She's On The Money - 5 Finance Books That Will Change Your Life

Episode Date: June 21, 2022

On this episode Victoria shares 5 finance books that will change your life! She breaks down their philosophies, tips and different approaches to money and mindset in this special SOTM Book Club episode.You can preorder Victoria's new book here!Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements.The advice shared on She’s on The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She’s on The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are Authorised Representatives of Infocus Securities Australia Proprietary Limited ABN 47 097 797 049 AFSL - AFSL 236523.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, my name is Natasha Nabanunga-Bamblett. I'm a proud Yorta Yorta, Kernai, Wolperi and Awadjeri woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on Awadjeri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. She's on the money. She's on the money.

Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. And to read a lot of books, Josh. Exactly right. My name is Georgia King and joining me as she always does is Victoria Devine. It's book day. It's book day. It's book day.

So remember that time that I was like, let's start book club and then maybe on the end of Friday drinks, I'll tell you about a book that I really want to share with you. Do you know what we're doing now? We're just doing book episodes and this is five finance books that Victoria Devine believes will change your entire life. I have long wanted to do an entire She's on the Money book club. This is like, is this a soft launch? Hard launch? Maybe. Hard launch. Hard launch of book club. So it's kind of like the best type of book club as well. It's the book club where you don't have to read the book. Like you turn up to book club, you get the wine, you get to have the cheese. I'll

just tell you what happened in the book. You get to socialize and then you go home a little bit smarter. That is ideal, isn't it? That's the type of book club I really want to be involved in. because, like, I always used to want to be involved in book club and then I realised you had to read the book by the set period of time and that was never going to happen for me. So basically you're selling me these books, which is a hard sell because, you know, me, don't love finance. I'm kidding, I love it.

She's on the money. You like learning about it, I feel. Yeah. Because, like, once you get it, you're like, oh, my God, I love this. And I'm like, I've been telling you you love this for a really long time, but it just takes a little bit. It's true. It's true.

So are there different categories of books that we're speaking about today. These are very eclectic. None of these are sponsored posts because most of the people are either dead or they're overseas. So I've never met them. They're just genuinely my number ones. Also, there's a book. It's the number one that I'm going to recommend again and again and again. It comes up every time you ask me about books. I have already done a book club on it, so I'm going to gloss over it, but I'm also going to talk about it again because if we're talking about five books that could change your life, like it has to be in there. Absolutely. So do Do you want to know? Let's start with number one. Do you have a wine? No, it's too early for a wine.

It's Wednesday. I've got a lightly sparkling spring water to hydrate my senses. Thank you, Woolworths. Yeah, nice, nice. We are not buying brand name water. Are you ready for book number one, Georgia King? Let's go. All right. So book number one is going to be absolutely no surprise to She's On The Money community members. It is The Richest Man In Babylon. It is by a guy called George S. Classen, and it was written, George, in 1926. A long time ago, almost 100 years. The driest finance book you will read ever. Amazing. Nobody actually wants to pick this up. And even if you Google it, you're like, they didn't even try to try and convince me with the cover. It looks bland. It looks like,

you know when you had to read Animal Farm by George Orwell? I loved Animal Farm. Yeah, but the cover, nothing to write home about. Wasn't it? You Googling it right now? I'm Googling. I'm live Googling. Okay, I see what they've done there. There's a lion walking up some, looks like a ramp. No, that's the fancier version. Mine's just yellow and red and it's very boring.

All right, it's done. But it is the book that everybody comes back to because it is the first ever finance book, from my understanding, please correct me if I'm wrong, but do it in my DM so it's not so public. But it is the first book on money mindset. It is the first book that really compares and contrasts rich mindset and, you know, daily grind mindset. It is all about putting you in the best possible position

by teaching you the value of compound interest. And from my perspective, this book is powerful because it's the first one that does that. And it goes back to like Babylonian times where it's like, okay, cool. Like let's go back to Babylonian times and actually talk about what it means to invest. And they're not talking about investing in shares. They're actually talking about investing in themselves and putting some money away for rainy days. And, you know, if you're going to buy a diamond, George, would you get advice from a bricklayer to do that? Or would you go to somebody who specializes in gems? It's really about mindset and getting the right advice. All right, V, I'm loving your passion. Oh, I am so passionate. I've read this book so many times and it's so dry and

it doesn't get easier, but it's just good. Okay. So I'll read it for you. Yeah, perfect. Let's like condense it down though. In three sentences, this book tells us what? It tells us so much more. I need more than three sentences. But first thing that you might learn from this book is that it wants you to save at least 10% of everything that you earn, and it doesn't want you to confuse your necessary expenses with your desires. Does that sound familiar? Yes, it does. The second sentence I would use is, it tells you to work hard to improve your skills to ensure a future income because wealth is a result of reliable income stream production. Interesting. And then the third lesson I would say here is that you cannot arrive at the fullest measure

of success unless you crush the spirit of procrastination within you. I love that. I have not achieved that. I have not. A lot of us haven't. I'm going to not do that one. You need to crush the spirit of procrastination, V. See, it's written in that tone of voice as well.

So it's just like the driest thing. You know how sometimes you read a book and you'll be like, I need to read that sentence again. That's this book. One of those. Sounds like a pillar. V, give us the seven simple rules of money. I remember we spoke about this in our Friday Drinks episode.

Let's go over them again. Yes, we have. So there's seven simple rules. So number one, Georgia, is start thy purse to fattening. Sure. So start saving money. Fat wallet. We love it.

