Victoria Devine // She's on the money!

the way millennials think about money. If you're anything like me, you may have grown up thinking money, along with religion and politics, is a topic never to be discussed at the table. But you may have also found that quite disempowering and an obstacle to actually learning how to build wealth, invest and safeguard your future. Enter Victoria and her unique ability to demystify and translate otherwise intimidating financial concepts to make them accessible, non judgmental, and I know it sounds

crazy but fun. She's on the Money covers everything from game changing budgeting templates to changing your money story and from debt or insurance to even planning financially for children, from a Facebook group to a podcast to a brand new, comprehensive book published just this week under the same name. She's on the Money is the ultimate millennial money guide that I cannot recommend for the neighborhood more highly.

chat about things that aren't captured in its pages. I was actually lucky enough to meet Victoria a few chapters before She's on the Money or sees thea had begun, and her way to EA is such a valuable reminder that the pathway to passion and purpose is far from linear. So I love spending quite a lot of time there because, as she says, and you'll hear quite soon, Victoria shares a lot in this episode that she hasn't shared before. She in fact didn't even start out in finance at all.

on a pedestal for me, so it's wild. Can you break the eyes and just remind us that you're a normal human?

Profile definitely has some beautiful pictures. We've got a gorgeous photographer, Miranda, who always makes us look like our best selves. But me in real life, if you came into the office, it's very likely that there are at least six empty coffee cups that have arguably been sitting on my desk for a week, which is not a good thing. That is not a bragging right, Like my team literally always like Victoria, yeah that's disgusting, and I'm like, I don't

even care. And I don't wear shoes very often in the office, Like obviously, if I'm having a photo shooter, if I'm going on socials or I'm going to see a client, yeah, I'll definitely put on a nice pair of shoes. I adore shoes, but good luck trying to get me in them at my desk, so I feel like I genuinely would just say I am incredibly normal.

I am incredibly down to earth. My favorite things are my oat latte in the morning with my partner walking my dog, where I look like I've just rolled out of bed because I don't want to get ready first thing in the morning, and you know, maybe you wouldn't even notice me. You'd walk past me and be like, oh, she was a mess. I hope she's having a better day later. But yeah, I think I'm relatively down to earth.

And something that my team actually say very often is like, oh my gosh, Victoria, if only the internet knew the real you.

but just take away. Like the amount of Assaye balls that I buy on uber Eats is wild, and I'm not mad about it because I know that that's the way that I'm still nourishing myself and still looking after my body and making sure that I'm not just eating junk all the time. But it's getting a little bit out of hand.

and I don't want to change those things. I don't want somebody to pry away the joy from my life and the little things that we have. So I just don't subscribe to the notion that somebody else can dictate to you how you spend your money. What I want is people to just understand what their own values are

so that their money flows in relation to that. I don't want you to miss out, but I also want you to be really aware of where your money is going, because more often than not, let's use me as an example, more often than not, your money isn't actually flowing in line with your values unless you sit down and make a plan for it. Like do I value uber its?

Absolutely not. I wish I took my lunch to work every single day, But my money and my money story and my you know, my budget right now would tell you that I really do value uberts when that's not actually the reality, and I need to shift. That's not saying it's bad. There's no such thing as bad when it comes to money. It's just more do you want to do that or do you want to do something else? Like have you not got a bigger goal? And like, yes I do, but am I currently prioritizing it? No?

And that's silly by future me like, I'm not putting myself first by spending that way, and that's why I'm really aware of it. I'm not saying cut back on spending because that doesn't make anybody happy and it's not sustainable. No one wants that.

But what I'm excited about is that our friendship is one of those that really epitomizes the idea that life does unravel in chapters, given that we met a few chapters ago for both of us, and the things that we're passionate about and that we wake up full of purpose and drive for didn't exist when we first met each other. Yeah, so while you know she's on the money, makes so much sense. Now is your big mission and vision? You're a wonderful example that you didn't wake up like that.

You didn't even wake up in finance. You know, that wasn't even your first career. It takes a lot of little steps to build up to the thing that later is crystal clear, is like why you ended up there. The dots often only connect a lot, you know, further down the track. And as you always say on your podcast, you can do everything, but not all at once.

really weren't enjoying it. And you know, I talk to people all the time like, oh, I wish I was in your position where I get to do something that I love every single day, and I'm like, oh, yeah, But like I've been in the position where I didn't even know what I wanted to do as my next step, and I had, I would say, a crisis when I

realized I didn't want to be in psychology anymore. And you know, talking back on it, it sounds like a really beautiful story, right, it sounds like this, Oh, the flow of her career has been so dreamy and easy in you know, those logical steps exist, but at the time I felt like I'd wasted my university degrees and what was I doing? And why have I even gone down this path? And like this is so silly. I

don't fit here. And yeah, I think that that's the side of things that people don't talk about, which is really important to talk about, because we don't always see that clarity in the moment. We only see it looking back on it. And I don't know what's next. I

don't know what's coming up. But I think that my journey has taught me that it's actually okay to sometimes not know and okay to just dabble and test and see if it works and you know, have a good time along the way, because sometimes you forget that it's not necessarily about the destination that we're getting to. It's actually about the journey and enjoying that, because if you didn't enjoy the journey, what was the point of getting to this impressive place in the end.

