Future-proofing You!

Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery 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 a wondery 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.

see where you're coming from. I genuinely think that to care about your financial life is caring about yourself and your future deeply. Like we can get a facial, we can have a spa moment, but like that's fleeting, investing for your future and putting yourself in a position where you're never going to worry about money slay. True, Actually that's longer term. Like I would much prefer to be

mentally at peace than to be physically at peace. WHOA, That's where we differ, except I really like massages, so I'm not sure I would give up one or the other. I think that's why, you know, when we talked a little while ago about the fire movement, financial independence, retire early and how people like save like eighty percent of their income or invest eighty percent of their income and then retire really early because they like, forgo all of

the nice things in life. That's not what you and I are for No, we are more in the moment, girlies. We and enjoy the journey, girly kind of thing. I respect it, but I can't do it. Yeah, like it's nice, it's not for me, and that's fine, completely agree. But let's get back to the topic and talk about investing in your future self. I want to know, huh, do you know where you want to be in ten years? I have not a single clue. I want to maintain my friendship, I want to have a healthy social circle,

and I want to be happy. And I want to be in Melbourne. That's all I do. And you want to be in Melbourne. That's very specific. I know the street I want to be on as well, but I know that street. We're not going to say it, though, because maybe if someone's listening to this in ten years, they'll know where to find you and you're going to be like really famous by then as a convenian or something. Yeah,

one hundred percent. Sweet, Well, you're the funniest person I know. Well, I'm running your coach howls baby, keeping on say kind of short so you don't know where you want to be in ten years. I feel like I don't either, and I hate these questions. Do you know what I hate the most? Again? Side note, when people in interviews go back, where do you see yourself in two years? Where do you see yourself in five years? I don't know, Sharon. Where you do see yourself still in this HR role

in ten years? Who knows? I don't know. Anyway, I never ask that in interviews because I feel like people just give generic answers and it's not a one on one where we're actually trying to better ourselves. Like in that moment, I'm trying to sell myself, so I'll be like, oh, definitely working for your energy corporation totally, and you want to box yourself in mentally, But I get it. I don't know where I want to be in ten years either.

In fact, if you told me ten years ago that this is where I would be, I wouldn't have believed you. Are you the same? Yeah? Definitely, you're like, oh, this is brogue. I didn't even know podcasting was a thing ten years ago, truly, even like one second ago, Like what I have a recording now? I feel like, oh,

thanks for showing up. But I feel like it's really easy to get caught up in the day to day, and before you know it, then a year has passed and you've completely forgotten to zoom out and focus on the bigger picture, and the next minute, two or three years have completely flown by, and you're just in a pattern of responding to events as opposed to shaping your own future. And that doesn't mean you need to know

where you're going. It doesn't mean that you know who you want to marry, or even if you want to get married, or it doesn't mean that you know what

job you want to do. But I want to talk about investing in your future self today because I feel like this idea of investing in your future self makes us feel like we have to have clarity on where we want to go, when the reality of this is we actually just want to make sure that we've got our finances in order so that when we do decide where we want to go, we can afford it, and that when we do get to that point, we're in a good financial position, or we're in a good position

in general to have choice, because so many people don't have the freedom of choice, and a lot of the time, it's actually about good structuring. It's not about having the biggest income. It's not about going well. Beck in ten years time, I better be earning more than double what

I earn today. Like, okay, cool. But even if that's your goal, if you invest consistently and we focus on your bad debts and paying those off and focus on having a good mindset, ten years from now, you're going to have so much more freedom than just earning double right, Like it sounds sexy. But even if in ten years you're earning double Beck and you don't, I don't have a good mentality when it comes to saving and investing.