Fat wallet equals good, according to this book. Number two is control thy expenses. So don't spend more than you need to. Number three is make thy gold multiply and invest wisely. Number four is guard thy treasures from loss. So avoid investments that sound too good to be true. I feel like this is all so important and I say it's such a pivotal finance book because even though it was written in 1926 it's just all valid today like how many times have you seen people get

swept up with multi-level marketing yeah because they're like this sounds so great I'm gonna get so rich oh my god I'm gonna be side hustle no you're not sit down sir so number five is make thy dwelling a profitable investment and own your own home so that uh maybe not yeah that's very in 1926. Like, guys, didn't you hear that we're spending all our money on avocado now? Like, okay, move on. But also you could like rent out your house on Airbnb. So maybe like we can switch that one out. Number six, ensure future income. So protect yourself with life insurance. So obviously in 1926, they weren't talking about life insurance in the same way we are, but obviously very important. And then number seven is improve thy ability to earn. So strive to become wiser

and more knowledgeable, and that will thus increase your income. Kind of cool, right? incredibly good tips. I think so. Nice contribution from me. They've stood the test of time. They have. And that's why I always go back to it when people are like, I really want to learn about money. I'm like, okay, I know this is such a bland recommendation and that's why I've spoken about it so much on the podcast. So hopefully you can like learn some things and maybe like follow along in the book. Maybe have a listen to it in the car, like an audio book might be easier. I can't imagine how dry that audio book would be. They need a fun presenter. I'm going to get it. I'm going to do an audio book. No, I would not. It was too hard to record my own.

Yeah, okay. Now. So we love like the longevity of his tips here, V, but why is this book so groundbreaking? Because he was a mad dog. So George, Georgie boy, mad dog. So he was an American. He's an American author that was born in 1874. And this is obviously his best known book because it's the only one that we are putting on this list. He actually had two companies of which were called the Claston Map Company, which was the first to publish a road atlas in the US and in Canada. And then this book, The Richest Man in Babylon, actually came from him writing a series of

informational pamphlets about being thrifty and how to achieve financial success. And then it became a book. Kind of cool. Ah, there you go. It's like how the podcast became a book when she's on the money. It all ties together. Call me Claston. I love it. But he started writing pamphlets in 1926 and then use parables that were set in ancient Babylon to kind of teach people. And then this all rolled into The Richest Man in Babylon, which is called The Richest Man in Babylon, The Success Secrets of the Ancients. And then he's the guy who has been credited to coining the phrase, pay yourself first. Kind of cool, right? Wow. There you go. Good recap of The Richest Man in Babylon.

Yeah. Shall we move on to Rich Dad, Poor Dad? Oh, you're just blowing it out of the water. All right. Well, that is book number two for any of those who wanted any type of weight. But yes, we're going to talk about Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. And that was written in 1997. You were alive then, weren't you? Yeah, you were only small. I was three. I was six. Okay. You're three years older than me. We could have been such good little friends. Yeah, we would have been little angels. We wouldn't have.

Oh, okay. Shut that down. I was like that older annoying cousin, I reckon. Yeah, that was me. And so it goes on. This book has been very popular in our community. It is a book that so many people recommend. We've had a few threads in our Facebook group historically where people have been like, recommend your favorite finance books. And this one often comes up as number one for very good reason. Tell me in three sentences why. I feel like this three sentence thing is what you're really attached to, isn't it? Yeah, I am. So Rich Dad, Poor Dad is about Robert Kiyosaki and his two dads. So his actual real father, he's what he calls in the book, poor dad, and the father of his best friend, who is known as rich dad. And the entire book is about the

ways both of these men have shaped his mindset around money and investing and life and how they approach different circumstances. And it really compares and contrasts like rich spending versus poor spending. So you've probably seen me talk historically about, you know, obviously we go back to George's book and call it Pay Yourself First, but paying yourself first and investing and saving before spending the leftover, whereas poor spending is really about spending and then saving and investing what's left over. So it's about kind of flipping those mentalities and what one works better. And I think that it's obvious we all want to create wealth and we all say pay yourself first and invest first, because if you allocate it first, it's going to be the priority

That makes sense. And that's what this book is about. So it's really about the ways that both of these men interacted. And then Robert's kind of like this third party to the conversation where he kind of interprets what that means and compares the dads against themselves. There's a few things in it that I don't love because I obviously don't love comparing and contrasting. And there's obviously a lot of privilege that comes from wealth that I don't think gets acknowledged in this book. But I do think it is quite powerful when it comes to mindset. And you'll probably noticed that when I talk about money and talk about investing, I'm not here going, read this investing for beginners guide. We'll get to that. But I'm not telling you to read that book

because I actually really want to set your mindset up properly before we get into investing. Because what's the point in getting you to invest if you don't see the point? And what's the point in getting you to invest if you don't have the right framework and structure and mindset around it? that second sentence because like this that was the first one the second one is that you don't need a high income to become rich which is pivotal in the she's on the money community like we're not actually trying to get rich here we're actually trying to create wealth but to create wealth we actually don't need a high income it's really about what you are spending not about what you are earning I've said this a million times like somebody who is earning less but investing a fair

bit, is going to end up long-term in a better position than someone who has a ridiculously high income and is living their best life and blowing it all. Yeah. The third sentence that I would say summarizes this book is that rich people make their money work for them. And I say this all the time, make your money work as hard as you do for it. So it's not just sitting in a bank account waiting for you to spend it one day. It's out earning something.

every dollar in your account needs to have a job and that is you know one of the other pivotal things in that book that I think is really important like where is that dollar going to work George it might actually be going to work in a emergency fund in which case its job is to sit there and wait for it to be spent on a rainy day but if it's an income generating dollar that's coming what is that going to do how is it going to work for you and I think that those those are my three very long sentences from that book. When he talks about rich dad, in She's on the Money language, would we call that wealthy dad?

