The Vault with Financielle - The Pink Tax & What To Do With Savings | The Vault Episode 51

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

Send us a textIn Episode 51 of The Vault, we discuss this week’s controversial opinion, “Pink Tax isn’t real” before diving into our listener dilemmas:💸 "Should I pay off my student loan or save for a house?”💸 "Should I be paying towards my husband’s mortgage?”We celebrate a listener’s incredible win of paying off her £1039 credit card balance and committing to cancelling it for good! Despite feeling a bit nervous, she’s set a solid budget and feels confident in her decision. This is a huge step for her and her husband in getting their money sh*t together after the challenges of buying and renovating a house. 🎉If you’d like to share your money win, head to the community in the Financielle app or email [e-mail] your (totally anonymous) money dilemmas to [e-mail] and we may feature yours on a future episode 💌As a Vault listener, you can get a whopping 25% off our digital course, The Money Playbook. This is a step by step guide to being financially well. It has 101 lessons where you'll learn how to budget, ditch debt, build savings and grow wealth. Use this offer code at checkout: VAULTCheck out The Money Playbook course here  💸Chapters:00:00 Introduction01:14 Community Dilemmas and Advice02:50 Financial Independence and Relationship Dynamics08:21 Pink Tax and Gender Pricing16:13 Chopping the Top Layer Off16:22 Dilemma: Student Loan or Save for a House?17:01 Understanding Student Loans and Interest18:24 Navigating Student Loan Repayments25:31 Community Wins: Cutting Up Credit Cards26:53 Should I Pay Towards My Husband's Mortgage?32:28 Final ThoughtsThe Vault is an entertaining yet thought provoking podcast that answers our community’s dilemmas and confessions surrounding women and money.Visit https://www.financielle.com to download our app.Watch the podcast on YouTube.Follow Financielle for more:▶︎ TikTok▶︎ InstagramAbout Financielle:Financielle is a female focussed finance app helping women to take back control of their money, ditch debt, increase savings and invest in their future.Recorded and Produced by Liverpool Podcast Studios▶︎ Web ▶︎ Instagram▶︎ LinkedIn

Oh hey, Laura here. I'm just starting off this episode of The Vault to tell you about the money playbook. I used to be terrible with money, designer shoes, fancy meals, all on credit. But everything changed when I realized I needed to take control of my money. That's why I created the money playbook, a step-by-step guide to help you take control of your money, ditch the overwhelm, and create a solid plan for your future self. With three stages, survive, build, and grow, the playbook walks you through everything from paying off debt to building wealth.

Start your journey today by grabbing the money playbook for 25% off with the code VAULT. Check out the link in the podcast description. I promise you won't look back. Now let's get to the episode. Welcome to the vault with finite child. This is a safe space where we took all things life and money and no topics are off limits. Howdy.

Howdy, happy Thursday. Happy Thursday. I've got my mug, but it's got coke zero in it. I don't like vodka, though, as I'll be like, definitely. Holly won't let me have the can of coke for the aesthetics. So I put it in a mug and I was expecting it to be warm. Like, oh, a nice cozy mug and I was like, oh, it's cold. So, excuse my slurping.

Throwing you off. So the community is popping off as I'm sat here, bling, bling, bling, bling, bling, people are messaging through, but there's just one, we always give our opinion when you give us a dilemma. And sometimes community members will then write into the financial community and want to give their thoughts, side of the story.

Perspective experience. Yeah, especially if they have a lived experience of the dilemma, because you might know, a lot of the time, we haven't necessarily, like I've not been through a divorce before, but I'm very good at giving relationship advice. Basically, we don't know what we're talking about. So I just wanted to read it from someone in the community.

And it was a response to a dilemma that was read out a few weeks ago now. But I think you may remember me saying that if I had a big red flag, I would be waving it like I was on Les Mis. I was very passionate about this person escaping this relationship. I was very-

So you kept it calm then? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, just whatever you want. And it was someone in a relationship whose partner, they weren't married, even though she wanted to get married, that had a very much what's mine is mine, and what's yours is yours mentality, and did not want to bring the two finances together at all,

even though they lived in a house together, I think, and had children from other relationships, but it just felt a bit off for us all. They had kids together too. Oh, they had kids together, right, okay. They had one from each relationship, and then two together. One, right, okay.

