She's On The Money - 5 Ways To Be A Better Investor This Year

Episode Date: January 2, 2024

The new year is the time when we take stock of what has passed us by, and is the perfect time to set achievable goals and intentions to help prepare and motivate us for the year to come. So today we are talking 5 ways to be a better investor in 2024. We also give you some things to think about to help spring clean your investment mindset! 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. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.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 a brand new year with she's on the money the happy new year happy new year Oh my gosh, how exciting. This is so exciting. I feel like the last five years have like flown by. It wasn't just like the last year, it's like the last five years. Do you know 2019 was five years ago? I cannot believe that.

It's actually insane. Anyway, what are we doing, Bec? Okay, so new year, new you, new me, new us. So obviously I feel like we're, you know, setting intentions and goals and those kind of go hand in hand with saying happy new year at this time of year. Which I'm really excited about because side note, in two days, my Best Year Yet course is coming out and it's essentially a course for setting goals and intentions. Not about investing, not about money. It's more like a me thing. You know how sometimes I get like my ADHD side gig

things that happen. I was like, I'm going to sit down with all of my friends and set some goals, but like tangible ones so that we can set ourselves up for the best year yet. So you can do that. or we can talk more about money, which is obviously why you're on this podcast, because we want to be the best investor ever. Like it's your best year yet for being an investor. I think it might be. I've got a good feeling 2024 is the year. Are you going to start investing this year, babe? Genuinely? Like I know you probably don't believe me, but genuinely, I think I will. I feel like you've had your toes like dipping sort of in the water. You've been doing a bit

more research. You've been like, you know, getting excited about it. Like now when I talk to you about investing, you're not like, wait, what, why? You're like, oh, where do I start? Which is really fun. Yes. Thank you, V. Thank you for noticing. That's really fun. Even if you don't do it right now, like maybe even in six months when you're actually ready, because how many times do people go, when's the best time to invest? The best time to invest is when you're ready, Bec. Yes. Because otherwise it's overwhelming and you're going to like back out and run away. Yes, exactly. So we You don't want you doing something early just because you think it's a good idea. Absolutely. But that takes me to the point of this episode. Today, we are talking five ways

to be a better investor in 2024. But in true She's On The Money style, we want to make sure it's all sustainable. It's all I talk about, right? Like, hi, welcome to 2024, Victoria Devine back on the mic, being a broken record again. I love it. But that's why we've got to talk about, you know, when it comes to sustainability, it's not about investing in sustainable shares. It's actually creating a strategy that's sustainable for you, Bec. Creating a strategy that you can commit to. Because I think there's this misconception still, even in 2024, that you have to have lots of money to be an investor. Or you have to be going big or not bothering at all. Whereas we don't need to go big or go home.

We actually just need to commit to something small and continuous and sustainable. And that's what this episode is about. Obviously, if you want to go back and listen to our Ethical Investor podcast or our Sustainable Investing podcasts, go do that. We'll make sure that they're linked in the show notes. But this is more like an episode to make sure that you, Bec, and everyone listening is just really confident about going into 2024. Because obviously, we haven't heard from the RBA yet. Slightly nice thing, they don't actually meet in January. So like interest rates aren't going to go up until February. Okay. So we got a bit of time. Got a bit of time before the RBA have their big board meeting. So obviously in December,

they were like, no, we're going to give you a little bit of reprieve. And we were like, thank you so much. Yes. They're not going to stack it on us in January, but in February, I think that we might get a rude surprise, but that doesn't mean we can't thrive still. So I think it's super, super exciting. And I mean, this is not going to be like a, hey, Bec, here's actually a list of investments I think you should buy to have your best year yet. It's actually more of a, you know, give a gal a fish and you'll feed her for a day, teach a gal to fish and she'll teach the rest of, you know, the community to fish and we'll all be better off for it because that's what we do here at

She's On The Money. Essentially, when one of us rises, we all rise because we all gain, I guess, a bit of confidence. The ship rises with the tides or whatever they say. We are the tide. We are the tide. We are the tide. And our community is the ship. I mean, I could give you a list of my favorite, I guess, shares, but I actually can't now I think about it because I'm licensed to give general financial advice. Legally not allowed. Legally not allowed. But I mean, over the next year, like last year, so obviously side note,

new year, new us, very excited to be back on the show. But like we sat down and did all this strategy for She's On The Money content for the next, you know, 12 months. There's a lot coming up. I'm very excited. There's so much stuff coming up on like, you know, picking shares and the right shares and like kind of taking it to the next level, which I'm really excited about. But this one's really more of a confidence episode, getting you on the right track. And at the end of the day, Bec, even if I was like, all right, well, you know what,