I would. Because, you know, rich is like the image of wealth, whereas wealth is actual financial freedom, would you say? You are. You are on the money, Georgia King. Thank you so much. But, yeah, I do steer away from using words like rich because I think rich is very, it's the Chanel bag.

Like it's the visual markers of money that don't necessarily mean you are in a better financial position. It's, you know, I would like to think that influencers, I would love to think that all my influencer clients are actually wealthy, but like it's kind of seeing influencers where Dior and Prada and all of these fancy brands all the time, it's rich. It's just stuff. Like it's not actually putting them in a better position. I think underlyingly, everybody needs to be working towards wealth, not richness, because

it's actually, wealth is hidden. It shouldn't be private, but it's definitely hidden and you just don't see it. Like George, you walk down the street and I've got no idea what's in your savings account. I've got no idea what you're investing in. And that's cool. But like you walk down the street with a Chanel bag and everyone knows you're carrying 10 grand, like that's not putting you in a better financial position. So I think wealth is all about future you and rich is all about today you and their actual needs. And that's not nearly as sexy. 100%. The five big ideas from Robert Kiyosaki's book. Lay them on me. Number one, the poor and the middle class work for money. The rich have money at work for them. Number two is it's not how much money you make that matters. It's

how much you get to keep. Number three, rich people acquire assets. The poor and middle class acquire liabilities that they think are assets. Burn. Yeah. That's a bit of a savage point, isn't it? Number four, financial aptitude is what you do with money once you make it, how you keep people from taking it from you, how to keep it longer and how to make money work harder for you. So you're kind of getting the vibe of what this book is all about with this fourth point, which is basically the same as the first three. And then number five is the single most powerful asset we all have is our minds. So true. Kind of cool. So this is very much like a mindset book and understanding how we relate to money. You're probably not surprised that that's

the case but yes what are some of the key vibes in the book that are knocked your socks off my favorite one is so I'm all about like behavioral investment and like emotional investment I talk about this a lot and the first one is that quote people's lives are forever controlled by two emotions fear and greed the next thing that I really liked was quote so many people say oh I'm not interested in money yet they'll work a job for eight hours a day that kicks you in the shins a little bit. You're like, yeah, I don't care about money. Okay, well, why are you going to earn it then? Yeah. The next one is an asset puts money in your pocket. A liability takes money out of your pocket. Makes sense. And then the last one that I thought was pretty powerful is once you

understand the difference between assets and liabilities, concentrate your efforts on buying income generating assets. Nice. I wrote she's on the money and that's just basically like, here's how to do your banking. Here's how to set all of this up. And like, I basically just borrowed all of these people's hot tips and put them in one book. Genius. And we will get to that. Vy, do you want to give us an example of an asset and a liability? Yeah, sexy. We spoke about this the other week when we were talking about financial reporting and we were talking about profit and loss.

But essentially, an asset is something that's going to do one of two things for you. It's either going to be able to be sold for money or it is going to be able to generate you an income. So that could be like an investment property. It could be a share. It could be money in your bank account. It could be something that's helping you. Whereas a liability is something that's going to cost you money.

You could think, and earlier we said, you know, poor people get confused and think that liabilities are actually assets. A car loan where they're like, oh, but I get the car. Well, no, it actually decreases in value over time and you're not actually getting that much out of it. You're actually ending up in a worse off position. And that's one of the things that grinds my gears when people are like, yeah, but I'll own the car outright. And I'm like, yeah, after how much money is poured into it, okay, sir. It's being confused about wealth assets as well. So spending money on things that you can't get back. Another thing would be like credit card debt. So they'll be like, oh, just pay it off later. And it's kind of like, no, that's actually a massive liability

putting you further behind on the wealth creation journey. So a liability is something that puts you in debt or keeps you in debt and asset is something that creates income for you. Perfect. Cool. Before we move on to our next book fee, which I won't spoil, can you tell us a little bit about Mr. Robert Kiyosaki? I can. I feel like his name has gotten a pretty bad rap recently because there have been a number of like, what would you call them? Like workshops and things that are run under his name. So it's like rich dad, poor dad workshops around the world have kind of taken off and they actually have nothing to do with him. Really? Yeah. They're like investing scheme things. So you've got to

be really careful. Like the book is good, but the workshops not so good. They'll like take you along and like sell you an investment dream and tell you all the principles of this book and how great it is. And then they'll be like, but you need to invest, Georgia. It's $20,000 upfront. Sign here on the dog line and it's actually terrifying. So don't do that. But to tell you a little bit about Robert himself, he's an entrepreneur and an investor and author who teaches financial literacy, what a guy, and independence through books, videos, and seminars. So he started off being very good. He is a Hawaiian. He was born in 1947 and went into the military. He actually also served in Vietnam, which is very powerful. And then in 1977, he started a company that brought

to market the first nylon and velcro surfers wallets. I love velcro wallets. Do you? Do you still have one? I used to have a Roxy one and it was like white with red edging. Very cool girl. But like, do you remember the fabric that their wallets were made out of? And if you got the velcro on the wrong part of the wallet, the wallet kind of ended up a little bit, yeah, it was real messy, but I didn't want to get a new one because they were really expensive down at Peninsula Surf. So Peninsula Surf, I love it. Me and my trigger trackies and my Havanas walking into Peninsula Surf to get a new wallet. The coolest girl in Mornington. But essentially, that company did end up going bankrupt, George. We were so excited about the wallets. We were the

