She's On The Money - A rookie's guide to investing: part one

Episode Date: July 30, 2019

IT'S TIME, LADY LOVES! Today, we're going to learn the basics of investing: what is it, and why should you start ASAP? Do you love the podcast SICK and want more SOTM? Of course you do! Join our Facebook page to share your money wins and money confessions, follow us on Insta for daily inspo to keep you on track and DEFINITELY subscribe to our newsletter, the written recap of the pod's key takeaways, including some bonus bits you won't want to miss... In a money mess and need help untangling the muddle? We've got you sorted - simply record your qualm and send it through to us at [e-mail] and you may end up on the podcast! 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 only and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. Victoria Devine is an Authorised Representative of Consultum Financial Advisers Proprietary Limited ABN 65 006 373 995 I AFSL 230323.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. I'm one of your co-hosts, Annabelle Lee. I'm a law student and a millennial on a desperate quest for better financial literacy. So, in order to get that tiny bit smarter with money, each week I enlist the help of my friend and the very best money expert I know, Victoria Devine.

Welcome, Victoria. Hiya. Victoria, let's do our favourite new thing to do, which is giving a few Facebook group members shoutouts because they've been sharing their money wins. Do you want to share yours first? I do. Alright, so my first one is from Lizzie and she said in the Facebook group this week that she paid off her credit card and put a plan in place to develop her rainy day fund to $2,000

before November and start saving for a trip that she wants to go on next year and she's feeling super empowered and that made me feel so good when I read it yay Lizzie mine is from Steph who said this one's very out my alley it definitely is she said I usually fill up with petrol at the server on my street because it's convenient checked a fuel price out for the first time today drove 10 minutes away and filled up for 10 cents a litre less. Yes. Dread to think how much I've wasted over the years but feeling encouraged to do the work to find ways to save. I want to know what app she's using. I don't know what app it is. Steph if you could post in the Facebook group what app you were using that would I guess help everybody. Thank you so much Steph.

Now on the agenda today. Yep we're talking investing finally. It seems to be the one money topic so many of us don't know how to get a handle on. We don't know where to start, we don't know how it works, and we don't know how to use it to our advantage. So welcome to Investing 101, part one. Yes, ladies, this will be a two-part episode, so we all get smarter. I need to get smarter. But before we do any of that, Victoria, you know what we have to do. Give me a money win or a money confession from the week, please. All right. So I have another money win for this week, and this week is something that I'm actually a little bit proud of myself for because it's not something i've done before so this week

i ordered a dress on the iconic and when i got it home and tried it on i realized i didn't love it and previously i probably would have just popped it in my wardrobe for a rainy day and said i'll make it work at some point and it never works no it never works and you leave it there and then it's got tags on it still and then it gets 12 months down the track and your friend's going through your wardrobe is like oh look at this dress you're like oh that's awkward i completely forgot about that but I actually packaged it up and sent it back to the iconic because I knew I wouldn't wear it and you got a refund I did I did and now I am a hundred dollars richer and I don't have a dress that I'm not gonna wear that's what I love about the iconic though it's free returns

right yes it was amazing it was really easy and it used the packaging that the dress came in originally so I feel like I didn't lose anything good for the environment good for my bank account everybody wins I have had not a great week with money is it related to fuel probably like knowing me i have a lot of fuel issues i'm working on it but i've been spending a lot on food and like going out for drinks and whatever but i've actually i'm actually going to tell you a money win which you know about because you just gifted me a shameless merch jumper i did and it came with a free cookie okay the cookie is probably the best part i was going to buy one for myself actually i actually already have a shameless t-shirt so you know that i love shameless merch

i want to be part of the gang so i was going to buy one victoria bought one for me instead money win. The ultimate money win. Now let's jump straight into investment talk. 6.48 million Australians currently own investments listed on the share market. Only 31% of Australian women currently invest in shares compared to a sizable 44% of Australian men. Victoria, why is it that men are beating women in the investing game? So I don't particularly love this conversation around women being beaten by men in the investing game. I think it is what it is. I think one of the most important things I want to draw your attention to here though, is whilst more men invest than women, women are actually outperforming men when it comes to investment returns. So we are technically