So very much intertwined anyway, but the finances were kept very, very separate. So this is what one of our community members had to say. Listening to the pod today and the second dilemma, I love this, with the fella saying, what's mine is mine. I can wholeheartedly say from experience, get out now. Do not marry that man. If he will not budge on the finances,

he will take everything when he decides to break it off again. That was it, he kept threatening to break off the relationship. Lucy, how do you do this? Do you read them out? If he will not budge on the finances, he will take everything when he decides

to break it off again. I know, I'm styling it out. My ex-husband was the same. He would never have a joint account or shared finances and I married him. He took as much as financially possible from me when we divorced, despite me putting the profit of my own properties into our marital home,

I never got that back. When I asked him for money towards a renovation of the marital home, he refused. I paid it all and then he took over half of the profit when we sold and now lives mortgage free whilst I had to start again. I couldn't afford the legal fees to fight in court. It would have cost so much.

Just take your savings, look after you and your children." So. That's like absolute lived experience. And she says, it's always worth sharing when you've been in that position and we have a son together as well and he never paid towards school uniforms, shoes, et cetera. Her fellow sounds like my ex and it sets my alarm bells off.

So she agrees with me. Yeah. I knew I was right. I knew I was right. Vindicated. Yeah. This is proof. But it is important and we love that by the way,

like if there's a dilemma that you have, this like need to share your perspective, they're all welcome because someone will email into us with the dilemma and they might not do what we say. We're giving opinions, we're not telling someone what to do, we're giving opinions. And sometimes we give like balanced opinions, like we might not agree or we might get different generational perspectives,

but having people that have absolute experience can really, really help. And you guys all have that. So head to the community. If you listen to this, you go, I've just listened to this pod. We will find that and we can resurface it here. Or at least the people reading it,

you might just help someone. We can all help someone learn from something. It might not be, I mean, she did say don't marry this man, but it might be, no, no, I also think there's a warning sign, so get your shit together and do something about it. Don't do nothing. No, we're all girls, girls, and we wanna help each other. And I think we'll do that a little bit more maybe.

So if you have got lived experience of dilemmas that you're like, that's an alarm bell, or I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt and I'll tell you why I was also in a similar situation. Yeah, challenges. And actually you can do that straight into, if you're on Spotify, you can do it straight back. And on YouTube, you could do it straight back

and we'll find that as well. So, Q-E-C is a great place to put it, but feel free to get it to us and we'll share it. Difference of opinion. I know people DM'd us before and been like, I don't agree because, and it's always the camper van lady. Our favorite camper van. People love camper van.

If we ever say anything about... She's the only one that's allowed a camper van because she's truly passionate about it. She's got a high influence by TikTok. I'm gonna renovate it to caravan for 500 quid and cry. No, no, she's like a true camper van lover. Camper stand. Yeah, yeah.

Whereas like, it's the fair weather Camp Van people who just go, I'm just, fuck it. I'm not gonna pay into a pension and I'm not gonna have an emergency fund and I'm gonna splash all the cash on a Camp Van and then we're like, we have the argument of like, you can't live in your car. They can be like, I fucking can.

They got the last laugh on that one. But yeah, any- I always wanted to shower out the back of a van. Tak! I am not a caravan person because you shouldn't poo where you cook, is all I can say. I mean, an apartment. You can give your own little house. You see people cooking in the kitchen.

You have a toilet near your kitchen in your house. It's in like two separate, it's in the West Wing. You've heard of don't shit where you eat, but have you heard of don't poo where you cook? That. Do you know what I mean? It's just too close to home. Like, I can imagine cooking and just like.

She can imagine cooking? What do you cook? Neil's literally fuming watching this now. What does she mean she gonna imagine cooking? A pot noodle. She'd fuck that up as well. I have burnt pasta water, just so you know. Have we talked about you dropping the curry yet?

My husband literally got up. She dropped the full curry. St. Neil now. Full curry, fresh cooked. I didn't make it. Freshly cooked. I didn't make it. Fresh cooked. I didn't make it. The full curry.

