I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. Welcome to Stepping Up the podcast where we explore all things organization, mental health routines, personal development, motherhood
and health. I'm your host, Steph Pace, and I'm the woman behind Just Another Mummy blog and also the founder of Steph Pace Planners. But I can assure you this is not just another podcast online. I'm known for my organization tips and tricks and the occasional banter, but it definitely wasn't always this way. I used to be a hot mess and occasionally still am. And I'm here as your honest and real friend each week to show you how I turn my life of chaos into clarity.
Between the house, health, kids.
Work, and wanting to be the best version of yourself, it can be overwhelming, and I'm here to give you the tools and tips to stop you feeling like a slave to your daily time, asks, home life, and especially the expectations you have on yourself.
Join me as I share my.
Journey and insights into the art of balancing at all and speak to guests who can help us all live a better life. Whether you're looking to streamline your daily routines, fish your wellbeing, achieve your fitness goals, diamond to personal development, or find inspiration to steff up into the best version of yourself, We've got you.
So are you ready to step up your game? Let's go.
Hello, Renee, thank you so much for coming on the Stepping Up Podcast.
Oh hi, Steff I'm so excited to be here and to be chatting with you today.
Thank you so much.
This isn't actually the first time Renee and I have tried to record this podcast. We tried to do it a couple of weeks ago, and technology hates me. I feel like, you know, Mercury's in the bloody microwave again because we had an hour of tech issue. So we're back here and we're ready to go. All the text
working hopefully. But I'm really excited about today's episode because I haven't really touched on money at all on my podcast, and I've been doing it since I Troba last year and I came across Renee online and we started working together for my business planner because I really needed some help with the financial stuff. You know, your goal isn't
a numbers kind of person. And what really drew me to you, Rena was, you know, when I was searching for financial advisors and planners online was for me who was not necessarily the best at maths, especially, I get quite anxious and overwhelmed when it comes to finances. And now, in saying that, you know before what I'm doing now, I had my own makeup business. I had to do the books and all that type of stuff, but I've
always had kind of rhyme to help me along the way. Nonetheless, when I was online looking for you the Unicorn, there was a lot of accounts that kind of just seemed a little bit too intense and I just didn't really understand the lingo they were using. And what drew me to you and money Mode, which is your business, which is amazing, is the way you really break down the barriers of financial advice and you make it disuccessible, you make it affordable, meaningful, and you actually care about the
people on any part of their journey. So yeah, it was really good. To work together, and I just think what you do is just incredible.
Thank you, thank you.
And I think that's, you know, always been a big part of my mission is to make money easy to understand and to be able to put that money conversation on the table, because it is quite a taboo topic and it's almost like, you know, it's not something that's publicly discussed.
You don't discuss it with your friends, You often don't discuss it with your family.
And I think my mission's always been to try and come at money in a really kind of simple, digestible way to say I love it.
So I did see. I was looking at it like.
You're doing a bit of research into you, which I already knew fair a bit, but you know, I like to put my detective hat on, and I actually saw that your first business venture was at the age of twelve making craft items, yes, with your very helpful grandmothers,
and you had your own stores at the weekend markets. Well, I'll have you know when I was, when I was about the same age, I actually used to have all these old sheets and I would draw Pokemon on it and then I'd cut it out and then sew it up and put more sheets into to make toys, and I would sell them on the streets.
Oh my god, I wasn't as such as you like little entrepreneurs.
I feel like that entrepreneurial streak starts very early in most people, doesn't it.
Yeah, it's so good.
And I thought that was just really beautiful that you know, you share that type of stuff too, because again, with money, it tends to be something that doesn't feel is very personal, like it's weird, it's personal because you feel like you don't want to share it. And then, as you said, there's a stigma, there's shame attached to it. And then even when you do go well, you feel like you can't tell people because then they'll talk poppy syndrome, which
is really bad in Australia. Yeah, exactly, And yeah, you just really humanize the financial planning industry, don't you.
