Good morning everyone, and welcome back to Sugar Mamma's Fireplay, the podcast that ignites your financial journey with inspiring stories and innovative strategies. I am your host's financial planner, Canna Campbell, and today this is a start Here series where we have frank, open and honest discussions about what's going on and how and where to simply get started so that you are well and truly on trap to see your
financial goals and dreams finally flourish. Now, as always, I must do my general advice warning and of course let you know that my financial planning license details are in the podcast notes. The reason why I say this to you in particular for these start here series is you must use all of my content as an educational guide only.
Never am I giving you personal advice, product advice, or investment advice, so that you understand exactly where you need to go, learn more of and maybe even get personal advice from a financial planner when you are ready to roll with your financial journey. All right, let us begin. So this morning's episode is a bit of a special one. We're in for a treat. Instead of me normally reading your dms, we actually have someone here with us right now, So you're going to be listening to our chat, our
conversation now. Bridy is thirty years old. She's gone through a lot, and I have a feeling that a lot of people are going to really relate to what she has gone through and where she is right now and what she wants to achieve. So with great honor, I introduce to you Bridy for our series start here. BRIDI
thank you so much for coming in. Can you explain to me, like where you're at right now and like what's going on and why you would like me to I guess give you some general guidance as to where to get started.
Well, for one, we're sitting in a beautiful home. It's a testament to like how you've built your dream, which is like already why I want to talk to you, Why I want your help? Yeah, is I would like to even create a financial dream. I'm like kind of scared of the housing staff. I'm single, I'm not thinking about buying a property. I want to live a fun, full, exciting life. I'm thirty.
Liked it be tied down. You just want to be a complete flexibility you at the luxury I want.
To enjoy my life, like because I work hard and I want happiness, but I feel like really scared when I look at Okay, these houses are costing this much, and this is how much you need to live off, and got to create a career that brings in home this much, and I'm just like trying to overwhelming. Yeah, i feel like I would never get there. Like that's a belief thing I know that I have. That is maybe something I need to work on too, But it's
completely overwhelming. And so I've actually buried my head in the sand. Never saved books. Let's talk about it like I've never saved.
I'm not a huge judge.
There's a lot we could unpack in terms of mistakes.
Well, why don't we unpack those mistakes so that we can deal with them properly. You hit them in the butt and process them and digest them and maybe dissect them so that we can then clear the path for goodness and for abundance and prosperity. And you touched on mindset. Mindset is everything. If you go into a financial journey thinking this is hard, it's confusing, overwhelming, their mindset is going to show in the results and there won't be much results. But if you go and going, okay, well,
I'm going to break this down. Yes it might be at times a little bit challenging and confusing, but I can do this, and I'll reach out for help and get people to explain things when I get stuck, and I won't do anything until I'm one hundred percent sure. Suddenly your energy starts to shift and you start to realize, actually, it's maybe not as bad as we think it is, so let's unpack it. It's bad, Okay, I don't mind. It's not bad Like there's I've been a fincial planner
for over twenty years. I have seen everything and heard everything. And the other day I was doing a keynote piece for PwC for their staff on financial wellness, and someone asked me a question about what I'd seen, and look, I've seen someone with three hundred and sixty thousand dollars credit and credit card debt.
Like made me feel better. It made me feel better about what I knew.
I had to tell you, what, unless someone comes to me with more credit card debt than that, and that person continued to bury their head in the sand. But that's not the point. Like it doesn't matter about your history, like you really need to be kind and compassionate about that. What matters is what you're doing going forward and understanding that you have a choice, and the choice is right here, right now in front of you. To step up. You arm yourself with financial education and don't try and do
it all at the same time. Yeah, don't try and master a budget overnight. That's not going to happen.
True.
It takes practice. And it's like training exercise. Like you can't just go for a run and be fit. Yeah, you have to go for a run three four times a week, and you have to try and run faster or run further. And then you and you start with like one minute exactly exactly, and then you might do some weights in there because you're focusing on your cardio and you need some strength training or some flexibility or to some yoga in there. So it's not overnight. It's
a journey. Then you have a setback where you might binge on a weekend, yeah, or maybe you get injured and you kind of exercise so you lose some fitness. It's the same with money. It's never magical and overnight, and if it is, that's a red flag. Something is not sustainable and it's only a quick fix or a band aid. All right, that's not for my ted talk. I want to hear about you. What's been going on in the past and where are you at right now?
Well, I think the thing that is the hardest is like the present still has remnants of the mistake of the past. So I was given an inheritance when my grandfather died when I was in like year twelve, and it was one hundred and ten thousand, okay, and there's ten thousand left. Okay, told you you were going to follow.
Yeah, I all, not all. I have got a lot to say about it.
I don't even know. I don't even know what a twenty year old spends their like, I can't even tell you. But I'm not going to rag on my parents because like they were doing their best, but I didn't have any tools. So my both, like my brothers and I got the same amount of a your older brother and a younger brother, and they both have houses in Sydney.
They use that money to buy property.
Yeah, they're both in the other complication of my story I feel like is that they're both in a lot more of sort of a set path with their career. I've had a bit more of like a PC journey. I've really not known and I probably still don't fully know what I'm meant to be doing with my full time work. I love what I do currently, but I know that I don't have like a, oh, Brady's going to be a banker or I'm a professional dancer. So this is like roughly how much I'm going to be making You.
