She's On The Money - Kicking Your New Year Finance Goals

Episode Date: December 26, 2023

Are you one of the 74% of Australians making a new years resolution? This time of year we find ourselves more likely than ever to set fitness goals or focus on life changes. And while any time is a good time to reassess your financial goals, the beginning of a new year feels like a nice clean slate to set our new intentions on. That’s why today we’re taking top tips for kicking your new year finance goals! 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 the last Wednesday of 2023 with Shoes on the Money. Do you know what that means? I don't actually. means it's been next year five years of podcast oh my god holy heckin are you gonna celebrate probably not i'm not very good at celebrating things that's fair i do like a little instagram post we could get donuts or something oh i would love that i mean i haven't been here for the whole five years but yeah sorry are you on the team are you off the team you're on the team i feel like

i'm on it yeah can i have a donut still yeah you can have 10 donuts thank you my shout that's exciting. What are we doing? Okay so today we're talking about news resolutions which I think I feel like everyone's on top of mind right now for everyone. Yeah. Can I ask what yours are? You can ask what mine are. Oh my gosh I don't know what mine are. I have no idea. I feel like this coming year is going to be crazy for me. I at the end of February I'm going to become a mum. She's going to be a mum. What the heck? So I feel like everything is I think I just want to be able to I guess yeah do that there's nothing that I really want to change I feel like last year I had or like last year as in this year I've just had a really productive year like I've smashed some really

big goals I've gotten on track I've done yeah to me a lot yeah and I'm super excited about it but it's just one of those things that you go do you know what I'm actually really proud of where I've come from so while we're talking about you know smashing your new financial goals for 2024 I also think it's a good time to kind of like step back and go, do you know what? 2023 was hard for lots of us. Financially, cooked. Cost of living crisis, cooked. For lots of us who have debt or mortgages, absolutely stressful. So I think that we need to give ourselves a bit of a pat on the back and go, you know what? We didn't come this far to only come this far. Doesn't matter if you didn't achieve any of the goals you set out to achieve this year. Who cares? I mean, you probably care.

that's all right we can start fresh next year we can start on a really good foot but like beck who cares if you didn't achieve a goal in 2023 that you really really wanted to yeah does it mean it's completely unobtainable for the rest of your life no exactly we can still do it it's never too late to start exactly so do i know what my news resolutions are no hopefully by the end of this episode i have a better clearer idea and i do definitely need to sit down over i guess you could say the new year's break and write some of my own ones out but yeah I think sitting down and talking about smashing your new year's financial goals it's a good place to be but we need to I guess start it from a place of kindness as well yeah not kindness for each other which is always

a given but more kindness for ourselves because sometimes coming to a point like right now you're listening to this episode going I didn't achieve anything they I'm really disappointed that's fine I'm not I'm proud of you look at you you're still listening to the pod you're still engaging in the community you're still wanting what is best for you and isn't that the best that's a really good way to look at it i think it's the only way we can look at it i love that i think yeah so the start of the new year kind of like sees us all revved up to set new year's resolutions whether we stick to them or not is totally fine but we do kind of find ourselves more likely than ever to set fitness goals or focus on life changes and while any time is a good time to reassess your

financial goals the beginning of a new year feels like a nice clean slate to set our new intentions on. It does, doesn't it? Yeah, totally. It really does. You're like, new year, new me, new financial goals. It just feels good. She's crispy. She's fresh. Totally. You get a new diary and everything. Yeah, untainted. We can, yeah, we can leave everything behind. Haven't even doodled all over it yet. That's exactly right. And that's why today we're talking top tips for kicking your New Year's financial goals. I'm obsessed. VD, did you know that 74% of Aussies make New Year's resolutions and most common things to set our sights on in 2024, according to the Forbes slash OnePulse survey are, and this is probably not shocking.

I'm not surprised that 74% of Aussies make New Year's resolutions. I would have guessed higher though. Same, actually. I would have said, like, doesn't everyone set New Year's resolutions or New Year's goals? Even a little bit. Doesn't mean you need to achieve them, but I just feel like I have so many conversations like, oh, what are you planning on doing next year? Yes.