I hope you got a takeaway. Glass Tupperware. Oh my God. Full curry. No one got any curry. If it was a man, you'd be like, this is weaponized incompetence. Yeah.

No, it's true incompetence. For me, it was just an accident. It's just an accident. It can happen to anyone. Just a girl. We've got, just a girl. Carrying her curry in a glass. Tough work.

Can you imagine that? Before anyone had eaten any of it. We always need to be like, I was like, I'm sure you can eat around that. I wouldn't. Firstly. Ollie's like,

I don't fancy this. Smash. You can eat around it. Don't you want butter chicken with a side of glass? What did you end up eating? Oh, God knows. Something weird probably. It's slaved over it. It was not a quick, Why did you end up eating? Oh, God knows. You shouldn't have got a takeaway curry.

It's slaved over it and I'll... It was not a quick, it was in the shower's jar. Drop the fucker. Oh, my God. Anywho. Moving on. So yeah, don't listen to us. Don't be no nah thing.

Okay, I've got a controversial opinion for today. Pink tax isn't real. Who wrote this? There were no pink taxes. Do you want to give an example? Yeah. For example, painkillers. They'll be like, I feel like I remember seeing this exact TikTok, so I'm just going to describe it.

It's a blue packet, just normal painkillers, headaches, whatever you want. The next ones are called like Feminax or something, pink menstrual pain. Yeah, double the price. Yeah, same product. Same product, yeah. Shavers, they always give things up with shavers.

Raisers, sorry. But even like the men's ones are better. Yeah, I always have men's razors. I had to stop robbing Alexis. Tampons, taxed as luxury items. Yes. Oh my God, yeah. I've changed that now.

I felt like they were looking to change the law on that. Can you imagine? Luxury item. And there's two elements of tax. There's like, there's pink tax, which is it's like like for like. Yes, and then there's just the extra cost of being a woman. I've been a woman.

Yeah, I do both of those. Like I lump it together, even though it's not really, like you say, the pink taxes, having razors side by side, both do the same job, I go to the same factory, one's a pink one, a woman's one. And the marketing's like gorgeous women on a beach, like shaving the legs, we all know the Venus adverts. And then the next one's like a basic B,

blue one from a man and it's half the price. And it's the same product, literally. Be interesting to know if things like skincare or like body washes or things like typical, the more masculine ones like a quid in the corner. Yeah, no. And it does like 10 in one. Yeah.

Yeah. I knew it was those. Like one. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I love those. Like what if you washed your hair with, oh that's seven in one thing in there. Toothpaste. But it is that, you know, it's the aesthetic element and it's the branding element.

And it's- It's knowing that women are, we are magpies. Like whether we like it or not. I was just about to say, I fall for it every time. Yeah. Well we've been brought up to pink glittery. Magpie. Shiny, like aesthetic.

Special edition. Yeah. Can you imagine having like, I don't know, Tesco value shaving foam in your bathroom and then your mate's coming around, you'd be like, it's not mine, it's not mine. Whereas it's like Venus pink or like, I don't know, some fancy subscription brand

that we've all been taking a full of. I know how I have. But like an aesthetic looking shaving gel foam that's like seven pound more. As a female, you wanna look the past. Have you seen them? I think a wonderful, do you think that wasn't wrong when we were younger is period underwear.

Massive, massive, massive game changing. So my daughter has some and I don't have some. And I was only reflecting on one from an environmental point of view, but to a practical point of view, I was like, I think I should get, and I was like, we can't go out the clothing budget. Like I felt guilty for taking some of the family budget

to put towards helping me and my hygiene and the planet and everything. And I need it as a basic necessity. And I'd bought her, but even I remember thinking, oh, I could invest in it. Well, actually it pays it back. It's much better for the environment and much better for her.

Shouldn't even be a thought. But like the fact that I felt guilty for it, but Carl doesn't need any. So it's not, and it's not a, it's a nice to have, it's a basic essential, but it's something that like, just isn't, I don't know, isn't, we have to take shoulder the cost of. What was the TikTok that you watched?

