She's On The Money - Glen James and Victoria Devine answer YOUR questions!

Episode Date: March 22, 2022

My Millennial Money’s Glen James joins us for an extra special Deep Dive with Victoria as they answer YOUR questions! This episode is an absolute banger and packed with all sorts of tips about what happens when you inherit an estate? When is a good time to buy property given the current market? Glen also shares his money story, best and worse money habits, AND talks his new book Sort Your Money Out: and Get Invested, which you can buy with a tasty discount here: https://amzn.to/3szv3FRThe 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.

Just before we get started, we'd like to acknowledge and pay respect to Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. They're the traditional custodians of the lands, the waterways and the skies all across Australia. We thank you for sharing and for caring for the land on which we are able to learn. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and we share our friendship and our kindness. 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 to a bonus episode of the show where we are joined by the one and only

Glenn James from My Millennial Money. Glenn, welcome to She's On The Money again. Hey, Victoria. Thanks so much for having me back on your show. And to all my listeners, hello, and you better not be listening to this while you're at work. And also listen to it on Glenn's feed, not Victoria's feed for the downloads, right? No, you can have the downloads. You've recently launched your own book, which is very exciting. I mean, it's arguably even better than the She's on the Money book? Would you say so? I would say they complement each other perfectly. I think they complement each other perfectly, obviously, but I also think

that they're completely aimed at different, not different audiences, but different levels. All right, Glenn, enough about the books, because that's actually the first question that we have on the show today. And this one comes from Michelle and she says, guys, how do the books compare. What are the similarities? What are the differences? What do you think? I think you're asking me because you know what I'm going to say. And I would say that She's on the Money, the book is just the basics. It is talking about creating those foundational skills of budget and cash flow and spending and understanding your money story and where you're starting from. And you go a bit deeper on topics like investing. And I feel like you compliment She's on the Money because if you

were going to read both books, I would want you to read She's On The Money and then My Millennial Money. It's actually called Sort Your Money Out. No, I know it's called Sort Your Money Out, but it's like from you, I'll call it whatever I want on my show. I think, yeah, like you said yours covers the basics. That's not a bad thing. No, no, no. I've done it on purpose. Yeah, exactly. Like we need a baseline thing and then we need to go and learn on top of what we've learned about baseline stuff. But the good thing about what I've done and how it does complement your book, I've done a heap of case studies on real world investments and how they work. And I've done some case studies on two different types of ethical investments. I've used an active

investment and an index investment and just compared the two. Which I think is really powerful. Yeah. So, I really wanted to go at it from a practical point of view. I did indulge myself and do a heap on mindset and how to actually make money. And I think the chapter is like get rich and make it rain as a play on words. But we both know that a lot of people who listen to the podcast, once we get our mindset in the direction of, oh, hang on, I can do something different than what my parents told me. Oh, hang on. It isn't actually crazy to want to buy an investment property in a different location and still rent in the city. Oh, hang on. It's actually not crazy

if I want to invest a hundred dollars a month into a share investing platform because it's just a different world now. So it's just, I don't know where I'm going with this, but I wanted to make it really practical and particularly around the mindset piece, how we can start to change our mindset for our own personal growth, our own personal career, and how we can really maximize turning our human capital, which is what we develop and the income that we generate at work, capital, transferring that into investments. Because I don't know about you, Victoria, but I was getting sick of all the entrepreneurial books just telling everyone that they need to start their own business where there's a lot of people that just like their job and like

what they do. And that's fine. And I feel like genuinely there's pressure to be more than what you are in 2021. Like, I don't agree with it, but I feel like everybody is having this pressure put on them to be an entrepreneur, like go after your dreams. Like they always talk about things like the four hour work week. And please don't get me wrong. There's lots to learn from these things, but there's such a benefit of being employed and having your super paid and being able to clock out at 5pm on a Friday and not worry about things over the weekend. Like, I just don't think it's feasible for a lot of people either. Like, business is hard and it is not something that you actually want everybody to be involved in because you might not even enjoy it.

Can I read one thing that I wrote in the book that- From your own book. Yeah, just, and this is an example of the audio book. Go for it. It has to be as good as the audio book version though. All right, here we go. Get ready. So, I basically wanted people to have the best shot at doing the best that they can with their career being an employee. And I basically said, if you talk with your team leader or boss,

and that's with respect, right? And if things don't change in the medium term or, you know, the short term, because you need to give your employer time and grace. So, you know, if you've got a problem. It's like, oh, it's not quite right here. And there's something up. And I don't know if I love this working environment. Like it might be time to move on. So, I then went on to say, you'll have the best shot at doing well financially if the following things are happening in your workplace. One, you are challenged in your role, but have access to help when needed. Two, you feel involved and your contribution is taken seriously at team meetings. Three, you are trusted, valued, appreciated, and empowered. Four, there is a chance to be promoted and take on more responsibilities.

And five, and this is an important one that a lot of us need to really hear and reflect on, you actually like going to work each day. So, if some or all of those things aren't happening in your workplace and you've approached your boss, employer, team leader with dignity, because I don't think it's about kicking down the door and doing a shakedown and things don't start to change, it might be time to move jobs. Because a lot of us think, oh, this is my career. You've got to separate career and job. So, you could still be doing your career that you love, but it might not be the right workplace. So, I just want to encourage people. And let's shut up about the dumb book now and get onto some listener questions.

It's not a dumb book because we're giving away a book to every person whose question is read out. Yeah. So, I've got eight books to give away. Eight books, eight questions. We get to give them away and I'm really excited about that. Sweet. Okay. So, let's get into the next question. The next question comes from a friend of ours, Maddie. She says, not to be morbid at all. This is definitely the right podcast to be morbid on, like Glenn and I will have this chat, but can you chat about what actually happens when you are the beneficiary about to inherit an estate, i.e. what happens with everything that you inherit

in the estate, like super and houses, et cetera? Glenn, take it away. And Imogen Kerr follows and says, hi, both, a bit of a morbid question, but it's about debt and inheritance. Say my parents pass away prior to paying off their debts, like what happens? So, I think, and again, I actually cover this in the book So, it's another shout out How many times can Glenn mention his book in this podcast? I won't anymore, I won't anymore No, I want you to

Maddie and Imogen are getting a copy How do you know Maddie, by the way? I don't, she's a friend of the show because she's in our community Oh, I thought you just chatted like, oh, she's a friend Anyway I thought everybody in my group was a friend of mine Until they ripped you to shreds Are the people in your group not your friends?

