She's On The Money - FRIDAY DRINKS: is it okay to ask questions about my share portfolio right now?

Episode Date: March 3, 2022

The world is a tricky place for most of us to navigate at the best of times, but right now it's extra challenging for many of our community, but does that mean we shouldn't be asking insensitive questions like "what's happening to my share portfolio?" when others are going through far more traumatic things? Join J, V and G to discuss the ins and outs of caring for the world, while still ensuring you're safe in it.Also, we'd like to share with you guys that we will be donating 20% of the profits from our She's on the Money IWD events next week to flood relief. ​We know that coming off the back of the past few years many people are doing it tough, and we've seen from conversations in our group that there are a number of people who want to help or donate but aren't currently in the position to. So this donation isn't from Victoria, or Georgia or Jess or even just from the SOTM team. It's from the SOTM community.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 Infocus Securities Australia Proprietary Limited ABN 47 097 797 049 AFSL - AFSL 236523.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 today guys is friday which means it is time to sit back with the girls with a bev in hand to unpack our favorite moments of the week and to of course celebrate you our incredible she's on the money community as always we're going to be sharing our favorite money wins we're going to discuss what's making news in the finance world but first it is time as always to recap the week that was miss jessica ritchie i called you miss jessica ricky on instagram the other day and i got rimmed by my followers, Jess. They were like, what are you doing calling her Jessica Ricci?

Potato, potato. The Ricci is just a little extra finesse, you know? It's just a little bit of spice and I like to add it, but I was just calling it as it was on an Instagram story. I will never do that again, just so you know, Jessica Ricci. But without further ado, could you please tell us what happened on Monday's Money Diary? It was a goodie. It sure was. We spoke to a gorgeous gal who is just killing the property game. I was very envious as someone who's just starting that process. She was younger than I am and absolutely killing it. She started her story off. She went through a breakup and then got a house all by herself. We love to see it. She then went on to get a property with her partner, which they now

own together. It's an investment and they're looking at buying another one at the end of this year. Imagine being 25 and owning three properties. I mean, owning three mortgages, so she doesn't own them outright. But this woman, incredible. Did it all by herself. No parental help, no nothing. And it was just really, really impressive to hear. And it was beyond inspiring to hear as well, because this is going to sound, you know, as stereotypical as it comes and like, it's not in cheese on the money form to say something like this, but it absolutely, I think, needs to be addressed like jess you will agree here this girl got on zoom she was stunning like she was one of the most beautiful humans i have ever laid eyes on like blue eyes blonde hair like

stereotypically gorgeous so much so that i would assume that in her industries it is very hard to be taken seriously because of how beautiful she is and that's a very common thing in the corporate world but when she was like oh yeah and i've just been promoted to lawyer i was like yes you boss I was so proud of her because she was not only gorgeous, but clearly wildly intelligent. I was just like, this woman. And then I was real pervy. And I was like, did you do it without a guarantor? Because we all want to know.

She was like, yep. I saved for my first home. It was a stepping stone. I did. Like, guys, if you haven't listened to this episode, go and listen to it because she is breaking down the myth that millennials aren't going to have properties because she's got three of her own already. Did she have lots of tips and tricks in there?

Yeah. She had a few. For those of us who aren't there yet. yeah she shared with us uh a lot of really good insight in her initial message trust she actually said and made sure to highlight that part of getting into her first home was taking advantage of all of the government schemes and stuff that are available to first home buyers and i did ask her a little bit about how she did that did she use a broker and she did it all by herself so she gave her tips on where to look for that information how to figure it out which i think

is going to be really helpful to anyone who's in the same position it was just really inspiring because she'd like made the most of her situation and been like, all right, well, no one's going to give me a leg up. I'm going to find a way to give myself a leg up. And she actually, from what I understand, Jess, really built out how she was going to buy a property with how many resources she could lean on. And I found that super impressive because Georgia, she ended up purchasing in 2020 and got $45,000-ish in grants. Like what? Really? Yeah. So, she like timed it with all of that stuff obviously she'd done some work on her own to save her deposit um but yeah really smart to take advantage of those things so definitely well worth the listen if you are

