She's On The Money - Community Q&A

Episode Date: September 28, 2021

Happy Wednesday Angel Pies! We popped a little thread in our Facebook Group for you to ask your questions and G + V have done their best to answer a few questions! To have a little look-see through the link V mentioned, you can find them here and here! You can also go to our website and submit a discovery form to chat with us.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 is an Authorised Representative of Australia Pacific Funds Management Proprietary Limited ABN 34 132 463 257 - AFSL 339151.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. Now today we've decided to shake things up a little bit. It's Q&A day and we'll be answering our community's most burning finance career and life topics and boy oh boy are there some absolute crackers to get to. Well maybe, maybe that'll come up. There actually is a question about partners at one point. Okay, I like that. She's on the money, the podcast for millennials who just want advice. Like not financial freedom, we're now just working towards an advice style

podcast. Is that what we're doing? Well, that could be a new pod girl. We'll talk about it in our lifestyle. Stunning. Now, my name is Georgia King. I'm a, what am I? A podcaster? I don't know. Copywriter. Do you even know who you are now? Maybe we'll go into pop culture. That could be fun. Joining me as always is Victoria Divine V. Why are you so excited about today's Q&A episode? It's a bit different from us. I just think it's really fun. How fun to do a little q a i feel like we should do more of these i mean depending on how this one goes but being able to interact with the community is literally my favorite thing ever so knowing that we just get to answer a whole bunch of community questions on an entire episode hopefully is going

to be really relatable but also super fun for you guys to listen to as well because we've both tried georgia really hard to make sure that all the questions are kind of ones you probably were already thinking about not necessarily just like left of field ones where people are giving their entire life story. And you're like, that has nothing to do with me. So hopefully everyone can learn a little bit and, you know, take away a few hot tips that might help them financially. 100%. The questions are quite varied as well, which we love. And before we get into it, just a big shout out to everyone who responded to my Q&A post in the group. V, you were impressed with the Photoshop. Yeah. If I recall correctly. But no, we had such a great response. And

Unfortunately, not every question could be in here. Otherwise, we would be here until 2022. All right, V, enough chatter from us. Let's get into it. Our first question for today is from Christina, who has asked, how can you save for a house deposit and invest in shares at the same time? Is it better to take longer to save up and invest simultaneously, or should you focus all of your energy on saving first? Georgia, poor Kenna lost us. No, that's probably not the answer. And that's actually still my favorite ad. Like why not both? And the reason is because it's slowing down your goals and being able to achieve them. So if you want to save for a house deposit, we all know that is one of the most overwhelming financial goals you can take on yourself.

and to save up the probably a hundred thousand dollars is going to take not only a significant sacrifice on your behalf, but a significant chunk of your time. And so when it comes to saving for a house deposit, when it comes to my clients and when it comes to my friends and most people in our community, you often see people say, you know what, I'm not going to invest in shares while saving for a house deposit, because that's going to slow down my goal of getting into the housing market, which I think is really reasonable and something we all need to consider. But the answer is actually based on your individual budget and your individual cashflow. For example, Georgia, if you said to me, V, I've got $500 a month that I can put into a house deposit.

And I go, great, G, that's really exciting. You're going to be able to save. And you know, what timeframe does that look like? And you go, okay, V, to achieve my goal, it's going to take 10 years. And I go, okay, fantastic. Let's start working towards that. But investing in shares as much as I'm obviously very excited about it is another asset that is going to take away your cashflow. And essentially the more you're putting into the house deposit, the quicker you're going to be able to achieve that goal. So it's all about priorities. And I think that too many times people listen to she's on the money and listen to me and to you, George, and they go, oh my gosh, like, Oh, I feel like I'm missing out because I'm not investing in shares yet.