Oh, probably, probably not There you go Okay Straight under the bus. So, I think what we need to work out first and foremost, what's an estate asset and what isn't an estate asset. So, an estate asset is something that you own individually. So, I own my house in my name, that's an estate asset. I own my car in my name, that's an estate asset. I own a lovely piece of furniture that's worth $100. I'm talking about my secondhand lounge. You can have my Ikea Calyx cabinet.

Exactly. So, everything that we own personally is an estate asset. Now, one thing that's not in an estate is superannuation. So, your superannuation, it's actually in a trust and there's a trustee, which is the superannuation company, and they hold that money on trust for you or your beneficiaries, okay? So, what happens when somebody dies? Well, let's be really morbid here and let's kill Glenn off, okay? Oh, I thought you were going to try and kill me off. Well, I could. Actually, stuff you.

I'll kill you. So, Victoria and Steve, you're going along happy. Victoria. I think we are, yeah. You are unfortunate enough to die prematurely, okay? Okay. So, what happens is Steve will likely go to a solicitor and say, hey, Victoria's dead. This is her will. She wants to leave everything to me. And I'm just being

heteronormative here and, you know, saying that you'll have a, you give each other everything. So, I didn't leave it all to one of my exes. Exactly. Okay, good. So, the will reads, I would like to give everything to Steve. And if Steve dies before me, I would like to give everything to my family evenly or something like that. Okay. Yeah. So, basically what happens is your estate assets are everything you own. So, that then forms what we call the estate of the late Victoria Devine. The late sounds like I'm fancy. Yeah, that's right. And effectively, everything just goes in a pool and we have to go because you have a property, we have to go to

court and get probate. And what that means is we have to determine that the will is valid and your half of the property, depending on how it's set up, would go to Steve. Yeah. Then all the other stuff would also go to Steve. But if you said, oh, I want to give my mother and father 20% of my estate, that comes off the top first and then the rest will go to Steve. When we talk about debt, you can't inherit debt. If Victoria, you, because you're the Victoria who died, she was actually a bit of a fraud.

She had all these personal loans, right? Yeah, I had a million credit cards. She had $50,000 in credit cards. I had $100,000 in credit cards and I have like six personal loans. Yep. Yep. So, Victoria, you died with $200,000 worth of debt in your name. And because I died, it looks a lot like not my problem anymore.

Exactly. But so, you died with $200,000 worth of debt. Your super balance, and I'm going to make you a bit older now, your super balance and your cash in your bank totaled $300,000. What do you mean make me a bit older? What if that was my super balance right now? What, $300,000? What if it's not?

$30,000? That's awesome. It's absolutely not. It's actually really dismal. Basically, the estate has to settle the debts before it can pay out beneficiaries. So, that's practically, you can't inherit debt in Australia. You can in the US. You can, yep.

If, for example, Victoria had HECS or HELP debt, that just gets cleared. That's the only debt that dies with you though. Yeah, and that's why I'm a bit of an advocate of not paying extra HECS and HELP debt off, even if you've met all your other financial goals. I don't see why you would. I've never had a reason to do it. Yeah, I think I may have mentioned it in the book that just joking with you.

I think if you met all your other financial goals and you just wanted to come back around for housekeeping, sure. But because that debt dies with you, if you had paid an extra $10,000 a year over the last 20 years, you've paid $20,000 into that debt and you've died prematurely. So, that's $20,000 that your estate doesn't get back. It's a good way of looking at it, actually. I had not even thought about the like long game of that. I'd always just looked at it and been like, it actually has no financial benefit to me or benefit at all to me to pay it off early. Like I just,

for me personally, doesn't make sense. I just think from an estate planning optimization point of view. If you've got a young family and you do have extra cash left over, unless you've got five grand left on the Hexahelp and you want to just clear it to get the mortgage so it all services easier, I'm not committing extra money to Hexahelp because at least if I died prematurely, my kids or my spouse isn't missing out on that extra little bit of money. I really like that perception. I really like that point of view because it really, one reiterates my point of view, which we obviously like, but it also makes you think a little bit more long-term than me going, yeah, but what if you want to buy a house in the next couple of

years? Like, why would you do that? It's actually, well, what if you have kids? Wouldn't you want them to have that extra 10 grand? Yeah. I know I would. Absolutely. But again, personal finance is personal. You might not want to do it or you might want to pay it off and that's your choice. And this is the funny thing, Victoria, like psychologically, you might have a smaller a hex or help left. So we'll call it $10,000 in relative to some people's 40,000. Do you have any hex left? No, never had it because I never went to university. I'm a bogan and I did the private college and just paid for it. Oh, fancy boy. But psychologically, if you had a small amount of hex debt left and you just want to clear it because you're sick of the withholding, like

sure knock yourself out but now you know that it dies with you and any money paid in there could be lost if you did die prematurely well that's a trade-off you need to to think about and only you can make that decision as well and as you said before personal finance is just that it's personal but then it's important to remember that what we're saying is just based on what we would do personally not what you should do but also if you've chosen something else it's not us judging you we don't care how you spend your money all we care about is the fact that you're educated about this topic and know what the other consequences were. So, I think I would be more upset if someone turned around and said, Victoria, like I listened to this podcast and I just paid

off all my hex and put every single dollar that I had in savings to that. And then I listened to your podcast and wished I didn't. Like, I just don't want someone to be in that situation where they don't have the right tools and resources to make a decision based on their financial lives. Yeah. And I'm big on, you know, that's exactly right. Like if you have just paid off your Hexo help, that's okay. We're here now. Let's just get on with it. You're in a good position. Yeah. You're totally, it's all good. You're going to have better cashflow. It's not the worst thing ever. Hey, there's a question here from Anne Algar. Yeah. Hi, Victoria and Glenn. Love your friendship and respective pods.

