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 Disha Patel, 23, who lives in Purley, south London, with her partner, Marcus, 25. Disha, an economics graduate working in finance, thinks she will need a pension of more than £1m by the time she retires.

She wants to be able to retire at the age of 55. Disha adds £1,000 a month to savings and investments and has nearly £10,000 saved in pensions. Disha is put off by the idea of earning £100,000 or more a year as she thinks the tax burden would be too high.

Monthly budget

My monthly income: I take home £2,400 a month from my graduate scheme job in finance and am soon moving to a higher-paying job at a different firm. I’ve only recently started making money from social media. In the past couple of months, I’ve made about £900 from brand deals and user-generated content via my social media channels.

My monthly outgoings: I own a flat with my partner. He pays for the monthly mortgage repayment and service charge, which is £1,152 a month. My partner works at Transport for London as an iBus Controller and earns more than I do. He also pays the £14 monthly water bill. 

I pay for the following: Groceries, around £400; council tax, £193; gas, £38; electric, £41; broadband, £27; sofa on finance, £74; mobile handset and contract, £45; subscriptions like Amazon Prime and Apple Music, £19.98; gym, £26; public transport – though I get free bus and tube travel in London due to my partner’s job, £150; money into cash savings, £500; money into investments, about £500; eating out and drinks out, £250. I add 4 per cent of my work salary to my workplace pension each month. I also add £100 to a holiday fund each month.  

We also have income protection insurance, at a cost of £91.68 for two people. 

I moved from India to the UK with my family when I was one. My mum works in retail and my dad works on the railways. We never had much money when I was growing up. I graduated from the University of Portsmouth with a degree in economics in 2023.

I have a Chartered Accountant qualification and take home £2,400 a month from my graduate placement job in finance at an energy company. I will soon be moving to a new finance job in financial planning and analysis at a different company outside the energy sector, with an annual gross salary of £50,000.

I must admit that my relationship with money has not always been good. When I was at university, I had a job at a shop paying £4 an hour. I’d spend every penny I made on clothes and shoes to look cool and impress other people. I was always in my overdraft and got into £2,500 worth of debt.

My relationship with money is a lot better now. In the last few years, I started sharing my experiences of investing and money via my TikTok channel (@theonlydidi1). I’ve only recently started making a bit of money from my social media work.

I add £500 to a cash savings account with Chase each month, and about £500 to various investments. I’ve got £5,800 saved up in cash savings and £10,800 in investments, including via a stocks and shares ISA with Trading 212. Most of my investments are in exchange-traded funds, but I have some individual stocks, including Microsoft and Nvidia.

I know £462 goes into my work pension each month. I add 4 per cent of my pay – topped up to 5 per cent by the Government in tax relief – and my employer contributes 8 per cent. Adding money to a pension is a top priority for me and I want to be able to retire at the age of 55.

Given how much £1m will be worth in the future, I believe I will need more than £1m in my pensions by the time I retire to be able to enjoy a comfortable retirement. The state pension alone would not be enough to live on.

I own a one-bedroom flat with my partner in London, which we purchased in June 2025 for £295,000. I don’t pay the mortgage as my partner earns more than me and covers it. I pay for most of the other bills. The mortgage interest rate is 4.87 per cent and we’re on a five-year fix. We would like to move to a three-bedroom house in the future.

I’m keeping a close eye on what Andy Burnham and the new Chancellor, John Healey, are doing. I think the Government needs to make it clear where taxpayer money is going and what exactly it is being spent on. Inflation also must come down. In my view, Sir Keir Starmer should not have resigned and should have been given a better chance to implement the policies on his agenda.

The tax burden on many people in the UK is high. I do not have a desire to earn £100,000 or more, as the tax take would be too much. Ideally, I would like an annual salary of around £80,000.

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