That doesn't make you more financially free. That's powerful, and it's hard to swallow because I think so many of us say, we'll do it tomorrow, doesn't matter. I will start investing when I get a pay rise. I'll start, you know, saving once you know I get my bonus or I do my tax return. How many of us are guilty of those things. It's actually about pulling our finger out and going well, actually investing in my future self. Future me deserves that. Yes, like future me deserves a

few extra dollars. Future me deserves the clarity of knowing that I'm going to be cared for. And I don't think there's anything sexier. And it's only starting to come to fruition for me now that when I look at my investment portfolio and I'm like, yeah, I did that, Like that's cleah, that's for me. It's starting to pay dividends that aren't one cent, Like when it was paying dividends of like one and two cents, I was like, what is this for? Like obviously I fully comprehended it,

but it doesn't feel that sexy. Yeah, but now it's starting to pay for future self, I'm like, oh, thanks, pass b, you kind of smart. You did a good thing, definitely, And I imagine, like even if you can't physically put money aside right now, even just like getting your mentality right. But no, I am really looking forward to like being motivated, and my whole employment and financial situation basically depend on this.

So we have had many twists and turns this year, already talking about myself through a redundancy, a brand new job like you've gone to Japan, like you've had You've had a turn, created a whole new baby like I made a whole human. So many things have happened this past year, isn't it wild? So where do we start? I don't know, so I'm glad that you're here to tell us. I am so right down everyone. So we start at the very end, and I think that that

is not what you expected to hear. And no, you don't need to know what your career is going to be, like, you don't need to know who you're going to marry. You don't even need to have the answer of whether you want to get married answered here. But we start at the end when it comes to investing for your retirement. And it's I've been talking about retirement a lot recently

because this is so bougie. Are you ready? I'm on a working group with a sick to talk about how to get more millennials invested and more millennials engaged with their superannuation, which is really hard, right because like, who wants to talk about super? I really thought you were about to say that you're retiring it right now. I'm not. Well, you will soon, I'm sure, Yeah, you're on your way. I don't think I want to retire, so I've got stuff to do. I've got places to be people to

see any like podcasts to make. But I'm on this working group and we've been talking about this concept of language around superannuation and how we don't really care about the idea of retirement because it feels like so far off. And I've been putting forward this concept of changing the language to just talking about creating financial freedom and the idea of talking about, you know, having financial freedom. If I said to you, do you want to retire? You go, oh,

one day, I don't care. But if I go, do you want to create more financial security financial freedom, You'll be like, sounds pretty good to be Actually, sounds like something I'm interested in. It doesn't sound so far off in the distance that you shouldn't care about it. Yeah, it seems a little bit more within reach. Yes. So what we're going to do is actually start at the end and we're going to look at what your biggest investment of your entire lifetime is arguably going to be,

and that's your superranuation. So it's not a sexy thing to talk about because I think so many times we just go, oh, you're talking about super again. But it's going to be arguably the biggest investment of your entire life, and your superranuation is your money, like you're contributing to it each and every single month. Start caring about your cash, babe, like you've never had so much in savings. I can

almost guarantee that. Start caring about where it's invested. The first thing you're going to do is you're going to check and consolidate your supranuation accounts if that is available to you. It is so easy to do that nowadays. You don't even have to know what super fun you're with. You just have to log into my gove and it will tell you what super fun you have open, and you know what, you don't even have to leave that website to consolidate your super It's one button, pick easy, Easy.

It's actually one button, which is scary because that doesn't take into consideration any of your insurances on those super policies. So I need you to check that before you click that button, because if you click that button, there's no going back, And that sounds kind of scary, but I also don't want you to miss that when it comes to insurances. But most of us accumulate multiple super accounts over our lifetime, and I've told you before on the pod, I made a really ugly graphic because I'm not a

graphic designer. That's why we hired one. But I made a really ugly graphic a couple of years ago showing how my SUPER accounts. I had more than five accounts that when I consolidated them over the entire time I would have had those Super accounts if I had them to retirement. It saved me seventy thousand dollars in face, whoa seventy grand that's like, that's somebody's whole house deposit. That's like a whole someone super. That's actually so much money.

