She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: The 7 year old investing legend

Episode Date: March 7, 2021

On this weeks money diary we chat to one of our country community members who's savvy 7 year old is helping the family make investment decisions, thanks to our friends at Superhero. You can check them out and all their greatness at http://bit.ly/SuperheroxSOTM Joining you on Money Diaries this week is Victoria Devine and Ryan Jon.Do you love the podcast SICK and want more SOTM? Course ya do. Join our Facebook page to share your money wins and money confessions, follow us on Insta for daily inspo to keep you on track and DEFINITELY subscribe to our newsletter https://www.shesonthemoney.com.au/newsletter the written recap of the pod's key takeaways, including some bonus bits you won't want to miss.Finally, if you're in a money mess and need help untangling the muddle - we've got you sorted - simply record your question and send it through to us at [e-mail] and you may just end up on the podcast!The advice shared on She’s on The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She’s on The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. Victoria Devine is an Authorised Representative of Australia Pacific Funds Management Proprietary Limited ABN 34 132 463 257 - AFSL 339151.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

She's on the money. She's on the money. Hello and welcome to She's on the money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Now, by now you probably know that my name is Victoria Devine and as always, I am joined for money diaries by ryan john this week's diary was honestly one of our favorites today and i know we say that all the time but we were joined by one of our country community members whose savvy seven-year-old is helping the family make better investment choices this is the email she sent to

the team hey ryan i started investing with superhero in november 2020 so that's a lot not that long ago late last year yeah and that's actually quite recent that's four months ago After learning all about investing through She's On The Money and other podcasts that I listened to during lockdown, we have a smaller portfolio investing between $100 and $150 as that's all we could afford as a family at the time. Currently sitting on nine investments with a return of 4.89% return, although this varies daily, obviously. Now, this is where it's going to get really interesting for you, V.

You ready for this? I'm so ready. We love the ease of superhero to purchase. the information provided and it's a simple format so much so that one of the nine investments we are sitting on was chosen by my seven-year-old because when i was reading up on the company he decided to help me that's actually seven years old that's so cute and you know what ryan that actually ties into recent research that says your money story starts forming at the age of seven check that out the seven superhero fan so once a month the seven-year-old and i sit down and we

check in and we see how our investment's going that makes my soul so happy we so love it i always thought that this was something we couldn't achieve whilst having a young family slash saving for a house because you know you we've got these young kids we're saving for a house but they said no we're going to spread it out and we can have multiple priorities at a time and as well as saving up for their emergency fund and getting ready and through the bushfire evacuations and stuff like gosh they've had a tough time and they're still investing they've kind of just decided that we're not going to have an excuse and we're even though we can only invest little bits, we're still going to do it. That is the mentality that I would like everybody

to have. Let's give them a call, shall we? Let's call them now. Hello, Emma speaking. Hey, this is Ryan from Shiz on the Money. How are you doing? I'm well. How are you? Well, I've got Victoria Devine with me here as well. Say hi, V. Hello. Hello, how are you? Well, thank you. How are you? Really well. I am so grateful that you're joining us especially at kids dinner time that's okay i was like just sit there i mean do we get dinner too sure pop around um victoria was very chuffed to hear that your seven-year-old is getting into the investing side of things yes so he was like oh i don't like this one mom how about

we talk about because i gave them sort of two options when we were looking at the profiles because it's quite basic up on superhero and he was like no i don't really like that one and i was I was like, oh, why? I was like, look, I read their annual report and their CEO just had made some really bad decisions in the last financial year. No, because I was like, look, this is how. And he's like, mum.

So we went with Arena REIT and he chose that one because it builds early learning development centres, childcares and so forth, and healthcare over the other one I was looking at with service stations. He's like, mum, we have enough fuel stations. What a honey. Yeah, so I was like, okay. He was like, we need more education, Mum.

