The Vault with Financielle - UNLOCKED: premium bonds, debt free journeys and we got a follow up!

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

Send us a textWelcome to The Vault with Financielle.This week, Laura's talking premium bonds, debt free journeys and we had the best follow up!Connect with our Partners🫶🏼 Protect yourself and loved ones with our friends at Lifesearch✍🏼 Write a will that is tailored to you with Octopus Legacy🏡 Meet our Financielle approved Mortgage Brokers here💸 Commission-free investing* with Trading 212 (capital at risk)🛒 Cashback on your shopping with Jam Doughnut (use code FINC)🐝 Consolidate your pensions with PensionBee (capital at risk)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.Visit https://www.financielle.com to download our app.Listen to the podcast on:▶︎ Spotify - [https://open.spotify.com/show/73mv8JnNRNqyDRQVXxcsEN]▶︎ Apple Podcasts - [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-vault-with-financielle/id1732683163]▶︎ Amazon Podcasts - https://open.spotify.com/show/73mv8JnNRNqyDRQVXxcsEN]Follow Financielle for more:▶︎ Facebook - [https://www.facebook.com/financielle]▶︎ Instagram - [https://www.instagram.com/financielle/]▶︎ LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/company/financielleuk/]About Financielle:Financielle is a female focussed money app helping women to take back control of their money, ditch debt, increase savings and invest in their future.The Vault is an entertaining yet thought provoking podcast that answers our community’s dilemmas and confessions surrounding women and money.Visit https://www.financielle.com to download our app.Watch the podcast on YouTube.Follow Financielle for more:▶︎ TikTok▶︎ InstagramAbout Financielle:Financielle is a female focussed finance app helping women to take back control of their money, ditch debt, increase savings and invest in their future.Recorded and Produced by Liverpool Podcast Studios▶︎ Web ▶︎ Instagram▶︎ LinkedIn

Welcome to The Vault Unlocked by Fianna Shale. It is Laura and happy Monday if you're listening to this on a Monday. Remember on a Thursday you hear all of us all together on the couch answering, debating, chatting through your dilemmas. And I have to say just we get so many varied dilemmas, some short, some long, never be scared of sending something in. It doesn't have to be about money. I know that obviously we are a money-focused podcast,

but as we always say, so many of the issues that we talk about, money is just a tiny perspective of it or a tiny element and so much of it is about us, how we feel, our emotions, our relationships, our work lives, loads of different elements of this problem that we're having in our life. We have had so many new listeners and app users this past month, and so many of you on a debt free journey. Remember people are coming to us for so many different reasons, whether it's they wanna learn to invest and

grow their wealth in terms of their investments, whether they want to feel better about money, whether they're desperate to buy a home, whether they've ended a relationship and they're having to start again. So many people though do come to us at the very beginning where they have this consumer debt that they're so fed up of. So if this is you, you are not alone.

We are the debt free club or like the ditch debt club. You are in safe hands and it's a judgment free zone. We've all done it. We've all done it. Built up stupid debt, built up emergency debt. I was talking, who was I talking about this to? I think one of the researchers at the BBC, we were talking about one of the items that I might do,

this is coming up Monday, I'm gonna be doing it Tuesday. And things can change, but we were planning to do a bit on 0% cards and being able to switch them. And contrary to what a lot of you financial OGs may think, I do actually like talking about credit cards and the naught percent. And I think it's because you can't shy away from the reality of society.

You can't shy away from the fact that loads of us, whether it was now or in a past season of our life, built up an awful lot of consumer debt and kind of masked it with these 0% cards. And we've just heard too many times at financial, you know, I got an 0% card at 18 and then that's kind of where it started. And for most of us, we end up being fairly lucky

in that life doesn't hit us in the time that we then decide I'm gonna pay it off. But for lots of people, you play the 0% game, you move it around, you move it around, you switch it. You feel like you did something, you get excited. I switch, oh, I get it. I've heard people say it, like an update, like, oh yeah. I switched my 0% card this week.

It was coming off, it was gonna be flipping onto a 30 and I managed to switch it. I mean, well done, great, but did you pay any of it off? Did you do anything over and above the minimum to kind of get it out of your life? No, you just moved it. And so I always want people to optimize the interest they're paying on their debt and get rid of it.

And not percent cards and the phenomenon that is the not percent balance transfer world has really helped lots of people in moments of need. You know, if you've had a sudden job loss or if you're navigating, you know, how expensive maternity leave is or fertility treatment maybe, or you've had some ill health and you've got time off work, you know, not for the bougie things.