You know, the people that are like, oh, I don't really care about my birthday. It's just another day. I think those are the people that aren't sitting news resolutions, which is totally fine. But we, we have birthday months, so that's the type of people we are. Exactly. Actually, I would say the month before and the month after, birthday. It's our birthday. It's rude not to.

Also, when it's your birthday, Bec, basically my birthday, so we probably should share and celebrate. We can do that. Maybe next year. Combined birthday party. Right. Tell me about this survey. What did it find?

Okay. This is almost the same list as my own resolutions. But top of the list, 48% of people want to improve their fitness, 38% of people want to improve their finances, 36% of people want to improve their mental health, 34% of people want to lose weight, whatever that looks like, and 32% of people want to improve their diet. Yeah, I feel like those are so stereotypical, right? And I'm over it. Sure.

Yeah. Anyway, you could kick me off on a rant about like the weight loss community, etc. If you're, this is like a plug, but not a plug. It's not paid. It's not sponsored. It's just run by two friends of mine who I really, really respect. If you're planning on, I guess, improving your fitness or planning on losing weight or improving your diet, I would go check out Kik. You know Kik app? Yeah. They're on Instagram and I just, I adore their approach to fitness and lifestyle and diet because they don't talk about calories. They talk about the best version of you and setting yourself up to be the best version of you. And they are two gorgeous

people who have gone through it all when it comes to, I guess, restricting themselves when it comes to food and, you know, overexercising and all of that. And they don't want that for their community. So they try so hard to make sure that everything's well balanced. But I would be checking something like that out if those are your goals. And obviously sticking around, she's on the money when you want to talk about the financial aspects of things because obviously improved finances is great, but I feel like we need to have a clearer outline because you can't just say, oh, I'm going to lose weight this year

or I'm going to be better money this year. Yeah. Like that's not tangible. No, and what does that even look like? Because like, I mean, I know we're not a weight loss podcast, but like losing weight, does that mean you want to lose muscle and bone density or does that mean you want to lose fat? Like we need to be more specific about it.

I don't know. And also like why are you doing that? you actually need to work on your mental health and your mindset because I can almost guarantee that half the people that are saying, I need to lose weight, you don't. I know. I agree. We could go on and on about this, but we won't. We won't. Because I think we feel exactly the same about this whole, anyway. Straight in the bin. Straight in the bin. Just everyone's beautiful. Anyway, so V, where can we drop the ball when it comes to actually following through on these? Like everywhere. Sure. If you're me, everywhere. But most people actually blame their failure or

the inability to fulfill a resolution on a lack of time, a lack of resources, a lack of motivation, which is really important, or a loss of zeal after starting. Like, it's like when I used to go to the gym, I don't anymore. I'm not a gym bunny girly. And I had to come to that realization. I wanted to be a gym bunny girly. I so wanted to be like so fit and be like, you know, those people that get up at like 6am and they go to the gym for half an hour every single morning. I look at that and to go, wow, the commitment, the motivation. I want to be like you. I'm not like you. It's not going to happen. Never going to be that gal. But like in January, when I used to go to the gym, it would be super full because everyone's motivated. And then come like February, there's less people.

March, there's less people. June, everything's empty. Like we're all done. People lose their like momentum, but only about 16% Beck of people are able to follow through with their resolutions according to research. And the majority give up within one to six weeks of starting. And many of these resolutions, they're just repeated year after year. Yes. So like I can almost guarantee that if improving your finances is a goal that you have this year, it was a goal that you had last year, potentially the year before. But what are we doing this year, Bec? We're getting it done. Getting it done. We're getting it done. This year is going to be our best year yet when it comes to 2024. So I've got a list of five things that seem to get people off track really