very beginning. So can you take us back to young Victoria, what it was like at Padua College in Mornington, You know, what was your first job and your first idea of what you thought you would want to be, and how did you choose psychology and kind of take us through. I think what's really interesting is when people start to agitate for change, how do you know the signs that

something maybe isn't working for you? When you have gone down a particular pathway for quite a while, and then it's hard to know what the signs are that maybe you need a shift. So yeah, take us through those early years in that first career.

teenager it often feels that way. And you know I was good academically, and I guess that's what you know, didn't hold me back, but you know it makes you feel like you're not the cool kid, and you're always

trying to fit in. And you know, I was really good at maths, and I was really good at science, and I adored biology, and you know, I was often a teacher's favorite, just because I would ask lots of questions and always be really interested because learning has always been something that one I've been really good at, but two I'm just interested in like I don't want to know the answer, I actually want to know how we

got there. And I guess, you know, I had a maths teacher that really didn't like me and got really frustrated because in year eleven and twelve I did specialist and specialist maths is a lot more formula than it is times tables. I guess to summarize it, right, it's less simple maths and more complex formula. And I would not be able to understand the formula until I understood where I could apply it and how it would work.

And I remember this teacher being so frustrated with me because everybody else would just read the textbook and you know, understand it, and I just couldn't comprehend the formula until she said, okay, well this is how you'd apply it to a mini setting, or this is what that means, or this is where X actually comes from, and that would really help me. So for me, my learning needs to be really contextual. I need to understand it. So she didn't particularly like me, and in fact, I would

say that I was somewhat bullied by that teacher. My parents had to get involved and I got moved out of her class because of that, And I guess that really deflates you in a way because I didn't have somebody who had my back in you know, I would say that I do come across as quite intelligent now, but it made me feel really silly because she used to tell me like, oh, if you're going to keep doing this, seal amount to nothing and things like that,

which is really horrendous from a teacher when teachers are meant to support you. So I guess this isn't the experience people would assume I had, because they would be like, oh, she would have flown through school, and that's just not the case. In fact, in year eleven and twelve, I missed a lot of school. I was struggling with feeling really flat. But I also had a pretty serious eating disorder during school as well, one that I was hospitalized

for a number of times. And it's totally okay, and I'm so happy to talk about it because I think this context is really important for people, especially on a podcast like yours, to understand that I haven't come from a place where it's always just been really easy. It's

always been a bit of a struggle. And I think that the thing that I'm most proud of myself is is my tenacity, and I always get back up, and I go, no, I can absolutely do this, like I don't need somebody else's validation to make sure that happens. And I wasn't experiencing and eating disorder because I wanted to be skinny or pretty or any of those things.

It was actually an outcome of me wanting to feel more in control of a situation because you know, going through school, you just don't feel as in control as you can. And so mine ruminated into that, and you know, I'm absolutely well and truly recovered. In fact, I look back and go, who was that person? Like, I'm such a foodie now and I enjoy food and there's no issues there at all, which I'm really grateful for because I know a lot of people sometimes don't lose that.

So that experience really led me down a path of, you know, I guess, realizing things and enlightenment and being enlightened and wanting to learn more about psychology because I had a really good psychologist and I felt like in that moment I could do that for people too, So psychology was the next step. Because I've always been someone that wants to help others, like that would be the underlying thing for every career that I've ever had is can I help other people? Because that's where I get

my joy. Like I get joy out of teaching, I get joy out of, you know, knowing that you're in a better position having crossed my path. And you know, psychology was always something that really enabled me to do that. So I started studying that and just thought, wow, this is so interesting and there's lots of biology in that you get to, you know, do a lot of study

and understand how the brain functions. And then I remember getting to third year of psych and that's the life last year of your undergraduate degree, and I did a placement and I hated it.

so flat. At the end of the day. I'd go home and just ruminate on the stories that i'd heard. And you know, now, I'm much better at that, But as a twenty one, twenty two year old, I can't remember how old I was, but about then it's a lot to carry. I'm very lucky in that I've never experienced serious trauma, so I couldn't relate to a lot of these stories, especially at such a young age where

I didn't have a lot of life fixed. So I have beautiful parents who brought me up and obviously experienced some stuff, but none of it was seriously traumatic, and so hearing those stories, I was always like wow, Like I just wanted to pick these people up and take them out of those situations. But that's not what psychology

is about. It's helping them deal with those situations. Anyway, kind of hit a crisis point and realized that wasn't for me, and thankfully I was surrounded by a lot of really supportive people, and one of them said, I think you want to be in organizational psychology. I was like, what is that. I've literally never heard of it. I've been doing psych for three years. Anyway, did my research.

