How First Time Parents can get on the Property Ladder (even when it feels impossible) with Financial Advisor | Hannah Wrixen

In this week's special episode, Charlie welcomes her FIRST EVER GUEST — Hannah, a financial advisor with 11 years of experience in the financial sector (9 years in specialist mortgage sector). Together, they unravel the often overwhelming world of finances for young couples, first-time parents, and single parents who dream of gaining financial stability and getting on the property ladder.

Hannah shares her journey from high street banking to becoming a mortgage broker after having her youngest, and opens up about her own experience buying a home as a single parent. This is real talk, no jargon — just practical advice for families who feel like homeownership is out of reach.

What You'll Learn

* Why mortgages aren't as scary as they seem (and where to start)

* Options if you haven't been able to save a deposit

* What shared ownership actually is and how it works

* The truth about 100% mortgages and why Hannah doesn't recommend them

* Practical budgeting tips for young families in survival mode

* How to meal plan and shop smarter to save money

* Teaching your children about saving from an early age

* What a Lifetime ISA is and how it can help you buy a home

Resources Mentioned

* Lifetime ISA (LISA)

* Skipton 100% Mortgage

* Shared Ownership Scheme

* Martin Lewis Money Saving Expert

Connect with Hannah

Email: hiwrixen@outlook.com 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannah_financial_coach/

Tik Tok: Hannah_financial_coach

Stay connected with Charlie

Website: https://stan.store/Charliesparentingpages (Mum Matters Community)

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/charliesparentingpages/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Charliesparentingpages

A new episode is released every Sunday!

Transcript

Charlie 0:26

Hannah, I'm really happy that you've joined us here today. For this whole exploration of the financial world for young families, because I think it's so hard when you are about to start family. You don't know where to turn. There's so much to think about when having the baby, let alone the financial situation as well. So you are a financial advisor of many years and many talents, and I'm so happy to be working with you. can you just tell us a bit about yourself, who you are, and what experience you've got in the financial world?

Hannah 0:58

Sure. So thanks for having me starters. so I'm Hannah. I've been in the financial sector for about 11 years now. I started off working in the High Street banks and then for some reason I really wanted to get into mortgages. I just found it really interesting. so I got into mortgages and then I was a mortgage underwriter for about eight years. Feeling about Wow. My

Charlie 1:21

gosh.

Hannah 1:23

And then, uh, before going on maternity leave with my youngest, I qualified to be a mortgage broker. then had a bit of a break, went on maternity leave and then got straight back into it. Really? 'cause it's just, I'm just really passionate about mortgages and, you know, people owning homes. I feel like it's such a big part of our lives.

Charlie 1:45

Yeah, absolutely.

Hannah 1:46

A home. And when you've got kids as well, it's kind of like, this is my goal to get a house because heaven forbid I die.

Charlie 1:56

Mm-hmm.

Hannah 1:57

They are gonna have this, like, they need to be set up for life. That's security. Yeah. You know? but also off the back of that, I feel like there's so much knowledge out there that people just dunno about is not taught in schools, for example. So, you know, I feel privileged because it's, it's my sector. So when I went through the whole process, I knew exactly what to do, what to say, where to go, who to approach, et cetera. for someone else who's, maybe just. Starting a family, like wants to start a family and wants to get a mortgage. It's just really confusing. there's, not

Charlie 2:33

much information. I think mortgages are quite daunting for people as well. people think that it's so far from what they can get, that a lot of people just switch off from it and think, well, how am I gonna get that kind of money? How am I gonna get on the property ladder? And then if you add a new baby to the mix and they're not already on the property ladder, it's like. Forget it. Yeah. And people just I think they just switch off. because, it's a massive lack of knowledge and it's quite interesting that you say it's not taught in schools. I think these like foundational things of life, business, mortgages, growing in life. Before your career and everything, other things outside of that are just so important that just literally aren't taught unless you choose to learn about those things. I'm hoping that today you can break that down for us a little bit for people that are starting a new family or on that journey or maybe thinking of starting a family of how they can prepare themselves financially.

