She's On The Money - Future-proofing You!

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

Its so easy to get caught up in the day to day, and before you know it a year has passed and you’ve forgotten to check in with your goals. That’s why today we talk about investing in your future self. We give you a list of things to focus on which will take the anxiety out of getting proactive about financial planning, personal development, and long-term goal setting. Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. 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. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, my name is Natasha Nabanunga-Bamblett. I'm a proud Yorta Yorta, Kernai, Wolperi and Awadjeri woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on Awadjeri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. 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 beck syed and today we're talking about investing in your future self with victoria divine oh my gosh how surprising i'm here you're here it's wednesday who knows who knows what's gonna happen actually honestly every single episode who knows what's gonna happen oh well it does often go off the rails but that's okay we try our best and that's all that matters exactly we're human beck i want to know how do you feel about investing in yourself i'm really excited for this topic but i'm putting like a spin on it that's like self-care, pamper, meditation, retreat. You're probably thinking finance.

I feel like caring about your financial life is one of the biggest forms of self-care. Oh, yeah. Okay. I see where you're coming from. I genuinely think that to care about your financial life is caring about yourself and your future deeply. Like we can get a facial, we can have a spa moment, but like that's fleeting. investing for your future and putting yourself in a position where you're never going to worry about money slay true actually that's longer term like i would much prefer to be mentally at peace yeah than to be physically at peace whoa that's where we differ except i really like massages so i'm not sure i would give up one or the other i think that's why you know when we talked a little

while ago about the fire movement financial independence retire early and how people like save like 80% of their income or invest 80% of their income and then retire really early because they like forego all of the nice things in life. That's not what you and I are for. No. We are more in the moment girlies. We are an enjoy the journey girly kind of thing. I respect it, but I can't do it. Yeah. Like it's nice. It's not for me and that's fine. Completely agree. But let's get back to the topic and talk about investing in your future self. Bec, I want to know. Do you know you want to be in 10 years? I have not a single clue. I want to maintain my friendships. I want to have a healthy social circle and I want to be happy and I want to be in Melbourne. That's all I

know. And you want to be in Melbourne. That's very specific. I know the street I want to be on as well. I know that street too. We're not going to say it though because maybe if someone's listening to this in 10 years, they'll know where to find you. And that's okay. And you're going to be like really famous by then like as a comedian or something yeah 100% comedian that's so sweet well you're the funniest person I know well I'm riding your coattails baby well keep on keeping on because they're kind of short so you don't know where you want to be in 10 years I feel like I don't either and I hate these questions do you know what I hate the most again side note when people in interviews go Bec where do you see yourself in two years

where do you see yourself in five years I don't know Sharon where do you do you see yourself still in this HR role in 10 years? Who knows? I don't know. Anyway, I never ask that in interviews because I feel like people just give generic answers and it's not a one-on-one where we're actually trying to better ourselves. In that moment, I'm trying to sell myself. So I'll be like, oh, definitely working for your energy corporation. Totally. And you don't want to box yourself in mentally. But I get it. I don't know where I want to be in 10 years either. In fact, if you told me 10 years ago that this is where I would be, I wouldn't have believed you. Are you the same? Yeah, definitely. You're like, oh, this is rogue. I didn't even know podcasting

was a thing 10 years ago. Absolutely. Even like one second ago. Like, what? I have a recording now. I feel like, oh, thanks for showing up, babe. But I feel like it's really easy to get caught up in the day to day. And before you know it, then a year has passed and you've completely forgotten to zoom out and focus on the bigger picture. And the next minute, two or three years have completely flown by and you're just in a pattern of responding to events as opposed to shaping your own future. And that doesn't mean you need to know where you're going. It doesn't mean that you know who you want to marry or even if you want to get married or it doesn't mean that you know what job you want to do. But I want to talk about investing in your future self today

because I feel like this idea of investing in your future self makes us feel like we have to have clarity on where we want to go when the reality of this is we actually just want to make sure that we've got our finances in order so that when we do decide where we want to go, we can afford it. And that when we do get to that point, we're in a good financial position or we're in a good position in general to have choice because so many people don't have the freedom of choice. And a lot of the time it's actually about good structuring. It's not about having the biggest income. It's not about going, well, Beck, in 10 years time, I better be earning more than double what I earned today. Like, okay, cool. But even if that's your goal, if you invest