better investors than men. Yeah, which means more of us should get involved. Exactly. That's true. But why do you think women aren't investing in the first place? For exactly the same reason, they are getting better returns than men. And that's because we are typically more conservative than men are. So men are often willing to go into a riskier investment or take a chance on something than women are we often feel like we need to be across the entire situation before even dipping our toes in so you know that really well-known analogy that says that if a woman doesn't feel like they fit every single piece of criteria in a job description she doesn't apply for the job I've definitely been there yeah exactly but then men feel like if they meet only

I think it's 80% don't quote me I'm not sure if I'm right on this but if they feel like they meet 80% they they will apply for the role so I think that women feel as though they need to be a 100% across what they're going to jump into, whereas men are willing to take a bit more of a chance. Which in this case, is it a better thing to be more tentative, do you think? I think in the beginning, it's always intelligent to make sure that you know where you're going and what foot you're going to put in front of the other and what that looks like. But at the same time, that's why you're here, right? That's why you're listening to the She's on the Money podcast. You want to get better at these things and you're going to by the end of the episode.

Yay. So on that note, though, how exactly do you create wealth? So let's be really, really simple here. The mechanics of wealth creation are incredibly simple. You have to spend less than you earn and invest consistently over the long term. That's what creates wealth. So there are heaps of other little intricacies to this, but those are the two main things. If you can create a lifestyle for yourself where you are spending less than you are earning and you're able to consistently invest in something on a monthly or weekly basis, then you are going to be able to, over the long term, create wealth. So it's something you have to incorporate into your lifestyle, I guess.

Absolutely. And I think the investment industry and the finance industry as a whole likes to make this seem a whole heap more complicated than it actually is. Let's start with the most basic of the basics then. What exactly is an investment? Fun question. An investment is something which you purchase with money, which you expect to produce an income or a profit for you. So ideally you'll have both income and growth in an investment because that's my favourite type of investment it's one where it grows in value but it also gives you cash along the way okay gotcha so what on earth is a share then and why might I want to buy some because I feel like I should be buying some right now because I have savings and I'm not doing anything with those

savings let's talk so first part of that question a share is simply a teeny tiny part of a company so a company goes to market puts themselves on the stock exchange and as a shareholder you're able to purchase a very small amount of that company so you know think of a pie it's divided up into a million slices and you get a tiny piece of that pie that entitles you to the income that that business produces and it also entitles you to the growth that business achieves so you might buy a share for a dollar right now and then the company performs well so the share increases in price and it's worth you know maybe a dollar fifty if you're lucky and then because in that year that company did really well, they divide some of the profit to you. So you might get 20 or 30 cents

back for owning that share. So you get income and growth. That's like a 30 cent Kona Maccas. It's good enough for me. I wish they were still 30 cents. I think they're like 60 cents now. What a drainer. Bad, bad investment. So would you, how much would you recommend I put into a share then? Is it true that the bare minimum to get my foot in the door is $500? I think a lot of people throw this number around, but they're not entirely sure of why $500 would be the minimum. So it's not because shares cost $500. That is absolutely not the case at all. It's actually because of the brokerage on the share. So brokerage is where you have to pay a transaction cost to get your money into purchasing a share. And that is actually quite pricey. So on larger sums of money,

it becomes far less. So hypothetically, you could buy one $1 share if you really wanted to. but the reason you don't is because there's actually a minimum brokerage amount which then forms what we call the cost base for your asset. So that $1 share you purchased you would then pay maybe $12 brokerage on it so that share actually cost you $13 and the problem is that now you have an asset that's worth $1 and to break even your share actually has to perform to be more than $13 in terms of return. So that's, to me, very unrealistic expectations for share performance and for investment performance. So that is why I wouldn't recommend buying shares at a lower level or buying shares for small sums of money. I'd be looking at, you know, bulk buying