Pretty much, yeah, and healthcare. I would take stock tips from this kid. He knows what's up. So I was like, okay. That is so cool. Oh, my gosh, you're investing as a family. No, but like investing can start small and it can grow from there and I think that in a situation where you are investing with children,

it's arguably better to start with small amounts because those amounts are tangible to them? Like they know how much milk might cost. They know how much lollies are, et cetera. They're not going to understand $100,000 share portfolio. That's beyond what their comprehension is. So for us, we live regional remote. We don't have takeaway options or anything like that.

So I said, okay, well, if we do go ahead with buying this one, that is pretty much the four of us going out for dinner to the local pub. And he's like, well, I can make lasagna. and I was like, let's make lasagna. Oh, my gosh, the little compromises. Just so that he was more aware of, well, we don't have lots of money, we can't do both all the time, and getting him in the mindset of, okay, well, you might need to sacrifice a little bit.

And he was okay with that? Yeah. Oh, that's so sweet. Oh, my gosh. He's made more lasagnas than I have in seven years. Far out. Do it. So easy.

So that's really impressive. What we're going to do is go through our regular Money Diary-esque questions, and then even though we've got off track because we were so impressed with your child. Genuinely. I was like, what? Why is this not my child? It definitely wasn't my childhood, so that's kind of where we're going

to make some improved steps. Well, why don't we jump into the official interview questions, questions ask those and then we can have a chat straight after about that story. Yep okay. So let's jump into the first question and start with can you describe to me what your relationship with money is like? It's been up and down probably more of a negative through my early 20s I probably relied on credit more than I should have so it's improving. Improving I like that. So what do you do for work and for the rest of your life? So pretty much I work in regional tourism. And Regional tourism have had a pretty interesting 12 months, it's fair to say.

A bit rocky, you might say. So first we were evacuated with bushfires and then we returned home for about a month before getting shut down for COVID. Oh no. In the region of Victoria. So you've essentially been thrown under the bus. That's a nice way to word it. How is it going now?

Are you back to work? Are you planning on going back to work soon? What does the next 12 months look like? So I've actually just finished up with this job I've resigned, finishing mid-March And then I'm going to work still in regional tourism But in our local community on a 38-hour-a-week contract Oh, cool, well, I'm glad that that exists for you

So it just comes down to you just need full-time hours And you've got to take what you can get, right? Yes, and the other position was 45 minutes away Oh, that's a bit of a hike Yeah, so drive time, I'll be saving an hour and a half a day oh how good plus wear and tear on the car so my partner worked out he's like it's a 10 grand savings i was like okay he's like you're getting a pantry more hours and you can pretty much walk or ride to work so that's what we're gonna do how good is that that'll be much better for work-life

balance i believe so i want to get a little bit pervy what do you earn and how much money is sitting in your bank account right now so i earn 48 000 a year in my bank account in multiple accounts. So pretty much we have everything's joint for us. In our pay account, it's sitting at $1,000 with $2,000 coming in tonight. Our short-term savings is sitting at $330. Our direct debit account is sitting at $680. Home loan account that we're trying to save for is about $4,500. Then we sort of have a $1,000 buffer account in case something comes up and then a separate emergency fund for about $2,500 at the moment. And do you feel confident making decisions around money?

We're getting better. I like that. We've probably spent quite easily and we're starting to rein it in. Good, good. So we were in a higher income inner city and then we've gone to lesser income for a better family life where we're living. And in turn, we're probably still spending like we were making a lot more money.

That is so common. So many people do that. You just get used to that type of lifestyle. Like it sounds so silly. Yeah, exactly. But you get used to the bottle of wine that you pick up from the bottle. Like you just get used to it. Same with food. You just get used to a certain standard of things and changing your entire budget isn't actually as easy as just going, oh, we'll just rein it in a bit. Like you actually have to plan for that. Yes, and so I've got my partner pretty much, unfortunately, worked after some seasonal employment for a few weeks before we got evacuated for bushfires and has probably only been working for the last three months. So we lived off our emergency savings or our emergency fund and part of our house deposit. Oh my gosh, how stressful. Well, it wasn't, it wasn't. Is it sort of a relief to, that's why you have an emergency fund, right? Yeah, that's exactly why you have it, right? Yeah, and so we did all of that.