quickly. So the first thing I'm going to run through these really quickly is setting unrealistic resolutions. So you set something that honestly was never going to happen. So if I set the goal of going to the gym five times a week, I can guarantee never going to happen because I do not have the motivation. I don't have the time. I don't have the zeal. It's not going to happen. But people either establish excessively difficult objectives that quickly become unreachable or they set relatively easy goals that they quickly become bored with. So like if you're planning on setting a goal, and I'm using the gym as an example here because I feel like we can all immediately connect with that mindset, whether you like the gym

or not. But like how unrealistic to go, I'm going to go to the gym five times a week. Do you go to the gym once a week, Bec? Sometimes. not you, but like, I don't go to the gym even once a week. So why would going straight for five actually be smart? Yes, exactly. Maybe my goal should be, I'm going to work up to five times a week over the next 12 months. And I'm going to start by going once a week in January. That's a really good way to do it. Lack of accountability. So if you're working with a

coach or a mentor or an accountability partner, that guarantees that the proper energy and drive a present to help you be more, accomplish more and have more. Now, I'm not saying you need to go pay someone for this privilege. And I guess spicy opinion, I don't believe in a lot of life coaches or life mentors or business mentors because I just go, how would they know how to run your life better than you do? But accountability is important and that's why the She's On The Money community exists. So this year we're going to have accountability lists in our Facebook group and I want you to check in. I want you to be like, oh, I set this goal and I haven't done it. and I promise you so many other beautiful human beings from our community are going to jump on

and be like, Bec, don't worry. You've got tomorrow. Bec, don't worry. We can do it next week. Oh my gosh, Bec, this is how I motivated myself to do it. We've got your back and we've got your back all the time. People don't track or review their resolutions. So you need to make sure you've got a weekly or fortnightly review to allow you to keep on track of your progress and turn excuses into opportunities. Yeah. Because if you're not on top of it, you're going to bury your head in the sand. And if you bury your head in the sand, you wake up in six months time and go, oh, that never happened. But like, if you are two weeks in and you haven't done it, well, let's just reframe that goal. Maybe it's not working. What can we do? Sure. The next is self-doubt. So, so many of us

suffer from this. Don't allow your past failures to dictate your future. Bec, I could not scream it louder. Your financial circumstance does not dictate whether you are a good human being or not. If you have not been good with money historically, that does not mean anything. It just means you didn't have the tools and the resources that you needed to manage money. Does that mean that you're silly? No. Does it mean you're dumb? No. Does it make you really, really bad with money? No, because how were you supposed to be good with money, Beck? If no one taught that to you, if no one role modelled that to you, how were you just supposed to know? That's so true. I feel like that's a big thing.

And so many times you'll be harsh on yourself and I've seen you do it and you go, I'm just not that good at money. Yeah, but that can be changed. But why aren't you good at money, Beck? Is it because you grew up in a world where, you know, lots of your family and friends, they just didn't have a lot of financial literacy too? Sure. Nothing to be ashamed of. It's just something to identify and go, wow, I could work on that. How good. Do you know what? The further we start backwards, the further we can go forwards,

right? Yeah. It's like if you're in debt today and you're going, oh, I just don't know. Like, you know, I've been pretty shitty in my past. I'm not very good at money. And, you know, I haven't even paid off the debt that I said I was going to pay off last year. So how cool is it that we now have that opportunity to do that. And ultimately, how cool is it that we can set up that goal and it will actually carry us into the future? We can like look at the bigger picture, right? Like if you owe five grand and you're really, really stressed about it and you're like, look, I'm paying back, you know, the minimum payments each and every single month. Have a look at what that minimum

payment is. Go, all right, well, if I'm paying back, you know, $200 a month, at what month will I'd be out of debt. Let's put that in your calendar. Then you've got that $200 a month. That can start to become savings. Let's keep that, I guess, structure and that clarity around our goals to go, I'm getting out of debt, but every single time I make a repayment, that's me investing in my future self and my future mentality and having that habit of, quote, paying off debt. Because one day, paying off debt is actually going to be savings. Yes. Paying off debt one day is going to be your investment. And the more you can prioritize that,

