She's On The Money - Five ways to start 2021 on the right financial foot

Episode Date: January 5, 2021

We don't really like the idea of setting new years resolutions because all too often we fall into old habits and feel deflated. This week we're giving you our top five tops to start 2021 on the right financial foot. Let's go friends.Love the podcast sick and want more SOTM? We had a feeling that was the case. Join our Facebook page to share your money wins and money confessions, follow us on Insta for daily inspo to keep you on track and absolutely subscribe to our newsletter, the written recap of the pod’s key takeaways, including some bonus bits you won’t want to miss.Finally, if you’re in a money mess and need help untangling the muddle - we’ve got you sorted – simply record your question and send it through to us at [e-mail] and you may just end up on the podcast!Your hosts are Victoria Devine, Ryan Jon and Jessica Ricci.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. My name is Victoria Devine and I am a financial advisor, a millennial and a woman who is wildly passionate about all things finance. Now, our friend Georgia is away this week. It actually turns out that you're not allowed to come into the studio

if you're waiting for a COVID test result to come back. So we've got legends and She's On The Money team members, Ryan, John and Jess joining us instead. How lucky are we? All right. Feeling good. Welcome to the very first episode of 2021, friends. Yeah.

Now, today's episode is all about goal setting for the new year. However, this time last year, Victoria Devine, you and your partner set a goal for 2020. What was it? It was to purchase our first home, Ryan John. And what happened at the end of last year? What has just happened in your life? I purchased my first home.

Which is very, very fun and a goal that honestly has been a fair few years in the making and achieving it honestly is so exciting and genuinely we could not be prouder of ourselves at the moment. So this episode is all about goal setting. You've obviously just achieved a goal. So is it fair to say we're going to learn how to set realistic goals, how to actually achieve it? Because I know a lot of people in our group say, I set goals and I don't achieve them.

And most people say their goal is to buy a house. So I feel like this is a really great area for people. Two birds, one stone, my friends, I have done it and I am going to share with you literally every way I have done it and literally the rest of the process, aren't we Ryan? Yeah. And can we talk about the YouTube video now as well? Yeah, we can totally talk about the YouTube video. So on YouTube right now, there is a house tour of Victoria's House,

if you want to check it out, myself and Vee are in. Actually, Jess, you're in it as well. I do. We're all in it for my little cameo. It's very beautiful. Like your cameo obviously made the video, but we're going to drop that in the Facebook group first. So if you're a member, you'll be able to see the video exclusively first,

and then maybe next week we'll make it public. So Vee, today's episode is five ways to start your 2021 on the right foot financially. however giant asterisk you don't love new year's resolutions do you no i don't why not i just don't think anyone on the she's on the money team does either because usually we stick to them for like a week and then we lapse into old habits which is totally depleting and what she's on the money is about is celebrating the new year and establishing some goals for the year ahead and to be honest all of these tips should be super relevant any time of the year when you're ready to set a goal not just the start of january so if you're listening to this and it's april like you can implement

these anytime you want it is not something that you have to wait for a new year to start afresh i feel like it's a big excuse in november december oh no next year yeah like no if you want to change something about your life now is the best time and i think that you know it's just coincidental that everyone wants to talk about it now and that's why we're doing it but it's not necessarily because we think that you have to set financial goals now like set them when you're ready my friends. All right. We're going to have five tips this episode. Number one, take the time to sort out your budget and your cash flow. I feel like that was going to be an obvious one from me. And obviously I wrote these five tips, so I'm not going to be surprised by any of them. Oh, great

idea, Ryan. I'm just reading what Victoria wrote down. But I think it is one of those things that people bury their heads in the sand about. We need to be taking ownership of where we are and really establish complete transparency over our finances of where we're at and where we're going and what we want to achieve because if we don't understand our budget and cash flow like how do we create goals that are actually achievable and Ryan Jess we were all having this discussion earlier that we see sometimes in our Facebook group people being like oh I really want to save ten thousand dollars this year and you go wow that's such a great goal how are you going to do it now like well I'm saving three hundred dollars a month you're like okay but

you're not gonna that that's not possible like have you got more money that you're saving and They're like, oh, no, no, no. And then I just don't want you to be upset at the end of the year when you don't achieve that goal. So it's about understanding your budget and your cash flow and what surplus income you have so we know what you are working with. Do you think if you, like in that example, which I think anyone who's in the Facebook group,

there's been so many different versions of that. Oh, that doesn't quite add up. Exactly. Even money diaries from previous seasons and like just listening to people going, but that's not going to work out. You're going to be really upset. Do you think when you set this high goal that, you know, mathematically you're not going to achieve that just gives people a they get halfway through the

