She's On The Money - FRIDAY DRINKS: Gettin' the band back together

Episode Date: January 20, 2022

HAPPY FRIDAY PALS! The bands back together after being struck by the spicy cough. We chat about splitting bills with your partner based on equity, and then talk about what on earth is going on in the share market right now!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. welcome back to another one of our friday drinks episodes where this week we do have the whole gang here to celebrate the money wins from our she's on the money community as we all know there are so many great money wins and confessions that are shared every single week in our she's on the money group and jess george and i have spent a very big part of the last hour talking about how great you

are so only felt fair to hit record and start sharing them with you friday is about celebrating our community and having more positive and constructive conversations around money. So let's jump straight into it. Jess and George, together, welcome back to the show. Oh my gosh, everyone's here. Hey, girls. Oh, the spicy cough has not got us that far down. Absolutely not, Miss Verona. Not today, Satan. Not today, Satan. Not today. And George, Jess, you're feeling better. Are you all good? On the mend. On the mend.

Yes, never better. on the money. Good to hear. All right, Jess, let's start off with you. Tell us what happened this week. I can't work out what was on Money Diaries. Why is that? That's because we didn't have an episode. Big apology to everyone who was waiting. Unfortunately, we had a diarist cancel last minute, which happens. No hard feelings at all. We've been known to need to move something around as well. But it does leave us in a bit of a tricky spot because with the Chrissy break and everything, we normally have a couple in the bank, but this time we just unfortunately didn't. We'd used up all of our nine lives. I know. And we had none left. So, sorry.

That seems fair. It's like on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and you've got like three lives that you can use. You can like phone a friend or whatever. Like we used all of those up. But we promise. Jessie's very organized. So, I reckon we'll get ahead very soon. So, it won't happen again. But I mean, we're sorry, but also we don't want to put junk into your ears. So we didn't want to do like a last minute ditch to try and like scrape something together that just didn't hit the mark. It's just not who we are, is it guys? Not at all. But we did have more success on Wednesday. We did. We actually got that episode in your ears. George, what happened on the show? Oh, it was a fun one, guys. We spoke about power of attorneys. Oh my gosh. Make it sound sexier,

George. So it sounds extremely bland, doesn't it? But as we learned throughout the episode, it was actually super, super interesting. And I remember going into that epi, I was like, how is this relevant? This sounds boring. Like what are we going to learn today? And we learned heaps. I would love to think so. I remember bringing up the topic with you and you're like, what? And I was like, yes, that is something we are going to talk about on the podcast because everybody needs to know. George, quick recap. What's the power of attorney for those of us who miss the app? So, really long story short, a power of attorney is essentially a legal document that outlines who will look after your affairs in the event that you can no longer look after them.

So, that might be that you suffer from an illness that takes away your ability to make decisions, or it might be that you're moving overseas and can't look after your own affairs while you're away. So, there's a few different types. There's also medical power of attorneys. And they're different. They're completely different. Yes, very much so. But we also learned what happens if you don't have one, how you go about choosing an appropriate person to be your power of attorney. There was heaps in there. It's really good. I'm biased. I think it was a pretty good episode. Jess, what were you about to say? I feel like it's one of those topics and we've done a few of these in the past and I have a few

on our list to come up in the coming months. But you don't think you need to know about it until you need to know about it. And it's just a good topic to have in your back pocket. To make it real topical for a second, anyone who's been following Miss Britney Spears and her conservatorship, not the exact same thing. Obviously, it's international. It's a conservatorship, not a power of attorney. However, it does bring to attention why we should be talking about this, because if you don't have the knowledge and don't have things in place when you perhaps might need them, you could find yourself in a less than ideal situation. Yeah. And we did, we just spoke about that. So that's, yeah, well picked up, Jay Rook.