Oh, cute. Are we friends, Glenn? Yay. Yay. So many people. Okay, so this is what's going to happen, everyone. People will comment in our respective Facebook groups and say, Glenn cut Victoria off. He's rude.

Victoria's a bitch to Glenn. Hey, we are. Yeah, I am a bitch to Glenn. She is. That's right. Yeah. You're not wrong. Go ahead.

But we've got a very robust friendship that's been kicking around the floor for a while now. He'll come to my wedding, guys. He'll come to my wedding. or actually he'll be invited who knows if he'll turn up i put the date in my diary thank you thank you you just told everybody that i picked a date oh like hypothetical date no i did pick a date guys it's on it's on so back to what we're saying glenn anne asked a question before we went off on a tangent and she said i know this is always asked in money diaries but i'm keen to

know what Glenn's best and worst money habits are. So, Glenn James, what is your best money habit? My best money habit is removing Glenn James from any type of process, investing, managing cash flow, all that stuff. Because the problem is, if I haven't removed Glenn James from the process, my worst money habit kicks in, which is impulse. You are quite impulsive when it comes to spending. Very impulsive. Yeah. And I'm a spender. I'm a horrendous saver. So, I've had to learn to be an investor and I've got my spending plan all set up. All I need to worry about is what's in my daily or weekly spending account and not use my brain for spending because, you know, yes, I run a money podcast and I've got a money book, but it doesn't change the fact that Glenn James

as a behavioral entity is impulsive and needs to remove any manual stuff throughout the week. I'll give you an example, Victoria, like on the podcast the other day, I was talking about e-bikes and I was saying to John, the co-host, I'm like, oh yeah, I wouldn't mind getting into mountain biking and yeah, that'd be sweet. Like get the e-bike and all that. Anyway, I got an email the next week and it was like 1130 PM at night. Someone listening was like, oh, hey, Glenn, listen to the podcast. I've got a business and we import and build e-bikes. Here's the catalog. Let me know. I'll hook you up. And you were like, catalog? I'm straight on the website. I'm like, yeah, that black one looks sweet. I want that. And then next minute I'm like, yep. And I'm

drafting them i'm like yeah can i get one of these and like they are expensive and i'm like hang on whoa whoa whoa whoa 24 hours between glenn and his spending this is one it's over my daily threshold without sleeping on it yes two it's 11 30 p.m and i've just watched two episodes of seinfeld because i'm going back and watching them all good choice and show by the way and three i didn't wake up this morning with the intention to buy an e-bike. So, I went back to him and said, hey, mate, really appreciate it. I'm going to give it a miss just for now. I'll let you know. Oh, I'm proud of you. That's not a Glenn James thing to do. That's right. So, because we're all just built on our habits and behaviors,

as soon as we become self-aware of our own proclivity with money, the easier it is to govern. And thankfully now in my life, when Glen James has a blowout, it's not a $1,000 blowout. It's only a small $20 or $30 blowout. Yeah, because you put the right framework in place so that you can't actually have those $1,000 blowouts. That's right. So, I walk into Bunnings. Oh, that's blowout central if you ask my partner.

Okay, I've walked out with 15 watering cans, three power balls and 100 pack of batteries from the boxes at the front of the store. Genius. I didn't need these, but hey, I'm in the moment and I need them and all that. It's genius and that's good value. So, I think it's just about, for me, the worst thing about my money personality is I overspend

and I've had to make that into the best thing about I systematically have an amount each week that goes into my investments accounts. It's just systems and structures and I remove Glen James from any of the day-on-day processes. And I think that's really relatable because a lot of people are going to be listening to this and thinking, wow, I'm really impulsive as well. And if you are, you just need to set up a system that works for you and your personality type. And everybody works differently. But I know that Glenn James's and my online programs are both set up to put you guys in positions where you're in control of your finances as opposed to not being in control of it or that you have to manually do everything. both of us are actually really pro automation if you're not into it that's cool we're not saying it's perfect for everybody I mean I think it would work for everybody but you do you and the most

important thing about doing you is really understanding what your money personality is so that you can create a system that works for you I feel like in that answer Glenn you actually answered what your worst money habit is but I'll ask you anyway Glenn James what is your worst money habit is it impulsiveness or is there another one that you haven't shared with us yet my worst okay this is really bad because it's bad for my wallet and bad for my health once a week only either a friday or saturday night because it's very naughty no i buy a little tub of ben and jerry's little tub of ben and jerry's is your worst habit and you literally just told me before the show you were eating a fish and chip shop burger all right glenn james okay you want to go

there so i needed a fast bit of food because i was running late to this interview good work i'd rather eat something than not have anything on my tummy and i thought okay do i get a sausage roll or a pie from the pie shop shout out flower and co twin bay love you or do i get a burger I took the view that it's probably less calorie dense to have a fresh hamburger from the hamburger shop than a pile sausage roll all right I'll allow it did you have an on balance call yeah yeah all right that's a health choice that was a health decision I back that one but you you eat Ben and Jerry's and that's your worst yes I'll buy a tub of Ben and Jerry's and a bottle of of Coke, no sugar. The problem is it's a bad money habit because I buy it from the 7-Eleven

down the road. Oh, yeah. They're so expensive. Yeah. Where I could just go down to Woolworths or Coles. And get it for like half the price. Exactly. Yeah. All right. So, it's, and this is the problem, right? When we get lazy, you pay for convenience. And, you know, you pay for convenience. This is the wild thing, right? People get all up in arms about what's the cheapest ETF provider and I need this and that. Or, well, hang on one sec. You want to buy just an ETF direct to the market with a broker. That's going to be cheap. Or if you want a platform and there's a high fee, but they do all the reporting and keep all your paperwork, well, you pay for that. Yeah. You're always going to have to pay for convenience. And sometimes

people don't want the convenience and that's okay. You don't have to pay for it. But if you want to Yeah, the 7-Eleven ice cream, because it's 100 metres down the road from your house. Well, that's a premium. Yeah. And I think we just need to understand that sometimes with our bad habits, there's often cascading things. So, not only it's bad for my wallet, it's not that healthy. So...

