She's On The Money - Setting Up Your New Year Investment Plan

Episode Date: January 3, 2023

New year, new intentions! It’s the perfect time to make some investing resolutions, complete a good financial revue of the year that was and set some intentions for the year ahead. So join us today as Victoria steps us though how to get on the front foot with your financials for 2023! 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, Kurni, Wolperi and Awadjuri 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 Awadjuri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. She's on the money. She's on the money.

Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. My name is Jessica Ricci and with me as always is finance expert Victoria Devine. I am so excited about this episode. It is another opportunity to talk to you guys about how to develop an investing plan and I could not be more excited about it. I am so excited to be back. We've just had a Christmas break. We're feeling refreshed, we're feeling good and we are hopefully feeling ready to tackle the new year and set ourselves up to hopefully have a very successful, very prosperous, hopefully, year. I hate the word prosperous. I feel like, like I love the intent of the word, but I feel like that word just

prosperous just sounds like it's gatekept for wealthy people. I would like everyone to have a prosperous year. Yeah, same. I don't want them to not have a prosperous. I just don't like the word. Anyway, we can move on because I have a whole laundry list of stuff to get through. I really want to take you guys through not only setting up an investment plan, which we've obviously covered before, but like recap it so it's front of mind and super fresh for the year to come. Because even if you have already set up an investment plan, an investment plan isn't something that you set and forget. It's something that we consistently check on and make sure that we're up to date with because things change. Right now, even if they don't feel like they

are very different. Even if we press rewind till the 4th of January last year, I guarantee things are very different. And you know what? That's not a bad thing, but we need to be on top of it. So Jess, let's get into it. I know none of this will come as a surprise, but we are here to refresh you, here to review everything, and to hopefully give you a little bit of motivation to kick things off in a very, very exciting way. Sounds incredible. All right, VD, where do we begin, new you, new me, what is the very first step that I should be taking to set up my brand new shiny investment plan? All right. So whether you're planning on setting up a new investment plan or just refreshing and reviewing one that exists already, the first thing I'm going to say

is review your finances. So if we rewind back to season one of She's On The Money, I think like episode two, it was very, very long ago. But the reason it's there is because it's always relevant. so we are going to do a bank account audit it is not very exciting I promise but with a good glass of wine or a cup of tea or even maybe like an Aperol in hand this time of year I promise it can be a good exercise but what you're going to do is sit down and go through your bank statements so you're going to print out and I know that we want to save paper in this house but to me this is one of the best ways that you can actually do it because it's really visible it's not like oh I wrote it on my phone on a list or I just flicked through something on my phone. Like that's not

powerful. Power is holding it in your hands and actually being able to see like, oh my gosh, this means this and this means that. So you're going to grab two colored highlighters, different colors, please. And you're going to go through three months with your bank account statements and highlight your discretionary expenses in one color and your non-discretionary expenses in the other. So discretionary expenses are the things that you don't really need to spend money on to survive. So we're talking like takeaway and shopping and Christmas expenses. We are going to go through things that, you know, you don't have to spend money on to survive. We're not saying that you can't, this isn't a good or a bad conversation. It's just highlight your

discretionary in the green and then your pink highlighter, you're going to highlight your non-discretionary. So that's things like rent or mortgage or your electricity bills or your grocery bills or things that we don't have a lot of power over. Because the second that we do that, we can see where our split of money is going. But also, as you highlight things that are discretionary, you can go, oh, my gosh, that isn't aligned to my values, or I do like this, or I don't like this. And to me, that's a really powerful place to start. And putting everything in perspective means that when you go to do a budget and a cash flow, you're more likely to know where you want to pull things in, or it's going to highlight areas that you're spending that maybe

you weren't as aware of as you could be. I remember the first time I ever did this, I was shocked just by the sheer volume of transactions that came out. Because I mean, you never really go through, unless you're looking for something specific, you never really go through line by line what you've got, which I guess is the whole purpose of this. And I printed it out and I remember it was like 10 pages or something for a month. And I was like, are you joking? I really do need a wine. Yeah. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm going to be here forever. It is actually like that. And that's why I always say like, grab a glass of wine or a cup of tea and do it as kind of, I would say, a self-care activity because it's not meant to be, oh my

