You did everything “right” so why does it still feel off?

You did all the “right things”

• Got a university education

• Got a job that pays well / has the potential to pay well

• Contributed to your pension

• Bought your first home

• Got a new car

• Got married

• Had a baby

But you ended up with

• £53,000 student debt that takes 9% of your salary

• Wages rose by 69% in the last 25 years when inflation was 115%

• The tax free withdrawal from your pension dropped from 55% to 25%

• The numbers of years you have to work for a full state pension went up to 35

• The average wedding cost increased 2.5x from £10,000 to £25,000

• Nursery fees more than double to from £4,992 to £12,400

• The new car price went up from £17k to £26k

• The price of your home rose by 206%

There are lots of big and little things you can do to overcome these odds that aren’t in your favour.

But there is something else you can do which underpins your whole relationship to money.

Your One Simple Step this week is to

Define what the right things are for you

I talk about it in my series on buying your first home.
You shouldn’t make major life and financial decisions based on what your friends are doing or what society defines as ‘successful’

Success looks different to different people depending on your life stage

I graduated from Oxford, became a Chartered Accountant and am the Group Financial Controller of a private equity backed business. All societies definitions of success. And more so my parents definition of success.

But for me the greatest success has been being able to take over a year off on maternity leave spending quality time with my son.

Time freedom. Being able to watch my son grow up. That is success for me now. Not the old metrics other people found impressive.

All my previous achievements pale in comparison to being a mother. All those things wouldn’t matter to me if I didn’t have my son.

Define your own version of success - don’t let society or your families’ definition cause you financial issues.

Til next week,
Pernia | Your Finance Travel Buddy

P.S. what’s your definition of success? Did I make you think differently about it?