She's On The Money - The Power Of Setting Small Money Goals

Episode Date: January 16, 2024

"From little things, big things grow" as the song goes. You might think that some goals are too small to even be bothered with in he first place, but at SOTM we love these the most! These are the goals that have huge transformational power. And on today's episode we talk about why and also share ways to stay on track with your goals and keep motivated! Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements.The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, my name is Natasha Nabanunga-Bamblett. I'm a proud Yorta Yorta, Kernai, Wolperi and Awadjeri woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on Awadjeri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. She's on the money.

She's on the money. Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. It'll come as no surprise to those of you who listen often to the show that I'm Bex Syed. Just kidding. You are not Bex Syed. Bex Syed is sick, Jessica Ritchie. She is. You've got me instead today. Lucky. Hopefully I do her justice. And I'm really excited because today we're talking all things small money goals with financial wizard Victoria Devine. Oh, hello. You're here too. I'm excited about this. It's been a while since you've been on a deep dive. I know. This is fun. And I love a good goal setting moment. We were talking about-

When I told you about the topic, I was like, look, Bex not well. Do you think you can do this episode, you're like, oh, this was made for me. We love a good goal in this team. And V, you're always throwing around the quote, from little things, big things grow. No, I'm not. What are you talking about? I would never. Definitely don't have it printed on books and signs. I would not play dry as Paul Kelly's work ever. But it's been a little while since we'd spoken about how this concept can apply to our finances and not just as like a fun little motivational quote I love a little quote but like it means a lot to me because it is true right like and it's one of those things that I used to tell myself when I was getting out of debt or when I

was doing things that were really hard it was like from little things big things grow it's okay later I'm probably going to teach you about ants because like yeah okay but I'm gonna teach you about ants but like one ant you think is really like insignificant and like if you put it on a scale it would not mean that much but like the strength an ant has is so mighty and powerful like they can lift like more than 20 times their own body weight jess like one that's wild two that's terrifying imagine if there were giant ants on this planet like i'm done i'm out like you were scared of spiders um no i'm terrified of ants yeah they run around and they're like but like they all come together and there are more ants that like if we looked at the world

there is a higher volume by weight of ants than there are people Jess. I could have lived my day without knowing that but moving on. But they're little but like they're mighty and so are we and so I think it's a really cool quote that a lot of people in our community really resonate with which is why I bring it up so often but also it's something that keeps me motivated because sometimes you don't feel like doing the little things but you're like no the little things they actually make up the big things. A hundred percent and I feel like that really leans into what we're going to chat about today, which is the power of setting small goals specifically. A lot of people out there don't often set themselves financial goals. And I think that's because sometimes

the big goals can seem unattainable, but setting a goal for $20 or $50 might feel like a bit of a waste of time. Do you think that's the case? Honestly, historically, I thought that was a waste of time. Take it back to when I was like 23, 24, getting out of debt. And if you told me the like you need to set small financial goals I'd be like I'm in debt Jessica I have tens of thousands of dollars of debt and you want me to set a $50 financial goal that is a waste of time but that is absolutely not the case I'm stats girl in this house also quotes girl so I have another one for you I love you've heard this on the show before but if you can't manage $10 you definitely can't manage $10,000 and that's so so true like I created she's on the money

because I obviously adore helping people when it comes to all things finance. And if you just paid off your debt and bought a house and started the business or got the promotion, like I'm here to celebrate you, but I'm also here to celebrate the small things and the small steps because they're the building blocks. Like setting your first $50 financial goal, it's all about confidence. It's instilling in you the idea that you definitely can do this and you can start scaling it. Like how many of us want to you know pay off all our debt but it seems all-consuming and overwhelming and every other financial goal Jess you've set you've failed at because you haven't done the planning or you haven't had the right tools or resources or you haven't had the commitment let's

be honest I'm really good at going I want to do this this week and to your dismay Jessica next week I don't want to do that anymore I'll do something else so I think it's really important to kind of like celebrate the small things as well as the large things because the small things become the large things. What would you say to someone who felt as though sharing the idea of a small money goal with maybe their friends or their family, you know, if they do decide to set that smaller $20 or $50 goal, but they go, oh, it seems a bit lame, a bit embarrassing. It's a bit silly. Yeah. How do we kind of overcome that? The small wins are the big wins, Jess, and they often go unnoticed. And I think that's because we usually see people, especially in 2024, Jess,