You don't have to start today. You can start in the future. You can start at whatever time works for you. And as we always say, George, get out of personal debt before you start saving for a house deposit or start investing in shares, because investing in debt reduction is an investment in itself. But I don't genuinely believe that there is a straight answer to, is it better to take longer to save up and invest simultaneously or focus all your energy on your savings first? because the answer isn't necessarily a financial one, but more a personal goals one. So if I said

to you, Georgia, all right, well, do you want to buy a house first or save for shares? You might go, B, all I want is a house. I want to get into the property market ASAP. And in which case I'd say, okay, well, your goals are more aligned to saving for a house deposit. Maybe put the shares on the shelf for a little while. And once you've got your mortgage and you know what your cashflow looks like at that point, we can start an investment portfolio. But if you go, oh, I'm saving for a house, but like, I'm really passionate about shares and I don't mind if that goal of saving for a house takes me a little bit longer, then great. We can do both at once, but it's definitely down to what is going to suit you, what is going to suit your lifestyle and why are we

making these decisions? Yeah, perfect. So yeah, it just depends on your priorities and you're welcome to do both at once if you like, but that may not serve you if you do have the priority of getting straight into the housing market. Yeah, absolutely. Like for example, Georgia, I put purchasing shares on hold for a little while, while Steve and I aggressively saved the rest of our house deposit because I was like, no, I just want every dollar that we have going into this house deposit so that we can get there sooner. And now that we have the mortgage, I'm now investing again. But again, everybody's cashflow and budget is going to be different. love that okay hopefully that helps you out there christina our next question v is from julie now

she wants to know where she should focus as a woman in her 40s who hasn't always made the best life choices mostly when it comes to men she says i mean i'd say relatable but it's not relatable to me yet yet um so she's asking if she should focus on her super or outside investments her real concern is that she might be spreading her finances a little too thin and is wondering if it is better to focus on one area instead of multiple. I'm going to be a typical financial advisor and say, if you're in your forties and that's the situation you are in, speak to a financial advisor. I promise you it will be one of the best investments you make because not only are they going to show you where to not spread yourself thin, they're actually going to be able

to create a strategy that turbocharges your super or any of your other investments to make sure that you're achieving the financial freedom and the retirement that you want to. If you're in your forties, it's very likely you have maybe 20, 25 years left of working, which is so much time. You have not left it too late. In fact, you have heaps of time to create this wealth and actually get ahead. So my advice would be go and see a financial advisor, but obviously that isn't the most constructive answer, especially for a podcast where we're trying to teach people financial freedom on their own. So I would then say definitely weigh up what the difference is. Like with super, it's an incredibly tax effective environment, but there are also caps on how much

we can contribute each and every single year. And in a situation where you are saying you maybe haven't made the best financial choices historically, you're probably actually going to want to do a mix of both because if you are only focusing on, for example, superannuation and there's a cap there, that's not going to actually get you to your goal. So you're probably going to need to do a mix of both, which is actually really exciting because superannuation is something that is really easy to solve. You can go to the government website and compare all your different super funds and make a decision that is right for you. But then when it comes to outside investment, there are obviously plethoras of options that you could use. Like

you could go for a platform like shares is where you get your individual shares. You could go and chat to our friends at six park and, you know, have it managed for you. You could go down the route of picking literally any different type of brokerage platform. If shares are your type of investment, but again, I don't know what your asset portfolio looks like or your goals look like or your timeframe. So I think the most important thing here is if you feel like you haven't made the right financial choices thus far, there's no such thing as too late. And it's definitely about diversifying and getting some super stuff organized and also some other investments. But in the long term, we're actually looking at what we're trying to achieve for the future and then

maybe working back from it. Perfect. And if Julie does take you up on your advice fee of seeing a financial advisor, where should she go just quickly to find one? So there's the ASIC website where you can look up financial advisors. There is also a website where you can look up financial advisors in your area. Or if you have absolutely no idea, you can actually head to the She's On The Money website. It's a bit of form and we'll match you with one of our friends who we know is a good financial advisor. Perfection. I believe so. Let's move on now to Rochelle. Hello, Rochelle. She wants to know how to sensitively approach and discuss your partner's bad financial habits. Oh, having that chat is a struggle for some of us. Actually, I would say it's a struggle for

all of us because no one likes having a chat that's awkward hey george like oh no thank you whenever anything awkward is going on i bury my head in the sand and literally just ignore it which is absolutely not the best way to go about things which is probably why i shouldn't be giving the advice on this one georgia but if you're going to do it i would be organizing to have the chat and really focus not necessarily on their bad quote financial habits but rather on what type of future you're building together and highlight how important it is for you guys to be on the same team, not just mentally and when it comes to goal setting, but also financially. And I also think to actually help you in this situation, it's a really good thing to reflect on your personal