And I calculated that by consolidating my SUPER and not paying fees and not paying insurances across all of those because they were all default, I saved myself seventy grand by doing that. That's incredible. You don't even have to have any cash in your bank account right now to save yourself seventy grand. Like that's a good deal. Yeah, Anyway, I can almost guarantee that you're not contributing as much to Savings as you are to Super, and right now, Beck,

you're contributing eleven and a half percent to Super. That's so many dollarus so many. We're going to start caring about that because over your lifetime, by making sure that your super contributions are being made. We don't just trust our employers, Beck, we triple check. We just go in and we log in and we check because it's so hard to recover that if years passed, but it's really easy to nip it in the bud. If you haven't been paid in the last six months, we can triple check.

But what we're going to do is make sure that we're in the right fund because making sure that we are in a fund that performs for us is going to mean that we're arguably almost hundreds of thousands of dollars better off in retirement. Right that's free money just by doing your checks right now, Like I love free money. You love free money. Who doesn't love free money? Why aren't we caring about it? Because it might not be free money today, That's why you don't care about it,

but it's free money in retirement. True future, you's gonna thank you. We're also going to look into whether you can make extra super contributions.

But if you make like after tax contributions, yeah you can claim it on tax but I don't really know how to do that. I just know that's a thing. Yeah, I'll help you. If you ever do that, you let me know and I do it for you. The next is we're going to look into government co contributions because, like again, we love free money, and that's a very complex way of saying the government's going to give you

free cash. I love taking money from the government. Like, if I'm going to take it from anybody, the government is who I want to borrow it from. Totally borrow in quotation marks, right, But for low to middle income earners who make personal after tax contributions to their superannuation, the Australian government offers what they call their co contribution scheme, aka they give you free money for doing something good

for your future. Scheme and if you earn less than forty five four hundred dollars in the twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five financial year and are eligible to make a personal after tax contribution, you could receive a maximum of five hundred bucks in addition to your contribution. That's not bad. Five hundred dollar reduce. That's a lot of money. The government is going to contribute fifty cents for every dollar you contribute up to five hundred dollars.

How kind. Oh my god, gosh, that's such a good saving strategy. I feel like that's something that my dad might have implemented when I was younger, Like if you save a dollar for every dollar, I'll match it with fifty cents. Like that's motivating. Yeah right, I mean I save up for something. So I feel like having a

look at that, because again, free cash. If you're eligible and you earn between forty five four hundred dollars and sixty thousand and four hundred dollars in the twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five financial year, you might still receive a partial co contribution. However, the more you earn, the less co contribution you'll leave. Because obviously, if you're well off, like, it doesn't make a lot of sense to give you free money, like you just don't need

it as much as everybody else. And I feel like that's how the tax system should work in general, but las it does not. And that's a conversation for another day. I know that's really outrageous. I mean, the more you earn, the more you're taxed. But like I feel like there should be less tax at one end and more tax at another end. But again, conversation for another day. And we can't really clarify what end, but it's unspoken specs like yeah, tax the poor, tax all tax the poor.

Sure they could get away with the feel like there's a lot of things that we could learn. Oh yeah, just in case anyone is wondering, we are joking. Now that was a joke. That was a joke. What is next? All right? So next we're going to look at your most precious asset. Do you know what that is? Beck the heart? No, it's you making investments in yourself, investing in personal growth. And development I think is absolutely crucial for enhancing not just your future opportunities, but your overall

well being. I've said this time and time again. You can't just expect to be given a pay rise if you are not putting in the time and the energy and the effort. Like, don't get me wrong, there are a lot of people that you would look at and be like, fire out. They've had a free ride. But that's luck, and luck doesn't often come into your career, doesn't often come into your earning potential. So is their inability to educate yourself further upskill or you know, create

career development opportunities for yourself. If you're furthering your education or deciding to acquire new skills, that can significantly enhance your earning potential, and it can also open up at the door for a whole heap of different career opportunities. Is there something that you could upskill in? It doesn't have to be going back to university, but could you like do an online short course or you know, do some online tutorials to bridge a skill gap, thus increasing

your earning capacity. So something I love and like you guys already know this is YouTube. The amount of stuff I've learned on YouTube, Like even when I was in university, the amount of stuff I learned about how to use Excel, like just for free. And now I'd say I'm an EXL wizard, Like I build complex spreadsheets that are bordering on software, which you know, very impressive. It's not impressive when you know how to do it, you'll be sure,