Yeah.
And I think that, you know, money is involved in so many decisions that we make on a daily basis, like does the.
Little decisions or the big decisions?
And because it's not something that's talked about, I kind of really want to bring the voice to making the money conversations easy to have and you know, to take that stigma away from money, because money, the way I see it is it's just a tool at the end of the day, Like money is just a tool that enables us to live our lives in a certain way.
And that's really how we've got to view it. There's so much stigma, emotion, and all of that embroiled in how we think and feel about money that I just kind of want to make people realize that it is really just a tool that, where we like it or not, we all.
Have to deal in it because we need a roof over our.
Heads, we need to put food on the table, and then you know, anything else we do over and above that money does give us choices and allows us to live our life in a certain way. So the more that we can embrace it, understand it, feel good.
About it, then the better outcomes we're all going to have.
I love that, and I love how you said it's a tool because I feel like, ultimately it impacts our money.
Let's be honest.
And obviously you can be you can be born into such great circumstances or demographics and things like that that affects chances of getting jobs, all those types of things you education, But I think the fact that you've just said, like it is a tool and you kind of need to remove the personal aspect to it and not let
it define you exactly. You can't be like where you want to be financially, but it doesn't mean you're any less worthy than the person next to you that makes six seven figures, Like you're still just as worthy as the next person. And I'm really excited to dive into this top bit because again, it's just so foreign to me, and I even feel funny talking about money all the top, even at work for you know, staff pace planners when
we have our financial meetings. I hate it, like I literally want to run, I might let me out and I panic. I definitely get into that, which I think people listening would probably find this odd. But as a business owner, you have a shit ton of overheads, and I go straight into scarcity mindset because you know, the overheads are just crazy, they're growing and you know you're trying to keep up. So I really don't like being
in that scarcity mindset. And another thing that actually surprises people is you know when you do your top values, Like as a person, I do my top values, and my top ones were not money at all. So when I started my business and everything, I literally because I loved it. I was passionate about it. But I'm not driven by money and I never have been.
So I really struggle with this topic because of that as well.
It's so common and you know, part of my business, I run an education program called the Money Mode School, and one of the big things that I talk about in there is working on your values because we tie so much of our status and ego and self worth into our financial position.
But yet then when.
We dive into our values and our belief system, money isn't one of those. And that's sort of where coming back to what I said before about money being the tool. Money is just the tool that can support you to live life on your terms, but your values always have to guide the decisions that you make, and money's kind of just that resource there that allows you to do it.
And yeah, I don't mean to sound wishy washy with that, but the more we can kind of break the practical side and the emotional side of money apart see it as a tool, and then it's like life admin.
You know, like we have to deal with emails.
Yeah, take good dog to the vat exactly, and so trating your money a bit like you know, a life admin piece as well, is really how you need to do it. But it's also your understanding those emotions that come into play in terms of you know, tying in our self worth and whatever with money, that and not being afraid of it either back to that scarcity mindset, the messages that we get, Like I talk a lot
about money stories. Our money story is our I call it our deep seated value and belief system around money.
But it's actually not really about the money at all.
So if you think back to your childhood, and everyone's got a different money story, like and different variations of the men because it's based on your life experience and what you've heard, the conscious and unconscious kind of beliefs that have been instilled in you. So I think back to my childhood, I don't remember my parents ever talking about money, So money wasn't a conversation on the table.
But oh wow, but we were the opposite, were you. Yeah, yeah, I definitely.
Observed things and I knew I would say my parents were very resourceful, frugal. You know, we didn't have a lot of money, but I was fully aware of our financial situation, but I don't remember it being actually spoken about to me. That makes sense, Yeah, so tell me about yours.
Yeah.
So for me, and I won't go into it too much because I'll be here forever.