one, the more you're going to smash down debt quicker. But two, the more you'll have to invest in the future. Isn't that exciting? Yeah. I think it's really good. But it's so motivating. Self-doubt sucks. Kick it out. Kick it out. I promise. Nobody is ever going to talk to you worse than you talk to yourself. Yeah, I totally agree. Just like a quick side note and maybe number five is that I read The Power of Habit. I'm not sure if you read this one, but it's kind of like something I took away from that is if you are just like making a plan, it's all like positive stuff, like I'm going to do this and this and this, but we're not really planning for when we're going to fail because

we're not expecting to. We don't want to plan for failure. No, I don't want to fail. I didn't set up a goal because I want to fail. No, exactly. But if we hit a point or a usual blocker where we would fail and we plan for how we're not going to fail, that's, I think, really beneficial. We keep going back to like weight loss in the gym. But let's say, you know, on a Thursday night, you're so tired, you're probably not going to go to the gym on Friday morning. Let's think about what our mind is telling us in that moment. Let's prepare ourselves for those moments where we have no motivation. So planning for failure, which sounds really weird, I think is also a good thing to take on board. I think it's really smart. It actually reminds me something that I have been

thinking about a lot, I guess, in the last 12 months, because I'm often asked, Fee, where do you get your motivation? Where do you get self-discipline? And like, I've had to really reflect on why I have these things. Cause I don't have them in every aspect of my life, but when it comes to work and, you know, getting stuff done and all of that, I think a lot of people go, wow, V, like you're doing so much. And that can be overwhelming because that puts a lot of pressure on you. If they are like, oh, Beck, you're doing so well that you can't then drop the ball, can you? But people often go, well, how did you get motivated? And I'm like, I didn't, I just did it like there's actually no key to motivation and when it comes to self-discipline

the way I see it is self-discipline is the highest form of self-care yeah like doing something for future you when today you doesn't really want to do it and like overcoming that and that book that you've recommended is a really great place to start but like overcoming the lack of self-discipline because so many people say I don't have any self-discipline Victoria and I go but you have to find that. No one's going to gift it to you. Like there's no book you can read or podcast you can listen to or inspirational mentor you can turn to that's ultimately going to turn on your motivation. You've actually got to do it for you and for future you. And if you go, all right, well, self-discipline is the highest form, according to Victoria, of, you know, self-love.

That's actually going to put you in the best possible position. Because if you start seeing it as like, no, no, no, I'm actually going to look at my budget this week because I'm overwhelmed, but also I'm going to look at it because it puts me in the best possible position and I really love myself and I deserve it. It changes your mindset. Absolutely. And can be small little things that will build up your self-discipline. But V, I also want to know, what are some good like mental health checks to do before we actually start setting goals? I think it's a really good thing to have a framework around goal setting. So obviously inside She's On The Money, we use the she's on the money goal setting framework. So we want to be specific about the goals that we are

setting. So clearly defining it. We're not just saying, you know, I want to save more money. You're saying, I want to be able to save $10 every single week for the next 12 months. Like we are being very specific, Bec. The next is O, so S-O-T-M. It's revolutionary, watch out. But that's optimistic. So like we need to really focus on mindset. So are we optimistic about this goal? Are we passionate? Are we excited? Are we actually wanting to do this? It's kind of like a check-in point because sometimes we set goals that we quote think we should set, not goals that we actually want to set. True. So are we being optimistic? Are we positive about this? Is this framed correctly? Goes back to, you know, people talking a lot about weight loss and stuff like

that. Are you optimistic about this or are you just feeling like pretty negative and that's probably a really terrible goal to set for yourself? Like, is your mindset okay in this moment? T, so T is time bound. So, setting a realistic timeframe for something. And to do this, we often have to work backwards. So, is there a date we're working towards? So, if you say, V, I really want to have $10,000 in my savings account by the end of the year. Big goal, Bec? Possible. I'm excited for you. But if you said to me, V, I want to save $10,000 this year, great Bec. Is it time bound? What date are we having this by? Right. What does that look like? Where's that $10,000 coming from? Which leads into M, which is measurable. And that's, can we

