She's On The Money - Financial Advisers: Who, What, When & How!

Episode Date: July 20, 2021

Okay - Listen up friendly friends! This is one we get a lot: How do I find a financial Adviser? How much does it cost? When should I see one?! And we answer all of those questions right here! You can also visit the Financial Adviser ratings website that Victoria mentions, or get in touch with our friends at the National Debt Helpline if you need it! Also don't forget you can always DM us on instagram with any questions.Our fearless leader and money queen B has written a book! You can order Victoria Devine's book right here!!!!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. At what point in your journey is it the right time to see a financial advisor? What do they actually do? And how do you know if they're worth the investment for you? These are questions we hear all the time in the She's on the Money community and who better to answer them than real life financial advisor, Victoria Devine. V, today the main goal is for people to really understand exactly what a financial advisor does

so that they can figure out if it is the right step for them to be taking. So, can you kick us off with a bit of a chat about what a financial advisor actually does? Look, not much. Not much. They podcast all day and they talk about money and sometimes they post on Instagram and make you feel like you should talk to a financial advisor, but you don't know what they do. But being serious though, a good financial advisor works so that you can understand your needs and set financial goals and create a plan to help you achieve them. So there's somebody that is on your team when it comes to money and everything when it comes to financial decisions. So whether that is budgeting and cashflow, there are financial advisors who do that. There are financial advisors

who are only investment. It's kind of like a doctor. I don't want to compare it to a doctor. We're clearly not doctors, but you have like an oncologist and you would have a podiatrist. Like, yes they're all doctors but they have specialty areas so like you'd still call them a doctor and if they were on a plane they probably would have to put their hand up if someone said oh is there a doctor on board and they're like oh i just have my phd i can't i can't save your life sorry lady um but everybody specializes in different things and like majority of people they're like gps they are just overarching they might have like a general knowledge of pretty much everything budget cash flow they might do super they might do investing they might have like a really broad

range of stuff. But then there are people who specialize in Centrelink. There are people who specialize in budget and cashflow. There are people who specialize in investment strategy. There are people who specialize in self-managed super funds. So for you, if you want to talk to one, it's important to understand, you know, and I know we're going to get there and we're going to have this conversation, but it's important to understand, I guess, at a base level, what you want them for, because too many times do we see people in our community going, oh my gosh, I approached an advisor and like you know they were really snooty and they didn't want to work with me and it really disheartened me and I'm like yes I'm not saying that that was the right thing by any

means in fact when it comes to my personal views on financial advice they should have already known what you were looking for before even agreeing to have a meeting with you because otherwise it's waste of time for both sides of the party right like gee if you were like I just really want to be better at budgeting cash flow but you went to an investment advisor and they're like oh no problems gee come this way come into my fancy boardroom and then they find out that you don't actually have any money to invest yet and you just wanted to work on cash flow like your needs aren't being met your expectations aren't being met theirs aren't and they don't essentially they don't want you as a client and I'm not saying that in a bad way but like you're not their

demographic they're not they're not going to be able to add the value to you that you would like them to so we need to be clear about what we're looking for before we actually engage someone so essentially a financial advisor helps you achieve your money goals. And how do they differ from accountants and mortgage brokers and other figures like that? So when it comes to the difference between a financial advisor and an accountant, it's interesting because you always see them being compared and people are like, well, I don't really understand the difference. What do I need here or there? The best explanation I can give is that an accountant works in the past and a financial advisor works in the future so an accountant deals with numbers that already exist

they might cash flow your business and talk about stuff in the future based off you know what you're doing but they'll do things like your tax returns like how much tax have you paid or how much tax do you owe for stuff you've already done whereas a financial advisor is going to sit down and be like all right Jay how are you going to create income how are you going to create strategy into the future how are you going to create cash flow whether that's for your business or personally because there are financial advisors who work with small business owners or larger business owners. And there are also financial advisors who just work with personal people, but essentially your accountant is the person that works with all of the past numbers and making sure that you meet

stuff like compliance, like tax, but then a financial advisor is all about that strategy and wealth creation. Really well said. Does that help? No, that really, that really makes sense. I never really, I mean, I know I do know now because obviously I work alongside you, but I never knew back in the day. Yeah but like why would you? Exactly. Kind of like they work with money right like they would advise me and it does get really foggy because when you talk about financial advisors like yes I talk about tax with my clients I talk about tax management strategies I talk about you know reducing your taxable income so that you know we can save more money and an accountant can do that as well but that's why I wanted to distill it down to like cool