We had a lot more family time. We planted our veggie garden. We adopted some chickens. We spent more time together, the four of us. So there was a lot of positives for us out of COVID and then reassessing how much we can actually survive on happily. So it's actually helped us with our budget. So you basically lived my dream life during COVID.

I really want chickens. So does Bridget. So you just said you've got chickens. I was like, so many jealous people right now. Steve says no, but that's okay. All right. So how do you feel? Well, do I get drunk through COVID because that's how I bought our chicken coop?

I was like, oh, what happened? Oh, she bought a chicken coop. Oh, well, I did and I bought a kitten and a puppy. So I don't know if I can relate. And I was like, let's do this. 10 out of 10. I bet it is the bougiest chicken coop you've ever seen. It matches our house.

It's delightful. Oh, my gosh. Yes. Oh, good. All right. Back to questions. How do you feel about money coming into your bank account? Good.

So Scott and I have kind of learnt that we can live on minimum hours. So $22.8 is pretty much all I'm earning at the moment. And we have worked out our budgets and our direct debits and everything on that basic income. So with a new job moving up to 38 hours with a pay rise, we're going to be putting more money into our home loan. Yeah, that's so good. That is so good. So do you currently invest? If so, how?

Yes. So we started after listening to a few podcasts. So she's on the money as well as a few others through lockdown. Oh, which are the other ones? Do you listen to My Millennial Money? I do. Oh, I love them. So that one, Australian Finance with...

Oh, yeah, yeah, they're great. Yeah, yeah, I love them. As well as Equity Mates. Yeah, yeah, they're great too. I love all of them. Yeah, so it was quite good. I realised when I first started working from home, I was listening to crime podcasts and I was like,

Well, this isn't effective. I still listen to crime podcasts. So a Facebook group I follow suggested your page first. So from you guys in season one. Oh, so sweet. Yeah. So it was really exciting. So investment, we started with Spaceship.

We have about $800 in that one. From there, we also have Superhero. Yep. So with Superhero, that's not sitting that well today. but we have got nine different options in Superhero and it's raising between a positive 1.8% and 11% growth. Oh my gosh, how good. Yes, that's been exciting.

And I also spiralled down into the rabbit warren of crowd equity funding for IPOs. Oh my gosh. And we sit on a little part of a company in there as well. Oh, how cool. That's super fun. And you do all of that through Superhero? No, the crowdfunding was through another app and, yeah.

How fun. I am definitely excited for June for when you potentially might be launching something else. Yes, keep an eye out. All right, do you have any debts of any kind? If so, what? If not, how do you feel about debt? We have about $1,200 owing on a credit card

and that is actually all getting repaid to us. after we listened to your insurance session. Oh, my gosh, really? Yeah. So we realised that that's actually owed to us. So that actually owes us $1,500. So we'll be in front on the credit card. Nice.

Money win. Correct. We paid that off through COVID. And then Scott just has a personal loan and it's $5,000. So once the credit card's done, we'll be focusing on that one. Getting rid of all of that. How good. Yeah, and then it'll pretty much just all be going into savings

or back into investing. I like that. So do you have any good money habits that you're especially proud of? Not really. The last six months gave us time to sit down, do our budget, focus. We sort of now know how much money is going out for school fees, after-school activities, and then we've also put in place, you know, that extra coffee money, a few other things.

For my birthday this year, we got a nice coffee machine, so we're not spending so much money out. Another money win from you. That's the definition of a gift that keeps on giving. Yeah, that is actually the best gift. Oh, money win, win, win. Yes. So exciting.

I love that. Yeah. So small little things like that are encouraging us, I suppose, to be a little bit more happier with our decisions and bigger purchases. We're enjoying spending the money because we've got the money. It's not coming out from credit. We've actually saved it.