consistently and we focus on your bad debts and paying those off and focus on having a good mindset, 10 years from now, you're going to have so much more freedom than just earning double, right? Like it sounds sexy, but even if in 10 years you're earning double back and you don't have a good mentality when it comes to saving and investing, that doesn't make you more financially free. That's powerful. And it's hard to swallow because I think so many of us say we'll do it tomorrow. It doesn't matter. I will start investing when I get a pay rise. I'll start saving once I get my bonus or I do my tax return. How many of us are guilty of those things? It's actually about pulling our finger out and going, well, actually investing in my future self, future me deserves

that. Future me deserves a few extra dollars. Future me deserves the clarity of knowing that I'm going to be cared for. I don't think there's anything sexier and it's only starting to come to fruition for me now that when I look at my investment portfolio and I'm like, yeah, I did that. Like, yeah, that's for me. It's starting to pay dividends that aren't one cent. Like when it was paying dividends of like one and two cents, I was like, what is this for? Like, obviously I fully comprehended it, but it doesn't feel that sexy. But now it's starting to pay for future self. I'm like, oh, thanks past me. You're kind of smart. You did a good thing. Definitely. And I imagine like, even if you can't physically put money aside right now, even just like getting your

mentality right but no I am really looking forward to like being motivated and my whole employment and financial situation basically depend on this so we have had many twists and turns this year already talking about myself you've gone through a full redundancy brand new job like you've gone to Japan like you've had it you've had a turn some ups and downs created a whole new baby like I made a whole human so many things have happened this past year isn't it wild so where do we start I don't know so I'm glad that you're here to tell us I am so write this So we start at the very end. And I think that that is not what you expected to hear. And no, you don't need to know what your career is going to be like. You don't need to know who you're

going to marry. You don't even need to have the answer of whether you want to get married answered here. But we start at the end when it comes to investing for your retirement. And it's funny, I've been talking about retirement a lot recently because this is so bougie. Are you ready. I'm on a working group with ASIC to talk about how to get more millennials invested and more millennials engaged with their superannuation, which is really hard, right? Because like who wants to talk about super? I really thought you were about to say that you're retiring right now. I'm not. Well, you will soon, I'm sure. You're on your way. I don't think I want to retire. I've got stuff to do. I've got places to be, people to see, like podcasts to make. But

I'm on this working group and we've been talking about this concept of language around superannuation and how we don't really care about the idea of retirement because it feels like so far off. And I've been putting forward this concept of changing the language to just talking about creating financial freedom and the idea of talking about, you know, having financial freedom. If I said to you, do you want to retire? You go, oh, one day I don't care.

But if I go, do you want to create more financial security and financial freedom? you'll be like, sounds pretty good, Bea. Yeah, actually sounds like something I'm interested in. It doesn't sound so far off in the distance that you shouldn't care about it. Yeah. It seems a little bit more within reach. Yeah. So what we're going to do is actually start at the end and we're going to look at what your biggest investment of your entire lifetime is arguably going to be, and that's your superannuation. So it's not a sexy thing to talk about because I think so many times we just go, oh, Bea, you're talking about super again, but it's going to be arguably the biggest investment of your entire life and your superannuation is your money, like you're

contributing to it each and every single month, start caring about your cash, babe. Like you've never had so much in savings. I can almost guarantee that. Start caring about where it's invested. The first thing you're going to do is you're going to check and consolidate your superannuation accounts if that is available to you. It is so easy to do that nowadays. You don't even have to know what super fund you're with. You just have to log into myGov and it will tell you what super funds you have open. And you know what? You don't even have to leave that website to consolidate your super. It's one button, Bec. Easy peasy. It's actually one button, which is scary because that doesn't take into consideration any of your insurances on those

super policies. So I need you to check that before you click that button, because if you click that button, there's no going back. And that sounds kind of scary, but I also don't want you to miss that when it comes to insurances. But most of us accumulate multiple super accounts over our lifetime. And I've told you before on the pod, I made a really ugly graphic because I'm not a graphic designer. That's why we hired one. But I made a really ugly graphic a couple of years ago showing how my super accounts, I had more than five accounts that when I consolidated them over the entire time, I would have had those super accounts if I had them to retirement. It saved me $70,000 in fees. Whoa. 70 grand. That's like somebody's whole house deposit. That's almost

That's like a whole someone's super. That's actually so much money and I calculated that by consolidating my super and not paying fees and not paying insurances across all of those because they were all default, I saved myself 70 grand by doing that. That's incredible. Bec, you don't even have to have any cash in your bank account right now to save yourself 70 grand. Like, that's a good deal.