past future this is how it works but then there are definitely like overlapping topics that we both talk about but like i can't give tax advice for example like i can talk about it with my clients like i'm authorized to do that and i have like a good knowledge of it but like i'm not going to go do a tax return because i can't do that i'm not going to talk to a small business about bass or submitting that bass but i might help them prepare their cash flow to make sure that bass doesn't hit them in the back pocket when they didn't want it do you know what i mean yeah yeah okay and then you said mortgage brokers as well yeah so a mortgage broker they have heaps of value as well but they broker deals between you and a lending institution so that you can

borrow money again breaking it down and making it really simple they obviously can do a lot more they might do finance for businesses or boats or for your future private jet or maybe just a small business like it it doesn't matter but like let's just distill it down a mortgage broker is going to broker the deal between you and a financial institution so that you can get a loan to borrow money for a house. And there are a few different types of brokers. We've spoken about this on the podcast before. The first type is the broker that works at a bank. And they're not the type that I want you to talk to. Not because they're bad people. They're great. But they only have access to the products at the bank that they work for. They're not taking your holistic situation into

consideration. And then you would have independent brokers. So independent mortgage brokers have what's called a panel. And a panel is a list of different financial institutions, including all of the big four banks. It would include all of the smaller banks. It would include things like credit unions that borrow money. It might include things like mortgage funds, which are a bit more complex, but mortgage funds, which have a high interest rate, but they have their purpose in the market and a mortgage broker would then look at their panel and usually they have 40 plus different options and go do you know what Georgia so you know how you said you wanted to go with bank a well actually I found a better deal over here that works better for you in your personal

situation so we're going to apply for that not just looking at bank a's mortgage one option or mortgage two option so it's just more holistic and usually a broker is going to be a really good resource when it comes to actually cash flowing a purchase so they're going to be able to sit down with you and go cool how much deposit do you have this is what your stamp duty is going to cost this is what everything else is going to cost and this is what you're going to be up for and they're really good usually at you know just at a base level budget and cash flow but you wouldn't go to a mortgage broker to be like oh I want to save for a home one day because they'll be like great yeah like I can tell you that but like they're not going to be that impressed because essentially

they're not going to get work from you so a mortgage broker isn't someone that you'd be like oh my gosh like we're thinking about buying a house like you don't want to go to them and be like in five years they're like cool so I'm not going to get paid for this or any work out of you like so it's just more about where do you go and what do you do and if you're looking for advice on purchasing your first home that's why I created the budget and cash flow masterclass and the amount of mortgage brokers that send people to that class because they're like Victoria explains it here. I'm not spending an hour with you to do that when it's done far more comprehensively over here, which I obviously love. But yeah, it's just more, what do you need and when and where,

but let's get back to financial advisors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's do it. It might actually be worth me outlining what you've just said there in our newsletter this week. So if you didn't have a pen to write that all down. Can you also whip this up a little blog, please, Georgia? Oh, absolutely. Great idea. I'll write that down now. Okay. So at what point in our financial journey, is it the right time to see a financial advisor be? Like, do we do it when we're in debt or when we're thinking about investing or when we're bajillionaires? Like, when's the right time? So, the right time is actually not a thing. The right time is actually when you're willing to pay for advice. It's not when you're rich. It's not when you come into wealth. It's not

when you have a specific event. It's actually when you're willing to pay for advice. And I'm sure you've got some stats coming up about the cost of it because I had a little weasel at your notes before but the time that you get advice is when essentially you're ready to really take change and really put a strategy in place and you know financial advice fees can vary but if you're ready to take charge of your budget and cash flow like that might be a lower entry point than starting your investment journey but you absolutely do not need to have a heap of money to start investing you actually just need to be on the right page and go do you know what maybe you are young and you have your first job and you're you know earning 80 grand a year which is epic

and so is your partner and you want some advice to create wealth long term like see a financial advisor then but I want to be clear like it's not going to be a super cheap process but it's an investment in your future like that's one of the hardest things to comprehend when it comes to financial advice for quote the consumer like if I said to you hey you and Harps like you live together fantastic you should get financial advice because you both earn really good money and you'd be like yeah great V but it's like going to be more than three grand to get that advice and like we don't even have that many savings and like it can be really hard to wrap your head around spending money when you don't have heaps of money for sure but getting yourself set up and making