year they're nowhere near it so they just smash their cash and blow out and end up back at zero whereas if they hadn't had a smaller target they would actually do better off yes and if you'd had a smaller target that was broken down into even more small targets such as christmas presents or you know in the facebook group this week we actually saw someone saying you know i blew so much money on my hair at christmas time and it was like well that's something that you shouldn't feel bad about if at one it was related to her mental health and you know Christmas being pretty traumatic for her and that helped her get through and I was just like emergency funds are for that they're for helping us get through and your emergency fund might be different to somebody

else's emergency fund like she might have used it on her hair and that genuinely was helping her mentally more than a $300 therapy session could have and I think that you know stick in your own lane pick your own journey but also let's try and foresee what those smaller things would be because $300 at Christmas time, if you know you want to do that, that's $7 a week. So start doing that. Absolutely. All right, next point.

Next point. Jess, what is it? Jess. Next up we have reflect on 2020 to figure out what you want moving forward. Okay, this one is a good one. And we spoke about this last week on the pod. To be honest, like 2020, a bit of a garbage fire for a lot of us. A bit of a write-off.

A bit of a write-off. What do you reckon? But 2020 was also a chance for a lot of us to reassess what we actually want from our lives what we liked and maybe what we didn't like and gain a bit of an understanding of what we actually want to do next year and just making sure that we are living our lives in line with our values and the things that we are finding important because I think as much as being in isolation has you know upset us I think it's also given us a little bit of reflection time to work out what's really important and I'm seeing some really beautiful stories coming out of our

community about how people are saying look I'm really realizing that I want to spend more time with my kids or my family or my partner or I want to spend more time walking outside or you know I've even had that point of realization where I love my morning walks with my partner and now it's a complete non-negotiable for us to do that morning walk before I even come to work and I just think it puts me in the right frame of mind and I think there are a lot of us who would have found behaviors or implemented things that are really good for their mental health but also their physical health and hopefully their financial health that they can implement so I think that So reflecting on 2020 and what we actually want to do moving forward is so, so important. And at the end of the day, this does play a part in how we spend our money and what our goals are and what we want to strive towards. And like having a think about what we actually want to spend money on now, would you like to save? Were you actually in a position during COVID where you did save more? If so, how did that change your life? Obviously, apart from not being able to leave the house, how did that change your life? And is that something you want to continue?

you? And if it is, how can you do that? But also, were you a little bit too hard on yourself during that period of time? And how can you be kind to yourself moving forward so that 2021 is a year where we achieve a whole heap together? Is there any go-to questions you have, Vy, that people can ask themselves in the process of trying to figure out what their values actually are? Because I know we talk about values a lot, but how do we actually ask ourselves, what do I value? I think it's a bit more innate and it's a little bit more internal it's not something you can sit down and go okay i've decided my values are uh money and uh yes yeah i think it's about your feeling and being able to sit with that and something that i think is really important is being able to sit with the

decision so it's thinking about your life and where you want it to go and maybe thinking ahead and you know it's the worst interview question ever like where do you see yourself in five years dress um in your job in your job like obviously like in which it's on the money um but I think it's well where do you see yourself in 10 years and really just sitting down and like I'm I'm kind of a fluffy person so like meditations and stuff are very down my alley but just sitting there and going all right well what does that look like and thinking about your gut and how does that actually make you feel like if I said all right well you'll have financial freedom does that you know have a sense of relief associated with it does that have you know a sense of you know

belonging associated with it does it stress you out like how are you feeling about those things because often if I put you in a situation and I put a value on you that is not your value doesn't feel like it sits right it doesn't feel like it belongs and you really need to sit down and go okay well buying a house actually makes me feel really uncomfortable you know why does it make me feel really uncomfortable and talking through those things and I think that I know that's a really fluffy answer obviously I'm gonna say you know go and write down your values and your money story and understand that but i've harped about all of that stuff i've harped on about all that stuff on historical podcasts but i think this one is more about just listening to

your gut and what do you feel and what enriches your life and what makes you feel full like what fills up your cup do you think the reason people don't achieve some of their goals is because of what you're just saying they might not set the right goals that actually gets them really passionate they're just setting goals that seems like oh i feel like i'm supposed to kind of have a goal like buying a house, even though it terrifies me. Maybe if they had a goal that they really actually wanted, they'd be more likely to get it. Absolutely. And I think that some people are really self-sabotaging when it comes to goals like that. And I meet lots of people who do this, who say, oh, well, I really want to buy a house. And I go, okay, cool. So,

why are you spending $1,500 to $2,000 a month going out? And they're like, oh, like I'll get to saving for a house. And it's like, well, if you really wanted it, you wouldn't be throwing that money away it's obviously not a goal that really inspires you what is a goal that really inspires you oh i really wanted to work in london okay now we're getting somewhere like now we're talking like what would that mean to you oh it would it'd be so cool okay well why is buying a house so important to you oh my best friend did it or my dad keeps telling me to do it okay but if you want to work in london and that's the thing that sparks joy for you like do more of that yeah Well, that actually ties in nicely to our next point.