Hannah 3:26

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I think it's, it sounds scary because it's such a big amount of money. so the first thing you know, especially young couples, the first thing I hear is, oh, I can't afford it. I can't afford it. I could never afford that. And it's, why do you think you can't afford it? let's talk about it. Let's sit down, let's go through your bank account, your savings, what, where you wanna live. 'cause that's also a big thing. I live in quite an expensive area, but then we are right next to an area that's much lower,

Charlie 4:00

not so expensive, right?

Hannah 4:01

So it it balance. Where you wanna go? so I think just the basics about mortgage, is that we've got, you wanna get on the property ladder, okay, let's start with your savings. Let's start to see how much money you've got. So I think it's really important for young people as soon as they get a job, 16, 18, whatever it is, to start putting money aside 50 pounds a week. A month, whatever it is. Yeah. so you can open savings account. It doesn't have to go through your parents or anything. once you're 16 and you can start saving and that's gonna be your deposit pot. Now obviously there's the cost of living crisis, everything's gone up. You're gonna need more than 5,000

Charlie 4:43

more than that to get start. Yeah. Yeah,

Hannah 4:45

exactly. it's a good starting

Charlie 4:47

point. It's a good starter.

Hannah 4:48

About

Charlie 4:49

the people that haven't been able to do that, the people that are just starting out with the family that haven't been able to do that. Are there options for people that haven't been able to save anything?

Hannah 4:59

Yeah, so if you haven't been able to save anything, you can always get a gift from a family member, for example, mom and dad, uncle or aunt. I think when it gets to like cousins, it's a little bit more complicated 'cause you have to prove where this money has come from. The thing is, you can't.

Charlie 5:17

Okay. So if, if you had like a deposit and it was like a gift from a family member that can go down as your deposit. Yeah.

Hannah 5:25

Yeah. So you don't have to personally save up yourself for a deposit. Okay. I did, I got a gift from my family, for example, 'cause I was a single parent. With one child, I had a good salary, but because I was the sole caretaker for my child

Charlie 5:41

Right.

Hannah 5:42

I couldn't afford to put money away because we just upload too many expenses. Yeah, absolutely. you can get a gift. and I think, as a parent also, I think when my eldest gets to that point where he wants to buy a house, if I didn't have money to give him through savings, then I would, for example, take out a loan.

Charlie 6:03

and gift it to him.

Hannah 6:04

Him, for example, and then he can go buy his house and do whatever he wants, and then I'll deal with that loan later.

Charlie 6:10

Finance that.

Hannah 6:11

So it doesn't ne it doesn't really matter where the parents get the money from. The bank just wants to see that that's where it's come from and that's where it's

Charlie 6:22

going to. what kind of percentage are first time buyers looking to have to save? Or like what kind of amount? obviously it depends where you live. but, an average deposit like for a house, what would that look like?

Hannah 6:34

Yeah, so that's, that's a great question. 'cause I get that a lot, to be honest, right? There's no, there's no magic number. So it is gonna be between five and 20%. Of what you are buying, okay?

Charlie 6:45

Of whatever you're buying. Okay?

Hannah 6:46

Whatever you're buying, you can get a hundred percent mortgages. So for example, Skipton Mortgage was the first to come out, two years ago with this solution. The only thing about those mortgages, which I don't like, is you have no equity. So if you buy a house and it's worth 300,000 and you've put no deposit down, and then in a week the house prices full, you are gonna be in negative equity immediately.

Charlie 7:15

Wow.

Hannah 7:16

yeah. So yeah, so just negative equity just means like you, your house was worth 300. Now it's worth two 50. So if you wanna sell it, you sell it at two 50, you have to pay the bank back 50,000 pounds. On top of whiteboard. Yes. It's

Charlie 7:30

probably not the best option.

Hannah 7:33

It's not the best option. but then for example, you could look into shared ownership,

Charlie 7:38

right?

Hannah 7:38

Which,

Charlie 7:38

yeah, that's something else that I think a lot of young people. Do these days to get themselves on. Yeah. Could you tell us a bit more about that? Yeah.

