In our How I Manage My Money series we aim to find out how people in the UK are spending, saving and investing money to meet their costs and achieve their goals.

This week we speak to Milly, 33, who lives in London with her partner, Jack, 33, and their cat, Logarithm. Milly, who does not wish her surname to be published, is unashamedly highly motivated by money. She earns a six-figure salary and wants to retire by the age of 50. Having spent much of her childhood in Australia, Milly is perplexed by aspects of the UK tax and benefits regimes.

Monthly budget

My monthly income: As head of growth at a Web3 start-up, I take-home £7,091 per month after deductions. I make £1,400 a month in rental income from an investment property in Australia, but this goes straight back into paying the mortgage and covering expenses on the property. I also receive dividends from various investments, but the sums are automatically reinvested. 

My monthly outgoings: Shared with partner – Mortgage, £3,100; council tax, £240; groceries, £400; electricity, gas and water, £250; Lime bikes and public transport, £100. Individual bills – Aside from my monthly tax and pension deductions, the following apply: Mobile, £12; gym, £55; climbing gym, £79; hobbies like knitting, £50; money into travel fund, £300; takeaways, £25; eating out and going out, £100; money into stocks and shares Isa, £1,666; money into cryptocurrency, £300; money into account in Australia, £300; money into cash savings, £800.

I was born in London but moved to Australia when I was three. Growing up, we were relatively well-off. I received a good education and was supported to do gymnastics all through school. I’m incredibly grateful to my four parents, two regular, two step, for their support.

I studied a double degree in mechanical engineering and chemistry at the University of Sydney, graduating in 2016. I first moved back to Britain in January 2020, but had to leave for Australia again eight months later due to Covid.

During this time I applied to and was accepted to an MBA position at the University of Oxford, but decided to defer and ultimately reject the offer as all of the classes would have been online at that time.

I moved back to the UK once again at the end of last year with my partner who grew up here. We want to spend some time here with his family and friends before ultimately settling back in Australia.

I started working at the age of 13. Being under age, I was paid under the table at a bakery, and worked hospitality jobs throughout school earning minimum wage. After school and during university I worked as a model. I was very unsuccessful and didn’t make much money, but was able to scrape by.

After university, I worked as a management consultant for five years, and then joined a start-up in the Web3 industry – essentially building the behind-the-scenes technology that makes blockchain and crypto apps work.

I left to take a year off to travel around Australia in a van that I converted with Jack. It was a terrible financial decision, but I don’t regret a second of it.

I’m now head of growth at an early stage tech startup on a gross salary of £151,000 per year. My monthly take-home pay is £7,091 and my job is similar to a head of sales or marketing role.

I have always been a careful saver. I love saving and investing, and as boring as it sounds, I have always got more of a thrill from seeing my savings grow than I do spending money on clothes or other stuff.

When I do spend my money it’s on travel. I usually travel on the cheap and prefer to get out into nature and do rock-climbing trips.

I set up my TikTok channel, milky.world0, recently to share everything I’ve learnt about personal finance, investing and careers. I set it up because I saw a content gap for women in their late twenties or early thirties who are ambitious and want to have high-paying jobs and an investment portfolio.

At the moment I’m not making money from TikTok as it’s still early days.

I live in a two-bedroom rental property and I use one bedroom for my office. It costs £3,100 per month. The price was pretty eye-watering for me coming from Australia, but is reasonable relative to the market.

Jack and I have discussed buying a property, but since we’re not sure how long we will be in the UK for and property being so expensive in London, we are happy renting.

If we stay here long-term we would like to buy and have already started putting money away.

I keep a pretty tight control on my savings, investments and net worth. The amount of spreadsheets I have is bordering on absurd.

I’m a massive homebody and prefer board games and knitting to a night out, which helps keep my expenses pretty low. I try to keep day-to-day expenses low by making coffee and most meals at home, especially from Tesco’s discount section.

I also buy clothes on Vinted, shop in bulk at Costco and implement a 30-day rule. If there’s something that I want to buy, I’ll write it in my little list and if I still want or need it in 30 days, then I will buy it.

I add £1,666 per month to a stocks and shares Isa, £300 to a cryptocurrency account, £300 into my Australian bank account and £800 to a UK cash savings account. Any extra money I have left over goes into my travel fund. I contribute 5 per cent of my pay to my workplace pension.

I have about £50,000 in liquid assets – such as Isas – and £200,000 in property equity for the property I have in Australia, plus £100,000 across pensions in Australia and the UK. My cash savings dropped significantly after taking a year off and moving countries.

I like to invest in a broad range of asset classes and will rebalance when necessary. I don’t speculate on individual stocks, and keep my crypto investments to under 10 per cent of my net worth because they are volatile.

I’m aiming to have enough investment income to be able to retire by 50 and draw down roughly £1,000 a week. I’m building up my property and stocks and shares investment portfolios, which will hopefully be a large contributor to my retirement income.

The cost of living is significantly higher in the UK than Australia. On a recent trip back to Australia, it felt like everything was half price.

In my view, the UK also has pretty wild tax and benefits schemes that disincentivise productivity. For example, once you earn over £100,000 you lose many childcare benefits. I know plenty of people who have cut back on hours or even left the country to stay under the £100,000 threshold.

While recognising my pay is not the norm, I’m not living a luxurious lifestyle and tax policies and cost-of-living concerns will impact my decision on when and where to have children. I’m in favour of progressive tax schemes and happy to pay income tax and national insurance, but it does feel like the taxation system and other policies are not driving the intended results.

I am not ashamed to say that I am highly motivated by money. To me, it is less about status and more about security and being able to make choices about how I live my life. I want to be able to provide for my future family under any scenario, and building wealth makes me feel like I will be able to do that.

My current goals, in no particular order, are: to help the firm I work for grow a market leading product and get a return on the equity I have in the company, grow my TikTok account, get ready to start a family and improve my climbing grade.

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