shares. So for me, then it doesn't feel like it's worth buying a share. Is that true? Do you reckon? Do you know what? If you're going to buy one share, it's absolutely not worth it. If you're paying $12 brokerage and then you're buying a share that is worth $1. If you're buying $1,000 worth of shares, $12 on $1,000 worth of shares actually seems quite reasonable. So when I'm talking to clients and when I'm talking to people about getting into the share market, I think it's really important to bundle money together. So maybe have a savings account off to the side that you know that when it gets to $1,000, that's when you purchase a whole heap of shares and going to the share market instead of buying you know $20 worth of shares here and

there because that all adds up and your brokerage actually becomes the reason why your investment might not perform as well as it could. So this could be a dumb question sorry in advance where do I go to invest like do I do it on the internet or is there a website that I go to? So absolutely not a dumb question at all it is probably one of the most common questions that gets asked about purchasing shares or starting your investment journey so there are a whole heap of ways you can buy a share or shares in general as we just worked out we need to be buying them bulk lots the first is self-directed so there are platforms like comsec self-wealth and ig markets that you're able to buy your own shares on but i think if you're going to be purchasing shares on your own

and going out making all those decisions you really need to know exactly what you're doing So not only do I want you to be understanding exactly what you're buying, but you need to understand, one, how to create a well-diversified portfolio, but also understand the company that you're purchasing's financials and their management record and understand what their board is and how their executive team works and, you know, what the culture of that business looks like. and that, if you actually distill it down, is a lot to take on as an individual, especially if you're saying, well, I've got my first $1,000, what do I do with that? Making a decision on which share you purchase is actually a lot more complex than you might think it is. The second place you could go if you're not going to purchase shares on your own is a financial advisor. I think there's a massive misconception in the market that a financial advisor is for someone who's either really rich or about to retire and that couldn't be further from the

truth. You don't go to the gym once you're already fit. So why would you see a financial advisor once you're already rich? So a financial advisor is going to partner with you to create wealth and hold your hand during that journey and help you put together an investment portfolio and show you where to start and what you can do and how to do it in the most efficient way. So in what part of the process should I get a stockbroker? What even is a stockbroker? So a stockbroker is just someone who buys and sells shares on behalf of a client so that is like as I mentioned before places like Comsec they're a stockbroker they broker stocks but they don't help you select the stocks that are right for you they just buy the stocks that you instruct them to buy for you

you know unlike the movies like Wolf of Wall Street is it is it the guy well typically it's a guy who's in that big room with all the tvs and oh that's me no no no absolutely not yeah so they're stockbrokers. They're the kinds of people that are going to sell shares to anyone who will take them and anyone they can convince to purchase the shares that they are offering. Okay. When should I invest then? Yesterday. Oh no. So they always say if you are going to plant a tree the best time to plant a tree is 50 years ago and the second best time is today. So investing over the long term is not going to be gratifying immediately. It's going to take 10, 20, 30 years before you even see that compounding effect take place. I'm so impatient. I am too. And I think that most

people listening to this podcast are as well, because that's just the nature of our generation. We are quite impatient. We aren't in a position where we are willing to wait long-term for things in a world where we can click and have, you know, an iconic delivery at our doorstep on the same day that I ordered it. It seems a bit ridiculous to be waiting 10, 20, 30 years for something, but it is so incredibly important to work out what your long-term goals are. And if you're going to start this investment journey, start it for the long-term. So money on average doubles every 10 years. So if we look at the Australian share market, that has an average rate of return of 7.5% over the last 30 years. And if we look at that, that means that your money will double

in seven to 10 years. And I think that that's really important to take into consideration because I'm not ever recommending anybody to go into an investment if they are not willing to wait it out for the long term. But it seems like it'd be worth it. Doubling is huge. Absolutely. And that's the effect of compounding interest. So if I still have a mortgage then or a debt to my name,

should I be paying that off first before I look into investment? So there's no actual black and white answer to this. It could be a yes, it could be a no. It really depends upon your personal situation and the interest rate you have on the debts that you have. So if you've got personal debt or credit card debt and your interest rate on that is 15%, you essentially have an investment that's making you negative 15% and you need to get rid of that as soon as possible. Whereas if you have a mortgage and you're paying 3.5%, but then the