gosh, Jess, like you're so naughty, you've had so many transactions. I think what the intention of this activity is, one, to understand where your money is going and what you're spending it on, but just to highlight to you literally very physically, because, you know, these days money isn't that physical, that it is actually the small things that add up. It's the $1 Slurpee at 7-Eleven consistently. It is the coffees. Yeah, but do you know what I mean? Like it's the small things that we spend on that we go far out. Like I knew I did that and it didn't quite matter, but I wish I didn't do that as much because I didn't realize that would mean an extra $20 towards something that I really, really care about at the end of the month. So it's really about pulling together

all of your finances and reviewing them, not just going, do I pay rent? Yes. Do you know what I mean? Like, I feel like it can sound like a bland exercise, but I get so many messages so consistently from people saying, oh my gosh, Victoria, I did this. I'd been putting it off because it just didn't make sense. I actually feel so on top of my money. Now I know where every dollar is going. I feel like the new year is a good time to do that as well, because we're all feeling good about setting ourselves up and setting new intentions. And we spoke a lot about this last week in our goal setting episode, but kind of harnessing the power of how we're feeling right now we're all feeling good and excited and shiny and new and do you know why

I'm making you do it at the start of the year as well Jess and why I made you include Christmas in it why because one the next step I'm going to spoil it now we're going to talk about budgeting but I need you to know what you spent on Christmas so that we now have a full 12 months to set ourselves up for financial success during a festive period because it's the one thing that's always going to happen. Like if you celebrate Christmas or you celebrate something festive at that period of the year, like you know it's coming and it's really hard to budget for it when you're like, oh, far out. Like, all right, well, I'm going to get Jess a present. It'll be $50. I'll get Annalisa a present. That'll be $50. And then actually going through your bank

statements is going to show you, oh, well, Jess's present was actually $65 and Annalisa's was actually $40. Or, you know, Gabby's present was actually $110 because you wanted to get them something different. And I think that it's not really about what you're spending, but being aware of it. Because if in January we started putting money aside for Christmas, everybody would be so much less stressed about something that's arguably going to come up because you don't just not celebrate Christmas one year. Like it's coming, let's prepare for it. And it's not that sexy, but I promise, especially right now where you're probably still feeling that overarching feeling of stress from Christmas, because it's still probably financially impacting you. It's

a good time to set that intention and actually put yourself forward because we don't want to feel like this on the 4th of January next year. Oh, she's a thinker. And we know that a lot of people are in the same boat and thinking about the same thing as us because when we did our community Christmas hacks episode a few weeks ago, that was one of the top ones that came through. So we're all clearly on the same wavelength. Talk to me about budget and cash flow. I feel like, again, the new year is the perfect time to be taking a look. All right. So I spoiled it before, but the next step is to do your budget and cash flow. You can obviously jump online if you wanted to and do our budget and cash flow program. Obviously, I'm a little bit biased and I think

it works really well, but so do thousands of other people. Or you could just sit down and use our free budget tool on our website. Yes, it's a bit more manual, but money when it is free and put yourself back in control. So you've done your bank account audit. You kind of know a little bit about where your money is going and what's going on. Now let's sit down and actually do a budget. Let's write down all of our expenses and where they're going. And not only that, but take it to the next level and create a cash flow system. So I think that this, or from my perspective, this is where a lot of money systems fall short. So doing a budget, so exciting, right, Jess? Like I know you love doing a good budget because we talk about it

all the time, but we love sitting down and going, I feel so in control. I feel so empowered. I'm going to write down all of my expenses and what I'm going to budget for them and what I earn and what my debts are. And I'm going to, you know, put it in this system that makes sense. And you have this spreadsheet and then you file it away and you never touch it again because it isn't reflective of the cash flow system that you have. So a cash flow system is a banking system that puts you in control of your budget by making sure that every single dollar that comes in has a home to go to. So it might be a different bank account. It might be your spending account every day, but it makes sure that every dollar goes into a cash hub and that cash hub keeps

your money safe because it's so easy to lose money over time. And I know that people are going to be like, what do you mean lose money, Victoria? But if it's in your spending account, you might just spend it. You'll be like, oh, there's 50 bucks in there. I can afford another $10 sandwich. It's all good. And then come July this year, you're going to turn around and be like, oh my gosh, I completely forgot I had retro due. Like we're going to plan for all of that. So this year finance isn't a stress for you, but rather something that empowers you. And regardless of what financial situation you are in, whether you are in significant personal debt, whether you are a millionaire, whether you are just about to save your first home deposit, I promise having a cash flow system