It feels so much more encouraging, doesn't it? Yeah. I love that. Not 100% at this point, but there's slow steps that we are becoming more money confident. I'm not going to lie, but I think that all of that is wildly incorrect because you said that you're not sure if you don't have any good money. I was going to say. And I'm pretty sure your email to us outlined the fact that your kids are talking about

investment on a weekly basis. So I'm going to start there and say that I would be especially proud of that. Well, so a little while ago, where we live, we have quite a big open water space and they want to kayak. So I have one from years ago as a birthday gift and I just went, look, you know, Dad and I aren't in a position at the moment. Dad was working hospitality and hospitality was in a low season. I said, we can't really afford it, but, you know, they're collecting cans for 10 cents

a pop. Why don't you guys start doing that? and then if you can reach that, we'll halve the kayak cost. Oh, that's so good. They went to our next-door neighbours and a few other people and said, look, this is what we're going to be doing. So they were four and five at the time. Oh, my gosh.

So it was mainly driven by our five-year-old. And he was like, if I collect all these cans, mum and dad are going to give me money for a kayak. And we now have two kayaks at home. This kid's the ultimate hustler. I love him. Yeah, so he would go, he's like, oh, we'll come down and pick them up.

We'll ride our bikes down and get them. So indirectly, I had to push a wheelbarrow down to collect. I was about to say, collecting on a bike might be a bit tough, yeah. No, so he had these great ideas and everyone was quite supportive and our house just built up with cans and bottles and then they would sort them between cans and plastics and then glass and then he would go and put them in to get his 10 cents and made money over a summer holiday.

Oh, my gosh. That makes my heart so happy. That is the sweetest thing ever. I almost feel bad having to ask you the next question, which is what is your worst money habit? Probably food. We don't really have a buffer for food. Like last night I was like, oh, we'll just go and visit Dad at work,

and then we walked out with a $100 food bill just for kids and I because we were eating good food and drinking gin. I was like, oh, well, I was. They weren't. Yeah, I was about to be like, oh, okay. Spend some time. You do you. Spending their kayak money on gin.

Good. Yeah, so probably our worst one is good food and good wine, but we also live in northeast Victoria, so we are spoilt with choices. Yeah, absolutely. So what are you currently saving for? Do you have a big money goal at the moment? Short term is going to be a holiday. The kids want to go up to Gold Coast, so we're saving for that.

And then long term, house deposit. I love that. Final question before we jump to a quick break. How would you rate yourself if I forced you to give yourself a financial rating? A C. Oh, a C. Why is that? Only because we've only just put in place our budget, and I think that we can tweak that to be more positive

with regular investments into investing and some more money going into house deposits and so forth once our debt has cleared. So, Ryan, how did you like that? Very impressive. It was impressive. I just want to ask if it's deliberate or just happening anyway, but it feels like you're teaching your kids some really great lessons

about not just money but about kind of discipline and sacrifice and if I want something great, I have to put some thought and effort into it. Is that something that you've consciously decided or is that just naturally coming out? Because I think either way it's definitely happening by the sounds of things. I think a little bit natural. And so growing up, my parents went bankrupt when I was about five. So mum and dad have taught us a little bit about money.

They were very frugal. And I think that's potentially why we spend a little bit more on food and wine because it's things that we didn't get when we were younger. Yeah, okay. So I think the transparency that we're trying to show to the kids, they're more aware of it so then they can consciously make their decisions as they grow up. I like that.

I really, really like that. And I think it's something that at any income level is teachable. And I think that being transparent with your kids is never a bad thing. I grew up and my parents were always super transparent about money. And I thought that it taught me a lot about, well, what can we afford and how does this work and what does that mean? And I think that that taught me that there's a lot to do with consequences, right? Like you can pick one thing or not another thing, but I think that not enough people

are doing it. So I'm so excited that you are. a few years ago i had to leave a like a pretty high paying job and i was just a mentally a mess because i i just was like oh this is it i've wasted my chance it's over but it seems with all the setbacks you've had you've seemed to just accepted that it's just a temporary thing it'll be fine later on i'll eventually get back to full-time work it seemed to as hard and i mean it's easy for us to say in hindsight and we didn't have to go through it but hearing you it sounds like you just did a really good job of accepting that making the best of a bad situation and didn't

let it get you down too much is is that fair to say and because it sounds like you've been having a pretty good time yeah we had a fantastic time um i think if anything it's kind of brought the four of us together a little bit more because we realized when we moved to this location the work wasn't the same money that we would have been getting if we're in a city So there might be a little bit of sacrifices. So we almost work opposite shifts so that one of us is always home with the kids. So that was a sacrifice we did in moving to this area. So yeah, the last, like 2020, we spent so much time together.

