I’m a professional with a Masters but earn less than I did in the 90s

Indu Khurana runs a psychotherapy business (Picture: Stephanie Belton)

Welcome back to Me and My Money, where we take a peek into the nation’s wallets and bank accounts.

This week we speak to Indu Khurana, 63, who left a career in IT after volunteering at Childline and now, after facing health battles and spending thousands on treatment, runs her own psychotherapy business.

What was your relationship with money like growing up?

My family moved from India to the Midlands when I was seven and my younger brother was five. In India we were reasonably well-off, but here we were not. My parents started afresh, my dad got a job as an accountant but my mum, who had been a teacher in India, had to get a job in a factory.

It was a big change in lifestyle, as I didn’t speak the language and we all lived in one room at first. Over the years my parents worked multiple jobs, but we were in relative poverty for a time and money was a cause of stress. I went without school trips and felt left out at school as a result and we didn’t have lots of clothes or luxuries.

Tell us about your early career

After studying Computer Studies at Birmingham Polytechnic, funded by a grant, I started working in IT. At first I lived at home in Birmingham, but I soon got job in Preston, Lancashire, with a salary of £12,500 and moved out.

It felt very good to have independence and I paid a portion of my salary to my parents to bolster their finances. When I was offered a new job in Buckinghamshire, in my late 20s, I bought a two-bed terraced house for £35,000, after borrowing the deposit from my parents.

I’d always been told it was important to get my foot on the property ladder, no matter what or where and when I look back, I can see the trajectory of how buying a house made a difference.

When did you realise you wanted to retrain?

Over the next few years I had a reasonable job but I didn’t enjoy IT. I was moving every 18 months or so to build up my CV and eventually ended up in London, which I didn’t enjoy because it felt like a rat race. Eventually I sold my house and bought another in Muswell Hill for around £80,000.

Alongside my day job at a local council, I started doing voluntary night shifts at Childline and quickly realised this was where I belonged. So many people think their ideal job will fall into their lap, but I had to work hard to get there and it didn’t happen overnight.

It was the 1990s, and I signed myself up to a course in counselling. For several years besides working and volunteering, I spent weekends studying to get through my five-year diploma, which I self-funded. When I finally left my IT role, in 1996, I was earning around £25,000.

Indu's money diary today:

Annual net income = Around £20,000

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage = £200

Council Tax = £240

Home Insurance = £300

Phone & Internet = £40

Energy = £110

Car insurance = £400

Groceries = £40-£50

Savings/sinking funds = £100

How did you break into psychotherapy?

After Childline and completing my training, I started by working in the charity sector, including the homelessness, domestic violence and forced marriage areas. It meant a significant drop in salary and I had to reassess my outgoings, tightening my belt.

I didn’t go out for meals very often and would sometimes go out for a drink on Friday night, or go to someone’s house. I kept my expenses as low as possible, often doing without, and my partner was a musician, so we did a lot of free things.

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In 2005 I started a Masters in Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents, and after completing in 2007 I took a job in the NHS, working instead with children and adolescent mental health. I moved to St Albans in 2009 and bought my house for just under £300,000.

What was it like starting your own business?

Four years ago, in 2022, I started my own practice. It has been very fulfilling and I have loved developing a business, but I do have to wear lots of hats. It can be pretty tough juggling all of it, but over these last six months business has picked up and now I’m financially comfortable, making around £20,000 a year.

I particularly focus on helping people with MS and other long-term auto-immune diseases, as I’ve gone through my own journey, and I want to help them thrive rather than simply survive.

How does it feel to be earning less than you did in the 1990s?

There are times when I yearn after the higher salary of a potential IT career. But that does not last long as I know I was not and would not have been happy. Those moments are brief and fleeting, without any effort to push them away from me. I still feel this is my niche – after 30 years – and so I just get on with it.

I guess now that I run my own business, there is potential to increase my earnings, whereas that potential is less likely in an employed capacity as someone else sets the salary limits and curtails my desires to grow in the way that I want. So, I continue with hope and the wish to support others in a way that feels aligned to my soul.

How did your health affect your career?

I worked freelance for about ten years in London, but it was hard. Alongside this, I had developed fatigue and was misdiagnosed with auto-immune condition Lupus in the early 2000s. I’d also lost and regained the vision in my left eye, while working at the council, but hadn’t connected that with the fatigue.

I needed to work flexibly to manage my health, but it was financially difficult to make ends meet and pay the mortgage and bills.

However, in 2017, I received a Multiple Sclerosis (MS) diagnosis. By now I’d been working for the NHS for nine years so financially I was secure and they were supportive overall.

Indu on the way to get MS treatment in Mexico (Picture: Supplied)

Why was spending £100,000 the best financial decision you ever made?

In 2022 after doing research, I went for HSCT treatment for MS, involving chemotherapy and stem-cell transplant to try and halt the progression of the disease, at a clinic in Mexico. The month-long treatment cost £60,000, and I gave myself three months off to recover. It was the best financial choice I’ve ever made in my life and cost around £100,000 overall.

It was a massive decision and took me two years to decide and raise the money, but it was the only treatment which made sense after being denied treatment both on the NHS and privately in the UK, becaue my symptoms didn’t quite meet the criteria.

I’d felt overwhelmed about how to raise the funds, and terrified about the huge amount, until one friend suggested extending my mortgage and another suggested crowd funding. By doing these things, using all my savings and having family help, I raised the money and I am forever indebted to so many people now. Treatment brought so many benefits, including eliminating brain fog, the knowledge that my disease is not progressing and the motivation and drive which enabled me to build a business helping others deal with long-term health conditions.

What are your monthly outgoings?

Each month I spend £200 on my mortgage and a further £240 on council tax. Home insurance costs £300, whilst my phone and internet comes to £40. Energy bills are £110 and I spend £400 on car insurance, whilst I spend around £40 to £50 on groceries. Then I put £100 into savings a month.

Save or splurge?

I live within my means.

What is your top financial tip?

Always get on the property ladder and I was always taught to have a ‘rainy day’ fund.

What is your overall outlook on money now?

Growing up without a lot of money has directly influenced my level of risk. I’m reasonably cautious with spending money, I don’t go wild with credit cards and rarely buy expensive things.

For a long time I felt lacking and had a negative, poverty mindset. After doing a lot of work on myself, I shifted to a positive, abundance mindset, which makes a massive difference. Two people with the same amount of money in their pockets and different mindsets, will look at life in a different way.

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