Organizational psychology is the science of people at work and it is all about culture and engagement and improving work life balance for people, and I was like, oh, I could totally get around that. So, without having any experience in it, I enrolled in an honors program at a different university, doing an organizational psyche thesis and doing my honors year in that because I was just like, yep,

that seems to be the only logical answer, obviously. And I went and I got an internship in the space and started to love that and culture is it's so important, obviously, That's what's going to help you enjoy a job, whether you like the actual job semantics or not. And I really liked having an impact and working in a space where I could help senior leaders, you know, go to

the next level. It was never about fixing things in the way that I felt psychology was, but it was more about, you know, empowering them to take the next step and talking about, you know, the next thing in their job, or you know, what do you want to achieve or you know, have you got imposter syndrome? And would always just I loved those conversations, and so did my honors year. And I went and I got a grad job in all psych and I was very lucky to get it because I was the youngest one on

the team. And I started being a consultant and I went out to organizations and you know, I worked in a team it wasn't just me being sent out as a grad A promise you.

accounting that'd be like, what's accounting? I don't get it, Or people who were from the marketing department, and I'd be like, I also don't get your work experience because I didn't know genuinely, I didn't know what work they did, and they kept coming up with questions for me that I just felt really stumped on. So when it came to culture and engagement, I'd be, you know, across it

because I'd studied it and fully comprehended it. But people would often say, oh, Victoria, it's not my work that's stressing me. It's that I don't have enough money. It's on my wife is pregnant and we just don't know how we're going to afford it because we hadn't planned for this, or oh, my mortgage repayments are getting us down.

Don't worry. My engagements not because of that. It's because I've got a lot going on at home and money at that point started to become this really big underlying theme in my life that I didn't feel like I understood or had control of. So during this time, also because I didn't understand the different segments of business in typical Victoria fashion, wanted to study more. So I enrolled in my MBA.

and dabbling in that. And at that point, at this job where I was working in orgsy, like, I had this client who was a financial advisor, and every day he used to say, like every day that I worked with him, he'd be like, you'd be a great advisor, Like consider it, Like You'd be so much better at that than this. And I'd always be like, that is literally the worst job I can think of, Like who would want to be a financial advisor? So obviously I pushed it off and pushed it off. I had no

interest in entertaining this. And you know, after studying it and really feeling like I understood it and becoming a bit disengaged myself in the role that I was in because I just felt like I wasn't having the impact I I wanted to have. I kind of just took the plunge and said, all right, I'm going to quit anyway, i'd actually just moved roles to a new job. I'd gone from consulting to being internal at was actually at a university, and I didn't like it at all. The

team were not good, the culture was awful. I realized that, you know, in this role, I was never going to have an impact because there was just too many hoops to jump through and you know, very much a culture of but this is the way it's always been done, and I just don't end here or you know, subscribe

to that notion at all. So I think I was in that job for just over six months when I said I can't do this, Like I wanted to meet probations so that I didn't look like i'd not met it, because I was definitely an achievement based person and I was like, oh, I don't want people to think that. So I think just over six months I said, you know what, anything would be better than this, And I started doing finance and started a role there, and obviously

you have to be certified to do that. So I went and i'd finished my MBA, so I jumped into doing financial advice and I did my Diploma of Financial Planning, and yeah, I guess I've never looked back. And from there I was really lucky because I worked in a space that was high net wealth. So I wasn't working in what people call mom and dad financial advice. And it's not meant to be an offensive term at all, it's just you know, everyday people. I wasn't working in

that space. It's actually the space I'm really passionate about. I ended up in ultra high netwealth people. So that was people who had a minimum of ten million dollars to invest on the regular, so all of us know, yeah, so all of us really relatable content Victoria. But that was the space I was working in, and so I learned a lot about investment really quickly. I got really great exposure to boards of people who would make decisions

for investment companies. I got to understand the private family office space and what that meant and how to invest and for me, then I wanted to do my own thing because I just felt like that wasn't me and I started Zella, and the financial advisor that I worked

with became my business partner in that. Because financial advice and becoming an advisor and having a practice is really expensive, so you definitely need someone behind you to be able to go out on your own, and I'm very grateful for that opportunity that was afforded to me to do that and establish this business. But the more I worked with ultra high net wealth people, the more I realized that I wasn't passionate about it, like I didn't want

to make rich people richer. It didn't serve me, it didn't have that level of impact that I wanted to have. And so on the side of you know, building up this business of clients that were pretty wealthy, I started doing these workshops for women in law firms because that was who I really wanted to talk to and I felt like I could have a really big impact with So I went to some pretty big law firms around

Melbourne and said, hey, got in contact with the HR departments. Thankfully, some of the clients were actually partners at these law firms, so I had a pretty smooth in and said, can I talk to your HL partner like, I'd love to have a chat with them. I've got this workshop idea. So they let me come in and run these workshops called She's on the Money, and I did that because I genuinely felt like every other workshop I'd run because that was something I often got asked to do. Because

I do love presenting and I do love teaching. The women in the room never put their hands up, and they never wanted to in front of men, say oh, I don't really understand super or why would I make additional contributions? Or what's you know this insurance? Or you know, how do I start investing? Because especially women in law, and maybe you'll understand this, Sarah, it's not a bad thing. You are smart women, but you just don't want to

seem silly in front of your male counterparts. And men, especially in law, often like, oh yeah, I inverst and I do this and I do that, and you're like, oh, I don't want to have these conversations. So I'd often find that after those sessions, women would loiter back and ask me these questions they weren't comfortable asking in front of other people, or they would email me and ask these questions post the presentation. And so I decided to do a female only one and I called it She's

on the money. And so for a few years I was doing these seminars and I loved them. I didn't do them for any other reason. I wasn't paid to do them, sadly, and I just adored it, like I loved the connections that I was creating, and the women that would say, Victoria, I didn't even know this, like it's so easy, and you know, I'm going to start investing or I'm going to do this or that, and it was just so beautiful that I wanted to carry

those conversations on outside of the workshop. So I created a Facebook group, and that Facebook group is She's on the money. And I remember it's starting to grow, and people that I didn't know were joining, and I was like, who are you. I didn't invite you, Like I don't know you.