like social media is insane yeah let's be honest like let's make this a bit more relatable I'm probably not going to post on my Instagram stories about achieving a $50 financial goal because how many times do you see people celebrating their really big financial goals on social media where they're like I bought my first house I bought my first car I got out of mass amounts of debt and you're like oh like is it that good yes it is because the small things they're the transformational ones they're the ones that are going to change our lives for the better and it turns out that when we set the small ones we are more likely to achieve the big ones and when we see our goals as too big from a psychological perspective it actually over

stimulates our brain like we get analysis paralysis we feel overwhelmed and uninspired and then we can't deal with our goals rationally we go oh it's not enough or it's too much or it's too hard. And that's when we like to bury our heads in the sand. But when we actually focus on really specific, smaller things, they are smaller problems to solve. We're able to achieve them, but we're also able to build our confidence and we're able to learn from them and go, oh, I, you know, I thought I could do that $50, but far out. I actually need to tighten up my budget a little bit. You're not waiting an entire 12 month period, Jess, to find out that your budget was wrong. Like we're doing small things, small steps in the right direction, and we're able to build

them up. And then that becomes the big thing. We're breaking things down so that we feel good about ourselves. And there's a researcher called Carl Weck, and he put it, well, maybe this is a new like quote to add to the quote portfolio this year. He said, small wins are controllable opportunities that produce visible results. Oh, I love that. I love that too. It's not as easy as like from little things, big things grow. But like, I just really like the intention behind it. Anecdotally, that's why I love our money wins thread that we put in the Facebook group and that we run through on a Friday episode. Because yes, we do have people going, oh, I paid off my credit card or I did this or I did that. But sometimes someone goes, got some free chips at Macca's this

week. And you're like, slay queen. Or they're saying like, I did my budget and cash flow and I've been doing it for a year. And Jess, for the first time, I've got 20 bucks left over. queen behavior. Is there such a thing as too small of a money goal? I like that you're asking, but you and I both know the answer. Jess, is the answer yes or no? I'm going to say no. No, of course. It's all about consistency and proving to yourself that you can do it. I think so many of us are in this circumstance where we're so empowered to change our financial goals and our financial lives. And we're so excited about that. But we also need to recognize

that our money stories are such big parts of this and they could be working against you so if you didn't grow up with the tools and the resources and then all of a sudden you've joined the she's on the money community or you've joined any other finance community and you're really excited about getting it done and then you're really overwhelmed because you're like oh saving for a house I've gone from having absolutely no you know restriction on how I spend or like structure or any type of plan when it comes to finances. And now I'm saving for my first house. Jess, that's a massive change. And as much as that's a noble one, if you're doing that, then I'm so proud of you. But let's be honest, you don't just wake up one day and go, do you know what, Jess? I've been thinking,

I don't even like the gym. I don't like exercising. Sometimes I justify the walk to the coffee shop as my exercise. Is that fair? Six months from now, I'm going to run a marathon. Yeah. Would I do that? Would you, like, probably I have ADHD and sometimes I just get fixated on things. But is that reasonable? You would go, V, that's way too much to bite off. You don't even run 5K now.

You couldn't even run 5K. And Jess, you know what? There are some people in this world who have done that. They've woken up one day and gone, I'm going to run a marathon. Yeah. It's psychotic. I am not one of those people. I am not one of those people.

but also you can't just wake up one day and all of a sudden be able to do these really big things without some practice first. We need to run a few 5Ks. We need to learn to run the first 100 meters. So these small goals are what creates the big goal. And I think it's obviously going to depend on your financial situation and, you know, what you want to create in life and what job you have and what cashflow you've got accessible. But so many small money wins are actually quite personal. And again, there's no right or wrong, but you need to find your own inner motivation. Yeah. But you also need to be reasonable.

Like you can't just wake up tomorrow and be like, all of a sudden I can run a marathon. Yeah. I can't be like, I'm going to walk on the moon this month. It's just not going to happen. Like there's got to be a plan in place. What about the people who can't think of a small goal that they want to reach? If maybe they're focusing, their goal is to buy the house. Yeah.

That's they've woken up. They've gone, nope, that's really important to me. That's what I want to do. But how do I, I can't. I want to run the marathon V. Yeah. stop trying to gaslight me into not running a marathon. Yeah. But how do I, the buying a house is a big goal. Like I can't buy a house for $500. So what's the small goal there? So I don't think

that there's no such thing as not having small goals because often small goals are just really big goals that are broken down into smaller parts. So when we can celebrate them along the way, but also we can prove to ourselves that we are capable. We can prove to ourselves that we can do this. Sometimes we need that. And while smaller goals, you might be like, V, look, a smaller financial goal is just not going to work for me right now. It might actually be a better use of your time to break this house goal into smaller chunks. So maybe we're talking about setting up your first emergency fund instead of making your goal to have like a $5,000 emergency fund. If you've never had one before, Jess, it's going to feel overwhelming, uninspiring,