Don't feel like you've got your career path necessarily at all? Yeah, but why should we?
It feels like really embarrassing to just be thirty and be like I have three jobs and people are shocked when they find out how addim which is super flattering, but like a lot of my friends are like twenty one studying psychology, Like it's just they've got this bow on that.
They seem to have it all sorted and you feel like you're, yeah, you're just treading water, keeping your head above it. Yeah, And in a.
Way I know that part of how because I've got three part time jobs, which I really enjoy all of them. It's not one cohesive picture. If you ask me what I do, it doesn't really say I don't have an answer.
For people when they ask me that, Well, yeah, can I just I've got so much to say about first of all, about the three jobs. To me, there is no shame in that, and you're thinking about it the wrong way. You're thinking that you're a bit of a joke, maybe a rid of a mess, and that you've got three different.
Jobs, exactly how I feel.
But see, I don't think you're a freelancer. He can choose your contracts as to who you want to work for and when and on what terms and now on how much, And to me, you actually have complete control and flexibility in your life. And I think that sounds liberating. I don't think there's any shame in that. And this is the age that we work in now, is a lot of people are moving away from being on this one employer yes level.
You know, I feel like I'm like the lab rat for that kind of thinking, Like it's always been that for me, Like I never thought about UNI in high school and even last year I tried to force myself into choosing a career of occupational therapy and I got to signing the dotted line of applying for UNI, and I realized I am so bored at the thought of that.
I'm glad you.
I'm glad I didn't do it, and I was I called my mom and I was expecting her to be like, oh, variety, but she was so empowering and she was just like, really, proud of you for being honest with yourself. And I'm like, really, because I'm dirty, and don't you just want me to like know?
And I think what you're doing is great, Like I would be proud of you. I think you've got You're being authentic, You're being real to who you are. You know where you're bound, who are on, what works for you and what doesn't. And you're not going to prescribe to this herd mentality of go to school, go to university or some sort of tertiary qualification, which career path, and stick to that for the rest of your life. That to me sounds boring as bad shit.
Yeah it does.
And if you look at any entrepreneur that has achieved something, so many of them have actually found their calling later in life in their forties, fifties, seventies, I think don't quote me on this, but if you look up the story of Colonel Sanders, I think it is EMBITEDKFC. I think it was maybe in his sixties when really came up with the ingredients for Kentucky Frey chicken. And there's
hundreds of these stories. I probably should have known about this, and I had some stats on me, godding, but obviously we're.
Just freaking going to give the things you see on Instagram of like Oprah forty, Steve Carrell fifty.
Yeah, there's so many stories like that. Who is the woman who is amazing? She used actually be a stockbroker working in finance and is now like kind of the housewife guru which works for Oprah. The name will come to me in a second, but she's a self made multimillionaire that hated her job in finance, was a stockbroker in New York, was actually quite successful, but her passion was actually decorating and designing homewordes and setting homes up to be efficient and welcoming and you know, how to
get stains out of things. She's like, go to guru with those sorts of things. And she's sold books and courses and amazing stories. So don't flick people's judgment. It's the other thing I want to say about the money stuff in the inheritance. There is a lot to say for people who put inheritances in trust for adult children and only to be released once they become ready.
I think that was we had spoken about that.
Yeah, I mean you were very young. I would have blown that money even entering in you know, even being an investor at.
That age ninety thos. I'm not talking like two hundred dollars. I think also, like where I might have a bit of a poverty mentality was when you don't grow up with a ton of money and you get some And no shade to my parents, but I think the thinking that I naturally just had in me was like this is your one shot, almost like I wasn't even deserving to have this. I didn't earn it, so I was
given this like thing of like, holy crap. It was every time there was spending, there was such deep guilt because it was like, I'll spend, but this is my one shot. This is my one shot. So I remember like those purchases just flying through my card and I just felt even like it pushed me further and further
down into like basically what was a secret. I didn't tell my parents that I was spending it at the rate that I was, and I think we're spending, like you really think your appetite is going to be satiated, Like you think it's like food, Like I'll have a burger and I'll have chips and then i'm done. Like I'll buy that designer coat and then I'm good. I've got one winter coat. I even tried to like buy a capsule wardrobe, but it just kept going. Yeah, I kept buying.
A bottomless pit.
A lot of the closet I bought, like I went on the real reel and I didn't even keep them because then not even good purchases. So I was just spending.
Okay, so an element of self worth, a complete lack of self worth, I would say, and then almost a self destruction mode. Yeah, to almost get rid of the money because you weren't worthy of it. So you had almost said to wash yourself.
It was like washing. Yeah, it was like washing it away. It was just and some of the purchases were truly justified, like got a water filter, like things that I actually still have, but I know a lot of it was just luxurious living. I'd be like, I'll go get a massage because I'm stressed, or like I'll go get my
nails done because I've got this thing. There was always this running conversation in my mind of justification of why I was spending the money, and I remember my friends would be like, how do you have the money for that?
Yeah, And I.
Feel like I had this dirty secret that I was like hiding.
It was bad.
And asofce, bags just turned up at the house every day.
Wow. I don't say wow to judge them, saying like, I have so many girlfriends. I've never inherited money, so I don't know what it's like, but I have girlfriends who've done very very similar things, right, So you're not alone with inheritance. Yes, absolutely, inheritance from grandparents and they've lied to their parents about where that money has gone and then anonymous. But also you know, it's a lack
of financial literacy. And some of those godfriends just drowning in debt still today after receiving that money because it put them on a lifestyle creep where they had to keep up with it spending and then you know, all the inheritance burnt out, but then they still had this champagne taste, but no champagne money to pay for it anymore. So it continued on and then ended up in debt.