I will give you my favorite shares. That actually only would help you in the short term, not in the long term, because what happens in six months when the markets change, then you're stressing out about what's going on. So it would get me in trouble as well. So we don't want to do that. Of course. So my job here is to get you educated, get you on your journey, keep you on your journey, help build, I guess, your intuition around investing and the instincts that are going

to last a lifetime when it comes to the investment world. Before the break, Bec, we've got a lot to cover. But before we get there, I'm actually going to give you some things to think about to help you get into an investment mindset. Because this year for me, it's all about mindset. It's all about reframing, about mindset, about making sure that we're not comparing ourselves I've talked so much historically about comparison culture and perhaps this year I'm more passionate about it because I'm doing that a lot or I found myself in the last six months just like really looking at other people and what they were achieving and making myself feel bad about it and I'm assuming if I'm doing that because social media is so prevalent you know you're on TikTok

you're on Instagram all the time I'm assuming I'm not the only one so I was like let's get over this we're going to have our best year yet. Like, let's get on the right track. Let's do a little bit of, I guess, an investment and mindset spring clean so that we can all be super pumped for what we can achieve and not be worrying so much about what we haven't achieved yet. Because that doesn't help us, does it? No, never. So after the break, then we're going to go through my top five key things that are going to help make you a better investor in 2024. So I feel like I've written this out, I think it's going to be powerful, Bec. Yeah, I think so. I'm very excited for after break, but I'm also excited for before break. We're going to be a bit more fluffy before break,

but before break, maybe I need to stop using the word fluffy. We need to be more like, no, mindset's actually really important. Mindset is 90% of your, or even 99% of your investment journey. Like if you're not committed, if you're not confident, if you aren't, you know, trusting your gut and actually doing the research, like you're not going to have a good investment journey. Totally. And you know what they say about mindset? Starts in the vocab or something like that. Does it? They probably don't say that. Did you just make that up? I made that up. That's really good. Thank you so much. It's like Syed 2024. No, V, so we know that historically men were more inclined to invest than women,

but what are the latest stats on that? I mean, before we get there, men are more likely to invest than women, probably because they get paid more than us and have more, You know, money to play with, which is an issue that come March, come International Women's Day, come Equal Pay Day, I'm going to be having some words with you about. Women are better investors if we do the research than men, but look, I'm not saying that. Wow, that is a big call. Last year, the ASX Australian Investors Study, they surveyed 5,000 or around 5,500 Australian adults, and they found a few things that I think are interesting here.

51% of Australian adults invest. Oh. Isn't that cool? 50%. 51%. 51%. That's more than half. More than half. 42% of those are women. Okay. Okay. Okay. So like, obviously the stats aren't as exciting. So the average age of an Australian investor, Bec, actually guess, what do you think the average age of an Australian investor is? I'm skewing younger. Oh, yeah. I think 27. No, it's 47. Okay. Which is really good because lots, obviously, we have 47-year-old listeners. In fact, I got a letter the other day, a handwritten letter. Handwritten letter. I cried for like two hours. Oh, my goodness. A woman in her 70s had written in and said that she had finally started investing for her future. Whoa. And it made my heart so full because there's obviously

no such thing as being too late. Yeah. But what excites me most about that stat, Bec, is most of our communities sit below that. So the She's On The Money community sits between the age of 25 and 35 on average. Obviously we have heaps of outliers and absolutely everybody is welcome. But like we as a community are starting earlier than the average. Great. You know what that does puts us significantly ahead. Like that's epic to me and it makes me so, so excited because it just means, Bec, our community is ahead of the game even if you haven't even started investing yet. Yeah, I love that. We're geniuses. Look at us go. Yeah, seriously. I'm really excited. I'm so excited for everyone's future right now. But often getting started,

speaking of getting started, that is kind of the worst part of the process. That's why everyone's putting it off until they're a bit older. Yeah, that's why I've put it off like literally the whole year but can you give us three days into the year yeah I forgot what day it was oh my gosh it's 2024 but I mean you have literally been been putting it off all year yeah all year all year back three whole days V but can you give me and the community some tips on how to make a start when you can't really like get started analysis paralysis yeah exactly we call it analysis paralysis and you know what women are worse at this than men like men are more likely to just like, jump in, give it a crack. No worries, mate. Yeah, I don't really know what I'm going to do,