I think we might've shown it on one of our first episodes, a girl that shares the period tax with her, is it period tax specifically or pink tax with her partner? And I think she used to lodge, she'd do a ledger of all the- Oh, and she would like request half the money from him or something. Yeah, so she, yeah, for like period products,

she'd be like, you don't have a period idea, like, ring. Yeah. He's like, all right, I'll pay for your tampons, no problem. Like painkillers. Remember? Yeah, I do remember that one. I definitely think it's easier with socials now

to call it out as one of the bigger brands. Like I do think it was like a, cause Venus is Gillette, isn't it? Yeah. I think it's same company. I think so. Well, it's just things like that. It was like, no, no, no.

Like for like, but ours is this. So it would be interesting to know if it got better. If it's got better. you know, like if the- Cause there was just- Should do a little review on it. Yeah, an experiment. Let's compare some prices and just see. But even like you said, the feminine stuff,

that's just totally unacceptable. That's a marketing thing. That's why I don't buy branded perfumes anymore. Cause the money that's spent on it is the market. Why it's so expensive isn't the product itself. It's the marketing. It's the marketing. The sandwich and sausages.

Hey, nightlady's having a great time on me. We're paying her multi-millions of pounds to front Dior or Chanel or whatever. She'll have a great time. Yeah. Because Holly from Wigan keeps buying her perfume. Well, that's why I beautified it so well initially because Marcia Colgore, is it Colgore or Colgore?

She, Marcia identified that so much of the margin in beauty products was the promotion. It was a sales element to it, the cost of sale. So it was the expensive branding and the, yeah, Keira Knightley or Natalie Portman, is it Natalie Portman that does Dior? The nice fancy boxes, the nice design of every single one where she was just like, oh, let's just cut all that bit out

but still give the same quality of product. And all the bottles look aesthetic, but they look the same. It's not, oh, there's a nice new shiny plastic that gets put in the bin anyway. And it was a great, great, not just, not just a great offer, but it was like a mind thing for lots of people, which is, oh, okay.

What are you actually paying for? We've been duped all this time. They're made in the same factory. I love when they're like, this is made in the same factory as. Yeah, I love that. I mean, listen, the Zara perfume revolution. Incredible.

I know that we learned from you, Lucy, on this. Never again will I buy an expensive perfume. When Carl was picking a perfume, a perfume, I don't have to say whatever, a perfume for Christmas, we went to Zara and they didn't have the one that we were leaning towards. And so he went, why don't we just go to Selfridges

and smell Tom Ford? I was like, that's a great idea. Or what, and then go back to it? So we went to Tom Ford to smell a 286 pound aftershave. You could buy every Zara perfume for that. And then did you find the Zara juice online? Who's smelling him. And then did you find the Zara juice online? Who's smelling him? Me!

Did you find the Zara juice online? Got that online, got it from Zara. So you put like, so we got the smell of, Yeah, yeah. Whichever one in line. Lisa sent me a list of equivalents. If anyone wants it, share it.

I can put it into a spreadsheet. She will not gatekeep. But it was that, I was like, oh, what a good idea. Yeah, it's what me exactly the same, but they're enough. Never again. So many people. Smelly liquid. Such a weird concept. You've just brought down the house of Chanel with like just a bottle of smelly liquid. Anyone can do that. Like I said, like I said, you work from home anyway, who are you trying to impress? Me.

Candles are a funny one. Literally setting fires to candles. I know, but I can't help it. Yeah, setting fire to your money. I can't help it. I'm an impulse candle burner as well, like don't buy me a nice candle because I will burn it in a week.

You're supposed to though, people keep them for years. I'll keep it for a special occasion. I don't know if it's a marketing ploy, but Jo Malone was like, you're not supposed to keep candles, because the smell goes, I'm like, do you want people to keep buying candles? I do think the scent would eventually leave something,

but it is, of course it was like, when sell-by dates on skincare, I'm like, hmm. Oh yeah, I never did. Really? We have got a Chanel bronzer that's still going three years later. And every time I use it, I'm like, should I? I'm gonna use it.

And I'm fine. Still here. Do like lab tests on it. Oh. Well, I was thinking about chopping the top layer off. Yeah, do the little scoop. Scraping it, razor it off with your expensive razor. Yeah.