situation because as much as you might want to talk about your partner's quote, bad financial habits, we're not all perfect. We all have things that maybe our partner gets a little bit frustrated by. So I think reflecting on how maybe we would want them to approach that conversation if they wanted to broach it with us is really helpful. So not using accusatory language. I've talked about this before, being really gentle instead of saying things like, oh my gosh, Georgia, you always spend all of the money. I can't believe you do that. To like, hey, I just really feel like we don't have enough set goals that we're working towards together. Like I just don't feel like we are saving enough for X, Y, and Z. And I think changing the conversation from talking about

your current behavior to behavior we want to really start promoting is really important because no one wants to be told they're bad at something, but everyone can get on board with something when they find the motivation. So if I said to you, George, I really want to buy a house with you. I'm so excited to do that. You're going to go, V, I really want to do that too. I go, great, let's make a plan. How do you think that we could achieve that? Like, you know, how's your budget going? Do you think you could set aside a certain amount each week? I'm doing X, Y, Z, and really showing that you're walking the walk, not just expecting one thing from them and doing another yourself. So always making sure that you're on the same page is not just about

saying, Georgia, you need to get on my page, but rather talking about maybe creating a new page together and both be excited about moving towards that okay so have those joint goals and the other thing i wanted to say v as we do always say on the pod is that if you're if you're just like i can't have this conversation like it's too awkward it's too embarrassing just blame it on vicky d yeah i'll listen to the podcast yep yep she told me to do it sorry doll i love you um okay so hopefully that helps you, Rochelle. Now, Rachel is the next one, which is fun because the names are similar. So, Rachel wants to know about salary sacrificing V when you have a HECS debt. So, how does that work? And is there a risk that you'll be worse off for choosing to salary

sacrifice if you do have a HECS debt? Okay. So, for anyone who maybe doesn't know what that means, we need to remember that our HECS debts are repaid according to what we earn. So, for example, if you earn less than $46,620, Georgia King, you don't have to start paying it off. Kind of money win. But if you earn over that and under $53,826, George, then you'll need to pay 1% of your salary towards your debts. So roughly speaking, the amount of HECS that you need to repay increases by 0.5% with every increase of five grand or so to your salary. So you can find more information about that if you literally just google hex calculator and you pop your salary in and it will tell you exactly how much you pay but when it comes to salary sacrificing as well for those

of you who don't know it's an option that is available in many workplaces where employees can actually opt for like a reduced taxable income that then gives you additional benefits so it gives you benefits of like a phone or a car or maybe you'll have a food and entertainment card which I know a lot of people in healthcare have. And things can get quite confusing when you don't have a quote regular salary and you're taking some of your salary and other benefits and a salary sacrifice allows you to do that. So basically after defining both of those, if you have a HECS debt and you're salary sacrificing, it is very likely that you'll need to adjust your repayments and ensure that they actually line up with your annual taxable

income and your total reportable fringe benefits amount, which you're actually able to just find on your payslip very easily. And it's also really important to remember that you're going to need to inform payroll of your HECS debt as they don't automatically just adjust repayments because they assume you've got it. Because some people have it, some people don't, some people are still paying it off, et cetera. And you don't make adjustments and it ends up meaning that you're only paying HECS on your reduced income because that could land you with a very nice tax bill come June 30, all my birthday guys. So is there a risk of you being worse off? Yes, when it comes to getting a tax bill, nobody likes an unforeseen cost, but at the same time,

it all will equal out. It's just going to be some good planning and making sure that is in place. But nine times out of 10, if your business offers salary sacrificing, they're going to have someone in payroll who's going to be able to organize that for you and make sure you are better off. So in this situation, George, we're not actually talking about like, oh my gosh, if you've got salary sacrifice, you need to contribute more to your HECS. It's not about paying that debt off quicker. It's actually about having the debt paid off in relation to your whole taxable income, because the taxman actually takes into account your salary sacrifice as a part of your salary package. And otherwise you might find yourself in a pickle because it'll be calculated

wrong, which we do not want to occur, George. We don't want that. What if they say you've got your, your reduced income and then you've got all of your benefits, which are, are they called fringe benefits from memory? So if that compiled actually equates to more than what you would be earning if you weren't salary sacrificing, does that impact your hex at all? Like, would you have to pay more? Yeah. Look at the end of the day, example here is say I have a $60,000 income and my work are like, okay, cool. You can salary sacrifice a car to the amount of $10,000 a year. And I go, great, no problems. I'll take that entire $10,000 because round numbers and examples are cheap. So then your income has technically dropped to $50,000 and your taxable income

