode 105

Episode Date: February 26, 2026

“I booked a holiday before checking if I could actually afford it”… jail or no jail? 🚨This week, we’re diving into these money dilemmas:💸 “I’ve got a high-interest loan, should I overpay or save instead?”💸 ”Our retirement plans have changed forever and I don’t know how to plan now”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.💸 Get cashback that reduces your mortgage interest with Sprive (£5 extra for you using code: FINANC)*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.

Welcome to the vault with Finance Channel. This is a safe space where we talk all things life and money and no topics are off limits. Hi everybody. Hello. How are we doing today? We're good. We're good. We're matching little cups if you're watching on YouTube.

Oh, God, in heaven that nearly went very wrong. Laura nearly. I was trying to cheers. Baptised the microphone in her cup of tea. I was listening to a podcast the other day and it was Joanne McNally with Olivia. What's the name? Atwood. That one.

And they were laughing going, why all men that used to be dickheads have suddenly found Jesus? And she was like, joke gives me the old grown man getting baptized. And I was like, I get it. I get it. Grown adult like being put into the water backwards. It's much cuter if you're a toddler or a baby. Babies allowed, adults, absolutely not.

Absolutely not. Because if you don't swim. As a toddler or a baby, why do you suddenly need to do it when you're a grown man if you're not doing it for attention. Put you in a swim. No, they just said, like, people keep finding Jesus because it, like, literally absolves them of all the shit that they've done.

They can just be, like, on their Instagram bio, like, recently found Jesus. Like, what? So you were a dickhead for, like, 20 years? And because you found Jesus were all just going to be like, and they'll quote a Psalm. Like, it's fine. They'll quote a Psalm as well, won't they?

Anywho. Sorry, distracted. Okay, are we ready for jail or no jail? Love this game. Got my paddell. Is it paddle or Paddle? Padale. We can say Paddle.

Padel. Lucy loves paddle, just in case. practice right now. Yeah, on the pod. She's a paddle bro. She is. I'm quite aggressive now. I can't see you as an aggressive person.

Because I keep having to play with men. So you're like, and I'm like, well, you can take it then? Oh, right. Okay. Do you give the sound effects? Is it giving like tennis? No, but if it like hits the net, I'm like, oh. I just can't see this.

We need a team paddle game. I need to see this. I need to see. I'm not a colloose is on my team. I'm not a competitive person. But I just get annoyed at myself. And it's quite funny because Alex is a competitive person. And he, like, when someone does a good shot, you do this, like,

but he does it for himself. It claps himself. He, like, starts off. Oh, Jesus. We play on a holiday in the hotel, and we, like, a family next was taking it very seriously. And I went to the shop and got beers for our halftime drinks. So we couldn't have been more opposite. of like me and my dad and Carl and Neil and this like family next was supposed to be

wondering what they didn't come up the course for a refresh course court court for refreshing I've just got a really funny flashback when we go on holiday at Christmas time that we did a thing one year where Laura and our friend got all the boys um men actually not even the kids reindeer swim shorts like with a massive Rudolph face on your crotch and snuck them out and it was like oh everyone let's get a photo it's really funny and so everyone was like right, let's go and play paddle. Like the boys have booked it. And we're like, we'll take one for the team and bring the kids in like an hour for the

next session. You can go and like have a game of paddle, whatever. And we arrived and we were like, what is Carl wearing? Laura's husband? He had no top on and the Rudolph shorts. And we were like, what the hell? Why did he do that? Everyone else was in like sport gear, like gym stuff.

And he was in these like bright red distraction. Because he was like, I had no dry shorts. They were the only shorts in his name that weren't wet through. And he was like, so I was looking around quickly. because the paddle game was about to start. He was like, so you have to throw him. That's what he reached for. That's an it.

Oh, Carl. I was like, why do you have gym stuff? He didn't go to the gym and holiday? No. Yeah. That's what, so like, everyone's like, so everyone's taking it really seriously. The families and we're just like,

reindeer shots. Like, Laura said, beers at halftime, reindeer shorts, like, not having a clue. Got my paddle ready. Padale. Padale. Okay. We don't know how much the other earns,

and we've been together for two years. Jail. jail. Yeah. I hesitated. How much they earn? You've been together two years. You should know by then.

Yeah. Because it's like lots of problem. Two years in. Forensic accountant. But one thing I find strange in that time is surely you would have been on like trips together. Holidays together. Had an idea of what is.

Yeah. And isn't in someone's budget. Like just to be fair to the other person, I could be earning 120 grand. You could be on 40. I'm like, so we're going to the same. South France for a weekend break and you're like, I was more thinking like the lakes. Yeah.

You should know roughly. But if you had no idea, it would be so, like, imagine people that spend on credit. Yeah. You can completely fake your income. You could. And the other way, like, because two wealth builders. Yeah. Like drive an average car.

