Why we started.
Look around online and most personal finance content comes from people earning twice what you earn. Property gurus on six figures telling you how easy it is. Influencers with sponsorship deals and audiences they've spent years building. The advice might be fine, but the starting line isn't the same as yours.
We started this because we couldn't find people like us. Two average earners, in our first house, working it out as we go. So we decided to be those people.
Before the portfolio.
We had subscriptions we'd forgotten about, no real budget, and savings that weren't going anywhere. We knew roughly what we owed.
It took a few months to sort out. A proper budget, an emergency fund, the bills we'd been paying on autopilot for years. We made the dreaded phone calls to renegotiate insurance and broadband. Most of them came down. Companies do want to keep you, so always seek the best deal. It surprised us how much came off.
The Build Up is everything we did to get there. Eleven modules, eleven worksheets, and the TIC Tracker to keep it running. Not ready to invest yet? Start there.
Then came the portfolio.
We knew nothing about investing. We'd read the odd article, watched a few videos, and still had no idea where to actually start or whether we'd get it wrong.
In February 2023 we opened a Trading 212 Stocks & Shares ISA with £1,000 and started paying in monthly. We learned quickly that picking individual stocks is harder than it looks online, and shifted into index funds, which suited us better.
Eight months later the portfolio had built to £8,557. The most we'd ever managed to save in such a short space of time. Part contributions, part market growth.
But in October we had to sell it all. Our landlord couldn't afford to keep the house he was renting to us, so we were asked to leave. We put it toward a house of our own. It took every penny we had. We moved in December 2023.
We started rebuilding in January 2024 and continued paying in monthly contributions up to early 2026. Then a redundancy and a new baby, six weeks apart. We sold again, kept cash back for the months ahead, and started again in April. Honest verdict: we sold more than we needed to. The portfolio sits at £11,227 today.
You can build something real on an ordinary salary. You can stop and start when life forces you to.
What we're not.
We're not financial advisors. We're not authorised by the FCA. We don't know your tax position, your debts, your goals, or your appetite for risk. Nothing on this site is financial advice. It's educational. It's our story. The decisions are yours.
If your situation is complicated, talk to a regulated advisor.