And I also think there's this massive misconception that a power of attorney is something that wealthy people have. And it's not. It's something that we all could have. Like, George, we've spoken about it before. It breaks my heart. But at some point, you want to go overseas, leaving the She's on the Money team one day, and travel and live overseas. And maybe we'll work out a way for you to record remotely. But, you know, we'll work it out as we go. But that's something even you should go, is that something I need? It's not just for people who have millions and millions of dollars. And Jess, in your example, you're absolutely right. Like Britney Spears is a massive example of an

abuse of power and something we really should be aware of and what can happen. Thankfully, conservative ships aren't common in Australia. I don't even think they're legal, but again, I'm not a lawyer, so I don't want to say they're not because I couldn't find enough information about it online. However, it's not just wealthy people. It could be me. It could be you, Jess. it could be George, it could be, you know, our parents needing to go through that situation. So, this is one, if you've read the title and you're like, oh, that's so irrelevant for me, it's actually not. We all need to understand this, know our rights and know our power. All right, George, on to some more exciting and less dry content. I believe you have been in the

Facebook group once again this week, pulling out the money wins that you think should be shared on the show. What have you got for us this week, George? Some absolute beauties as per my friends. The first money win here comes from Shalini. Hi, Shalini. So, her money win this week is that she actually went through and checked that she had received Medicare rebates that she was entitled to. And in doing so, she discovered that she didn't get one for a psych appointment back in February. It was just due to a little Medicare card number error. So not a big deal, but she got $128.50 back just for putting in the effort to have a little look-see. Don't mind if I do. Also applicable if you have private health, because I know that

sometimes they won't do it when you're like on location and you can usually submit like up to 12 months after you've like used it. And so I went through my private health doc and realized that I could claim my contact lenses, which I didn't know. Yeah. So I went back and claimed like 12 months worth of contact lenses so amazing check your health stuff ladies yeah i didn't even know you could claim contact lenses but it makes sense because you can claim optometry so like i just i just wouldn't have thought of that there you go go check it out jess you probably just saved someone this week a serious amount of money i love that our next win ladies comes from renata this one's kind of sad and happy at the same time so renata's ex and her actually split up two months

after moving into the house that they built together they ended up selling the house but they made three times more than what they put into it because of how much the property market has popped off in recent times oh my gosh money win guys money win exactly so she's sad that the relationship has ended but she's managed to walk away with so much money and is planning on building a house of her own within the next 12 months so yeah how exciting congratulations my friend how good is that exactly and i hope you're getting through the breakup okay it's always a horrible time but this is exciting that you have a big goal coming your way this year absolutely our next win gals is from ken so she started putting money aside for her car related expenses a few

months ago after becoming a listener she put her car in for a routine service and was blindsided by the need for four new tires that always sucks when that happens the audacity all at once it should be a buy three, get one free kind of situation. Luckily though, she was able to pay for it without using her credit card or by dipping into her savings, which is a first for her because she was putting that money aside. So clever, clever little kid. Our next one, gals, is from Hayley. Huge money win, she writes. Moving out edition. My partner and I move out of home and in together this weekend. I posted it on a local page where I live and managed to score a free brand new couch washer and dryer what yeah but there's more on top of that we've managed to score

a dining table a coffee table bedsides outdoor set and a barbecue for a total of 150 dollars sorry what she's making money drop the message that you posted on that board because i think a few she's on the money friends are gonna want to copy and paste that message into their own local boards to see what they can get but that kind of makes sense right like popping a message in a community board being like hey we're moving into the area like we're new to this i would reply to that there's a facebook not a trend but there's a lot of um buy nothing groups which is where like if you have things that you yeah if you google like your area like melbourne buy nothing they should come up and it's local to like suburbs so you'll often find people who are like hey like

i've upgraded my dining table does anyone want this one it's like a pay it forward good for the environment well worth plugging and interfacing seeing what you can get and then when you have something that maybe you need to get rid of, do the same thing and pay it forward. Yeah, I love that. Oh, I don't know how I've missed this, guys. Turns out I might be living under a rock. George, what else have we got? Maybe this one will resonate. So, our next win is from Isabella. At the end of last year, she promised herself that she would get on top of her budget. Yes, queen. She opened an account with ARP and has her money going into all the little savings accounts she's