too much. You might start and then be like, I'm only $200 of the way there. I thought I'd be better at it. What the hell? Maybe we actually set the goal of saving your first $100. Like, let's just save $100. I know there's a bigger goal at play in the future, but like, you've never done this before. So let's start at the very start, $100. This way you could start using this $100 figure as building blocks for your bigger goals. One, we can celebrate along the way and here it is on money. That's all we want to do. Like if somebody every single week posted in my like money wins thread and said, oh, yep, got another 50 bucks in my emergency fund. I'd be like, Slate, get it. Like I'm so here for that. So please start sharing those. But it proves to

yourself that you can be good at money. People aren't born good at money, Jess. You have to learn. It has to be ingrained. It has to be taught. So you can teach yourself that you can be good at money and then there's the idea that small wins again from more of a psychological perspective they're so good for your well-being they're so good for your mental health because big wins and big losses they're so much more dramatic it's like being bipolar and having these massive mood swings and going from one extreme to another like you have a really big win you're going to celebrate really big but often people experiencing something like bipolar they can't just feel okay in the middle. So it's finding that beautiful middle ground where we can celebrate the small things

and go, these minor boosts, they come from my day-to-day activities and I'm happy along the journey, not just with the destination. And I think to me, that's really, really important. Yeah, that's huge. I feel like there's probably a lot of people listening who are getting excited by the idea of what they can do. I hope so, because like new year, new financial goals, baby. It's the perfect time to be looking at this. So let's head to a really quick break. And when we come back, I want to ask you a bit more about how we can start looking for and celebrating those small money goals so we can all have our best year yet. Good quote, Jess.

Have your best year yet. All right, we're back, VD, and I'm feeling very excited about the idea of setting some small money goals. I'm sure everybody else listening is as well. It's just 2024, the year of celebration. I love that. It's this year, one big party. This year is our year, Jess.

I feel it. I do genuinely feel like we are making the conscious decision, Jess, to have the best year yet. Like, I feel like you're doing this too. You're like, end of 2023, absolute trash. If you listen to our Friday drinks episodes, you know what Jess is going through. IYK, IYK. But I guess my whole entire point is to, I guess, celebrate more often and give ourselves

the credit that we deserve. I guess the more you can prove to yourself that you can in fact achieve small money goals even life goals like it doesn't just have to be small money goals it's going to build your confidence yeah you're going to be like um I can do this I've done it before if I can do it with 10 bucks just I could do it with 20 bucks it'd be 20 I could do it with 40 and it just compounds from there it's like investing but investing in yourself oh look what I did there well done but you don't as I said in the first half of the episode, you're not just going to immediately wake up with all this motivation and all this self-discipline and I guess a plan to create financial freedom. We

actually need to break it down into smaller blocks. And these things sadly don't happen overnight. Like I could, I wish, you know, you and I could wake up one day and be like, we, today, today's the day we're going to create financial freedom. We'll be financially free tomorrow, just how I imagined. It's just not going to happen and that's okay. But as human beings we are the worst at delayed gratification yeah so like let's work with that and give you some gratification along the way to do that we need to make the goals smaller because turns out weird but money is not infinite that seems kind of rude kind of rude not okay but like we don't actually have enough of it to achieve absolutely everything at once and if you do I really

one I'm envious but two why are you listening to my podcast if you're a multi-billionaire Yeah. Weird. Okay. But hi, welcome. If you need some financial advice, I might go back into business. But I guess as long as we don't put too much pressure on ourselves, that's the plan. So we're going to celebrate small goals this year, but we're also going to take the pressure off because life is tough right now. And I think we need to acknowledge that too. Cause even if you're like V, setting small financial goals sounds really sexy. I do not have 50 bucks in my budget right now? How about we just remember that every part of your life is a season and right now you're going through a season that is a little bit more complex, a little bit more pressure, and that's

okay, but you don't always have to be saving and investing. I think so many times you hear from financial content creators like, you cannot stop, you have to invest consistently and regularly. Don't get me wrong. That's where the power of compound interest comes in. But if life is getting in the way you take that pressure off yourself and you do you and I'm proud that one day you'll be back on the horse yeah I think there are lots of people who listen to the show who are maybe learning about things that they're not quite in the place to implement yet and I feel like there is but you'll be ready yeah you don't undervalue the power of educating yourself I guess is what I'm trying to say and like if you're listening to this and going oh I want to set goals what

would those goals look like like even if you're just thinking about the goals and you're not We can be aspirational. We can make a plan. We can be like, oh, well, in the future, you know, maybe once daycare is over or maybe once you're out of personal debt or maybe once you get a job again, like you can get back on track with these things. But that doesn't mean we have to like hide from the fact that we want to achieve these things in the future. Isn't it motivational to like be like, no, no, no, I'm totally capable. I just don't have the right tool in my hand right now. And that is setting yourself up for success just as much as setting those goals could be as well. Exactly. I know that you love a tactical, tangible way to do things. I love setting a goal.