only ones that loved that. But that company did go bankrupt, as did his second company. I'm sorry. Before he started teaching entrepreneurship, investing and social responsibility, which I find a bit rich from a guy who has two companies. So cancel that. That is bizarre that someone with failed businesses could become such a famous entrepreneur I feel like this is so common and I really feel like go on throw someone under the bus oh I do this on this podcast all the time this is why we have next to no sponsors because I've already burnt them all but it's one of those things where I always find it really interesting in this 2022 it's about the life coach right yeah like the life coach and the business coach and stuff and I'm all about it like I'm someone

who really I love mentoring and I love having a mentor and learning from them but like can we please do some credential checks before we hire our life coaches just because they've got a good social following doesn't mean they've actually ever run a good business and the amount of times I've seen people pop up being like hey V like if you ever need a business coach like I do xyz and I have a look and I'm like when have you ever run a business like when have you done like where did you get this knowledge from like how am I learning from you so I think that it's just a good obviously he's got a good book and all of those principles are really good. But as I prefaced at the start of when you asked me about him, I was like, oh, the seminars are a little bit like left field and

not something I would really like the She's On The Money community to engage in. I think it's just important to always question where have people come from? Like, who are they? What do they do? Why would they be putting this information in front of me? And I think that second guessing everything is not a bad trait to have. I'm very much a glass half full person, but like that's me giving you a glass half empty kind of tip it's good to be cynical I think you have to be in this world especially around money and especially around business and you can just get caught up so quickly being like but this is great this is such a good idea you're right this makes sense but like why is this other person teaching me that like how do they profit because at the end of the

day not everything in the world is free and yeah someone somewhere somehow is making money precisely all right on that note let's move on to our third book of the day V I'll let you reveal this one None of these are by women and it's so annoying. If more women could write more investing books, that would be great. The next book, it's by our friend Benjamin Graham. It's from 1949 and it's called The Intelligent Investor. It's also really dry. Surprise, surprise. I bought the audio book of this and just got through the first chapter. Didn't like it. Read the book, loved it. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. I mean, I feel like audio books are something that I really connect with because I can listen to them in the car. Yeah. But listening to an investing book. I feel

like I just zone out. I feel like I'm also shooting myself in the foot as someone who in September has an investing book coming out that will also have an audio book that I will read. Yeah. Yeah. Don't. Maybe don't buy that. Don't bother with that. You've got a fun and snazzy presentation style girl. I will put my all into it. Wonderful. Tell me about The Intelligent Investor. All right. So I like this book because it kind of starts to go. So we've had some mindset books. We had two mindset books and now this book kind of goes into the actual like semantics of being a good investor and what that means. So the first sentence I have come up with is this book really focuses on long-term and more risk averse approaches. So Benjamin, he focuses on investments

that are based on research rather than speculation, which is based on predictions. And so I like that because again, this is the crux of investing. And I think too many times people really skim over a mindset. They really skim over strategy and structure and they go straight to which ETF should I buy, Victoria? I'm like, no, no, no. Let's take a few steps back and learn about where we're coming from and what our strategy looks like. And these books, I feel like are like the foundational building blocks of how we get there. And the second sentence I've come up with is the intelligent investor provides guidance on how to get involved in value investing and how you can prevent the market from dictating your financial decisions. What's value investing? So value investing is

really about getting the best value for your money essentially. And I think that it really goes back to those behavioral markers and emotional investing journeys that a lot of us are on where we go, oh my God, Bitcoin, wild. Like everybody else is buying it. I'm going to buy it. That was a terrible idea. And so it's really about understanding how the markets perform and how media picks up on the way markets perform and how that kind of structures your perception of what's going on. So it's really about actually looking for the value in a company and breaking it down and going, what does the profit and loss look like? What does the balance sheet look like? How does this work? And how does this fit together? How does this work for my strategy? As opposed to,

oh my God, I heard the afterpay. That was a good share to buy. Does that make sense? Yeah, gotcha. So it's really about finding the value in a company instead of just getting caught up in the emotional journey that a lot of us go on. And the same can be said for, you know, once you have something about whether you dispose of it or not. So whether you sell an asset and when and how that works. Yep. Makes sense. Sure. Cool. Number three is this book also really, I guess, captures that by understanding your financial position and your goals, you can then actually make effective decisions about how you manage your money, which I just feel like is a no brainer, but we actually

have to learn that. We can't just be told that. It's just got a really good big piece that teaches you how to super understand your financial position and your goals and what that means and how to make effective decisions on where you want to go and what you want to do. Any chat in there about money stories? No, no money stories. No, why would they do that? That's very, she's on the money. Well, it is.