oh this is easy. But the amount of money I could have earned in addition because I had that skill, But also what that does for me. So I remember building a macro, which if you don't know what that is, that's absolutely fine, but it's just a term INXL for a repetitive task, right right. I basically made myself redundant in one part of my role because it was such a manual process. But I built a macro so it

could do it. And then my boss thought I was a genius because you know, I was so good and so quick at this, and they were often saying like, oh my god, and she's always right. Do you know why I was always right? Because I took out the human error. Oh, like this computer software was doing it perfectly every time, whereas historically when I was doing it manually,

i'd sometimes like cut and paste the numbers incorrectly. Sure, I guaranteed that wouldn't happen, And I also saved myself a heap more time, thus creating more opportunities for career development. So I feel like so many of us think that career development is actually just us having to go back to UNI or getting a whole last new degree. Yeah, to put our in a better position. But is there something you can just learn on YouTube that would help you? Like if you are in podcasting like us, can you

learn about a new software? Can you learn about how to become quicker at editing? Can you learn about, you know, different ways to do something that you're already doing in a more efficient manner. If you're not sure, can you ask your boss? You know, what would be helpful? What would mean that I am upskilling? What would get me to the next step in my career? Ask these questions? And I mean, we've done a heap of episodes about furthering your career, so go have a look at those.

But when it comes to further in your career, sometimes just putting your hand up and saying that you're interested in it can be a sign that you are interested in it, and you're going to be more considered than the next person. True, So have these conversations. Another free resource I adore is Courserah. You saying, Sarah, course Sarah about this. I've never heard of Coursera. She sounds beautiful. I will send you a link our podcast producers passing

becka pen right now Courserah, cour Sarah. How do I spell that? Please? Ce O, you are s eer A. Thank you so much. That's great. Do you know what it is you're writing a town searing Ah? I know what that is. No, go ahead. University's online put units on Coursera for you to do for free. So it's like a university course, but it is for free, and you could do literally any unit from thousands of universities across the world. You could go to Harvard for a unit.

You could go to Yale free unit. You could do all of these fancy things. I have used them a couple of times to upskill in a finance capacity. So when I was like, oh, far out, I'd love to know a bit more about you know this, this or this, I did a mini course in it or a mini unit in it, and the only time I had to pay was if I wanted the certificate. At the end, I didn't want the certificate, okay, and so I didn't pay for it. Was it like the same price as

like a whole way. No, it was like two hundred dollars, So it was like a lot of money for a certificate. But if you really want the certificate and you want to add it to like you know, you'll linked in or something, sure you can definitely download it and add it. But I just did it and I enjoyed it, and it was really really integrated. It was literally like a

university course online like it was for twelve weeks. You turn up to class, you have assignments, you do all of these things, and you come out with a new skill and it was free. Isn't that cool? So cool. There's a few options online, but Courserah is the one that I used, and I think that upskilling yourself. I think that's really sexy. Yeah, there's something motivating about it as well. Absolutely. The other thing on the flip side is making sure that you're doing the best thing for

your health and well being. I feel like you're really good at this beck you're like frowning as though you're not but you are, thank you, so really good at putting yourself first. And I'm not here to guild anybody into signing up for the gym. I mean, Beck is already a little gym rat. Do you know what she came in with? Beck? What's in that mug? My protein mug cake? Yeah, sexy, it looks rank. I'm sure it tasted good. It tastes a bit rig too, but it's

actually to invest in my future self. I like that, but it's so important to support your own well being. There's no chance you could get me to try that mugcake. And I'm not going to the gym. But it's about knowing ourselves and whether we're willing to take time out for a walk, but making sure that we're getting away from our screens and continuing to connect with friends and focus on our mindfulness. I know that that sounds really flippant, but it actually has a massive impact. The next thing