is going to make you feel far more empowered in all of those situations. I promise even if you are in debt and burying your head in the sand right now about money, you're not going to feel stressed about it because there's a plan. There's a system. It takes the weight off your shoulders and puts it on the system as opposed to you. And I think that that is one of the most empowering things about a budget and cashflow system because they work together to put you in a less stressed place because there's a plan actually working as opposed to a cute spreadsheet that got filed away that didn't get looked at and didn't actually help because I don't want to look at it on a weekly basis. What about our friends who might have done the right thing and set themselves up with a

really solid budget or a cashflow last year? Do they still need to be checking in and reviewing it, even if they feel like nothing's really changed. Absolutely. Because our values change over time and the way we live our lives changes, Jess. Like it just is different. Like Jess, last year, you and I were really into Pilates, but we haven't done that recently. So imagine if I had an ongoing Pilates membership that I was still paying for, and I still feel like, oh, I want that. I'll go back to that. But it's like 60 bucks a month or something. And you know, we're not using it. Maybe it's time to just have that highlighted to me and cancel it. I recently, as you know, have been obsessed with the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I downloaded a new streaming

platform and I have been using that, but now vocalizing it, I've really stopped watching Real Housewives of Beverly Hills because I don't have time. I'm really busy at the moment. So you know what? If I reviewed my budget, I could probably get rid of that for now because the one thing that I don't think people conceptualize often when we talk about budgeting is you can actually remove something from your budget right now, but it doesn't mean you can't go back to it. It doesn't mean that when I get back into Real Housewives of Salt Lake City or something that we were talking about the other day, I can't re-download it. I absolutely can. But right here and now, I will save like 15 bucks a month by just getting rid of it because I'm not using it.

So I think that reviewing your budget, regardless of where you are, doesn't mean that your salary has changed. It doesn't mean that your goals have changed, but there are small tweaks along the way that we need to track. And it might not equal out that, oh my gosh, I've got heaps more in savings, but there might be some going to a different bucket and one going to savings and you know maybe something has changed and it might just redirect the flow doesn't necessarily mean that we have more savings but in a perfect world it does but we always want to be super on top of it so the right dollar is going into the right bucket and we are putting ourselves in control all right so we've done a financial audit we know how much we're spending we've done our budget and

cash flow so we now probably have a pretty good idea of what we can allocate to investing what is the next step we should be taking? We are going to redo our goals. And I love goal setting, especially at the start of the year, because it's like new year, new me vibes, right? Like everybody, the busiest time of gyms in the entire world is January. It's because everyone sets these beautiful intentions for themselves. And I've got a few girlfriends who used to work at gyms and they both say, oh my gosh, Victoria, it's so funny because all of these people start coming to the gym religiously in January. And by February, we're dead quiet because everybody's set these goals, but they're unrealistic and they don't maintain them throughout the year. So every

single year they laugh about it because they're like, oh, here comes the January flow of people who aren't going to stay. And that's kind of like our financial goals, right? It's because these people going to the gym aren't setting realistic goals for themselves. They're going, I'm going to go so hard on this. It's not going to work if you go so hard and don't actually intertwine it into the life that you actually live. So what we're going to do is set our financial goals. And the reason we're going to do that is because obviously having a plan means that you are 10 times more likely to achieve those goals, but it's a time to revisit the goals you set last year and be a little bit critical of them. So I don't mean crucify yourself if you

didn't achieve them. Let's say you set a goal of saving $10,000 last year. What happened to that goal? Did you achieve it? Did you not achieve it? Did you get halfway there? If so, why? We're not crucifying ourselves. We're not saying it's good or bad, but I want to fully understand why you achieved that goal or maybe why you didn't achieve that goal. Did you achieve it really easily because you set a plan in place and it was just auto direct debited from your account and that was really easy? Hey, there's something we can replicate again this year because it's tried and true. If you didn't achieve that goal, why didn't we achieve that goal? Is it because it was a stretch? Did you maybe not break that goal down into small enough bite-sized pieces to realize

that $10,000 over a year sounds like a lot of money, but it's still $27.50 each and every single day that you need to have going into your savings account. And if that's unobtainable and unachievable, why would we set that goal again? Because it's not going to be met. How do we create a plan that puts you in the driver's seat? So I think whether you achieved a goal or you didn't we need to look at why that's the case because this year it's all about putting yourself back in control and if you did achieve it fantastic we can probably do it again and do some more and create plans that involve that way of setting goals. If you didn't achieve it let's go back to the drawing board and find something that does work because we can't keep trying to make something work if it didn't