Yeah, that's fair. I mean, ice cream is pretty good. All right, Glenn, before we get to the next question, let's head to a quick break and we'll be right back. All right, we are back. Glenn, our next question comes from Jenna. And Jenna has a and or question and I'm going to do the and. So, we're going to answer both parts of her question.

The first is, what were your parents' relationships with money and how has it influenced you? Just my parents never had a credit card and dad and mum, if they didn't have the money, they didn't buy it. And yeah, I've had a credit, like I don't have a credit card at the moment. I've had them in the past, but because I'm a spender, I can't control myself. So, the bank wins.

And even if I could pay it off each month, I just didn't like the vibe of having money outstanding and owing month on month. Yeah. I hate owing people money as well. Like when someone invoices you for something, I just get it done, get it paid. I don't care if it's due in three weeks. I just don't want to think about the fact that I might owe somebody else money. Like, no, thank you. Yeah. So, at the moment, like I don't have a credit card and I think that was just drummed into me from my parents. In fact, I actually need to get one because I'm going overseas in February. Where are you going? Oh, just up to the States. But last time I was in the States, last few times without a credit card, it's actually fine. But? If you want to

hire a car. Oh, yeah. Well, and this is the thing. If you want to hire a car, you technically don't need a credit card. But when you want to hire a car, there's some weird legislation, right? And this was just totally threw me off guard and it just wrecked a heap of hours in my planning. If you go to the airport in America, an airport, and I was in Columbus, Ohio, I could have hired a car from the airport and returned it to the airport and used a debit card. But I wanted to drive from Columbus, Ohio to Nashville and picking up the car from the airport, but they wouldn't let you do it with a debit card. You had to have a credit card. Oh, why do they do that?

I think it might be some security thing if you do the runner with the car or something. Yeah, okay. As if you couldn't do that if you'd said you'd return it to the airport. Yeah. So, then I had to get like an Uber to like this other car yard, you know, half an hour down the road. Oh, what a nightmare. Like anyway, so, all in all, that was probably the main habit. If you don't have the money, you don't buy it. Yep. With the exception of a home mortgage. I think that's really important. I really like that. My parents were a bit similar. I don't remember them having any credit,

it, which for me is obviously a good thing. But my dad would also really instill saving in us. And I've spoken about this in my book, but I also have spoken about it historically on the podcast that he used to just drum into us to always save first and always save like 5% of your income. I didn't really listen to him until I was older. I wish I'd listened to him when I was younger, but he definitely did try to instill really good money habits in us. And my mom had instilled really great money habits, like business habits in me. When I was 14, 13 or 14, she bought a business, a small business. It was a coffee cart. And the reason she did that was because she wanted to teach us about money and about running a business and how important cashflow was and

how to do things. And I remember at 14, mom would have me, you know, sitting down and I'd have to work out the float and then I'd have to work out how much coffee cups cost and what the coffee was and how much it was going to cost to get those. Like, you remember those fancy individually packeted Byron Bay cookies? Like, I had to work out how much profit you could get on those. The Dotties. Love the Dotties. Oh, so good.

But I had to work out how much we could sell those for. And anyway, it was a whole thing. And it really taught me a lot about money and the importance of money. I remember doing that with her and then, you know, wanting my sister to help and mumping like, oh, how much are you going to pay her for an hour? if you asked her and I'd be like oh what you have to pay for labor this is crazy so I feel like my parents instilled a really healthy relationship with money with me and you know a lot of I'm very very lucky and very privileged that I got to go through that but both parents were really good

at saving like I even remember going on a holiday once and mum being like I have been saving up for this holiday and I have been paying this off because my mum and dad had I think managed money pretty separately, but mum was like, nope, I've been saving up for this and we've been doing this. And I just remember being like, yeah, go mum, you paid for our holiday. Like that's real cool. So yeah, I had a really good upbringing in that my parents were good at talking about money. In saying that it wasn't like we sat down and talked about superannuation or investing or anything like that. It was definitely like cashflow and budgeting and making sure that I had the money that I needed um and yeah had had good pocket money how's this my parent or my dad

so my dad's grandfather my dad's dad and my dad were all self-employed I'm like fourth generation self-employed yeah so it's just this innate thing um just all motivated my parents owned a business for a really long time as well so I guess the apple doesn't fall that far from the tree does it, Glenn? It doesn't. And also like when we were younger, we wanted it in above, we wanted a pool. So, my parents bought a second hand above ground pool, which is awesome, but you've got to dig them in like, I don't know, half a meter. It has to be in the ground. Anyway, my dad dug it all by hand. Yeah. Don't pay someone for something you can do yourself. Exactly. That apple fell very far from the tree, let me tell you. Yeah. All right. Well, let's move on to the second part

of Jenna's question. What's your favorite client story that you've helped out throughout your career? She said, it's really motivating to hear other people's stories. Glenn, do you have one that really stands out? Oh, I've actually got, gosh, I've got three that actually really stand out that i'll always remember i've got one one of them is boring right two of them are sad tell me about the boring one first well the boring one like clients working class australia really good example of living on less than you earn for a long period of time keeping it simple they just salary sacrifice to super, just rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. Getting it done. Get to age 50, 60, have well over a million dollars in superannuation. They didn't overcook

anything and they didn't try and get rich quick, anything like that. Spend less than you earn, invest the rest over a long period of time. Ta-da, you'll have a great lifestyle when you want to hang up the tools. So, that was just a really good example of long-term financial discipline. The other one, it's really a sad one and it just speaks about estate planning and stuff like this. And that's why I like talking about the estate planning stuff and paying hex off early could impact the estate and whatnot. I had a client where I was working with the power of attorney and her mother was in a nursing home and her mother was under 60. So early onset dementia, like crazy, right? And we were basically, and this was a very wealthy family. So I was doing

the financial advice with mum's money. And basically there was stuff in the family that wasn't settled. And this client, her sibling had this undertone of jealousy that this sibling wasn't executor or power of attorney rather and executor. And it got to the point where because there was so much money involved and this sibling hadn't set his own life up, got hungry for the money oh yeah and I was in a meeting with the accountant and the two siblings and they were a bit estranged and and this is just you know the this the power of attorney she's crying because she's only a young lady herself mum's in nursing home early onset dementia over two million dollars all this crazy stuff and he's going oh we just I just need

to do this, this, this, and I want to do that. And I had to stand up and say to him, hey, mate, you are here as a courtesy. You have no legal right to have any say. With respect, it's your mum's bloody money. She's still alive. We are managing this for her benefit. If and when your mother does pass away, we carry it out as per the will. Yuck. And it was really important to me that scenario You just set the tone and said no Just to be like, hey, back off