that investment if it's in line with your values it's going to put you hundreds of thousands of dollars ahead in the future so it's kind of like is the value of advice there yes absolutely but it's usually a long-term value and that's why it's so hard to comprehend it's not like you know you go into a shop and you're like well I love that dress it's a hundred dollars but like it's worth that I get the dress in return. Financial advice isn't instantaneous. You don't go see a financial advisor, give them your three grand and then automatically have a hundred thousand dollar investment portfolio. Like it's not, it doesn't work like that. And I think that's, you know, one of the challenges of this industry, because you don't actually see what we're doing in the

first year. It's like compound interest. It takes a minimum of five years before you see really good tangible results. I mean, in the first year, you're going to have a whole heap of clarity you're going to be super motivated you're going to have a great budget and cash flow plan your super is going to be in the right place your insurances are all going to be set up but I think a lot of people want to be really rich really quick and that's just not what we do my friend yeah and it seems backwards because it's like I want to be rich so why would I spend four thousand dollars exactly you know that advice and that's where yeah and that's where advice becomes quite inaccessible because you're like well I want the advice but I actually don't have four grand

but I know that it's good for me to have that advice because I'd be able to create wealth long term. And so I think that's like the rock and the hard place. And that's why financial advisors are trying really hard to work out more accessible solutions, like what we're doing with Six Park, which is by no stretch of the imagination, comprehensive advice, like going and seeing a financial advisor, because it doesn't include super, it doesn't include your risk insurance or like budget or cashflow or like life goals. It's just straight advice on investment. So if you want advice on that we've found a really cost effective way to do that so instead of paying you know three thousand dollars for an investment only financial advice document you are paying $9.95

a month and very soon $6.25 a month. Stop. I know it's actually really exciting I'll probably put it on socials in the next few days because they haven't officially announced it but by the time this podcast is out it'll be all official guys. Stunning. They're dropping their minimum investment to $2,000 to make it even more accessible. So it used to be $5,000 and there's still a $5,000 investment entry point, but they have a lower entry point now that means, yeah, you'll have a few less assets, but it's like that stepping stone from $2,000 to $5,000 at 625. And then when you hit $5,000, you go into the more diversified portfolio and kind of like upgrade as you go, which I think is really cool. That's huge. Super side note though. But that's an example of

going okay cool I don't want to go see an in-person financial advisor I'm just going to set my investment up here because I've worked out what I want to do like maybe you've read the book and you're like okay cool like this is my goals I actually don't need advice on my goals I'm really clear on those I'm pretty good at budgeting like I've got my plan I'm really good at cash flow I get that so I actually don't need advice there you know you might be really young and you're with Australian super but really like their performance so you don't actually want to change your super does that make sense like you might have those things ticked off so you don't need that at the moment for your life stage maybe all you care about starting your investment journey

which you can do so I think it's we're going to talk about in a minute I know how to find a financial advisor but it's important to talk about how they differentiate from one another and what they do because maybe what you need is not a financial advisor it's actually a money coach it's someone that can sit you down and go okay let's just talk about budget and cash flow like they're not authorized licensed financial advisors but they are guns at budget and cash flow and getting you all whipped into shape so maybe you need that I've never heard of a money coach yeah money coaches are a look they're a big thing in the US okay they're not as popular in Australia but a number of them are popping up and a money coach is just that like they're a person that is

your coach for money and it's a space that I'm clearly really passionate about because that's hopefully what I'm semi doing through the podcast, but I think it's a very cool space. And over the next five to 10 years, I think we'll see a lot more money coaching businesses pop up. Just to be clear, are money coaches, are they affiliated with Finfluencers at all? No, no. So a Finfluencer is a very different thing. That's just a financial influencer. They might be a money coach and a financial influencer, but yeah, very different. It's not just getting advice from someone on Instagram. Like they actually have to do a money coaching certification and they might, you know, they might actually have been an accountant or they might

have been a financial advisor historically. And they're like, no, I'm just really passionate about it. Gotcha. I get it because I'm passionate about it. So you remember when I used to do the hour of power, that was essentially a money coaching session where I'd sit down with people and be like, all right, cool. Let's just in this next hour was always two hours because I can talk with a mouthful of water but that was like a once-off money coaching session to just put you in the right position and I adored it but don't have capacity for it anymore so I essentially recorded every single outcome that I thought was possible and put it in the cash flow budget course yeah so where do we actually find a money coach um so the internet is a very helpful place so