But my parents are very scarcity mindset, very much so my mother. You know, I remember when favor got some coins and stuff, She's this like book and I'd have to like sign it and pay it back from like a really young age. And she was very much like even when we were comfortable with my dad, you know, he worked full time of the tax office. You know, we definitely weren't well off, but like we were pretty decent. You know, we still managed, we got to go on holidays,
like so that is well off considering. But like I guess you could say we couldn't just splurge, you know, because for them in their generation, you know, my mother grew up, they didn't have any money. Even when we had it, she wouldn't spend it. So even our cupboard were pretty bare, like there was never really any food, and it was just really what all she thought about was money, and that's all she really kind of cared about,
to be honest as well. So for me, I think I maybe repel that because I want to be different and I want to put people and experiences above the money, and I do. I can definitely sympathize with that. Yeah, but I think that's probably why I am the way I am, because I'm like, I'd rather, you know, have people over for dinner and buy five pizzas instead of just the one and everyone gets one slice.
Because that's the stuff.
That's what we had, Like it was very very minimal food and stuff. Yeah, I would love to know why and how you got into the finance space, you know, And I really loved that, As I said, I love your messaging and even before how you said you don't want to come across as woo woo or like the emotional side. But I think that's what we need and I think that that's why this conversation is so important. So what inspired you to, you know, get into finance and break the mold and do things differently.
Yeah.
So for me, I was really good at maths at school, Like that was kind of my strong subject. I have this really like kind of logical brain and I needed answers. So I went and did a business degree and I started out doing accounting and finance, and I was just like, I felt like my personality just really didn't kind of fit the mold. And then when the UNI I was at, they introduced financial planning as a as a stream or
as a major, and I did the first unit. I thought, I'll give that a try and see what I think about that. I think I was in my second year and I was just like, oh my god, this is it. Like the penny just dropped straight away, and I was learning all of these things about which sounds so uninspiring now, but about superannuation and tax and all of that.
But it was at a person so sexy, really sexy stuff, but it was at an individual level. And everything else I'd.
Been studying was at big corporation levels and all the rest of it. And so I was like, oh my god, if my parents knew this information, all my aunties and uncles and my family members knew this, so that would make such a big difference to, you know, the way they're living their lives or their outcomes. And so I was just like, oh my god, this is just like I can't believe people don't.
Know this stuff.
So I was just so excited about being able to make an impact on individual people like my parents. From the first moment I started studying it, and then when I got out into work, it was a.
Really hard industry to get into.
So I eventually got there and yeah, sort of worked for different, you know, a few different firms over the years, and then when I was pregnant, I was Yeah, for a little while, i'd been a bit frustrated with the industry. So I've been in the industry for just over twenty years and I was getting to the point where I was really frustrated with the industry. It was male dominated. At the time, I was working for ye an all male firm. There were seven male partners, all male advisors, and.
It was just this is just so out of skew.
Nothing wrong though, you know, they were great at what they did, but it was like, where's the kind of feminine voice to this. And also I felt like the industry was full of egos and full of people talking jargon and making it more complicated than it needed be.
Yeah, so I was just peoplelized on Instagram.
Exactly, and I was like, this is just we need to be helping people. And coming at this from a completely different angle around that time as well, I reckon the Barefoot Investor book was just like the top selling book for a couple of years in a row, and it was going crazy. And I watched that with real fascination, thinking all these basics about like the fundamentals about money, that's actually what everyday people want to learn about and
want to know about. And it's like the financial planning industry was just at this really complicated level, and so that was a big passion of mine to go, then we need to fill a gap here and help people because money is not something that's taught at school, and.
Where are people supposed to find this information?
So that's really where starting my business five years ago, where that real kind of driving passion came from. It was kind of born out of this frustration that the know how wasn't easily available for people to access.
Yeah, that's amazing. I think, Yeah, you're so right that it is very much so well. I don't know what it's like now, but I could imagine it's a male dominated industry. And I think it's really interesting how you said when you finally started learning about super for the individuals and like stuffed individuals, because that's relatable.