Hannah 7:46

I did shared ownership, for example, with my first property. so it's to help, young people or people with low incomes, or in my situation, I was the sole parent, so I only had one income. and it's to help you get onto the property ladder. So to qualify you can't earn more than 80,000 pounds a year. So there are a set of rules with what, what you do. and you just buy a percentage so you can buy, I think the minimum is about 25% right. Of the full asking price. okay. Just a bit of math. My flat was worth 360,000 pounds and I bought it for 126 I think it was.

Charlie 8:26

Okay.

Hannah 8:26

so it's a much lower price

Charlie 8:29

Yeah.

Hannah 8:30

To buy

Charlie 8:30

so much more. And then can you end up owning the whole thing?

Hannah 8:34

So then you can gradually buy a bit more. So in a year's time you're like, oh, we've got a bit of money aside. How much is the property worth? You get it assessed and then you can buy a bit more. You don't have to buy all of it, you can just buy another 5%, another 10%, et cetera.

Charlie 8:48

Right?

Hannah 8:48

And then the flip side, you have rent to pay on the side that you don't own.

Charlie 8:54

Okay.

Hannah 8:54

So there's a lot of negative comments about this, but it's basically, I pay the mortgage, which is a low amount. Okay? So mine was like 300 pounds at the time. So it's 300 pounds and then you pay us, uh, rent. But your rent is a small rent. It's not like the rent you would see on Right Move. If I Google now on right, move three bedroom house, it's gonna come up to be like 2000 pounds, right? You're not gonna pay 2000 pounds, you're gonna pay something really low. So

Charlie 9:20

a

Hannah 9:21

percentage

Charlie 9:21

of whatever.

Hannah 9:22

Yeah, mine was about 500 pounds if that.

Charlie 9:25

Fine. So it evens itself out.

Hannah 9:28

Yeah.

Charlie 9:29

So it's not gonna be the sort of extortion, but it's just having those options, isn't it? If you don't, if you're not able to just have that deposit sitting there, put 10% down on a property, whatever, and get a property, it's just about having those options and educating first time parents, young couples that they, it is possible. To get on the property ladder. So other than the mortgage side of it, the savings side, is there anything else that you would, from a financial perspective, advise young couples starting a family to help them sort of budget so that life is just that little bit easier financially.

Hannah 10:08

Yeah, I think, life's hard. It's, yeah, life is very hard. so I feel like when it comes to budgeting and saving, I feel as a young couple, you have to go in survival mode, right? When you have such a big goal of buying a house or a car, whatever it is you're looking to do, you need to go into survival mode. So what does that mean? Pay your bills. Pay your rent as a priority and then if you've got kids, you're gonna have childcare costs. look into what government schemes you can get universal credits and all that stuff. I know you talked about that. I can help you with

Charlie 10:41

that.

Hannah 10:42

Yeah, exactly. Like your page is really good for that because it's you can claim this, you can claim that there's so many things you said and I was like, I didn't get that. I didn't know I could have got that.

Charlie 10:51

I didn't get half of it because I didn't time when I was first time off.

Hannah 10:55

I know I can't claim it back now. It's too late. It's 10 years too late. So definitely like I recommend checking out your videos because they're really good with all those tips. The tips, yeah, no, definitely. And then, so yeah, go into survival mode. Pay what you need to pay and the rest of it, the rest of your money that you've got left. Let's say it's 300 pounds, shop smart, meaning. Go to little Aldi, go to these shops where it costs less Yeah. To get what you want. Like you need to, or, or even shop around if Sainsbury's is doing a deal. But actually it's cheaper at Tesco's. I know it's a faf and people will be like, oh, the petrol. But at the end of the day, you're gonna put petrol in the car anyway

Charlie 11:36

regardless.

Hannah 11:37

Yeah. So shop around, with your food shopping, for example. and cut back on your spending in the sense. I wanna go out for a cup of coffee. How much is that gonna cost me? That's gonna be four pounds for a cup of coffee. If I went to the supermarket, I could buy a packet of coffee pods. For about 3 75, so

Charlie 11:58

yeah, and I think also like having that budget of how much you wanna spend on shopping for the week so that when you do go shopping Yeah. Even if something might be on offer that you wouldn't normally get and it's not within your budget, then maybe you can't get it that week and just,

Hannah 12:11

yeah.