But like understanding your financial position and goals, I guess that's more the tangible stuff rather than like understanding yourself and your behaviors. And I think it is definitely less fluffy than the way she's on the money would present it. It's definitely about goals and setting a goal. And here's the structure to achieve that goal. it's not really about understanding your base values and goals and just like, do you know what I mean? It's like not as fluffy, but it is a good structure and a good framework to start basing decision-making on. And some people thrive on that. Some people want something a little bit

more sterile than, oh my gosh, I really understand my money story and where I've come from. Because do you know what? There are some people who are just not ready for their money stories. There are some people who just don't want to face that music because it can be hard. And as you see on our Money Diaries episodes, like they're complex. They're not just complex, but they're emotional and they're hard. And working through your money story, it's just not something that everybody is ready for or even wants to delve into. So I think that this is quite a good way of going, all right, well, here's how to understand a financial position and goals and work towards them. I do obviously think it's far more powerful. You can understand the background to all of that,

but you get what you get and you don't get upset, George. That's it, isn't it, mate? Let's talk about the key points of the book, if we can. Just run through them quickly. We can. All right. So first things first, the issue with inflation. So inflation is really important to take into consideration. It has been a very hot topic in our community recently because of the rising cost of living and how much inflation is going to be applied to our help debts. So inflation is important, but essentially cash becomes less valuable over time, and a dollar today is not worth what a dollar tomorrow is worth. So for example, a dollar 10 years ago is worth more than a dollar today. Therefore, instead of holding on

to cash, Benny, our mate Benny, he says we must be investing cash so that we can beat inflation. And despite this, the majority of investors don't take inflation into account, which is so important. And I'm obviously going to promote my own book later, but I have just spent so long calculating out the difference of taking into consideration inflation and not taking it into consideration. And my friends, I'm telling you right now is the difference between a comfortable and a very uncomfortable retirement. Really? There you go. Absolutely. The next is really based on property. So it's that essentially real estate investment trusts can overcome inflation. So that's an interesting point to take into consideration. But also important to remember

that this book was written in 1949 and property has significantly changed. So let's take that point with a very large grain of salt. The next is that choosing which type of investor you should become is based on your willingness to put in time and energy and effort into your portfolio and circumstances and don't let your age decide. The next is defensive investing. So a defensive investor should apparently have a minimum of 25% of their savings in bonds and then a maximum of 75% of their savings in shares. Do you agree with that? Not necessarily, but it's an interesting point to be taken. The next is our mate Benny advises on how to actually invest in stocks. So for example, day trading is really risky. So I think talking about

what type of stock investment you're going to do. So for example, working out what type of share investing is going to work best for you. And like I guarantee you, even though this was written in 1949, day trading is still not probably the best idea. Can be a little bit fun. Your mate over this side of the table, Georgia King, loves to have a dabble, but it is very risky. We aren't going to do that for our retirement. So I think that's a very good point. The next is to adopt an evidence based approach when investing. Really important. Evidence based. Like it's not sexy, this investing stuff. Like it's just not. And I wish I could make it sexy. But the sexier an investing strategy sounds, the more risky it is likely to be. And the best type of investments are so boring.

It's so bland. Like you shouldn't be looking at your investing portfolio and having this absolute emotional rollercoaster. Every time you look, it should be like, oh yeah, there she is. That's true. So it's like a boring old marriage. You've been together 30 years. She's tried. She's true. She's tested. She's probably not cheating on me. Yeah, perfect. That's what we want. We don't want a bad boy who breaks our hearts. No bad boys who break our hearts. Exactly. The next is that you can make a lot of money off market volatility, but you should never sell your stocks in a panic. We know that to be true.

Yes, absolutely. And the next, B, the next point, which I've included, but I don't really like it. What is it, B? It's don't trust and just be careful about using financial advisors. Interesting. But I think that that's really valid because when this book was written, there was no obligation. And if we actually go back to 1949 and what financial advice used to be, so financial advice actually came out of selling insurance.

It never actually came out of putting people in the best possible financial position. Financial advisors literally existed to sell life insurance policies. And to me, they were all snakes. That is why this industry has had to have such a turnaround and such a different mindset. And nowadays, financial advisors are not in it to just sell product, whereas historically, that's what it was. They would sell you product, they would take insurance, they would sell you anything under the sun. And nowadays, that is so incredibly different. obviously there are a lot of good eggs like this guy who wrote this book he was a great guy but it's so important to you know always be wary and that's why we're always like

check that your financial advisor is actually registered check how many people are actually happy with that financial advisor like go fishing it's kind of like finding a good doctor if you're not comfortable talking to them how are you going to tell them your deepest darkest goals and secrets and powers and like it just definitely take it with a grain of salt but yeah do need to probably be really transparent and tell you that he said, be careful about using financial advisors a bit. But as you said, the context of the year in which he wrote this does really come into play. Oh, 100%. And to be honest, that still exists today because who's your best mate, George? Melissa Caddick.

She's not your best mate, but who was Melissa Caddick? So Melissa Caddick was, in quotation marks, a financial advisor, but she wasn't really. She was a silly little missy who ripped off all of her family and friends. She stole millions and millions of dollars from them. There's a really good podcast out right now. Liar, liar. Yes. By the Sydney Morning Herald. And I am obsessed with it. Yeah. But I would absolutely go listen to that. But also kind of scary because she quite, it was like mainly her friends and family as well. She was investing. She ripped them all off. She took their money and then she disappeared. Yep. She'd been found. Nope. Her foot has been found. It was actually confirmed her foot. I

haven't got that far into the podcast. Oh my God. Let's move away from this, but it's a really spicy podcast series. But essentially she was faking being a financial advisor and taking people's money. And that was only happening, what, last year? I think her foot was down in like 2021 or something. Wild. Definitely run away from that. But the way that she did that all was by putting on like extra numbers or less numbers on like ComSec accounts and stuff like that. Like you really need to be vigilant. It's actually so messed up and you should question everything. And that's why it's so beautiful having clients. Like I adore my job. And as you guys know, I'm so obsessed with being financial advisor. I love my clients. I love the work I do. I love