work the first 12 months that we implemented it. Yeah, that makes total sense. Alrighty, don't go anywhere, guys. We're going to dash to a really quick break. But when we come back, we're going to tell you how to take everything we just spoke about and use that for your investment plan. Don't go anywhere. Alrighty, guys, welcome back. And you might be listening to that first half going, Victoria, I've barely heard you say the word investing. It's your favorite thing in the world. What's going on? It is. It is. Well, do not stress, everybody. We're about to get deep into the nitty gritty of how you're going to take all of these brand new year good vibes and take yourself up for your investing plan. Genius. VD, where are

we starting? So first things first, I wanted to set you up with the first half of this episode with like a refresher because investment ultimately is about money. And if we're not in control or really deeply understanding our money, your investment plan's not going to last. So let's set all of those up and let's call them like hygiene points. You need to meet them. It doesn't matter whether you like doing it or not. It's kind of like brushing your teeth at the end of the day. Like you're meant to do it. Not very fun. Like it's not the best task. I like brushing my teeth, Jess, because I just don't like that furry feeling. Like it gives me anxiety and laying in bed, I don't feel like I can go straight to sleep. So for me, it's become innate. But if you like

sometimes just go to bed without doing it, you know it's not good for you, right? So we actually need to do those hygiene points before setting up an investment plan because otherwise that investment plan isn't sustainable. So what are we going to do? First things first, we've done episodes on this. So obviously in the show notes, we will link back. So you've got more tools in your toolkit to reference, but the first thing we're going to do is understand risk. So I know I harp on about this all the time, but even if you already have done your risk profile, now's the time to do it again. And the reason is because Jess, as we said before, you're not the same person you were 12 months ago. Things change. Hopefully you've been listening to 12 months of

She's On The Money and you're more educated. You're more empowered. Maybe last year you started your investment portfolio and you were like, okay, so I've started with micro-investing and I'm dabbling in this and I want to take it to the next step and I feel more empowered. That's very likely going to have changed your investment risk profile. And I know that that sounds crazy because some people are like, shouldn't that be the same always? No, because it's really related to how educated you are, the financial circumstances that you're currently in, and what that actually means. So you're going to go do your risk profile and fully understand what it means for you. And to give it a really quick summary, an investment risk is basically the

likelihood that you might lose money in something that you've invested. And it takes into consideration a whole heap of different things. So things like the market risk, your education, how old you are, what your plan is, how long term these goals are, and puts you in a position where you get a risk profile spat out and Jess, you might be a growth investor. And then it will tell you the types of investments that might best suit you. Because somebody who is a growth investor, they come out and they will very likely have a suggested portfolio that is made up of shares. So most of that portfolio will be maybe some international shares, maybe some domestic shares. It doesn't matter how that split is, but their amount of cash that they're holding will be very low.

I was looking at my investment profile the other day and I am a high growth investor, so I only hold 2% cash. And to be honest, as a high growth investor, a lot of people don't even hold any cash at that point, but I like to have a little bit of flexibility. Whereas if you came out as more of a conservative investor, it's very likely that you might have like 40% international shares, 40% domestic shares, and then 20% of cash or bonds or something a little bit more stable. So it really depends. And it's actually really important to have this guideline so that you're investing in line with the risk that you want to take on. And you don't get another 12 months down the line, you know, like, oh my gosh, Jess, like I'm so stressed because I

don't fully comprehend this or I feel really uncomfortable with this or this isn't the right fit for me. All right. That sounds good. I love the tip to go back and refresh in case it's changed. What should we be doing next? Okay. So next is to research your investment options. So you need to find the right investment option for you. So as I said before, first we start with our risk profile so we know what we need to look at. Because Jess, if you come out as a high growth investor, why would you spend too much time researching bonds as an option? Because they're not an that most high growth investors are trying to pick. So to find the right investment option for you, we're going to do a few things. We're going to understand return. So like what is the expected