Yeah. Anyway, I can almost guarantee that you're not contributing as much to savings as you are to super. And right now, Bec, you're contributing 11.5% to super. That's so many dollar rules. So many. We're going to start caring about that because over your lifetime, by making sure that your super contributions are being made,

we don't just trust our employers, Bec. We triple check. We just go in and we log in and we check because it's so hard to recover that if years pass, but it's really easy to nip it in the bud if you haven't been paid in the last six months. We can triple check. but what we're going to do is make sure that we're in the right fund because making sure that we are in a fund that performs for us is going to mean that we're arguably almost hundreds of thousands of dollars better off in retirement. Right. That's free money just by doing your checks right now.

Like I love free money. You love free money. Who doesn't love free money? Why aren't we caring about it? Because it might not be free money today. That's why you don't care about it, but it's free money in retirement. Yeah, so true. Future you's gonna thank you. we're also going to look into whether you can make extra super contributions yeah right now we're in a cost of living crisis we're in the cozy leaves babes so probably not right so like lots of you are gonna roll your eyes and be like they that's unobtainable yeah but we're gonna check and if it makes sense to you and it's something that you want to do you could potentially do that it could potentially reduce your taxable income which might be really sexy so just check

if you can you can if you can't i get it you know this already but if you make like after tax contributions yeah you can claim it on your tax but i don't really know how to do that i just know that's a thing yeah i'll help you if you ever do that you let me know and i will do it for you the next is we're going to look into government co-contributions because like again we love free money and that's a very complex way of saying the government's going to give you free cash i love taking money from the government like if i'm going to take it from anybody the government is who I want to borrow it from. Totally. Borrow in quotation marks, right? But for low to middle income earners who make personal after-tax contributions to their superannuation,

the Australian government offers what they call their co-contribution scheme, aka they give you free money for doing something good for your future scheme. And if you earn less than $45,400 in the 2024 to 2025 financial year and are eligible to make a personal after-tax contribution, you could receive a maximum of 500 bucks in addition to your contribution. That's not bad. $500 reduce. That's a lot of money. The government is going to contribute 50 cents for every dollar you contribute up to $500. How kind. Oh my gosh, that's such a good saving strategy. I feel like that's something that my dad might have implemented when I was younger. Like, oh, if you save a dollar for every dollar, I'll match it with 50 cents. Like,

that's motivating. Yeah, there really is. I'm going to save up for something. So I feel like having a look at that because again, free cash. If you're eligible and you earn between $45,400 and $60,400 in the 2024 to 2025 financial year, you might still receive a partial co-contribution. However, the more you earn, the less co-contribution you'll leave because obviously if you're well off, it doesn't make a lot of sense to give you free money. You just don't needed as much as everybody else and I feel like that's how the tax system should work in general but alas it does not and that's a conversation for another day I know that's really outrageous I mean the more you earn the more you're taxed but like I feel like there should be less tax at

one end and more tax at another end but again conversation for another day and we can't really clarify what end but we it's unspoken next like yeah tax the poor tax all tax the poor for sure they could get away with, you know. I feel like there's a lot of things that we could learn. Oh, yeah. Just in case anyone is wondering, we are joking. That was a joke. That was a joke. V, what is next? All right. So next, we're going to look at your most precious asset. Do you know what that is, Bec? The heart. No, it's you making investments in yourself. Investing in personal growth and development,

I think, is absolutely crucial for enhancing not just your future opportunities, but your overall well-being. I've said this time and time again, you can't just expect to be given a pay rise if you are not putting in the time and the energy and the effort. Like, don't get me wrong, there are a lot of people that you would look at and be like, fire out, they've had a free ride. But that's luck. And luck doesn't often come into your career. It doesn't often come into your earning potential. So is there an ability to educate yourself, further upskill or, you know, create career development opportunities for yourself. If you're furthering your education or deciding to acquire new skills, that can significantly enhance your earning potential.

