One of the core lessons I wanted to get across in this episode is The Motorway Problem. I’ve found in my own experience that we often panic when we see a supercar fly past us, but we don’t realize that driver might be running out of petrol while we have a full tank.

I also dive into the story of Marcus and Leo, which was a major turning point for me when I was moving away from my office role. Marcus had the £70k salary and the status symbols, but he had a “leaky bucket.” Leo, on £38k, had a “sealed bucket” and total peace of mind. You can read more about my background as Zulfiqar Ali here if you want to see the full timeline of how I built this.

The 2026 UK Savings Benchmarks:

• The 20s (The Launchpad): Median savings are often under £2,000. If you have one month’s rent saved, you’re ahead of 60% of your peers. Habit is more important than the amount here.
• The 30s (The Messy Middle): An expensive decade of kids and house deposits. Median savings are £5k–£7k. If you have £10k+ in liquid cash, you are in the top tier.
• The 40s (The Peak Years): Median savings jump to £12k–£15k. The real test here is Resilience: Can you survive 6 months without work?
• The 50s (The Home Stretch): The focus shifts to Accessibility. It’s not just about the pile of cash, but how much you can actually touch without penalties.

The Outlier Effect: If Elon Musk walks into a room of nine people with £0, the “average” person in that room is a billionairebut nine people still can’t afford a coffee. Stop chasing the average; check your own speedometer.