So I'm not judging at all my heart and she goes out to you, And the other thing I'll say is anything we hear from our parents or our partners, we get defensive because we don't like hearing from those people. If I had met you or someone who's neutral and not connected to your parents in any way and said something to you, you're more likely to take it on board than you are hearing it from a parent or
a partner. Like Tom will say something to me like, Ohkanna, we should really paint that blue, and I'm like, no, yeah, so's not painting that. And then if pop over, you pop over and goes, hey, can you paint that wall blue? Oh my god, what a cool idea to do that. We should totally paint this wall, and Tom goes mentally, it's the same things. We don't want to hear advice from our partners sometimes or our parents.
We kind of a reminder of like the yuckiness that I experienced as a kid with money, So I even being in that space, I didn't want to like open up.
Of course, of course, and it's also money that's come out of a loss and grief, and grief is very complicated as well.
And to add to that, like the one shot sort of like this is you could get the house with this, so you could, like the pressure say that, Oh, the pressure was probably the thing that I can remember feeling the most. I still feel a little bit of it. I've still got some of it left, so like.
But we'll talk about that in a second, because we want to work out where you should get started to get back on track and make up for lost time. But I mean, what you were saying is not uncommon at all, and at different levels of severity in different situations.
You're not alone. But my heart really goes out to you because the pressure on someone so young, you have no understanding about money and how money is built, how money is protected, how money needs to be used in a sensible wise intelligent wafers can therefore be sustainable and you can actually leverage further off that beautiful financial blessing.
It would have actually been really quite horrible. Yeah, And I would almost get that if I was in your situation, I almost would have almost like a detest of money because it would just be a reminder of the past.
Yeah, the resistance I have towards budgeting, I just shut down. Like when my friends are talking about money, I feel so much anxiety, like they're talking about this holiday and I just freeze. Yeah, because I feel like I blew it. I could have. I don't know what I could have, but it feels a bit like damned if I do, damned if I don't. Because there was actually a guy that my friend's dad who I opened up to about all this, and he was like, right, lock that money away,
you're buying a property. And I just never did anything with the advice. I was scared to lose that little back up, but scared to not do anything as well. So I froze. And that freezing meant that money just sat there and I just kept picking away over the years, so I had access to it for like, you know, eleven years now.
So okay, tell me what you did with the money and we'll move on then to what like because I don't want to, like, you know, we need to acknowledge the past, Yeah, but we also need to make peace of the past so we can make the space for prosperity. So where did this money go? Like, what did you do? Did you travel?
I did. I lived in Mexico for two years.
Wow.
I did volunteering, so I actually had to pay to live.
Wow.
And that was honestly so fulfilling.
Like I know, tell me a little bit about that. Yeah.
I just had like a really like high school was really tough. There was stuff going on in my family. I had an awful breakup and I wanted to get out of Sydney. I had like a bit of a spiritual awakening and I met some people who were doing like volunteer programs. This program that runs around the world and you can basically go pay to live at a location anyone that you choose. They have bases in basically all countries and just to like serve the local area.
So I went to Tijuana, Mexico, where we were feeding the homeless. We were looking after the girls that worked in the red light district as young as like five years old. Seeing like young girls get sold. It was quite dangerous at times.
Wow.
We were doing little day courses daycare for the kids of the people who worked in the red light districts. So the pimps would like come and drop their kids off to our daycare. You're just like talking to tijuan as big ast like drug cartel guys, and they're coming and giving like little Huan to me for the day and we're like playing skipping and doing Bible stories and building homes for families that didn't have them. So like it was obviously you think I'm a saint. I did that.
It was a beautiful decision. I'm really glad I meant decision. I was running away from pain, from my family and from a breakup. So I came back from Mexico after that just under two years and pain wasn't gone. So I also just like moved to Byron for two years. So I went and just lived with my friends in Byron. It was stunning, beautiful. And then I got back from Byron. Still didn't want to be confined to Sydney, so I went and lived in Darwin and I did a bit
of volunteer work up there as well. And I was a makeup artist at the time, so I was working on like the ABC News and that was really fun. And then like I lived in Brisbane for a bit because I just like I just didn't care to come back to Sydney and get into a nine to five. I knew that that like sort of boring future was awaiting me, and I was just like, no, I'm just gonna wriggle about. Then I went to Brisbane. When COVID happened, I took off to Byron again as most of us did,
so I fit in a trip to Scandinavia. I spent money, went to America on that money, went to Scandinavia on that money, and haven't done any overseas travel since before COVID. So there's a lot in there, but they're the main.
Sort of Okay, So I don't think you wasted the money at all. I think you invested the money in yourself. Wow, I don't think that.
I don't think from you, I like because so many friends have said that to me, but like coming from you, if you really think that ninety grand is not wasted on me, just being like I want to live in Darwin now, I maybe I can let this go.
