She's On The Money - How to Build Good Money Habits That Run on Autopilot

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

Ever promised yourself this would be the month you finally stick to a budget… and then ordered Uber Eats twice before Wednesday? Well, this episode is your permission slip to stop blaming willpower and start building smarter systems. Because the truth is: good money habits aren’t about discipline, they’re about design. We’re unpacking the psychology of habits, why your brain loves to self-sabotage (blame the caveman settings), and how to make budgeting feel less like punishment and more like autopilot. Plus, the tiny tweaks you can make today that’ll actually stick.  In This Episode: ✨Why motivation isn’t the magic solution we think it is✨How to spot your habit triggers — and use them to your advantage✨What “habit stacking” is and how to make it work for your money✨Building systems that save you from yourself (and your phone) Join our 300K+ She's on the Money community in our Facebook Group and on Instagram.  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 that believes rich girl energy isn't about discipline it's about systems if you've ever thought i know isn't that nice girl energy you. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I like it. Keep going. Keep going. All right. If you've ever thought, why can't I just stick to a budget or why do I keep making the same mistakes over and over? That's literally me. Spoiler alert. It's not because you're bad with money. It's because money habits aren't about discipline. They're about systems, VD. I'm Bex Syed and joining me is the woman who turns financial stress into financial confidence. The queen of realistic money advice. Oh, that's nice of you. Well, I was in a good mood today. Oh, thank you. I think it's

so interesting because everybody looks at me and thinks that maybe I am so good at money and discipline. Yeah. And like, I'm not, I'm just good at creating systems that work and still giving myself enough breathing room to feel like I'm not confined by a budget. But like, if we don't have the right system set up, we can't be successful. So I think from my perspective and, you know, knowing that I am a magpie, you could say, I needed a system that took away essentially a lot of the control that said, this is the money you can play with. This is the money that you cannot play with. Go forth and prosper. Right. Okay. Okay. See, the problem is that I do do this and I spend it anyway. And that's scary.

But that's human nature, right? Like you're not the problem. You are not the problem. And none of us are the problem. The problem is not having a system that works for you because I can almost guarantee if I set you up and you had a system and it gave you enough cash back that you could still go to the pub with your mates, have a few soda waters. You could still, you know, live life to the fullest, but in the background, all your bills were being paid and your savings were banking up slowly, you'd feel really confident. And often once we have that financial security in the background, but you're not as impulsive because you're not looking for instant gratification because you're gratified. Like, you know, when you're just like, oh, I'm all good. I don't need

anything. Like that's where we're getting to. Whereas I think a lot of us use instant gratification, especially around spending as a coping mechanism to feel like we're in control of our money. And obviously I'm a bit of a stats gal and 44% of your daily behaviors are actually automatic. So they just happen without you even thinking. But if you're stuck in like a bad loop, like maybe you're like me and you get a little bit scroll happy or you're good at overspending or you're really good at getting Uber Eats when maybe you should just be cooking the pasta that you have at home. It's actually not about personal failure. It doesn't mean that you are bad at money. It's actually just a really well rehearsed system. And as a human being, do you know what we like?

We like predictability. We like comfort. We like stability. I was literally having this conversation at work yesterday because I have just changed, Bec, side note, a whole heap of systems in Zella Money. And one of my team goes, oh, but I really liked the old document. I'm thinking the old document's ugly. The new document is slay. Like what's going on here? and I'm like trying to dive into it. I'm like, you know, what about the old document? Did you like that the new document doesn't have? Cause I can almost guarantee like, like for like, but the new one's better. She's like, Oh, it just feels really comfortable. Like I know it. I know how to talk through it with clients. This new one, I haven't really had any experience talking

through with clients and you just go, so you're comfortable. I totally get that. But if we can make you comfortable with this new system and this new way of talking, it's going to be better. yeah but not changing is not actually a positive thing like it's so good to grow and change but it doesn't mean that you're bad at things it just means there's a new updated system that's working better yeah and we all know that when our phone sends that reminder oh do you want to update the system tonight we all say oh no I can't be bothered with the new operating system but then when you got it you're texting your friends being like did you see those new emojis yes oh yeah I love the new emojis exactly yes I did and I want those but like I just don't want change right now