return on that investment that you want to make? You're going to look at the timeframe. So how long are you investing for? Is this like for two or three years, in which case you're probably going to go with something a little bit more conservative? Is it five years? Is it 10 years? Is it for the long term? Is this like your financial freedom investment so that you can retire? In which case that's a really long timeframe. So you could probably afford to have a little bit more risk. So we need to understand that. What access to cash do we need? So are you renovating a house right now and you want to start investing, but you also know you're going to need $10,000 in a few months to pay off a chibi? Well, in that case, it's not that smart to invest that money right now

because you need it to be quite liquid. What is the cost to buy and sell? So how much is it going to cost you to get into the share market? What does that actually mean? How much brokerage are you paying and how much does it cost to exit that investment? Because something that a lot of people forget is that sometimes there'll be an exit cost. And I know that at this time of the year, there are going to be a whole heap of people saying, oh my gosh, we've got free brokerage. We've got this, we've got that. No cost at all to trade on our platform. Look a little bit deeper because one, nothing worth having is ever free. There's very likely to be an exit fee on that because they need to make money somewhere, Jess. The next is tax. I really need you to know what

is involved when it comes to tax because there are tax implications and I don't want you to be stung with anything unnecessarily. If you're starting really small, it doesn't matter too much if I'm being honest, because if you're making money, we are paying tax money win. But if you're in a circumstance where you maybe have an inheritance and you're looking at selling that portfolio, there are going to be implications. If you have put a very large amount of money into the market and you're planning on selling it in nine months, Jess, I'd be really careful because if you then made money, you're going to be up for 50% capital gains tax and that's not that sexy. So while we don't need to be scared of it, we do need to be super aware and put ourselves back in

position where we're like, yep, I know what I'm doing. I'm totally okay with it. It is all good. But we then need after that to look at our platform of choice. So we've done a whole episode on this and we will absolutely link in the show notes back to this episode to make sure that's another tool that you've got in your toolkit to start this. Also, probably a really good time just to remind everybody that late last year, I wrote another book called Investing, which is on the money. And it takes you through how to put a whole strategy together, right? Literally, like I can't tell you how to invest individually because that would be unethical from my point of view, but also illegal. But what I can do is take you down a very beautiful garden path

that is mint green and gold, and it can take you through every step of the way so you can create your own investment plan. But looking at the different platforms that you want to invest in is really going to start narrowing down what we are going to invest in. So are you looking at a micro-investing platform? If so, there are a few, like there's not many options, but there are a few options here in Australia that you could choose from. So if that's the route you're going down, maybe wipe everything else off the table and just look at the differences between those two or three platforms, because it's going to stop you having overload. It's going to stop you from being like, oh my gosh, this is just so overwhelming. I don't even know where to start. If it's not

micro-investing, then maybe you want to go with a DIY platform, in which case you need to start looking at like, what features and benefits do I want to have? Do I want a really sexy app or do I want to be sent heaps and heaps of research on a daily basis to make a decision? Is my plan to buy ETFs or exchange traded funds or am I going to be a direct equities kind of gal and go and trade stocks individually on the US stock exchange? In which case, you need to make sure that the platform or the DIY platform that you're picking actually allows you to do that because not all DIY platforms are created the same, it doesn't mean they're good or bad. It's just about accessibility. And the thing I would say about DIY is it can be really overwhelming. But Jess,

in my book that I wrote, I'm quite biased. Even if you don't buy it, just pop into Kmart, guys, open to this page, have a little read and see what it means for you. But I did an entire comparison table of all of the platforms from micro-investing, DIY, robo-advice. They're all in a table. So you can immediately see the features and benefits and the costs and what accessibility they have and what they don't have access to. So you can go, oh, that's how that's in. Because for example, some people in our community adore trading with self-wealth and they're a really solid platform. They've been around for years. They have a lot more research on their platform than most platforms do because they're a little bit more technical. Like the

dashboard when you log in is a lot more technical, not in a we can't understand it way, we absolutely can, but it's less flashy if that makes sense. But the thing about that is they do have a minimum trade. So you have to have $500 to start with. Whereas if you compare it to a Sharesies, they've got less research. They still have research. They have really great research. It's just not nearly as comprehensive. And some people don't want to read white papers, you know. But their accessibility is one cent. So you can literally invest for one cent on that platform. So if you're like, oh, V, I was planning on starting direct shares with 50 bucks. Great. Well, maybe you wouldn't look at self-wealth because that's not an option. It's not about