Lots of family cooking and adventures within our little small radius. So it's been quite good. And I think, look, compared to a lot of others, we've got our health. We've got each other. We're kind of all right. I like that mentality. I think we all probably could be reminded of it. So that is a very gentle and lovely reminder to hear.

What would you say to other people who are thinking of doing the country change? Is it a fun thing to do while the kids are young? Are you going to stay there forever? How to adapt to the money differences? Because obviously, like you said, the wages are less, but maybe the house prices are less and it might even out. So yeah, what kind of advice would you give to other people living in the city, contemplating moving out there?

I would say probably don't move to our area because our house prices are currently sitting at the same as Melbourne prices. Oh, no. What's the point of this? Which is keeping a few low-income families like us out of the market. Yet if they've got the option, coming into the community, it's fantastic.

So when we first moved here four and a half years ago, I was walking with a double pram down the sidewalk and there was these two ladies standing in the rain and I was like, what are they doing? And they're out the front of our house and they're like, hi are you emma i was like yes and i was like oh my goodness the dog is barking or something's happened because we're in melbourne and people only approached you if something was wrong to complain about something yeah yeah they need something from you so it's like the apprehensive

yeah standing in the rain and they were like they introduced themselves and then they were like oh welcome we just wanted to give you like our local um package and it had everything from vouchers to local restaurants homemade jams and chutneys from a local store it had all our CFA information support networks, the local playgroup. It was just this bag of goodness. And I was like, oh, my goodness. What is this place? So we moved there?

Yeah. I moved recently. The welcoming committee. And I haven't even met my neighbour yet. How rude. I know. So it was fantastic. And indirectly, they still pass and say hi.

And, you know, they're watching the kids grow over the last four years. So it's really, really lovely, this community. So I think if people were thinking about, I suppose, relocating, it's probably dependent on what they want to do so we've got really supportive networks within the community um not just the school community but within our local community you know it's really good to go to local farmers markets and know your local butcher there's lots of positives i think with some of the negatives you know we don't always have some activities like our son wanted to learn fencing and i was like that's not really an option here um do you like football

or riding your bike or canoeing, as it were. Yeah, so pretty much, you know, with smaller schools and things like that, their learning is pretty much one-to-one, which is a lot different compared to when we were in high school and there was, you know, 700 people there. So, yeah, lots of positives. And I think sometimes there are negatives just depending on how you adapt. Like if you're quite used to popping to the supermarket

at 2 o'clock in the morning, that doesn't exist here. Yeah, that's not an option. So I live in a really small town and my partner came up for a weekend, Bridge, and it was 8 o'clock on a Friday night and she said, do you think any of the food places are still open? And I live in the city. I was like, I reckon we're half a chance, Bridge, to get some food. Yeah, maybe.

Poor sweet country girl. Yeah. Hey, thank you so much for sharing your story and letting us perv and pry on your financial details. It's been interesting and, as we said before, very impressive to hear about how the family's all getting into it and not letting, you know, what could be a good excuse to not invest or to let things slip, but it actually seems like you're coming out

in a real positive space. So well done and thanks again for sharing. Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you very much. Just before we head off, we'd like to acknowledge and pay respects to Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the traditional custodians of the lands, waterways and 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. Now, guys, keep in mind that the advice shared on She's on the Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or a financial decision.

And we do promise I am actually an authorised representative of Australia Pacific Funds Management Proprietary Limited, ABN 34132463257, AFSL 339151. And again, thanks to Ryan, John and to Bec, our producing legends who whipped this show into the show that it is. Yep. If you've got a great story that you think the community would appreciate, send me an email at ryan.john at shesonthemoney.com.au. And maybe you or someone you know can be on an episode in the future. Thanks for joining, friends.

See you next week. Thanks for watching!