I'm actually really inspired by your free spirit and you'll get up and go. And even a teeny tiny bit jealous because I one of my biggest regrets is actually not going and living overseas after I finished Wow University and I've got a life ahead of me. I can know that that maybe you can do it later on in life, and I you know, just like various different
successes coming later in life. So yeah, but no, I don't think you wasted it in I think you've actually invested their money in yourself and in finding and going on a self discovery journey, which is so valuable. And as we get older, we've got bigger responsibilities, children, mortgages, expenses, the lifestyle creep. To be able to do those things is not actually possible. So you've done it the smart way. You've done all those things now and the very strategy.
And I have to say, all that travel for so many years of ninety thousand dollars, I don'd you say, you're probably quite really good money Like some people would
have blown that within a year. You made that money really last and take you to so many different destinations and immerse yourself into so many important cultures and seeing firsthand the reality of how our world operates and how dangerous it is and how lucky we are, and what the things that we need to be aware of and grateful for, and how we can use that, you know, even just hearing I mean, I don't know anything about.
The ten year story, like what was your life even your.
Experience of going to Mexico and helping and learning about these the red light districts and children, like I mean, it makes me feel sick to my stomach. You can actually use that to your financial advantage and use that an element of motivation to help you want to get back.
Oh oh my gosh. My dream would be to, like whether single or with a family, like would be to for a portion of the year, be at a month. You do need to be there a little longer than a month though for it to not feel like you're a volunteer tourist. But yeah, like I'd love to go for like a three month stint. Like that's a dream every year to invest And so I actually got that idea from a family that I met over in Mexico
that did that, and it really inspired me. And the kids grew up from you know, being a baby to like learning how to speak Spanish and all they knew was giving and serving the Mexican people.
How much would you need to do that to do that each year? If you said, Okay, I want to spend three months a year living in Mexico helping these families.
Even much thought of it makes me so like my heart gets butterflies. I don't even know how much my groceries cost.
Okay, if I put thirty thousand dollars in your bank account before you jumped on the plane or before you booked an air fair, would that be enough for you to take three months off away from your life to survive and do that every single year?
Thirty grand? I assume so like I know that you pay a fee to work and live there, and I would probably buy my own food and stuff like that. So thirty thousand for three months sounds like more than I'd need.
Okay, So what if I told you, if you wanted to, you could get started today in building up a passive income stream of thirty thousand dollars a year will take a while. It's going to be not saving. It's about investing and building up an investment portfolio that pays you thirty thousand dollars once a year, wow, as a lump sum, or maybe split up over two payments in one year, say fifteen thousand dollars each, and that was your money for Mexico.
Oh my gosh, I'm smiling.
Okay, Well, this is something you can do. I know from our previous conversations you're someone who's very interested in investing, and you've said you would love to have an investment portfolio. But yeah, you don't know where to start. So this is where you need to get started.
Okay, all right.
First of all is you've got to spend some time for giving yourself and hopefully even know a conversation.
Alone, and it does already feel lighter.
And I don't even think you need to figive yourself for anything. You know, you've invested in yourself, and I think what you've done is admirable and liberating and connected to your spirit and what it needs, the which is so important. You're not following a herd mentality. So first of all, we've got to do some work on that mindset. And I want you to write down all the things that you are grateful for from doing that four or
five years of spending that money. Write them down and write them down in a journal so you can reread them whenever you need to. Next is to start looking at some goals and write down those goals. So write down the goal of a passive income of thirty thousand dollars a year. I want you'd also write down the
goal of doing a budget. Yeah, and I will sit down with you and I'll show you how to do a budget and how to build a cash flow system that matches your budget so that you don't get into credit card debt along the way, you don't run out of money before you're end of the pace cycle. And you can, best of all, start building up some savings and start a regular investment plan. So mindset goals and writing those goals down and having you know, in that list of goals, have some goals for an amount of
emergency money, which I'll come to in a second. Then I want you to do a budget. Yeah. Now, from your budget, what I want you to do is work out how much you can afford to save on a regular basis. Okay, Okay, with that savings first, and I'm going to assume that you don't have any credit card dead here, but you know, I want you just then use that savings after you've done your budget and proactively put it into a savings account, an online savings account,
ideally with high interest snow fees. Okay, you may already have one, but it must be away from your every day Okay, your every day is spending account. We want to remove temptation.
There's one account.
Okay, you have one account. I kind of like that. It's very simple, but you do need a second account. An online savings account can be great because it gives you that flexibility. There's no fees and you get a bonus interest. Often if you're putting a certain amount every month, now you would nickname that account my emergency money. It is really important that you always have emergency money. It doesn't matter how ritual, how cool you are.
You need emergency and I don't have a full time.
Jobs exactly, so you don't have protection that yet, you don't have you sickly or really ring like that. So it's really important to you. You need to work out while this is the right amount of emergency money. So there's no magical formula and for you, we need to sit down and look at your situation and go, okay, well, what are your expenses like, what is your situation and lifeline? What safety nets have you already got in place, what insurance policies you have, and then we'll sit out and
work out how much you need. But realistically it's going to be a decent five figure amount of emergency money that you need. Okay, I don't want to throw numbers out there, but it's going to be something north of fifteen thousand, okay, okay, Yeah, So we need to start
building that up as quickly as possible. Then in the meantime, whilst we're saving that, we need to go down an educational path learning about money and learning about investing, and we're going to start building up a passive income stream. So whilst you're saving up, let's call it fifteen thousand dollars emergency money for simplicity, But that's not the number. I want you to learn about investing and I want you to so that you're saving it at the same time.