but I'm going to make it up as I go. That's not us, is it? No, we've got more to lose. Yeah, exactly. That's not us at all. And what I see, I guess, in our community is our community picks up the information and goes, oh my gosh, I have never, you know, really thought about this before, or it's never been presented in a way that's been appealing to me before. And so they start diving into the content, right? They might read my books. They might read other finance content creators' books. You might be absorbing lots of different podcasts, like you've got She's on the Money. You've obviously got My Millennial Money and a heap of, I guess, other people in our network. And Beck, that to me does beautiful things because it educates you. And it makes me

so, so excited because I know you're on the right path. But sometimes you get a little bit too deep and you go, all right, well, you know, last year V put out her top 10 performing ETFs and then Glenn put out his and a few other, you know, finance podcasts have started doing the same and you start comparing them and being really critical and then you go, oh, they're not all the same and they're never going to be the same, Bec. Like everybody in this space has different opinions, different methodologies that they work with and you get what's called analysis paralysis, which is where you go, I've been doing so much research and I've been trying so hard to become a good investor. And now I'm more confused than ever because you're trying to get too much into

the nitty gritty before even diving in. And the best thing that you can do is actually pick a platform first. Don't try and pick your first share before picking a platform. Pick your platform, work out, you know, the pros and cons of each platform because they're all very different. Pick the one that works for you and then start doing your research using that platform. not using everybody else's opinions because opinions they're like buttholes everyone has them and no one really cares about each other's right like I care about yours oh do you thank you so much I'm pregnant so there's a lot going on but I think it's really important to not get analysis paralysis and get too deep and think that you're going to mess it up especially in

the she's on the money community we are always saying Bec just start with five bucks like we're not trying to risk your life savings. That's a really dumb idea because we want to build your confidence over time. It's five bucks. I have lost more on less, I promise. And like, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that $5 isn't a lot of money, especially like when you get to the end of the month and there's still not enough money left. Yes. Like five bucks, far out, that can stretch, right? That'll save your life. That'll save your butt. Like you can buy a lot of dry pasta for that. Definitely. But we need to also realize that if you're on your investing journey, you've probably got a few things set in place. You probably have a budget. You have your cash flow

sorted out. You have a bit of an emergency fund. So that five bucks that we're investing with for the first time, Bec, it shouldn't impact your day-to-day life. It shouldn't be the thing that is make or break. And if it is, now's not the time to invest. Now's the time to focus on you and maybe getting a little bit of an emergency fund behind you, even if you are really passionate about money. So I have four things that I want you to consider here. Okay. So first things first, set yourself a deadline and make a decision. Like just do it. Just do it. Just do it. If you have no timeline for when a decision needs to be made, you're ultimately going to spend a lot of time, just like, I guess, waffling back and forth between different options and then ultimately

not making a decision. So set yourself a deadline or a specific timeframe for when that decision needs to be made. So, and I want you to do this too, Bec. Great idea. I want you to go, all right, I know I'm going to invest my first $5 by the end of February. But where, you don't know right now, but at least you know that that deadline's coming up and you go, oh, I'm really going to have to make a decision on where this is going. Otherwise, it will be June and then it will be September and then it will be December and we'll be talking about content for 2025. The second thing I want you to do is narrow down your options early. So if you have an overwhelming amount of options, which often we all do, get rid of some of them right away. So like there might be heaps of

options on the table that you're like, oh, that one's really nice, but it doesn't really suit me, but I'm going to leave it on the table. She's in the bin for now. So figure out what you want your expected outcome or decision to be, and then get rid of any options that don't actually fit the qualifications, I suppose, of this outcome. So if you're like, oh, I really want good diversification and I don't want to manage things actively myself, well, let's get rid of all of the direct shares and only focus on like the ETFs or managed funds. Because even if your friend said, you know, NAB or BHP or an individual share is a good option, that's not going to work for the strategy that you've got. And I feel like so many times when we're starting our investment journey,

we like want to take everybody's opinion into account. You go, oh, well, Beck, she's investing in direct shares. Maybe I should copy her because, you know, Beck's done a really good job. But if you then didn't want to ultimately manage direct shares, well, why is it still on the table? Why we're overwhelming ourselves. Right. That is a good idea. Put it in the bin. Put it in the bin. Don't think twice. Number three, we're going to practice decision making quickly. So this is where impulsivity, it's not the worst thing in the entire world. Okay. You and I, we are going to thrive with this point. We are impulsive as get out. I wouldn't have put impulsivity and investing in the same sentence, but I'm excited. But hear me out, hear me out. Okay. The inconsequential things like