interested in property an absolute hustler we'll get her on the property playbook when that fires back up because i reckon she can teach us a lot and george she was a queen at op shopping as well like i reckon you two would have got along like a house on fire all right look forward to it george moving away from property and what happened on money diaries talk us through what happened on our Wednesday deep dive episode. I can certainly do that. So, on Wednesday, we discussed the ins and outs of managing money in a blended family. So, specifically, we kind of honed in on how you would manage money if your partner has a child and you don't or vice versa, perhaps, which was really interesting because it's not something we've ever spoken about on the pod before. It's

not something I've ever thought about because it doesn't apply to me personally and I'm a selfish person no you're not you're just not dating someone with a child exactly but so many of us are but we we all know people in these kinds of situations and it is at a surface level it might not seem that complex but when you kind of drill down into it it really was interesting hearing how people do manage this and what the expectations are and how important having that open line of communication is between you and your partner exes are involved um yeah it was it was a really interesting chat and you also discussed with us v how to actually have that conversation with your partner to set those boundaries and parameters so yeah it was a really interesting chat i enjoyed it

i mean at the end of the day i think the summary there was it's better to be honest and open and have the conversation but there's no right or wrong way to have that conversation because everybody's relationship is so wildly different. But in 2022, it's a really big conversation to be having because I believe that there are a lot of people in our community that are single parents or at some point in the back of their mind, they're like, probably going to be a single parent. Like this isn't going the way I wanted it to. And I just feel like the idea of getting into a relationship when you are a parent can be quite overwhelming. I'm not saying that from experience. I'm saying that having spoken to a lot of clients who are single parents who just go,

I don't even know how to approach that like what do you do how does it work but open honest communication for the entirety of the relationship I think is the best policy I also feel like it's a good conversation to have because the traditional quote-unquote familial structure that existed you know a couple of decades ago actually isn't really the norm anymore like so many families approach things differently now that your stock standard mum and dad have you know one income because dad goes to work and mum stays at home with the kids like it's actually just not a thing we have all of these different shapes and forms of relationships and that means that the way we have these conversations and the way that we manage our finances is going to look so different nowadays

as well george jess i feel like the three of us are actually in a very similar position when it comes to families and you might agree with me here it's not from my perspective the norm so Jess and George I believe your parents are still together um and from my perspective growing up all my friends had divorced parents like I think I had one other friend that's parents were still married and to me it was very normal to have friends with divorced parents and seeing their parents you know get new partners and go through all of that that sometimes I was like and I would never you know want that for my parents but I was like oh it's not that normal to stay married what like did you have similar experiences? I think I definitely had quite a few friends that went

through this experience you know throughout the years I don't know that I ever questioned my own like I guess situation but I definitely think that it was really obvious to me from a really young age that there were all these different ways to do things and I think if anything it really just made me aware that if something's not working there's nothing wrong with changing that situation you know back in the day it was maybe not the best you know or there might have been shame or things like that tied to it yes spicy yeah whereas now I kind of just go okay great like that relationship that didn't work purpose and that's fine and it was a great season of your life hopefully but there's nothing wrong with going okay like actually that doesn't

work and if anything it's better for everyone involved to go your separate ways make sure it's amicable and then open yourself up to new relationships new financial conversations just a whole new way of doing things. Totally. And I really like what you just said there. It was a season of a relationship and not all relationships are going to last, but it doesn't, I guess, downplay how impactful they were. Like that relationship, you know, unless it was a terrible relationship, in which case I wish you were never in it, my friends. But sometimes relationships help us form who we are and that might not be the same person that entered that relationship and that's totally okay. But we are not a relationship podcast. So, let's talk more about money.