The bougie things, you can join my club and we can all sit there and go, oh well, weren't we silly? But for lots of us, the phenomenon of 9% credit was massive and it really helped to protect us for a period of time. And what can be scary is it flipping off onto a 30% and suddenly, the types of payments that you're making, it's just not denting that balance

and that's when the balance goes up. And so on that basis, being able to switch to, I think, this isn't fact checked by the way, but I think the researcher looked and saw, I think I'd seen that Barclaycard actually with a fee or a balance transfer fee might be doing like a 33 month interest free, which is crazy. I mean, that length of time is just so crazy. Whilst it's a great offer and a good period of time to have no interest occurring on the debt,

my worry is that someone does that switch and kind of stays in that space and just puts it off. And what you hope is that life doesn't change in the meantime, where next time you try and go for a 0%, something's happened to your credit, something's happened to your income, something's happened in the market, and they just say, sorry, no,

none available for you, and you suddenly kick on to high interest. So maybe check that out. If you watch morning live at home, we're on at about half past nine, and so I'm on on Tuesday, which will be tomorrow if you listen to this live, but also it'll be on iPlayer.

But just take that as a bit of a safety warning when it comes to credit. When you're getting into the debt, make sure you're optimizing those percentages. Sorry, when you're looking to pay off debt, make sure you're optimizing those interest percentages and getting them as low as possible. But that is literally, it's not even the warmup run.

That's the stretch before the run. You then have to start listing the debts out, building up a budget, creating an excess in your budget to be able to overpay your debts. You need to have an emergency fund to fall back on, even if it's a small one, before you start aggressively overpaying debt. And it's going to be a painful but such a rewarding journey. So if that's you, if you are a newbie and you're battling debt and you want it out your life, you are in the right place and you are very welcome for forever, obviously, but especially for as long as you want help

and support paying off debt. You might also feel weird in your circle. People might be like, why aren't you coming out for dinner or why aren't you coming out for the weekend and why are you not clothes shopping when we're all going clothes shopping and why are you using that really old foundation that's a really bad color for you?

Oh, because I'm buying nothing new. You because I'm on a debt-free journey and I'm gonna smash my debts and then I will buy the makeup I want to and I'm gonna buy nice clothes and I'm gonna go and eat nice things and do nice things and in the meantime I'm gonna look forward to doing that again with cash. Also for Laura Life admin what have I got going on at the moment? So it's birthday month it has been birthday month

for my middle daughter and so just once again sinking funds save lives. I do really struggle with what to get the kids to presence and especially as they're getting older, a lot of it does circulate around technology. Our little one's seven, so she's still young and we're still keeping her in the young phase. But she is embracing game alive, she, her big sister does, and so she's totally inspired by her and her cousins.

And so she's into the gaming phase. And actually we debated about what to get her. And we are fortunate enough to have a spare laptop in the family. And so it seemed silly to buy her like a console or a device or something that really we just needed a laptop for. So instead we had loads of fun picking accessories

for that laptop. So you know, really cool case, she'll be able to put stickers on it, a nice keyboard that lights up like a gamer keyboard and kind of giving her like a little gamer area. But all that still cost money and to have the birthday fund sat there is super helpful. I remember it being really helpful

when I was on a debt-free journey for our eldest because it just meant that she, I didn't feel she had to go without, I still was obviously very, very conservative with what we spent on her birthday, but I didn't have that, I'm gonna have to put this on a card moment. And yeah, I'm really, really grateful

for the sinking funds in my life, but especially this month, the birthday one helped to pay for a little party that we did. We didn't do a big party, we just took a handful of friends bowling and she wanted McDonald's afterwards on happy days. Yeah, I'm glad you said that over some of the other outlets that you could have gone to.

I think even offered to like the local Italian, the village, which is gorgeous, but actually paid for 10 of us to go there, would have been a lot more expensive than what she wanted, which was what her friends did for a different party, and they all want the same, don't they? So yeah, that was like guilt-free birthday investment. But also, I was also conscious that holidays

are approaching for some people, so we're not going away in May and, well, the May half half term quite a few people are and I can imagine that you're gearing up for what am I packing and what do I have and what do I need to buy and actually Holly she may have talked about this on the vault so I'm sorry if I'm repeating myself but this also could have just been in a financial chat because I forget what we say on camera and what was just like our team meeting. But she was talking about, oh, I'm gonna need this, I'm gonna need that. And she actually just put some time aside