Yes. God, it's uncomfortable. You know, in an ideal world, change would happen and we would just immediately adapt without having to do any work. That would be ideal. But basically, our brains are still wired as though we're cavemen, Bec. That's true. But also, adapting is inevitable. And that is a beautiful thing. But I do want to know, VD, how do we actually break those habits and start building better ones? It's hard because we have to be a little bit real with ourselves. I don't want to be real. No, because like, it's not fun, right? Like we have to identify the habits that aren't serving

us. And that doesn't feel good. Like if I sit you down and be like, okay, cool. Like you said, you want to change. What about you? Do you want to change? You're going to be like, oh, nothing, nothing. I'm perfect in it. I'm actually okay. But it's confronting, right? When you go, oh, actually I do spend too much here, or I'm not prioritizing my savings or I'm not because like we have to change our system. So I think we have to get really real about it. And ultimately, you're not making bad choices on purpose. You're literally just repeating what your brain sees as really easy and really familiar. Like if you are comfortable doing that and like the outcome wasn't that bad last time, why not just do it again? Yeah. Why not? Feels comfy. Why would I

change? Like, yes, I know that, you know, for example, using Afterpay isn't good and, you know, it does take money out of my account moving forward. And like, I have regretted a lot of my purchases, but that dress does look really good. I'm just going to do it again. Cause like the outcome is quote, not that bad. It's not that bad, but we could just do it again. Right. But ultimately that's not serving you when we need to break that cycle. And that's not comfortable because I'm asking you to make a different decision that does make you slightly uncomfortable, but the outcome is great. The outcome is better. The outcome is empowering. And I think we need to focus on that because I don't know if people are going to be on the same page as me, but I

don't believe that like motivation, and I've said this before on the podcast, like motivation and willpower really exist in a way. Like they're just not going to cut it. Like discipline is just doing it. Like you're not going to get motivated back to do it. You're not going to wake up. It's like going to the gym and you're like, you're so good at this. I'm not. But like, you don't wake up and go, I'm so excited to go to the gym. You still wake up and you're tired and over it. And you're just like, oh, maybe I do need an extra coffee today. But like, you just do it. Like we just get up and do it like that's discipline and I think if we can give ourselves more discipline we are able to achieve those things because I think people assume that motivation is going to

be like the golden ticket like oh if I do this or if I get a new cute workout set I'll be more motivated to go no girl like I've tried that the brand new pink lululemon workout set that does look bomb on it doesn't actually get you out of bed that much earlier maybe one time because you're excited to wear it for the first time. But the second, third and fourth time, you're just like, well, you're used to it by then. Exactly. Like we are over it. Right. So what do we do instead? Well, I guess instead of just hoping and wishing that we would be better and going, oh, maybe later, like we need to live in the now and just go, well, maybe now, maybe right now, instead of going one day, oh, how good are we as well at going like, oh my God, Beck, I'll just do it when I get a pay

eyes. Or like if I said to you, and this is not an attack on you by any stretch of the imagination, it's just a really good example. If I said to you, hey, Beck, let's sit down and do your budget. And you were like, not in the mood to do that. You might go, oh, well, maybe let's wait till next payday. Or maybe let's wait until like, there's always us pushing it off. Why? It's not because payday is going to be a better time to budget back. It's just a better way to push things off and give us a justification and some validation for not doing what we should be doing in the moment. Because like you and I could sit down and do a budget today. It's not that comfy. It is going to be about change. And yes, you might not be able to stick to it right now because we do need to

wait till payday. But like if you did it today instead of waiting till payday, have we not got a plan for what happens on payday? That's very true. We're setting ourselves up for success and I think that that's important. But ultimately, the goal is build better systems. You are not the problem. Your system is the problem. And how the hell have you got a functioning good system, Bec, if you've never been taught? Like who was going to set your system up to begin with? Totally. That is so true. Like who's going to set you up and be like, okay, Bec, here are the bank accounts you need. Here's where your money should go into. Here's how much you're spending on average. So we need to transfer

that each week and you go, oh, that makes sense. No one sat you down and done that. So we need to focus on changing the system around you, not just your behavior, because your behavior, that's the really hard part. But if I gave you a system that kind of forces you into a behavior, we love to see it. We love to see it. So how do we do that? So I think that's around understanding the psychology of how habits work. And like, this sounds a little bit fluffy, but Beck, I don't know if people know this about me, because I have looked at our stats recently and we actually have a lot of new friends joining us, which is very exciting. Hello. This is Beck and I'm Victoria and I'm wildly passionate about financial literacy, but I also have a background in