And it can also open up at the door for a whole heap of different career opportunities. Is there something that you could upskill in? It doesn't have to be going back to university, but could you like do an online short course or, you know, do some online tutorials to bridge a skill gap, thus increasing your earning capacity? So something I love, and like you guys already know this is YouTube. The amount of stuff I've learned on YouTube, like even when I was in university, the amount of stuff I learned about how to use Excel, like just for free. And now I'd say I'm an Excel wizard. Like I build complex spreadsheets that are bordering on software, which, you know. It's very impressive. It's not impressive when you know how to do it. You'll be

like, oh, this is easy. But the amount of money I could have earned in addition, because I had that skill, but also what that does for me. So I remember building a macro, which if you don't know what that is, that's absolutely fine, but it's just a term in Excel for a repetitive task, right? Right. I basically made myself redundant in one part of my role because it was such a manual process, but I built a macro so he could do it. And then my boss thought I was a genius because, you know, I was so good and so quick at this. And they were often saying like, oh my God, and she's always right. Do you know why I was always right? Because I took out the human error. Like this computer software was doing it perfectly every time. Whereas historically,

when I was doing it manually, I'd sometimes like cut and paste the numbers incorrectly. I guaranteed that wouldn't happen. And I also saved myself a heap more time, thus creating more opportunities for career development. So I feel like so many of us think that career development is actually just us having to go back to uni or getting a whole last new degree to put ourselves in a better position. But is there something you can just learn on YouTube that would help you? Like if you are in podcasting like us, can you learn about a new software? Can you learn about how to become quicker at editing? Can you learn about, you know, different ways to do something that you're already doing in a more efficient manner?

If you're not sure, can you ask your boss, you know, what would be helpful? What would mean that I am upskilling? What would get me to the next step in my career? Ask these questions. And I mean, we've done a heap of episodes about furthering your career so go have a look at those but when it comes to furthering your career sometimes just putting your hand up and saying that you're interested in it can be a sign that you are interested in it and you're going to be more considered than the next person very true so have these conversations another free resource I adore is Coursera have you seen Coursera Coursera no have I not told you about this I've never heard of Coursera. She sounds beautiful. I will send you a link. Our podcast producer is passing back

a pen right now. Coursera. Coursera. How do I spell that, please? C-O-U-R-S-E-R-A. Thank you so much. That's great. Do you know what it is? You're already writing it down, so you're in. Ah, I know what that is. No, go ahead. Universities Online put units on Coursera for you to do for free. So it's like a university course, but it is for free. and you can do literally any unit from thousands of universities across the world. You could go to Harvard for a unit. You could go to Yale for a unit. You could do all of these fancy things. I have used them a couple of times to upskill in a finance capacity. So when I was like, far out, I'd love to know a bit more about this, this or this. I did a mini course in it or a mini

unit in it and the only time I had to pay was if I wanted the certificate at the end I didn't want the certificate okay and so I didn't pay for it was it like the same price as like a whole no no it was like $200 so it was like sure a lot of money for a certificate but if you really want the certificate and you want to add it to like you know your LinkedIn or something sure you can definitely download it and add it but I just did it and I enjoyed it and it was really really integrated. It was literally like a university course online. It was for 12 weeks. You turn up to class, you have assignments, you do all of these things and you come out with a new skill and it was free. Isn't that cool? There's a few options online, but Coursera is the one that I

used. And I think that upskilling yourself, I think that's really sexy. There's something motivating about it as well. The other thing on the flip side is making sure that you're doing the best thing for your health and wellbeing. I feel like you're really good at this, Bec. you're like frowning as though you're not but you are thank you so really good at putting yourself first and i'm not here to guilt anybody into signing up for the gym i mean beck is already a little gym rat do you know what she came in with beck what's in that mug my protein mug cake yeah sexy it looks rank but i'm sure it tasted good it tastes a bit rank too but it's actually to invest in my future self i like that but it's so important to support your own well-being there's