deciding where to eat for dinner or what path to take when you get to work are going to help you be more decisive when you're making bigger decisions. So when it comes down to it, like if you're doing analysis paralysis on a few different investing platforms and you've whittled it down to like three, just pick one. I promise they're all going to be very similar. Like just pick one, Bec. If you don't like it down the track, we're not trying to invest your life savings. Swapping platforms is not going to be the end of the world. That is very, very true. It's like the start of Pokemon when you have to pick any kind of one of the three creatures. Just do it. Yeah, just do it.

Just do an eeny, meeny, miny, moe situation. Yeah, exactly. I really like the saying, and I feel like I've embraced this a lot in the last six months. It's not that deep. Bec, it's not that deep. Like when making decisions on different things, I feel like I've been really overwhelmed. And I mean, it makes sense because in the last six months, Bec, I've been preparing to have a baby. And there's a lot of decisions that you need to make. Like far out, everyone's got an opinion on the snoo, which is like this automatic bassinet for your baby, like rocks your baby back to sleep, right? Oh, cozy. Sounds great. But then you start reading mum forums and then you start listening to people on Instagram and then you're

in some random mum Facebook group, which you never thought you were going to be in. And you're taking all these opinions on and some people are like, Bec, the snoo's the best thing that's ever happened to me in my entire life and then other mums are like I would never let my kid in a snoo that's irresponsible you cannot have a bassinet rocking your baby back to sleep when you should be connecting with them you're like oh didn't think of it that way and then someone else is like that's a very expensive bassinet and my baby hated it and you're like oh what if that happens to me like so you're getting all these conflicting opinions from different people but in reality what matters is whether I want to do that or not. Sure. Not what Shirley on an internet forum has said

about how her baby did it because her baby's not actually going to be my baby. Yeah. And they're all different. And the same goes for infesting. Sometimes, Bec, you just got to pick one. Give it a crack. Yeah, that's so true. I did get the snow. Did you get the snow? I got the snow. We're going to give it a crack. I love that. Do you think you could fit an adult in there? Honestly, my husband's already like, do you reckon there's like an adult version of this? Seriously, that'd It, like, rocks you back to sleep, right? If it notices you're awake as well, it gives you, like, sleep sounds. Oh, that is so considerate.

It's so cute. That's very cute. And they, like, get strapped in in their little, like, swaddles, so they're really snuggie-buggy. Oh, my gosh. I want an adult snooze. Anyway, moving on, that's where we're talking about practicing decision-making and, you know, being a bit impulsive.

We're not saying be impulsive from the start. We're saying let yourself be impulsive once you've done all of that research and you have your list. You know what? you probably like all of the options and they're all going to work, right? Yeah. You deserve a bit of impulsivity at that point. It's not that deep. Yeah.

It's not that deep. And number four, use a framework for your decision-making process. So believe it or not, there is a whole framework for the decision-making process. So by following a step-by-step guide, you can actually help take away some of the cognitive heavy work that's required to make a really big decision. And you can find obviously lots of resources online to help guide you through, I guess, the steps to effective decision-making. And I'm not giving you a specific resource here because I think you should Google it yourselves and find a framework that kind of resonates with you because there's lots of them. So I would Google decision-making framework and like then, because I'm lazy and I'm also a visual learner there, I'll click on images.

Oh my God, I do the same thing. I don't want to read all of the articles. I'm going to click the images and I want to see what flowchart makes the most sense for me. And then I will pick that one because it actually doesn't matter which framework you use as long as you're using something to get to an end destination. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'll probably post a decision-making framework sometime this week on our Instagram

because I have one that I like, but you don't need to use that one. You can use any one. And I actually think it's really important to have a look at like the different options and methodologies that exist. I'm going to keep my keen eye out for that. I'll send it to you direct. Thank you so much. No worries. Now that we've kind of gotten over analysis paralysis.

Are we over it? Like probably not. I think we're more aware of it. We're just not good at dealing with it yet. Yes. But we've got the tools that we need to. Exactly, exactly. What would you say the first step is to getting ourselves into an investing mindset?

Just choose. It's just a choice, right? Yeah. Just choose investing mindset. No, absolutely not. That's not how the world works. You can't just decide to change your mindset. I'm so excited for a second.