Georgia King, let's loop back to you. What have you got when it comes to money wins from the She's On The Money community this week? Let's loop back. I loved that from you. Some caulkers as per ladies. Let's rip straight into it. Oh, what a surprise, guys. The She's On The Money community does it again. They've delivered. The first win is from Victoria. Oh, I thought you said you weren't going to call me out like this again. i don't think you did post this one girl no i'm just really self-centered i'm not aware of so victoria was in desperate need of some new pants because after two kids in two years her

old ones just didn't fit the same she then got four pairs of pants and a pair of sandals she's had her eye on for a while and here comes the money win i felt no guilt for having yes money which hasn't happened in years so i love that i want to know more about victoria's mindset like how did you come into that mindset because that's such a hard mindset to battle that you do deserve new clothes especially after having two kids you badass like that is so cool to know that she's like not guilty about something that so many people are gonna still feel guilt about which they absolutely shouldn't no absolutely you shouldn't have we done a potty on spending and guilt yet i don't know if we have i believe we've covered the topic we haven't done a full podcast on it

But, Jess, I think you're on to something. That's a good pod topic. Jess, add it to the list. Done and done. All right. The next one here is from Anna. She bought a laptop from work for $30 and sold it for $400. How do you buy a $30 laptop?

I don't know. There is so much missing context here. But let's not look into it. We're not. That's a very good money win. The next one is from Maren. Money win. I picked up four pieces of cane furniture off the side of the road a year ago for free,

and I sold it all this week for $160. What? Yeah, you did. That's so good. My mum would have had a field day with that. She loves some cane lounge slates. I remember that. I thought of your mum as well.

Did you actually? Debra used to have some cane stuff. Yeah. She was like, mum sorted me out. Alex loves some cane in her bedroom, and my mum is, I guess, the queen of finding cane on the side of the road and re-spraying it white and using it. Like, our house is basically cane. Yeah, stunning.

I was always jealous of Devo's bedhead. Oh, she did. You know, for those of you who know, it's the big peacock rattan bedhead. Gorge. Was very fancy. Very chic. Very jealous. The next win here is from Jess.

Gosh, the whole team's getting involved. My car service was quoted at $1,400 but came in at $780. That is a win. That is a little bonus. That's a win. it's a win the next one is from alan not a super relatable one but i bought a house at the start of last year for four hundred and seventy five thousand dollars and i've spent thirty thousand dollars on reno's i've just had it revalued at six hundred and seventy five thousand dollars

a year later which makes me feel like all of that bargain hunting hard work and long days were worth oh my god imagine that is such a big increase in price how stoked would you be okay oh my gosh Think about the equity they would have in their property and their ability to leverage into another property if they're in that financial situation, like the financial freedom that affords. I love it. Bravo. Well done, Alan. Our sixth and final win of the week. I actually chose this one for you, Victoria Define. It is from Vienna. Money win. My Woolworths had the 10-pack cotties sparkling soft drinks on special for $8.75 down from $13.75 happy dance she wrote look happy dance but i got it for seven dollars a couple of weeks ago so stuff that in your pipe

and smoke it i wonder if you influenced vienna to purchase those because you were a big fan of those during your covid days am i right um it's not just covid like i'm obsessed like my fridge is full of the sparkling cotties i think the flavor is called cooler whatever the green one is. I'm obsessed. I have no regrets. I will die on that hill. It is the best drink that has ever existed. Heaven. Well, that is all I have for you, my girls. Well, let's go on a break. I'm going to grab a Coddy's cooler, not sponsored, just good. And we'll come back and talk about what's happening in the finance world. Stay right there. Alrighty. Anyone who listened to Friday Drinks last week would know that we pushed it out because there's something obviously pretty

hectic going on in the world right now. And I think we do need to talk about it, especially because I've seen it impact and kind of overflow onto our platforms, which is why I want to bring it up. Obviously, last week, Russia went to war with Ukraine, which I can't even believe I'm saying those words. It is really, really hard to wrap your head around the devastation that's going on. And so, we chose on our platforms to pause everything for a couple of days to really allow the news to sink in for our team because I'll be honest when I say I was definitely struggling with it a little bit and I know that it's impacted the rest of us as well but then also to just allow the more important voices to shine through the news coverage the charity work