no chance you could get me to try that mug cake and I'm not going to the gym. But it's about knowing ourselves and whether we're willing to take time out for a walk, but making sure that we're getting away from our screens and continuing to connect with friends and focus on our mindfulness. I know that that sounds really flippant, but it actually has a massive impact. The next thing I want to talk about is health insurance. So we are so lucky to have a very very sexy Medicare system in Australia. Like we are so looked after, but you can't really put a price on health. And like I say, the best kind of insurance is one you never need. So I do want it to be a bit of a waste of money. I do understand at this point in time, lots of us are re-looking

at our health insurance and going, is it worth it? I don't think it is. Let's get rid of it. But if you don't have health insurance and you are using lots of additional services, like you're going and getting lots of remedial massages or you're going and seeing the physio because it is best for you, please have a look because you could be getting some money back and it could actually put you in a better financial position. Like so many times, and I know, Bec, you're one of these people that you're like, I don't need private health insurance. And I'm like, I get it. You've told me your reasons and it makes sense. But if you'd started to go to the physio a heap because you're going to the gym a lot, I'd be like, babe, have a look at it because

it could actually put you in a better financial position. And that makes sense. You're not there yet though. So it makes sense for you. The next thing I wanted to talk about is really prioritizing your physical and mental health today, because if you can't get on top of it, it's going to build up and cost you a lot in the future. This is some words of wisdom from my dad. He likened stress because I was having a pretty stressful period earlier this year. And I was saying it's so stressful, but that's okay. Like, you know, I'll get through this. I'll do this. And he said to me, Victoria, you need to be really careful of stress because stress is like bee stings. You can have a bee sting you once and it's fine. You can even have a bee sting you twice and it's fine. But

every single time a bee stings you, it gets harder to get over. And at some point you have an anaphylactic reaction and it's something that you need to go to hospital for. And stress can be like that. It kind of compounds over time. It's like investing. You kind of just start to see it tick away and it doesn't make sense. And it might be a little bit more stressful than it was before, but over the long period of time, it has a significant impact on your mental and your physical health. So if something is stressing you out, getting on it now is going to save future you from essentially burnout and putting yourself in the worst possible position. And I think that that is honestly some pretty good dad advice oh yeah yeah yeah stress is very bad for the health it is

but like long-term long-term stress but i understand this obviously does not apply to people who have clinical mental health illnesses this is more just for people who are stressed in their day-to-day lives and can maybe get on top of that meditation try meditation love meditation oh my gosh if you're going through a serious mental health issue and someone mentions meditation to you like you've got my permission to just knock around a little bit totally but have you tried meditation beck i feel like i'm one of those people unfortunately no but you're not saying it once you've heard that they've been diagnosed with something oh they're not going yes i was seeing my psych and i got diagnosed with x y and z and you'd be like oh my gosh that's so

bad have you tried meditating yeah go for a walk just get outside get out the sun oh my gosh i never. I would never either. But like those people deserve a little bit of a smacky smack. Oh, absolutely. I think let's go for a really quick break. Yeah, let's do that. We'll keep venting about those people and I'm going to make you try my mud cake. Okay. Don't go anywhere, guys. Welcome back, everyone. We are talking about investing in your future self. Fee, what is next? Financial planning. Ah, the good stuff. I think this is really important to touch on because I think so many people think that financial planning is for the rich and it is not. It is for everybody so that they get ahead. You could be someone who has a solid

financial plan and you are currently jobless. You could be someone who has a solid financial plan and earn 500 grand a year. You could also be someone who has 500 grand a year coming in and have absolutely no financial plan and you're backing yourself into a corner so that when you retire, you have zero dollars. I think there is this misconception that high income equals high output. And that's not the case. The amount of people when I was working as a financial advisor that I saw fritter away more money than I had even been able to fathom at that point in my life is mind blowing. Like the amount of people I met that literally had $400,000 incomes and were snorting it up their noses is wild, right? Like I kid you not,

and I'm not saying that that's always the issue, but it is so easy to experience lifestyle creep at any income level. And I think that it is naive of us to assume that we'll be better at it when we have more income. Like I know that you might be in the middle of a really shitty personal debt bubble and you might not feel like you're getting ahead, but having a good idea of what's coming into your account and what's going out of your account and what your expenses are is going to put you in the control seat. It's going to put you in the best possible position to be successful long-term. So the first thing we're going to do, Bec, irrespective of whether you have debt or not, is establish an emergency fund. You and I have talked about this before. I think that every