It's so much work, right? It's like therapy. I mean, if we could just choose to be mentally better, we would, wouldn't we? I suppose. Anyway, that's what keeps my therapist in business. But first things first, I would say, do your budget and cash flow so we know what you're working with. This is obviously really important at the start of this year, but also before setting any goals. Because do you know how disheartening it is? And I'm sure you've experienced this before. Actually, I know you've experienced this before because late last year you were talking about how you really wanted to go to Meredith and then you didn't go to Meredith because your budget didn't allow for it and you're

like oh I probably shouldn't do this but like you were all like I'm going I'm going I'm going didn't have a ticket yet but like you were going you were going and then it came closer to the date and you realized I think quite quickly oh I actually don't have the budget for this and as much as you, I guess, from memory took that in your stride, you were like, you know what, I'm really proud of myself for making that decision. But if you'd done your budgeting cashflow and known what additional income you had to, I guess, do that would be, I can almost guarantee you would have gone to Meredith because there was like a plan in place and we're working towards it. And it's just a good example. It's not a good or a bad thing. We just all know that

Bex Syed buries her head in the sand when it comes to budget still. And one of my goals for this years to sit your sorry butt down and go through it with you you know me too well but it's really important to do this before setting goals because there's nothing more disheartening than going oh I don't get to do that anymore and I really wanted to because like you really wanted to go to Meredith I really did and it was really annoying that you didn't get to go I know so we can avoid that in the future and that can be the same for like literally any goal in our life whether it is a financial goal or like an emotional goal or any other type of goal set your financial goals Bec, but when I say set your financial goals, let's like take a step back. Obviously I've said

this before and I'll say it again, when in doubt, zoom out. Let's look at the long-term. What are your long-term goals? Then what are your medium-term goals and your short-term goals? Again, we're going to use Meredith as an example here. Meredith was more of a short-term goal. It wasn't like a long-term you'd been planning for years to go. It was more tickets came out and you're like, oh yeah, I do really want to go. Like, and it's in the next few months. I'm going to work towards that. We actually need to look at all of them because let's be honest, in this economy, Bec, can't do everything at once. No, absolutely not. And if you've got this medium-term goal of going on an overseas holiday and maybe a longer-term goal of buying your first home, you might go,

hold up, hold up, hold up. If I go to Meredith, I'm not going to be able to go to Bali with my girlfriends and that's in November this year. Which one would you prefer more? So like we're actually sitting down and prioritizing what our financial goals look like and putting in place our own version of a framework to go, actually, these short-term goals, they're really important to me. So maybe I will sacrifice that medium-term goal. I'm not going to go to Bali. I'll do it the next year. Does that make sense? So like we're kind of renegotiating with ourselves. And the next thing I want you to do is really understand risk. So when we are in an investment mindset, it. We're really excited about growth, but we aren't that excited if we hear that our portfolio

is going to go down, right? Like, and I've said it before and I'll say it again, even when I log into my investment portfolio today, if I see it's down, I get that little twang in my chest. I'm like, oh, even though I arguably should be one of the more educated people in this space, investing is inherently emotional. So making sure that you understand risk. So what is risk? How does it work? what is your personal risk profile? We've done whole episodes on risk profiling. Go and listen to them so that you know what you are willing to take on and what you're not willing to take on. And it's going to take you through a number of questions that's going to help ascertain what type of risk profile you have. And if you understand that, you will be whittling down very

easily the types of assets you would invest in and the types you wouldn't invest in. And it wipes heaps of stuff off the table for you from the get go. Yeah. Okay. So that's where I would start and where I would focus if you're experiencing a little bit of analysis paralysis. God, she's good. So at this point, I would say let's have a little break. But don't go anywhere because after the break, V is going to give you the five key things to help make you a better investor in 2024. Let's go. Let's go. Welcome back, everyone. We are talking about investing and mindset. And V, you've promised to share with us five ways to be a better investor in 2024. Isn't that nice of me?

It's very nice of you. It's very, very nice of me. Let's start. All right. So are you ready? I think I'm ready. Are you going to be a better investor or are you just going to become an investor? I think I'll become.

Joke's on you. You have superannuation. Oh, I forgot about that. She's already an investor. A good one? I don't know. I haven't looked at your super. I can tell you that after the show, babe.