to look in her wardrobe. And she's going to Greece for a week. So it's a finite amount of time, it's a week. And she's looking to go on holiday quite regularly, so she does have a good collection of holiday clothes. But if you were letting Instagram be your stylist and your style inspiration, you would need the color of the season,

the bag of the season, the shoes of the season. And anyway, she did a really good review and got stuff out and she was like, my wardrobe is really good and it all is like a jigsaw, it all fits together. And she was like thanking her past self, I think she'd put effort in the past to create a wardrobe, especially a holiday one that is so interchangeable. You know, we're thinking like,

beiges and whites and blacks, maybe some browns. And whether that's a combination of like, vests and nice shorts or like nice shirts and shorts, there are so many different ways that you can build those combinations in. And she'd already done that work and it's just gonna make packing so much easier, especially when some nights, so you say some evening shorts, you might wear them for literally

like three hours and once you've got changed for dinner and you've gone to dinner and then you decided on an early night or whatever, you've just like literally not worn them. So the idea that you can have some like nice looks, black cotton or silk shorts and then wear them the next day during the day or wear them another evening with a different top, you just do it and don't overpack because it's less of a stress when you're packing and more importantly, you don't have to go and buy a summer wardrobe.

But on that, we do have trips coming up, like we've got a trip in June and then the summer will be upon us late July and August and that's when we go for our trips. And it's just being conscious of that, like this is the time where people will break their money journey and their money plan to put things on credit card,

whether it's like the car parking that you didn't think of or the transfer and booking that taxi and you have to suddenly get an Uber or now's the time to ask your friend or your neighbor or your parent and say, would you mind taking us to the airport and kind of giving them a promise back that you'll do the same.

Those kind of things can really start to add up financially in anticipation of a holiday or a break. So if you're lucky enough to be going away somewhere this year, whether that's in this country or elsewhere, just have a think about what it's gonna cost, what's left to pay, and what's in your travel sinking fund.

I want you to be aggressive on your money journey, but I don't want you using credit, so it could be a good time to readjust coming up to the next budget, or not be as aggressive with your excess if it's going to the part that you're definitely gonna be using. So on that note, I'm gonna jump into a question

that we've had, fascinating question actually on premium bonds. So Zoe says, hi ladies, I have a quick question, not a full on dilemma, so probably more suited to the vault unlocked, loving the two pods a week by the way. Well Zoe, we took your steer on this, you definitely suggested probably the right thing that I could have a little chat about premium bonds

and so here we are and you're welcome on the two pods a week. I definitely feel the vault unlocked. Like when I was preparing for this one today, it felt like I was preparing for a team meeting. It was like reviewing like how people have done in a community and how, you know, how many new users we've got and what their, you know, motivation for joining us is

and some of the wins in community and some of the dilemmas that we've got lined up. And it feels like I'm preparing for a team meeting. So welcome to team Franchelle and I'm pleased that you asked your question. You've said, my question is around premium bonds. I feel like they've had a real popular moment on social media recently.

I don't know if I'm being really silly, but I can't see how earning no interest on the very slight chance that you might win some money is better than guaranteed interest in a high interest savings account. Am I being silly? Would love to know your thoughts if you think they're worth it in some cases or if it's a bit more of fun as surely it's something you'd need a lot of money to put into to even stand a chance.

Zoë, this is such a great question and actually I cover it a little bit on Morning Live from time to time because premium bonds have like such a history, don't they? I feel like lots of us could relate to grandparents and parents being talking about premium bonds. So for those people not from the UK or just that don't really know what premium bonds are, they're kind of a savings product.

So they are offered by the UK government's national savings and investments, so NSNI. And like we said, they don't pay interest. And your principal investment in premium bonds, like the money that you put in is very safe. It's considered very safe because it's backed by the UK treasurer. So it's actually a government organized scheme.

And so if you think about taking 10,000 pounds and putting it into premium bonds rather than a high interest savings account, there are a couple of factors to consider. So yes, with premium bonds, there's no guaranteed interest. You could put 10,000 pounds in and never make a return. So your capital won't go lower, but you don't earn interest. Instead, you're entered into a monthly prize draw. Now there is what's called a prize fund rate. So as that, when I checked it at May, it was 3.8%. Now that's dropped from 4% in January,

which perhaps reflects the cuts to the Bank of England base rate during that time, because we had a cut in February and a cut more recently a few weeks ago. But it can be treated a little bit like an interest rate if you were trying to calculate your potential return. So you may be thinking as well like what are the chances of winning? Now the odds of winning any prize are 22,000 to one per one