Use the men's razor for that. Okay, time for dilemma number one. Should I pay off my student loan or save for a house? Thanks, Razer, for that. Okay, time for Dilemma number one. Should I pay off my student loan or save for a house? Hi girls, my dilemma is about student loans. I think I didn't fully understand the rules before I applied. I'm not from the UK and even though I read the contract and researched it, I think I failed to grasp how the interest works.

Now I'm trying to decide if it's better to save money and pay off my student loan, which is around 7k or not. I'm unsure how much I'll end up paying until it finishes. Do you have any advice on student loans and their interest? Is it better to pay them off earlier if you can, or is it better to save for a deposit, invest in a property and pay off the loan slowly? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Not on your own, not understanding how that's not, because you're not from England, geez. To minefield, even if you are from England. How do people just, we all didn't know. Oh, it's missed so much. We all didn't.

There's gonna be a big, I know people, there's rumblings, but there's a bubble. Bubbling. Yes, there's going to be some sort of, I don't know, everyone's just like, they're gonna just wipe them. Please, please, please. I just don't ever see that happening.

But there's rumblings and uproars and it's all getting a little bit, ooh, isn't it about student loans? Yeah, well, I think people have- Like been mis-sold. Yeah, yeah. And the universities are struggling for money. They're not money machines.

It costs a lot to provide what they want to provide, but is it a viable business then? Like, do we need as many universities? Do we need as many courses? Well, they've been called out on the courses, the value of courses. Well, you went through that. Like, you didn't have physical lectures.

Yeah, but like ones that are like ridiculous, like the Beckhamology stuff and that. Like Harry Potter degrees. Oh, well, yeah, probably like that, sounds good. I were, that's not ridiculous. But with COVID, like they didn't even get, it was all digital and suddenly you're still paying more than anyone else. Yeah, everyone was like, oh, you're paying for the equipment that you borrow to like

go and film news videos. We didn't get access to it for like that. Oh, God. No, it's a really interesting one for people to sit and navigate, isn't it? I feel like, you know, we love people being debt-free. And so debt-free is when you- I feel like an achievable amount is all I would say.

That's 7K, I'm like, get rid of it. Yeah, no, I think I'm most speaking to other people about like that. So when you're thinking about buying a home versus student loan, knowing that the way it works in the UK anyways, it does impact you buying a home. Lots of people go, it's fine, it's fine, but it's more that it's not listed as debt

against your name. So it's not, oh, this person's got 7,000 pounds of debt. They'll just literally not even look at it. They will look at your reduced income though, because what happens is obviously, depending on what you earn, your wages get garnished. So it impacts affordability. But otherwise it doesn't impact your borrowing capability

in terms of you've already got seven. So some people like the, it does cost you. And so she said, I'm not sure how much I'll eventually end up paying off. That's because it's not like a regular loan where it's over this term. It's based on what you earn. So there might be some calculators you can do online, but what you really need to look at is forecast what you're going to learn over the next, like five to 10 years. And you should be able to kind of work out how long it will be before you pay it

off and what you'll eventually start paying in interest. Like there will be some calculators you can do because that, at seven grand alone, might make you feel, okay, even though I don't have to clear it, that's wasted money because it is clearable. Whereas a lot of student loan is just someone that's gonna pay for a tax for a lot forever.

So you wouldn't sit there and go, oh, shall I prioritize that first over buying a home? Or no, no. But so I would say, look, compared to other people's student loans that I know, seven is low. Not even 10% of mine. Okay, so what would you say to someone, all right,

what would you say to someone with a seven grand student loan? I don't actually know, I feel like I'd say. Would you still want it hanging over you? It's not, it's kind of not there though, is it? I think because I'm say, would you still want it hanging over you? Yeah. It's kind of not there though, is it? I think because I'm so detached from it. Yeah, mine too.

Which is right, by the way. We teach people to be detached from it because otherwise you would never do anything. You'd never be able to progress and achieve any money goal. That's why it started in the playbook earlier. Like it's kind of, I think we mentioned it, but it's definitely a cop player as you see it.

Cause it's only hanging over you if you can kind of, it's achievable to clear it, but you don't like it coming out your salary. Yeah. But it's about the how you feel. I think if I was like, I want to buy a house, but this is stopping me. Yes.

