Let’s talk about money. Regardless whether you’re thinking about leaving your job, re-training for a new industry, going part-time or being a founder, this is one will be the top concern. Money to support yourself, family perhaps, and for some, maintain your current lifestyle.

So how do you deal with it? Do you clear out the kitchen table, roll out a budget planner, bank statements in a pile to suss out all your incomings and outgoings? Make a lovely spreadsheet?

For many, it’s not straightforward. 1 in 2 adults in the UK (that’s 24 million people) do not feel comfortable with their day-to-day personal finances.

Financial literacy is also a huge problem, one where more and more schools are trying to introduce lessons on financial resilience for everyday living. Reports also show an education gap related to pensions and retirement planning. In short - there’s a ton of evidence highlighting the fear and the lack of inclination to deal with annual finance planning. I know folks who are whip-smart, super-responsible and great with their project and work budgets. But when it comes to dealing with their personal finances? Game over. And let’s not even talk about the number of folks, globally, well into the millions, who don’t fill in their tax return on time. In the UK alone, tax deadline day in 2025 saw 31,442 people submitting their return in the latest possible hour, between 11pm and midnight. That shows how scary and baffling it is for many.

(Side note: I knew someone who did their tax return after their missed deadline and got fined. So they decided to fill in the return, whilst having a bottle of wine, but got all their figures horrendously wrong, and got fined exponentially more than their original missed deadline fee. Learn from others, team. It should have been one of those mini bottles).

Regardless of our own financial confidence, we know the immense worry about leaving our regularly paid jobs. It’s the top concern when exploring your own life-career changes. For my situation, the thought of leaving my corporate paying job led to immediate apprehension and fear; how was I going to support my family? What would my parents think? With my own upbringing and then working in a relatively poorly paid radio industry, getting a job at a massive global company back in 2015 completely changed my life. It also fundamentally changed my sense of financial security for a decade. Of course it did. Those privileges I then started earning (in all aspects of my life) were clear.

So I’ll be honest, when considering the switch, despite my track record, success and being very clear on my values and purpose, and trusting myself in what I was going to build - it was the biggest, mental sticking point. But what I can say, with clarity now, is I kept this personal fear in my head for a while, despite huge support from my family. And the only thing I could do, or be in control of, was use all that agitated energy to drive me to do something about it - do my own budget calculations and financial planning early on. Get the reality check on what I needed not just to survive, but to sustain a good lifestyle, and know what I was willing to sacrifice for the next couple of years to get there. That’s what gave me the confidence to move on.

So with any life-career decisions, get your house in order first. You’ve got to get a grip on your incomings and outgoings over a typical year. You’ve got to have a base understanding of what you need to take home every month to pay all the bills AND have a social life so you can actually start understanding what options are in front of you.

So these are the next steps in tackling the same fear you’ll have, whatever options you’re exploring in your life-career changes.

I originally worked out my annual incomings and outgoings with a pen on a massive A3 sheet of paper (taken from the photo copier at work, natch). Everything from holiday spend to how much my kid had accumulated at the bubble tea shop (way too much). All in hand drawn boxes, analogue style. That worked as a first step and I felt so much better for it. But I did have all the paperwork in hand and I do regularly check on personal finances, which I’ve done from a young age, a result of supporting my mum and dad with their restaurant paper work, as English wasn’t their first language.

Analogue style may not suit you, but I’d love to hand over to the experts who have created finance templates far superior to my A3 planner stuck on one of those massive dinosaur poster laminates they give away free in newspapers.

First option: the rock-solid folks at MoneySavingExpert have real time best deals across household savings and very decent budget templates to allow you to get to grip with your outgoings. And this is the thing, they outline their planners annually, as well as monthly - and I have to give total props for making their excel sheets not actually look like excel sheets (painful to the eyeballs for many). In fact, it’s super simple to fill in. The planner also accounts for all the random stuff including special treats (shout out to all my local take-outs, especially my mate Mohammad for his continued Friday night support) and the inevitable ‘I forgot how much my kid’s football birthday party cost plus getting that KFC party bucket delivered !’ being accounted for in your budget - it’s based on real life incomings and outgoings. Anyways, here’s that user-friendly spreadsheet for you:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/budget-planning/#spreadsheet

One other source of excellent ‘get your sh*t together’ support is the Money Clinic led by FT’s brilliant Claer Barrett an award-winning finance journalist who specialises in personal finance. I’ve been following Claer’s super welcoming, straight-talking and easy-to-follow advice through FT weekend, and enjoying how she talks about money matters (including things you didn’t think you needed to know about!) in everyday language.

Claire has a super handy course aptly named ‘Sort Your Financial Life Out with Claer Barrett’: 6 modules over 6 weeks. Similarly to Oh Yeah, it’s self-paced and offered via email or PDF for a better learning experience.

Claer takes the approach in understanding our emotional relationship with money first, before doing any practical tasks, pausing and reflecting before making any big financial decisions. In short, noticing the emotional and physical triggers that could drive financial decision-making is the first step to a healthier, steadier relationship with money - and of course, facing the fear of it overall.

Having completed the course myself, I know it does what it says on the tin: learn how to make smarter money decisions and gain a firmer understanding. I especially like Claer’s homework tasks, again really simple to follow. For example, digging deep on your spending habits and reflecting on what value you get from each purchase. So get to know how to save better and make informed decisions. As Claer says, “…please don't feel embarrassed about how little you may know about money. As the title of my book, What They Don't Teach You About Money, attests, we are not taught about any of this stuff in school.”. As Claer says, “…please don't feel embarrassed about how little you may know about money. As the title of my book, What They Don't Teach You About Money, attests, we are not taught about any of this stuff in school. Even if you earn a lot of money or come from a wealthy background, this does not automatically make you brilliant at managing your cash.”

And at only £19, it’s an absolute steal. A no-brainer to sign up on.

Exploring freelancing as your next move will be a prime option for many, but again, moving away from a stable salary and being unsure of the finances = fear. Which is why Oh Yeah has welcomed the expertise of Priya Joi, who has supported so many in the freelance community, particularly writers. As a science journalist for the last twenty years, Priya has experienced it all - client demands, several breaking points and a lack of boundaries. Not only is Priya brilliant in sharing her methods in how to make more money through business savvy decisions, but also how to keep both integrity and personal care top of mind. Time management skills are imperative. Explore more of her wisdom and actionable tips in our Oh Yeah conversation.

In order to feel more confident about your next step, you do need to face your finances. I’m afraid there’s no magic bullet other than ‘just do it’. But I promise, you will feel awesome once you do complete this. Like some sort of Arthur drawing a sword out of a stone. I’m sure there’s a better analogy, but just roll with it.

So, go forth and start tackling. I promise you’ll feel proper proud for investing the time to do this early-doors.

The Oh Yeah Juice