That's what lead you up. And I think that's what it's all about.
When they're using all this jug and that not the everyday person understands like I wouldn't have a bloody clue. It's always felt really unattainable to completely understand my financial situation. And that's why I just think I'm so excited for people to get so many nuggets of gold in this episode. And one thing I do want to ask is where do you see most women, people, anyone, the everyday person, go wrong when it comes to money.
Yeah, So I think a little bit about what you were saying about yourself before, it's around confidence. So a lot of women typically think they're not good at money, and there's probably good reasons for it that you know, it's not something that's taught this to move topic, and it's not a conversation that we would have with, you know, with our friends or whatever. So I think there's a
real lack of confidence there. And then I think also I think as we go on in life a bit, particularly mothers typically take time out of the workforce for caregiving. Life gets busy, and I guess societal norms are that the breadwinner, which is often not always but it's often the male partner that they'll make the financial decisions, and you know, you got a lot on your plate with
the motherhood load and all that. When I like to call it that, it's kind of just something that a lot of women go like, oh, that's just something I'll.
Leave to my partner.
And so I think that it just kind of a bit of a snowball effective losing confidence and then thinking, well, it's probably not something that I need to worry about.
Yeah, definitely that narrative, Like you said, like that confidence. For example, a few weeks ago, I went to the snow and when I had people who were better than me at skiing, I wouldn't actually just be shit and I'd fall on my bom every two seconds. But then when I'd have beginners under me, that would make me feel confident, and the next minute, I'm skiing better than
I've ever skied before. And it's the saying when I think, when it comes to things like money or even most of my life, I thought I wasn't a fit person, so therefore I had already made the decision up, so I'm not going to even try. We are all sitting there thinking I'm not good at money. I don't understand it. Yes, it's too much. Then you're never going to be able to change your financial situation really exactly.
Yeah.
Yeah, So what are some really helpful tips that are just easy to implement or semi easy, yes, that can help make your finances easier and less overwhelming.
Yeah, like a couple of really key things right that everyone will have heard. But you need to spend within your means, Like you have to spend less money than you are earning. And it's become really hard in this modern day society when everything's tap and go like, so we don't really deal with cash much anymore, and it can be really hard to lose track of your money. So I'm going to say the dirty bee word, but
you need to do a budget. And I think looking at a budget lot most people when they hear that word, think deprivation. I'm going to have to deprive myself of something. But I think you think restriction. You just think, oh no, do that.
Yeah, it's like diet.
You know, I'm going to have to take something away, and you know, I like to call it a spending plan, but.
To really like that, you've got the word plan.
We're not like that yes, So.
You got to do a spending plan. You kind of got to go what does it cost to run my life?
Like?
What do I need to spend on the essential things to put a roof over my head, to put food on the table, to you know, put petrol in the car with There's necessities that we all have to pay that kind of take first priority.
So it's kind of like doing a bit of spending plan. What is that? And then it's like.
What can I afford then to spend on my lifestyle? I always call lifestyle spending giving yourself an allowance so that it feels good you know that it fits within your spending plan. You can feel good about the purchases that you make because you know you're not taking away from those essential things that you need to spend money on.
So if you don't do that plan and don't kind of put your numbers down and work out where they need to go and how they need to be divided up, you don't have any control over where your money is going. So doing that plan is the best opportunity you have to tell your.
Money where to go.
But building into that like spending less than your own and creating a spending plan so that you can manage your money, making sure that you have an emergency fund, because our best laid plans, like any little things can come as roadblocks in our way. So it might be you know, your washing machine breaking down, or you can't costing more for the service than you'd thought it would.
Could be you know a sick family member where you need to take time off work or flying to state, or there's like so many different curve balls that.
Life throws at us, car breaks down, just everything.