measure that goal? So like, if you get to, let's say you want it by the 30th of December next year, you're going to start on the 1st of January. How are we measuring that? Are we going to break down that goal? Is it actually achievable? So like if you told me, V, I want to save 10 grand. Okay, Bec, do you have $833 a month to save? But like $10,000, right? If you set that goal, you go, all right, well, that doesn't seem too big over 12 months. Let's break it down into smaller chunks. All right. Well, that means $833 a month. Can you do that? And you might go, oh, that feels like a lot. Let's contextualize it a little bit more. There are 52 weeks in a year, Bec. Yep. That means you would need to save about $192 every week to achieve $10,000. Right.

Can we do that? You might go, oh, I actually don't have $192 in my budget each week. I could probably like do like half of that. I could probably do like $100 a week. So maybe like 96 bucks a week. Okay. Well, maybe our goal needs to change to $5,000 by the end of the year. Let's set measurable goals that we know we can achieve because if you set a goal like $10,000 and you don't have that free cash flow, do you know what's going to happen on the 30th of December? You're going to feel like trash. You're going to tell yourself this narrative of, I'm not good at money, Bec. I suck at money. I tried to save $10,000 this year and it just never happens. I do it all the time. Like I set these goals and then I can't achieve them

because I'm not good with money. Bec, are you not good with money or are you just not good with planning? Because I think, not you personally, don't look at me like I'm attacking you, but like if you set that goal of $10,000, but we actually hadn't broken it down and looked at whether it was feasible for you or not, you're just going to set yourself up for failure. and you're going to feel like trash. Why don't we set a reasonable goal for the financial circumstances that you're in so that when you achieve it, it can validate that you are good at money, Bec. All you have to do is put a plan in place, put your mind to it and we can do it. A lot of people might be in the position where they're thinking, V, there's no way I can save

10 grand this year. And I go, that's fine. But there might be some more creative ways that you want to do that. So maybe you looked at me before and you're like $833 a month. Absolutely not. It's hectic. But you might still be like, but I really want to save $10,000. Let's be creative. Do you get a second job? If you got a second job, how many hours would you need to do with that second job to get about $800 a month in addition? What could that look like? Could we, you know, every month go, all right, well, I might have, you know, a little cafe job in addition, but then are there things I could sell? Are there things I could do? Do I have a friend who owns a cafe like you do?

You work at your friend's cafe occasionally. Yes. Could I go and, you know, do a few shifts there to like bulk that up? Right. What does that look like for you? So let's make it realistic and time bound so that we actually get to achieve these things. Yeah. Because there's nothing more disheartening than setting a goal, not achieving it and thinking it was your fault because you're not good enough. That's not how it works. Yeah, totally. That makes so much sense. But I think Let's sit on that for a second. Let's go for a quick break. But don't go anywhere because after the break,

VD is going to give us her top tips for kicking your new year finance goals. Welcome back, everyone. We are talking a new year, new you in this final Wednesday with She's On The Money for the year. I'm so sad. I know. It is really sad. How's it the end of the year?

What are we going to do with ourselves? I'm not even joking. Every time you say that, I'm like, ew, ew, David, ew. Sad. but don't be too sad because VD we want to know what are your top tips for kicking your new year finance goals all right so you are not going to be surprised we're going to make it as easy as possible thank you to smash out 2024 and make it your best year yet cannot wait for it because I'm also planning on making it my best year yet so I just feel like as a team as a community we should

all be on board yes we're gonna have the best year ever I think we will by doing the following things. So first thing first, we're going to decide what we actually want to achieve. January, clean slate, as you were saying before, it is the perfect time to take stock of where we're at financially, particularly because we've just gone through like that post-December like bills roll that's just come through. Expensive month. Yeah. And it's like at the end of a quarter. So like you're going to get your bills, you're going to get your water, you're going to get your electricity. So like now's the time to really sit down and go, new you, new me, we're going to set some goals. So perhaps you would like to start paying off some more debt or commence a savings