behavioral psychology. So I haven't accidentally started talking about psychology from a place where I'm like, I learned this on TikTok. I actually have two psych degrees, which I don't know. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. She's well within her rights. Yeah. My mom's like really proud of me, but we need to understand the psychology of how habits work because ultimately habits work in loops. The loop is there's a trigger, there's a behavior, and then there's a reward. And we love rewards. Like, don't lie. I love a sweet treat. I love, like, have you not been trying to create habits for yourself? Even if you've never thought about, oh, I need to understand the psychology of like habits. Like Beck, I say you need to have a new

habit or you need to do something new tomorrow. If I said there's a sweet treat at the end, you're more likely to want to do it. And you know that that could reinforce the behavior, right? So we all, I think, inherently understand this idea of how to set up a good habit, but the reward can't be a sweet treat because that's going to eat into our budget. We can't assume that there's going to be a big reward every single time. It needs to be small hits of dopamine. And I think in 2025, the shitty thing, Bec, is that we all have dopamine addictions. Like we all are so good at instant gratification. Like there is not a time where I can't just get the things that I want in my hands within 24 hours, right? Like I can order things on Amazon.

I could order dinner on Uber Eats. If I have a question, I can Google it. Like your attention span in 2025 is absolutely cooked in comparison to what it used to be. How long does it take you back to scroll off a video on TikTok if it's not interesting you? Oh my God, true. Like one nanosecond. You're like, oh, I can't be bothered with this. Can't be bothered with that. Why the hell would you be bothered with setting up a whole brand new habit around budgeting and cashflow? That's boring when I could watch TikToks of people doing their makeup. I prefer that. Yeah. and you don't even wear makeup. I don't, but I love to watch it. Isn't it crazy? Like the amount of building videos I watch on TikTok, babe, you're never going to build anything. Why are you

educating yourself? But I think if it's around things like you ordering Uber Eats when you've literally got food at home, I think it's about breaking that habit loop. So you're not just buying Uber Eats because like, you're like, oh, I really am craving Chinese tonight. Yeah. We need to break the habit that you are like, oh, I'm stressed. I'm tired. It's late. It's the end of the day. There's nothing easy in my fridge. I just, the easiest thing here is going to be ordering Uber Eats and I'll just, I know I'm bad at it, but I'm going to deal with this later. That whole habit needs to be reset. I need to get some stuff into your fridge back that rewards you for being tired. Like you're like, okay, cool. Like I don't have to cook a whole pot roast, but we need to

break the habit? What things could you keep in your fridge that are quick and easy to cook? Are we looking at things that, you know, you might go, oh, but Victoria, when I'm at the supermarket, those like pre-made meals are so expensive. Like you look at them and you're like, $14 a huge, like, I feel like they're expensive. They are expensive. Sometimes the home brand ones are pretty good, but if you want to eat something that looks appetizing. Exactly. Like let's pretend it's $14. And I feel like that feels expensive sometimes. Yeah, definitely. But what are you spending on Uber Eats. Oh, true. Do you know what I mean? Like we need to contextualize things. So I'm not saying that this pre-made $14 meals are the answer, but like, let's break the habit of

always ordering Uber Eats and get some quick things in your fridge. Yeah. Great. Let's go here. And I know this isn't going to align to everybody's budgets, but this is just an example. Let's just do an intermediate. So now there's things in the fridge and you've gotten in the habit of like heating something up. Now, a few steps down the road, let's get like some pasta and some stuff in your pantry that you could whip up a quick pasta. We're not just breaking a habit by going to the hardest option by going, you actually have to cook everything from scratch. And also you now have to sacrifice your Sunday bit because you have to do meal prep. Like that's not going to sound that good, but why don't we find a small step in the right direction

where you're putting some quick meals in the fridge. So instead of having your breads, there's something appetizing. It's quick. You pop it in the microwave. Yes. It's not the cheapest option on the market, but that is damn cheaper than Uber Eats. Yeah. So like, let's do that. And then small steps in the right direction, right? Because you're still getting that dopamine hit of going, oh, there's something nice for me in the fridge. We need to do that with money. Okay. We need to be setting ourselves up for success. I'm not going to strip you back and go, here's this really strict budget. You will, it's like a horse going into a horse float for the first time. You will buck and fight and not want to go in. You'll probably bite someone. Well,

that's very true. Like I don't want to be restricted. No, no. Okay. But like what tiny little steps in the right direction can we take that feel good, but also create really solid habits for us into the future? Yeah. And I think once you get a bit of a wriggle on and a snowball effect, you kind of become obsessed with it. Yeah. And you kind of go, oh, there's always something in the fridge. And then you might become more attuned to opening the fridge instead of picking up your phone. And that's what we want to see, right? That's what we want to see. That's what we want to see. So if we're talking about, I guess, habit triggers, there are actually five triggers of a habit that I think we need to understand. So like, you know, we talked before