I would mentally go over that. Yeah. I would work on mentally getting over, this is getting in the way, because it's probably not really getting in the way. And when you've had your house for a couple of years and you're still like, right, I wanna clear that. Yeah, that's the time.

I don't think, I think don't let it impact your life and your plans of fighting it back. No, don't let it hold you back. I think we do try and- The big thing with student loans is it's always connected to your earnings. And so unlike any other debt, if you have a car loan, if you have credit cards,

you have to pay that. And if you lose your job or you get a pay cut or you have maternity leave or you get ill, you still have to pay it. So if you think about the stress that comes with loaning money, it's because we owe someone something all the time. The complete opposite, let's not complete opposite, but the difference with student loans is it is all connected to your earnings.

And so if you don't earn in a month, you don't pay any loan, yes, interest is being added on. So if you don't like that idea, that would be the only motivation that interest is annoying me because it's wasted money. It's something out of your control. Yeah, but otherwise it's not got the pressure

of a regular debt. And so I think, yeah, I hear something like seven, I'm like, that's not a crazy amount that I might wanna go say for the next year, I'm clearing that and I'm going all in, that's all I'm doing. But on the flip side, if you, you know, if you, and like I said, it can help for your borrowing capability.

But if you'd rather save for a home and then pay it off later, I would definitely be wanting to pay that off. I think I'm just turning my head like, as a student. I'm like, single digits, I'm like, get rid of it. Yeah. Get rid. But you can work out your own order,

but this is a warning to everyone, and it's not just you, some people don't understand them. I had never understood, I was 18 years old, that interest would start accruing from the very first payment I received. Like never understood that. So I remember getting the statement and I was very lucky, like I came out with like about 11 or 12 because it was, we were super helped by our parents in terms

of fees and stuff. So, and we didn't have, I didn't have top-up fees, you had top-up fees. So my course was pretty cheap. And then accommodation was paid for by our parents. And so we had maintenance loans, helped pay for food shops and drinking and fancy dress outfits. Like it was holiday, you know, like really super privileged. And so, well, and then we worked as well, but I remember going, I'm going to minute, I've had nine.

Why is my loan 11 and a half? And it was when it was rock bottom interest rates as well, so tiny percent. And so it's linked to obviously base rates and stuff. So definitely your parents listening to this or people that have got student loans, just keep an eye on them and have a little look. And I think it's good to know,

I think you did this, you had a lot to do. Yeah, I revealed, I was putting it off for ages and then I was like, one day for some reason, that anxiety just went and I was like, I'm gonna have a look. And once you know, you had the luck, did you? Yeah, I revealed, I was putting it off for ages and then I was like, one day for some reason that anxiety just went and I was like, I'm gonna have a look. And once you know, you know, I think you feel better once you know. Always the fact that it's such a big number

just makes it funny. You were like laughable. Yeah, you were like, wha! But it's not this unknown. And I know also that so many people are in the same boat as me. Yes, oh god, yeah. So I'm like, rolling it.

That's why it's referred to now as a tax, but I think knowing it and being, it and having it there is much better for your financial wellbeing than la la la la la. Not that I don't know it, but even I'm signing a paper, but I don't know what it is. And like I said, I think this is for more people about to go into education or trying to think about what your children will do.

Just know what they're getting into because coming back to what you said at the very beginning of Hall was like, what kind of courses are they doing? What's responsible here from the university's perspective? We know so many people that have done like apprenticeships and stuff. If there's a job that you want to take where you can learn it on the go and get paid to do it,

why would you not? But you can still live that student life cause still go out with your mates at students go and stay at the accommodation for one night. But you'll have to buy the drinks. But also you can go to university at any age. So it's not now you must be 18 and go, you could re-study later into something.

Because who knows what they wanna do when they're 18. That's the argument with it all. You don't know what you want to do. And I would say- 16 when you're trying to pick what you wanna do for your levels. A large majority of people that we know that went to uni don't probably do anything to do with the course.

Yes, they learn life skills that will help them in jobs, like doing projects and writing reports and doing research or whatever it might be. You know, you do, I'm not so anti-university that I'm telling everyone not to go because I definitely learned a lot and it helped me, it definitely helped me in my career. But it's an investment.