plan for a new car or maybe a holiday or, you know, you might want to go to Meredith this year then. Yes. You might actually go, you know what, that's on my goals list. I didn't get to do it last year. Let's make a clean, clear budget and automate our transfers so that, you know, maybe five bucks every week or every couple of days goes from your account into a different account. And then we know you're not going to miss out. It's actually a really good idea. But like, isn't that exciting to go, oh, I can set this goal, especially because you missed out on Meredith this year. Yeah.

Set a goal and be like, actually, V, what's Meredith going to cost me? Like a couple of hundred bucks for the ticket, a couple of hundred bucks for accommodation, et cetera, et cetera. You've got heaps of time to plan so that it doesn't knock you about when it pops up. You'll be like, oh my gosh, I actually have a separate saver for this. It's going to happen and I deserve it. Yes. And it'll feel free as well.

Exactly. Exactly. That's girl math. Girl math. We are geniuses. but the same thing can happen there for Christmas time. If you were really stressed at Christmas this year, now is the time to do a little bit of reflecting and go, well, how much did I spend? Did you spend $500? Did you spend $1,000? Can we start popping some cash aside today

before the end of the year? So next year is not nearly as financially stressful as it was this year. Like you can set yourself up now, but if we are trying to set ourselves up, you know, if it was the start of December and you're like, wow, Christmas is in a month, scraping together an extra $1,000 if that's what you needed, it's not going to help. It's going to make you depressed. It's going to make you feel really icky. But we can do that right now. In fact, if you started in the first week of January and you said to yourself, all right, I want $1,000 by Christmas next year. I'm going to set up a separate like little Christmas savings account. Can't touch it. Automate a transfer of 20 bucks a week. Okay. $1,000 at Christmas time.

that seems doable. Right. And if it's automated, out of sight, out of mind. Yes, that's what we need. I've seen you spend more than 20 bucks in a week on coffee before bed. 100%. So like that's not unachievable, right? No, yeah. So decide what you want to achieve. The next is to take stock of your current spending. Essentially with the excess of the festive season just wrapping up and probably still very fresh in your mind, the new year is the perfect time to take control of your current spending habits. So whether that is just setting up a new little account with an automatic transfer so that you're not stressed next Christmas, or taking some time to work out exactly where your money is being spent, which I think is really, really important. Obviously, a great place to

start is with, I guess, a recent bank statement. Going through that, making sure that you list out each transaction that's happened. We're not judging ourselves, but looking at what you're actually spending in a month or a quarter or even over the year is going to help. Here's where I'm going to tell you about my very shiny money masterclass that I do. So it's online. You can go and sign up now. In fact, we'll do a little discount. We'll put it in the show notes so you don't miss out. But POD50, so POD50, we'll get you 50 bucks off. That is very kind. I know. It's also really great marketing for my business. Yeah, like if we're being honest. But the reason I'm plugging the money masterclass here is we go through how to do a proper bank account audit,

how to set up your spending, how to get through those, I guess, mind blocks of, you know, am I good enough? Am I not good enough? Having a look at where your spending habits have come from in your money story. And then it's the most comprehensive spreadsheet. It's obviously on Excel or Google Sheets, really accessible. And also, if you're not good at Google Sheets or Excel, don't worry. It's actually all automated.