Australian share market is returning 7.5% over the long term and you still have another 30 years left on your 3.5% mortgage, I know where I'd be putting my money. Right. So how the hell do I know what to invest in then? Like how do I research what my options are? So again, you could have a chat to a financial advisor. They're going to know what works for you. A very big part of investment is understanding your risk profile. And whilst that's not a very exciting thing to talk about, it educates you on what level of risk you're willing to take on. So with any type of investment, there is always risk versus return. And the more risk you take on, the more return you are likely to have. But in the same vein, you're also taking on more risk. So potentially losing more. Yeah,

you're essentially putting yourself in a position where you could lose more money, but the return on that money, if it is successful, is going to be greater. So you need to understand that before you even talk about the types of shares you're investing in or what works for you. And that's such a personal thing. Yeah. So you can't just like dive into it to be like, oh, I'm going to invest. No. And my job would be so much easier if I could just say on this podcast, hey, here's 10 stocks everybody should purchase and it's going to make you wealthy and this will work really well. Because unfortunately, that's not the case and it's not how it works. And even if I created a portfolio today of what I believe are the 10 best stocks

for a particular risk profile, tomorrow that could be a different set of companies based on the way the share market performs. There have been a bunch of conversations in our Facebook group from women who don't want to buy a home. Why is investing a great other option to create wealth? So I think there are a lot of people who are going to argue with me on this point, but I don't personally believe that a family home is an investment.

Why not? So it is the one asset that you will spend the most money on. So if you purchase a home and you live in that home, that home becomes an asset where you're funneling money. So you might want a new kitchen or a new bathroom or the hot water system might break and you need to replace it. All of those things don't add value to your home in the grand scheme of things. I mean, there are situations where people purchase property and they

flip it and they put in a beautiful new kitchen and it increases its value by X amount. So I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a family home that you move into for the long term. It's also something where if you've got owner-occupier debt on that property it's not deductible whereas sometimes if you have debt on an investment or an investment property that debt could be deductible owner-occupier debt so it means debt on the home that you live in so it is you purchase a home you move into that home and for living in that home you have an interest rate to pay that is the debt that you're paying the bank to live in that house and paid off. So I currently have all my money in a high interest bank account because I feel like

it's safer. Why should I invest though? Should I keep that money in that bank account or should I invest in shares? Again, contentious point. There's a lot of conversation going on in our Facebook group around what the best bank account is and what gets you the highest rate of return. And there's a lot of people up in arms because recently interest rates have been cut and places that used to be the favorites of people in the group like ing have dropped their interest

rates pretty significantly in comparison to what they used to have and it all makes sense and it is great to be seeking out something that has a real interest rate return really important but if we think about it properly a real rate of return on a quote-unquote high interest bank account is actually 0.7%. So do you want your money only making you 0.7%? No. No. So regardless of what the interest rate is, and it's much better than nothing. So that's the real rate of return. So that's not, you know, the 2% or whatever they're advertising at that point in time in terms of return, because this year inflation is 1.8%. So if you then look at the real rate, 0.7%, is that going to create wealth for you long term? Yes, no, maybe I think it's something you need to

have a really good think about. I'm quite risk averse. I think that's why I haven't invested in shares. What's the risk involved in investing in shares? What if I lose money? That's a part of investment. So there is always going to be a risk that something will happen. That is the nature of investment. Even just the term investment means putting your money in a place that could potentially win something, but it could also lose something. I think that if you're going to start looking at investments, though, you need to start looking at it over the long term and not really get caught up in the volatility of the market. So volatility is how much the market moves up and down. And, you know, we hear of horror stories like the GFC and how the entire market crashed