created for herself. So she knows where every dollar is going now. The money win though is that she had an unexpected bill that she didn't factor into her budget, but she was able to take it from her emergency fund and not stress about it. So she's like, it wasn't really an emergency, but it was nice not to stress. No, that is an emergency. Like that's absolutely what your emergency fund is for. It's for things that just pop up that you could potentially go into debt for. I mean, yes, there's obviously actual emergencies like, oh my gosh, I've totaled my car and I need to pay the excess or, you know, for me when my dog ate chocolate and I needed to take her to the emergency vet, like that was a very big bill, but it came out of my emergency

fund. But if you've got a bill that's just popped up out of nowhere, don't need to afterpay it. Don't need to put it on a credit card. Don't need to borrow 50 bucks from your housemate because you've got your own back. How good is that? It's very good. I knew you'd like that one, VD. This one actually I chose because I know you will both approve. So, it's from M. Her local Bunnings finally got the new range of rare indoor plants in. What? They get rare indoor plants? Yes. We need to look this up, girlies. They don't sell them on the West side, that's for sure. I've never seen rare indoor plants at Bunnings. Like you got your standard Monstera, you could probably get some Devil's Ivy and you sure as hell can get a lot of different types of lavender,

but you cannot get a Thai constellation monstera or an elbow. Like, people are going to be like, what is she talking about? Literally. If you know, you know. If you know, you know. Hold on. Tell us more, George. Okay, so she says that she went absolutely overboard

and had seven in her basket, but she couldn't bear to leave any of them behind because they were already her little plant babies, so she took them all to the counter. The woman at the register undercharged her, but she didn't realise until she got home. so that's that's a win in itself except she didn't she's an angel what does she do she picks up the blower also known as the phone calls the store says hi guys so sorry you undercharged me i've got all a plant a house full of plants um for a hot deal like i'll come in and i'll give

them back they thanked her for her honesty and told her to keep them she said 150 dollars wow here i am being like sure and she's like no i wanted to give them back actually hang on there's there's one more line here i missed okay sorry sorry what is it she's now going to propagate the cuttings from these plants and sell them as a mini side hustle you are you've you've peaked that is the she's on the money poster girl right there you are our people you like plants you like money wins you like propagating plants do a little snippy snip it's not stealing it's what jess is it it's liberating exactly right it's liberating especially when you already own it so oh my gosh i love that that turned out so well for her she did the right

thing and like the good karma just came immediately right back around we love to see it that's my last one for the day no i love that that was a really good one to finish it on i feel like people who pick up the phone and they're like hey you undercharged me they have like no need to do that because it's not technically theft and no one's gonna come and get you but like they're the type of people i want to know like they are the wholesome people that are in our community and i just feel so special that oh she shared that with us but imagine her being your friend you're like at breakfast she's like oh my god yeah and i called bunnings and i wanted to give them back like i'd be like i love you you're my people m's an angel yeah i know m is an angel

but before I get too into it, let's go to a quick break and then George, Jess, we have spicy content to share that I didn't realize was spicy after maybe one too many glasses of wine on a Sunday night. Don't go anywhere. All right, George. So first things first, we probably need to tell Jess what we did last week. We kind of just railroaded this segment, which is usually like a show and tell kind of segment where we talk about something that's happening in the media, or we might have a few listener questions and like, it's a bit flexible, but Jeaking and I, we went rogue. We started book club last week and whilst we're not doing book club this week, we probably thought we should get your approval. I think the community likes it though. Have you

heard of book club already, Jess? A few people have mentioned it, yes. And it seems to be in on the thing. So, what are we thinking? Like maybe a monthly segment where it gives people time to read the book if they want to read along? Oh no, this is like fake. Girl, you clearly didn't listen to the podcast. This is fake book club where you don't even have to read the book. I will read the book. I would tell you the key points that you needed to take away from that book. And then you pretend you read the book. That's how book club works. Sounds like the kind of book club I want to be a part of. Oh, well, you are actually an honorary member and you will be privy to every book club meeting that