Yeah. And they don't do delivery. Yeah. And they like were playing clothes. Imagine if they were like so savvy and like just like really normal. and you found out that multiple millennial, you'd be like, what? Secret rich. Like, I paid Fernandos last week and we know how expensive it is.

It's like if I won the lottery, there'd be signs. It's like, would though? Because the two people go. What would your signs meet if you won the lottery? Genuinely. She gets everything she wants. Probably just loads of holidays. Yeah, like more trips.

Yeah. How does she afford these holidays? Yeah. Basically what I see about everyone else. She's away again. She's away again. And the math does. I've talked about this a long time ago

where you're looking at the Instagram account and you know what job they do and it's nothing's adding up whatsoever. I might be switching from ASDA delivery to a Cardo delivery and so you may think that I've won the lottery. So I'll report back because I haven't. Oh, you actually are.

Oh, I thought you went my sign. No, no, I would be. I would switch from... I might. That's not it. I'm joking. I was stupid yourself. I'm like, oh, that would be the sign for the lottery.

Like, no, no, I'm doing it. I think I might sleep. Me, Neil keep looking at it, to be fair, because you can get M&S and all, I do. And waitress, isn't it? Yeah. Oh, a friend, the Copper Beach House, Instagram. Yeah, she's got a code going to her.

So I might ask her for the code if it still's working. And she does it. And I'm like, I feel like maybe better quality stuff. Yeah. And I am a ready meal fan for convenience. We're like the more healthier ones going out. I have, did you simmer for a little while? When I get you in the good discounts.

They've only been okay and you can. get them from ASDA. So I want to see whether some good high protein, for me it's portion sizes. So I've done, I did simmer for ages and it really helped me manage my, manage my calories, make sure I've got enough in. But without it, I'm a mountain of pasta. I'm a mountain of rice. So I do like them, but then I really haven't liked the gym kitchen ones. Oh, I've never tried it. And then you get them from ASDA, so I might switch. So I've not won the lottery. And I've not got an extra, extra big salary versus you, Holly. Don't worry. I just am leaning to a more higher possible spend, but I want more bang for my book.

Mine, well, Neil's definitely would be business class flights. Like, when we went on our honeymoon, he's spoiled. He's like, I fucking hate a flying economy. I should be tall. Yeah, true. He's a big lad. Like, he wants to be lying down on a big bed. Drunken even, like, when you go to Tenerife.

You can't. Can't you? Unless you fly maybe to Heathrow and get a... Fly back. He's a flight to. Like, just for the vibes. And even then Europe, business class is rubbish. He's talking like we'd be going to Mauritius.

We'd be going to the States. We'd be going to Thailand, Australia. We'd be in Australia, I think, on a holiday for like four months. That's the other thing. If we won the lottery, you'd want to do the cricket. Well, I'd go for the vibes. You might send him and you might go somewhere else. Well, yeah.

But if I was flying business, it's like, it's half the battle. Yeah. Sitting in a economy is a battle. Yeah. And also like do a week in Dubai or Singapore. Of course, like you wake up. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

That's the signs. But food would be as well. Food. Lydia, you've won a lottery. How do we know? Yeah, traveling everywhere. Every weekend. She's not here again.

Yeah. She's not even on Instagram. That's how cool she is. Galloping on a beach somewhere. Galloping literally. Yeah. Would you have loads of horses of your own? No.

No. Would you not? It's a lot of work, isn't it? But you could pay people to look after them, Lydia, and then just ride them whenever you want. Get the horse ready. I'm on. my way.

Is there like an Uber for horse? I don't mean like to come pick you up, but like, oh my God, I'd love that. Do you know, like a platform for like, I fancy riding a horse today? Oh yeah. There should be. Like borrow my doggy, but, like a pony. Because you do that, don't you? You do borrow my dog, don't you?

Yeah. And you don't get paid to do that. No, I've got an update about that. Go on. I've been, I've gotten attached to this dog. Oh, God. This is the problem. This, I went, I turned up and it said there's a house, like a for sale sign.

And I was like, I've, like, I've got an, I've, walked your dog four times he didn't even think to consult me you didn't ring me you didn't ask me is it Toby I haven't made that up Louie Louie what I've got Toby from a spani so when you fancy walking the dog if it's on the app or do you just message him directly now off app I just message him directly now oh but yeah it's a good app yeah tinder for dogs fancy walking a dog you can do like you can look after people's cats and stuff can't you as well and other ones and get paid for that as well yeah yeah There's a dog walking one called Rover.

Yeah. I like that. I actually get paid for it. Yeah. Maybe. Because this is free labor. If you get the enjoyment out of it. I like that you can be like really picky as well.

If someone's paying you to look after a dog, you have to look after any of the dog. That's true. Yeah. I love how you can be like, I wonder if they're going, Lydia, are you going to walk our dog again? Only when I want to. Yeah. You can just be like, oh, sorry, I didn't feel a spark. I didn't feel a connection.