and lots of people lost a lot of money. But those people who were invested very smartly didn't actually lose a lot of money because they rode that wave. They let their stocks crash down to not be worth a lot and over the period of time between 2009 when the crash happened to now they've actually made money if they stayed invested what happens often is people freak out so if you look at your investment account and you had a thousand dollars in there and then you looked at it and it was only worth a hundred dollars you are very likely to want to pull that hundred dollars out to quote save what you've got left when in actual fact that is the point where you're going to make the biggest loss and you need to ride it out so that your money can recover and you end up with

a gain. If we look at the Australian share market since, let's call it 1985, the average rate of return, including the GFC, is about 10%. So if we invest over the long term, we're not really losing. Okay. Why is it important for young women to understand about investing now? Because the sooner you start, the more time you have for compounding to take effect and the more time you have to compound wealth so if you start investing money when you're in your early 20s and you're investing in a figure like 500 a month and i know that that could be really unreasonable for some people but this example is just an example if you're investing 500 a month from the age of 21 until 65 you'll have an investment portfolio worth about 1.3 or 1.4

million dollars no which is a lot of money it's it's a lot of money and that compounds over time And if you're investing from that period of time, you're actually only investing cash of about $240,000 and you're making about a million dollars in return. Simple. Well, simple but not that simple because a lot of people don't have the ability to invest or they don't have the knowledge and a lot of people are in a position where they, you know, might not feel comfortable to do that yet or aren't ready to commit to that. So that's just the power of starting early.

Whereas if you started in your late 30s, you're going to need to contribute $3,000 or $4,000 a month to reach the same goal that the person starting in their early 20s only had to invest $500 for. So one thing I actually wanted to mention before we move on, Annabelle. Do tell. I want to quickly chat about superannuation. So there are a lot of questions in the Facebook group around superannuation and where your money should go and what that looks like. And, you know, what funds should I be with? How does this work? how does it not work? If you think that you're not an investor, but you have a superannuation

fund, you are wrong. You are an investor already because all of the money in your superannuation fund has been invested on your behalf. So a key thing about super is that whilst I'm saying right now that the money in your super is invested, superannuation in itself is not an investment. It is a tax vehicle, which just means that you are investing all of that money with a good tax gain. So your superannuation fund is invested, which means you're actually already an investor. It just means it's in a safer tax environment. So superannuation is taxed at 15%, whereas most of you will have marginal tax rates on your income at more than 15%. So if you think you're not an investor, you actually already are. Superannuation is almost 10% of your income that comes out of

your account every single month. So I think you should be taking that seriously. And, you know, if you want to start investing, have a really good think about where your super is. Make sure you're consolidating your account so you're not paying double fees and really start looking at that because one day it could be your biggest asset. Right. I need to do that. ASAP. Hi there. You've called the She's on the Money hotline. Do you have a money problem you want help solving do you have a money dilemma you just want to chat about victoria is here to help each week we'll be playing your hotline questions to help make sense of the money mess you may have found yourself in give us a call on 0435 293 886 and you might find yourself on the show

Hi, Victoria and Annabelle. I have a question for Shoes on the Money. I am really scared of investing in shares because my dad used to do that a lot and he lost quite a bit of money. So what is the go with them? How do you do them? Are they the best way to be investing?

I just need some help in that whole space. love the show thanks bye as a fearful person myself victoria i would like to know how would she move through that fear i think it's really important here to remember that all investments carry some level of risk and potentially having a discussion with your dad about the types of shares he was invested in where he got them from how that worked is going to educate you into knowing what potentially is and isn't a good investment also have a chat with a financial advisor understand why your dad lost money on that to begin with because if you don't know why he lost money originally it won't be something you can look for in the future.

All investments carry risk there is the potential of losing money but at the same time if you're investing in really solid conservative investments that risk is far lower. So it's important to do your research and suss out what's risky what's not make your own informed decisions. Absolutely And it goes back to what we were saying before about when the GFC hit and share prices plummeted, a lot of people got out at that point. And if you speak to a lot of people who got out at that point, they'll say they lost all of their money in shares and that, you know, the GFC was the worst part of their life. Please don't get me wrong.