pound that you hold. Most prizes are small so there's more than one prize. There's usually, well it's a big jackpot prize I think of a million but that's completely rare. Most prizes are small they tend to be like around 25 pounds. Now there's a few factors here premium bonds are 100% backed as I said by the UK treasury so essentially by the UK government all prizes are tax free so if you think about that that could appeal to a higher rate taxpayer who would otherwise pay tax on savings interest if they'd kind of maxed out the rises but guaranteed savings accounts often pay more at the moment there are still some fixed rate accounts

offering 4.5%, which is guaranteed interest. It's consistent, it's predictable, definitely better for the compounding of your savings. But there's just something quite romanticized, I think about premium bonds, maybe even nostalgic. You know, the scene is a bit of fun. It's a bit like a savings lottery, but it's not like playing the big lottery,

which is just a ridiculous rate of not being definitely never going to win it kind of odds. Some like the idea of winning big whilst keeping their money safe. It's like you can have a foot in each camp and you can also access your money at any time without penalties. But and I've seen a few people talking about them on social media as well. Specifically on TikTok, if that's what you're talking about, as I have, I think I've scrolled a people talking about them on social media as well, specifically on TikTok, if that's what you're talking about, Zoe.

And I have, I think I've scrolled a couple of times and gone, really? Okay, didn't really. Maybe NSNI are trying to get down with the kids and promote premium bonds, maybe. I mean, in fact, it wouldn't surprise me at all if their demographic is much older and that a lot of younger people

maybe don't see the benefit of them. I mean don't forget as well if you have been bought them and you have them it remember it's like a bank account it is your money you can choose whether to leave it in there or you know I'm not saying pull it out and do fun things with it necessarily but you can use it in your money strategy so if you preferred to put them in like a fixed rate saver or a regular saver or invest it or add it to a house deposit, you know, premium bonds are fair game. It's essentially like cashing in a bank account. So you could have been bought some premium bonds

for like a birthday or a Christmas. And I just, I don't know, it's a personal thing, right? Not telling anyone what to do at all. But I don't do premium bonds. I hate the concept of gambling, I hate lotteries, I never never gamble, I just don't don't like the feeling, I don't like not winning so obviously like I use the g-word the gamble very very loosely here premium bonds is not that but I don't like the excitement of potentially winning big, I just like to know what I'm getting and be able to crack

on and not stress or worry about it but I this is a personal thing I'm like that then so I'm getting and be able to crack on and not stress or worry about it. But this is a personal view, I'm like that then so I'm like, oh I just would hate if I never won, I'd get so annoyed, whereas I know I get a return. So yeah, I have seen more of it on socials and maybe they're trying to go after the younger generation because it's fairly reliable and safe as far as your initial capital and returns just depends because it's literally a prize draw. So not a silly question at all, but premium bonds don't typically be saving accounts for pure returns. They're safe, they're fun for some,

but they're not the best home for all of your money, especially if you're chasing growth. Okay, next up, we've got a long one, right? So this is a win, win, win that made our absolute bloody day. It just really did. It really helps to bring together why we do this pod, why we have financial, why the community is so amazing, and how amazing you're all doing.

So this is a follow-up. So there was a dilemma sent into the vault a few weeks ago and we aired it and we talked through it and it was a listener in a long-term child-free relationship and she was wondering whether her and her partner should consider marriage purely for practical and financial protections. She was living in her partner's home

and she covered bills and she was rebuilding her finances and she was asking whether taking steps like getting wills or sorting out your pensions or even possibly getting married would make sense to try and safeguard their future together. And we had a whole lot to say on it. And in true financial style,

we try to be pragmatic, but we're super honest. And I think everyone always, I hope that it always comes across that it's with love. It's like your big sister kind of telling you probably what other people in your life might not tell you. And it's about the ability for you to be objective. And if you only ever have people that are yes men in your life, you're never gonna see a different perspective.

So we gave our perspective on it and she wrote back in. So I'm gonna read it out. Hi girls, I'm loving all of the content lately and in particular, the Unlocked series, which helps keep me on track between the main episodes. On the last pod, you asked for updates. So here's mine. and in particular the Unlocked series, which helps keep me on track between the main episodes. On the last pod, you asked for updates, so here's mine. I'm the girl who was featured on the Valentine's episode

who didn't want to get married, but was considering practical ways to protect myself financially for the future. Thank you for giving me some interesting ideas. I really appreciated your comments and the healthy skepticism about my setup. While we still don't see ourselves tying the knot, I've made some personal changes over the last three months

to feel more secure, thanks to financial. Oh, we read it, right. She's numbered them, so this is very exciting. Number one, in the March free wills month, I stopped avoiding it and set up my will. I love that it clearly states who I'd like my estate to be left to and the percentages split between beneficiaries.