I didn't feel a connection. I didn't feel a connection. I feel that connection. With a rover, so I'm going to pass. That's funny. That's funny. Sorry, we're really on a hinge today. This part of the saying.

I booked a holiday before checking I could actually afford it. Jail. Going to jail, but I empathise in every possible bone in my body because there's so many trips around like, we should go here. We were all for going for the World Cup this year. I was like, we'll take the kids to the World Cup. It's going to be amazing. And then America is doing its thing.

So that's one reason why we're not going. and I don't need to go into detail about that. But the prices of the tickets, like, astronomical, they would have eaten, like, half of our budget just to go to, like, one really shoddy game as well, not even, like, a really game that our kids would enjoy. Absolute goals is having a big enough travel-sinking fund that you can reasonably book holiday or not or know what it costs.

Yeah, like, within reason, but that's goals where you go. Yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah. Yeah. How much do you need to transfer you now? I can do that now because it's in that part designated for travel. I saw a community one of the day where a girl was like, she was giving all the wins and she was like, one of them is she always listens to the vault.

She's like, it keeps me on track and like my behaviour is good, my financial behaviours. And she said that like saying no to holidays and trips is like a flex for her now. She sees it as positive that she can go, no, I can't afford that trip. So I'm not coming. And she saw it as like, because that won't be forever, by the way. You will be able, she was on a debt-free journey so she's just for now, she's learned that it's okay to say no.

Do you know what? It's like a muscle that you've got her the first time you do it. It's weird and then you get really used to it. In fact, then you need to start saying yes because of probably you're still doing up to everything. But practicing saying, oh, going out, do you want to come? No. We're going to go on a weekend.

No. You know, to say yes at some point. But it's actually, once you do it, it's much easier. It's that first one that's the hardest one. And it's not forever. Because then you know when you are, you know, when you are clear of debt, you can go, right, I know that the girls want to go, way a couple of times here, so I'm going to start a sinking fund for that. It's not saying no

forever. There's just sometimes when you want to go all in and you want to get rid of that debt, flexing that muscle's not a bad thing. I treat myself every payday because I deserve it. You're not going to jail, but I have terms and conditions. If we have all out, some people have sinking funds that are like, treat me. And if you've done your budget properly and it's payday and you're feeling financial rich, but then at the end it your finance shall poor because you put money into your sinking funds and you've got a little treat me fund you're allowed to treat yourself i think you should be able you should if you're doing it correctly it's not it's to payday doesn't have to be payday you don't want that like the rat in the lab

learning that payday equals treat but mine's only if you've budgeted for it but it's still and you can have it for the rest of the month if you want it but as long as you know you're changing terms of conditions out that's what lisa said i feel like it's very like strict terms and conditions so i'm like this but i get it i don't want to want you to get the payday flex and be like, so yeah, I'm going to get another road lip glass, Lucy. It's like how I associate, oh, that was a tough day at work, glass of wine. I had to learn that tough day at work is cup of tea. That was a really good workout. So I'm going to.

So I'm going to go for a takeaway. It's like the rat in the lab. Power of Habit, really good book actually. Well, I say this. The first chapter is really good. I didn't. I then I don't believe I'm finishing. it but in the beginning is all about these rats and chocolate and a lab and it honestly it's like the reward system yeah and they made it more and more and more and more and then the way that you learned they learned how to get around the maze is going for the chocolate and the dopamine hit and the dopamine hit and teaches you how because it long so as far as it makes you put your trainers by your bed so that you go yeah no I get that I do do that and

it does work she just chat jacques me tea oh no I read it before charging me tea so like yeah the rats go swear really good trainers and put it behind her bed. Now I just want a whisper. I feel embarrassed that I don't understand investing. No, Jail, but what you're going to do about it? Jail for feeling embarrassed. Don't feel embarrassed. No, I'm not.

Yeah, true. You feel embarrassed for not understanding, investing. There's so many different things I want to say on that, so I won't. But it's kind of like, what do you need to understand, how much you need to understand? Do you know high level? Don't forget we did with AJ Bell's doddle. invested in locking back in December, go and have a look at the different content we did there, search locking maybe in the app and online and you'll find it. But fine, even if you do,

but what are you going to do about it? Yeah. It's going to be embarrassed forever. You're going to learn a little bit. Yeah. We don't want you to be all like, we're going to go and do a course on it. You don't need to learn. You don't need to learn. Read the blog. Yeah. Read the blog. That's why we created it. It's literally one blog with all you need to know. Just follow it step by step. Yeah. Deposit from a podcast. pound, you've got to go. No more embarrassment. Okay. Puddles down ladies. Thank God. 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. Okay, time for our first dilemma. I've got a high interest loan should I overpay or save instead. Hi, financial. I love the podcast and it's inspired me to become debt-free in 2026-27. I'm hoping you could help with a dilemma in the meantime. I have a personal loan of 13k with an 18.9% interest rate. It started on the 15th of January 2025 and ends on the 3rd of February 29, with a minimum monthly payment of £382. If I wanted to contribute an additional £100 a month to that loan, would it make more sense to pay that as an extra payment? each month or place it into an interest save high interest savings account and pay it as a lump sum at a later date. I'm confused by how the interest works and whether one or the other of these options would result in an earlier settlement date or would it all work out the same outcome anyway. Really good question and this is a really good example of where we have got like a mathematical

answer. That's actually incorrect because it is the same answer either way but she's coming at it from a math perspective, with it, ooh, I could move it and put it into a high interest savings account

and make money on that. And we get, versus paying off a loan. And we get that a little bit also with, do I pay off a mortgage early or do I invest? And it's all based on like returns.