But you're not wasting time. You're using a time efficiently. Yeah, So you're saving your heart out. You're regularly putting money into that savings account, and I should point out I recommend you put that money in. So say, for example, you know you can save one thousand dollars a month after doing a budget or whatever it may be, the moment you get paid, and I know you do get paid in various different ways, try and put some of
that money into that savings account. So you get it out of your account away into that emergency account, so it's taken out before you get the opportunity to spend it.
Okay, so you really.
Prioritize, prioritize first priority.
And it is like I connect with that because I'm like, if something happened.
It's the money that lets you sleep well at night. And yeah, that, as I said, it's not to be invested. Investing is really for the long term. When I say long term, I'm talking ten, fifteen to twenty thirty, forty fifty years. Okay, So you always need to think, Okay, this money that I'm going to go and invest, I never want it back. I'm putting it away forever because it's going to pay me back. It's going to pay me back a little bit each year without the capitol eroding away.
Okay.
So once you've hit that fifteen thousand dollars, I want you then to replace that savings plan, whether it be two hundred dollars a month, five hundred dollars a month.
Whatever it may be, I'm already saving.
I want you to then go and open up another account, another online savings account. Now, this is your saving to invest account. It's your financial goal, okay, and I want you to start putting as much money as you can afford to do into that account, and in the meantime continue on educating yourself. Now, there are lots of different investments out there, and there are lots of different investment products out there, and I obviously this is a general conversation.
I'm not giving you personal advice at all, but I know from our conversations you are interested, and you've said you want a share portfolio. So if that's something that really excites you, and you know that shares a highly volatile their long term investments, and you like the idea that it's not a property, you don't need to wait a save up for eight ninety.
Thing feels too like far and it feels too locked down. I don't know how to decide, but I know, yeah.
We'll do a risk profile together and also work out where you know what the mix is, because it's not one or the other. Right inact, you could have property and you can have shares. Yeah, And you can have shares, and you can have some cash, and you can have some fixed interest, and you can have some international shares.
To say that I have all those like just even the thought of like actually being able to comprehend what all that that is, like that feels so empowering.
But you can have this. You can literally have this by the end of the day. If you wanted a share, poor follow. If you can buy a pair of shoes online, you can buy really shares online. Absolutely, but we need to make sure that before you come buy shares online that you know that you are them. Okay, and we do it the right way. Now, if I just hone in on shares just for I guess educational purposes right now,
not giving you personal advices investment at all. But once you've got a certain amount saved up and you've done a Risze profile, and you go, yes, you know what, this is what I want. I like the idea of shares because I can buy shares straight away. I've only got a pay brokerage and yes, you can use it.
How do I know where to look? Because I know, like my brother he works for Google, so he's like, here's Apple, He's Google, he has like, yeah, tech scary to me. Crypto is scary to me. Although my friend became a millionaire from crypto, I'm like, oh, how did you do that?
Wow?
And you're like, oh, it's volatile, and I'm like, oh, okay, well you.
Know, well, look, crypto is an episode in itself because it is a very complicated problem. And yeah, it's not for everyone personally, it's not my jam. That doesn't mean I don't like it or recommend it. It's just for me. I'm very much a passive income investor, and I buy for the long run and I reinvest everything while I can because for me, my ultimate goal, which I've shared with everyone on this podcast channel, is to build a
passive income of over two hundred thousand dollars a year. Well, yeah, so you could live off that, Yes, my family could live off that. So that represents for me security, independence, freedom, choice, even a little bit of luxury. And all I focus on is building that number. I don't care about what my portfolio is worth. And a crypto doesn't pay a passive income because it's purely growth.
You have to keep your money there.
Well it's you know, you only make your money when you sell now worth two dollars, But until I sell, I don't really have that money and it's not paying meaning income.
The dividends that you're talking about. So okay, So if you put in five grand and say it paid you five hundred, you have that money. But with crypto, it's locked away until you take all.
Your investments out, and then you've got to pay capital gains tax on selling it, and so you've got to make sure it's liquid. There's a lot to unpack. Oh, there's too much to cover today. But you know, looking at shares that you can buy shares within seconds, so you can be a shareholder by the end of the day if you wanted, and there's no stamp duty like careers with a property. Okay, you can buy shares with as little as five hundred dollars, sometimes even five dollars.
If you look at the micro investing apps, which I'm not personally a fan of.
Okay, yeah, I downloaded rays.
So many people say that to me. They've got like they've downloaded, like may feel so easy, like nothing done.
No one uses it.
Sits there and it's a little bit of money, but then nothing's ever invested. Yeah, okay, you can buy shares with as little as five hundred dollars, and I personally prefer to invest in pulses over one thousand dollars, which yeah, one thousand dollars because you pay your brokerage. It's a decent amount eating away fee that you paid to actually invest. Now, to anyone that says to me, I want to start investing, I don't know where to start, what to buy, And
I say, well, okay, what are you thinking? And they're like, I just want I just want lots of shares. I like the idea of earning dividends. I like the idea of having those dividends have some tax credits. I don't want to spend hours and hours all day picking and choosing which stock and what industry, and how to buy and how much. There's two very simple answers. You then look at listed investment companies and examples.
You know people who to do it for you, who know all that.
Yeah, so a listed investment company is essentially like walking into a supermarket and seeing a shopping basket with all of your groceries already ready to go. Okay, so you can, if you want, walk through the supermarket and go up and down all the aisles with your list you can find, and it's going to take you an hour to go through the supermarket and do all that, Or if you want, you can turn up the supermarket and grab one of the pre packed shopping trolleys and grab that and go.