going to start doing some structured content. So every week I would cover a different topic and upload a little PDF for them to do their own thing, or you know, talk about a specific topic or I did this pretty consistently for about twelve weeks, and I was shook because I ended up having seventeen hundred people in the Facebook group like and at that time, I was like, seventeen hundred people, Like, what am I going to do with this? And I asked them, literally, I was like, how do

I do this? And I asked them who are you all come from?

just wasn't comfortable with it. And at the time, Michelle and Zara from Shameless with people that I was having chatsko than friends of mine, and I said, how do I do a podcast? Like would they would they take

a podcast anyway? And they saw the vision that I saw for a podcast, and they helped me to bring to life the first season of the She's on the Money podcast with twelve episodes, And we originally thought it would just be those twelve episodes, like you know, I jam packed them full of value, and I genuinely felt like that was all we'd ever do, because who wants

a podcast on money? Right? Like, there weren't really any other podcasts on money, especially for women, and I felt like, okay, cool, Like if we put these twelve episodes out into the universe, like they will help people, and because they're up on a podcasting platform, people can come back to them time and time again. They could re listen or you know, be introduced like a year later, and that will be enough. Anyway, it kind of, and I say kind of blew up,

I don't mean kind of blew up. It genuinely did blow up. And you know, we finished season one and I decided that, you know, after quite a lot of demand to bring it back, after a couple of months of people going when's the next season? And I was okay, like, ah, there wasn't ever one planned. So I had to work out a way to actually get a second season and start producing it. And Michelle and Zara was so busy, and obviously they've gotten incredibly successful podcasts, so it wasn't

an option to continue it that way. And yeah, we found a way, and now she's on the money. From those seventeen hundred people that wanted a YouTube and didn't get one, we've grown to more than one hundred and seventy thousand people in that Facebook group, and a podcast that gets more than a million downloads every single month, and I think we're number seven still in the country for podcasts on the podcast Rancor and that's been since January,

which is which is crazy. And yeah, that's I guess, in a very long way, my journey and how I'm gone from being someone who you know, really didn't have confidence and really didn't you know, trust themselves or understand themselves or know what I wanted to do all the way through to a guess having this community and I

still don't know what I'm doing. We're making it up as we go and it's working well, and I'm grateful I have a team behind me that she's on the money team is I think we've got seven of us now. And you know, I've got a wealth business on the side, Zella. I had a business partner and a year and a half ago I bought him out. So now Zella is

one hundred percent mine and it's all me. And yeah, it's it's crazy to think that from and I say this quote all the time, but like from little things, big things really do grow.

And then, you know, even when I was in this role that I didn't like that, I just felt like I wasn't fitting into, Like I didn't know what I was going to do, and I just wanted to take a leap, but didn't know what was right, and it was scary and terrifying. And I guess, you know, even

starting She's on the Money was hard. And people think it's great now and I absolutely adore every thing about it and I always have, but I remember I got a lot of criticism at the start and people saying that it was lame, and you know, no one wants to talk about money. And I used to ask my girlfriends, like, oh, hey, so I just did this post in my Facebook group, can you go like it? It's because no one's liked

it yet, and it's one of those things. Yeah, but it's true, right like, and we all grow from places and we're all not confident in what we do at the beginning until you know, we seek some kind of validation. And it's silly because we should be validating ourselves and know that inherently if we're making the leave and we're making this decision, like, there's a reason we're bringing it

to the table. And I think the second you try to be everything to everybody, you really dilute the value that you bring to the table, and you really do yourself a disservice because you are so valuable and there are people out there who are going to adore you. But the more you're adored, the more people that don't resonate with your story and your journey. And it could just be because it highlights to them a deficiency they

have selt makes them feel really uncomfortable. But I guarantee you the people that aren't comfortable with you, they don't know you, They don't know anything about you, and it's never actually about you. It's always about them, like it's a reflection of their own feelings and their thought patterns,

has nothing to do with us. And I think that when you can genuinely start seeing that and see that you know it's actually never about me, It's actually about something that they're experiencing, and you know, maybe I could help them through that, or maybe they're not ready for that. That's okay, but it really helps you understand that you know, the world is a good place and there are just some eggs that make you feel a bit sad sometimes.

And I love that because the quote I always say is someone out there is looking for exactly what you have. But people think that you found all those people overnight. But this chat reminded me that, actually, like you know, even the way that people sometimes refer to a jump from one industry to another as a leap, I think that detracts from the fact that it isn't one big

jump that happens overnight. You didn't just go, I'm going to leave from like a shit time one job to a really great time where I'm really popular in another.

wasn't about pay. I was just miserable and was like, oh god, I'll do that, thank you, Like that'll be more than enough money for me to pay rent and still go out and buy bottles of prosecco with my girlfriends to hang out at Precinct on the weekend. I definitely like, wasn't the type of person that was like, okay, cool, like this is going to be my career. Like I'm very study driven. That's what I love and what I adore.