actually sits below that 53,826. So you're going to end up in a situation where your take-home money is taxed at a different rate than the money that you are salary sacrificing. But if I looked at your contract or the taxman looked at your contract about how much you're being remunerated, the total amount of remuneration you're receiving is to the value of $60,000. So yes, tax would completely change because the $10,000, the reason we salary sacrifice is to get some more benefit out of our tax, which is really good, but HECS doesn't work in exactly the same way. So we need to make sure we don't shoot ourselves in the foot and end up with a nasty hex bill at tax time, which nobody wants. Right. Okay. Gosh, finance can be complex. I love it. I know you do. My

head's just spinning over here. But hopefully that helps you as well, Rachel. We are going to head to a very short break now, guys. But on the other side, we will be answering plenty more of your questions. So please don't go anywhere. All right, Evie, we have returned and our first question up is from Tallulah. She wants to know your thoughts on investing from overseas. So she is moving to New Zealand for the next five years or so. Cute country. Jealous. I know, Jacinda and the mountains. I don't know what else is good, honestly. Jealous. Never been. One day, one day um okay so yeah she's moving there for the next five years uh she's new to the investing game and she's wondering if it's smarter to start investing over there or to do it over here okay

so this is a complex question she's given me enough information to give i would say a very viable answer which is very exciting but if you're moving overseas indefinitely the answer would be very different so if you're like oh my gosh i'm in australia for a while and i'm gonna move back to Bangkok where I'm from, you know, long-term, that's where I'm going to live. That's where I'm going to have kids. That's where I'm going to retire. Investing here might not make sense. And the reason it might not make sense is purely because of tax and the fact that, you know, long-term I am an investor that has a buy and hold strategy. So I'm the type of investor who wants to invest for the long-term to create financial freedom. And I don't want to create

financial freedom in a currency that is going to have fluctuating currency exchange rates applied to it and be harder to access. So if you're moving over to New Zealand for five years, and then you're going to come back to Australia, you absolutely can continue to invest in Australia using AUD. I mean, you're more than welcome to start using a platform like Sharesies because Sharesies was born in New Zealand. So I don't know, maybe you want to use it over there and feel all like legit new zealand but for me if i was doing that i think is the best way to answer this georgia i would continue to invest in australia knowing that long term i'm gonna come home to my portfolio and there's no real mess going back and forward so if you're actually

an australian and you're already using australian based trading platforms you're still allowed to use them while you're living overseas as long as you have a bank account here and you're still a resident of the country, which is kind of handy. You're going to pay capital gains tax as you usually would in Australia. So the tax doesn't change. You're just going to need to fill out a tax return form each year to make sure that you're meeting the compliance of that. Just on that V, as someone who does plan on living in London at some stage of my life, when this spicy cough eases up, what does tax look like? Do I have to pay tax on a job if I'm working over there and on my she's on the money work no no so how does that work so you're

going to pay tax on the income that is derived in that country so if you're still deriving income from being an international podcaster which I'm assuming is the plan like we can talk about this later babe um but you'll pay tax in Australia because we'll pay you into an Australian bank account but when you move to London you're going to have to set up a London bank account and you will have to adhere to their tax law and their tax rules based on the income you derive over there. Australia's not going to double tax you, I promise you. Oh, okay. Oh, that's nice of them. They're very kind to those tax people, Georgia. Bless them. One more question, just selfishly. Superannuation then? Yes. Do you just, I assume you don't get paid? No, they won't pay you

superannuation. So Georgia, moving overseas does complicate things. And this is something that if you are planning on moving overseas at any point, I do want you to consider. And that is because if you are not earning income, like George, because you're a freelancer, you're going to move overseas and not have anybody paying you superannuation, which means you're going to have to consider whether you make your own repayments during that time so that in the future, you're not behind. When you're in the UK, they have what's called a pension. That is essentially their version of superannuation. If you move to the US, they have something called a 401k. If you move to New Zealand, they've got KiwiSaver. Everybody is different based on their retirement planning,