Now you do pay money for that.
There's an ongoing fee within the product and it's very cost effective. And she interviewed one of the CEOs, Angus Kloski, from Whitefield, which is one of Australia's oldest investment companies, has been going for one hundred years. And you know their fee I think is around about zero point three to seven.
So it's not not on what you make well what you invest, it's.
Of what you invest. Yeah, So if I invested one hundred thousand dollars in Whitefield, and I cannot stress this is not investment advice at all, product advice. But I'm using an example. If you were assuming that their fees zero point three seven for me to have Whitefield invest my money, make all those investment decisions and also manage the tax side as well, because they're going to send me the statements. I'm paying them three hundred and seventy dollars a year.
That's nothing, That's what I pay my accountant.
There you go and they're doing everything for you, and your portfolio is immediately diversified and you can jump on the white Field website. And there are other listed investment companies out there as well. Whitefel's just one of them. But they will share what's inside the portfolio, and you will see they don't share the whole entire portfolio because that's obviously their intellectual property, but they'll share the top twenty percent holdings and you can actually see, okay, there
are eighty different companies in this portfolio. So I'm going to be owning a little bit of Woolworths. I'm going to own a bit of Westpac Bank. I'm going to own a bit of Commalk Bank. I'm also going to own a bit of Telstra. I'm going and you can see it's actually your money is immediately diversified, and if you want, you can just use those listed investment companies yourself and that don't ever worry about making an investment
decision or how and when to buy. Just continuously buy listed investment companies.
Okay, so they make the decision.
Yeah, it's my money, and you know, you do need to do your research and you do need to understand what you're doing before you're doing it. And I'm sure obviously the costs involved because they do charge your fee, and it's built into the investment and it comes out of the dividends having put your hand in your pocket like you are with an investment property. But it is
a great way of immediately diversifying your money. And also, you know, if I had one hundred thousand dollars and I went and picked my individual stocks, that's going to take me hours and hours and hours to decide. This to me seems a no brain. That is a no brainer delegation of a very complicated decision.
And I'm not qualified to make that, as we can see exactly.
And my interview with Peter Thornhill, like he is a self made millionaire, multimillionaire, wow, start properly investing in his early fifties and I have seen him myself.
Thanks for me so much about it. Thank you, see, but can I ask you a question? Wait you finish about well?
I was gonna say, Peter Thornhill's portfolio is worth over ten million dollars. All he's done is save and as soon as he's got the money saved, done, ness than God invested in listed investment companies. He actually hasn't reinvested his dividends. He's taken them as money and then decided what to do with it, whether we're paying down debt or but it's then you know, borrowed money as well
along the way against his home, Like he's done different things. Essentially, all he's done, though from a surface level, is just got money to invest, don't spend it, Just go and buy more shares for shares instead of shopping for stuff. And that passive income has grown and built over time. So what you could potentially do, and I'm talking about listed investment companies, you can also do the same with another version which has exchanged traded funds, and look, exchange
traded funds also equally valuable. They're very similar. They just have different tax structures because one's a trust structure and one's a company structure. But you know, an ETA actually allows you to diversify, probably a little bit differently and in a more strategic way, because you can buy ETFs that folks in the Asian market or the US market, or Europe or Australian high yield or.
Do you like to get that detailed about it in your investments or are you like.
So, I would say sixty percent of my funds are in listed investment companies. I prefer the tax structure of a listed over an ETF. However, I use ETFs to access international investments.
Because you think something's good.
Yeah, so it's but it's all very boring and yeah we're talking like Vanguard ETF. Yeah, even all cost effective. But the tax structure is I think very valuable. And the franking credits of the Australian share market, the tax credits are really valuable, so particularly when you look at the passive income because they can really boost your income and typically you know you've got these Australian shares are they grow in value and then they also provide an income.
So if you are investing in companies, which is typically industrial shares, which are companies that produce goods and services, so people you deal with every day. You know, the people that make this podcasting equipment, the shops that sell the bed linen and the towels that we use every day. Those businesses they paid an income which is the dividend to you. And obviously some of that money is taken
from the all taken from the profits. Some of the profits is used to put back into the business, to take on new staff, to expand to keep ongoing marketing and so forth, whereas some of that money is paid as a profit to you through a dividend. So the thing, the power of shares over the long run, understanding all the risks that come with it, is that it pays you this money every single year, and it's not coming
out of the capital. So say, for example, I invest one hundred thousand dollars tomorrow, assuming a five percent dividend, I'll get five thousand dollars income from that immediately. Not immediately, but it's paid two times throughout the year. Wow, okay, and it comes with tax credits which I won't go into today. But that one hundred thousand dollars is still there, obviously, assuming that hasn't had a market correction or pullback. You know,
in fact, it may have actually grown in value. Now that one hundred thousand is worth one hundred and three thousand dollars. But then next year I get my same five percent dividend yield or maybe even a little bit more. Also know, it's even a little bit less because they can reasonably fluctuate. But this is the power of a listed investment company because it's diversified, and I might get say now five thousand, four hundred dollars, so my passive
income is growing. So what you could do is start buying listed investment companies or ETFs subject within the boundaries of your risk profile and getting advice, but reinvest all those dividends, and I.
Don't obtain a passive income right like when you start keep putting it back. Put it back in, because the passive income grows, yes.