The third point is quit the comparison. It's the thief of joy. And is that similar to what you were just saying? People are setting goals because, oh, their friend had that goal and it looked cool and everyone gave him a high five and I want that. 100%. And I feel like so many people compare their journeys to that of other people's, but you don't know what part of the journey they're on.

So if you're at the start of your financial journey and you've only just started listening to she's on the money the money diaries are going to feel really overwhelming because you're not used to hearing them and you're not used to being surrounded by so many people who are like all right well this is my budget and these are the steps I've taken on my journey and you just feel so behind so stop comparing your beginning to somebody else's middle or somebody else's you know two-thirds in because they went through probably really similar struggles to you in the very beginning and even if they didn't it's your journey it's your lane to stay in it and can I just say this is a lot easier said than done because some of the money diaries that are coming

up are the one next week oh my gosh they and i both read this email and almost started crying because this 24 year old saved so much money and we're like how has she done it what are we doing with our lives and like i think that's really important as well because that was it that money diarist who said on the phone she was like oh yeah i've just got to remind myself that you guys are people still it's like um yes of course we are like we are so guilty of this like ryan and i were listening to that money diarist comparing ourselves and we actually had to do a bit of a check-in to be like um what are we doing yeah we're back in our own lane we're doing the thing we're telling everyone not to do yeah do as we say not as we do friends are there any tips and tricks

whether it be journaling or focusing and writing down your own goals to actually implement to actually stay in your own lane yeah I think it's literally about understanding you and your journey and the less clarity you have on the things that you love doing and the people that you love surrounding yourself with and you know the goals that you've got the less likely you are to not be able to compare yourself it's arguably a lot easier for you if you're like okay well I see Jess she's saving for her first home and I'm you know saving for a jet ski and and I think that you know I've got to remember that my goal is not her goal and her goal is not my goal and that's okay and stop comparing mine because I've decided that's in line with my values and while I'm not going to be buying

a jet ski anytime soon I think it's really important to say like everybody else's goals are different and if that is yours fantastic but I think it's more about you are choosing that goal you are choosing to allocate your finite resources to that and I think if you're choosing to allocate your resources to that it better be the right thing um side note the reason we're laughing at jet skis because someone wrote that in the group and we all read it and we're like go for it mate what a legend if that is your goal buy your jet ski we'd love it all right the next tip jess this is one we talk about a lot in our facebook group and that is getting on top of your emergency account yes it is and i like that jess calls it our facebook account good for you

yeah good for you you're on the team yeah welcome yeah i don't know if you guys have noticed but Jess might have recently been added as an admin because she's the newest She's On The Money team member and we are very lucky to have her. But she is right. Getting on top of your emergency account is the number one thing I want you to do. Now, I always say crush debt first. But if you don't have an emergency account, you're at really large risk of going back into debt if something bad happens. And so for me, saving while you're in debt is a really bad idea. But to me, an emergency account isn't really savings it's an emergency account it is there for emergencies so debt needs to be dealt with before we can start saving but an emergency account puts you in a situation when

the proverbial hits the fan you can make sure that you actually stay on track to getting rid of that debt and you're not you know going into more debt because you know your car broke down or your insurance was up or something happened to put you in a situation where your only choice would be backwards so i think that we need to be really kind to ourselves in an emergency account is the way to do that so for me you know it puts you in a position where you end up feeling super secure financially even though you're in personal debt do you have a recommendation or i know everyone's going to be different again but is an emergency account maybe a certain amount of months of your income or is it your bills for the next six months or is it a just a two thousand dollar flat fee

what should people aim for? Everybody's different. And I'm so sorry that I can't say it's perfect, but at the end of the day, everybody is different. Some of the She's On The Money community have $500 in their emergency account and that is perfect for them. I've also got clients who have more than $100,000 in their emergency accounts because that makes them feel financially secure. And I'm not here saying you need this or that, but I think a really good way to think about it is if an accident happened or if something happened to me, what is the biggest bill I would get at this point. And, you know, if you've only got third party insurance on your car insurance, maybe that's a lot bigger than someone who has comprehensive insurance. So I think it's

really important to just understand what your situation is, but I do think a really safe place to play. And I'm not saying that this is achievable for everybody, but if you are in your mid twenties, I'd be trying to have at least $2,000 in that because, you know, if your rego comes up or your insurance comes up or you've forgotten about these things or you get a really big speeding fine at least you've still got at least a thousand dollars in that emergency account because sometimes the proverbial hits the fan more than once in a month and that just feels like a kick in the guts and that emergency fund is there for those things i'm really annoyed because you just reminded me my rego is due i'm sorry that's so annoying mine is too don't worry yeah let's get to number five which

is identifying your goals in 2021 so obviously everything we've talked about kind of leads to this crescendo if you will uh random question though does it make a difference if we actually write it down yeah or is there a process rather than just thinking oh yeah i'll probably get about 100 science tells us you are 60 more likely to achieve a goal that you've written down and i think that that is epic so get out your napkins get out your iphones write that stuff down it puts you in a position where you are more likely to stick to that because you've kind of visualized it and i know this sounds really lame but if you've got like a vision board or you you know have different places that you can put this goal, the more likely you are to achieve it.