we actually hold. Will they be scheduled? No. Will they be absolutely random and you'll never to see them coming? Yes. So whenever I finish a finance book or reread one, I'm going to pop on the show and let you guys know what's up. If you have any requests though, please slide into our DMs because a lot of finance books are really dry. They are dry or they are boring, but I think it's really exciting that we are now going to start talking about them and what they actually mean because so many times in our community and Jess and George, you would hear this a lot. People like, oh my gosh, which books should I read? And you hear the standards. You obviously hear Richest Man in Babylon. You hear Rich Dad, Poor Dad. You would hear The Barefoot Investor.

Hopefully people are recommending She's on the Money. But you kind of go, why would I pick up these books? If you've never picked them up before, what's Rich Dad, Poor Dad? Do you know what I mean? Like, at least I can tell you the premise of the book and you might go, do you know what? That sounds exactly like something I would want to read. Or, oh, I don't want to read about behavioral finance, that's way too technical for me to start on. So, hopefully it means you don't have to read the book and you get all the tips and tricks from them from us just telling you about the Mean Book Club. But if not, I think it's a good intro to you potentially reading your own finance books. Fun. But George, this week, what are we doing? Okay. So, let's talk

about a little article that I found before the show VD when I was doing my pre-pod planning, trying to find some saucy news for us all. After we do that, though, we will also be listening to a money question all about what the devil is happening in the stock market right now, because a lot of us have noticed that Spaceship in particular, because we all have Spaceship, a lot of us do have Spaceship. We're down. It went down. It's gone down. We are negative returns. Yes. So, we're going to talk about what's going on there and if we should be worried. spoiler don't be worried exactly right before we do get there gals v talk us through this daily mail article about who was spassy well would you like to know how it came to fruition because i

didn't even know it was going to come to fruition so the other night i was on tiktok and i saw this trend with this particular sound and if you're not on tiktok and you've seen my video the music that I'm singing to. Makes no sense. You'd be like, why did she pick that song and that text over the top of it? But essentially the video and the text I have chosen is all about equity, not equality in relationships. And I've said it on the pod before. And if you've listened to every single one, you would know that I am a firm believer in splitting expenses like rent with your romantic partner. We're not talking housemates here with your romantic partner based on how much you earn, not just splitting it down the line in terms of 50-50. So George, if you earn $150,000

a year and I was on $60,000 a year, I personally do not think it is fair that we would just split rent right down the middle because it doesn't make sense in terms of equity in a relationship. And when I talk about equity, I'm talking about giving people the exact same tools and resources and opportunities to put themselves in the same position we're not talking about like oh well it's fair you pay half I pay half yes in a housemate situation that would be it because George if you and I live together which that'd be a blast I mean you lived with my sister it was a good time I'm like the tidier version maybe a little bit more boring so you will probably have less fights so if you're ever looking for a housemate hit me up but my financial situation as your housemate

is not your business. Like, and vice versa, whatever you earn, you've agreed to pay your room's rent, right? Or the house's rent. But if we're in a romantic relationship, I genuinely think that that changes. And that is something that we're meant to be working towards shared goals and shared visions. And the other night I posted this video and one thing led to another, and I had a cheeky glass of red wine on the couch and got very heated in my comments back to people, made the Daily Mail. I have a couple of questions, VD. Firstly, what's it like to be featured in the Daily Mail? Oh, it's actually really scary. It was a really nice article. Like, it was gorgeous. Whoever wrote that, thank you. Really appreciate the exposure for She's On The Money. But sometimes

you see it pop up as a notification in your email and you're like, oh, what have I done? This is scary. Like, this is not good. Like, no, not my vibe. But I do think it's a really topical conversation to be had because I'm a genuine believer in equity in relationships, but I was super surprised at some of the comments, guys. What were the types of comments? Oh, look, some of them were gorgeous. Some of them were like, oh my gosh, I wish I'd known about this earlier. Some of them were like, yes, I'm so for this. I've been doing this for years. One of them said, hey, Victoria, I just showed this video to my partner and he said, why aren't we already doing this? And I just think it's so awesome that we're having these