Charlie 12:11

re what I think you are trying to say is be really strict with yourself to get to that. Yeah. Isn't it?

Hannah 12:18

Yeah. And meal prep, do you like plan out your meals? Sorry, for example, like we've started doing this now 'cause we're spending like a fortune on food shop. It's absolutely ridiculous.

Charlie 12:29

Yeah.

Hannah 12:29

so some of the changes I've done, for example, is I, I shop online now. I do my food shop online because I can see the basket. Yeah. It's there. It's like you've spent 140 per, it's too expensive. what do we not actually need that I've just put in? I fan it. Yeah. so that's definitely helped. So now we are spending like 120 for a family of four, which I think is relatively okay.

Charlie 12:51

Yeah.

Hannah 12:52

and then, yeah, we plan out the meals. So like we're gonna have spaghetti bolognese, we're gonna have pasta or chicken, what to buy instead of just dumping everything in,

Charlie 13:00

I think. Yeah. And also I think there's another point 'cause we do that too. And I also, will. Cook two meals at the beginning of the week. So that, but that's also part of the planning because what I think you achieve by planning meals is you know what you're doing so that your life is easier.

Hannah 13:17

Yeah.

Charlie 13:17

you're planning and planning ahead. Also, when I think you don't know what you're cooking, you just rush out to the shop, grab whatever you can think of at that moment because you're in a rush and you actually end up spending a lot more on food during the week when you are shopping in that way. So I think that is a massive. Tip.

Hannah 13:34

Yeah. Budgeting

Charlie 13:35

and

Hannah 13:35

one, once you do it a couple of weeks, then it's just in automatic. 'cause you know when you've got kids, they eat the same thing over and over again. Yeah, it's true. Like my youngest is in this phase where he only eats pasta, scrambled eggs, fish fingers. That's pretty much it. Pretty much it. This space, I think we've all

Charlie 13:55

been there. Yeah.

Hannah 13:56

Yeah. We've got like blend vegetables in the pasta sauce and all that stuff. Again, because he's in that phase. So once you do it for, the first two, three weeks, then you know what you're gonna get. you need this many packets of chicken and beef or whatever it is Yeah. That you're gonna get. So it becomes easier. It's not, it, it might be a bit of a shock to begin with. Or a bit time consuming, let's say, to begin with. Yeah. But once you've done it, you know you'll survive. You'll get through it.

Charlie 14:22

Yeah, I think so. And I think if the goal is so big to budget for something bigger, like buying a house or saving for something for your family, maybe you are somebody that doesn't want to necessarily buy a house right now, but you do wanna have savings for your family or, or

Hannah 14:34

save

Charlie 14:35

for your kids' school fees as they get older. You like whatever it is. But I think budgeting from the beginning. Yeah. And having that plan, it's all about having a plan, yeah, a plan, whether it's a financial plan or a meal plan. it just makes life so much easier and you know where you're at. And I think a lot of outgoings are quite predictable, each month. Yeah. So the petrol that you spend, you probably would spend the same each month. and the mortgage, the rent, the bills, the shopping can fluctuate at different times of the year. But if you are saving a little bit as well, you can make allowances for those like times of the year where you might have a kid's birthday party or something like that. Yeah. And just try and be strict with yourself. Budget.

Hannah 15:15

Yeah. And it's also about visibility. So write it down. I've got a notebook. Every month I've got, I mean I can see it on my apps anyway, open your banking apps, you can see it. But I've got a notebook and there's all my bills written down. Everything. Yeah. And even I know how much my mortgage is, 'cause it's the same every month, but it's written down.

Charlie 15:33

Yeah.

Hannah 15:34

You write everything down and then you can see, okay, well actually I've got Netflix and I've got Amazon Prime, whatever it is you watch for example, do we actually need both of these? For example, do we need to cut back? Now, obviously canceling your Netflix isn't gonna get you a mortgage, it's five pounds a month, whatever it is. But it's these small things like we've, me and my partner have four. Insurances. So I think we've both got life insurance, then we've got the mortgage insurance, and I think we've got health insurance, like we've got all these different insurances and it's gonna get to a point where we do actually need to sit down and think, we're spending. 150 pound a month on insurance, let's actually go through and see what we need. So I think everyone needs to do it, whether you are looking to buy a house or you're starting a family, or you're just single by yourself.