It's like you're investing money. So if you put this in, will you get that out? And that's what's really important. And it might be, yes. So then you crack on. Yeah. Okay. Hope that helped. Okay. Community wing time.

This is a fabulous podcast. And it's encouraged me even more to get rid of my credit card forever. This month I'm going to pay 1,039 pounds off my balance and cancel and cut it up forever. Oh my God. That's such a big amount. I'm afraid, but 1,039 pounds off my balance and cancel and cut it up forever. Oh my God, that's such a big amount. I'm afraid, but my budget has been set and I'm sure it will be fine.

Don't be afraid. I'm afraid, close it, feel the fear and do it anyway. There's nothing to be afraid of when it comes to closing a credit card. If you get stressed, just put a thousand pound back on it. If you disagree and if you don't like it, you can always spend on it again. Well, no, I mean, not even cut it up.

I can promise you won't feel like that. No. If you have a winter shower of those, head to the community in the app or email it to the vault at financial.com. Okay, time for our final dilemma. Just a quick one, Laura here. If you're wanting to take back control of your money,

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and celebrate your successes along the way. Click the link in the description to download Financial and start your free trial now. This is your sign to take control of your money today. Okay I'm done, let's go back to the vault. Should I be paying towards my husband's mortgage? My husband and I recently got married. He came into the marriage with a property that he bought three years ago, whereas I don't have property. We rent privately together and his property is currently rented out. The rental income covers his mortgage but doesn't really provide a profit. It just covers the bills and

mortgage payments on the flat. Through listening to The Vault I've realized that there really is no mine and yours in marriage. I should have known that before we got married but oh well. The realization has given me some guilt that I don't pay anything towards this flat, which is now ours, brackets, I think, please correct me if that's not right. Even though it technically costs him nothing per month due to rent covering all costs, should I be splitting the mortgage payments and running costs with him? For context, we are a dink household with no intention of having children. This is very actual, the last few episodes, I feel like we've talked about this a lot.

We've had a lot of relationship ones. I mean, from what I understand though, she says that the rental income covers the mortgage payment and some expenses and presumably like maybe a bit of tax. He will have to pay tax on that. But she doesn't need to. If she's wanting to pay towards then, yeah.

So transparently. Maybe she's feeling a bit guilty. No, pay tax on that. So, but she doesn't need to. So transparently. She's feeling a bit guilty. No, but I love that. And like it is hers in terms of like, so it's his property. So legally it is his property. He will be, he's on the mortgage and he'll be on the title deed. So he'll own the property.

As a couple and as a marriage, and this is more like if you're thinking about divorce, it's more like you tend to have, the UK tapes a really strong 50-50 view on things unless there were things put in place. Like if they separate quite quickly, the law would look at, okay, well, if you lose a dispute, by the way,

they might go, well, he came in with this property and you've not contributed, you've not been together a long time. So it's an, I love that you've picked up on that because it is a really good way to look at it. Transparently, we have a rental property that is mine in my name and I'm on the mortgage. My husband's not on the mortgage.

And he and I don't pay any of our money on it. The rental income after taxes and after maintenance and fixes and stuff here and there covers the mortgage. So it's kind of, it's in a separate account and it's just circular. So I'm really lucky that I never have to put any money into it, which would be a rubbish business decision if I had to. But in the same respect, that tends to cover the tax on that property. It doesn't cover my other taxes, but it tends to cover my liability, so I'm not worse off. What's happening is I am building up capital value in my name over there, but we see our assets as joint.

And so I definitely wouldn't complicate things by sending money over there. Leave that be. I think accept that your husband's building up an asset and you're not. Could you do the same in a different you do the same or is there a plan to buy a home together? At least where you kind of making sure

that your income isn't just going to rent. But no, I think you're okay. I don't think he's got a bad deal. He's increasing in capital value. He shouldn't be covering the mortgage, the rent should be. So if it's like, do you know what I mean? Like if it's got a ring around it, it was ring fenced. Yeah.