I guess, for their populations. But it's really important to work out what that actually means for you and what your long-term plan is. Because again, if you're just going to move to London for a couple of years and not pay super, is that a smart idea? Or should you maybe even start now, Georgia and bump up your superannuation before you make that decision. So you're not paying for additional things while you're living in a really expensive city. So it depends on your situation and what's going on, but it's definitely something to consider because a lot of people that I actually work with have spent significant periods of time living overseas. And I mean, it's very easy when you move to London to say, I'm here for a year and then return 10 years later and realize

you've missed out on 10 years of superannuation contributions, which means you have to do something pretty significant to make sure that you make that up so that you have a safe and comfortable retirement. So I think it's important to remember now so that you can either plan to pay it while you're over there or maybe bump it up now so that you're paying superannuation in addition so that when you do have a little bit of a break, this also works for maternity leave, you do have a little break, you can actually go, no, I'm actually ahead of my peers anyway, or work out something different that works for you. But I don't want anyone to forget about their super

while they are in a different country. Yeah, that is a good tip for me because that's definitely not something that would come to mind first up. Like, babe, I would have already hounded you for it. If you said I'm moving overseas, I'd be like, right, sit down. We got a lot to go through.

Got a lot to go through. Take your mic, we are ready. All right, let's move on, V. Sylvia wants to know your thoughts on peer-to-peer lending. which i don't think we've spoken about that on the podcast and if we have i wasn't listening um so is it safe or is it just too risky is investing this way subject to any government guarantees that's what she's asked so yeah i have no idea what this is so talk to me so it's not guaranteed again it's another type of investing and i think it's an important one to tackle it's not something

i adore but at the same time i know a lot of our community do and everybody picks different investment choices that are aligned to their values. So let's quickly talk about what peer-to-peer lending is. It's essentially lending that allows a person who needs a personal or a business loan to borrow money from an investor instead of going to some lender like a bank, George. So maybe you go, hey V, I need to start up a business. I need five grand. I'm like, oh, I've got five grand in my savings. Hey, if you give me that five grand back in a certain period of time with an additional 5%. Can we call that even? You go, yeah, that's much better. I much prefer that. And essentially the borrower takes out a loan and then repays it with interest over time, similar to any other

investment, but you don't own anything. You essentially are not buying something. You're just lending money out like a bank would, getting some interest, then you'll get your money back and maybe you'll set up another loan in the future. It's not actually like Victoria and Georgia lending five grand to each other, setting up a deal. It's usually run through online platforms that exist to do this. And it's really important to ensure that the online platform that you choose is legitimate, which you can do by checking whether they're registered with ASIC or not at the ASIC Connects professional register website, which we'll obviously link in the show notes. So there are benefits as investors because it just sounds fun. And I know that a lot of people

want to invest in things that they're genuinely interested in. Interest rates can actually be higher than other types of investing, which people see as quite sexy. And it's run through an online platform, which makes it relatively easy to access and to actually manage. But the cons as an investor is yes, it can be quite risky because if the loans are unsecured, that means there's a higher chance that you could lose your money. And you also may get a lower return than expected if your borrower can't actually repay that loan. So you're actually basing your investment choices on whether the borrower is actually going to repay it or not. And I think we need to remember that as much as everybody borrows money with good intentions, if you're lending to help

small business, I don't mean to sound negative, but lots of small businesses don't actually succeed and people do borrow money for that and it can actually be fickle to recover. and there aren't actually any types of government protections available either. So if you lose your money because of fraud or an error made by the platform, then it's very likely that you're not going to be compensated, which is not a good thing. I'm not the biggest fan of peer-to-peer lending when it comes to talking about it on a podcast and advocating for it as a really great option to invest in to create future financial freedom. But it would be silly of me to say I'm not interested in it as a person who's interested in investing. So there are lots of platforms that

I follow quite closely because I'm like, oh, that's so interesting. And like, there's lots of like micro peer-to-peer investing platforms and lending going on. And there's bigger platforms that do exactly the same thing. But at the end of the day, I just don't think it's for me. As I've said a million times on the podcast, I'm a buy and hold long-term strategy kind of gal. And this is not leaning towards that. But again, it's not the worst thing. If you're going to engage with this, just make sure it's legitimate and it's aligned to your goals. And it's also really important. Again, all I talk about is investing in risk, but it's interesting because a lot of people go, I'm not risk averse, but it just feels safer because they like the idea of lending to small

business. We really need to go back to our risk profiles and go, yes, but is it actually more risky or not because more often than not just because it's being talked about a lot or it's really trendy it might make you feel a little bit more secure but in the grand scheme of things it's actually worse when it comes to risk that you're taking on is it common I have never heard of it it's pretty common it is relatively common there are a lot of big brands that do it I'm not going to name drop them now because I don't want to be advocating them but yeah it is a relatively common way to invest. I wouldn't say it's a way to invest. It's not as easy to find out about as the ASX would be or property, but it is increasing in awareness and it is increasing