about like a habit loop. So you've got your trigger, you've got your behavior, and then you've got your reward. We'd love a reward, but there are different triggers that trigger habits, right? So the first is the time of day. So you're used to doing something at a specific time of day. it maybe is I finish work and then I order takeaway. For me, it's I wake up in the morning and I have to brush my teeth. Like it's little things that have just become part of my loop. You know, like I'm in autopilot and we want budgeting to become autopilot. I don't want it to be stressful for you and your brain, it just starts to associate 6pm with that habit. Yeah.

Like what do you do when you get home, Bec, and you're about to order Uber Eats? Like there will be a specific set of things that you do. You might go, I'm going to grab a water. I'm going to sit on the couch, open phone. Yes. That's the plan. That's the loop. We need to break that. Yeah. The next is your location or your environment. So being in certain spaces can trigger habits. So you like walk into the kitchen and suddenly you're thinking about a snack and automatically you go to the fridge and have a look, even though you know, there's no snacks in the fridge. these are automated these are just how our body goes I know this environment I know what I do in this environment right right the next is your emotional state and I think this one is downplayed

a lot but your emotional state is so important and it's stress it's boredom it might be loneliness even celebrations like all of these things trigger habits without us even recognizing it or being able to realize it like you're not often craving food you're craving some level of comfort yeah I've had a long day I do deserve an ice cream I deserve a treat yes I deserve a reward and then the second last trigger is other people oh yeah sorry sorry but other people getting involved in your life is going to mean that if your partner's always ordering takeaway Beck you're more likely to be like, oh yeah, of course. Yeah. And if it's an old friend. Like my husband and I, like I try not to eat the ice creams at home Beck. And then my husband's on the couch with me. He's like, do we

have any ice creams? And I'm like, yeah, we do. We do have ice creams. Yes. I've been sitting on the couch thinking like ice cream. And then I'm like, no, no, he had one yesterday. Like you do not need an ice cream every single night. And then my husband looks at me and says, do we have any of those races ice creams? And I go, oh yes, yes, we absolutely do. Isn't that annoying like it's annoying because it's like especially if the habit wasn't there before then you'd be like I'd never needed an ice cream I was never a dessert person and then I got with my partner and he is a dessert anyway it's all of these small things and I think yes we're talking about food here but I think it's just like the most relatable thing because then we can loop it

back to going oh my god I do understand those inherent habits in my body and in my life okay they clearly are going to be happening in my money world as well, right? So habits are not easy to form, but they are also, they're kind of like on autopilot. And I guess that's the fifth trigger, right? It's preceding action. And preceding action is like something you do right before you do this thing that maybe you don't want to do forever. Like it's things where you say, oh, I really need to be better at X, Y, Z. But it's like, if you finish a meeting or you put your keys down, it can automatically cue a habit or a response. Like you finish work, I deserve a treat. And once you're able to figure out what that trigger is, you're able to like break the loop or hack the

loop and you can keep the reward, but maybe choose a different behavior that still goes, I guess, to that little dopamine hit in your brain. Like it still gets you to pick that up. And like, there are so many habits and triggers in your body that you might go, oh, I just thought that's how I just worked. Right. But we can break them and change them. Do you know what my funniest one is, Bec? Tell me. I swear, like my brain, she's not a girl's girl sometimes. She just works against me.

So I've had a good day. I'm not even thinking about anything. I've driven home. I get home. I feel absolutely fine. I get to my front door. I put the key in my front door. Overwhelming urge to pee.

Yeah. I have to pee immediately. It's like my brain is like, you are home. It's like the keys or some sound or like getting to the front door. And then I start to fumble and I'm like, fire out. I really need to go to the bathroom. Like, what the hell? Like it's literally, and you can break that as well, but like it's an automated, something has triggered in my brain and it's decided that's the outcome. What the hell? So they don't have to make sense, Beck, but we can identify these habits that something might

happen and something might be the trigger. And then all of a sudden you need to do that. It's like Pavlov's dog. Like if you, you would have heard about that, right? So Pavlov trained dogs to start drooling based on the sound of a bell because he started giving them treats. So he would ring the bell, give the dog a treat, ring the bell, give the dog a treat. No bell, no treat. Bell, treat. Okay. Then he took the treat away. Cruel. That's cruel. Right. But he rang the bell and the dog was like, aha, treat. Treat's coming. And it started drooling. I didn't like it. But no treat came oh that's so mean that's so mean right yeah but like that's what we need to learn from because I know that you don't want to be compared to a dog but at the end of the day we can be