And you add to the compounding effect. So you put that money back into the portfolio. You don't spend it. You put it in so that over the next ten years you can actually grow that income and it gives you that thirty thousand dollars a year. Now, obviously, how quickly you want that thirty thousand dollars is going to boil down to you. What you put in you'll get back out. So you know, you could do different things to help maximize your opportunities to grow that inefficient and
effective way. And you know, the thousand dollars project is exactly an example.
I did read a few pages and I really excited me. I never did anything about it, but I liked it.
But all this is the block where I think a lot of people don't know where to get started, so you just open up an online share trading account, which I can help you with. And once you've got some money that you're comfortable investing and investing, say goodbye to this money, goodbye, goodbye. This is for my future. I don't need this money back. I don't want this money back. I want this money to give me an income back, a long term income. But then that continue what it's
very simple like rinse and repeat. Save up some money that you're comfortable putting into this by and buy more shares and then those dividends continue to grow over time. But also with you buying more shares, because you're buying more income streams they're getting, it's getting bigger and bigger over time.
So it kind of has two ways of growth and itself, yes exactly.
Hundred percent, you're adding to the income. You're making the income grow because you're buying more shares all the time because you've got a budget. And it's also growing because you are reinvesting. You're not spending that income, you're reinvesting. In fact, with some of the listed investment companies, you can set up an automatic dividend reinvestment plan well you don't even touch it doesn't it just doesn't even make it to your bank account. They just use it automatically.
And the benefit of that is you're dollar cost averaging through a moving market. That reduces risk, but also you're not paying brokerage along the way. And some listed investment companies and stocks or companies offer a discount if you're in a reinvestment plan where you'll get a discount to
what the share. So say a share is trading at nine dollars, if you're invested, you're enrolled in a divid and reinvestment plan, you get to buy that stock backing at a discount of say eight dollars ninety So you're getting a little bit of a discount.
You're buying the same thing, but the incentive to say more, yeah.
And to keep going. So you've got to be careful with diversification if you're not doing this with listed investment companies, because you may be purchasing more of one stock in comparison to others that aren't necessarily enrolling. Here, you did it in reinvestment pattern, which is again why listened miss.
Why you would go the more structured option.
But you just keep doing that and don't never worry about what the share FOLO is worth. If you're using a really well diversified portfolio by tools such as these, focus on the income.
They're those numbers I can barely deal with like that my own.
I mean, well, and that's perfect. So all you do is each year, look out, Okay, this year, my portfolio paid me a thousand dollars. My goal this year is to get that to two thousand dollars or three thousand dollars,
that passive income. And there are lots of things you can do along the way, and you know, this is again probably something to unpack another time, but things like including you know, gearing strategies such as a margin loan or a regular gearing plan where you can now borrow money, which comes with lots of risks, but risks that can be proactively managed in a smart, intelligent way again to
help amplify those opportunit unities. Right keeping in mind obviously can amplify risks as well, but it's most of which are manageable. But these are things that can help speed up the process for you. And you know, the thousand dollars project is worth two hundred and eighty five thousand dollars today. Do you mean that You've to know I've built I haven't earned it, I've built it. Oh, so this is your share portfolio, Like, that's how much.
Money is in.
That's what it's worth today. And I don't really care about what it's worth. What I care about is the passive income. And that pays me a passive income of over sixteen thousand dollars a year without getting out of bed. My portfolio makes me sixteen thousand dollars year. Now, I've never taken a single dollar out of my savings or my space salary.
You have hustled that might I've hustled it.
Yeah, I've manifested it.
Yeah, I know you're open fanky.
But literally, and there is a small margin loan attached to it, which is slowly paying off. But it's like forty two thousand dollars coming down all the time, So you know it's I guess, so it's not one hundred cent cash flow positive, but that passive income is there. And you know, I started that project eight years ago for the.
Last four eight years ago, and you have that.
I've built that over eight years. But this is the funny thing. I've actually been really lazy over the last four years because I've had two kids. Yeah, We've moved house three times in the last four years, and I've just had a few things going on, so I haven't been able to commit as much as I was doing previously. So in fact, it could be worth much more than that. But this is the beauty of the fountain to the project. It just works with you in what's going on or
not in your life. You can slow down or you can go aggressively, and this is what you can do for.
You you can get started at. It kind of leads into my last.
Question if I have Yeah, of course a second because.
Like I'm looking at what I value. Like you know, I'm a little bit of a health nut, so like no, I spend more on like section that people my age don't. I don't chop completely organic, but I like pretoitize it pretty well. Yeah, my mum would be mortified. Got a voice in my mind, how do you reckon style? I need to hustle hard. Clearly, I don't have an emergency back up, et cetera.
What we spoke about, Okay, we don't have You don't have an emergency backup yet? Yes, you will I will start working on it.
So how do I approach making justifications for the areas that I do want to live in? You know, even like applying some of the principles you teach about, like Okay, I want to capture wardrobe because like that just does work better that things like that where it's like more of the everyday side because I'm loving like the big plan. Because also at thirty, like you know what you like. Yeah, so that's the hardest thing about being older, Like you're a little bit more stiffened in like this is my
routine and it's life giving for me. And so I get We're okay with that because I know I could spend I don't know, maybe like three hundred dollars. I don't know, like I actually don't know how much, and I'm a bit scared of thinking about it.
Okay, well we'll do it together.