all of those things and if you are looking for ways you can support we do have a link in our bio on our Instagram and we'll pop something in the show notes as well with some resources and links where you can donate but I guess the flow-on effect of this news beyond mental health beyond all of that. And before I jump into it, I'm going to acknowledge that this is coming from a place of privilege. We're sitting at home in our safe country where right now, thankfully, we're not feeling the impacts of this too directly outside of the mental stress and toll. But that being said, it's raising a lot of questions for people because global events like war impact the stock market, impact the property market, impact all of these things that a lot of us-

Impact fuel prices. Well, yeah. Like, it's going to impact everything. And it impacts, I guess, this community is all about working towards financial freedom and thinking about our financial futures. And I've seen a few questions being placed into our groups around this. And there's been a lot of discourse in response. And that's why I wanted to open this conversation because I want to start by saying,

completely respectfully, what's going on overseas is absolutely abhorrent. There is no question that if I could snap my fingers and stop it in a second, I would give anything to be able to do that. But with that being said, we need to remember that the people who are asking these questions and the ones that I saw were respectful. People are going to have questions because I think we're all a little bit anxious. We're concerned about our future. We're concerned about our finances and the broader impacts that this might have on us. And while I completely can see the one side of it, people going, this is really insensitive. People have it much worse than us. Completely understand that. But let's take a step back and not let our fear cause us

to react with anger. Because I think that's a little bit of what I was seeing was people being really stressed and being really anxious and saying, oh my God, how can you possibly think about that when people are dying. And again, fully recognising that we're living in a lot of privilege and I've never been more grateful to be where I am. But I understand people's concern and I think that in uncertain times, people turn to community and turn to their safe space to try and find more information. And I really encourage people in our communities and outside of our communities to not react so quickly and out of anger let's try and understand where people are coming from because these are important conversations if you have an investing

strategy in place yeah how is that impacted a thousand percent and you're right jess like she's on the money from our perspective should always be a safe place and you should be safe and comfortable to ask those questions without people i guess jumping down your throat and saying they're disrespectful um something that you and i had a conversation about last week and i was incredibly frustrated with was how trivial it was being made out to be by a lot of other finance could you say like podcasts and content creators and platforms where they were you know posting memes about oh my gosh the share market's crashing like I should buy some shares or posting pictures of cats saying like oh my gosh like the share market's on sale and I just think

that there is space to have these conversations there is absolutely not space in our community to trivialize this or make it some kind of comedic piece of content, but we should be having a conversation about the impacts of this and what this means. I don't think it means that we're comparing what's going on over in Ukraine and Russia to what's going on here when we say, well, how does this impact my share portfolio? I do think it's a very valid question that we need to address, but you're right, Jess, we need to go, all right, we can see what's going on, but we still do need to have these conversations because the more people that have financial security in our community and in the world in general means there are more people to contribute

to things like this when they do happen so that we can financially support ourselves or our family members and you know people around us and I'm acutely aware that there is quite and I didn't realize this and I'm very grateful but I've had a lot of messages over the weekend from people you know saying thank you which you shouldn't have to do we just did the right thing and we shouldn't be thanked for doing the right thing. Saying I'm from Ukraine or my family are Ukrainian or I'm Russian and this is not who we are. And I just am so grateful that people like this are reaching out, but we don't want to downplay how horrendous this is by talking about what does it mean for share prices or, hey, Jess and George, let's talk about how this actually impacts fuel

prices. Because it does. And I want you guys to be educated. And this is actually a piece of that education. I don't want to skimp out and not share that information for fear of being seen as insensitive. My job is to educate you and keep you across issues when it comes to financial literacy and your financial wellness. And this is one of them, whether you are impacted because you live in Ukraine or you are impacted because your share portfolio went through the floor. Both of those are very valid. One obviously far more significant than the other, but that doesn't downplay the fact that some people in our community might be going, oh my God, that's all my life savings. I'm so stressed. You deserve an explanation. You deserve to have that explained to you properly.