I want to talk about is health insurance. So we are so lucky to have a very sexy medicare system in Australia, Like we are so looked after, but you can't really put a price on health, and like I say, the best kind of insurance is one you never need, so I do want it to be a bit of a waste of money. I do understand at this point in time, lots of us are relooking at our health insurance and going is it worth it? I don't think

it is. Let's get rid of it. But if you don't have health insurance and you are using seeing lots of additional services, like you're going and getting lots of remedial massages, or you're going and seeing the physio because it is best for you, please have a look because you could be getting some money back and it could actually put you in a better financial position, like so many times. And I know, Beck, you're one of these people that you're like, I don't need private health insurance,

and I'm like, I get it. You've told me your reasons and it makes sense. But if you'd started to go to the physio or heat because you're going to the gym a lot, I'd be like, they have a look at it because it could actually put you in a better financial position. And that makes sense. Yeah, you're not there yet though, so it makes much sense for you.

The next thing I wanted to talk about is really prioritizing your physical and mental health today, because if you can't get on top of it, it's going to build up and cost you a lot in the future. This is some words of wisdom from my dad. He like in stress because I was having a pretty stressful period earlier this year and I was saying, it's so stressful, but that's okay, like, you know, I'll get through this,

I'll do this. And he said to me, Victoria, you need to be really careful of stress, because stress is like beastings. You can have a beasting you once and it's fine. You could even have a beasting you twice and it's fine. But every single time a beastings you, it gets harder to get over, and at some point you have an anaphylactic reaction and it's something that you need to go to hospital for. And stress can be like that. It kind of compounds over time. It's like investing.

You kind of just start to see it tick away and it doesn't make sense, and it might be a little bit more stressful than it was before, but over the long period of time, it has a significant impact on your mental and your physical health. So if something is stressing you out, getting on it now is going to save future you from essentially burnout and putting yourself in the worst possible position. And I think that that is honestly some pretty good dad advice. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Stress is very bad for the health. It is, but like long term, long term stress. But I understand this obviously does not apply to people who have clinical mental health illnesses. Is more just for people who are stressed in their day to day lives and can maybe get on the top of that. Meditation. Try meditation, love meditation. If you're going through a serious mental health issue and someone mentions meditation to you, like you've got my permission

to just knock around a little bit totally. Have you tried meditation back? I got one of them. Fortunately, No, But you're not saying it once you've heard that they've been diagnosed with something. Oh yeah, so seeing my cych and I got diagnosed with X, Y and Z, and you'll be like, oh my gosh, that's so bad. Have you tried meditation over a wall just get outside the sun? Oh my gosh. I never. I would never either, But like, these people deserve a little bit of a smacky smack.

Oh absolutely, I think let's go for a really quick break. Let's keep venting about those people, and I'm going to make you try my mud cake. Okay, don't go anywhere, guys. Welcome back everyone. We are talking about investing in your future self. See what is next? Financial planning, Ah, the good stuff. I think this is really important to touch on because I think so many people think that financial planning is for the rich, and it is not. It

is for everybody so that they get ahead. You could be someone who has a solid financial plan and you are currently jobless. You could be someone who has a solid financial plan and earned five hundred grand a year. You could also be someone who has five hundred grand a year coming in and have absolutely no financial plan and you're backing yourself into a corner so that when you retire you have zero dollars. I think there is this misconception that high income equals high output, and that's

not the case. The amount of people when I was working as a financial advisor that I saw free to or away more money than I had even been able to fathom at that point in my life is mind blowing.

Like the amount of people I met that literally had four hundred thousand dollars incomes and worse, naughting it up their noses is wild, right right, Like, I kid you not, and I'm not saying that that's always the issue, but it is so easy to experience lifestyle creep at any income level, and I think that it is naive of us to assume that we'll be better at it when

we have more income. Like I know that you might be in the middle of a really shitty personal debt bubble and you might not feel like you're getting ahead, but having a good idea of what's coming into your account, what's going out of your account, and what your expenses are is going to put you in the control seat. It's going to put you in the best possible position to be successful long term. So the first thing we're going to do beck irrespective of whether you have debt

or not, is established an emergency fund. You and I have talked about this before. I think that every single person should have access to an emergency fund, even when they're in significant personal debt. And the reason I believe that is because if an emergency arises, you don't have to go further into debt to cover that, even if