Now, this scenario, she's got an 18% debt. And so basically her, the interest that she, interest and or growth that she should make on that needs to be 18 for it,

for mathematically to work out. Obviously, lots of caveats that investing like one month you might make 18 the next thing you might it might drop 18 so there's like and that's investing and then savings you do know you return but you've you're not going to get 18% return anywhere and but so that's the math side of it but actually the underlying thing here for me is don't get distracted with parking money in a savings account doing it a lump sum because two things can happen one you're not going to get the emotional dopamine hit and benefit from overpaying that loan.

When you're overpaying a loan, you feel better, you feel like you're tackling it, it's coming down quicker. There's so many non-mathematical benefits to overpaying a debt. But the other element to this is if money is starting savings, we are as humans tempted to go dip into it or something's come up, I need it,

or I'm just going to use that. That's why when we say when you're doing your debt snowball or debt avalanche and when you are overpaying your debts, do it at the beginning of the month. If you've got savings, moving at the beginning of the month. If you're going to invest, do it at the beginning of the month. As long as you've got an emergency fund set aside, to wait is to let life happen. And there's a very, very big potential for you to make your minimum payments and then never move it over and pay it off in a lump sum.

So mathematically, you better doing it straight away. But emotionally, you're better as well. Imagine getting so attached to that money. And then it's like, it's not mine. You think it's savings, but it's always meant to be for the debt. It's always been, and I can't emphasize it enough, the more obsessed with one thing you can get, the quicker you will make it happen. So interest rates are one element to it. And that is obviously particularly high interest rate, not as high as some credit cards, but it is quite high. You will never, you will just move so much more quickly. The only thing you care about is paying off that loan. And when I'm deciding, like, I did it a while ago. Like we've talked about Sprive before. And we've had a partnership with Sprive last year. And I'm, and I I still use it. I use it to help overpay my mortgage.

And sometimes, like I was going to go get a coffee. And I was in this moment where I was like, I actually did it because I was trying to get out of sleep. And I was driving around. I was like, I'll go get a coffee because you don't have to get out of the car. And I almost got there. And I went, I actually don't want one. It's because I couldn't think of what else to do.

It was somewhere to drive to. And so I don't know if you know, at Birchford, I just drove around the roundabout and drove back. And then when I got home, that coffee would have cost about £5, £5, £5, £5, £5, £5. 50. I paid it off the mortgage. Is it funny? But it was because I was so intentional about that's what our goal was and any extra cash we were doing that, that month. That was so blinkers on.

You didn't want the coffee or it to pay your mortgage off. I did. Is it funny? And it was a black currant juice and that was lovely. But it's because it was what I was thinking of. Whereas if I didn't have a goal that I was obsessed with at that time, why wouldn't I've had the coffee? Yeah. Because it's in the budget.

I'm not like putting on a credit card. it's fine. And so I do urge someone if you're on a debt-free journey or you're saving up your emergency fund or you're building that house deposit or you decide to hit like a lisa goal and you want to get foreground in there, become obsessed and don't think of putting money anywhere else other than towards your goal because you're going to hit it more quickly. You can not get distracted and you're going to get these nice dopamine hits along the way. Mad stuff happens when you become intentional. It's so weird and I'm not into manifestation. If you are, no judgment, I'm just not at all. But there.

There is some, like I get the element of focusing on something and like then an ambient positive effect happens around you and you get to that goal quicker because you're just focusing. I think we give people a holiday on financial. We're like, don't worry about all this other stuff that you've got in your brain that you've give to us in this dilemma, which is my most popular responses. You've just listed seven things that you want to achieve in the next year. Like I'm giving you a holiday. Just pick this one and it's usually debt.

They want to pay debt. They want to get married. They want to buy a house. I'm like, no, no, no, no. let's like stick to the debt first and mad stuff happens. And the amount of the time that someone's written in the community and they'll go, I've been paying off debt for the last 10 years. I've joined financial and you've given me permission to just do one thing.

I've paid it off three years earlier. I remember that dilemma happened a few weeks ago. They're like, I've been trying this for ages. I've never been able to do it before. And I've just tried and do too much. Literally knocked three years off my debt free date. Wow. But also like, so suddenly like a tax refund will come.