googling it for a start um there are a few on social media but I like to be wary around who we're taking advice from and making sure that they're licensed. But again, I think it's important to have someone that you connect with because the thing that I find really special about money coaching, and I'm not sure if this is an integrated principle of it, is it usually relies, from my research and from my understanding of what it is, it usually relies more on the psychological aspects of it. So it kind of becomes kind of like a bit of a life coach, but like a money coach. Like a personal trainer for your money. Yeah, which I think is really cool in a space that I'm quite clearly passionate about because

it marries my two favorite things together. But money coaching, I think is, you know, if you need someone to just keep you on track. And I've seen a few money coaches pop up recently that do group sessions, which I think is actually really powerful. And obviously it would be a lot more cost effective than sitting down with someone who would probably have to charge you a minimum of like $200 a session so that you can do it. They do it like via Zoom and you like tune in and then you have big group sessions of just like asking money questions and learning from the community that you would be in there. And I think that's quite powerful. I wish we had a way to do that with She's On The Money. We don't, but now I'm just talking about it. I'm like, that would be

so sick. Anyway, what's your next question, J.K.? Well, how much does it cost? We've thrown out the four grand figure, pulled that out of nowhere. Yeah. So four grand, I use as an example because it's quite a common amount that a financial advisor would charge. But to be more specific, because we like stats and data on this podcast. In 2019, the Financial Planning Association of Australia conducted the core data FBA member research which found that on average FBA members so there's two just to like step back again there's two industry bodies there's the FBA and the AFA I am a member of the AFA the FBA is just a different one nothing wrong with them cool different horses for different courses like they just did some research but they found that FBA

members charge $2,671 to prepare a statement of advice for new clients and $3,757 per year for ongoing advice clients, which sounds like a lot of money, but that's actually pretty standard when it comes to financial advice fees. And that initial hurdle of $2,600, they said for your advice, that amount is payable at the start. So just to like recap, because I feel like I want to give you as much information as possible. If, gee, you were like, I want to see a financial advisor, you'd find someone, you would then go and have like maybe a 15 minute call with them on the phone, work out if you actually want to go have a meeting with them, or maybe you already know, so you book in the meeting and you go to what's called a fact find meeting. And that's like a

discovery session between you and the financial advisor. It's to learn all the facts and stats about you. You'll have a really big document that you fill out and a risk profile that you will fill out but also for you to get a sense of who they are and whether you want to work with them because a financial advice relationship is for the long term so if you don't feel comfortable with them like how are you going to ask them money questions when you feel a little bit fickle like you need to remember it's both ways like you're filling them out but also they're filling you out to work out if you're a good client fit for whatever they do which is why it's important to find somebody who is specialist for your area because then you'd be pretty disheartened if you went to this fact

find meeting and paid for it which most financial advisors do charge for fact find meetings now and the reason they do that is because often people want to go to this fact find meeting to learn a lot about the process but then actually don't go through with it right so they're just covering their own butts so that they're not wasting a whole heap of time with essentially like people who are kicking tires so often that fee for your fact find meeting could be anywhere between 200 to $600 I've seen. Don't be afraid of that though, because that's usually, I'm just speaking for what my experience is and how I charge in my business, that's redeemable on the advice in the future. So say your advice was then $2,600 and you paid $600 for a fact find, you'd only pay the

$2,000. So that's nice to know that, you know, it's quote, not a waste, but it does make you have a really good think about it before you actually engage a financial advisor, because they obviously want to make sure that you're serious but also you want to be sure that that's what you want to do and that's why you need to do your research understand what they do what area they specialize in and you know what you actually want to get out of it and that's why I sometimes suggest like just jumping on the phone and calling their office having a really quick 15 minute chat with them before just to work out like do I actually want to go through this process with them or like reading online about them or getting a word of mouth referral but yeah there's a lot to

it but that's usually the process so once you've had your initial consultation v yes and you're like yep ready to go let's set up this strategy yes what does the financial advisor then do beyond that point are they checking in with you each week to see depends on what your expectations are and what have been set with you okay so what would happen you go to this factifying meeting financial advisor like great i've learned so much about you your goals and what you want to achieve I'm going to go away and write a statement of advice and that's the I want to say it's the expensive part it's not but that document's massive like my statement of advice document for Zella is like 66 pages long usually but I've seen them up to like 150 pages long like it