But I think that people think I'm just this person that sits at home and reads and you know, doesn't engage. And while I'm not that person anymore. I don't go to Precinct on the weekends. I'm sorry, I don't. Yeah, sorry, I don't even drink that much. I'm so borry. But past me, like obviously would be very proud of what I've achieved. She found out that I got excited over the fact that I got a new dishwasher yesterday.

made some really unsexy and sometimes stigmatized. Like you know, a lot of people grew up in a time where you didn't talk about money, religion, and politics, Like there is a lot of stigma around financial conversations, but it does hold us back in a lot of ways, and as you mentioned in the workplace, like it's very difficult to have these conversations if you don't have a support network.

But I love that you've not just made a very difficult, intimidating, complicated, multifaceted area, very approachable and non judgmental as well, like your book, your podcast, everything comes from such a place of it doesn't matter where you are, there's no bad, there's no wrong, it's just how can we improve you from here? I wanted to spend so much of the episode on the practical tips that you have.

me educate even more people. But for me, the idea if She's on the money came from this place of love and from giving, and it was never something about making money because I had a business, I had something else on the side, And you know, I never thought in my wildest dreams that this is where we would be. And I guess that's what we always as a team come back to as well, is like are we serving our community? Are we putting them in the best possible position?

Are we giving them every single tool and resource they need to be savvy and financially literate and you know, educated and empowered. And I guess that comes from me, you know, if we distell it down having experienced this ultra high net wealth world where they can afford all the advice in the world, and I just saw such an unfair advantage that they could access awesome advice and my friends couldn't. And I guess that's where she's on the money came from, and I guess, and I hope

that it'll always feel that way to people. And you know, you're a quote person, and I love that about you. It makes me so But a quote that's really helped me, especially along this journey, because people aren't your greatest fans, Like some people just really don't like what I do, because you're right, it's money, religion, and politics, and if you talk about those you make a lot of people uncomfortable. But the quote is you'll never be criticized by someone

who is doing more than you. You will only ever be criticized by someone who is doing less. And that brings me a lot of joy because I just know that if ever someone says something that you know doesn't resonate. And I'm all about feedback, right, like if you tell me, like, hey, Victoria, just don't think that landed well enough or you didn't do you know enough here and you know, people slide into our dms all the time and give us different perspectives,

and I'm so grateful for that. I never want that to stop. But sometimes, as you would know, Sarah, in a place of I guess the social media world, like people are just mean and they are just rude, and that quote really helps me in that space.

investment children, like estate planning. It is the most comprehensive, like approachable, really just beautifully worded in such a really demystifies quite intimidating areas because people can get it in the book. I'm so glad that we spent more of the time on the story because no, thank you, it doesn't get as much airtime, right like people come straight to you in interviews.

I wanted to fill it full of value and things that could actually help you, and money stories from my community that I thought were really interesting or inspiring or just relatable, because I didn't want to give you a whole chapter on saving and then not have relatable examples of people who have done it to inspire you to

take the next steps. And you know, my publishers were really frustrated with me because when I started writing, they said, Hey, here's the word count that we're aiming towards, and how many chapters have you got that you think you'll write on And you know, you've written a book, so you would know that. You give them the skeleton and the outline of the book and you go, yep, this is

what I think I'll write. And I started writing, and then I'd call them and be like, hey, I just I want to do another chapter, is he I just I think that this is going to be really good. And then she would be like, yeah, no problems, And then I had this chapter that included saving, and so I started writing that and then I called her. I was like, ah, yeah, so I wanted Saving to be up it's own chapter and I want to call it this and she'd be like, okay, no problems. So now

we're up to like twenty two chapters. What are we

going to do next? And I was like, okay, so also in addition to this one, we have a plan and she'd just be like, this is not the book we agreed to, but okay, no. And it's one of those things that it really evolved over time, and it really, you know, grew, and I knew I wanted money stories to be a part of it, but I thought i'd have a couple, right, But every single chapter has like one or two because I just couldn't stop, Like I just the second I was there, I was like, oh,

this feels empty without another story in it. And yeah, I just feel like I'm so grateful to have been able to bring to life exactly what I wanted. She's on the money the book to be, but also that you know, it's to me a gift, like it is like not you know, buy for other people gift, but more just like a gift of financial literacy, Like hopefully it encompasses absolutely everything that young women need to feel

financially secure and know they're on the right path. I'm very acutely aware that it's not the only financial book you'll ever need, because I want you to learn more and absorb more, and I'm never going to pretend to be absolutely everything to everybody. But I hope that it is the right start for people. It is the right step in the right direction to give you the confident that you genuinely deserve to be financially successful, and you know,

a touch on everything. But it's not like this is your guide to ultimate investing, but it will teach you what you need to take into consideration and the next steps and where to start, and how to understand your risk profile and you know, will Sarah, how should you invest? I don't tell you what to invest in, though, because that's not my position. That's not my job. Only you

can decide that. So I think that it is one of those things where you know, people are like, oh, is this the be all end or finance book, And I'm like, of course not, Like I want people to read more and educate themselves and have lots of different opinions, and you know, even take what I say with a grain of salt, because you should be, you know, always cautious.