trained in the same way we're just animals yeah we're just animals we're just out here doing our best like I'm just a caveman and so are you Beck okay so that does make a lot of sense and honestly explains a lot of my life but how do we start building like better habits that oh you don't want to pee when you get to your front door I need to do a little bit more of that when you When you get to the front door, you want to invest. Is that what it was? It is, exactly. I get to the front door, I see my keys and I'm like,

oh, damn, I'm jumping on shazies. I'm desperate to invest. Quickly get me inside. Oh, my goodness. Get me at my budget. I don't know if I can do that for you, but we can definitely create some good financial habits that make it feel like that, right?

Yeah, like you're busting, you're bursting the seams, shaking, gagging. Okay, so we're going to break it down right after this short break. It's all about making your money habits as easy as ordering Uber Eats, but with way less regret. Welcome back, everyone. Okay, V, now I want to know, once we know our habit loop, what do we actually do?

Oh, we have so many habit loops. Yeah, like what do we do about them? Well, it's about kind of keeping the cue, changing the behaviour, right? And I'm going to stop talking about how when I get home I really need to pee, but that is a habit I would like to break. Do you know how stressful it is getting home and you've got like arms full of groceries. I've got a kid on my hip. I'm trying to get the key in the door. And then I'm like, oh my goodness, why do I have to pee right now? I don't even need to pee. I peed recently.

It's a trickle. But I think it's so important, that example, because I'm not consenting to that, Bec. Like I did not choose that, but that is a habit that my body has picked up. And I think it's a fantastic example of how these things just happen. I think a lot of people assume that habits are always good and habits are always really constructive or could be destructive. Like people like, oh, I need to pick up the habit of like brushing my teeth every morning or whatever it is. But like sometimes being able to understand that little habits can be like little nuances about you. Yeah. We can do the same in our budget and the same in our money life. Right. So if we

want to be changing this and we've become aware of these things, keep the cue, change the behavior, keep the reward yes so we're just swapping one thing out so you don't have to change your whole life we're just swapping I guess the middle part of that so if the trigger is arts the end of the day I really want to relax like what's a behavior that's going to give you the same experience like because I don't want you to have a not good experience that's not what we're about I don't want this to be negative but like maybe it's 6 p.m and you're a bit tired and you're like oh I really am going to order some Uber Eats. What if we swapped it to you popping on your favorite podcast? Hi, it better be us. And you're going to do some dinner prep.

Yeah. Like I don't want you to have to prep dinner and be like, oh my goodness, this is so boring. Like, okay, well, can we like listen to a podcast or put on a TV series while we're doing that? So you like get the reward while you do the thing. It is quite fun doing that when you put something stimulating on. Yes. Then all of a sudden chopping a carrot. It's not too bad. It's kind of enjoyable. Yeah. It's like you're getting a reward while doing the thing you need to do. You get double reward. You get reward doing and the reward after. It's like whenever I clean the house, I have a playlist. I can share it with you. It's like old school bangers that you would sing in your car. Yeah. But like I have to put that playlist

on and then I can power through like an hour of cleaning my house. But like it doesn't feel so bad when I match it with something that I enjoy. So that's what we're looking for, right? So we're not trying to ruin our own lives. Cause I think so many people think, oh, budgeting is going to be so hard. We like replacing a behavior or we're replacing something in our budget, but we're not restricting ourselves. Yeah. Keeping the trigger, keeping the reward, changing the middle one. Cause like, if I said to you, Bec, like I'm at your house, let's pretend you've invited me over and you're like, oh, let's order some Uber Eats. I would very easily agree to that. But what if I said, oh, let's pop on some music and we could like prep a cute pasta together. I think we're

both down for that. Like that's fun, but like we could do cute things on our own as well. Like instead of you ordering Uber Eats on your own back, could you pop on a podcast, hang out with some podcasting friends and chop up your carrots? Yeah. It doesn't have to be massive in terms of change. It can be small. Like if you're telling yourself, Bec, do not order Uber Eats. I need to break this habit. Girl, that's friction. That's deprivation. That's so true. That sucks. And then you lose your mind and you order 20 Uber Eats. All I'm thinking about is Uber Eats. Instead, you're going to tell yourself, have something better prepared and ready to go in the fridge so that that doesn't feel like I'm being restricted. Because like, oh, like right now,