Charlie 16:26

Yeah. Yeah. No, I think the visibility is good as well. I think I, I write all my bills down as well with the dates that they're coming out. Yeah, just so I can tick it off through the month as well, so I know that things have been paid. It's a really nice feeling. Yeah. just to note, and going back to the meal thing as well. Planning for budgeting your food, even having a meal rotor. So week one you're, you are cooking these meals, week two you're cooking these meals and week three so you know what your kids like. And you can actually financially plan for that too. 'cause you pretty much will know how much that costs. Exactly. So moving forward from Starting a young family to having children, what kind of like savings education can we give to our kids from the beginning to make sure that they start, because so many kids are born into families where they're not financially educated. yeah. And I think it's something that is quite easy to teach from the beginning. If you know how, so

Hannah 17:21

if

Charlie 17:21

you teach us,

Hannah 17:22

definitely. Yeah. I think, when it comes to money and children, it's really hard. 'cause, life's different now. Like when I was younger, I didn't get pocket money. I just would have to wait until my birthday or Christmas. And not because we were poor, like we were a, middle class family. Like we, we had a comfortable life. But it just. It wasn't a thing. It wasn't a

Charlie 17:44

thing.

Hannah 17:45

yeah. Now, my son, my eldest comes home from school every day. He is oh, can you get this off Amazon? Can you buy this? Oh, same. They no

Charlie 17:52

sense.

Hannah 17:53

it is yeah. money grows on trees. Here you go. Yeah, you want some more. My 9-year-old

Charlie 17:56

does that.

Hannah 17:57

Yeah. It's oh my gosh,

Charlie 17:59

you just, can you just get me this? Can you just get me that?

Hannah 18:02

Oh, it's only 10, it's only 15. It's only this. Yeah. so I think it's good to teach them, how to save from an early age. if you give them five pounds a week or a month, whatever you've got, tell them. To save three pounds and they can spend two pounds and whatever, let them spend it on whatever they want. let them have that joy

Charlie 18:23

of

Hannah 18:23

spending something because, ultimately when you buy something, you buy it to feel good. It's like when you go to the gym, you work out to feel good. So let them buy whatever it is, sweets, candy, and then the three pounds that they've saved. Put it away, but put it where they can see it,

Charlie 18:38

because

18:39

they're

Charlie 18:39

not gonna They know.

Hannah 18:40

So then it's oh, it's been four months. I've got 12 pounds. Wow. What can I buy with 12 pounds? Give them some satisfaction, not just, here's some money, but we're putting it away. And then they don't see it because then they just think, oh, it's not fair. That's

Charlie 18:53

very interesting. Yeah. That's really interesting. Yeah,

Hannah 18:56

I think that's a good way of doing it. And then you can take that into adulthood. So if we look at Christmas is coming up now, everyone's I need to buy Christmas presents. So if you put 50 pounds away a month for 12 months when it gets to Christmas time, I say 50 pounds, it could be 10. It depends how much you earn, right?

Charlie 19:16

yeah.

Hannah 19:16

So let's put 50 pounds away a month. Then you get to Christmas and you're like, oh, cool, I've got some spare cash, which I haven't really noticed because it's, it's a tiny fraction come. and now I can spend that so I don't have to waste any of my salary. To buy presents.

Charlie 19:33

Yeah.

Hannah 19:33

You see what I mean?

Charlie 19:34

It's that satisfaction, isn't it? Yeah.

Hannah 19:36

Yeah. So it's all about like mindset. And then, a good thing you can get as a young family is a LSA account. Okay. Which is a lifetime isr basically that's what it's called. So the ISRs are saving accounts where it is tax free.

Charlie 19:52

Yeah,

Hannah 19:53

so it used to be 20,000 pounds you could put away a year. I believe it's now gone down. it will be going down in April to about. I wanna say 5,000. They're like, they're really cutting it down. Wow.

Charlie 20:06

From

Hannah 20:06

20

Charlie 20:06

to 5,000. My goodness.