The cool part was being able to leave specific gifts and messages for loved ones. And I feel a lot lighter for sorting this out as a legally single person with no children. There can be no arguing about my assets when I'm gone. So first up, massive adulting behavior. For those that may or may not know, in March we did a legacy week

which was focused on getting you to do these things that we put off. Sometimes we put off because we are busy and we can't be bothered. Sometimes it's because it's overwhelming. Sometimes it's because the subject matter's overwhelming like facing obviously your immortality. And sometimes it's because it's overwhelming, sometimes it's because the subject matter is overwhelming, like facing obviously your immortality. And sometimes it's because we just got a lot on.

And we felt that if we had this collective group, you know, if I jump in the water, you jump in the water kind of peer pressure to say, we're all doing it this week, we're all going to get these things sorted out this week, then it might make it more easier on people that are struggling, they don't feel like they're the only one doing it, they're the only one sat at home thinking if I was to pass away tomorrow where would my assets go? Like that is an overwhelming thought and it's this balance between overthinking it and actually it being very very present in your mind for a long long time very overwhelming

versus just doing it and then that being sorted and then until the point that you need to review it again you've nailed it and so we partnered with octopus legacy who will probably do the free wills month again sometimes it's in october and march so keep an eye that. But for the price that one of these wills costs, honestly, you can have a look, there's still our partner, you can have a look at the link in bio, click and just explore it. You could even play around with it as far as you want to,

then if you don't wanna proceed, don't proceed, but just have a look at what it feels like. It's a really, really super easy interface, gradual clicks all the way through, holding your hand, doing it, and it helps to sometimes show you what you need to think about. And if you need to get answers to more questions

before you fully complete it, then you've played around with it. But it's really cost effective and it's really, really good for straightforward arrangements. If you have a more complex arrangement, I would highly recommend going seeing a World's In Trust lawyer.

It is one of the most, so one of the things that people are so funny about, the things cost money, right? So when you are on a debt-free journey and you don't come from a lot of money and you don't have a lot of money, the idea of paying for this kind of professional tool or professional advice if you go to see a solicitor

seems just out of reach for you. It's a little bit like when people are thinking about maybe a financial advisor or maybe a mortgage advisor and the amounts of money that we are talking about or the potential risk that we are talking about in proportion to a fee, a small fee and ongoing fee, depending on the product we're talking about. I sometimes wish I could present that a bit more vividly in front of someone's eyes. Do you like a whoopsie sticker or like a nectar offer or a Tesco club card meal deal?

Like when it's in your face and it's showing you the saving, we're just much more likely to do it, but to get this like fee for a will and you're like, oh, I'll just get on to doing it. And it's, that's probably a bit expensive. Like I don't really need one or like a lawyer's quoted me 500 quid and I just don't really need one, or like a lawyer's quoting me 500 quid and I just don't think I can afford it.

And then, God forbid, there is an argument over hundreds of thousands of pounds a few years later and you didn't pay the 500 and you didn't see the professional because you've got like a particular type of family, you've got a blended family, you've got disputes in your family, you've got people with health issues, you've got people with health issues,

you've got people with just a load of different complex arrangements that we see, and people do nothing, and so it's like major adulting to save up and pay for one of these professional products that once you've paid for it once, really unless your situation changes massively, it shouldn't be a big deal,

and you're with us, you're with Financial, like my goal is to get you to a place where once every five years, you're paying 500 pounds to a lawyer to make sure that your will is in order and your lasting power of attorney's in order if you want one of those as well. And that you're paying for really good

independent mortgage advice and that you're paying for the right financial planning that you need in your life if you're the right candidate for that. I just wish I could show like the savings. you're paying for the right financial planning that you need in your life, if you're the right candidate for that. I just wish I could show like the savings. If you think about the mortgage, this is the biggest asset

that you'll probably buy in your life. I don't know if you've ever done that where you get a mortgage offer and it's like say it's a 30 year term and you borrow in 200 and the actual amount that you pay back is like more than 100 grand more than that. And you're just thinking, what on earth?