I've locked everything back so you can't mess it up. She's good. I just can't trust everyone. No. you know, so you can customize it, but it'll essentially take you through your budget. So what are you spending? And then it will tell you what surplus you have and it will help you allocate to, okay, well, you've got excess this year or coming into the new financial year of maybe $10,000 in your budget. Sure. What are now your goals? So it'll ask you what your goals are

and you can pop them together. Then my favorite part about it is the bank account structure. So it's not going to tell you what bank to use because that would be wildly unethical and it change and it would obviously depend on you personally, but it will tell you have this bank account specifically and have this money going into here. And then because of your goals, you need to put X in these bank accounts each week or month or, you know, fortnight or whatever works for you because it's all changeable, but it will make sure that you're actually achieving the goals that you're setting because you're literally setting a plan up for success. So it's not going to leave you high and dry you're looking at me confused I'm going to give it to you obviously

and you can do it as well but I think that you know taking stock of your spending and that obviously leads into my second one of actually keeping a realistic budget it just makes sense to have a really structured approach to that especially if you've never done it before because it can feel overwhelming yeah and like if you're thinking that going and sitting down and writing out a budget of what you're spending and what you're hoping to spend is going to do it It's not. You need the follow through of, well, what does my banking structure then look like? How much money comes into my account? How much money goes out of my account? What does that look like? And how do I control it? Because Bec, how many times have you sat down and written down

all your expenses? Maybe once in my entire life. You are the worst example here. But if you were to, then you might go, oh, I'm spending too much on groceries. I want to spend less. Sure. How are you actually implementing that? It's not going to help. So set a realistic budget. The next is, babe, it's time to consolidate your debts. It is time to have a look at your debt with your head not in the sand. So if you're paying off several personal loans or credit card balances at once, you're probably finding it really difficult to juggle different payments. It gets overwhelming. Bec, you've spoken on the podcast before about how this has given you mad anxiety. Yes. Consolidating your debts into a single loan might, I'm not saying guaranteed, but it might be

an option for you and it might make budgeting easier and it could potentially save you money on interest and fees. So giving you just, I guess, one payment each and every single month to pay instead of multiple across the board if you're in that circumstance is going to help. Yeah. And it just takes the mental load off as well. Having a chat to someone about it, making sure that, you know, you're not alone on this, is really important. Yeah, it makes you feel good. Like, in my experience, like, even when I called someone to ask about consolidating loans, when the person on the other line didn't scream at the idea of the debts that I had,

they were just kind of like, yeah, okay, well, blah, blah, blah. They deal with it every day, hey. That was so nice. It's liberating. It makes you feel, I guess, empowered in that it's not you. Yeah, it's like, oh, there surely are other people out there in this case just like me. Clearly there are. I'm telling you right now, debt consolidation loans exist because lots of people, Bec,

experience debt. Yes. Does it make you a bad person, Bec? I would not think so. Exactly. Absolutely not. The next, you're never going to see this coming. Sit down.

I want you to have an emergency fund. Okay. Start building an emergency fund if you don't have one. If you have one, revisit it. Is it still enough? We have just gone through or are still in a cost of living crisis. your emergency fund might need a little bit of a bump up. This could feel really overwhelming hearing this right now because you probably dug into your emergency fund in the last few months.

So don't worry if it's looking a little less healthy than it was once. This is just a season of life, Bec. Sometimes money and finances are really hard. Sometimes they ease up a bit and become really easy and then they might go back to hard. This is a season of life. It's not reflective of your ability to manage money but keeping your emergency fund as a priority is really really important the next this is sexy it's not it's not you're gonna review all your paperwork sorry you can have like a little cheeky glass of wine or if you're in my situation a really nice peppermint tea set yourself a little date night you know what i'm giving you permission you can get takeaway oh yes you can get takeaway right i'm liking this i'm gonna start with

insurances. Do you have life insurance, house insurance, car insurance? Are they all up to date? When was the last time you reviewed your car insurance? Get online, compare a few different car insurance quotes. I guarantee you'll probably save a couple of hundred bucks by moving car insurance companies because they're all just reissuing their car insurance statements at this point in the year. And you know what? You can do better. Go save yourself a couple of hundred bucks. I promise the takeaway will be worth it. Make sure that you're adequately covered. Are your premiums actually appropriate for the amount of cover that you're getting. Assess your super annuation. And if you haven't before, Bec, nominate your beneficiary. Okay. Do you ever know what that

means? You're looking at me like, what the heck? Do you remember this from super days? Yeah. So it's essentially what happens when you die, Bec, who's going to take it over and nominate that person. Make your financial life not be a burden on your family if something were to happen to you. is your will up to date or have your circumstances changed? Recently, we have had to go and redo our wills, so Steve and I, because we now have a baby that we're going to have to think about. Oh, true. Isn't that scary? Yeah.