The GFC was awful, but a lot of people got out because of their fear rather than because of being educated and knowing that they should be riding it out. I also have a lot of clients who will tell you that the GFC is what made them wealthy as well because share prices plummeted and they purchased shares when they were worth nothing which meant now as they've recovered they've made quite a sum of money so I think it's really important to understand as much as he lost money on shares how did he lose money at what point in the market did he get out and how did that work for him. And now it's time for the pervy stuff. It's time for our weekly money diary where we ask an Australian woman what exactly is in your bank account. Let's

do this. Today's money diary is from a 33 year old fitness influencer who says she's got a pretty good handle on money. I am at a point I guess now in my career where I've been building my business for a few years now and I've gone from earning around $60,000, $65,000 in a corporate job now to two or three times that given the year. So I've just gotten to a really good place where I have a fairly steady income and enough money to play with as well as safe. There are like peaks and troughs throughout the year but not too many lulls which is good but I will sort of have a large intake of clients all at once where I get a whole bunch of money in within you know a two week period and that's kind of going to last me sometimes for two to three months. So I kind of

just factor that in and put aside as much money as I can in those situations to try and have a little bit of a nest egg to spread out. Okay. So down to the nitty gritty stuff. How much does 33 and Comfortable earn as an influencer? I have to add it up, but I think my last estimate was around 180 to 185, but this is before tax, before super and like expenses. So I think after all of that, probably around a hundred. Well, I just put 20,000 into my super the other day and I just booked a seven week trip to Europe so I've ducked into that so it was at a hundred thousand and it's now at sixty five thousand or seventy I'm so proud when I got to the hundred thousand I was like oh my god this is so I just did not ever think that I would be in this position um so like it makes

me really proud and I didn't come from a super wealthy background like my mom had like Centrelink payments and I have four sisters and a brother so big family to look after with a single income family so we didn't have a lot but we got by so I just I didn't think I would even run my own business like I was never super business minded and then to be earning as much as I do and be so comfortable and you know it makes me really happy that I've worked so hard to get here. So we know how comfortable gets paid but what exactly happens to that money after it's deposited into her account? I'm not super structured with it and that's probably something I'd like to work on is actually like working out the percentage every time I get an income or you know at least

once a month and allocating it accordingly um but at this point I pretty much move as much as I can to my savings every time I get an influx um and I kind of live off the drip feeding like um I have a few clients that are like week-to-week payments um so I'll tend to mostly just live off that which is like you know a few hundred dollars a week that'll pay you know my rent and all my little bits and pieces and any big chunks that come in will go straight to my savings and I'll either save it, put it towards tax or put it towards like back into my business. Ah yes and time for that question no one seems to know much about. Does Comfortable invest and if not why? I don't only because I don't have the knowledge so it's definitely something I would like to get

into I think now that I'm in a financial position to look into it it's probably something that I should educate myself on but I've just you know my family didn't really have any investments or anything so I kind of haven't learned I haven't been around that so it'd be something I guess to look into and you know buy a house as well and have some more assets and what about debts I have no debt I'm really proud to say that actually and I have a phobia of like credit cards so that's just me but I've just like always had a thing about trying not to spend money that I don't have um I have after pay I don't use it unless it's I've forgotten my wallet and I need to pay for something um and I mean I didn't go to uni so I kind of skipped easily on that one um you know