if I don't order Uber Eats, I have to have toast for dinner. I don't want toast for dinner. We're going to put something nice in the fridge and start that loop of prepping our dinner and getting it ready. And it means that it's easy, but you still get the reward of having like a quick dinner and you're still on the couch and you're still enjoying your time. But we need to make the new behavior more appealing than the old one. And I guess I'm harping on about Uber Eats because financially that is something that lots of people in our community are saying like, oh, I relate to that. And if you don't relate to that, that's so fine. There's going to be something else. Like, it's so funny. Someone messaged me the other day and they're like,

Victoria, you always use Uber Eats as an example, but I'm rural. Like I don't even have Uber Eats. And I was like, first things first, I'm envious of you. But second, there's going to be things that you're doing that you can go, oh, that's a pretty simple example Victoria's using. But like, I do X, Y, or Z, or like, you know, maybe you want to prep more fresh food, but you keep just chucking some chicken nuggets in the oven. Yeah. Relatable. Like, I don't think it's, you have to relate to my Uber Eats example. It's just an easy example where you're falling into a bit of a system. And another thing you can do, and this works really well for me, just side note, as somebody with ADHD, like really well, and I call it habit stacking or everybody calls it

habit stacking, but habit stacking is where you stack it with an existing habit. So for me, I'm not going to lie. I did learn about this on TikTok and it works really well. But just say you're like working from home and you know, the end of the day is like your trigger. So if I'm being open and honest during COVID, the end of the day was my trigger to have a glass of wine. Yes. Like I would get to the end of the day and I would like see 5pm and I'd look at my husband and be like, So is it wine time? Like, because that was my break. Like that was the thing that in my head was triggering going from work Victoria to home Victoria. Cause we didn't have that like third period where we were driving or whatever. Also, there wasn't all that much to do during COVID.

Let's be honest. I think lots of us can relate to that, but just say after I close my laptop, I'm going to go straight to the kitchen and I'm actually going to play my favorite podcast and start meal prepping. Like you need to start actively going, I'm going to do this instead, but make it enjoyable. So it could be a podcast. It could be TV. It could be music. It could be literally anything, but we're going to stack one habit with another. But one of those things is something you really enjoy doing. So like a couple of my girlfriends, I recently have been talking to them about podcasts that they like listening to. We're really into true crime and there's a few really good true crime series that, you know, if you follow me on my Instagram, like you'll know

what I'm listening to at the moment, but we tell ourselves that we can only listen to the good episodes, like the new one, if we're out on a walk. So I want to be more active. I need to get out more, but like I'm bored in two seconds, Bec, but walking can be so boring. So I'm like, okay, cool. New episodes out. I get to go on a walk soon. So you're stacking something that you really like doing with something that you want to do more of. Yeah. So maybe you're getting yourself a glass of wine to do your budget. Yeah. Okay. We want to reward ourselves, right? And another way to be setting yourself up for success is genuinely changing the environment. If I open your phone, Bec, where's the Uber Eats app? It is actually now on the second page of apps. Hey, so you're

learning. You're like trying to take it away. That's true. It doesn't work very well. You know what small steps in the right direction because you're trying to change the environment it's not the first thing that you see when you open your phone and that can often just trigger a thought of like oh uber eats oh that's right I'm going to x y and z or if like you're prepping food girl why is it in the back of your fridge no one wants to go to the back of the fridge you're not going to see it you're going to see a better option and that's not opening the fridge like make it cute. You've got to make a new habit easier to do than the old one. And sometimes that actually means adding a little bit of healthy friction to the bad habit. So like that's when I'm

saying sometimes the $14 meal from Coles is actually going to save you money. Like I'm not saying that that is a budget efficient process. Like I could whip up a whole meal for four people for 10 bucks, Beck. Like we're not talking about what is the cheapest option. We're talking about what is the middle ground that is going to lower the friction of you changing that habit. And we can get to the $10 meals. We can. I did a whole episode on it. But what's the middle ground of going from ordering $50 worth of Uber Eats every single night for two people? Okay, well, maybe we're getting two $14 meals and keeping them in the fridge and just having them when we don't feel like we want to cook. Yeah. Let's have some easy options. I'm not saying that that is the most

budget efficient way of living life. It is not Beck, but you've got to make these new habits easier because at the end of the day, we just need to create more friction for the bad habit. Do you know what would make it harder for you to order Uber Eats? What? Okay. So you're going to go on your Uber Eats app. I'm sorry, Uber Eats. Can we do that right now? Oh, I don't know if you want to do this. You're going to delete your credit card details. No, that's actually a good idea because then you're like, oh, I've got to go get them. Yeah, yeah. Do you know how many purchases I don't make online

because they don't have Apple Pay? Oh, yeah. Or they don't have my credit card details immediately. And then I'm like, oh, I can't actually be bothered getting up and going and getting my credit card and keying in the details. We're deleting our credit card details. It always snaps you out of it in some way. And it's lame.

