Building financial independence often starts with earning more, and learning how to negotiate your salary.

In this episode of The Wallet, Emilie Bellet speaks with Nicole Michler, founder of Phase 20, a career strategy and negotiation platform that helps women navigate competitive corporate environments.

Nicole shares how she went from earning around £27,000 a year to building financial independence, and explains how salary negotiation, career strategy, and mindset shifts can help women ask for a pay rise and grow their income over time.

I recently asked for a pay rise - having been on a junior wage for a year and achieving a lot such as winning clients, leading projects etc. I was told I had no capacity and company was not 'money driven' in that sense.

We’ve all heard the term, but its subtleties are less well known. It doesn’t in fact mean that women doing identical jobs to men are always paid less (although sometimes that’s true, for sure) – it’s more about the overall picture in which women as a population are paid less than the male sector.

You’ve got to negotiate to accumulate