Like we're talking about finance here, that's really personal. So I can't be everything to everybody, But I hope that this book can be everything you need to know to start.

much with the heating on now that it's winter. And secondly, because I found the ultimate solution to that problem and thought.

also started small. You started not knowing where She's on the Money would go.

for my Facebook group. I didn't know how to use Photoshop or any kind of editing tools to create logos, and I sure as hell didn't have any money to pay for one, so I made it on power Point with a free font that I downloaded from the internet, and I made a hot pink, because what is better than a hot pink? And then I screenshot it and

that became our logo. And I just think that, you know, if you want to do something, it doesn't matter what it's going to not cost, like, it just matters that you start and that you know, the polished logo can come later. But find your community, find the people that you can love, and love them hard because they will

help you grow. And now, you know, I'm so grateful that, you know, I did get to work with a designer at one point to bring together our website and our logos and stuff, and they are so much better than they used to be. But I'm not embarrassed of the journey. I'm not embarrassed of what they used to be. And I think that you know, there's this saying and I'm

not going to get this right. But they say that if you're not embarrassed of the first thing you put to market, like oh, you didn't start soon enough or something along those lines, And I just look at it.

to be respectful of the journey as well. And that's something I say about finance all the time, is we are often too hard on ourselves for our past spending habits. We are often too hard on ourselves for what we've been through. Because you know, you might pick up this book and go, okay, great, and thankfully I do cover this in the book, so hopefully nobody experiences this. But you pick up a finance book and go, oh my gosh,

I've been doing it so wrong. I feel so bad I've wasted so much money, or I'm in so much debt, or I can't believe I did that. I'm so silly, I'm so stupid, And it's just not how we should be treating ourselves. Like past you did absolutely everything they could with the tools and resources they had at the time. Just because you have new tools and new resources and your new vision doesn't mean that you did the wrong thing at the time for you, and that person has

created today's person. So I think we need to genuinely honor them and care for them and really put them first, because if we look backwards, it doesn't serve us in any way, shape or form. So I think that the guilt that we feel over, you know, the debt we're in, it's just unnecessary and it doesn't serve us. There's no guilt, there's no shame, there's nothing in it. It just is part of your money story. And that's pretty cool because

it doesn't have to remain your money story. You get to change that, and that's awesome.

everyone wants to rush there. They want to have a book, they want to have a number one podcast, they want to have everything now, but they forget that if you had had the idea for She's on the Money as it is right now, but ten years ago and skipped the whole psychology chapter and you would have been too young, Like, it wouldn't have worked. So you're actually not meant to skip any of those chapters. Nothing is ever a waste if you learn something, and there's something about the passage

of time that actually makes the dream possible. If you tried any earlier, the world might not have been.

so much pressure on me to perform now. And I think that you don't see it from that aspect, But I think that the solace in knowing that I'm exactly where I need to be right now in this moment, and that I, you know, am serving my purpose and you know, I just want to live every day as me and that is you know, that's what I prioritize. And I think that you know, people always like, oh

my gosh, like you must hustle so hard. Yeah, Like, I guess I work a lot, but like I also really love a wine on the couch with my partner. And I've got two cats and a dog and I just love spending time with them. And you know, I love spending time with my parents and my sister. And you know, it's I'm not who people seem to think I am. And I think that that's a really important

thing to remember. That we've all got lives outside of what you see on social media and what you hear on a podcast, and you know, nothing happens overnight, Like I didn't just end up with this massive podcast where you know, millions of people listen and thankfully I'm really grateful for this week and put advertising on and you know, create a revenue stream from that so I can employ people like I had to pay for the first season. It was really expensive. It was really expensive, and I

didn't know that you could do podcast advertising. I remember when I first got approached and I was like, what you can do?

just wouldn't have worked anyway. So I think that my naivity at that time actually served us really well, which is also a very very common theme in this podcast that actually naivity sometimes is better because otherwise you would overthink it with too much knowledge and awareness, Like maybe you wouldn't rip the band aid the same way that you.

else speaks to them, which is so exciting. If you had to distill just quickly for us, the three biggest tips you would say to a financial newbie, and the three biggest myths that you bust or the myth that you hear constantly, what would they be?

that's their plan, is not your plan. And I think that understanding your money story and giving yourself time to process why your thoughts, values, beliefs, and behaviors around money are the way they are is really going to serve you well. And I think a lot of people would have just jumped into like here's a hot money tip in mind's like just to understand you like that thing

to do? So that would be hot to number one hot tip Number two is to understand your budget and cash flow and stop seeing your budget as restrictive and start seeing it as a way that you can personally make sure that your money is flowing in line with your values and your beliefs. Like how cool is it that we get to make sure that that comes to life,