And so to get the right quality advice and the right product can have an impact on how many hundreds of thousands more than you borrow you actually end up paying back. And so if that was on a whoopsie sticker, I feel like we'd all be grabbing it. But, you know, when times are tough and we don't have the money, it's really hard to pay for value and it's really hard to pay for the important thing. With that being said, I think the point here is well done for biting the bullet and grabbing those wills while they were free. But if you're listening to this

and you're in that situation and you aren't protected, just go check out the link in the show notes with Octopus and just go explore that process or go and find a local independence listor, even just have a 10 minute chat with them, they do do free consultations and you can get an idea of what it would cost and what protection you get. But get a will, definitely get a will. Now if you remember, I said we're in numbers,

we're now up to number two. Number two, I transferred some old pension pots to Pension B and have set up beneficiaries both here and with my current pension provider. I guess without this, I'd have no control over where this money ends up either. Yes, and again, well done for biting the bullet and making that change. We've got lots of content in the app about whether you should consolidate your pensions or not and what you should be thinking about and it can be overwhelming.

I personally did consolidate my pensions with Pension Bee years ago because I liked it as a platform. At that time, I definitely didn't want to do any heavy lifting with my investments. I wanted the robo-advisor to advise me in proportion to my risks and my interests. And so I do have a more purpose-driven plan with PensionBee, which is something else that you can do. But the bigger thing was bringing everything together and not having a million logins. As you know, I like to track my net worth once a month. And so the fact that I have like one current work pension and then my pension be pensions,

which is all my past ones all lumped together, just gives me peace of mind and makes me focus on the numbers a lot more. Consolidating and combining your pensions isn't right for everyone. It does depend on the type of pensions that you have, whether it's a good idea to do that or not. So it's worth having a little think about

if you think it could help you mentally to do that. But also importantly, what she says is, check who the beneficiaries are. So every pension has a beneficiary listed on it and you have to make sure that that beneficiary aligns with who you intend that pension to go to. So super important to go and check that out on your past pensions.

Again, probably another reason why consolidation from an admin perspective is really helpful. And you can log into these portals and check because imagine if it's at the moment being given to someone that you don't want it to go to. So make sure you check who the beneficiaries are on all your pensions. And like mention that to your friends and family,

mention it to your parents. You know, if you're doing it, you can say, I'm doing this, that FYI. This is also true of death in service benefits at work. So if you, you might have worked at the same place years and you might get a really good death in service benefit if something were to happen. That could have like an ex listed on it, for example.

Imagine if you were the one having to handle this grief and manage what's going on. And then suddenly, actually, the ex gets the death in service do you know what I got a flashback to then and when Carrie finds out that Biggs ex-wife was given a million in the will I feel like we never probably got to the bottom of why that was or maybe it slipped my memory but yeah that was a moment that was a scene I might go back and watch that yeah I might do might go

back and watch that so on that what WhatsApp, your girlfriends, WhatsApp, your friendship groups, WhatsApp, your family WhatsApps and be like, FYI, I've been adulting or I'm going to adult and I'm going to make sure that I know who the beneficiaries are on my pensions and my death in service. Literally, this is one of those things that will take such a small amount of time. But we overthink how long it will take. I reckon you could do it like walking to the bus stop or whilst you're kind of waiting for the kettle to boil

or like, you know, I really don't think it'll take a long time. Okay, number three, just even more proud. I've unlinked myself from my ex-partner on my credit file and closed some old accounts that I have forgotten were still open. You are cleaning up on this life admin, Missy. I have like, you've put me to shame

and I feel like I need to make a to-do list and do easy things and take them off to feel better. So that's super important. Looking at our credit file, loads of ways to get free credit report. You don't have to pay, you don't have to do trials for stuff. Just ignore these websites

that are trying to sell, sell, sell you stuff. You can just look at your credit file and you can see if you are financially linked to someone and like I said, the worst case scenario, I mean, if you're on a mortgage with your husband, like you're gonna be linked to them. You can unlink if you are jointly on a product with someone, but if you in the past have had like a current account

or a savings account where you're both on, but it's like a bit dormant and you're not really using it, or it's not been formally closed down or whatever it is, it will show you as connected to a linked person. And firstly, you want it to be correct. So you should be de-linking. But secondly, you have no control over how they manage their finances,

especially if they were a bit of a shit show and you kind of get a vibe for it. You don't want to be connected to anyone in that way. I'm so glad that you've looked into getting that taken off and again closed all old accounts that you forgot were still open. So many people have these like zombie accounts just wandering around and we've like forgotten we were even a part of that bank or had that card open or had that loan. Just get them closed because especially if it's got credit available on it, you just never know. So one could potentially run up credit in your name and there's just no need for it to be open in there

and it can impact your credit report as well. So get those closed down, but well done. Again, tidy up your file. It will improve your pretend credit score. Do not get tempted to take out credit products when you're on these websites. That is how they make money. So the next one, number four, you say,

next off the list is to look into some income protection and life insurance, but one step at a time. You have already wildly overachieved, so well done. But I think it's really wise to think about doing this next. Starting with the will was a good one though, because if you think about it, you can sit and work out all the what ifs. It's like scenario A, if I die, what would you do?