in popularity. There you go. I'm learning along with the listeners. Okay. Next question is from Kylie. She wants to know how you can start to save when every cent from your pay is taken up. so she wants to know how to break the cycle and she's also mentioned that she has no credit cards just a mortgage a car loan and some bills okay so first things first Kylie my friend do not be hard on yourself if you are just living paycheck to paycheck and you can't save that is not the worst thing in the world I am so grateful that you're in a position where you have a mortgage you have a car loan you have food on the table and we I think underestimate how special that is so often I think we really do need to remember that saving is such a privilege like how lucky are we Georgia

to live in a country where we have enough money to not only put food on the table but to put some away like we get to save it like we we don't need every single dollar that comes in so I think it's a really good question but I also want to normalize being in a situation where every single cent from every single pay is taken up like it's okay if that is you it's okay if you've gotten yourself to that situation. But if you're in a situation where you're like, no, V, like I know that's the case, but I'd really like to start saving. I want to break this cycle. There are a few things that you can do. So first things first is budget and cashflow. Can you create a solid budget to make sure that absolutely everything in your budget and cashflow is a value to you? You're getting

the best deals on your energy. You're getting the best deals on food and water and everything else that you are paying for? When you said you had a mortgage, have you got the best interest rate when it comes to the car loan that you have? Are you actually paying it off over time? Is there a balloon associated with it? What kind of rate have you got? Should you be considering refinancing that car? But once we've worked out ways we can save money from our budget and cash flow, the next is actually supplementing our income. So we can do one of two things to make more money. We can find ways to save, which is really helpful and usually the easiest, quickest win. The second is to find a secondary source of income.

So you could either ask for a raise at work or take on more hours, or you could find a little side hustle. And we did a side hustle episode recently, Georgia, that was like not a side hustle episode. It was literally like how to make money without having a side hustle, which I thought was really helpful. Via the apps. yeah yeah via apps literally from your couch or as we said on the pod george other people's couches love that catchy but you could absolutely check out getting a side hustle and getting a supplementary income because if you're saying that every single cent from your current income is being taken up a side hustle is going to mean that every single cent you earn there can be savings which is really

really exciting so i don't mean to be that guy that's like set up a budget and understand your cashflow. But at the end of the day, that is going to be the tool that actually helps you achieve your goals and makes sure that when you do have an increase in income, you're making the most of it. Thoughts be on like setting up a little micro investing account or something like that and having say $30 or something that's not too significant pulled out of your income each week and just having that set aside to like build up and become this little, this little savings account without you really realizing it. I think it's genius. I think it's really great. And our friends at UpBank actually have a roundup feature, which means you could do that in a savings account

without having to have it micro invested, depending on your goals, depending on what's going on. But I think it's really important as well. Some people don't have the flexibility to just slowly pay, you know, $30. Like automating things is obviously going to make it really easy and make sure that it actually happens each and every single week. Because I know of all people that if I said, you've got to save 30 bucks a week, I'd be like, yep, easy, done. I'll do it. Am I actually going to transfer it every week? No, absolutely not. I'll probably like transfer it one week, forget for four, I have to transfer four weeks worth over. It'll become a mess. So for me, automated banking is the way of the future, Georgia. And it helps me so much. But at

the same time if someone is saying look every single cent of my pay is taken up sometimes they don't just mean oh yeah like i just spend it all sometimes it's pre-allocated in their budget and they actually just don't have anything to spare but yeah it's a really good idea to use features like the up bank feature of rounding up like or micro investing because it all ticks away like on our friday drinks episodes we sometimes ask ryan where he's at with his he's been investing on spaceship he's been doing his five dollars a day to supplement his income and that is building up he has close to two thousand dollars in there now yeah and you wouldn't even notice a day and he hasn't noticed it so that's really lucky but if you're not in that particular position i think

not being too hard on ourselves is really important but then also just like what can we do instead of going oh i just don't know what to do i'm telling you right now check your budget what are you spending? Have you actually made sure that you're getting the best deals on your utilities, your phone? Have you done your refinances? What's going on with all of that? And then we can talk about ways to increase your income. Brilliant. All right. Moving on to Jess, who wants to know if investing is a long-term thing, then why is it okay to micro-invest $1,000 or $5,000 and then pull it out for a new purpose, be that investing in a larger platform or putting it in savings? What are your thoughts on that? Good question, Jess. So when you say,