Okay. But I think that's a good place to start. You're actually already an investor if you've got superannuation. Gosh, that gives me confidence. Well, it gives you confidence, but it also lets you kind of go, oh, I'm not missing out as much as I think I was. Like, I think a lot of people just assume, oh, I'm not in the market. Like, what the hell? Like, my friend, if you have a superannuation portfolio, whether it's $1 or $1 million, you are an investor. And that's actually a really, you know, side note before

I get into my list. That's a really easy way to kind of log in, see what your portfolio has been doing. What's your risk profile in that space? How much are your fees in that space? What are you invested in? Are you happy you're invested in that? Like, I think it's just take control of that because ultimately that's not going to cost you any money today. You don't even have to put your money where your mouth is. You don't even have to, you know, take anything out of savings to start. Have a look at that, Bec, because it'll make you feel more empowered. And you go, oh, I've been invested in that for ages and it's actually doing okay. Like, it'll give you a bit of a boost, a bit of confidence. And also, let's be honest, if there's something not so good about

your super, you're going to be hundreds of thousands of dollars better off in retirement if you check it today. Like if you check it today, that is a very cheap and easy way to get yourself ahead financially in the long term without having to put a dollar. You could be in mountains of debt right now and still check your super and be in a better financial position. That's a slay. I said I wasn't going to say slay in 2024, but guess we're here. Well, it's a little bit Christmassy to say slay, I think. I'm changing it into an E-I-G-H. So I think it's okay again. You think it's okay because Christmas was so recent? Yeah, exactly.

All right. Well, I'll take it. I'm just going to take whatever. But I've written you a list of five things to do to be a better investor in 2024 after you've sorted your super out, right? Okay. All right. So first things first, we're just going to do it. We're just going to make a start. Just do it. Just do it. Sorry, Nike, don't come after me. I'm borrowing your trademark, but that is okay. You don't need lots of money to start your investment journey. Invest small amounts regularly, if that's all you have, there's no such thing as investing too little. How many times have

I harped on about the fact that investing early and little amounts sets you up to be in the right mind frame for when you do have more money to invest? If you can't manage $1, Bec, I promise you can't manage $10,000 and you ultimately aren't going to be able to manage a million dollar portfolio if that's your plan. So start with the $1 and start caring about that a lot today, even if you go this is fruitless it's not even going to buy me a coffee I get that but you know what it's doing it's setting up your mindset it's putting you on the right path you've already got the investing platform you've got the framework you maybe have already automated the payments to that platform you know what you can do over time as we get higher incomes or you know birthday money

or Christmas money or like you get your tax return come July this year you can invest more and slowly start building it. So there's no such thing as too little, too late. The next thing we are going to do is do our research. It's not that sexy. Sorry. That seems like work. But it can be fun. Okay. I think it's fun. Oh, let's see how. If you have a wine, it can be extra fun. True. You know who I'm going to refer to in this next point. The most successful investor of all time is our 80 plus year old friend, Warren Buffett. And our mate Buffett, he gives us two key pieces of advice when evaluating a company to invest in. So first look at the quality of the company, then at the price. Okay. So we're not looking at the price first, we're looking at whether

it's a good company to begin with. Like values and morals or are we talking like... It could be values, it could be morals, it could be whether it's a good company or not. I have used this example on the pod before. Remember, obviously I'm never going to work with Afterpay, so I don't mind throwing them straight under the bus here. But remember way back when everyone was talking about how great after pay shares were. Oh my gosh, they're amazing. And they started getting really expensive. And I think a lot of us thought that expensive was indicative of quality and being a good investment option because why would they increase so much? Why would they increase so quickly, Bec? The reality of that is they increased because of, I guess, the social

status they had. The media was talking about them. Everyone on Instagram was talking about them. everyone in the kitchen at ARN was talking about them going, oh, this is great. Oh my gosh, you're going to get so much good return. But we were looking at the price of them going, oh, that's cool. We weren't looking at the quality of the business. If you looked at the quality of the business, you would have seen they're in debt. They are in, or were at that point in time, an in-debt business that was trying to get ahead, that was investing significantly in what they were doing, which is nice sometimes. They also weren't paying dividends to their investors. So to me, let's look at the quality of a company because I know that as a more

conservative investor, instead of an afterpay share, I'd much prefer blue chip stock. Something that is a blue chip stock is a tried true investment that has been in the market for a really long time. They don't do that many sexy things, but you know what they do do, Bec? They pay on time. They're consistent. They're the tried and true steady state. Like I'm not the sexiest investor ever. Like if you looked at my personal portfolio, you'd be like, kind of expected more. But I like her because she's conservative and she does the job properly. She's reliable. The second thing is, so obviously looking at the quality of a company requires you to read,