What would you get? If you do, what would you get? If you died, what would you get? Actually, if we were poorly or if we'd hurt ourselves and we couldn't work for periods of time, how would we keep this whole ship going? And it really, really increases and the dependence on each other increases when we start to buy bigger properties together,

have children together, kind of become codependent. And again, like I said, it might not be that you ever have children, but you become codependent on each other. And marriage might not form a part of that. And so whilst you've got the will sorted, you may not have loads of assets. And so thinking about it in that way

and pricing up the different types of protection insurances and let's use life insurance as an example, it does give that peace of mind that if you both got policies on each other for a certain amount and you can decide what that amount is, it's peace of mind money and it's also cheaper the younger you are. So if you anticipate in the future buying homes together and if you anticipate becoming more codependent and if you anticipated having children, whatever it is, that insurance would have been cheaper buying it today than it is in 10 years time when you decide

to be more intertwined financially, for example. And so for a real cost effective amount, the younger that you are, you can look to get this peace of mind insurance. The best thing I did with this was definitely get on the phone and chatting it through. You can get on a conference call and you can all get on the call together

and explain like what your life's like and where you're up to and have someone objectively, again, we partnered with Life Search because we didn't want anyone selling and it being icky and it being very, very proactive. You can ask for a female advisor as well if you'd like a female advisor. We found that quite a lot of people do like that.

It's no judgment to the guy advisors. They're amazing as well, but it just feels a safe space to have this open and transparent conversation, whether it's you as a couple, whether it's you individually to say, this is my life. This is like what my budget has as well. Like I can't afford loads right now. I might afford more in the future,

but what can I get to get what I call my peace of mind protection for this budget and work with someone? So I love that that's on you, on my next, but don't overthink it. Jump on the phone and have a chat with a professional about what your needs are. And again, if you go to financial.com forward slash protection,

you can find our partner who are amazing and have looked after lots of our amazing community. And lastly, you say, one of the concerns raised on the episode was about not being able to build for my future while living in my partner's house. I feel the same and I'm turning this round ASAP too. I currently pay around 10 percent of my income to him as rent, which I appreciate is very low. So I've been able to aggressively pay down debt.

In June, I will make my last ever consumer debt payment, which is a 20 grand loan fully paid off. Next step, aggressively tackle the last bit of student loan and get myself into Build as soon as possible. Thanks for giving me the push to sort my shit out. You have just closed with a mic drop, which is being nearly debt free, so close to it. And then you've got the last bit of student loan that you're gonna clear off and then you're in Build.

And Build is building that bigger emergency fund. And as soon as you have done that that is when I think we talked about this on the pod you can have those like bigger next step moments like we think it's fine for you to be you know effectively a mini tenant in your partner's home just so long as you are not taking that like financial savings and going woo let's go shopping, let's go on holidays, let's go out. You don't overpay to him. Like he's made that decision that you're not doing things together and you're not owning this together.

You can make a contribution to things, but the contribution needs to be low enough so that you can deploy money into investments and into your own house deposit fund if you wanted to buy property in the future or the next property that you buy together. And I think that's the point we like to make. We like to say there's nothing wrong

with having these arrangements where one person owns the house and has the right protections on that and doesn't have someone having claim to their home, but the other person has a plan and doesn't just kind of, freeload's the wrong word, but kind of coast and think,

oh, this is a good deal, fine. And then actually in the background, they've not been using that opportunity to build up wealth for them, which again, if you stay together, can be brought together later. So you are nearly there, very excited to get you into Build, please.

This is a series you need to come back and tell us when you've sorted out your insurances and when you are debt-free. I'm expecting that very, very soon so that we can then plan together and look at your Build. And lastly, just before I go, I wanted to give a shout out to those people in the app that are doing their net worth.

The net worth tracker is one of the most strategic tools that you can use for your money because the budget tool is amazing and all roads lead to the budget, obviously. And that can help you plan and direct your money. But what do we do with our excess in that budget? We put it towards things that grow our net worth. And there's only a handful of things

that according to the financial tracker will do that. So putting money into savings will do that. Using that money to overpay your debts will do that. Putting money into your pension, paying your mortgage, all these things make that beautiful pink graph go up in the right direction. And that is true if you are a multimillionaire or if you have a minus net worth.