the strategy. I feel like it's married all of my favorite things together. And I get to do that as a career. But there's one thing that I just can't deal with. And it's when clients come in, they're like, no, V, I know you know what you're talking about. And I'm like, no, please sit down. I actually just really want to show you through this. They're like, no, don't waste my time. It doesn't matter. I'm like, it matters to me. Like, I don't want you to go to a barbecue on a weekend and someone goes, hey, like, where's your financial advisor? Keep X, Y, Z. Like, I want you to know. And even if you don't use that information and you don't ever log into your portal, I don't care that at least you have that access and you know how to do it. It's kind of

like in a relationship when, you know, you get a little bit comfortable and your partner's always paying the bills and stuff, but you don't know how to do that. Like, I don't think that's good enough. I think you need to know how to pay the bills, even if it's not your responsibility. Like we always need to be across where our assets are and what's going on and how it works and how we can access them and I just think that it's yeah so important so I would say also be really careful obviously talking to anyone about your finances and just find the right fit for you but yes we can move on perfect I think let's go to a little break because we still have two hot books to get to and this has gone for a really long time so don't go anywhere guys

often. Yay. All righty. Welcome back, guys. We've got our two final books to talk through today. VD. We can probably play a guessing game of what one of those books is, but we'll get to that last, yeah? Yeah. Give us number four. Go on. All right. So number four is one of my other favorites. It's called Think and Grow Rich. I would like to change this book's name. Think and grow wealthy is what I would like to change it to and it sounds fancy because the guy who wrote this is called Napoleon so his name's Napoleon Hill and it was written in 1937. Another oldie. Yeah again grain of salt when we read these books but they're tried and true for a reason and they are staples in the investment community for a reason and it's kind of like why would you rewrite

it like I didn't even bother trying because I can't do half as good a job and the thing that annoys me about this book list is that it's just like men and that's fine but I will pump my tires up at the end but like because of the time and because of when these books were written and the underlying lessons like women were not writing books on investing like that didn't come until like literally I think the early 2000s was one of the first investing books that was written by a woman and even then like we're not naming names or talking about books like it's it's the old formulas. And I really like going back to where did this actually come from? Like if we're going to talk about, you know, these investing methodologies, like which was the book that

actually started it so I can read that. So whenever I read another book, I know where those methodologies are coming from. And I think it's important to kind of like get those ducks in a row. But Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill from 1937 is a very good book and has, yeah, lots of information in it that I think you will adore, Georgia King. Distill it down in three sentences, please, Fede. Well, before we get there, it's not nearly as dry to read as The Richest Man in Babylon or The Intelligent Investor. It's also not as good to read as She's on the Money,

which I would argue is of a tone of voice that you and I enjoy slightly more. But first sentence is that Napoleon Hill researched more than 40 millionaires to find out what made them the men that they were. Right. Okay. Kind of cool. So this is like a little bit of a different, like, take on wealth. It's really about looking at, well, how did you get rich?

Like, you're rich. Obviously, they were all men because a millionaire, 1937, that could not be a woman. When did women have access to bank accounts? Do you know? I can't tell you that date. But what I can tell you is that my mum is going to be very mad that I'm telling you guys on a podcast. She's in her 60s.

she's probably going to be mad because you wouldn't be able to guess she was in her 60s. So she'd be mad that that information is out there. But my mom, when she was in her early 20s, started a business and she had to get her dad to co-sign a lease to actually get her business. So even when my mom, this is like 30, 35-ish years ago. And same thing happened when she wanted to buy her first house, even though she had earned all the money herself and wanted to do it all herself. Guys, that wasn't that long ago. like this is my mom we're not talking about my grandparents here we're talking about my mom not being able to run a business because she was a female because what would we know that we are

we are women wow give me your next point vd all right this is a very fluffy point we like it napoleon good work he says whatever the mind can conceive and believe the mind can achieve like manifestation yeah i think he was friends with jessica ritchie and then number three is opportunity has a sly habit of slipping in by the back door and often is disguised in the form of misfortune or temporary defeat, which is why so many people fail to recognise an opportunity. I love that. I adore that, which is why it made number three. And I think that that's where, you know, make hay while the sun's shining, but also always see a negative situation for what it

could potentially be, not what it is. Absolutely right. So I love that. So Bea, would you say this book is more about psychology than like practical tips? Yes, absolutely. It's definitely about following those 40 millionaires and really understanding how they got rich. I would call it probably like a personal development or a self-improvement book. And Napoleon, how good's that name? It's pretty boss.

I'm going to put it on the baby name list for one day. Sure. But Napoleon claimed to have written the book after he claimed to be inspired by a suggestion from the business magnate and later philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, who you might know. Carnegie Hall? Well, yeah, I'm pretty sure. But he was essentially the person that led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in history, which is kind of cool. He then became like a super big philanthropist. So he just gave heaps of money away in the US and in Britain, which is kind of cool. But that book, Think and

Grow Rich, was actually published during the Great Depression and was seen as a book that kind of inspired a lot of people during a period of downturn. And the book was sold more than 15 million times. Kind of cool, right? Still remains as a top seller and it remains obviously Napoleon Hill's number one seller. But Business Week magazine bestsellers list actually ranked it as the sixth best selling paperback business book 70 years after it was published. That's incredible. That's pretty cool. That says it all. That'll obviously be She's on the Money, guys. right obviously 70 years from now they're going to be like who's this girl who is talking about bank accounts they don't even exist anymore yeah true but you talk me through the five big ideas

of this book all right so let's distill it down there were a lot of big ideas in this book that i really really like and i think you genuinely should read this again because it's one of the less dry books on the list but the first big idea is that the starting point of all achievement is desire you've just got to want to do it like and how many people set goals where they're like not that motivated to do it. And then they're wondering why they're not achieving things. Next is G, again, fluffy, definitely a mindset self-improvement book. You are the master of your destiny. I love that. It's kind of cute, but it's also really true. And I really like it because if you look at like, she's on the money, look at our money diarists and how they change