I guess, a few financial statements. You could listen to like some conference calls or like vet management. You could do a lot of things. You could just also like, you know, jump on your Sharesies app and read through all the information that they provide on the company so that you can do a bit of research that way. Right. But please don't jump on anything just because the media or your friends are saying it is cool. And then only after you have the confidence in it being a good quality company, should the price then be evaluated? And you can go, is that a reasonable price for a quality company or not? Right. Okay. If that makes sense. As our mate Warren puts it, it's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful

price. You love Warren Buffett. I'm in love with Warren. That was straight out of the head. Yeah. That's incredible. So would you say I should be doing what Warren Buffett says? I mean, lots of people do. Do you know he has like an online cult following? If he makes an investment trade, so do like millions of other people. I'm not shocked actually. Yeah, neither am I. I'm one of them. Bye. I'm actually not. I just really like following what he does, not necessarily implementing it. I'm just pervy, you know, you've met me. I need to look under the hood of everybody. Absolutely. Anyway, I guess that leads me to my next point, which is trust yourself and have some conviction back. Okay. So how many times have you read an article, watched a news report,

jumped online, took a tip from a friend about the next hot stock and lost money? A couple of times. Yeah, you have. Bitcoin being number one. Yes. Dogecoin. Dogecoin was the other. Yeah. So like We don't trust Bec with her investment recommendations. Don't listen to me. There is only one piece of advice I would say you should ever act upon, and that's use your own exhaustive research based on facts, not opinions. Those two things are very different. Obtained from trusted sources.

Other advice can be considered and obviously verified, but it should never be the sole reason to commit money to something. Yeah. Just because someone said it was good, Bec, and just because your mates were doing it does not mean that it is a good decision at all. do your research have a bit of a think about it make sure it fits your risk profile and what you're trying to achieve the next thing is look ahead i always say when in doubt zoom out look at the bigger picture i genuinely mean that successful investors don't actually look at

what's happening today it's why when you know the uproar about the big four banks was happening last year like remember everyone was talking about oh my gosh they're screwing investors because they're increasing interest rates what does this mean should i still be invested in them I didn't even second look. I own a couple of the big four banks in my portfolio. I didn't even blink. And the reason I didn't blink is because I already know they're tried true quality businesses and what was going on was reflective of the market. It did not matter what was going on with other people's opinions because they didn't know what they were talking about at the end of the day. Liz Warren Buffett is out here telling me, I don't know why my friend

that's a doctor or a dentist or a hairdresser is going to know more about the investment world than people who actually work in investment, right? Right. One of my favorite books. And if you're looking for an investment book to read at the start of this year, I read this every year and it's the most dry, bland, boring book in the entire world. But I read it all the time. You go for it.

I read it all the time because it's like the investing basics. Like it's the start of the start. It's called The Richest Man in Babylon. And it's about, I guess, investing basics. Like where investment started and it started in marketplaces. And one of the things that is said in The Richest Man in Babylon is you would never take advice on buying diamonds from a bricklayer. And you just go, that makes sense.

It does make sense. So every time someone gives you some advice, go, well, where is it coming from? Yes. So you can have a really beautiful conversation over brunch. Don't shut your friends down. Have those chats. Absorb that information. But when it comes back to making your own decision, be like, did I get this advice from

the diamond trader or did I get it from the bricklayer? because if I'm buying diamonds, I probably want to be talking to a diamond specialist. I don't actually want to be talking to a brickie. That's a beautiful analogy. Does that make sense? Yeah. So anyway, that's where I would be looking. Look at the momentum of a company as well, or an entire economy and how it interacts with its competitors. If you invested now, what will happen in the future? I think it's really important to understand that most businesses are really forward thinking. If you're looking at investing something now or trying to jump on the bandwagon of an investment that's already like in its heyday, already had all of that social

media momentum that's had short-term gains, you've actually probably already missed out. Like you're probably not going to, like if your mate is talking about how they've had really great gains in the last six months with a particular stock, like why would that continue in this economy right like it sounds good sounds sexy but it's it's probably not going to be sustainable for the future so we need to look at that so try and find the next big thing not necessarily the thing that has been the big thing for your friends but then always anchor your portfolio with great companies that have you know long-term track records and steady growth not like oh my gosh dogecoin is really trendy i'm gonna put all my money in there sorry to attack you like this