Yeah And we actually found out the reason, the whole reason why he was like that Most of it was there was an old piece of furniture in the will That wasn't left to him What? It was left to her Wait, he was mad because of a piece of furniture? Yeah

Like it wasn't the $2 million estate. It was a piece of furniture. Well, it was a bit of both, but the kicker was- Camel break or whatever it is, the straw that broke the camel's back or something like that. So that was, for me, a client story about you've got to make sure that you're very clear with your affairs. Like when I did my will, I told my family, hey, guys,

you're not the executor of my will. Tim Cooper, my best friend, is the executor. He's the boss. You guys can manage the living will, the medical stuff. Yeah. But I'm just letting you know right now because I don't want to stress you out because there's a lot going on here. Because, like, Glenn's really, really rich, so it would be stressful.

Well, it's more the I just don't want to put the paperwork on my parents or my sister. I wouldn't want to do that either. And I told them in an email, I'm like, the will's kept it, Aubrey Brown lawyer's there, and this is what's happening. The kids are getting a hundred grand each or whatever that is. And it's not like I've got heaps of money. It's more that I've got some life insurance as well.

A nice life insurance policy, if it's set up properly, would be significant for anybody. Yeah. The kids are getting X amount each, the, you know, and then the rest is being split with you two, like mum and dad and my sister. And there's a charity that's getting some. And I wrote in the email, if you've got a problem with all this, I suggest you tell me now. Yeah, because I've written it so well that you can't argue with it down the track.

So, please let us know. Exactly. So, for me, the important story was around the have the communications that matter now before it's too late. It's really important to do that. So, that was number two. And I'll share the last one as well. Yeah, I was going to say we've got one more to go.

We did some pre-retirement planning for a gentleman who he worked all his life to age 65, had significant wealth. I did all the financial planning for him. We retired him, had his money set up. He retired in the February of a year. He then retired in February. By July, he had passed away. And it was the flu, common flu. And he was a single man, had a daughter who was not his daughter. Yeah. Okay. Uh, he, he had a son that he was estranged from, uh, for several years and he didn't leave any money to the son, which is, that's his prerogative. Uh, and actually the son was actually okay with it. Yep. And I guess what I'm saying is don't put stuff off because you never know what's going to happen. And that really taught me that

for me, Glenn James, I'm not waiting till there's this magical line in the sand when I'm going to start living, when I'm going to do this. Let's try. And this was probably around the mindset piece and the first chapter in the book about, I use the phrase live on your own terms. Yep. Nice. Because I've had all these experiences, either myself or through clients and life's too short. So, we need to live on our own terms now. I feel like as financial advisors, you know, we sit on podcasts like this and talk about the importance of estate planning and you guys go, okay, no problems. Thanks, Victoria. But we're not talking about the importance of estate planning because we got taught that at financial

advice school. It's because we sit down with clients every day and end up being a part of their journeys, whether that is positive, negative, or neutral. And, you know, it's heartbreaking when a client picks up the phone and says, hey, Victoria, how have you been? I'm like, oh, I'm so good. How are you? X, Y, Z. And they're like, just been diagnosed with cancer. And that happens. Like that's not something that we, you know, aren't privy to. It's not, you know, a what if that happens or what if it happens to me situation. Like it does happen and we have to manage those claims, but I'm so grateful to be part of their journeys and get to support them through that because being able to go, no problems, Glenn, I've got you. I'm going

to submit a claim can you give me x y or z or you know what are you going through let me know i'll chase it up to be like okay glenn you've been diagnosed with cancer here's a hundred thousand dollar trauma payout don't worry about work either because we're going to claim on ip once you've been out of the workforce for xyz and they're fine financially like knowing that that's not going to cripple them in the way that it could to so many other people is so empowering but it actually just makes me feel like I'm having an impact and so when we say get your estate plan in order we're not saying that just because it's cute we're saying that because we've seen when it doesn't go right and I've seen clients before and this wasn't

technically a client of mine and it's probably one that's really shaped my view of estate planning and what that means but it wasn't a client of mine and it was an older gentleman and had younger kids. And in a stereotypical way, he was also dating a younger woman that arguably was the age of his child. And this woman, you know, from my perspective, wasn't in it for the right reasons. He was quite wealthy. And when he passed away, it came out that his will had been changed six months prior. And I don't think it was, you know, malicious. They didn't expect him to pass away so soon, but everything went to the new girlfriend. They weren't married. It was to the new girlfriend and just knowing enough about that to be able to dispute something like

that, because maybe he wasn't in his right mind and watching that process unfold. I was just like, wow, like this is so much more complex than just reading a will and going, okay, agreed. Like if it's written in a will, it makes sense. So going through that process and just seeing it play out and going, okay, cool. His kids did get what they deserve. They were so supportive. They were actually his carers. And this woman who wasn't caring for him at all seemed to end up benefiting, but knowing that we could, you know, say, actually, this is what it was and taking it to court. And it was a long process, but knowing that the family ended up keeping their wealth in the family, it just made me feel so much better. And in that moment, I knew that we'd done the right thing.