you've paid off a significant amount of your debt. Having money to the side, even if it's a couple of one hundred dollars and you paid your speeding fine in cash and didn't go further into debt, it reinforces that you are on the right track and you are doing the right thing. There is nothing worse than being in debt. Something popping up and you're going, it was really trying to pay off my zip pay, I'm gonna have to go further into zip pay debt and you've just been

working so hard. It feels like you're taking a step back. I mean, there's not one thing that is gratifying about getting a speeding fine, right, Like, no one likes that. But Beck, if you got that and then you had the cash for that, you're going to go I'm different, I'm changing. I'm not who I used to be when it comes to money. And yeah, I've still got debt, but I am on the right track. I'm on the

right path. I am doing the right thing for future me. Yes, Like, it feels so liberating to have some cash to pay for something that you didn't expect to have to pay for. It really does. It's so nice. So that for me is really important. If you do have an emergency fund, please make sure it is in a high interest savings account and working as hard as you do for it. Don't just let it sit over there and not have

a job. He'll give your money a job. The next is I want you to look at investing and if you are already making sure that your investments are well diversified, so can you start investing this year? It's not a bad thing to say no, beck I know you can. I know where you're at. You've got a bougie new job. You've been talking about investing for the last twelve months, and you've done approximately zero things to step towards investing. And that's okay, And to be honest, lots of us

are in that position. How many of us, bin, she's on the money content, You're like, next episode, I reckon, I'm going to get the motivation and I'm going to start investing. And then you finish it and you're like, not yet, though yet, not yet. That's totally okay, so normal, But that's what is called analysis paralysis. And sometimes we have to pull our finger out and agree that maybe we learn the most on the job. So maybe you'll learn the most about investing once you've just started. Yeah,

so can you invest this year? If not, that's so fine. But if it's within your budget to even invest a couple of dollars a month, download a micro investing platform. Dip your toes in the water, see how it goes. There are so many platforms now where you can invest literally beck with as little as one cent. So dipping your toes in the water, you can just see what it's like. You can download the up you see how it goes up and down. You can get ten bucks

for free. Like we've got our shares this coach. You can play with our money instead of your true Actually, I'm running this down because I am going to do this literally and how I say this all the time, but I am going to do this as soon as we get off this. Okay, I will not bully you into doing that when we get off. Yeah, I like it. But in addition to investing, if you have got a very serious investment portfolio. When I say very serious, I

mean you're just consistently contributing to it. It doesn't mean it's you know, millions of dollars. It could be five hundred dollars, but you need to just make sure that we're thinking about diversifying so that you know, even if your portfolio is a total of you know, three or four hundred dollars, what next steps are you're going to make so but not all of your eggs are in

one basket. So if you've been investing in one direct share, Beck, how are we going to get another area into our portfolio? So you might have been investing in property shares. How do we get you know, electricity or power or you know, something else into there so that if that industry or banking isn't doing so well, we know that our investments in another area are. If you're already investing in an ETF, Beck, what is that ETF? Can we have a think about it?

Is it an Australian ETF or is it an international ETF? Maybe you're thinking, oh my gosh, I finally you know, cracked one thousand dollars in my investment portfolio and I really want to, you know, think about what my next movie is because this is starting to compound and it's really exciting. If you already have an Australian ETF, maybe have a think about whether you want to include an international ETF, or if you have an international ETF, think

about an Australian one. And the reason we do that is because when the Australian market isn't performing that well, often international markets are. And when international market are, you know, not being so good, often Australia we live in a bit of a bubble. We're a smaller economy. We're doing pretty well. So that will even further diversify your investment portfolio. Hedge hedge in your bets. Who are you proud of me? I am so always proud of you, but like very

especially proud of you when you use investing terminology. I love it, but we have so many episodes on the incent Of course, your investment strategy needs to align with your individual risk tolerance and your investment horizon and all your financial goals and all of that stuff. But have a think about how do I make sure that not all my eggs are in one basket? What does that look like?