single person should have access to an emergency fund, even when they're in significant personal debt. And the reason I believe that is because if an emergency arises, you don't have to go further into debt to cover that. Even if you've paid off a significant amount of your debt, having money to the side, even if it's a couple of hundred dollars and you paid your speeding fine in cash and didn't go further into debt, it reinforces that you are on the right track and you are doing the right thing. There is nothing worse than being in debt, something popping up and you're going, I was really trying to pay off my zip pay. I'm going to have to go further into zip pay debt. and you've just been working so hard, it feels like you're taking a step back.

I mean, there's not one thing that is gratifying about getting a speeding fine, right? Like no one likes that. But Beck, if you got that and then you had the cash for that, you're going to go, I'm different. I'm changing. I'm not who I used to be when it comes to money. And yeah, I've still got debt, but I am on the right track. I'm on the right path. I'm doing the right thing for future me. Like it feels so liberating to have some cash to pay for something that you didn't expect to have to pay for. It really does. It's so nice. So that for me is really important. If you do have an emergency fund, please make sure it is in a high interest savings account and working as hard as you do for it. Don't just let it sit over there and not have

a job. Ew, give your money a job. The next is I want you to look at investing and if you are already making sure that your investments are well diversified. So can you start investing this year? it's not a bad thing to say no, Bec. I know you can. I know where you're at. You've got a new job. You've been talking about investing for the last 12 months and you have done approximately zero things to step towards investing. And that's okay. And to be honest, lots of us are in that position. How many of us been, she's on the money content. You're like next episode, I reckon I'm going to get the motivation and I'm going to start investing. And then you finish it and you're like, not yet though. Not yet. Not yet. That's totally okay. That's so normal, but that's what is called

analysis paralysis. And sometimes we have to pull our finger out and agree that maybe we learn the most on the job. So maybe you'll learn the most about investing once you've just started. So can you invest this year? If not, that's so fine. But if it's within your budget to even invest a couple of dollars a month, download a micro investing platform, dip your toes in the water, see how it goes. There are so many platforms now where you can invest literally back with as little as one cent. So dipping your toes in the water, you can just see what it's like. You can download the app. You can see how it goes up and down. You can get 10 bucks for free. Like we've got our shares, this code. You can play with our money instead of yours. True. Actually, I'm writing this down

because I am going to do this literally. I know I say this all the time, but I am going to do this as soon as we get off this. Okay. I will not bully you into doing that when we get off. Yeah, I like it. But in addition to investing, if you have got a very serious investment portfolio, When I say very serious, I mean you're just consistently contributing to it. It doesn't mean it's, you know, millions of dollars. It could be $500. But you need to just make sure that we're thinking about diversifying so that, you know, even if your portfolio is a total of, you know, $300 or $400, what next steps are you

going to make so that not all of your eggs are in one basket? Right. So if you've been investing in one direct share back, how are we going to get another area into our portfolio? So you might have been investing in property shares. How do we get electricity or power or something else into there so that if that industry or banking isn't doing so well, we know that our investments in another area are. If you're already investing in an ETF, Bec, what is that ETF?

Can we have a think about it? Is it an Australian ETF or is it an international ETF? Maybe you're thinking, oh my gosh, I finally cracked $1,000 in my investment portfolio and I really want to think about what my next movie is because this is starting to compound and it's really exciting. if you already have an Australian ETF, maybe have a think about whether you want to include an international ETF. Or if you have an international ETF, think about an Australian one. And the reason we do that is because when the Australian market isn't performing that well,

often international markets are. And when international markets are not being so good, often Australia, we live in a bit of a bubble, we're a smaller economy, we're doing pretty well. So that will even further diversify your investment portfolio. Hedge. Hedging your bets. Who are you? Are you proud of me? I am so always proud of you, but like very especially proud of you when you use investing

terminology. I love it. But we have so many episodes on this. And of course, your investment strategy needs to align with your individual risk tolerance and your investment horizon and all your financial goals and all of that stuff. but have a think about how do I make sure that not all my eggs are in one basket what does that look like sure the next is do you have the right kind of insurances so we're not talking private health here private health take it or leave it it's completely up to you I need you to make sure