Okay, so many of you are not doing the net worth calculation because you tell me you don't have enough and that's nonsense. You have to start somewhere. And actually the best graphs look the best when you start off with not a lot anyway, because the only way is up. So to track this long-term journey and to start somewhere is really important and so this is your rallying call

that if you're not tracking that net worth please do. If you are struggling with it please drop a question to the community, ask us something confidentially. Lots of people are inspired by other people doing them and so there's one for, from Nicole a few days ago. I started using financial literally this month and following the playbook, it's already increased. Super good work, Nicole. And again, like it can actually change quite quickly, quite early by changing some, the way that you manage money

and focusing on things like building up an emergency fund, focusing on things like overpaying your debt. Kelly put 200% increase in two years. During this time, I paid off all my debt and I'm currently saving for my deposit all fully solo. Absolutely killing it. And that graph is a reflection, and there's lots of dots on that graph

which shows how long you have been doing it for, which means we've got over 24 months of data. But it just shows you the progress that you can make, especially when times are tough, you are tracking it, you feel like all your money is in sinking funds, and you feel like you've not got a lot of choices, you feel like your budget's a bit tight, and then you do that once a month,

and you go, okay, this is why I'm doing it. I am making progress, it might not feel like it when I open my current account, but actually, I am in a much better place and I'm making amazing progress. We had Hannah who actually was inspired by the post and she then said a couple of days ago, I braved my net worth calculation today

as I haven't done it since January and we all know what the stock market has done since asserting someone took over. Amen Hannah, yeah, I've been in your shoes as well. My pension, lifetime ISA, and stocks and shares ISA have all taken a hit as I'm invested in 100% equities, but I've managed to offset it by my mortgage overpayments and my cash ISA that I've also been screwing away into.

1.1% growth in four months isn't a lot, but it's actually more than I expected. Plus I started tracking in August, 2023, and I'm up 55% since then. So Hannah was one who hadn't done it in a little while, was inspired to do it, went in there, did it. And I was the same, I was like, for God's sake, why can this man just stop messing with all of our lives

and all the lives of our friends in the US and et cetera, et cetera. But it is, in a few years time, I'd like to think that we look back at this political blip and just accept that it's one of the dips that we've had alongside, I really have rode the wave of some high returns. Because of your age, you depending,

so depending on your age, you are invested in more riskier things, the further away from retirement you are. And so when Hannah says she was invested 100% in equities, I suspect, and you can correct me Hannah if I'm wrong, but you've chosen to actively do that because you can have your portfolios that are put together based on your risk appetite,

or you can have default ones which are put together based on your age, and therefore they choose the risk relative to your age. So the closer to retirement you are, you have less volatile assets in your investments, the further, the more further away you are, the more volatile that you tend to be put in because you've got time for it to correct.

But it sounds like Hannah's actually gone in and created, you know, where she's literally gone in to a platform, for example, like Trading 212, where you can say, I want my things in these areas, in these proportions. And she said, 100% equities, please. And so, yeah, I can imagine that you've tried to ignore it, but the other things that you're doing,

the paying down of your mortgage debt, the putting money into a cash iser, ironically has offset those losses. And what we hope is that as things calm down, that the equities do come back. And that's why an investing strategy that's just consistent and not trying to time a market and is balanced and diversified by the fact that you're

also invested in property and ultimately is done on a cushion of resilience, it's done on a cushion of being consumer debt free and having an emergency fund. This is why this whole thing is like a jigsaw and all of pieces fit together specifically and to not do one element of it doesn't complete the jigsaw and who would like that? On that note, I think we'll leave it there. Please do tell me about your net worth calculations, messaging, DM, email the fault at fanshawe.com. Any random questions, any lengthy questions, send them all to us and we will try to work them out

between our sofa chats with the girls and with my solo chats on Unlocked. Have the best few days before we speak to you on Thursday and just a quick favor wherever you are listening to this really really helps us if you subscribe or like it if there's the ability to like it tell someone about it because you know you never know we could send you could forward this on to someone who's going through something and one of the things that we happen to mention just picks them up and gets them motivated on their journey. So get it in the WhatsApp groups. Everyone needs, you know, it's in the nice weather now, we're

all getting our steps in, we're all getting fresher, we need things to listen to while we're doing that and let's grow the vault by financial. Thanks guys, I'll see you on Thursday. Just a quick disclaimer, the Vault Unlock unlocked is a lighthearted chat around life and money. We are not giving financial advice. Bye bye.