their entire lives. Like they are the masters of their destiny. And I think that's really powerful. Like you can change your situation. It doesn't matter where you were standing right now. You can do it and that's really cool number three is that when defeat comes accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound rebuild those plans and set sail once more towards your coveted goal lovely you like that one i loved that one yeah number four is your greatest success will often come just one step beyond the point at which defeat has overtaken you this is huge i feel like this is really fluffy it's really nice it's kind of like the two steps forward one step back is that the right thing? Maybe I should just not use stuff like that. Maybe we should just go with his,

which was your greatest success will often come just one step beyond the point at which defeat has overtaken you. I just think that's really inspirational. Napoleon, you're a good guy. Would you get a coffee with Napoleon? If he's buying, of course I would. Yeah, you'd get a coffee with anyone. You are super stingy. And then number five is set your mind on a definite goal and observe how quickly the world stands aside to let you pass. set your mind on a definite goal and observe how quickly the world this isn't going in my brain it's about mindset it's about if you ask my mom it would be about asking the universe for something like if you want something you go out and you get it and it's kind of about what is that theory it's

like the theory of like when you see something it just starts appearing everywhere it's like have you ever seen yeah all right this is this is gonna get you amy lenardi if you are listening hi i love you this is our thing we were always like do you know what we never see honda jazz is in the color yellow. And then do you know what I see everywhere now? Honda Jazz is in the color yellow. So now I text her every time I see a Honda Jazz in the color yellow. Also, if you own one of those and you're in Melbourne and you've seen me just like walking down Smith Street, taking a photo of your car, I'm sorry. I was just sending it to Amy because it's our thing. But it's about like setting a clear goal and being really intentionable about that. And then everything

kind of like falls into place and you find the things you need to find to actually make that happen. Like the world will make it happen if you want it to happen in a way. It's kind of fluffy. It's very Jessica Ricci, which we love, but it's one of those things where the more you believe it, the more you can achieve it, the more you're like, if you can see it, you can become it kind of vibes. This is big, big inspo. Yeah. It's very personal development, self-development book vibes. Like it's definitely an investment book at the same time as being very much about like setting your mind on things. And you see this in our community all the time where people are like, I've just decided I'm really going to pay off this debt and then they end up achieving it early because they

pick up another option or an opportunity to like have a side hustle or do something and it's let's be honest it actually all distills down to you actually doing what you said you were going to do the world isn't actually spoon feeding you this stuff it's about you finding a way in the world to get this done and that's kind of cool but we can be a bit fluffy about it yeah absolutely V it's worth noting that three out of the five books that we've chosen to speak about today are between 60 and 70 years old. Yeah, they're real old and that's kind of how I am on the inside. Yeah, you're an old soul.

I feel like I could have gone through and picked a whole heap of books from people I really love. Like I could have picked Glenn James' book, Sort Your Money Out Now, which is a frigging good book. Like if you haven't read that, you absolutely should be reading that and maybe that can be like the honorary sixth book on this list of five. Love you, Glennie. Love you, Glennie.

But it's one of those things where I just really wanted to pick books that were really about mindset and putting you in the right position to take control of your life because it's easy. Like the investing part is easy and I don't want to make it sound so easy that I'm being condescending, but it is really easy. Once you have a goal, you have a mindset and you have the right mentality around investing and creating wealth and changing your life. Like it's not hard, but the hard thing is getting yourself mentally to that stage where you can sacrifice things because in order to create wealth, we do have to have some level of sacrifice. Like it is you putting off something that you could have today George so you can have a bigger better

one later down the track yeah and that mentality is really hard to actually come by it's so easy to say it's so easy to put on a podcast but it's actually really hard to be putting today you in a control seat where you just say oh no like I would like another coffee or I would really like to buy that top and you're saying no to you today so that future you can have a better future like that's a really hard mentality to actually grasp and take hold and actually put yourself in that control seat of. So I think for what I do, I really wanted to pick books that put you in that control seat. So then when you do read books like Sort Your Money Out Now or She's on the Money, which we're going to talk about now, you're ready to take control and you're ready to actually

implement all of those things and you're going to be so much more successful. So that's why my book list or my reading list is definitely a little bit more dated, but with dated comes tried and true strategy and philosophy and things that, you know, all of the stuff we've talked about today, George, it's still tried and true today except for the property parts, which, you know, we know about the avocados. They're all good. Yeah. So the basics stand the test of time. They do indeed, my friend. Tell us now, Miss Victoria Devine, about our final book of today, which is, of course, She's on the Money by Victoria Devine. Oh my gosh. I think it's the greatest book to have ever been written, ever. Can you tell me a little bit about why you wrote it?