that that's the right decision for you so let's get educated let's listen to an episode on health insurance and whether it is for us and make a decision that works for you and your family but inside your superannuation it's very likely that you have life insurance it's very likely that you might have some type of tpd which is total and permanent disability if you hold insurances outside of superannuation you might have income protection or you might have a trauma policy if you don't know what any of those are that is an instigator for you to check check your super do you have default insurance if you don't do you need it it's very different what your insurance needs look like, Bec, if you're like 21 and live at home? Like how much insurance do you actually

need? You're 21, you live at home, you don't have any dependents, you also don't have any debt. If something happened to you yesterday, because we never wish anything on the future, there's not a lot of financial stuff for the people that you love to organize for you, let's be honest. However, let's look at my situation. I'm married, I have a new baby, I have a mortgage. If something happened to me yesterday, my partner is screwed without insurance. I have an income that contributes to that mortgage. I have an income that is contributing to my son's life and his education and literally everything to provide for him until he reaches the age of 18. Without insurance, my family is significantly worse off. So I need to

make sure that I have it. So is insurance for everybody? No, but it could definitely be for you. and if you haven't reviewed it, you definitely need to. And the next one, are you ready? I'm ready. It's not very sexy. Write a will. Very morbid, isn't it? It's a bit morbid and it's definitely gone a bit morbid, but like my favorite podcast is called Morbid. So like I'm fine with it. Like if my podcast is a little bit morbid, I'm all right with it, you know, but make a will because it may seem really far off that you need it,

but you never know what is around the corner. And believe me, you do not want to lump your family and friends with any of the additional burden if something happened to you yesterday. Like it's really messed up, Bec. The stuff I have seen as a financial advisor is the reason I am so wildly passionate about insurance. It's why I'm so wildly passionate about having a will. And if you listen to some of our money diaries, I think it will really drive that point home. So those are my top tips. And I feel like that's where we want to start. Financial planning. That's what we're to do. I get you. Okay. Okay. Even if it's, you know, something that you feel like is so unlikely and so morbid, it's really good to be thinking about these things. So, you know, I'm going to

have these conversations when you're in your right mind and want the best for future you and want the best for your family, not when you're forced to have them and you're making a decision out of desperation. Definitely. That's a really good point. So I guess onto the next thing, let's talk about... You're like, I'm moving on. We're done. This is a bit morbid. I really want to jump to a new topic because it is so morbid, but very necessary. What do you want to talk about? You want to talk about setting short and long-term goals? Goal setting sounds really bland, but it's really, really important. You don't have to have a goal of having a new career, Bec. We could have small goals, but you need to understand the difference between a short and a long-term goal

so that we know where to put our money. Because if you said a short-term goal of mine is to buy a house. I'd be like, all right, well, investing is not a good option. Like let's not put our money into the investment markets if you're going to buy in the next year or two. But if you said long-term goal, maybe in the next 10 plus years, I really want to buy property. I'd be like, babe, investing could be for you. Like that could put you in a better position. You could pick up some compound interest. Like over that long period of time, you're going to make sure that you're hedging your bets over the market not being down. So I think getting some clear and achievable short and long-term goals is fundamental to guiding financial decisions and ensuring future success,

which is really important. But I also need to recognize that I'm the worst at setting a goal and then sticking to it. Did you set your goals for this year? If so, what were they? Let's do a little bit of a check-in. I did a Your Best Year Yet program at the start of this year because goal setting for me used to be really hard. I used to like write down all of my goals and then not do anything about them and then at the end of the year wonder why I hadn't achieved them but also crucify myself because I was like I'm so dumb I didn't save 10 grand and that was my big goal and I can't believe I didn't do it right but Bec I had no framework in place like how was I going to save 10 grand by December if I didn't have any type of plan in January February March or the rest of the

year yeah I was just going to turn up with 10 grand at the end of the year and no framework to have done that. Sure. Really, sometimes it is just as satisfying writing down your goals instead of like actually hitting them or reaching them. You know what I mean? I feel like it gives you clarity on what you want. So that's important. But if you're going to set goals and you want to achieve them, check in on them. It's not too late ever to reflect on what you want to focus on and start tracking your progress. So if you started this year with a list of goals and maybe you haven't reviewed them, maybe now's the time that I'm kicking you in the bottom a little bit going, hey, Bec, where's that list you said you liked writing down? Where are we at? Do you still want