And so it's just making sure that you have some money aside for those emergencies, for the worst kind of case scenarios, and that way, your day to day running of your money is going to still go to plan because you've got a backup plan for when things don't go to plan. You need to then have some financial
goals that you're working towards. So firstly, if you've got any consumer debt like credit card debt or have to pay or anything like that, you need to get rid of that because that's not serving you.
They're kind of like the real basic fundamentals.
Yeah, I love one thing that's really helped me because I again i'm very forgetful why I make planners. Yeah, got like the budget and the bill truck and all that stuff, but we did like your automatic payments, so we like have automatic funds going to our emergency and things like that. What you'd say the allowance, I call it me money, So it's money that's just for me. And now I know that it's not taking away from the business or the house or the kids.
That type of thing.
But yeah, do you have any like hacks that are for people who just feel like it's too hard to even figure out how to save more money?
What's some packs that they could do.
So really in line with exactly what you're just saying, is to automate as much as possible.
So if you can kind of go and do that spending.
Plan workout, and I like to do it on initially on an annual basis, So like go through plugging all your numbers, work out what your costs are over a year, what it costs to run your life, and then allocate
out some different spending accounts. So you might have do you have all your bills and essentials and everything like that in one separate account, and then each paycheck you're putting some money towards those, So the bill trackers are awesome to keep track of when they're due, but also make sure that each paycheck that you've got, you're putting some money towards paying those lumpier bills.
So the ones that come in monthly, that's fine.
But then when you've got like a car rego or a you know, an insurance or something like that that's an annual bill or rates that might be quarterly, so you don't get caught out in that pay cycle, that you're putting extra money in that account automatically to pay for those bills and then to divide out you're spending into separate accounts as well, so that way you know you're not going to overspend on your groceries or your lifestyle spending because you would have separate accounts for those
with an automatic that's smart amount into them that fits within your budget. And you know, also a lot of provider like utility providers and things like that will allow you to smooth out your bills, so you can often contact them so to say they might bill you every two months or every three months or whatever it might be. You can say, I want you to give me in and like a monthly estimate if that's your pay cycle and you can pay into that monthly as well.
Yeah, especially because as soon as you kind of have to feel like you to sit down and go through all your bloody bank statements and all that shit, it's too smart. So I would love to know you always. I know you said, you know you're good at maths, but we're always good at money. And like, what is some things you wish that you learned sooner about money?
Yeah?
Yeah, good, that's a really good question.
So I, like a lot of twenty year olds, got myself into some consumer debt as a UNI student, much to my dad's disappointment because he was someone that never had alone talking about Yeah. I remember, gosh, when we were growing up, we were building a house and he would wait for installments of the house until he'd saved enough money to buy the material. So we lived in a shared in the caravan for a long time. But yeah,
like getting into consumer debt. So when I say consumer debt in case you know, people aren't sure what I mean, I'm really meeting like credit cards or after pay or anything like that.
So one thing that my mother really instilled in me, she's like, you never ever get a credit card and I didn't until my business.
Yeah, like this business, but I just I think it's a trap.
Yeah, I think in this day and age now, like I didn't have social media when I was growing up, but I feel, you know, for people, particularly young people now, is social media. I don't know advertising at us all the time, and it's like we don't practice what I call the delayed gratification muscle. It's like, you know, yeah, because you can have everything now, you can go to the shop and it's like, oh, if you don't have the money, that's okay, put it on buy now, pay later,
and walk away with it. But it's like you've really got to practice that delayed gratification muscle of saving up for something and then buying.
It or spending the money when you've saved for it.
And also just like sleeping on it for a while, you know.
Like as this pair of pajamas that everyone would laugh if when I say this, because they've seen me on Instagram.
I literally live in these pajamas. They're really expensive, but oh and.
I was wanting them for like a couple of years and I finally you know, because we do our budgeting and stuff, but I was finally like, you know what I'm doing at but I knew because I wanted them for like years. But it's just one of those things, like you did you need to sleep on it, because there's been times where, like I remember this time, I think it was ing lockdown, and I know everyone's spending habits a really bad thing because everyone stuck at home.