And these are small things, but you have to now get up, go get your wallet and manually put your credit card details in every single time you want to read. well, I just saved you a lot of money, didn't I? Yeah, that's such a good idea. Because you have to really think about it. If I'm going to get up and go get my wallet, I might as well go make pasta. Yeah. Or if you change your login to 2FA, two-factor authentication, like with the Authenticator app, nobody in the history of the world. But that makes the new habit easier than the old one in a way. Yeah. So like that's what we want to do. And like, it sounds small, but

we're creating barriers to make the old habit less appealing so that your brain actually has to pause and go, hold on, hold on. This loop isn't looping. What's my new loop? Oh, I'm going to go do that. Because if you're standing there hungry and suddenly you get up, you have to find your card dates. No, it's just not going to happen. You're more likely to think this is actually too hard basket and you're going to go to the fridge. How do we do that when it comes to finances. That could look like, you know, Bec, if you're really bad at dipping into your savings, which I mean, all of us are at some point, do you actually need to? And sometimes there's a little bit of work involved in setting these new habits up. I'm not going to pretend, oh,

it's so easy. Yeah. It's so easy, Bec. But like, maybe it means you and I, me metaphorically, not physically, we're going to go and open a new bank account with a different company. So you might bank with NAB and you're really bad at dipping in because like when you log into your NAB account, you can see all of your money or you're with ING, whatever. You can see all of your money and what's accessible to you. Maybe we take your savings and put it with a different bank. Technically, they're still just as accessible, but they're harder to get to because there's that mental barrier.

But then also you're not logging into your daily spending accounts and having a look at how much cash do you have back. you don't see your savings in that moment because your savings shouldn't be an option. Like if we're ordering Uber Eats or we're checking our account to see, you know, how much have we got to spend at the grocery shop tonight? Like I don't want you to then go, oh, if I transferred an extra 50 bucks for my savings, we're not giving ourselves that option. And don't get me wrong. We're in 2025. If you needed to transfer money from your savings to a different bank, Osco exists. It's going to happen instantaneously most times anyway.

so we're not actually making our money out of reach you're in an emergency you still have your emergency fund maybe that just needs to sit out of sight out of mind and that can be quite constructive it's like and I know that there's another barrier to entry here for you personally but you shared that you have now more than $500 in your investing account which is so cool but like that barrier to entry is it's on a different platform yeah you're like oh no I can't touch that Yeah. So can we create that again when it comes to money? I think we can. That's a really good point, VD. We need systems. And do you know what? I know we need systems because I need systems.

Yeah. I need systems. I need my money to not be as accessible because I do get a little bit tap happy, a little bit spendy. But I know that about myself and I'm fine to talk about that. But what am I putting in place so that when I'm in that mood of being like, I do really want to go shopping I'm not able to do that as easily so like my savings do sit with a different bank and that bank account I don't have a debit card so it's like a savings account yes I can technically go in there and transfer money out and back to my other bank but I'd have to log into a different banking app and like if it's out of sight for me often it's out of mind

totally like having to log into something else is like a little reminder that maybe I shouldn't be doing this. A side note, I did actually do that the other day. Now I have three bank accounts. I don't know if that's too excessive, but one of them I'm not allowed to see. I have so many bank accounts. You can have as many as you want. Lots of people in our community have UpBank, like they really like UpBank and they have like lots of different savers and whatnot. And I think that's great. Have you seen Jessica Riefke's banking system? She has like, I think it's like 14 different savers. Oh my God, that's so good. But like you can cut it and slice it and dice it however it works for you, but I want it to work for you.