Really well said there by both of you. And there are also so many other amazing news podcasts where you can get all of this information about what's happening in Ukraine and Russia. So, we're a finance podcast and I think it is really important that we talk about how this is going to impact all of us, even though we are on the other side of the world. V, I feel like probably the easiest place to start is by chatting about fuel prices, because we've all probably noticed that that has skyrocketed. Yeah, not all of us have share portfolios, but most of us have to pay for fuel. And over the last few years, it's gotten expensive. But a few of you might have noticed it has just tipped over the $2 mark. Jess, you were having a sook. I don't know if the sook is

the right thing to say. It absolutely was. Yeah, before we started recording, you were like, oh my God, fuel was at $2 when I was driving home. And it is, it's crazy. But the thing that is really interesting about fuel prices is I think a lot of us are going, oh my gosh, it must be because of the Ukrainian and Russian war, right? Like that must be it. But did you know that hardly any oil or fuel products that are purchased by Australia and imported to Australia are in fact imported from Russia? It's like less than 0.01% of our imports are from Russia. Really? Yeah. I know that one of them exports really heavily to Europe because I've seen that there's been a lot of talk about, you know, one of the ways that countries are kind of putting their foot down

without directly involving themselves is like kind of putting a freeze on trade and purchase of certain items. So, is it the flow-on effect of just going, well, there's about to be scarcity in Europe, so pump up the prices? Or is it something different? Yeah, very similar to that. So, when it comes to Australian imports, we obviously manufacture some of our own, but about two-thirds of the oil that we have in Australia actually comes from overseas. And we mainly get that from Singapore, Korea, and Japan. However, Russia is actually the second biggest oil exporter in the world after the UAE, so after Saudi Arabia, and it sells a lot of its oil to China and Europe. But the most interesting thing here is that international oil sales are usually

conducted in US dollars, so it's not usually conducted in Australian dollars, and there's obviously a level of currency exchange there, and it doesn't matter who's involved, whether China is selling it to the UAE, it is still like that transaction is made in US dollars, which is kind of wild to think about, but that's just how the oil industry works. But because the USA has actually cut off two of Russia's largest banks as kind of like a, would you say like retaliation from Russia's actions against Ukraine, it's much harder for Russia to sell oil. So, what's happening, everybody is getting their oil from different locations and it's stopping massive global oil sellers from selling oil to russia and vice versa so they're churning to the suppliers that we have

but they have much less of a supply than the two biggest places right so that's why our prices are going up because of supply and demand there's far more demand on our supply and because of that they can increase prices but also there seems to be this like as it happened with toilet paper stockpiling and people wanting to make sure that they have enough for their countries which is totally fair and like I would want to think that Australia is thinking about that too like if the world's going to war which is that's what it looks like I would want to make sure that they are thinking and our government is thinking about us and making sure that we are okay and that's one way to make sure we are okay because that's a massive commodity that helps provide for our

country like oil is the thing that transports our food around the country to make sure that we are still having our shelves in Woolies and Safeways stocked, right? So, I think that we go, oh, well, driving cars isn't the worst. In Australia, it's actually our main source of transportation for food and supplies. It also factors into like electricity and stuff in some way as well, right? Because I've been seeing a lot of reports, obviously, half of the world is currently in winter, we're in summer. But, you know, there's a lot of concern around access to resources to power your houses and your heating. And obviously, here where we are, it's not as significant. But a lot of countries, it's negative degrees Celsius. They're literally freezing. So, it also needs to

be considered and allocated for that purpose as well. Absolutely. Absolutely. And it would be a bit amiss of me to not mention that fuel prices across the board over the last nearly three years, terrifyingly, have been impacted relatively significantly by COVID. So, that's still at play. But I feel like recently COVID's kind of been cancelled. I'm not saying it's not as big of an issue, but there are obviously far more pressing things than the virus because people are at war. Like, that is definitely what is taking up a lot of the airspace when it comes to media now. A hundred percent. And so, I guess we're going to, we said we're going to explore these topics. What does this potentially mean for the share market? And again, you know, it's