So I think we spoke about this before about her putting money into an asset that grows in value. And I think that's maybe more the line we would probably take rather than worrying about what's going on over there. As you're married, like Laura said, if the worst comes to worst and you've been married quite a long time, generally the law is 50-50,

if that's what you're thinking about. But in terms of, at the moment, it doesn't sound like you're putting any money to anything that grows in value, an asset that grows in value. I don't get that impression. So maybe it's your time to not directly- He's not getting a bad deal, I think, to be clear.

Go directly to him. He don't have to, yeah. He's doing all right. He's not got any outgoings going towards that house monthly, like Laura said, it's circular, it's running itself. So he's not paying out of their joint. Now, if it was the other way, if actually it wasn't covering its bills

and he was having to put more money that way, that's where what you do is, you don't send money that way as well, what you do is you do a joint budget, right? So you should be doing a joint budget. And if you wanted to combine finances or just combine your budget, do that for your household, including your mortgage,

including your rent, because you're in a private rental. One of the bills is supplement the house. So, you know, you would end up putting, let's say it's 200 a month out of pocket. So your joint budget has to send 200 over there. Now, caveat to that is, that doesn't mean you've got an entitlement to any of that property or anything,

but it's only a little bit of money. We're not talking a lot. Like if you're having to put a thousand pound, that's where you can start going, oh, should I own it too? Like I said, you're married, so there's lots of variables here. But if the property needs money,

it should come from your joint budget anyway, and then you would be helping. And so I think, yeah, if you're married, I think I would expect that of Carl, my husband, if our finances were separate and I was struggling to keep a rental property afloat, aside from the fact that it's probably not a good idea to have the property, I would want help.

And I think that's fair, but no, he's doing all right. Like Holly said, have a little look at making sure that whilst he's got this, what have you got? You are also thinking about retirement, investment. You don't wanna make it me versus you. No. You just wanna make sure that you're both building

a life together where stuff's growing and it's gonna be a benefit to you both. Like we're not planning divorce here, like you're talking about marriage. Yeah. And it sounds very positive so. The fact that it was the other way around, I'd be like. Red flag!

Yeah. I'm trying to be like calm and balanced, but like if it was the mat, if it was like the other way around, I'd be like, oh, Jesus Christ. The interesting thing though that she's not asked about, but one of her, an observation I have is that they rent and when people rent, but they have a rental property, I always tell them to go away and look at the tax implications of this because you, when you get rental income,

your tax on the income, and I have said this repeatedly, it's rubbish, it's not as good as people think. You have to pay tax on the income, less some credits and stuff. And so it is much more tax efficient to buy a home and then pay down a mortgage than it is to pay rent and then get money over here for a rental. And sometimes people overcomplicate stuff. I love people having a home. If they're going

to own a property, unless it's a transient, we're only living here for a little bit. If you're settled, what's the plan for you guys? Because like I said, it might be that having your home next, they would sound newly married, like it sounds fairly new, but yeah, be looking into that instead. It sounds a bit complicated. Let's make it simple. Stop paying so much tax. Oh, absolutely. Like do the numbers. Any final words? I love that Holly was like, God, I'm so biased towards women.

I really am. I stand by that. I am. But we've seen that so often, you know, people- Well, we've got to balance it out. We've got to. True. Well, you do have to, and, you know, we have lots of people getting together later, they're getting married later,

they've got no kids to kind of navigate, which is kind of helpful in keeping things simple. But we are coming into relationships with different sums of money. Some people have like, you know, negatives, and they've come with debt, and they come with like, I'm the personality hire. I'm not the personality hire.

And then on the flip side, you have sometimes people of like, you know, imagine someone's just come into an inheritance from a parent passing away and you just get married. That's where there's like, you might want some protections in space for a little period of time while you navigate this new thing because you've come with this or I've done years of buying a house

and you kind of parted it all away. And so even like, even though I'm all about the joint finances and what's mine is yours, there's still a period of time where you kind of- A cooling off period. A cooling off, a return receipt. It's giving prenup. Oh, but it is interesting and I think that I love it

when couples think about it. Yeah. I think women often don't. So we're here to prod and poke. And we did, she said she loves the pod and she was like, you made me think. That's all for this episode. The vault is now closed.

And just to quit disclaiming the vault is just a chat around life and many topics. We are not giving financial advice.