I wanted to share a case study of how I recently helped someone working together 1:1.
Client Profile:
– Female, 36 years old
– Married with one child in nursery
– Based in the UK with an income of £120,000
Initial Situation:
– Rising mortgage cost
– £100 monthly ISA contribution and £25 into a Junior ISA (from grandparents) – both left in cash
– Zero savings at the end of the month despite her income
– Feeling stressed due to long working hours and not seeing the benefit of her salary
What We Addressed:
1. Understanding Spending: We examined her monthly expenses.
2. Exploring Money Mindset: Delved into her past to uncover the root causes of her relationship with money and the persisting feelings of lack despite her significant earnings.
3. Education: She went through my ‘Introduction to Investing’ masterclass and started completing my journal for financial well-being.
4. Investment Strategy: Transitioned from cash ISAs to investing in index funds.
5. Communication: Established regular money dates with her husband, aligning on their family goals, which hadn’t been talked about before (this is really common). See my blog on how to talk to your partner about money.
6. Work-Life Balance: We did an assessment of what were the necessary commitments, what would be tactical to do and what she needed to start saying no to. At face value this doesn’t look like a ‘money’ thing but how we are with ourselves, and our boundaries can spill over into our money and so discipline in one area helps in others.
7. Retirement Planning: I did not give advice on this, but on prompting her to look at her pension portal she saw that she could increase her contributions and they would be matched by her employer. She hadn’t looked in her portal since setting it up 7 years ago.
Outcome:
A palpable sense of relief that she was tackling her finances and had ‘got going’. Working together not only brought clarity to her financial situation but also gave her a sense of calm and empowerment. She is now purposefully spending her time and money, and saying no to some things in the present because she has her eye on the longer-term goal. Earning big doesn’t have to mean saving little. For ways to work with me click here.
Case study shared anonymously with permission.