depends on the compliance and how much additional information they want to put in it but that document she's thick yeah and the reason it is is because that document outlines not only hey G I think this is a good strategy it explains why that strategy is the best strategy for you comparing it to other strategies that they researched and other projections and provides like what's going on in the future so we'll go okay cool these are the projections this is what's going to happen what life events are going to happen what do we think that's going to you know cost it it includes everything and all the comparisons so it's not just hey G put your super in x fund it'll be like hey we've done all the analysis here are the top three super funds

here's our recommendation like our favorite one here's exactly why here's our justification here is all the research you need to make sure that you are always in the best possible position and that's what that document is for to make sure that your financial advisor is taking everything into consideration and it has to be done at the start of that relationship because you can't just go I want to invest. They'll be like, cool, but I'm not just going to put your money somewhere without fully understanding you. Right. So will they then check in like six monthly with you? Or, I mean, you said before that it does depend on what you've set up. Legally, they need to have a check-in with you every year if you're a fee-paying client.

But if you've spoken to your financial advisor about having monthly meetings, then that's fine too. But they will set that expectation with you. They might say something like I say, which is you know if you're a full-on client that's investing a lot every month of course you'll hear from me very regularly but if I'm only setting up your super and your insurances and you're not investing a whole heap right now like you actually don't need to hear from me on a monthly basis so it's just about having your expectations set and they might identify that you actually need some money coaching and your financial advisor might be able to help there or not but yeah it's going to be different for everybody but legally they're going to have to

do a review and make sure that you're in tip-top shape. They're never going to just drop you because legally you're not allowed to do that. That's good to know. I feel like it sounds like a good option for someone like me, who I would say is lazy when it comes to money. It seems like a good idea to just give the responsibility to someone else and kind of have a guaranteed return. That's exactly what it is. And that is one of the reasons why you pay monthly fees. So you've got that fee at the start for your statement of advice usually that's for the advice document and all of the strategy and research but then it's also for the implementation of that advice so for that financial advisor to do the work to set you up to get all of those insurances in your name for you

to roll all your super together and set up new accounts and do whatever you want there to set up your investment accounts and you know organize all of that so usually that's included but a good question to ask if you do go through that process to your financial advisor is cool does the statement of advice fee include implementation or not like are you just giving me the strategy and then I have to pay more to get it done because some financial advisors might go oh the statement of advice is a thousand dollars and then implementation is two thousand dollars so advice is three grand or someone might say oh well actually the statement of advice and implementation like it's all included and it's three grand so they're not trying to take you

for a ride. They just have different ways of charging. And some financial advisors will do that with clients that want the advice and want the statement of advice, but maybe don't want to do it right now. So they're trying not to charge you for implementation. Different horses, different courses. So that is why you have monthly fees. So you don't just have monthly fees so that you can check in. It's so that your financial advisor takes on that responsibility of you to make sure that you are invested well and that your assets are performing and that you're always well diversified and that everything's ticking along properly and carry out reviews and carry out meetings with you because obviously their time is worth money and they need to be remunerated for

the work that they're doing so monthly fees I think people get up in arms about it they're like oh my gosh it's so expensive it's like well not really when it comes down to you actually being in a better financial position forever yeah to have a fee for that and often it can come out of your superannuation you can structure fee paying in different ways so you could pay for it in cash like out of your bank account or you could go oh look it's a lot like how do you structure payment sometimes they do what's called a partial payment which is some of the money might come from super like they might take two thousand dollars from your super and you pay a thousand dollars in cash if it's super advice maybe they take everything from your super fund and you don't actually have

to pay them but you have paid them from super and sometimes advisors might not be comfortable with that just depending on the situation so definitely ask them like what's your fee structure like like how much money am I going to have to cough up now or can I use my super money to pay that because you actually can and not many people know that is that okay though because we usually don't recommend touching super right yes absolutely and most financial advisors will take that into consideration so for someone like me I hardly ever take money from super from clients because I just don't want to impact it yeah but then for some people having it paid for with their super money puts them in the long term in a significantly better financial position and is actually an