Breaking it down even further than that is obviously going to help as well. So writing down, I would like to buy a house is to me not good enough. I would like to buy a house in five years and I would like to have $100,000 saved as a deposit is a far better goal than I would like to buy a house. We don't want animosity when it comes to goal setting. We want clarity and we want so much clarity that if i gave my goal to somebody else they could essentially use it not that they should because they should be in their own lane yeah how much do we need to sort of break it down so for instance my wife now wife bridget and i are we you guys uh playing along at home ryan when did you get married uh last week yay just snuck it in before our for the new year and

before our photographer is heavily pregnant so she just said if you guys want to use me you have to do it by the end of the year i love that you loved your photographer so much that you literally planned your wedding date around her georgia veros was her name but anyway we want to save up for our you know in inverted commas sort of forever home kind of thing um do we break it down per year do we say per month we need to save this much per week how much like when you say break it down how much do we really need to break it down it depends on your level of motivation and i think that in this position the more broken down a goal is the easier to digest it is and you know i like to break goals down to a monthly basis i've got friends and family who break it down to a weekly

basis and i've got some people in the she's on the money community who break it down to daily like someone in our no they do not yeah i love it but they do and it's literally the best if you save 27.50 a day every day for this year you'll have ten thousand dollars saved by the end of this year my friends and that actually sounds easy 27 bucks a day 27 on dumplings like we did excuse me attack just remember my friend you just started she's just like yes absolutely it is uber eats dumplings which by the way was for the entire team you benefited yeah you benefited from that so it does but the more you break it down the more palatable it is going to be, the easier it is to achieve. But also breaking down goals means you can track your goal

better because if you didn't save that $27.50 yesterday, you know you're not going to achieve that goal at the end of the year and that's just going to build up. I also think it helps you understand whether that goal is achievable as well. Because if you say, look, Brian, I really want to save $10,000 this year. And I go, well, do you have $27.50 a day to put aside? And you go, no if you can't afford that you're not actually going to be able to save ten thousand dollars and it's not saying that that's a bad thing not everyone needs to do that but if that's your goal you're going to be really upset at the end of this year when you don't achieve that goal so how about reset that goal if you can afford four hundred dollars maybe we could go half so there's a post

in the facebook group at the moment saying what is your goal for 2021 and we're going to do an episode on friday where the three of us just go through the group and talk about all our favorite goals that you guys have had. So go find that post, leave your comment, but also have a look at everyone else's and comment on theirs because there are some really great ones. But Bea, before we finish up, is there any final words of wisdom from our fearless financial leader, Victoria Devine? I thought Georgia was dramatic. It turns out it's you two that is even more dramatic. And I now know that it runs in the she's on the money family. No, I think it's just about being clear and honest with yourself this year. Last year, so many of us fell off track and I think it's just

about being really honest and really kind with ourselves and taking the time to sort through your budget and have a think about what 2020 meant to you and the things that you valued, making sure you're not comparing yourself to the journey of other people's, making sure you have that emergency account. And I think you'll be in a financially stable position

where you can start gaining the confidence that you deserve. I know I mentioned the Facebook group before. Also check out our Instagram as well. She's on the money AUS if you want to see everyone's money wins, which actually Jess, what are we doing every Monday now? hashtag money win monday tag us on instagram we're sharing them every single week we're taking them from the facebook group as well it's so much fun and i there was one last week someone did like a

really cute platter idea that i'm 100 stealing so it's good for that too all right check that out that's on instagram all right just before we head off we'd like to acknowledge and pay respect to australia's aboriginal and torres strait islander peoples the traditional custodians of the lands the waterways and the skies all across australia we thank you for sharing and for caring on 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 now the advice shared on she's on the money is general in nature and it doesn't consider your individual circumstances she's on the money exists purely for educational purposes only and should not be relied upon to make an investment or a financial

decision and we promise i am an authorized representative of australia pacific funds management proprietary limited abn 34132463257 afsl 339151 and again thank you to ryan and jessica for joining me today and to beck who is our producing queen absolutely all right thanks guys see you next week bye Thank you.