But inside your superranuation, and it's very likely that you have life insurance, it's very likely that you might have some type of TPD, which is total and permanent disability. If you hold insurance as outside of superannuation, you might have income protection, or you might have a trauma policy. If you don't know what any of those are, that is an instigator for you to check check your super Do you have default insurance? If you don't, do you

need it? It's very different what your insurance needs look like.

me yesterday, my partner is screwed. Without insurance that contributes to that mortgage. I have an income that is contributing to my son's life and his education and literally everything to provide for him until he reaches the age of eighteen. Without insurance, my family is significantly worse off. So I need to make sure that I have it. So is insurance for everybody? No, but it could definitely be for you. And if you haven't reviewed it, you definitely need to.

And the next one, are you ready? I'm ready. It's not very sexy, right, it will very morbid, isn't it. It's a bit morbid, and it's definitely gone a bit morbid. But like my favorite podcast is called morbid, so like I'm fine with it. Like if my podcast is a little bit morbid, I'm alright with it. You know, But make a will because it may seem really far off that you need it, but you never know what is

around the corner. And believe me, you do not want to lump your family and friends with any of the additional burden. If something happened to you yesterday, like it's really messed up. Beck. The stuff I have seen as a financial Advisor is the reason I am so wildly passionate about insurance. It's why I'm so wildly passionate about having a will. And if you listen to some of our money diaries, I think it will really drive that

point home. So those are my top tips, and I feel like that's where we want to start financial planning. That's what we're going to do. I get you, Okay, Okay, even if it's you know, something that you feel like is so unlikely and so morbid, it's really good to be thinking about these things. So you know what, I'm going to have these conversations when you're in your right mind and want the best for future you and want the best for your family, not when you're forced to have

them and you're making a decision out of desperation. Definitely, that's a really good point. So I guess onto the next thing let's talk about. Like I'm moving on, is a bit morbid. I've really want to jump to a new topic because it is so morbid. But you don't talking about setting short and long term goals. Goal setting sounds really bland, but it's really really important. You don't have to have a goal of having a new career, Beck.

We could have small goals, but you need to understand the difference between a short and a long term goal so that we know where to put our money. Because if you set a short term goal of mine is to buy a house, I'd be like, all right, well, investing is not a good option, right, Like, let's not put our money into the investment markets if you're going

to buy in the next year or two. But if you said long term goal, maybe in the next ten plus years, I really want to buy property, I'd be like, Babe, investing could be for you, Like that could put you in a better position. You could pick up some compound interest, Like over that long period of time, you're going to make sure that you're, you know, hedging your bets over

the market, not being down. So I think getting some clear and achievable short and long term goals is fundamental to guiding financial decisions and ensuring future success, which is really important. But I also need to recognize that I'm the worst at setting a goal and then sticking to it. Did you set your goals for this year? If so, what were they. Let's do a little bit of a

check in I did your best year yet? Program? At the start of this year, because goal setting for me used to be really hearty, so like write down all of my goals and then not do anything about them, and then at the end of the year wonder why I hadn't achieved them, but also crucify myself because I was like, I'm so dumb. I didn't save ten grand and that was my big goal and I can't believe

I didn't do it right. But Becka had no framework in place, Like, how was I going to save ten grand by December if I didn't have any type of plan in January, if every March or the rest of the year, Yeah, I was just going to turn up with ten grand at the end of the year and no framework to have done that. Sure. Really, sometimes it is just as satisfying writing down your goals instead of like actually hitting them or reaching them, you know what I mean. I feel like it gives you clarity on

what you want, So that's important. But if you're going to set goals and you want to achieve them, check in on them. It's not too late ever to reflect on what you wanted, focus on and start tracking your progress. So if you started this year with a list of goals and maybe you haven't reviewed them. Maybe now is the time that I'm kicking you in the bottom a little bit, going, hey, Beck, where's that list you said you liked writing down? Where are we at? Do you

still want to do those things? It's so fine if you don't like the amount of times I change my mind. I'm like, I know, I said I wanted to do that, but that was a joke. I was just joking, Guys, I was joking. Why don't you take a joke. I never wanted to do that. Thing that I did was crucial for future. Yeah, No, it was a joke. But I think having a look at your goals and what you want to achieve is really important and then looking further ahead. So what does that look like for you?