They're all online shopping because there's nothing else to do.
And I remember I paid for a handwriting course because I can't write for shit, and I own a stationary business, which is probably not the best mix, but you know, I got bored I bought that, and the amount of courses and things that I've bought and I've never used it's because I didn't sleep on.
It, and it's just insane.
Yeah, And I think that it's so important because that you know, when you look at like retail therapy, if that's a vice that you know anyone's got, we do it because it's like a feel good inendorphin, like when you've spent money, you're like, oh, feel good. And sometimes
I like I get understressed. I'm like, oh, I just need to go and have some retail therapy and that's that is fine to do from time to time, but if you have to do that on someone else's money, that's not okay because that will feel ten times worse after the fact. Then you know, if you've kind of
saved up and made it feel good purchase. So it's like really kind of practicing that muscle of the sleeping on it, saving up for it, asking yourself, does it align to my values and what I'm wanting to achieve long term, because I think it's also really hard with finances when you've got big goals that you want to achieve and it's going to take a long time to get there.
It's like, how do you celebrate the little.
Milestones along the way and still feel like keep yourself on track and keep motivated. So trying to find little ways to celebrate those little wins.
I'm glad you weren't like the teenager that was really good at saving. Like Ryan, He's always been a good saver. When he was little, his mum would buy him like a five dollar book and if he didn't read it, he would like cry and be like so apologetic. He was such an angel. My kids are not like that. But yeah, it's just he was really naturally good at that, So I'm glad to hear that you or with that was Dolgien.
I was good as a kid, and then it was like I got into the big bad world and started earning money for the first time, and I just wanted more in that moment. The other big one stuff that I talk about you know quite a bit too and drives a bit of passion is money in relationships.
So I had a long term.
Relationship, like from twenty one and money was a huge problem turned out to be a huge problem in that and it really kind of back to what we were talking about the start around our money mindset or our money belief system and that sort of thing. What ended up at the end of the day was we had quite different values around money, and we never.
Had the conversations.
So I think for me, like that's a really lived experience that I want to passionately help other people with is to be able to have the money conversations in relationships, Like you can have some different views and some different beliefs, that's fine, but it's having an understanding of what each others are and how you can support each other with those and then creating kind of a united plan feer money together, so having shared goals, but also feeling like
you've got some financial independence in a relationship as well. I think it's really important feeling that you have got a voice and that you feel empowered around money, despite what level of income you might earn or whatever, because often power is connected to money, and I think it's trying to go let's take the power away from the money, because it shouldn't be a status thing.
No, And I love that you touched on that, because, to be honest, I didn't even think of that, and I am just very grateful. Ryan and I very much on the same page. It's kind of like parenting, you know, if you're with someone exactly like their take on parenting is very different to yours. That is a lot of
stress and tension. Really also the fact that, like you mentioned, if you don't feel confident and even just feeling like you know what you're talking about, you're not going to even have those conversations with your partner because you're like, I don't even know what I'm talking about, so I'm not going to bring it up. And do you feel like back then, if you knew even the basics of money that you would know.
Now, do you feel like you would have had that conversation.
I think a lot of it was self confidence and I wouldn't feel good about the way certain decisions were made or things were happening with our money together and all of that, and I knew that, you know, there was a misalignment there, but I didn't speak up enough
or set strong enough boundaries. So I think that's just having that confidence to go, this is something that is really important and your you know, your feelings around these are really valid, and you have every right to set those boundaries and also to feel really strong in sharing your thoughts and beliefs and new goals around what you want to do because it's really really important thing.
Just I want to put an example out there, just so someone who's listening at home right now, driving in the car, whatever, If they're in a relationship right now where they're like, you know, their partner, they're the breadwinner and they're the more confident one with the money. As in the personal listening, they're like what I used to be like, didn't have a clue. Where should they start to look or do or what can they do to
overcome that? To be able to bring up that conversation and what things should they be talking about in that conversation. Should they be talking about spending savings? Like is there certain touch points they should be covering.