money conversations. And we're viewing things in a way that gives us a lot of power, especially, you know, we're not all women, but most women and most minority groups are already disadvantaged. So we're the ones that need the most empowerment to have these conversations. But on the flip side of me being like, oh my gosh, I'm so glad this content's resonating. There's always those few people that message you and say, oh my gosh, I work so hard and I shouldn't have to share my hard work with somebody else who doesn't work as hard. And I just was really shocked that people genuinely believe that in 2022, that potentially because you earn less money, you're working less hard.

And that is absolutely not the case. And I was just a bit like, man, your red flag's showing. Oh, do you want to put that away? I don't know. It just felt wild. You're also in a partnership. So it's like, why are you acting as an individual? And I know everyone manages their money differently and some do do it independently.

but surely you'll have shared goals down the line that you're both working towards. So wouldn't you want your partner, if they are earning less, to kind of be in a better financial position? It's kind of a strange logic. Yeah, it's a very strange logic. And I've got a couple of messages and we will actually do a podcast on this and Jess and George are in for it because I want to do a little bit of role playing in that episode. It sounds really lame, but I want you guys to throw questions at me saying, well, I don't think that's fair. And then me respond and help empower you with those conversations, because that seems to be the number one question that said, well, how do I bring this up in a relationship? Or my boyfriend thinks it's not fair and that he works

really hard for his really high income and that I didn't go to uni and therefore I don't deserve it. And that's not it. Like equity comes in so many different shapes in a relationship. It's not just financial. It could be tasks you're doing around the house, like domestic work. It could be childcare. It could be pet care. It could be literally looking after your partner and making them lunch if that's something you do. I'm not saying that every relationship is equal, but you do need to have a genuine conversation about what equity in a relationship looks like, because it's different for everybody. And it just seems so wild to me that, you know, if you're a high income earner, you would want your partner to be financially disadvantaged.

and one of the messages I got and I'm sure that there are other people that resonate with this was from someone who said this is really funny because I used to be the low income earner in my relationship by a lot but I was the one who insisted on splitting everything 50 50 even though their partner always said oh no I'll pay more it's okay but this person was raised to be quote independent and never to ask for a man's money so and she said in quotation marks for her own pride she never accepted what he offered or that he wanted to pay more, even though he literally earned triple what she was earning seven years into the relationship. And she still has a really hard time not feeling guilty when he pays for something, but then also harbors a lot of guilt

when he suggests going on a holiday or something that she genuinely can't afford because she's trying really hard to pay 50-50. And I think that the biggest thing for me that came out of this is Your independence is not changed or quashed or non-existent because you want equity, because you want to be given the same opportunity as your partner to save, to invest, to put money aside so that you can go on a holiday, to go out for a coffee. And it just blows my mind that in 2022, we are actually still thinking that way. And I just want to say here and now before this podcast episode comes out, because it's going to be a few weeks off because I really want to nail it. And I really want to put down all of my thoughts into one like little document, have a

chat with George, have a chat with Jess, have a chat with the community about what they want from this. But I think it's really important to understand equity in a relationship and the fact that equity recognizes that every single person has different circumstances and then allocates the resources that those people have in line with what they need to achieve a desired outcome. It's not about saying, Jess, we need to pay 50-50. It's about saying, Jess, we both need equal opportunity. And from my perspective, I know I'm getting a bit ranty about this. I'm just genuinely so passionate about it. It just doesn't feel fair that if somebody's earning less money, they end up in a situation where they can't save or they can't invest or they