I love a plan. I love a spreadsheet. Seems like the perfect woman to be running this episode. So tell me, have you got anything for us when it comes to goal setting? So obviously these small goals are going to build up our confidence. And in my head, they actually create like a snowball effect. It's like debt reduction. We've talked about the avalanche method. We've also historically talked about the snowball method. And that's where like you have a really small snowball and drop it at the top of a mountain and as it starts to roll down it starts to pick up more and more snow and become bigger and bigger and you know a snowflake tiny not going to have an impact on anything but get heaps of them together and you have a snowball and I could literally throw it at you yeah slay

that would be so fun you've never been to the snow so have you been to the snow I saw it once on top of Mount Tanzania yeah okay I remember this conversation because I feel like this year I'm gonna take you to the snow and I'm gonna put you on some skis I'm gonna push you to the mountain achieve your goals bye it's your best year yet Jessica you wait you wait but I guess on your own small money wins they can just feel boring yeah they can feel bland I feel that it's not that exciting so I think we need to tap into the power of small wins so that I guess they have meaning and they don't feel like useless tasks that you don't know why you did them and I guess we need to start seeing it that way it's a bit of a mind frame reset as well and we need to talk about I

guess recognizing why they matter and giving yourself credit for that because how many times do you do something you're like yeah I guess it was the right thing to do like onto the next onto the next no worries but let's give ourselves credit for stuff like that and celebrate them as they happen not saying you need to have a party every single time you have a money win Jess or like a party crack a bottle of expensive champagne to celebrate that you saved $50 but you spent $80 on the champers like that's not the type of celebrating I think it's more of a like be proud of yourself take a minute and be like oh yeah I did it and I'm gonna do it again like I think that that's really important obviously share it with us there are so many ways that you can

actually celebrate I'm list scowl I love this episode I've reminded you that I'm stats girl I'm quotes gal and you're so list girl also spreadsheet girl oh god do you know in Vegas they have a spreadsheet competition you would win I have no doubt I don't know if I'd win But like if I was ever single, that might be where I go to find another husband. Yeah, the love of your life, you old girl, outside of spreadsheets. Just need a guy who's a freak in the sheets, you know. Anyway. Very well done.

But given I am the queen of lists, I have clearly written you a list to help you keep the momentum up. So first things first, to celebrate your wins, obviously, because we're not going to be going hard every single time we have a small money win, because you should be having them regularly. We're going to keep a journal. like we're going to keep a list of things that we have won a list of wins that you want to achieve because obviously all of these wins are going to add up and all of the little things that you're doing in the list you might think that they're mundane but I promise when you get to the end

of the year and you reflect on them you're going to have this book of all the stuff that you did for you that's cool isn't that kind of cool to like flip through and I don't know I like reading my diary from when I was younger and I look at it and I go oh my gosh that was lame but also go boo like I love it so I think keeping a list is going to keep your momentum up but it also kind of keeps you accountable because you're writing that list yeah the done list as well so not just these ideas that you're going to achieve write those down but obviously write down the things that you've actually learned make room and make space celebrate them find a little accountability partner like Jess I know if I did something I do usually text you to tell you but

if you don't have that friend or that person in your life oh she's on the money's there we have our money wins and confessions thread also don't be too harsh on yourself when you don't achieve something like even if it was little and you're like far out I can't even achieve that that's fine let's talk about it posted in the group what went wrong how can I help you reframe that so that one you see it as a learning instead of something that was really awful that happened to you but two, how do we do it better next time? Is there something else we need to tweak? Like, I promise we've got your back. And so does the rest of the community. So does the rest of the community. And then I guess, remember why you're here and why you're doing it. Like we always say on the

podcast, when in doubt, zoom out. Sometimes you might be doubting why you're doing little things. Zoom out. You're creating this level of financial literacy for yourself that you have never had. You are teaching yourself this confidence that you have never had. You're teaching yourself these positive habits and behaviors that you've never had. Like, isn't that cool? Yeah. Let's zoom out and see why we're doing this. It's not just because you want another 50 bucks in your account, Jess. Like, it is from little things, big things grow. Yeah. And you're doing the groundwork so that the big things that seem so huge now eventually don't seem so big. And it can take time, but I promise it is worth it. Yeah, absolutely. But before we go, can you tell

me, is there anything we should be avoiding when we're setting these small money goals? Obviously, positive mindset is everything. If you're going to be negative about it, we're not going to get very far very quickly. I don't know if you know this, quote Scal. Oh, are you? Yeah, quote Scal. Jess, quote here, comparison is the thief of all joy. That's a classic. Yeah, it's a classic quote. It's so true though.