I've had loans before I had a car loan and a few personal loans here and there and you know I used to borrow money from my mom like to do my personal training course I had to borrow a few thousand dollars but I've just gotten to the point now where I don't spend money if I don't have it and I'm so blessed to be able to do that though obviously like that's not the case for everyone but I guess yeah I've got the money to spend if I really want something you know if I'm traveling I can kind of just plan for that and I just work for things in advance I'm more of a forward planner so I'm like I know I want to travel I'm going to just hustle a little bit more to get there so does comfortable have any good money habits that she's especially proud of I don't

probably not having a credit card although I did recently get one just for the Qantas frequent flyer points it has like a hundred thousand free frequent flyer points I was like okay I'll get that um but I literally like I pay that off before the bill even comes in because I just have a phobia of like interest. And her worst money habits? I think because I'm so comfortable with my money now I don't think enough when I spend money when it's just $100 here $200 there it doesn't really make a big impact on my weekly income so I'm a little bit too frivolous that's something I'd like to rein in maybe buy less activewear. It looks like 33 and comfortable seems to have it sorted so what's she actually saving for and what's the money sitting there for? I really want

buy a house so I'd like to get my savings back up to 100 before I buy a house so hopefully in the next like 18 months I can do that and a lot of travel before I buy a house. I'm doing seven weeks in Europe soon so that's costing me a lot a lot of money but it's worth it. So how would today's money diarist rate her own relationship with money if we forced her to give herself a grade oh that's a tough one maybe like a b i mean i know i your faces i earn good money but i think i could be smarter with it i definitely could invest i definitely could have more assets um and probably not spend as if i didn't buy things so flippantly imagine the savings i would have am i the only one who wishes that i went into influencing as a career no i sometimes think i do

I actually have a fair few clients who work as social media influencers and seeing what they do and how they get paid sometimes blows my mind. But at the same time, you should see the amount of effort they have to put in in the background to actually get those things off the ground. That's right. Always being on your phone. 33 Uncomfortable said that she had no debt and that she had a phobia of interest, I think, one of the better phobias. Did that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside when she said she had no debt? It did. And I think if everyone in the She's On The Money community can just start having a phobia

of debt, that would be absolutely fantastic because we would all be better off for it. What about things she can improve on? What do you think? So again, I think I'm going to have to go back to financial education. So she just needs to increase her financial literacy, learn about what investing is, learn about what you're doing with super, learn about what you want to do with this house you're planning on purchasing. I think it's really inspiring to see that she's putting her super forward and she's saying look

this is a value to me and I've put twenty thousand dollars into my super this year but also why are you putting it in super like why was that choice made superannuation is an investment vehicle right so it's exactly the same as you investing outside of superannuation if you went and set up an investment portfolio the money in that investment portfolio is invested in exactly the same way it is within superannuation. Superannuation is just a tax structure which means that you are paying less tax on that money but it is also locked away until your retirement age. So I think as much as it's a really tax effective vehicle to use for investing and saving for the future it also means you can't touch that money until you retire and I think that her prioritizing that is really

important but also creating an asset that's going to help her for the next 40 or 50 years not in the short term, but creating an asset that's going to help her get to retirement and give her the freedom of choice is really important. So learning a little bit more about investment would be really important. Learning about what she wants to do with the house she wants to purchase, where is she going to purchase, what does that look like and how is she going to facilitate it? I think that would be a really good starting point. So do you think her rating of a B that she gave herself was accurate? I never want to argue with people's ratings of themselves because a B, that's a really good score.

She could put a plus on that. She could put a plus on that. But I think she also, you know, if she feels like she's got a lot to learn, then I don't want to argue with that. I want to say, all right, how do we help you learn what you need to learn about investing, about saving,

about creating the future you want to create? And what does that look like? Like as much as she's been financially successful thus far, it's also really important to reflect on the fact that, you know, just because you've been financially successful in the short term how are you going to make yourself financially successful in the long term and that's more about investing in yourself and in assets that help you create wealth right just keep listening to she's on the money podcast hopefully we can help her with her education

coming right at you that's all we have time for today just before we head off though as always let's quickly wrap the boring but important stuff 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 only and should not be relied upon to make an investment or a financial decision. And as always,

we promise Victoria Devine is an authorised representative of Consultum Financial Advisors Proprietary Limited, ABN 65006 373 995, AFSL 2303 23. All right, join our Facebook group where 4,000 women share money,

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