And it was always going to come. Like people go and then I manifested a tax refund. No, you didn't. it was always going to come. But what you decided to do is use it for the debt. It wasn't, oh, that's good. Or should we go on holiday? Or shall we buy tea, however much it is?

You suddenly become, and then things that don't feel as important to as paying off the debt. So whether it's going out for dinner, whether it's buying some new clothes, whether it's selling clothes that you look in your wardrobe and you go, do you know what? I'm never going to use that thing. You sell it. You get cash. Oh, look, I've put it towards my debt. So there's method to the madness.

And it's not all woo, as you say. But it's because you become obsessed with it. and it becomes what you think about. And I think it's true of lots of things, but it moves a lot quicker. So, yeah, if you are in a position to create a budget and use access to overpay the debt,

overpay it. Yeah. Don't plan to. It's like trying to work the system. No. And crucially, and this is true of that overpaying your mortgages as well, is I am on the one hand,

super passionate about making your money work for you. So any money, it's that in a current account that's not four bills in that month move it. It should be in a high interest rate saver. You should be getting free money and rates are as good as they're going to be for a long time now. You know, some of these accounts, I see getting 7% if it's capped contributions, but 7% some some big savers are 4%. You might not get those soon. So make that 4%. But like trying to cheat the system a little bit and like part money somewhere for a tiny period of time. And you're not suggested cheating the system by the way. I'm not suggesting

that. I meant hack. I said cheat. I didn't mean cheat. It's like that's a small thing. If you actually calculated the interest that you could make on £100 being in a bank account for like a year or until 2029 even, it's, well, first it's not going to beat the 18% cost. I caveat this with sometimes there's penalties to overpaying loans off earlier and sometimes you have to pay the interest anyway. So just check with your provider and check your terms and check that overpaying it actually does bring the amount of interest that you pay down. But that aside, sometimes we faff and do loads of things for like 10. Yeah. I applaud you for trying to optimise because we're always like, don't be lazy,

optimise, optimise, optimise, optimise, but like Laura said, there's a danger that do the maths. We don't think in this case that you'd be able to beat the 18% interest on a high, easy access, because you're going to need it because you need to pay it off. And you're overcomplicated. So then women, we do like to do this. Like, we like to go, right, so I'm going to get a cash back card and do that over here. And then I'm going to do that. I'm going to pay that here. And then actually, you've had, you've had, you. You've added like seven extra layers to what is just overpaying your loan really intentionally. So keeping it simple is like comes with some value that you can't really.

Gifting you the headspace back. Yeah. Just pay off the loan. Personal finance, let's face it, can be boring. But at Fanchelle, 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 Fanonchelle.com to get informed, entertained and empowered today.

Okay, time for our second dilemma. This is quite an emotional one, so let's try not to cry. Because I feel like I did cry when I was. I did cry at one. If it's the one I think it, I did cry because I mess with a straight way going, I'm in tears at this dilemma. I don't think we've ever had that before. Our retirement plans have changed forever and I don't know how to plan now. Hello ladies. I have a dilemma which is very emotional for me and I'm struggling to see it as just numbers. My long-term boyfriend has recently been diagnosed with a condition which comes with increased risks of other conditions such as cancer. It is likely that he will eventually need additional care and have a lowered life expectancy. He is already older than me, which means he is likely to have passed by the time I'm in

my mid-60s. For context, I have just turned 30 and we do live together. I own my house and he pays me a contribution while he rents out his own house. We both have mortgages, though his will be paid off much quicker than mine. At the moment, his contribution is going into a house account, as I know that in the future the house will need additional work. We had these great dreams for our retirement, that we could buy a cottage by the coast and get a dog. Before that, we planned to go on safaris and travel to fantastic places. However, it now looks like our retirement will be different. I would like to be able to go part-time at work before my 50s and then retire early so that we can spend time together. We are also planning to do our big holidays in the next few years whilst

he is still able to. I have a good workplace pension and it is currently forecast at 21k per year in today's money if I withdraw at 58. My mortgage will be paid off by the time I turn 52, though I expect I'll pay it off earlier. I have no debt other than my mortgage. I have an emergency fund and I have good sinking funds. I have critical illness cover for me and good workplace sick pay. I plan to pay extra into my pension at my next pay rise as that would then stop me tipping into the next tax bracket. I'm investing a small amount each month into a stocks and shares ISA. I had considered a lifetime ISA, but I know this comes with penalties if I draw it early. I know that my pension also comes with penalties for drawing it at a certain time, but I don't understand this. We don't want to

have children and I think we'll get married in the next year or so, a city hall wedding at the lowest possible cost. Honestly, I have no idea what to do anymore. I need money for expensive holidays, once in a lifestyle type trips, but I also want to be in a position to massively reduce my hours or leave my career in my 50s. We want to enjoy our time together, but also plan for our future to be more difficult than we had hoped for. I know that the future isn't set in stone, and I am hopeful that these likelihoods don't come true, but I think it's best for us to prepare for the worst. I would hate to be stuck working until my retirement age and have lost our time together. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I expect I should probably go to a financial advisor, but I feel that financial will