why is it okay to micro-invest $1,000 or $5,000? From my perspective, I mean, you could use micro-investing platforms forever if you really wanted to, but they don't give you the option of taking the dividends out in the same way that a bigger platform would to create the income stream that you want to in the long-term. They have all their dividends immediately reinvested because that's the way the apps work. So from my perspective, and I mean, micro-investing apps are probably not going to like me saying this because I'm telling people to leave their platforms. Probably why I've never been sponsored by them, but that is okay. I genuinely see micro-investing apps as really beautiful education tools. I see it as us dipping our feet in the

market and being able to invest without having to put a thousand dollars or $5,000 on the line, because that is so much money. Whereas if I say to you, Georgia, hey, I know that investing can seem really overwhelming, but micro-investing, maybe you try with your first $5, maybe you try with 1 cent on the Sharesies platform. These amounts of money aren't going to ruin your life if you, quote, lost them. And I think that that's a lot of the apprehension that people have when it comes to investing. So I love micro-investing because it gets you into the market. You get the app you get to see what's going on in the market platforms like spaceship don't even have any fees until you get to the five thousand dollar mark and you're able to invest money see what the market's

doing follow the trends see what they're investing in and get really comfortable with the process once you get to that thousand or five thousand dollar amount that's where you maybe want to take up a bigger platform maybe you've got your first five grand you're like oh i really want something where I have a bit more control. It's a little bit more monitored. I want to go to a more quote legit platform for investors. And that's where you might go, all right, it's finally time. I'm going to go join Six Park and Victoria's platform. And that is where you would then stay for the long term. Whereas, you know, being fully transparent, you can't invest on the Six Park platform with $5. It's not possible. You need a minimum of $2,000 to get good diversification up front.

And even when you're at the $2,000, which I think is brilliant, you do have less share selection and less ETF options than you do when you have $5,000. So it's important to remember the reason why you're investing. Yes, investing for the long term is that. If you were saying, oh, I use my micro-investing platform to save $1,000, then I pull it out and spend it. I think that is probably not the point of it, but if we're pulling that thousand dollars out because it's just been ticking away in the back, we've been doing some roundups, it's been incidental, we've been learning, then going and putting it on a bigger platform that is for the long-term, it's a really good idea. In saying that, if your micro-investing platform is not performing, I would absolutely be

waiting until it bounces back so that you don't end up cashing out for a loss. So yes, I think it's one of those things where, yeah, it's okay to move platforms, but it's really important to remember that timing is everything when selling. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's a really interesting question from Jess, I think, because we can kind of confuse investing, the messaging that we Yeah. It's a really good question. Yeah. Yeah. Because you would think, oh, well, micro-investing, how is that different? Like long-term is the goal, but that's not necessarily the case with micro investing so that's yeah and that's just how I see it and can see how the platforms work and for the long term yes maybe you get to your goal amount in your portfolio but you

don't have the flexibility of taking certain income streams and working out what's going on with it and I think it's it's a really easy way to start your investment journey but for me it wouldn't be the long term and I guess that's why it's called micro investing it's not just small amounts, but it's like the start point, which I really like. And as I said, I love the platforms. I just think that there is a right platform for a right time. And not every single platform works for every single person. Like that's why there are so many, that's why shares on the money talks about so many different ones. Cause you might adore shares or you might adore something else. And like, that's okay. My goal is actually not one platform. It's to just get

you invested. But if we're talking about a particular platform on a podcast, you know, that they've been vetted by us. You know, that we like what they've got to offer and the team are really good and they're legit. So I guess it just goes to show that there are lots of different options on the market and it's actually up to you to choose. Hundy P. I think we also did a whole episode on micro-investing. Yes, we did my friend. I can't remember that far back, but that will be really helpful for you as well, Jess. Okay. Let's move on to our final question for today.