That is so true, V. Okay, so hypothetically we've kind of like we're on this new path that is leading us to better places. But if like I do fumble, stumble. Oh, I'm a fumbler, I'm a stumbler. And I do get Uber Eats. Yep, slay. Will I just, like in my brain, will that kind of like reaffirm

the habit that exists? Well, it does reaffirm that habit and it does sometimes set up a really negative self-talk. Like you might go, see, I am really bad at money. See, I'm not good at this. Yeah, cool. You've just fallen into a more comfortable behavior. I can't judge you for that. You shouldn't judge you for that. Something that helps me significantly is visuals. I'm a visual learner. Like I love a picture. I love a graph. I love a flow chart. I love when people draw things on whiteboards. I'm like, oh, that makes so much more sense. Now you drew a bubble around it, let's make it visual. So if your habit isn't visual, it's often very hard to forget. You

want to be able to see your progress so that your brain registers that something good is happening. You can use, you know, tracking apps and spending apps, but like go on my website, Beck, there are free savings trackers. You can print them out. They are so aesthetic because our graphic designer did a slay job of setting them up, but you can print out a tracker and pop it on your fridge and colour in a bubble every time you meet a savings goal. You could have a habit tracker where every time you literally don't get Uber Eats, you give yourself a gold star. I love a gold star. Yeah, gorgeous. I love the idea that I can track things, post-it notes on your mirrors, a note on your fridge with your actual savings goal or your

spending limits. Like maybe there's a paper calendar that you can tick things off or draw things on. I think when it comes to habits, what triggers your dopamine? Sure. Make use of that. Make use of that. Use dopamine as your best friend. Okay. Okay. But how do we do that? We want those dopamine hits, but I want it to be associated with your money and good habits and creating habits that make sense to you. But Beck, we humans, you said before, like, oh, like if I order Uber Eats, like, am I a bad person? Absolutely not. Like you're not a robot. Ew. No, thank you. You're not going to get it right every single day. Like there are going to be times that you fall off the bandwagon and you know what? That's fine. Do you know what

that does? It reminds us, do we still want to be doing this? You'd be like, yes, I do. I'm just going to get back on the horse. It doesn't matter. Your money does not define you as a human being. Have you ever looked at somebody and been like, she's so good at budgeting. I want to be her friend. Unfortunately not, except for you. No, but hopefully you don't want to be my friend because I'm good at money. That's true. That's low-key weird, Bec. That's true. I've never looked at someone and been like, oh, she's rich. I want to be her friend. And if you are looking at people and want to be their friends because they're wealthy, weird. So weird. Maybe like missing one or two days of your like habits. It doesn't matter. Like, yeah, it might impact

your progress. Cool. We can push timeframes out. That doesn't matter. Just be kind to yourself. If you can't be kind to yourself, how are you expecting other people to be kind to you? Right. How are you going to stick to anything if your internal monologue is... I think just showing up is the most important part. And if you don't feel like you showed up today, that is absolutely fine. You can show up tomorrow. That is so fine. That is, yeah. It's what creates change. It's what's going to create good habits. And I think so many times we tell ourselves, I'm so bad at money or I'm not good at this or I'm never going to be good at

that. Like Beck, money is genuinely not hard. It's hard because we've never done it. Yeah. Anything is hard when you've never done it. That is a really good reminder. Definitely something that I think we all probably need to hear. Literally. And you're literally one of the most creative people I know. Thank you.

How did you know how to do like clay arts? How do you know how to fire things? Research, right? Yes, that's very true. But like if you can teach yourself six million new habits like that or little crafts or little hobbies, I promise you, you can learn about money. Money is not that hard. Oh my God, that is so true.

Like I promise. Wow. what a spiritual awakening this has been. Anyway, I think just starting small, making it obvious, giving yourself a little reward and just keep going. You're not failing. You're actually learning. Like when we're not working something out and you're saying, oh, I did that wrong. You didn't used to see that as wrong. Yeah. Like you're learning, you're creating your own boundaries and we love to see it. Every time you show up, even in a tiny way, you're actually just reinforcing a habit that future you is going to love you for. We love to see that. We love to

see that exactly yeah i really needed this talk today so thank you sorry sorry i didn't mean to make you feel attacked by me going change your habits change your life no no i personally really needed this so if you've got a friend who keeps saying i'm just bad with money make sure you share them though you're just not prioritizing it and also how do you know if you haven't been taught don't forget to hit subscribe so you never miss an episode because we've got so much more money mindset goodness coming your way and we're like really smart and we're really smart yeah And, like, really hot. Yeah, and also, yes, very hot.

Don't watch a video. Don't watch the video version of this. We have faces for audio. Yeah, just trust us. We're really hot. Yeah, trust us. Anyway, have a good week, guys. Bye, guys.

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