Like we have an opportunity here. It's not about saying, oh, well, okay, next week, I'm only going to spend seventy dollars on groceries because I read that that was a pretty good number. Like sorry, if food spucks your joy, and that is the one thing that you adore, and you know, my partner and I love cooking and I love food. Like if you said I really had seventy dollars in a week, I'd be like, hi, Sarah, So you can just put that opinion right in the bin over there and put

that straight outside, because I couldn't do that. You might, because you might have other values and things that you're working towards, but I don't want you to take those things off me. And that's why in the book I never talk about percentages, and frustratingly, I'm sorry. I don't say things like oh, well, you need to save two

twenty percent of your income, because that's really unfair. What if you earn forty thousand dollars and you have a child, like you can't save twenty percent, and that's a really unfair expectation that I'd put on you. Whereas conversely, if someone reads this and they earn four hundred thousand dollars, you best believe I'd be expecting them to save a lot more than twenty percent because their cash flow is so high. So it is not fair to put percentages

on people. And that's why I want you to understand your budget. And a budget is not a spending plan. It is not a you know, a reflection of how much you're allocating to each area. It's actually understanding what's coming into your bank account and what's going out of your bank account and whether it flows in line with your values. And then the third thing is a bit of a pivot from there, and that's understanding your superannuation.

And your super is so powerful, like your super is literally you guys at this point in time, investing a minimum of nine point five percent each and every single month, like not many of us could that. We've been doing that since we started working when in reality, that's what we are doing. And it is your money, and you need to care about it, and you need to make sure that it is working in line with your values, but also that it is working as hard as you

do for it. Yeah, you can't touch it until you retire, but that's what's going to prop up your retirement. So we need to start caring about that now. Because you know, a good example, and I do use this in the book, is if you started investing five hundred dollars a month as a twenty year old, at the time you retire, you'd have an investment portfolio worth one point two million dollars. And that one point two million dollars if you had only saved five hundred dollars a month, you would have

two hundred and forty thousand dollars. But you could literally have essentially a million dollars more if it was invested instead of just saved. And the special thing about a one point two million dollar portfolio is that it will generate you a passive income or average of sixty thousand dollars. Like what you're going to have a passive income of sixty grand when you retire. You just start saving like

five hundred bucks a month, that's wild. But if I then said the same thing and said, hey, Sarah, do you want to retire with one point two million dollars? But you know you haven't really prioritized it and you're now fifty, great, Like, let's work towards that. Have you got seven and a half thousand dollars a month to save? Like, can you do that?

way to make that work. And nobody has seven and a half thousand dollars of free cash flow to invest. So I think it is really important to start prioritizing souper now because that's what it can do for you. Like, that's pretty sexy if you ask me, Oh.

But if you ask them, hey, do you remember when you were thirty, they'll be like, oh, like it was yesterday, Like time flies, and you know, future us need to be cared for, like it's it's crazy and yeah, And.

a credit score is absolutely not the case. And too many times do people fall down this slippery slope of getting it because they're like, oh, but one day, I want to buy a house and I want to have good credit, and it's actually putting you behind because having a credit card is actually a reflection of the fact that you're not that good at prioritizing your budget and saving for things, and that's actually not that sexy. And yeah, I think that that's something that a lot of us

still believe in. And the second about buy now, pay later. I know that there's a lot going around at the moment about how quote doesn't impact your credit score, and

they're running mythbusting. Literally it's doing me up the wall because they are running myth busting advertising campaigns where they're like, oh, it's a myth that this product actually impacts your credit score, and you're like, they're not wrong in that it only impacts your credit score if you default on a payment, which happens a lot, if you let it get out of hand, and it's only going to impact you negatively if you actually aren't using it properly, or you find

yourself not able to make that month's repayments and it's just a little irresponsible. So for me, that is a myth that does impact your credit score because too many times we miss a payment or forget to transfer money into the account that it's direct debited from, and most of the time we're not trying to do the wrong thing. You just slipped up, and that does get tracked. But when it comes to getting a mortgage, if that's aligned to your values getting a mortgage, they do look at

by now pay later schemes and platforms. They see it as you not being able to manage your cash flow. So it's as much as it might not impact your credit history, it is definitely on your banks statements and thanks when they are giving your mortgage review all of that. So for me, I think that those are probably two myths. I can't think of another one off the top of my head.

So the mentality of having a credit card is that you spend, like, you just spend times as much, yeah, as money when it's your money that you have to have in that account.

in your hands to spend all groceries this week. You would be so much more conscious walking around to the supermarket picking up things and putting it in your trolley because you know that's all you've got, whereas when you have a credit card, you're like, oh whatever, like it's not a thing, Like I don't mind you, Like I've got this budget in my head and like hopefully it's about that. But you just have a different mentality and it is a different mindset, and yeah, it's really frustrating

because you just trust you feel a bit stooged. Yea.

finance related. And it's hard when your job and your person is something that does touch kind of areas of everyday life, like literally everything could give you a new idea, and you have to live on the internet and on social media to you know, keep up with your job, which means it similar to me, like we're always looking for the idea in something because we we're a type

personalities that love to just deliver to our audience. And you mentioned before that productivity pressure as well as a book.