investment in future yeah so as much as you're like I don't want to spend my super money it's like well we're going to put you in a significantly better financial position and you have a way of paying for it without having it come out of your bank smart so yeah I think you need to obviously we're not going to just pull money out by car or pull money out and spend it in a silly way we're actually paying for that asset to grow in a better way than it was before yeah that makes sense yeah no that's like one step backwards for like 50 years uh-huh okay well said um i think we'll leave it there for now v before we head to the break but don't go anywhere guys because we will be breaking down how to find a good financial advisor on the other side

how do we go about finding a financial advisor vd all the deep questions straight into it so there are lots of ways to find a financial advisor um my favorite is word of mouth having a friend that's seen someone because usually you can get a really good recommendation about their experience and how personable they found them and what their advice was like and just understanding that that's my favorite way and you should go to the ASIC website and make sure that your financial advisor is accredited and authorized and it will actually tell you in that document that you can find online very easily like you can go and look me up now like I'm probably a good example go to the ASIC financial advisor register just google financial advisor register click into

that type Victoria Devine and you will see that I'm an authorised financial advisor you'll see my degrees you will see where I'm authorised where I've been authorised before and what I'm accredited to give advice on and I think that that's really important because if you have a self-managed super fund and then you get this really great recommendation for an advisor but need specific advice and they can't provide advice on SMSF yeah don't waste your time going and seeing them because they can't help you but also gee there is a website that I'm going to recommend but I need to do a disclaimer beforehand not not like a scary one I'm not affiliated with this platform at all it's a really smart tool that essentially takes advisor information from that

ASIC register and creates them a profile on this website and then it allows people to leave reviews and like research people in the area in their specialist areas and see it which sounds great in theory, right? But a lot of financial advisors don't use it. So for example, I have a profile on there because their website has pulled my information from the ASIC register and automatically created me a profile, but I don't use it. And it actually forces financial advisors to like sign up and maintain their register and like ask for reviews. And like, I'm pretty sure there's ways to pay them on the backend as well. And I'm not saying it's bad because the reviews are authentic and the advice specialist areas are really helpful, but I think it's important to disclaimer

it because you're going to go to this website. You'll look me up and I have no reviews and I have no information. I haven't uploaded a profile picture. I haven't done anything because I just don't want to be on that website. So it's important to know that while you might find an advisor on there, it's not the be all end all. Like if they don't have any ratings, then they maybe just don't use it. Obviously if they have bad ratings, that's a different story. But if they just have an empty profile like I do, it doesn't mean that they're a bad advisor or don't have clients or don't have a business or you know don't work for someone it just means they haven't accessed that platform so the website is called advisorratings.com.au and we will link it in the show notes but essentially

I think this is a really cool tool for you guys to use because you can find advisors near you you can search them by name if you want to look them up and see if they have a profile again you can use me as an example and you'll just get the plain profile yeah but if you go onto this website you can actually filter what you're looking for so they have updated their website recently really aesthetic. I'm just letting you know, like maybe I should put a profile on here because like it's just a cool looking website, but you can search by different advisor categories. So if you're looking for aged care or you're looking for budgeting, you can click those variables and like filter based on who does what, which I think is really cool. You can filter by how much

experience they have. And for some people, this is important. You can filter by gender. So if you're looking for a female advisor who specializes in female investing or specializes in just women's finance you can actually filter that and find somebody who specializes in that. In saying that just because they've said they specialize in it again they would have had to go to the profile to like fill in their details. I haven't done that so if you're looking for me and just searched like Melbourne 3000 I want an investment specialist I'm not going to come up because I didn't go through and do the categories and find that so essentially the website exists to collect data on advisors and users and like it's it's not a bad thing but I think it's just important to

understand that it's not got absolutely everybody in Australia on it with all their actual true ratings and reviews yeah does that make sense yeah yeah I just want to be safe about it and let you know why it exists and that if somebody has no reviews it doesn't mean they're a bad advisor like I literally own an advice practice and have no profile on there yet have clients and yeah yeah yeah so it's just a good place to start yeah but it's also just so helpful because so many people like well I don't even know where to start when it comes to financial advice and you can look it up and be like oh this guy Jaden great fantastic like he's in Melbourne so that is how I would do it now V is it ever too early or too late to make the decision to see a financial advisor no sir