understand the emotions behind this. Wow, an incredible dilemma. So bravely, like written as well. Like, obviously, maybe we've had time to process the diagnosis and what that means. Like, you've got such a good plan. But, like, I have to, I have to applaud you. Like, you are so financially, like, astute. The things that you've listed, that you've listed, that you've, you've you've either thought about or already have in place, you are like 10 steps in front of somebody that would have got the same diagnosis on a similar path to you and your partner that would never have considered having all these things in place like an emergency fund, like some sort of critical illness cover, should anything happen to you, paying into your pension, you know how much

it is, you know how much you're going to get. Like you have done 90% of the work already, I would say. It's incredible. You're doing your best and it's definitely something that a financial A financial advisor will be able to help with, notwithstanding that it is difficult with financial advisors because you need a certain amount of wealth generally for it to make sense, but you can, you know, search and find people that will handle different scenarios because what you do need is some planning. So definitely do that anyway. It's worth having a chat.

But I do appreciate what you said, by the way, about the emotional side of it. And it is a problem with the financial advice world. 8 to 5% of advisors are male. A hell of a lot of those are white male and middle aged. And do we feel seen? Do we feel looked after? Do we feel that we can appropriately go and not feel? Like, they should be able to understand the emotional side.

And whilst many will, the perception is that they don't. So I like kind of empathize with you there. But it's also like lots of people at any time can get diagnoses like this. And you never know what life's going to throw at you. Some of us are going to live long into our 90s and hundreds and be annoying people for a lot longer and, you know, be the oldest in the room. And lots of us will go before our time. Like we lost a cousin last year very, very young.

And, you know, he would not have anticipated that. He didn't plan for that. You know, I've had another friend that I lost who was the most financially savvy man I've ever met. And his entire life was modelled because that was his job. So he did like financial modelling. He lost his wife younger. Then he passed away. Like just awful.

And so he did everything right. He did all the plans. He did start to take the trips. He got better after he lost his wife. Actually, he was like, you know, life's a bit more for living. And then unfortunately, he got poorly. But there's this really weird balance between you're low. And you literally, you only live once.

You only got one life and take the trip and eat the good food and live it. and not being financially responsible, which our listener never would be given the way she writes and the way she's done stuff. But I just think for everyone else, it's, I can't want to say, we're here. Like if you're set there going, oh my God, what would we do?

If that was us, what would we do? You know, what you're going to do around the world trip and blow all you in a year and you hopefully live together for the next? She says she's in the 30s. He may pass away about the time. She's in a 60s. So we're talking 30 years.

admittedly that there's lots of might be health issues in the meantime that mean the chances of doing this big trips later may or may not be taken from you it's a balance and all this is going to be about a balance and it's going to be about building plans and basically I think you already know what you're going to do

but you feel like you need maybe some approval from us can you create a balance which looks after the future and looks after the now and I think you can and the big thing about all this by the way is like lifestyle adjustments. So outside of some really cool, you know,

whether it's a safari trip or some bucket list stuff, you can work less, retire earlier, and have a comfortable life. Because you've done some work already, if you can adjust expectations. So, you know, the bigger the house, the bigger the mortgage, the bigger the bills. The more expensive the location you live in,

the more expensive the lifestyle. The more expensive your taste, the more money you need to live. And this is where the fire movement comes in, which is financial independence retire early. If you can lower your standards and or expenses, the amount of money that you need to live a very fulfilling life is less. So for me, what would I do with this was Carl and I.

I would carve out these bigger things that we want to do and know how much they cost. But I would really sit and as best I could with the diagnoses, is to carve out or design out what the life looks like, what's the house we're going to live in, how much do we need? And a planner would really help with this, obviously, a financial advisor and planet.

And work backwards from there. And I think you can have an amazing life with your partner. And also I always say this, like, there's something about when we're 30s, I think it changes when you hit 40s. 30s is still like, the world's our oyster, and we could like, there's amazing, this amazing, amazing that.

And there's amazing, that. happens when you hit 40 and when you start losing friends and when if you have children, you love that experience or if you've seen traveled some amazing places and you've, you've seen things with your old eyes that you realize that we're all frail and that we don't know how long we've got and and that but the things that matter are different. So like what may have historically been, how gorgeous house with this aesthetic and this, this suddenly isn't important. What's important is we're not working the whole time. And what's important is that we we love food so we go out once a week and those are the things that I'd like to think

will make a lot of life valuable for as long as you both able to yeah it's so funny I was talking to my mom the other day because her and my dad have got a business together and she worked in the business a lot more a couple of years ago so she was always looking for the next holiday like the our conversation with mom and dad was like where you're going next and every couple of months if they didn't have a holiday booked it'd be like what's up with you two like why you're going somewhere. And I said to the day, I said, you've not been on holiday yet this year. Like, what's going, like we're at the beginning of the year, really. Like, and you've not got anything planned. Like, we've got stuff planned later in the year. But usually, you'd have two holidays by now.