can't feel empowered. Like it just makes no sense to me. What do you guys think? I, not to be controversial, but I just think it's probably worth highlighting here. And I know that this is what you're getting at, but it's not as simple, I think, as saying, oh, if you don't want to split things equitably, you don't want your partner to succeed. Oh no, absolutely not. And I hope I'm not coming across like that. Oh my gosh, if I am, pull my head in. Because yeah, it's definitely really complicated. There's a lot of factors, you know, based on personal circumstance a friend of mine her she works full-time she did two degrees she's a doctor and her partner has a more creative job and part of his job something that he loves is the freedom

that it gives him to work part-time so he has chosen to live at a greater level of work-life balance for a lower income so for example in that situation if I was her and my partner turned around and said hey you know based on the choices that you've made you're earning a lot more than me I want you to pay more than I am and so it really is so dependent on your situation I think as well the things in my relationship it's flipped I'm the higher income earner my partner's still studying this year he's literally on placement all year so he's earning potential not super swish and for us we split rent equitably because when we were looking there were things that were a priority to me that weren't important to him that would increase the cost of living. So, I wanted a

modern house. I wanted new appliances, whereas he would happily live in a house from the 1940s and not think twice about it. No, I'm so with Steve. Like, I don't know how, but they're cool with it. Yeah, they don't need a lot and that's great. And I was like, okay, well, I can see in this situation, my choices are going to cost you more and therefore, I feel like it's my responsibility to cover the difference. But for things like bills and groceries, we split them equally because we're consuming them equally. And so, I think like it is a very complex situation. I think it's so important to be comfortable having those conversations. And it is, again, as like the higher income earner, like it is a conversation that we have regularly. And I say,

hey, like, how are you feeling about things? Like, how are you doing financially? And we're probably a little more comfortable having those conversations because of the work that I do. But yeah, there's no one size fits all. Hey, it's quite hard, but it is definitely something that's worth understanding. Cause like that girl said, she didn't even know that it was an option that she could put on the table for discussion. Absolutely. And I think you've brought up a really, really valid point here as well. Equity is not necessarily just money. As I said before, it could be other things. And if you've got this friend whose partner is prioritizing their work life balance, well, that's part of their equity. And the thing that they're getting out of that

relationship. That doesn't necessarily mean that they get the cushy amount of rent because they're earning less income to have a better life. I think we really need to see this as an ongoing and consistently moving conversation that is very different for every single couple. And I think that that's where I'm like, oh, it's made it to the Daily Mail. It makes me look so black and white and that I do believe that there's only one way of doing this. Whereas you guys would know that that's not how She's On The Money exists. That's not what that means. And that's not how this works. Because you could do that percentage thing and work it out and be like, all right, Jess, like you get to pay 40% of rent and James gets to pay 60% of rent.

That's the start point of the conversation. It's not the end point. It's not the outcome. It's the, hey, is this fair? And you might go, no, like that makes no sense for us because I do A, B, C, D, and E and he does this and maybe one of you own the property and that's a different conversation again. So I think it is very different for different couples, but I really want to introduce the concept of what I would call domestic socialism and say, all right, what does that actually look like for us? What is fair? What is equitable? Not necessarily what is equal because a relationship is always about compromise and it's about putting the other person first and you being able to be put first and working together towards common goals. And just because someone's paying

less rent doesn't mean that they're freeloading. I mean, if that's the case, there's probably a few red flags and we need to reevaluate our relationships. But you're right, Jess, I think we should be looking at this as a start point of a conversation, not the actual outcome, because there's so many more factors that play into it. But let's just have more money conversations more often with our partners. And if this is a really good trigger for you, go for it. Like, use that as something that is going to empower you. But I think that the one thing that I do want to change is that mindset that just because you might be paying less

doesn't make you any less independent. Good chat, girls. That was interesting. Loved your points, Jess. All right. So, now let's take a listen to today's money question. Hi, girls. My question is what is happening with the stock market lately?

Things are going really, really bad. It's scary to look. at our Spaceship, Rays, and other investment accounts, including crypto. Everything's just going insanely bad. I was wondering, Victoria, could you explain to us what is going on? I'm guessing that the new COVID wave has something to do with it, but maybe if you could help us to understand the situation and what should we do to ride this wave and go through the current situation?