to do those things? It's so fine if you don't. Like the amount of times I change my mind, I'm like, I know I said I wanted to do that, but that was a joke. I was just joking, guys. I was joking. Why don't you take a joke? I never wanted to do that thing that I said was really important to me. Yeah, no, it was a joke. But I think having a look at your goals and what you want to achieve is really important. And then looking further ahead. So what does that look like for you? What are your goals for achieving some level of financial freedom? What are your goals for retirement if you've got them? If you've ever said to yourself, I know I really want to retire early. What does that even mean? Like when you say retire early, what does that mean to you?

Because I think when I was young and you would have said, oh, 65 is the retirement age, which it is at the moment if you'd said to me does that sound good I'd be like yeah that sounds great but now I look at my parents who are both close to 65 and I'm like that's so young like to me that isn't as old as what I used to think it was is that where I want my life at but I also think how good would it have been if you know at 50 I had financial freedom to choose like maybe I can go part-time maybe I can you know choose to live my life the way that I want to because I don't want to be 65 and having to go to work every single day. So I don't know, it's completely up to you. So determining your retirement age or what you think you might want to retire out and your

lifestyle expectations is going to help you calculate what you need in retirement. So I always tell you about this figure of, you know, having $1.2 million invested back and how that will give you every single year, a $60,000 income. Is that enough for you? What does that actually look like? Because $1.2 million is so much to be invested. In fact, you don't even need half of that to have a successful retirement. A comfortable retirement here in Australia is less than that, which is really nice. But have you done the numbers? What does a comfortable retirement for you look like? Because that might look very different to the comfortable retirement I want. And that's okay. But what does that number look like? And I can almost guarantee that the second

end, you start going, oh, looks like this. Clarity opens up and it's not as hard as you thought it was. It's not as overwhelming or confusing or, you know, it's not something that feels so distant. You go, I could probably work towards that. You know, my super is actually tracking really well or, you know, what if I added 1% to my super? What does this look like? I could invest outside of super as well. So there's lots that you could do. I'm starting to feel a bit motivated and Hopefully, once you start, I suppose, like planning for things and realize you can do it and you feel like you've got a little bit of control, I think you'll feel a bit motivated too.

It's sexy. Now, I wonder, do we have time for one more? Nearly. Like, let's do like a half one. Let's talk about financial literacy because we are definitely running out of time. But I think a very good place to wrap it actually is really about improving your financial literacy, which like, guys, you're doing by listening to this podcast. So slay, you are definitely putting yourself in the best possible position, but do something

every week or every month to improve your financial literacy, whether that is listening to a podcast, listening to somebody else's podcast, checking your super balance, checking in on things. At the end of my very first book, She's on the Money, there's actually a laundry list of what you can do every single month to put yourself in the best possible position. So I can't even remember what I did, but it's like month one, you check in on your budget here month two you're checking in your insurances and it gives you like checkpoints of what to do so that by the end of the year you're in the best possible position and it includes things like

checking your insurances on your car and how much you're paying it includes having a look at your super and all of those things that might slip through the cracks and then get to the end of the year and we start it again so I think that that could be really powerful having a checklist of sorts so that every month I go oh Bec do something every month for your financial literacy You're like, what? But I gave you an entire list for an entire year. And all you do is set and repeat. And it means that at least every year, you're going to look at your budget. At least every year, you're going to review all of your subscriptions. At least every year, you're going to check how much money is coming into your account. At least every year, we're sitting down

and potentially talking about a pay rise with our employer. Like really important stuff. But I made the checklist for you. So you can do that if you so wish. Otherwise, you could make your own checklist up and do whatever you like. Because all I care is that you've got the financial literacy to make the decision that you deserve to make. Oh, I love that. You're so good like that, Victoria. Yeah, I just love a list. Love a spreadsheet. I'm here for it. I love a list. Okay, well, let's agree on something. I'll go invest after this and you start meditating. No. Okay, deal. You do yours. I'm not doing that. That's fair. Okay, well, I will invest though. Have a good rest of the day, guys. We'll see you on Friday. See you then. Bye.

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