So I think there's a few things, Like I see the two different sides, like the emotional and the practical side of money. So one is really like, if you've never had it, even if you've been in a relationship for ten years, have a money story chat with your partner, like, you know, what did money mean growing up? What lessons did they pick up from, you know, their parents, What were the experiences good, bad, and otherwise.
That they had.
Because sometimes for people, there can be a lot of trauma in those stories that make them quite guarded or make them feel scarce or fearful. So I think it's having like have that little date night chat about that. But then on the practical side, it's like, let's sit down, let's go through a family budget together.
And goals.
I think goals are the biggest thing that can get you on the same page. So talking about where do we want to get to in five years, in ten years, what does life look like then, and what are the things that we need to do now to support each other to get to that vision that we've got for like the shared goal, but also talk about what your individual goals might be as well and making sure they're catered for, because you've got to have some shared goals as a couple, I believe, and then you may have
other individual goals which might be, you know, you might want to go back to study, or you might want to start a business, or you might want to be cutting down your work hours or increasing your work hours, and just like having those conversations about how all that fits into your finances and then going through the budget
together and working on it. So it's kind of like then in the practical side, it's that day to day spending plan, but then also the longer term, big picture vision of where you're kind of both headed and try and get aligned on the same page. I think a great one for people that have got children is talking about the money story that you want to is instilling your kids and being really kind of love about that.
Did you want to give your children about money? Yeah?
Yeah, I love that, especially because Ryan and I got a new home, and you know, because we've worked really really hard over the years, and you know, my business has gone well and things like that, but we've I've never been someone just because the kids asked for something, I'm not going to just give it to them, like we have a budget where everyone has a.
Budget, you know.
You know, businesses are expensive. It's just the money you make from a plan. It doesn't all come to me. It's like probably five percent of that to be honest, not even. And it's one of those things where with the kids, you know, they do ask me, especially lately because I've having having to work a lot, like you know why you know, And I said, you know, well, because I need to be able to pay for the
house this blah blah. Then I also said, it is important that my mummy doesn't want to be you know, this isn't what it should be, Like I said, Mommy is working on that. So I do have that balance because I also don't want them to tie their self worth to how much they're working and how much money
they're making, because then they turn into a machine. So it's really important that and I very much vocalize it, you know, when I am stuck maybe on a Monday night working that I'd rather be with them because that was something I didn't get myself and just like putting the people above the money. So I think that was a really good point you said.
I think, you know, I think that's where you have your discussion around like his pocket money a good thing or a bad thing? Does it have to sort of teach them to like manage money from an early age too, So I think that can be a good thing. It's like the purpose behind the money, like because that at the end of the day, you know, I love there's a Simon Sinic quote about money is important, but money is fuel, not a purpose. We don't own cars so we can have fuel. We own cars to get places.
So it's kind of like the goals not necessarily more money makes you more financially free or savvy. It's like, what is it that you want the money to be able to provide you in how you want to be living your life?
As you said, money is not everything. It's merely a tool so you can live your life. And the biggest teacher for me in that was my dad. He worked tirelessly at the tax office for like over thirty years, and he always waited to retire to enjoys life forget. You know, we had my brother who's got disabilities and dad was his sole care and then he didn't get to retire, you know, he retired because of the cancer.
And he was the biggest wake up call to me and even my nan who passed ten months later, who like she raised me. She was my mother essentially, but she always put people before money and she had a really hard upbringing. But she didn't have a scarcity mindset, which was really beautiful to see. She had a really positive onset. It was always the glasses overflowing and full and and if you can't change it, you don't worry
about it. So it's just like these lessons in life, they really do teach you that you can't let money dictate your life and also dictate the worst that you have on yourself.