So I'm looking at my life insurance going, ah, that's not going to be enough to sustain a whole other human being who doesn't have an income. Sure. So if you are looking at that and going, oh, I'm so overwhelmed with life insurance and your TPD and all of those fun things, Sky Wealth is who you want to talk to. Obviously, this is a not so subtle plug for my friend, Phil. Take it or leave it. Go see any financial advisor you want. The reason I like Phil is he only does insurances. So you're not going to go and have someone be like, oh, hello, Bec, you came for insurances. Can I upsell you to look at your superannuation?

Can I make a fancy investment plan? Can I charge you thousands of dollars for stuff you didn't ask me for. He doesn't do that. He just has a very low fee for his statement of advice. He only does insurances and he's who my husband and I go through and I've had a really positive experience and I know you will too if you chose that. But if you don't want to work with Phil, that's fine. Go work with anybody to get your insurances sorted because it is so damn important. You can get matched on the She's On The Money website with a financial advisor just for insurance or a holistic financial advisor if that's what you want to do this year. So also check out the She's on the Money website. This feels very infomercial, but it's not meant to. I'm just like trying to get

through it quickly so that you get the information, but I can keep talking to you about all of the tips and tricks I've written down. But yes, I think it's actually really important to know that that resource on the She's on the Money website actually exists. We don't actually talk about it that much. Yeah, true. But it's a service that She's on the Money offers because I just have had so many people message me going, oh, V, I want a financial advisor. And I go, oh, well, I recommend this person, but I actually need to ask so many questions about like, oh, Beck, well, what are you looking for? Why do you want an advisor? Because if you came to me and said, oh, V, like, it's really unfortunate, but I've just come into a massive inheritance,

that's very different. And the type of advisor I would, you know, match you with is very different to the type of advisor if you're like, oh, I just really want to get my life insurance sorted. it. So I think it's important to understand that's hard, but then also so many people in our community struggle with like, well, I don't have a family member or a friend that can recommend a good advisor or a good mortgage broker. So I will be that friend and we do that in the background. That's so sweet. The last thing is tidy up your damn filing cabinet, Bec. Our physical one? I don't know. Lots of us have filing cabinets. You should see the drawer beside my desk. It's just full of absolute trash. According to the Australian Taxation Office,

you should be keeping your financial records for about five years anything older than that you can bin shred financial paperwork don't just put it in the bin so that you know some guy walking down the street can open your bin and steal your personal information shred it rip it up into tiny pieces of paper take it to work and shred it in their shredder like don't just put a whole heap of your personal information especially on bulk right into the bin you're asking for your identity to be stolen, Bec, if you do that. But make sure that you're cleaning anything out, making yourself feel fresh and refreshed and revived this year. And remember that any filing system you implement should actually be very quickly and very easily maintained so that you're motivated to keep like

your records straight. I promise if you do this at the start of the year, come tax time, tax time's going to be a breeze for you. Tax time does not need to be stressful this year, I promise. So those are all of my hot tips, Bec. That's all I've got. I'm fresh out. Well, I especially like that last one. It really feels good when you have a clear space, you have a clear mind. And then you can start spring clean. Like, you know, when you were in like, I don't know if you were like this, but you were like, I don't know, early teen and you'd rearrange your room. Yes. Like you'd come home and just like drag everything around and like make it look different. Like it's that vibe, but as an adult. Yes. It feels really good. Exactly. Do you have anything else before

your effort. No, I don't. I'm fresh out. She's fresh out. I'm fresh out and I need a coffee. All right, let's go do it. All right. Have a good week, guys. We will see you on Friday. Bye. 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 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 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.

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