What would be your general advice to help us to deal with this right now? Thank you so much. Love to share. Okay. So, this is a question that I have myself because I've noticed with my own spaceship account, it's currently down 3.29% and I have the same questions like, what is happening? Should I be stressed? What are we doing?

Like, what's the goal? It's not even just spaceship either. My spaceship is the same, but even a lot of my independent stocks that I hold are seeing a bit of red right now. Check that out. That is not something Jessica Reed, she would have said 12 months ago, her independent share portfolio. What? Look at me go. No, but I'm sure there are a lot of people out there saying, oh my God, is it, do I need to sell? Like, what do we do? No, no, we don't sell when the market is down. We need to remember that you lose money only when you crystallize that loss.

And that's a very technical way of saying you only lose money when you accept the amount of money that your share portfolio is worth right now. Quite literally, you need to start thinking about a, quote, loss in the share market like you do about a property. Like, see it as property. If your property drops in value, you didn't lose any money because you didn't sell the property. Does that make sense? Unless you sell the property or you sell the share, that's when you lose money. So, George and Jess, if you're looking at your spaceship portfolios and they're off, You haven't lost anything. It's just currently valued at less. And what that value is telling you is that if you decided to pull all your money out today, that's how much money and how much of

a loss you would be accepting. However, you're in the positions, I know you're in the position, so I can talk to these quite easily. You're in the positions where you don't need that money right now from Spaceship. So you have the benefit of time on your side to ride that wave out because we know that the share market has ebbs and it has flows and it goes up and down over time. However, the longer you're in the share market, the more likely you are going to have a positive return. Like we know here in Australia that nobody, if they've invested in the Australian share market over a 30-year period, has ever lost money if they're buying the ASX top 100 type shares. We're not talking about, you know, I don't know what Jess has purchased, but like if you've gone

Rogue or Jess, I feel like you've potentially purchased shares because I'll be in the office being like, oh, I've bought this one. This seems really interesting. Is that how we've picked our shares, Jessica Ricci? Not just based off of that, but it's a contributing factor. It had something to do with it. However, I think it's also really interesting to have a quick chat about the way the share market works. And we often see in the share market, the start of the year be kind of like new year, new me, really perform really well. However, in 2022, we actually saw investors in the first week of January, which was kind of unprecedented. It's not the way the share market usually works. They were ditching all these fast growing technology companies like

Afterpay in favor for like less hyped businesses, which is a really big change from 2021. As you guys know, we were talking about a lot of stocks like Tesla and Afterpay, which I would say are fast-growing technology companies. So they're currently being ditched. Really important to note that the recent falls are not just in tech stocks though, but also in other what they're calling pandemic era type consumer facing shares. So we're turning away from things that people really favored during the pandemic, like the big four banks and oil majors like BHP. And we're turning to things like industrial groups as they gain a little bit more, I guess, notoriety and people are feeling a little bit more settled and the share market is reacting by going down in

value, not necessarily because those companies are worthless, but because so many people are selling off stocks. And as we know, the share market is driven by demand. So if a top at the shops is really, really popular, the shop owner might go, oh, Jess, this is stupid. I'm just going to charge more for it because I only have 10 of these each week to sell. So, I'm just going to put it up $5 or up $10. But if people are like, oh, that top's not in vogue anymore, they're going to have to put a discount on the share for more people to purchase it. So, we're actually seeing the share prices come down, not because the companies are performing any differently, but because of share market hunger, because of the way our community is viewing it. Like,

it could be people like Jess and George being like, I don't want to own Tesla anymore. It's had its heyday. That was 2021. I'm moving on. It's 2022. And I want to buy something that's a little bit more consumer facing. Like that's what's going on at the moment. And I think it's really important to realize that it's not a sell-off about Omicron and about COVID. Because what we're seeing in the share market when it comes to COVID and Omicron is that it's actually eased in markets as companies are starting to reopen. Like people are a little bit more comfortable about how the pandemic impacts countries and how we are locking down. Like here in Australia, we now know what the COVID normal potentially looks like. Jess, George,