Hannah 20:08

Wow. Yeah. I believe it's five. Could be 12. Can't remember. I'd need to check, but it's going down. But for example, if you open it now before April, you can still put that 20,000 in. But basically this account is really good. I've seen it so many times in banks where you put in an amount, I think it's about 200, 200 to 400 pounds a month. You can put in. Okay. And then, the government at the end of the year will give you 25% bonus each year on it. Wow. So whatever you put in on, whatever balance you

Charlie 20:39

have,

Hannah 20:40

whatever balance you have. So I think the max they will give you is a thousand pounds.

Charlie 20:44

Right.

Hannah 20:44

cause it's capped to that 20,000 except Right. However much you put in. Yeah. so you can get up to a thousand pounds free money in interest. Nice. and then this account, you can use it to buy a house. Or for your, when you retire, basically. Wow. So those are the only times you can dip into this account. So if you are looking to just save for Christmas, for example, this isn't the account, it's not

Charlie 21:11

Right.

Hannah 21:11

It's

Charlie 21:12

not anything for you.

Hannah 21:12

Okay. You can just, it's an interesting

Charlie 21:14

thing.

Hannah 21:15

Yeah. it's really good. They used to have the help to buy isa, which is what I had. I've heard

Charlie 21:20

of that. Yeah, I've heard that.

Hannah 21:22

They've canceled it now. So that was like, you pay 200 pounds a month and then at the end we'll give you, 25% bonus when you're ready to buy a house. but that one's closed. But this one is, it's really good. You have to be, you have to open it before your 40th birthday

Charlie 21:36

Okay.

Hannah 21:36

To be able to qualify. and then, yeah, it's open and you've got a high interest rate on it. 'cause it's always a little bit higher. Amazing. That's. That's a good account. if you're looking to save up for a deposit, for example, that would be good. And then if you don't use it, you can just have it for your retirement, which is

Charlie 21:52

that's fantastic. That's a really good initiative like young families starting and wanting to save. that's incredible. So I think you've really given us some really. Good information here for people that are just starting out that may feel like life is financially really difficult. And yes, it is. It really is hard. And you did say that like life is hard. but you mentioned just before that it is all about mindset, about having the right mindset. That's for you as your family. You start out. Budgeting finances and for your kids as well. just teaching your kids that mindset that okay, we don't have to save everything, but if you save some and you spend some so that you are actually, and they will carry that on. If it's that mindset that they've done forever. That's how they will definitely grow up to, to be as they become adults. They'll save some and they'll spend some. I think it's really important financial lessons. Yeah, and of course Hannah's available as well, for further financial advice. She's absolutely amazing. I work really closely with her and I will put all of her details, in the description so that you can get in touch with her if you do want a consultation, for more financial advice. Is there anything you wanna say before we

Hannah 23:05

finish? No, I think, yeah, I'm here if if anyone needs some help. I think it's, we need to talk more about money. I think, even like on the TV they show Martin Lewis who comes out with his topic on a weekly basis. just start watching things like that, read a bit more online, just yeah. Inform yourself more. 'cause it is, it's not as scary as it sounds.

Charlie 23:30

Yeah.

Hannah 23:31

Once you know things, you can, you can change your life around. So, yeah. I'm here to help. If anyone wants,

Charlie 23:37

that's what we're looking to do. We're looking to help young people change their lives around so that it's not so scary.

Hannah 23:41

yeah.

Charlie 23:42

And that you can achieve the things that you want to. so if you are. Sitting there listening to this thinking that you just can't achieve all these financial things. We're telling you that you can and we're here to help.

Hannah 23:53

Yeah. Yeah. There's always a solution. That's what I say to people. They're like, there's always a solution to. Whatever problems you've got, we just need to figure it out. talk about it, talk to your parents about it. just speak about and you'll get through things. But yeah,

Charlie 24:06

lovely. And Hannah's gonna stay with me on different topics as well. We're gonna be coming back with other topics around the financial world to try and help

Hannah 24:13

talk about so much. Yeah.

Charlie 24:14

Thank you so much for coming.

Hannah 24:17

Brilliant. Thanks for having me.