not the be-all and end-all, as you said, but there will be people who are close to perhaps retirement age or things of that nature who are going to see their super and other investment portfolios that they were potentially relying on take a hit. Can we expect to see the ramifications of this war applying to us, even though as of right now, we're not necessarily directly involved? Look, yes and no. I think that a lot of people are terrified because the stock market has obviously been really shook by the war in Ukraine, but I don't believe that should change the way we are investing. It shouldn't change your investment strategy or why you're investing unless you are investing in Russian shares and stocks, which most of us in Australia won't actually have a

whole heap of exposure to. And if we do, it's very likely that we either have that in a managed fund or we have that in an ETF or an exchange traded fund. And it's a small component of, I guess, the larger portfolio at play. And in that case, it's actually not your decision. I mean, you can change your ETF if you would like, but your fund managers are probably looking at that and trying to make sure that they are mitigating risk and making decisions that are in line with, you know, the investment strategy that they have and what keeps their investors safe because that's their job. But the share market is a very interesting place to be right now. Obviously, on the day that it was announced last week. Jess, we were in the office together. George, you went around for this

and it got announced. And I was on a video call with our investment team for my financial advice business at the time. And the entire call got completely railroaded with a bunch of financial advisors, compliance and investment specialists watching what was going on in the market. And by close of business that day, and Jess, I think it was like after lunch, like we spent probably two and a half hours on that Zoom, it had dropped 3%, which is a massive drop for the share market across the board. So, the S&P 500, which is like the top 500 companies in the US on average had dropped 3%, which when you kind of look at it and you go, well, 3% is not that much. For across the board, the average drop in a share market across 500 different businesses to be 3%, that's massive.

like that change is very very significant and it makes sense as to why people are genuinely shook by this and really scared but it's really important to remember why we are investing I think a lot of people are probably questioning their portfolios and going should I just take my money out like should I just like sell down because if I sell down then I can't lose any more and that's where I need to remind you that yeah your share portfolio might be valued at less but it's only actually going to turn into that amount of money if you say I want to pull my money out and you crystallize that loss as we've spoken about before and from what I'm understanding and I'm doing a lot more reading on the stock market over the last week understandably is all

of the experts I'm either listening to or reading about or you know having discussions with there's been lots of I guess round table discussions happening in the financial services industry recently. And all of the advice, guys, is do not pull your money out. Don't stop investing. And any reaction you have to the situation is much more likely to hurt you than help you. And that has come straight from Jeremy Snyder, who is a personal finance expert at the Personal Finance Club, which I think is important to recognize because he's a pretty big name in the US, but he's also doing a whole heap of research. And as you guys know, that's exactly what I would have said. I would not have said, oh yes, sell your stocks, take a loss. Most of us are in a period

of our lives where we're not necessarily needing to sell our stocks. It might be a little bit frustrating for you if you're in a situation where you're like, oh my God, Victoria, I've been saving and investing for the last eight years. I wanted to pull all my money out of stocks this year to buy my first home. It's probably going to railroad that decision. I am sorry. That is the case. That is the nature of the investing world. But the beauty of the investing world is you can wait a little bit longer until the share market has bounced back a little bit to make that decision. And that would be a part of your investing strategy. So, that's also why, guys, I never want you to invest for a short period of time. Because imagine, Jess, if I had been speaking

to you and you've been saving for your first home for the last few years, and you and I have known each other for a while now. Imagine if I'd sat you down and said, yeah, Jess, like, why don't you put all your money in the share market and let it grow and then when you want to purchase a home i.e right now you can pull that money out and we'll use that money to buy would that have been in this situation a good idea yeah obviously not that would have been really detrimental no but lots of people are like oh but i'm missing out on the returns in the short term it's like no you don't have the grace of writing it out but jess if you'd said yeah well if i buy now or if I buy in five years? I don't really mind. I would have been like, all right, well, investing might