You'd want to be in the sunshine. And she said, well, I'm not working as much. And she isn't. She's lessened her hours in the family business that my home had owned. And she said, so I don't have the desperation to kind of get away. She said, I'm enjoying my day. My day. The present, I'm enjoying my day. So even though you've got all these like bucketless trips that you thought were going to be the thing that we're going to make you happy and spend time with each other, arguably, you might look at the financials and kind of go, actually, I would much rather work three days a week and I'd spend quality time with each other going for walks, going for a coffee, walking by the seaside.

When I go to the gym, that's their thing and they've made it their thing and their routine. And that's nice. And that's okay. And they may not have, I mean, at their age, I probably would have pictured it being that. but you can design an every day that's the ideal. I remember we've done other episodes before. I think it was it last week when you were talking about that lady who waited until the retirement.

And then we've had, you know, our uncle passed away like in his first year of retirement, like early retirement. And you've worked all your life and you wait for this moment. And then what's meant what actually is it that you want in that moment? And, you know, for me, that hits very real when you lose people young. And I really empathise with what. you're going through because you don't want to dampen your ambition and dampen what you can achieve with the world, but also what are the things that if you could look back, if you're, if you're 60 or 70,

what would you wish you'd have done? That really helps, I think, reframe and design a life that you want. And I quite like that she mentioned, oh, I don't want to go part time. It's making me think you do know what's important and it's just spending time with each other. And if you don't get to go on these bucketless trips, it's okay because you still have acknowledged what I'm actually is important to you is just spending time together. So I don't think you'll ever have a regret of being like, we didn't go on safari and we didn't go this, because you can't sometimes, like, we tell everyone,

whether it's a really, you know, difficult dilemma like this, you actually can't do everything all at once. It's math. It is math. So I don't want you to feel guilty if in 10 years time, you're like, oh, we didn't do 10 bucket list trips. Well, actually, no, but you managed to work three days a week instead and spent two days going to the garden centre,

like, all the little things that you don't think are valuable. Well, it stayed in bed together, having a brew, reading the paper. Like, you weren't rushing off to work and saying, by to someone like they might be the things that were the game changing things but you say it like you've already acknowledged that actually just spending time with each other is the thing like so like what a great like I'm so proud of you I don't even know who you are yeah I'm just so proud of you like what an incredible dilemma and all you've done already like it's you're a fan of shell gal I can just tell

with the language that you're using and stuff but hope it's a you know inspiration for the people that I haven't got this diagnosis in their family but there are they're already going, okay, actually, what would happen if that happened to us? And this is, again, this is all connected to your requirements. And if you build up a lifestyle that's dependent on a really new car and dependent on high aesthetic home and we're constantly doing stuff, always wanting more of like consumerism and stuff, there's nothing wrong with wanting nice things. But understanding where they come in the hierarchy, it's the Maslow of a hierarchy of needs.

And you start with your basic needs and you start with your simple. stuff and the stuff that does bring you joy. There's nothing wrong with treats from time to time and especially travel. You know, like it's something that it's important to lots of people. And we always say, if you're going to spend, spend on travel more than things because you'll forget what you spent, you bought, but you won't forget the trips. But the more you turn, like, things into needs and have become reliant on them, the more you need to earn, the more you need to work.

And then you spend your life working to earn. You're chasing. Working to live, not live. No, living to work. No, maybe that's the wrong analogy. Sorry. But it's like, you know. you're chasing it so you're having to earn.

We have found the most amazing outcomes at Finchelle haven't always been or you help me earn more money so I had more. It was I actually have optimized my finances so that I can work less but my outputs the same financially because I tweaked a couple of things and tweaked my desires and tweaked my choices and continued to invest and made sure that I didn't use debt. The outcome's the same. And if you said two people, you could end up with, let's say,

like half a million in your pension, paid off half. house, there's two ways you can do it. You can do it where you work like 60 hours a week overtime, high stress job, paying a load of tax, and once in a while having like, you know, having gorgeous cars and really nice outfits and designer and look. I mean, I've do this and I'm doing that. Or you could have the same outcome, but you would have had to cook a bit more at home and you drove a car that no one really cared about and you didn't always buy into the latest trends. You had the ugly house on the street, which is why I was laughing. It's proud of her.