It wasn't about making the kids rich. In fact, they were already. It just was about making sure that family wealth and what he ultimately probably wanted still happened. And yeah, I think that that's really important. Yeah. I think what we've kind of agreed on that the fun stories and all the good stuff, it's more about we've seen when you take care of the stuff that matters. That's when the real good stories come out. I don't know if I have quote favorite client stories, but when you ask that question, I have another one that was not necessarily a full financial planning client. She was someone that came to me really early on in my career. I think just through word of mouth, if I remember correctly, and she wanted to leave her husband,

but it turned out she was in an abusive relationship physically, emotionally, financially, and just being able to sit down with this person and go, okay, let's create a plan. Let's work out what this means. How can we afford it? How much money do you need? And you know, the partner was actually really wealthy. So it was going to be a really significant lifestyle change for this person. So just even being able to say, have you got your own bank account? No. Okay. Let's set those up. How do you use a banking app? Didn't know how to do that. And just being able to sit with this person to be like, okay, cool. What else are you going to need? And I just remember racking my brain being like, okay, bills. Do you know how to pay bills? She

was like, no. So it was just so empowering to sit down with this person and, you know, over three or four months we just had a few coffee catch-ups and I'd set her up and we'd organized it all and I remember getting a text message it wasn't a call it was text message one day and she's just like I've done it I was just like oh like I was so excited I cried and you know it's stuff like that where you know you're having an impact and that you've been a really pivotal part of somebody creating financial freedom or financial independence or that a family is better off because of the work that you've done, I think is, you know, really empowering, but also not what you stereotypically think when you say I'm a financial advisor. Like people don't, I think they don't understand how

integrated you become in a client's life. Yeah. I, and I kind of always have those thoughts. Well, when I was practicing advisor, like I've gone to hospitals after hours on weekends to see clients and I'm like, well, this is interesting that I'm going to a hospital and meeting extended family or whatnot. But I mean, the fun, and we could probably, we probably need to move on, but we could probably do another episode at some time about wild stories, like the clients that I had that inherited close to $15 million and kind of tried to do, did a good job of blowing it within five to seven years. That's really impressive. That's pretty good. I had a client that came to me because

they actually didn't know their parents were billionaires and then it was sprung on them. So, that was pretty good. That was really interesting and just, you know, that was one of those situations where I'm kind of hoping that that'll happen. Like my parents were just teaching me to be humble and then they're going to turn around and be like, well, actually we're billionaires. But that actually happened to a client of mine. And you know, there was a lot of guilt and there was a lot of, I don't want that money, but what can I do? And talking about impact and how much impact you can have through money because this person, yeah, they just didn't know what to do with it. And it can be really overwhelming.

Yeah, and I will say in my will, just remembering that, I've actually put that the kids, because they won't get the money allocated to them until they're 30 years old. Yeah, genius. Because I don't want them hanging out for old Glenn who's died and his inheritance to us will solve all our problems. I want them to just be able to be functioning adults. And then in the will, I've written that, you know, if they're incarcerated or addicted to serious drugs or they're not fit to receive that money, there's heaps of conditions that the lawyers put in there. Savage Uncle Glenn is savage. Well, I think it's just being responsible. Like, I don't want to-

I don't want to support someone's drug addiction if I don't have to. Exactly. So, I mean, these are the real things that you need to consider. You know, in the will, we only mention my sister's name because what if she's not with her partner when I pass away? We don't want some guy that's my sister's ex or the father of my niece and nephews putting a claim in when he's not really in anyone's life anymore.

So, it's complex, but let's move on. Yeah, let's move on. So, next question is from Jessica and Jessica says, hi victoria and glenn would like to know your opinion on whether now is the time to buy a house or wait longer and then in brackets she says until the market slows down as i'm in a good position with my partner where we are renting a granny flat and able to save a good amount each pay and no rush to move any advice would be appreciated i'm also in perth by the way p.s love the podcast and super keen to read glenn's book jessica you are getting a copy of the book

but thanks for the question. I think we just should hurry up because we're running against the clock and I don't want to outstay my welcome. Apologies. No, that's okay. I appreciate this. I think my listeners appreciate this. I'm going to give my opinion on this first and my opinion is that there's no right time to buy a house. There's a right time for you to invest in an asset though and that's when you're ready financially, mentally, like you're in the life position to be able to do that. It's not actually a should you wait for the market because timing the market It never works for anybody, regardless of whether people are saying that property is going up or down. You literally can't predict it. So if you're in a position where you and your partner are going

to be able to comfortably buy a house and that's in line with your goals and your values and what you want to achieve, go with that. But if you're looking at it going, oh my gosh, like I'm so stressed about this, but I'm in a really good financial position right now, ride that wave for as long as you want to. So I guess I've been helpful and really unhelpful, but I don't believe in watching the property markets at all. I just believe in working out what works for you best. What is your opinion? First and foremost, I would say before you talk to a mortgage broker, you'd probably want to make sure you've got some savings behind you, cleared any consumer debt, credit cards, personal loans, car, probably okay with that still hanging there for the purpose of

this, try and have a target of 5% of the home deposit amount before you speak to a mortgage broker. Or for parental guarantees on the table, you don't technically need that 5% deposit. But I think it's still a good idea to clean up your consumer debt because you have consumer debt because you've likely overspent. It's not a bad thing. You just spent more than you earn. Yeah. And we've all been there. But we just have to make sure that we change the habits and behaviors. But certainly, there's no harm in speaking with a broker to see how much money you can get. But secondly, I think you're right, Victoria. You know, if you've got the money and it's a lifestyle play that you want to buy a house and live in and call it a home

and the shoe fits, you can get the loan, you can get a house in the area you want to buy, go and buy a house and live in it and enjoy it. But if you're a bit agnostic and just want to really distill the goals a bit more. Like it might be a, well, we've been told we need to buy a house or, well, maybe it is a, well, let's just save some more and buy an investment property somewhere else in another area that's got some good growth longer term. And we'll just go and rent next to the beach or in the city or, so there's, it's like, whatever, if you've got the money and you want to buy a house and you can go and buy it. But don't do it because you think the market. It's good. Yeah. Summary. All right. That was swift. I like it. On to the next question,