what you like and what you don't like and about financial advice. It's actually more about what can I use in my circumstances and what aligns to the goals that I'm trying to achieve. So researching your investment options is really important. Then we've obviously got, and I won't harp on about it because I know that this episode is getting a little bit lengthy, but then you've got robo advice or direct financial advice and that episode will cover it all for you. Yeah, it's a really good time as well to be jumping on websites if you are choosing between different platforms because like you said before, a lot of places offer like new year deals or sign up bonuses and things like that. So definitely shop around, use that table in the book to kind

of give you an idea of what features you really like and then jump on the websites because you never know what things people might be offering. And obviously, you know, the books go to print and then people change things and it's a whole thing. Yeah. That was actually one thing I was about to say is like, I tried so hard for that to be super factually accurate, but like what if Ray's changed their face and it's a new year. So there might be different signup bonuses or different features and benefits available that weren't available when I wrote the book. So if you look at one and you're like, I think that's the option for me, please just jump on their website and cross-check the information to make sure that it's still aligned to what you think

you're getting. Because I would hate for you to sign up to something and then be like, oh shit, like they changed that. Yeah. No, due diligence always, always. We're such big fans of that. Okay. So we've done our finance audit. We've got our budget and cashflow all set up. We've set our goals. We know where we want our money to go. We figured out our risk profile and we've explored all of our different investment options. And we've got a pretty good idea of what we think might align well to us and our values. Queen behavior, honestly. Queen behavior. What now? All right. So this is the one that I think most people struggle with, and that's actually taking the step. So I know that there is going to be a handful of you who

are listening who are just so excited to invest. Maybe you've been listening to She's On The Money this entire time. Maybe you have done all the research. Maybe you've put together a spreadsheet and actually like analyzed it all yourself, but you haven't invested yet. This is the reminder to take the next step. I promise it is not as hard as you think it is. Women especially get analysis paralysis where there are too many options on the table or we get information overload and we just feel so overwhelmed that we don't make a decision. So I think now is a good reminder to say look not making a decision or not investing is still a choice. I know that you're like oh I just haven't decided to do it yet. I totally get that but if this is a goal of yours and something that

you really want to achieve, now is the time to take the first step. You do not have to start at the very top. You do not have to invest your life savings. You do not even have to invest $500 to start. But what you do need to do is if this is a plan for you and this is something that you want to achieve and you just can't put yourself in a position where you're like, oh my gosh, I just feel like I keep putting it off or I don't know what platform to go with. What if it's not the right platform. Jess, like it's fine to change. Yeah. Like it's fine to have a play on one and be like, oh, I don't really like this and move to another because let's see those fees as much as some people might go, oh, don't dabble around in lots of different platforms. You'll waste your

money. You'll lose some fees. Jess, that's not a good idea. What if that's an investment in your financial education and that's the money that actually got you started investing? What if, you know, the trading fee of $2.50 a month actually was an investment in your financial education. Just what's the worst that could happen? You lose the $10 that you invested. Like it's not actually a bad thing. I think that we need to take the next step and start giving ourselves exposure to the share market because that's the only way we are going to learn. I was talking to a couple of friends and I think I've said this on the podcast before, but my job when I was a financial advisor was actually quite technical, right? Like I had to know

everything. I had to have a degree. I had to be quite qualified to do that role. I had to pass the FASEA exam. But my knowledge really came on the job. Like it came from being in the markets every day. It came from the conversations with the stockbrokers that I would talk to on a regular basis. It came from the financial advisors around me. It came from my friends that I made in the industry who'd be like, oh, did you see this? What about this SOA? Like, it came from experience. And I think that we need to give ourselves the gift of experience now. And I've had so many people message me recently being like, oh, I just can't seem to take the next step, V. What do I do? I'm just, I don't know what to say to you because it's just start. But stop

being so overwhelming on yourself. Stop putting yourself in a position where you think that you need to be all end all and absolutely go the whole hog because you don't. Just take one step in the right direction and I promise it'll start snowballing from there. Oh my gosh, what a perfect place to leave it. And if you are feeling overwhelmed, don't forget we have an entire back catalogue of investing specific content. We did an entire investing episode every single month the entire year of 2022, which is pretty huge if you ask me. So definitely go back. There's a lot of information there. And there's heaps as well in your second book, Investing with She's on the Money. Geniuses. All right. Well, we have to go grab a coffee because I am exhausted after

essentially word vomiting everywhere. I was just too excited. So thank you for allowing me the space to do that. New year, new me vibes, I feel. Happy New Year. 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 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.