be an option for you because you don't seem so set on that timeframe. And you're not too worried if I say as an advisor, just don't pull your money out, not worth it yet. And you go, yeah, I'll just wait another year. You're not in that position. You don't want to wait another year. You want to buy now. Like there's a sense of urgency about that and that's okay. And lots of people have that sense of urgency, but that's why we really need to, you know, obviously invest in line with our values and our goals but also respect that the stock market is a stock market like we don't have that much control over it all we have is historical data to go across and a risk and reward chart and how we can actually invest in that is not necessarily

personal preference it's actually what is right to do and I mean no one could have made a prediction right I don't think anybody would have been sitting at home this time last year and gone you know what I reckon is going to happen in 12 months I think there's going to be another war and i think that that sudden change or that volatility is what's really scary for me personally it's giving me and i mean for me personally it's giving me a lot of anxiety around when i think back to wars i think about to like world war one or world war two and the huge impact that that had obviously we're definitely not there right now but there's a lot of talk about where this could potentially go and obviously you would hope that that's

absolutely not the case but I think that's why people are having these questions and why it was important for us to have this conversation and I just wanted to touch on as well the mental health aspect and you know we were having this conversation off air the three of us and you know I was talking about how anxious I'm feeling about it and how people are reacting to these conversations that we've been seeing and I guess V you said it's important to not downplay what I'm feeling and it's important for our community to not downplay what you're feeling, because I think what I said was, I'm so afraid. I'm genuinely so scared for the people that are in Ukraine, the people that are in Russia that are having to be involved in something they don't want to be involved in,

all of these people who are being swept up in this violence, this unnecessary violence. And that really, truly shakes me to my core. But at the same time, I'm so lucky. I'm sitting at home in my house on the floor with my cats and my microphone and just living my best life and it feels almost wrong to have these feelings and to feel this fear and I feel guilty because I I'm like I'm not doing enough you know like I've given money but it's not enough like I'm not doing or being or seeing enough and I don't know what to do and it's so overwhelming like it's really really heavy and I'm sure that I'm not the only person feeling that you know we're a community This is common, Jess. It is so common, but I feel like you particularly, and this probably happens

to a lot of people in our community, really downplay your experiences because, quote, somebody else has it worse. Please don't get me wrong. Someone right now absolutely does, but that does not mean that you're not experiencing anxiety. It doesn't mean that you're not experiencing depression or that feeling of being completely lost and helpless. That is very real. And do you know what? That is a reflection of the empathy you have as a human. Like how beautiful is it that you care so much about people you've never met? And I feel like the best thing we can do in this situation is acknowledge that because do you know what? If my country was going through that and I was in their shoes, I would be genuinely grateful that

the people on the other side of the world were feeling anxious for me. Like the fact that you have other people who you've never met and you're in their thoughts, to me, that's a really beautiful reflection of the type of person you are, Jess, right? And there's lots of people in our community that are exactly the same. But I think it's actually our job to keep our eyes and our ears open. It is our job to keep educated and understand what's going on and understand how this works, not go, oh, it's all too hard. I think it's our job to make sure that we're looking after our own mental health and when we're reading media and it's getting too much I think being able to step back and say do you know what I just I can't deal with this right now and that's okay but I

think consistently it's our job as a community to stay educated on how we can have the best impact and right now because it is so new we don't know what that is yet but you best believe we will be sharing exactly how you can help and what can happen and how it's going to impact us as soon as we know, because at the same time as us, you know, being on this podcast, sharing it with all of you this month, it is overwhelming at the same time because we don't know any more than you do. We are feeling the same way that you do and that's okay. And we are all in it together, but I don't want for one minute people to feel like their contributions aren't enough because even if you can't afford to donate money or time or resources, the fact that everybody over there