Oh no, this is getting fun. um okay so Esther she is keen to know some tips for people living in regional and remote Australia when it comes to finance this is such a good one Georgia and we actually have so many people in our community who are remote and that's the thing I love about podcasts you could be anywhere listening to our podcast you don't have to be in the city you don't have to be in Melbourne you could be literally standing in the middle of Australia looking at all the row getting financial advice in your ears which I adore and the thing about living remotely is lots of our listeners might not even realize how expensive it can actually be to live in more regional spots in Australia

so I guess it's worth explaining a little bit about why that is because at first thought you might go yeah but property's so cheap out there and it's like yeah but do you know how much food is out there and the first kind of quote opportunity cost Georgia is that people who live regionally might not have the option to work in high-paying roles that larger corporations offer. For example, if you're living in Melbourne CBD and you don't like your role, you can go work at another place, Georgia. If you were potentially working for a bank and you don't like that, you're probably able to go work in a different bank branch in the city because there are so many that are accessible. But if you live remotely, there might just be one bank branch.

and if you're a bank teller there's actually no other options without leaving your town which really limits choice and actually really limits opportunity and there's also the barrier of being able to afford access to affordable groceries like I know Georgia you and I love Aldi but that's not actually accessible to everybody in our community because often Aldi isn't actually available to you so we say go shop at Aldi it's really cost effective but a lot of our community are going to go, like Audi, that's in another state. We can't even get to it. And even some larger supermarkets aren't that accessible for some of our community. Plus produce in small supermarkets can be so much more expensive because of how far it's had to travel to

actually be for sale on the shelf in that shop. So there are also multiple other factors and it's actually something that we are looking into doing a whole episode on, including conversations with our friends and family who live regionally so watch this space but in terms of financial tips georgia make the most of smaller tight-knit communities and set up a side hustle fewer people g makes it easier to network so if you're looking to make some extra cashola talk to people about any services they need that you might be able to help with babysitting dog walking lawn mowing you can do it all my friend how do you mow a lawn in other news um have you ever done it? Let's move on. I mean, I know the process. I know that my dad puts petrol in his

lawnmower and you can buy non-petrol lawnmowers nowadays, but my dad says they're not legit. So I don't really know. At this point in life, my partner who has a fascination with lawns can actually keep that. And if anybody else's partner is as obsessed with lawns as my partner, we should probably start a club. But helpfully, Georgia, if buying property is something you want to do, it's actually significantly more affordable to do so in a regional town, which is a nice benefit. But it can also be harder to shop more frugally in small towns too, because as I said before, they might not have huge supermarkets or Audis, but think about every other item that you need to purchase, like shoes and clothes and hair accessories and literally makeup. Everything needs

to either come from online or you need to travel a significant distance, i.e. petrol money and time to go and get those things. So I think it's more about accessibility. So I think when it comes to living remotely, just being savvy about your shopping, what can you order online? Can you do that remotely? Are there things that you could do in your community or online that could increase your income? So as much as I don't have a whole heap of hot tips, I hope that has helped and keep Furious Peeled, because we do have an episode coming in that space. Hundy P, once again, I'd be really curious to hear from our friends who do live regionally and remotely to hear, firstly, their struggles as we've tried to list. That's what we've gathered,

but there's actually not that much information out there at this stage, but also to hear their financial tips and how they manage their money when they don't have easy access to everything as we city folk do. Yeah. Gee, straight under the bus for you today, you're going to post in the Facebook group and we're going to have a thread discussing exactly that. Stunning. I'll love to pull that down now. Love it. I'll accompany it with a little bit of a Photoshop job I reckon as well. Yeah. I think that'll be good. Could you Photoshop us regionally? That would be really nice. Yes. Yes. Yes. Done. All right. Thank you again to everyone who sent in the questions you're all bloody legends um and yeah as we said as well if you did enjoy the

episode let us know and we will look at doing a little second ep maybe a third yeah if you like q and a's i've had fun answering these and i think gee you had fun listening to them let's go with that i was also surprised no one asked how victoria does her hair i thought that would come up like today i have it in a ponytail so very simply my friends all right v let's leave it there yeah look i think that is all we have time for today so just before we head off we'd like to acknowledge and pay respect to australia's aboriginal and torres strait islander peoples they're the traditional custodians of the lands the waterways and the skies all across australia we thank you for sharing and for caring for the land on which we are able to learn we pay our respects to elders

past and present and we share our friendship and our kindness and remember as always guys that 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 divine is an authorized representative of australia pacific funds management proprietary limited abn 34132463257 fsl 339 151 see you next week guys bye guys bye guys that was weird from g tony leave that in oh no