What are your goals for achieving some level of financial freedom? What are your goals for retirement if you've got them. If you've ever said to yourself, I know, I really want to retire early, what does that even mean? Like when you say retire early, what does that mean to you? Because I think when I was young and you would have said, oh, sixty five is the retirement age, which it is at the moment. If you'd said to me, does that sound good? I'd be like, yeah, that sounds great.

But now I look at my parents, who are both close to sixty five, and I'm like, that's so young. Like to me, that isn't as old as what I used to think it was. Is that where I want my life at? But I also think how good would it have been if, you know, at fifty, I had financial freedom to choose, like, maybe I can go part time, maybe I can, you know, choose to live my life the way that I want to, because I don't want to be sixty five and having to go to work

every single day. So I don't know, it's completely up to you. So determining your retirement age or what you think you might want to retire out, and your lifestyle expectations is going to help you calculate what you need in retirement. So I always tell you about this figure of you know, having one point two million dollars invested beck and how that will give you every single year a sixty thousand dollars income. Is that enough for you? What does that actually look like? Because one point two

million dollars is so much to be invested. In fact, you don't even need half of that to have a successful retirement. A comfortable retirement here in Australia is less than that, which is really nice. But have you done the numbers? What does a comfortable retirement for you look like? Because that might look very different to the comfortable retirement I want, and that's okay, But what does that number

look like? And I can almost guarantee that the second you start going, ah, looks like this clarity opens up and it's not as hard as you thought it was. It's not as overwhelming or confusing, or you know, it's not something that feels so distant. You go, I could probably work towards that. You know, my souper is actually tracking really well. Or you know what if I added one percent to my super m what does this look like? I could invest outside of super as well. So there's

lots that you could do. I'm start to feel a bit motivated. And hopefully once you start I expose like planning for things and realize you can do it and you feel like you've got a little bit control, I think you'll feel a bit motivated too. It's sexy. Now,

I wonder do we have time for one more? Nearly like let's do like a half one, let's talk about financial literacy, because that we are definitely running out of time, but I think a very good place to wrap it actually is really about improving your financial literacy, which, like, guys, you're doing by listening to this podcast so Slay, you

are definitely putting yourself in the best possible position. But do something every week or every month to improve your financial literacy, whether that is listening to a podcast, listening to somebody else's podcast, you know, checking your superbalance, checking in on things. At the end of my very first book, She's on the Money, there's actually a laundry list of what you can do every single month to put yourself

in the best possible position. So like I can't even remember what I did, but it's like month one, you check in on your budget. Here, month two you're checking in your insurances, and it gives you like checkpoints of what to do so that by the end of the year you're in the best possible position. And it includes things like checking your insurances on your car and how much you're paying. It includes having a look at your super and all of those things that might slip through

the cracks. And then get to the end of the year and we started again. So I think that that could be really powerful, having a checklist of sorts so that every month, I go, oh, Beck, do something every month for your financial literacy. You're like, what, But I gave you an entire list for an entire year, and all you do is set and repeat. And it means that at least every year you're going to look at your budget. At least every year, you're going to review

all of your subscriptions. At least every year you're going to check how much money is coming into your account. At least every year we're sitting down and potentially talking about a pay rise with our employer, like really important stuff. But I made the checklist for you, so you can do that if you so wish. Otherwise, you could make your own checklist up and do whatever you like, because all I care is that you've got the financial literacy to make the decision that you deserve to make. I

love it. It is so good like that, Victoria. Yeah, I just love a list, love a spreadsheet. I'm here for it. I love a list. Okay, well, let's agree on something. I'll go invest after this, and you start meditating no, okay, you do yours. I'm not doing it. That's fair. You'll invest though, right right? Good? Rest of the day. Guys, will see you on Friday, So there fine. 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 Divine and She's on the Money are authorized representatives of Money showper Pty Ltd ABN three two one six four nine two seven seven zero eight AFSL four five one two eight nine