Glenn. This question is from Kat and Kat says, how do you know what you're doing on the stock market is working? Things grow so slowly. What if I've made bad choices? Will I not know for years? Well, they do say time reveals all, Victoria. Terrifying. Inspirational. Look, so, I think it's a great question. It is a really good question. But we know a couple of things. We know that if we buy an index or we buy the ASX 200 index, you're really just going to do what the index does. Or if you invest with a Vanguard diversified index fund, you know, that fund manager has been around with that fund for over 20 years and basically does what's on the box. Now, past performance isn't an indication of future

performance by no stretch of the imagination. But if there has been a company that has been managing people's money and investing for a long term and basically doing what they say they will do, I'm willing to take that risk. I think, Kat, you're getting off the track into some wild territory. If you start going, well, there's this new yogurt company that's about to list on the ASX and I want to buy that and I can buy US stocks. If we keep to the market and understanding concepts and in fact, I don't know if I'm allowed to, but I did a review just so people can understand how investments work, Victoria, on YouTube. Oh, I was going to say the review in your book of how different assets perform. You did that as well.

Oh yeah, absolutely. That's a good one to read. So, Kat, you're getting the book, You'll eat that up in the book, Kat. But I did a review of, there's a product called the Vanguard Personal Investor. Now, we can't recommend products here, but I did a review on the platform, Vanguard Personal Investor, only to start to show you the concepts of how investment platforms work. Which is really important to understand before you even get into investing. That's right. Because the concepts I talk about with that YouTube review is the same concepts with any insert your brand here. So, I mean, you're welcome to, I don't know,

you can just search Glenn James Vanguard personal investor on YouTube or we can give you a- It'll come up straight away. We'll actually put the link to it in the show notes for you, Glenn. How about that? So, I think it's a great question because like everything, V, we've got to have- This is the first time I've ever called you V.

I'm in the zone. You are in the zone. I mean, we've got to have a healthy level of skepticism. We don't act until we're educated enough to make our own decision. and if I'm personally, and this is just the Glen James, I'm more gun shy with different stuff if they've been around for one minute as opposed to something that's had five years in the trenches. It's as simple as that. It's also why I'm really apprehensive of when people buy individual stocks on their own and then they go, yeah, I've got a portfolio. I've been building it. I've been

picking these companies and I go, okay, great. Like I'm sure, you know, obviously there's an opportunity to do really well, but given that being a fund manager is literally a job and buying and selling stocks is their career. And then you maybe work in HR and you've been picking some stocks because you've been reading some stuff on a blog online one time. I just, I really err on the side of caution of people picking individual shares and to create a portfolio for long-term wealth generation out of that because I just go, how do you know you have the right diversification? How do you know that those companies, regardless of how much you love them, are the right choices for you when even fund managers don't get it right sometimes? How are you getting it right?

So, I think for me, I really like trusting the professionals. That's why I work with Six Park to create portfolios for people and actually give advice. It's why I really agree with index funds and ETFs and things like that, that really take that responsibility off you. Because I just think it's a responsibility that as individual investors, we shouldn't be carrying because there's ETFs and index funds and investment portfolios that exist that are in line with your values. And it's not as though it's, how do you say? It's not as though it's hard to find. You just need to do the research. You're an ethical investor. Great. They're ethical ETFs. You want women only boards. there's an ETF for that. Like there are ETFs for everything you've just got to look. And it's not

like it used to be historically, where if you just tracked the index, it was the standard index. You can track the index of anything. So, I think it's very cool that we have access to that nowadays, but I'm also just really wary of individual investors. Rant over. Yeah. And, you know, I get curious and want to be an individual investor and I've just made the rule that I don't have over 10% of my portfolio to individual stocks. I like that. Yeah. And I guess disclosure wise, I do invest in individual stocks. A majority of my portfolio is not that though. I would say 99% of my portfolio is diversified and managed by a fund manager. It's not managed by me. I actually have my own financial advisor,

go figure. But I do have a bit of a play sometimes because I'm really interested in investing. And I think it's really fun. And I say something and I'm like, oh, I want to be on that. I get it. I really, really get it. And I get it because I do it, but I wouldn't ever want my entire wealth and my future to be based on the decisions that I'm making. Because to be honest, even as a financial advisor, I don't trust myself enough to do that. Well, I think the problem is if we choose individual stocks and a heap of them do really well, we think that we are actually good at choosing stocks. Yeah, we get this false sense of security.

Yeah, where it's like, well, no, because then it's going to be like old Glenny boy over here getting a bit more spendy and want to get a bit more gambly with it. Because for me, I know, and this is why not more than 10% of my portfolio for individual stocks, because my personality has the proclivity to love the dopamine addiction more than others. I just know that. So, I just- you've got to know yourself before you can lead yourself and Roald Dredge said that, so. Well, we both say that. That's why I put the first chapter of my book as money stories. That's why you talk about money personalities so often and understanding it. Like, I just think that we really need to consider what our money personalities are and what that means to us before we do anything. Anyway, I'll roll on into the last but not least question and this is from our friend

Winnie and it's not financially related at all. Winnie says, out of curiosity, which podcasts do you listen to for leisure? Glenn, what have you been listening to recently? Well, I just thought I would update, I would open my podcast player and just tell you what's in my library. You can do the same. Okay. Think fast, talk smart. And I've actually organized him. He's a lecturer at Stanford to come on my podcast. There's another one here, The Daily, Bridgetown Audio Podcast, where are we? Online Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield, The Future with Chris Do, Strong Songs, Emotionally Healthy Leadership Podcast, Making Sense with Sam Harris. I actually pay for that one. Gen Z Money. That's your own podcast. Yeah, but it's in my thing. Okay.

but good one trying to slip that on in there what's in yours so hold on i've just opened it every day i've been listening to the daily oz i really like that podcast i also listen to a lot of true crime i'm not so much um really i love true crime i'm obsessed with it i mean the podcast that i have been listening to at the moment is morbid and i'm up to episode 279 if that doesn't say something about me. I don't know what it does. I also really like Casefile True Crime. That's another one of my favorites. And if you go through the entire list of what I've been listening to, I also listened to I Catch Killers. To completely flip that, I listened to Super Soul by Oprah. I really like that. I also really love Brene Brown. Anything that she has done,