Okay. I mean, if you're like 13 years old, you're in grade seven, like probably not the time to see a financial advisor. But if, again, going back to what I said at the start of the podcast, if you want to make an investment in a financial advisor, because it is expensive, then there's no bad time to seek advice in saying that when you said, is it too late? Absolutely not. Like there are financial advisors who specialize in pensions and making sure that you can retire properly and actually service demographics that might not be able to afford that three or four thousand dollar upfront fee you just need to search for them and they might just charge through super and work out your pension and make sure you're in a better financial

position advisors are not for wealthy people they are for all people they are for people who just want financial advice to set themselves up for the long term whether you are 26 or 66 like you can see an advisor and I think that that's really important it's not just wealth creation yeah and I mean I try to be holistic when I talk about that but I'm obviously going to lean more towards the investment side of things because that's what I'm passionate about that's what I personally do in my business but also that's the demographic of you guys like that's she's on the money like we're so young like that's what we talk about whereas back to that 66 year old example you're probably not going to be investing to get compound interest in the next 30 years like we're not

thinking about super contributions in the same way that you would be thinking about a super contribution today at your age Georgia like we're actually working out okay cool maybe we've only got two hundred thousand dollars in superannuation and you own your family home outright like cool we're probably looking at what level of pension you can rely on and what that looks like and how we can top that up like there are strategies for everybody and I get a little bit heated about this because I don't want people to think that it's too late and don't worry like financial advisors they're cool people they will put you in a better position they will make you feel confident and the amount of people that I've spoken to who are approaching 60 and like oh I don't think I can

afford to retire or I'm really stressed about money and they just aren't willing to speak to somebody because they think they're going to be judged no like we do what we do because we adore putting people in better financial situations like why do you think we have this job so I think it's important to remember like never too early never too late but just it's not just for wealth creation I reckon you would have sold a lot of people on the idea today V not that that's what you're trying to do but you can definitely see the benefits so for anyone who is feeling that way but just cannot afford it what what do they do look I think that's then where you get to get involved with things like she's on the money yep you get to jump on instagram and join the debt

free community like there are so many free resources nowadays there's the money smart website where you can learn to budget and invest there are youtube videos there are podcasts there are you know these instagram and facebook pages like books self-led learning like i feel like so many people think that they're just not smart enough and no i just i don't know of course you don't know because you've never done it before but like we are smart people we all are like we have the ability to comprehend these things and if you want to go down the route of understanding it yourself diy fantastic if you're in a pickle and you're in a fair bit of debt set it on the podcast probably approximately like 1.6 million times the national debt helpline are always super helpful

and again we will link them in the show notes if you need them but they do free financial counseling and they will help you out of debt or if you're struggling with money give them a call they are fantastic but genuinely I think there's a lot of power in self-education and just not relying on one source of information like I'm biased I wrote a book I think that it's really powerful but I by no means think it's the only book you should ever read like go and read other books go and absorb as much information as you can so that you make the decision that's right for you and that if you then find yourself in a position where you're like you know what I do want to go see a financial advisor I am going to invest you kind of know already the baseline you're going to

be a dream client just let you know yeah but also you want to understand the baseline of investing and what works for you and what your values and ethics are and what you want to see your super do and you actually understand super and you understand investment you know where you need help and you also know where you can just stand up on your own which is really powerful did you see in our group the other day, I think her name was Hannah. She mentioned she'd been to a financial advisor or maybe a mortgage broker. And she was saying that she knew all of the terms that this professional person was saying because if she's on the money, I was like, that's sick. Like they're not hard concepts. Like we're not talking about needing to be as educated as a

financial advisor, but to understand the basics of financial literacy is very different to understanding financial advice and financial literacy I believe is a given like you should have access to that and that is free and it can be free but financial advice that's when we want to get serious about it and get strategy but I just think that people are really powerful on their own as well and they really underestimate what they can learn or what they can teach themselves you've got this guys uh V I reckon that is the perfect place to leave it well I would agree I feel like that's been hopefully a really helpful podcast for some people but 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 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 34132463257afsl339151 and we don't do it as often as we used to a real shout out to

miss tony lodge t lodge whips together our podcast each and every single week like No one edits like Tone does. Nobody listens to the podcast as much as Tone does. Yeah, that's true, actually. That's mainly what we're shouting out. Yeah. Poor Tone. Anyway.

And she gets the rough edit. Yeah, true. She gets the dirty stuff. All right. Have a good week, guys. Bye, guys.