oh why did I write it I wrote it because I was afforded this beautiful opportunity to take our community and our podcast and all of the knowledge I have as a financial advisor and put it in a book never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be an author like that's crazy I used to make kids books when I was like in primary school yeah and I used to like fold over the colored paper and have them as the cover on the front and like to make it like more legit I would like use heaps of tape in like strips. So it could be like a laminated front cover and I'd draw them. And anyway, I loved books and I wanted to have my own. And this idea that I could have a book was crazy. And so when I got approached by our publishers at Penguin, obviously that is so

cool to be approached to write a book. I just knew that I didn't want it to be a book where I was like, cool, let's just chuck my brand on something. It was like, I could change people's lives. Like you look at the barefoot investor and you go, that changed people's lives. And that book wasn't even putting them in the best possible position ever. Like how cool would it be if I could do that? And how cool would it be if I could collect up all of these gems of knowledge that have been shared in our community, but also have been shared, you know, by me having worked as a financial advisor and just even stuff like my banking structure. People were raving about it when I would just share like a random PDF in our Facebook group. And I'd be like, well, this is how I do my

banking. And I think you could really benefit from this and be like, Victoria, this has changed my life. The idea that that could then be on scale and that it's now in literally in the homes of thousands and thousands of people. And we've won awards for this book. Like what? Very, very cool. George, it's sick. And I'm nearly done. I am actually done. We're going through the like copywriting process at the moment because it turns out I might be good at the logistics of a book. I might be good at the stats and facts. I'm not nearly as fun as I would like to be, especially because we have investing with She's On The Money coming out in September and we're going through that process but like the idea we have a second book

huge wild huge so proud but so wild but I wrote it because I actually just wanted to take all of these nuggets of wisdom and gift them to you in one really easy to read book that spoke to you in your language in a way that was not overwhelming in a way that felt like I was on the journey with you and put you in a position to actually take charge of your financial future. So we're not talking about like, oh my God, go and invest in X, Y, and Z and making these things really complicated. We're not just talking about, you know, investing mindset. I would really love to think that I've brought all those things together and then structured the book in a way where each single chapter is a different step to put you on a better path, which is why at the end of my book,

if you've probably not read it, because why would you bother? You have to deal with me every day, Georgia King. At the end of the book, there's like a 12-month action plan. So every single month kind of aligns to one of the chapters to put you in a better position. So one month we do super and one month we do investments and one month we do insurance. And like I'm putting you in the best possible position to be as financially successful as you possibly can be. And that actually just starts with really good foundations. And I would love, love, love to think that this book is all about getting those foundations right. So you don't need to know very much about money or you don't need to have been in the community for very long. You don't even need to be in the

community to pick it up and get lots out of it. I have made sure that every single chapter has one or two like snippets of money diaries so that you really can connect in and be like, wow, if they can do it, I can do it. And yeah, it really starts with mindset and then goes into the framework. And I think that that's how I would want everyone to go on that journey and to be given the opportunity to write a book that I was completely in control of that goes, all right, if gee, I was going to give you one resource when it came to money. This is it. Like that's, yeah, that's where I came from.

I know you're very modest and you won't want to toot your own horn too much here. I mean, I feel like I just did that. Like I feel like that was pretty good. Tell me about the impact you've heard along the journey about this book. The change that it's made. I'm sure you've had some lovely DMs and messages. I cry a lot. Sometimes I read the reviews, but I try not to read reviews

because people can be really mean but it's really about the DMs and messages and do you know what we started getting handwritten letters of people writing to us to be like hey Victoria I wanted to send you a letter hope you don't mind I found your address like like obviously our business address they're not out the front of my house but they're on like obviously you can find my business address online it's not that hard just explaining how much their lives have changed or that they've gotten out of, you know, financially abusive relationships or situations they don't want to be in, or they've taken the next step. Like I got a message from a girl that I know has been in our Facebook group from the very beginning, a couple of weeks ago. And she's like, Victoria, I know

that we damn all the time, but I just wanted to really say thank you because I have just negotiated a pay rise that I never thought I would be able to get. And it was because I implemented all the tips and tricks you taught me. And I also then had the audacity, which I don't think it was audacity, but she said this had the audacity to ask to be back paid because I'd been doing that role for 12 months and she got it really and now she's like so much closer to buying her first home and just like people are in better positions because of this book and that's all I could ask yeah because you definitely George like I don't know what everybody thinks but you definitely don't write a book to make money like I would need to sell millions of copies and I would be so delighted

to sell millions of copies but you literally need to sell millions which we obviously haven't done yet is that pretty many tickets but like at that point maybe I'll make some serious money but you don't write books in Australia to make money it's just like the publishing industry is just not big enough to sustain that but you write one because you really want to have an impact and you really want to connect with your community and I'm just so grateful I got to do that beautiful before we go we'll give you another plug V investing oh thanks because they didn't have enough just then investing with she's on the money drops September 20 I believe oh my god two days before my sister's birthday guess what she's getting exactly right a signed copy oh no no no

i'm just gonna order one on booktopia and have it delivered to a house i love it you have to bring that to me to ask for permission alexandra it is available for pre-order now and if you do pre-order you'll receive 20 off i believe that is the hot deal that's going on at the moment going around also it makes me look really good to my publisher so feel free to go and pre-order it because publishers, they love a pre-order because it, like, ramps it up and it means that once the book launches, we're more likely to get a better launch party. So if you could just, like...

So do the right thing. Do the right thing. Yeah, we love it. For the greater good. Let's leave it there, BD. Thank you for today. I'm going to wrap the boring but important stuff. Let's get into it.

Alrighty, guys. Remember, the advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or a financial decision. And we promise Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of InFocus Securities Australia,

Proprietary Limited, ABN 470-977-97049, AFSL 236-523. And as always, we would love it if you joined our Facebook group where our community shares money, tips and tricks every single day free of judgment. Search She's On The Money on Facebook and join us. If Facebook's not your thing, let's just segue this all the way back to the book. Go pre-order our book. It's a great idea.

You can just read it in paper and you don't have to interact with anyone on the internet. Perfection. Also, find us on Instagram, which is onthemoneyaus. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe and tell Georgia she is very pretty in her DMs. Oh, stop it. See you next week, guys. Thanks, guys. Bye. Thank you.