is in your thoughts is so overwhelmingly beautiful. I think 100% we can't underestimate the impact this is having on all of our mental health, even though we're not over there, we're not fighting in the war. Like you can't compare it to that, but you also can't diminish your own struggles, especially after we've just gone through the weirdest two years of all time. And that was hard enough. And now, you know, the masks are gone on Friday, on Friday afternoon, a war was declared. So, it's been a lot for us to take on. Jess, in terms of resources, both for our own mental health and to contribute and help out in any way we can to Ukraine, what's out there for us? Definitely. So, we put a link in our Instagram bio and we can probably

plug it into the show notes as well with a really great article that has some direct Ukrainian resources of all different kinds. There's fund for healthcare, fund for, I think, housing and a few different options. Or alternatively, UNICEF have actually just launched a fund as well. They're obviously a very legitimate above board non-profit. And I think it's important, as horrible as this is to say, times like these really bring out of the woodwork, unfortunately, some people who do want to take advantage of the situation. So, anyone who is donating money which is incredibly generous please make sure it's going to the right places we saw this during covid people taking the absolute mickey by setting up fake go fund me pages and

things that you know weren't for the best or potentially people thought they were for the best but then they found out that they were donating to a group that actually you know didn't support gay rights or didn't support you know parts of our community that are really important to us because they were just too quick to donate because they were like, oh great, like this is how I can contribute. So, please do your research or rely on the fact that we've done a little bit for you. Obviously, only donate if you are financially able to do so, but that is a really great way of supporting the people over there that, you know, we can't do a lot for in this moment. And I think recognizing as well that every dollar in this kind of situation helps. If every person

listening to this podcast chucked a dollar in, that is a lot of money that would be going their way. Imagine if all 1.2 million listeners had donated a dollar. That would be like more than a quarter of what Australia has sent over in aid. Absolutely. So, don't diminish your contributions. If you can't contribute, that is also very, very okay. It's more just an option to put on the table that I wanted to say. It's there if you do feel like that's something that you really want to contribute to, but if you can't, that's fine. And then in terms of mental health resources, all of the usual we've got you know obviously the national helpline beyond blue black dog heaps of different online call centers that you can call and talk through your feelings if you're having

a hard time please please reach out because as you said v we diminish what we're feeling and then we're no good to anybody because we're carrying a load by ourselves that is just too much to hold like you can't pour from an empty cup and at the end of the day if the best thing for your mental health right now is turning off your social media and tuning out of any type of news, I think that's a really fair thing to do. I know that the world is heavy right now, but it isn't all your burden to carry. And I think a lot of us tend to take a lot of that weight onto our shoulders and carry that even though it's not our burden, if that makes sense. It's not on you solely. And it can be really hard, but as you were saying, Jess, you can't pour from an empty cup. So, make sure your

cup is full and then you can help more. So basically in sum guys if you do need help or you want to support Ukraine head to all of the links in our show notes they'll all be there for you but that is probably all we have time for today ladies. It is but before we go please remember that She's On The Money is a safe space if you have any questions they will be met with love and support and education and we will always be trying to put you in the best possible position and that doesn't just go for questions it goes for responses too so if you're seeing something in the She's On The Money community that's potentially triggering you or you think is wildly inappropriate, please know that all of our posts are vetted before they actually get

through to the group. So if you see something in our community that is up, please know that we have looked at it and thought that that was a provocative and good conversation for our community to be having at this point in time. And we believe that our community would meet that post with the respect that it deserves. We are not trying to trivialize this, but if you do see something in the community and you're like, why the hell are they talking about the stock market? Guys, it's because it's so important to be financially literate regardless of what is going on in the rest of the world. We are not diminishing the importance of that, but we need to have space to talk about these things so that we can pour from that full cup that Jess was talking about.

But as George said, that is actually all we have time for today now. So just before we head off, we'd like to acknowledge and pay respect to Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples they're the traditional custodians of the lands the waterways and the skies all across australia we thank you for sharing and for caring for the land on which we are able to learn we pay 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 in focus securities australia proprietary limited abn 47097797049 afsl 236523 see you next week guys bye bye guys Thank you.