front door. Because that's stephen My thing. Like we go for a coffee and a walk every single morning, Like we do this five k walk together and it's always the same loop because we're really boring, but we also have it well timed and that's our time to have a chat in the mornings and set up our days well and just enjoy it. And I do work really late, and I think our community sees that, but it's not because I'm working twenty four to seven. It's because I've

come in late and enjoyed my morning. And you know, lockdown has definitely and COVID has definitely got in the way of me being able to seize the things that I love doing and being able to do them. But when COVID's not a thing, I want to go back to playing netball on Wednesday night. I play socially terribly, mind you, Like I play center and like there is no way, absolutely no way that anybody would ask me

to be on their team. But I'm small and I'm pretty good at running, so I feel like I make a pretty good center, Like I'm there.

year now. And yeah, Tim is he's so special. He's one of those people you meet and you just are like are you a unicorn? Like how do you? How do you care? So much? Like he's just such a beautiful person and I'm so grateful to be able to do that. So I do that in my spare time as well. That's literally just a passion, Like TLC is a charity for sick children, and I'm just so passionate about everything they do and so proud of being, you know, a part of their team, and you know, just to

be young as well and on. That feels really special because I don't think that that's an opportunity that you know, I ever thought would be extended to me, like to sit on a board, Like what who am I?

I'm grateful that I get to do that. But I also get to extend that to my team, and you know, knowing that they get to I just want them to do their work, so like they get to come and go. I feel like we've got this little team of people who are passionate about Sheese on the Money but also have lives outside of Sheese on the Money. I don't want everything to revolve around that.

it's definitely not a high pressure environment at all. And I think it keeps you humble and keeps you really down to worth because like when something fancy happens, and I'm very grateful it's happened a lot recently, like with Forbes, and there's been a lot of news articles that have featured us. My team always like, oh, you're a whanker, like this article, like if only they knew the real you. And to be honest, I wouldn't change it for the world, Like I don't want people to think that I'm some

fancy person, Like I'm normal. I'm down to earth and like yeah, like I'm just trying to pay my mortgage.

so satisfying. And I don't know quite how to describe the feeling though, to see that all that energy and bars and passion and intellect and potential that when we first met us like, oh man, this woman like you are taking over the world, that you're doing it.

right steps forward and we're having these impacts. And you know, my favorite thing in the entire world is you know, I guess that's an interesting fact. It's not about finance, but it is about she's on the money. Is that when it comes to dms and it comes to you know, managing the socials, like I don't want to let go

of that. Like my favorite thing is talking to our community and talking to the people in our DMS who vestage us to be like, hey, I know you might not read this, we do definitely read it, just defoy, but I just want to tell you that I've paid off all my debt because I listened to your podcast or you know, a really special one the other day was that she'd gotten out of a financially abusive relationship and it was because of our episodes on that and she'd you know, saved up and it was a plan

that she'd created over the last eight months and that you know, we were integral to that. And that's crazy to think that we're impacting people without even knowing it and they just tell us later they're like, oh, yeah, by the way you did this, Like what I helped you get out of a financially abusive relationship. That's wild. Like, I'm so proud of that, and I don't want us to ever lose that as our driving force and as our priority, because you know, you're right, it's really fancy

to be a Forbes thirty under thirty. I don't want that, though. I want the people in my DMS. I want to talk to people about saving I want to talk to people about you know, a savings hack that I made and I made it on PowerPoint, but I made it and you can download. It's on your bridge. Like that's

who I am and what I want to do. And I think that, yeah, that's I guess something that people assume I have handed over because we do have a content manager now and a content producer, but I'm pretty controlling when it comes to that.

the boss of mo cheese, like I promise you. And that would be such a bad spending havoc because I think full price, they're like seven dollars a box, but they are a good deal, even not on sale, like.

they're all as crazy as I am. And sometimes he just looks at them and is like, you are actually like your pets, Like you know, Lucy's very snugly and cuddly and just wants to be on the couch in her blanket, and that is me. And Bailey can be really sassy and that is also me. And he always tells people that I get my attitude from my cats, and my cats get their attitude from me. So maybe that's maybe that's something people would definitely not talk about because people just don't care.

And I remember bringing her home because we'd secured her and she had to be She's from New South Wales and I live in Victoria, so she had to be driven down for us.

oh my god, all my dreams are coming true. Living this is slipping like I've got this dog and I adore it, and like, I guess, yeah, like my life goals have never been around Korea. They're always around, you know, I guess, love and family and you know, hopefully one day creating a family of our own, but for now, our pet family. And yeah, I guess that's central to

who I am and what I do. When you start to get to know me, you're really like, oh cool, So she actually doesn't care about any of these achievements. She's just proud that her dog can shake force.

Like any one can adhere to that. Like if anyone ever says anything bad about you and my friends, like, I bet you it's because they are not, you know, following in your footsteps or you know, being the person that you are. And it's hard in Australia because I feel like tall poppy syndrome is such a prevalent thing, and i'd heard about it, you know, and i'd spoken about it before, and obviously studying psychology, i'd been told about it, and I just was like, no, that's not

a thing. I've never been held back and I absolutely haven't been held back. But my gosh, now I have what you definitely could call a profile in this space. The people that don't want you to be successful, they're loud. They're loud, and they can make you feel like crap so easily, And I think that a quote like that just really helps you remember what's important. Absolutely.

OZ to shower her and her team with love. Links to the book, the podcast, Her Too, new podcasts, and her brand new investing platform are in the show notes. For you all, I hope you're having an amazing week and are seizing your ya