I've never been quoted. I just quote other people. So one day, maybe if I stopped stealing everybody else's quotes, I could come up with my own. But it's true, right? Like in every single area of our lives, we need to cut out this idea of comparison. So we need to cut out the idea that I would compare myself to your financial goals and vice versa. But when it comes to small things, you shouldn't just be avoiding comparing yourself to each other and your peers and your friends. You should actually be avoiding comparing yourself to past you because past you, they did the best they could, but they might not have been as good at it. Also, they might've been great at it. Like maybe one time you saved for a house,

And now life has completely changed, Jess. You've got young kids. You're not that on top of finances. Maybe finances used to be really easy and you're like, I used to be able to do this. Why can't I do it now? Let's give ourselves a little bit of grace and understand why that might be the case. As I've said before, life is about seasons and sometimes we go through easier seasons. Sometimes we go through harder seasons.

And I think it's really important to just, I guess, look at that, but also not compare our little stuff to our big stuff and go, oh, well, that goal doesn't matter because I want to save for a house in the future, if that makes sense. I watched a TED Talk recently. It was actually a snippet from a TikTok, but it was a TED Talk. I feel like I'm really good at TikTok. And the talk was called Weighing Ants. I told you I was going to bring ants into this.

Here we go, I was wondering. So there's an educator out there called Mernas Basiri, and they said that we can't take the tiniest wins and accomplishments of our lives and throw them on the scales and expect to see the needle move. but Jess I told you earlier ants are really powerful so ants have been documented here this is now becoming she's on the ant facts instead of she's on the money but ants have been documented to be able to carry up to 20 times their own body weight and if a human could

lift 20 times their own body weight Jess they'd be able to lift like just over 2,000 kilograms wow I mean she's on the ant facts but also the purpose of that is from little things big things grow and those small money wins, they become the big money wins. And to me, they are so wildly important. And then I guess what you need to really, really remember is that small wins are honestly more important in so many ways than the really big ones. Like ticking off life milestones, I totally get it. But your beliefs, your values, your behaviors are being reiterated every time you celebrate a small goal, set a small goal, achieve a small goal. Because often just looking at your small wins in a series often this can only happen in hindsight like keeping a journal

you can just see how much progress you've made and how much maybe your mindset has changed and we can do that this year like I think that that is so beautiful and I think being able to seize that opportunity and go no I can really do this like it's a small step in the right direction yeah 100% I feel like that is really exemplified in on our website on the freebies page the savings hacks oh they're my favorite they're wonderful and we have them for one and we've just redesigned them so they're all in the new branding guys so if you have the old ones go get the new ones yeah they're in one thousand five thousand ten thousand and twenty thousand dollar increment and the idea is that you take a set amount of money every week and you pop it in so

you have 52 deposits that you make over the course of the year and those deposits range everywhere from you know maybe a hundred dollars some of them are seven dollars and there's also like a free week so like you have no cash all it's okay we've allocated we've given you a free pass yeah but it It's one of those things where I think people would look at it and go, $7? What's the point? That's not going to get me to $1,000. But those little things, when you put them all together, they add up to a lot. And like you said, sometimes keeping track of that is such a good way to be able to reflect

on all the small things that you've done to put yourself first, which I just think is. I'm a visual girlie though. Like I love a spreadsheet. I love a tracker. I love printing things out and putting them on my walls. I love a vision board. You do too. Like if I can see it, I can believe it.

And if I can believe it, I can achieve it. Oh, okay. I'm going to see myself out. I'm going to see myself out. That's enough for today, I think. You know what? We could even cut that one out. That's fine.

I just know that our producers aren't, though. They're like, she's straight under the bus. If she thought she was having a good year this year, she is not. But I feel like this has been a fun ep. Thank you for joining me. I love a little Wednesday ep, but also I feel like it's been a good one. Get ourselves back on track and start smashing goals. Beck will be back on Friday, don't you worry.

And we'll see you then, guys. Have the best week. 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 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 MoneySherpa

PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.