Exactly. It's so so so important.
And that's you know, I talk about financial freedom to people and it's like, you know, you'll see influences out there talking about financial freedom and how much money you
can make. It's not You've got to tie the purpose back to you know, how you want to be living your life, and that is it might be having balanced throughout your life, which hopefully it is, but then you know, getting to a point where yeah, you don't have to work anymore because you are you know, you've built up some investments and some assets that can then pay you, but you don't want to spend thirty years clogging yourself.
Sorry, that's not the best word to use, but absolutely. Yeah, I know.
I put something on my social media the other day about, you know, finding a new word to redefine retirement, because we shouldn't wait for the end of our working career
to stop and enjoy. So it's like really trying to find that balance along the way and really thinking deeply about how you want to be living your life, what your values are, what are the most important things to you, you know, and money is that tool, Like how can you divide it up to be able to enjoy a bit today but also put some aside for the future.
And that's really the nuts and bolts of it. At the end of the day.
It's like, you know, you've got that resource, use some for you know, having a good lifestyle now, but also know that you're putting some away for the future so that you have ultimate choice on not having to work.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And it's also the fact that if you're waiting for retirement that whole time, you know, the years that your body is the most able physically, you are literally wasting it away working for money that you were going to spend when you probably using a bloody walker, you know what I mean. So like it's about that balance. But you know you mentioned resources, and speaking of resources, I know you've got amazing resources for your own community and
also the steffing up community. And I would also just love to know, you know, what can our listeners he use of yours that can help them continue this journey after this podcast.
Yeah, thanks, Steph.
So, as part of my business, so money Mode, I offer one on one financial planning, but I also created the money Mode School, which was the big kind of passion of mine to be able to make money know how more accessible and affordable. And so I have two programs on there currently that I'd love to offer your
community a discount to. So I'm sure we'll put the code in the notes, but SVP twenty and that will give them twenty percent off my Cashlow course, So that will be the Cashlow Course is a great starting place to get your spending plan in order and be able to you know, go through know your numbers. How to set up your banking system automate everything in a really
simple way. And then my other pro my kind of signature program is the money Mode School, which kind of takes you through the practical side of like setting up your cash flow, the money mindset stuff, and really kind of identifying your you know, your goals, your money story and money in relationships, and then how to kind of create your own financial plan, so going through investing, superannuation,
home ownership, all of that sort of thing. So it's kind of like, you know, the pathway to building up your own financial plan.
Amazing. Thank you so much. I am genuinely just really excited. I really want to look at the cash flow one to be completely honest. So I'm really excited to do that one. But where can my listeners find you on your socials? Yeah, drop your handle?
Yeah, so my Instagram handle is at money Mode underscore and my websites moneymode dot com dot au.
So yeah, I'd love you to come and say hi.
Thank you so much, Forde. It was so beautiful to have you on the show today. We finally got there at the end. Yeah, you've it's been incredible and you've shed so many you know, nug bits of golden wisdom and also just rephrasing things for people to realize that money is at all and it's not defining you as a person.
Yeah, and I think I could talk about this all days, you know, like I'm like even my mind's sticking over now and all these other little nuggets I'd like to share with you and Steph. I've also got a free spending plan template that we can link in the show notes for your listeners as well.
Amazing, you were the best all the freebies over here. Love it look already saving money. Thank you so much for coming on the show today, Renee. I it was such a bloody amazing conversation and we finally got to have it.
I know, we finally got there.
And Yeah, I love chatting to your step and I love sharing as much as I can, And yeah, really gets my juices going being able to talk about money and share some of the insights and hopefully some hacks that people can take away.
So thank you for having me.
Amazing, Thank you so much.
Thank you guys so much for tuning today's episode of Stepping Up. I don't want this to be just another podcast that you listen to. You get inspiration and then you don't take action. If there's been something in this episode that will help you step up into the best version of yourself, open up.
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