It's getting pretty and I. You can't use that all the time. I'm getting the lifestyle creep a little bit. Get lifestyle creep. But I think most people would choose the second later in life. If you're like, you're 70, what would you have liked to have done? And this person might have had like stressful episode, mental health issues, relationship breakdown, never saw the kids, didn't, didn't savour like the morning coffee

or the nice walk. And this person did, I don't know. There's no right or wrong, but I feel like. No, it's a good analogy. There is actually an analogy about this and it's the man like fishing. Yeah, the fisherman. Where like there was a man that say like he worked for Goldman Sachs all his life

and his goal was to like just to retire to a desert island and just like fish all day. So he's like working his ass off so he can like sell his house and go and move out there and fish and just like be on his own because that was his like dream. So he's worked all his life for it. He's on holiday. It's on holiday in the Caribbean.

That's this guy fishing who's his age and he's like, oh what you're doing? he's like, when fishing, he's like, oh, well, I'm an investment banker and I do this. I just, well, what do you want to do when you finish? Well, why are you doing it? Oh, I want to make a load of money so I can retire and move to a Caribbean island. And what are you going to do? Or I'm like, I did that.

I'm doing that now. I didn't do all the other stuff. Why do you do? Why is he working his ass off to retire and have that lifestyle when someone just literally went, I'm going to have that lifestyle. No, yeah. You said it much better than I did. I'm sure there's a much more condensed version, but that isn't so.

It's something because I heard you. He didn't saying that. I was like, no, I've heard. I've heard this for actually. Yeah, but it makes perfect, that's a perfect like analogy for people to kind of go, do I want to do all this stuff, like live beyond my means and like always chasing the next thing,

consumer thing, like tangible thing, like the car and lifestyle. It is a healthy rider for all of us, and I do employ you to have a little think about this. Maybe pause, pause the pod, maybe pause the pod. What does your ideal day look like? What does an ideal day? day look like? If you said this would be, you know, like if you, it might be being at work by there as well. There's nothing wrong with work. But what does that? If, if you had one week left

on this earth, how would you spend your, the day and the weeks? Because I think it might make you rethink how you do it. And this is what our, you know, listener has written a dilemma in. Like, she's faced with luckily in one way, you know, not that immediate. So I say lucky in a weird way. she's got time to be able to process what it looks like for her and her partner. What would you do differently? Because I don't, that wasn't to you, by the way, Lucy. I looked at you so you don't have to decide. I looked at you.

I don't mean like, what would you do? I do, go on. It's to the listener. She'd play paddle. What would you do? I'm telling you. Okay. Holly knows what Lucy's.

Lucy would still get up at 5 a.m. Because she's psychotic. She wouldn't lie in. She would get in her, what's her name? Matilda Jeff, dressing gown. That it would be freshly like tumble dried, even though I don't think you should tumble dry it. It's only been tumble dried once.

Yeah. It was chaotic. That's true. You're all very privileged. She'd fake tan. She'd have a fake tan the night before. She'll have a hair mask in. She will be putting a YouTube channel on,

maybe like girls' bathroom or something, with a coffee, almond milk coffee. She'd then get dressed. You were a walking TikTok, by the way, like. I know. She'd go to the gym. She'd do hot yoga.

You would go to the gym. She'd go to Chester. She'd go to Gales. She'd go to Noops. She'd have a lunch at Nando's. She'd play a paddle at 9 o'clock at night. She's again psychotic. But you wouldn't go on a shopping spree.

No. Do you know what I mean? No, because they're buying things up. She'd go to Sephora. I'd get loads of food. She would eat more. Yeah. Pleasure.

She'd go to a deli and buy expensive cheese, butter, bread. All the good stuff. Buy the cheese. Yeah. It's stuff that you think like you should savour. It's just like, well, let's just use. And it's never buying clothes. Don't save the makeup. Don't like use it.

Don't save the champagne for the. Well, everyone saved, if you ever get bought a candle, everyone saves the candle. But it loses its potency. I know. So everyone's saving, like, from the wedding, someone bought like a gorgeous Joe Malone candle. Light the candle on the day that you get it because it's already been sat on the shelf. Might as well set fire to it. Yeah.

Just watch the money go up in flames. I do love a candle. I lit my bougie candle last night. First time. I can't trust it. I don't like candle. If I do, I light it in the middle of the island and I've got a very big kitchen island. It's in the middle.

Yeah. And only people in the house. Yeah. And so that everyone's collectively responsible for the candle. Even at least, there's three. Don't forget the candle. Not let me. Yeah.

And I would never do it at night. Even though like it's obvious you shut the house up. So it's actually more obvious at night. But I'm like, I really really use it. My house. Like Satan worship. Yeah, I see. There's going to be a satanic blessing in a minute in Lydia's house.

Will you release your response with it? do the stuff, but this healthy balance between, you can't say sod it, put it all on black, like life's not like that either and none of us know like what's around the corner. So it's, this is all about as best balance as it can. But this is all easier if your aspirations and tastes lower and what you demand and what you think is important, what you think is worth it, if that lowers. And I like the idea of carving, travel into that, which might be the boozy thing, but that's okay because you've got balance. 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. If you're listening to this and thinking, oh my God, this is so me. Don't forget to follow or subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. And feel free to share this with a friend who would love it too.