I will listen to. And then I actually listen to a podcast every night when I go to bed. because my mind never stops. So, like, if I don't have a podcast, I'm just thinking about work, I'm thinking about podcasting, I'm thinking about financial advice, and I just can't go to sleep. So, I listen to a podcast, I think it's from the US, I don't actually know where it's from, and it's called Nothing Much Happens. And it's these beautiful stories where nothing much happens. And you can fall asleep, and they always read it to you first normally, and then second, they read it to you a little bit slower so like you know the story and what's going to come up and I I'm out like a light every single time so I really like that um what else is in here so for

the ENTJs or the Enneagram 8s out there like me you'll get this that I don't love true crime because they'll take 15 episodes to tell the story we're like no it's one morbid one episode one story well some of them like so the teacher's pet right oh yeah I listened to the first three episodes i get this guy's freaking guilty as sin move on on board yeah yeah agreed um so i i just i just give me a headline cut to the point i really like morbid so morbid's really good because they talk through just like one case sometimes they do two episodes on one case if it's really big but i'm i'm literally obsessed like obsessed do you reckon they'll let me on their podcast we can talk about some kind of financial crime i promise i'll do something but i'm obsessed with

them. So get this, I wanted to, and I won't because it's just, it's probably non-starter because we do like My Millennial Money and all that stuff. I'd love to do My Millennial Murder and the cover is like black and red with like blood dripping. I love that. And get, I actually asked an ABC journalist who's doing some investigative stuff the other day. I'm like, do you want to come and find a crime? He goes, it's really hard to find crimes. I'm like, You'd have to go offshore to do it, like, to find a murder that- or something that has been covered. Yeah, fair.

But, yeah, I'd love to do My Millennial Murder. Oh, that's fun. Just because of the alliteration and it rolls, you know. Yeah, no, that's fun. I've always wanted to do a podcast. And when I say always, like, since starting podcasting, I've wanted to do a podcast, like, a series, like Morbid, but it's on, like, financial crimes. So, like, each episode I cover, like, a really interesting financial crime.

like i just feel like who the hell is hamish yes i did and he was i actually listened to all of that and that was fascinating oh my gosh but that could be one episode like about him and what and how that works and like all these other financial crimes because they exist like people who have embezzled millions of dollars and then sailed off into the sunset like i want to hear it anyway i'm obsessed with ash and elena from morbid and i think everybody else should be as well. And that wraps this episode really nicely as well, because the first or one of the first questions we got started and it was from Maddie and she said, not to be morbid. And now we're here, Glenn. We're here. So, Michelle Barraclough, Maddie Francis, Imogen Kerr, Annie Algar,

Jenna Ranger. Sorry, I don't know how to pronounce English. Jessica Smith. I know a Jessica Smith. I don't know if it's the same. No, she's in Perth. Jess that I know is in Newcastle. So, Kat Tu and Winnie Yip, if you guys reach out to, do you want to just get them to email my team or something? Yeah, either or. Yeah, team at sortyourmoneyout.com and we'll send you a book. Don't pretend to be these people. We have no way of checking it, but I mean, all power to you.

I've actually had to tell because when I've given away stuff in my Facebook group, because when you said, oh, do you have friends in your Facebook group? Aren't they all friends? I'm like, yeah, I'll give like a single mom who's struggling with money, a free online course. And I say, oh, hey, just email this address and say that Glenn said in the Facebook group and some guy will just email like, oh, hey, Glenn said that I can have a- The audacity. You don't take advantage of my generosity. So now what I do, I say to people,

hey, please screenshot this here. Yeah. All right. That's fair. If there's no screenshot, no receipts, not happening. yeah like it's just wild that people take advantage of my generosity but whatever someone tried to email us the other day and said that they couldn't log into their online course and i was like yeah no problems i can reset it what's your email and they're like i don't know like like what email did you sign up with and they didn't know and i was like okay well i can't what's your name then like what name did you sign up with because obviously i keep track of that it's the

internet it's 2021 you weren't anywhere and they were like just send me a new login i don't know why are you being so difficult? Like, cause I think you're trying to scam me. So to bring this full circle, I felt really guilty. I'm giving away 50 books to different organizations around Australia, like community centers and that. And I put in the Facebook group, I'm like, look, I'm really sorry, but you're going to have to send us proof that you work at that, you know, special needs community center or something like that, or the high school because people are scary these days i'm only sending it to that address yep great because people are dodgy glenn people are dodgy that's not how we should end this

episode but jokes on you that's exactly how we're ending this episode and we'll have you back on the podcast again glenn as always thank you so so much for joining us thank you for answering our listeners questions i feel like we should do more episodes like this more often i like this deep dive format. Yeah, it's really fun because I feel like we get to talk about stuff. Because you can just kind of dig deep and you can camp on questions like the estate planning stuff. We camp for like 15 minutes. Yeah, but that's really important. I love it. But yeah, I just want to thank all your audience for their support of what we're doing at My Millennial Money. There's a lot of overlap, which is awesome because, you know, Victoria and I, the mum and dad of money, we can't always be all things to people, but we are your parents and we care and love you. And we know best, apparently. But if you haven't read it yet, to sort your money out is available at all good book retailers and via Glenn's Amazon link, which I'm sure he makes money from, which is why you should buy it through that link. And we'll put that in the show notes as well. You use your Amazon link. I've never used my Amazon link before. I didn't even know you could do it.

So, I'm learning something new every day. I told Victoria to buy a new microphone and I'm like, I'll just send you my Amazon affiliate link. Yeah. And I bought it and he made money off Me buying a new microphone. Impressive. 20 bucks. But as always, guys, that is all we have time for today. Bye. Okay, bye.

And remember, the advice shared on She's on the Money is generally 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 Devine is an authorized representative of InFocus Securities Australia Pty Ltd, ABN 47097797049, AFSL 236523.