you've just been through this yourselves and we were literally having this conversation off air where it's really strange how the goalposts have changed from being super locked down and like no COVID ever to, all right, Jess, George, all right, if you test negative, you can be out in the community. It doesn't matter if you've still got a bit of a lingering cough, don't worry about it. Like we're getting a little bit more comfortable with what that COVID normal world looks like. And that is translating to the share market, which means that COVID isn't impacting the share market as much as it was in 2020 and 2021. Whereas now the share market's a bit more worried about inflation. And as you guys know, everyone's a bit like, well, what happens if interest rates

increase? Like we're being a little bit more protective of that because we're being told that's potentially happening. Like we're seeing the big banks talk about it. We are seeing that interest rates could go up if central bank policy changes. And I think that's what's potentially driving the share market a bit more than Omicron or COVID or, you know, maybe people selling off Tesla. We are just seeing the share market react to what people's hunger for shares are at the moment and what that actually looks like. And when it comes to things like the interest rate, people are being conservative. They're getting rid of things that they don't think that they want to hold anymore. So, does that kind of answer it a little bit, Jess, George? Questions,

open the floor, my friends. Really well said there, Vee. And I feel like that does give a lot of context as to what is actually happening because I feel like I just assumed it was something to do with COVID. She'll be right. I think we all just assume it's COVID now. And before this episode, I was like, guys, it's not COVID. And you were like, what? It's always COVID. Pretty sure it is. Pretty sure it is, Victoria. So, and I know that you might not be able to answer this question because you're not a mind reader.

So, why are you asking? Or a reader of the future, I guess I should say. How long can we expect our portfolios to kind of be on this downward trend? Is it going to pep up anytime soon? I wish I could tell you. Do you know what? I'd be so rich. Like people would be calling me the mix Warren Buffett, if I could actually tell you what was going to happen. But interestingly enough, there is something called the January effect. And I alluded to this earlier. And it's usually quite, I guess, pronounced in US stocks, not necessarily Australian stocks. But as we know, the global markets really do impact the Australian markets. And there's actually an old saying in the

markets. When I say an old saying, like you guys don't know what that saying is, but like old financial advisors say it, so it must be quite legitimate. And they say how January goes is how the rest of the year will pan out, which is kind of interesting and kind of negative. And I don't want to be on the podcast being like, it's going to go down for the whole year. But essentially what the markets are saying and the whispers among all of my market update emails, which you guys know I'm obsessed with and read every single day, are essentially alluding to saying that if January is down then the market expectations will be down a year for the US stocks for 2022 which is kind of interesting but even so I do think that the market can increase in 2022. In saying that I do think

that there is a lot of room for the market to increase in 2022 and I wouldn't say that it's going to be a negative year. I feel like there's a lot of optimism like people and countries are coming out of this Omicron stuff. We're coming out of COVID and I think that a lot more people are wanting to invest and create wealth and buy shares. So, I just don't see it as consistently going down, especially given the ride that we've been on over the last three years. I feel like people are a little bit more educated and a little bit more ballsy and a little bit less likely to go, oh my gosh, it will go down because January was down. But as I said, I can't predict it. I just like having these conversations and hopefully you guys like listening to them because that's what

we're here for. I saw a really cute post the other day and it said, when the stock market is down, your shares are on sale. So, if you are wanting to buy, obviously not suggesting you would buy, you don't know if it's going to go up or down, we can't tell you what to do. But instead of thinking of it that way, maybe just think of it as a good time to, if you're wanting to, get on in there. Yes, literally. When the market is down, that is the point of maximum opportunity in the share market. And when the share market is really up and people are saying that it is a bull market which means it's kind of like charging ahead that's when there's the most risk so jess you're onto something i think you should be the next warren buffett it won't be me it'll

be jessica and her individual stock portfolio all right guys i think that is all we have time for today just before we head off though 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 caring and for sharing 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 see you next week guys bye guys