So what happens, Okay, Yeah, budget that is happening is the most important.
But okay, So to answer your question is you don't need to justify anything. You need to be true and authentic and honest to yourself.
Because I feel like being true and authentic and honest got me chewing through ninety grand Do you know what I mean?
Nobody. I don't think it did, because you know you talked about the real, real and captural wardrobe Coldes. That wasn't authentic and genuine to you. You're fatally up when you spoke to me about the water field and you still have that today, but you don't, you don't have your hatual wardrobe. So your value system is health, and then the investment of yourself that must stay help is wealth. Yeah, so that has got to stay. But where it can get a bit wobbly and be dangerous to your financial
wellbeing is when you've got too much going on. You need to find a safe balance where you go, Okay. For me, I want to spend I value spending on supplements, for example. But because I value on spending on supplements, it means I just I can't overindulge in a new pair of shoes every four months or one month or whatever it may be. It means you can have it all, but not necessarily at the same time. So you have to have the boundaries in place where you go, okay.
That's what makes my heart seeing, that's what makes feels my cup. So anything out there actually is not something that I value. So why would I want to be disrespectful to how hard I'm working the journey and path that I'm on now, and how I'm trying to build my life going forward by blowing money on things that I actually don't serve me and so my heart in
the right type of way. So it is really an awareness, so an element of mindfulness where you go, Okay, you catch yourself buying something and you have to say, hang on, would I prefer this one hundred dollars in my emergency fund account? Or would I prefer this one hundred dollars to be able to buy another parcel of shares and what my passive income grow? Or would I like to put this one hundred dollars on my feet and buy
that pair of shoes? Now, just that question itself, it gives you that perspective just to hang on, is this a good idea? When I've asked myself that actually I'd feel much better knowing that that money is going to buy some more shares. Or there are times where I'm like, no, I really like this. This is a real goodbye and I know I'm going to wear this and use this and I appreciate it and I love it, so I'm
gonna buy it. But it's just about balance and knowing what makes you feel good and understand that buying shares makes you feel really good.
I'm gonna have to experience that little.
I think you'll find the dopamine hit for buying shares.
Is just yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. I don't have to try it.
Because especially when you get your first dividend check or dividend, that's gonna be wild. And you see that you've got, you know, three hundred and fifty units in listed company x y Z, and now because they've just announced the dividends, you've now got three hundred and sixty five feelers like that is that's shopping for shares.
So basically, you're saying, create awareness by asking yourself. Because I'm working on building back trust with myself, I wonder if I can trust myself on the leaks. But I also I don't know if I can really outsource those decisions because it's only been through trial and error that I've really come to realize, Oh, my health is the number one, and I do get joy it. You're right, I get so much joy out of it, even sometimes if I'm asking myself the question, well, Brady, would you
rather a pair of shoes or in shares? I don't know that I can really delay the gratification that I am scared that.
But that's because you've never experienced shares yet. You've never experienced saving emergency money yet. You don't have that point of comparison yet because you haven't experienced it. Okay, once you have your emergency money saved up, you'll be so protective of it because you will know how it has been to build that money, and how long it's taken, and what you've had to learn a long way, and you will learn so much about yourself as you build that money up.
So doing will change.
And then when you buy your shares, you will have the biggest smile on your face. You will feel so proud.
And you and then I give it way all the way to orphans.
Okay, So this is one thing even better. This is the power of passive income, particularly from you know, two dimensional assets like shares. Imagine this income, this thirty thousand dollars a year. Passive income compounds and grows over time. It's you know, thirty thousand dollars a year, thirty one and a half, and then thirty three and a half, and then thirty five and a half and thirty nine and forty three, and it gets bigger and we just
watch it. Imagine when you eventually, one day, as we all will pass away, you hand that share portfolio over to a charity and that money goes one hundred percent to helping families in Tijuana rebuild their lives. This is what you can do. There is nothing stopping you. You just need to get started. So good. You write down and make peace with yourself. And I don't think it's tearing it. I know I can see, but you write down, you make peace with your past. It is not serving
you to keep your head looking backwards. You need to look forwards. And you replace those thoughts of the past with what you were doing now, what you were doing in the future. And when you catch yourself feeling guilty about maybe thinking which I don't actually did really money tool, you go, okay, well our shair portfolio, replace those thoughts with what you were doing to fix it. The solutions. So doing what actually well doing is how we you
know trump a compety as well. You know we were anxious sometimes doing something helps U serve with anxiety, but not that I'm an expert in that area at all. But you know, think about Okay, yes I did that, but I am now going forward. I'm buying shares, I'm building shares. I'm building a passive income that eventually one day will go to charity. I am building up emergency money.
When the moment you've got that emergency money sorted, and the moment you have you've bought your first pass of shares, yeah you now have. You now know what it feels like to have that money, have that peace of mind, had that comfort. You will know how easy it is and how rewarding and empowering it is to say your own shares and have a share port follow and you're focusing your energy on building that share portfolio, and you
earn a passive income, a growing passive income. That's when you have that comparison to go, Do I really want to buy that new T shirt or that top? Actually no, I want more shares income. Okay, but you're trying to give yourself a point of comparison without experiencing yet. Okay, let's get there.
You need to experience.
Okay, the saving your emergency money is a great start, okay, so get started there.
We will, we will, we need to alright.
This wraps up today's episode of Start Here. Let me know what you think about this series where.
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