on this episode. No, no, no. Which, Bec, leads me to my final point. Be patient. It's a long game. That's the tough part. It's a long game. I'm impulsive. So this doesn't work for me either, which is, I guess, why I had to become so educated because I just want things to happen right now. If I invest today, right, it would be so good to be a millionaire tomorrow. Ideally. Ideally, right? Like, what do you mean I'm going to check it tomorrow and it's going to be worth nothing? it might be worth less. Ew. Yeah, that's so scary. But we actually have to zoom out. So you will have heard me say a million times, even in this episode, when in doubt, zoom out, look at the bigger picture. Yeah. I promise that is going to make you a better investor if you are able to genuinely go

hold up my portfolios down. Let's actually just like look at the bigger picture. One of my favorite resources is the Vanguard Interactive Index Chart. Go have a look at that online because when you zoom out and go, oh, well, what has the market done over the last 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, however long you're planning on being invested, I promise it looks far more sexy than what the returns over the last 12 months have. Because like everyone's having a bit of a hard time during this economy. But if you look at what's going on in our economy right now, and then you compare it to the global financial crisis, which arguably was our biggest financial crisis, you know, in, I guess you could say more modern times. That happened in 2008, 2009. And if

we, you know, go back that far and have a look at what the dip in the market there looked like and cut it off, you go, oh my gosh, the market was steadily going up and then it crashed down, it was terrifying. But then if you go from 2009 to 2024, the market recovers even greater than what the crash was. So it always comes back. Always comes back. And we need to understand that that's how the economy works. So during the global financial crisis, so many people freaked out, sold their portfolios, they were selling their house. Like there's obviously a lot to the GFC, which we can explain another day. But lots of people freaked out because it was the biggest crash in history, Bec. But the people that made the most money during the global financial

crisis were the calm ones that left their money invested so that today it is outperforming. even what the high of the global financial crisis market was. Oh, you'd be absolutely cheering. Exactly. And if you had sold then, you're absolutely kicking yourself, right? Because now you're looking at this bigger chart going, wow, like it actually recovered. And at the time, it didn't feel like it was going to recover. Felt like the financial world was falling down around us.

But when in doubt, zoom out. It is so important to, I guess, take a step back and go, if this is happening to me as an individual investor, it's probably happening to millions of individual investors. And if you're on a good platform and you're in, you know, a solid ETF or a solid business, I promise they're freaking out more than you are because they want their returns to go back to normal too. Yeah. So don't stress too much. Don't panic. When in doubt, zoom out. Okay. Are there any other things to consider before we wrap up? I mean, obviously there are some really good books. She's on the Money, Indie Vesting with She's on the Money. Obviously listen

to podcasts. There are so many out there. Obviously we can talk about our own, but if you're this far into this episode, you already listened to us, but I've got a couple of favorites. Obviously I love My Millennial Money. I think that they are really, obviously they can be a lot more technical than I am, which some people absolutely love and they deep dive into different things. Go have a listen to them, even just look up money podcasts online and see what other content exists that you might resonate with. Join our Facebook group, keep in touch with the community, have a good chat with people, start bringing it up at brunch. Like you don't need to do this alone. Even if you don't have any quote friends in your immediate friend circle that are going to talk about this with you,

I will jump into our Facebook group. I live there on the daily. Like you ask questions, I'm there to answer. This is why we are here, right? So I think that then gets specific with your situation. So work out what you can do. Bec, your situation is going to be very different to someone in their fifties investing for the first time. So don't look at what other people are doing. Look at what Bec needs to do and how she needs to, you know, just put one foot in front of the other to get into the market. If you're already in the market and you want to be a better investor, what does that look like for you? Because if you then compare yourself to other people's journeys. You're going to be like, I've been investing for 10 years. And then you see,

you know, Sharon down the road and she's been investing for 10 years, but she had so much disposable income and is now rolling in it. Right. What's that going to do for you? Make me sad. Exactly. Do we want to do that? No. What benefit does that provide? Yeah, I see what you're saying. Nothing. So that's where I'm at. And I think now it's time to wrap because I deserve a coffee after all of that. Yeah, absolutely. You changed my life. That's for sure. Thanks, babe. It's because I bought your coffee. Exactly. Let's get another one. All right. Have a good week, guys. We will see you on Friday. Bye. 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. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of MoneySherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.