Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of Money with Alpha. This one's going to be a solo episode again this week. I've had quite a few guests on lately, and I thought, "No, I'd like to do one now where I actually get to talk to you." And it's always an interesting one, because when when you're doing these sorts of things and you're sort of like talking one way. So I'm like hoping that what we're talking about in conversations and when I'm doing it one-on-one like this that it's landing and it's useful. So if you ever would like to, please leave a review wherever you're listening or let me know how it's going, and if you have any questions or any other topics that you'd like me to cover. So today I wanted to talk about something that I've been cooking up called the Money Momentum Pathway. And it's sort it's a consolidation of a lot of different like conversations, things I'm hearing you know, the issues I'm seeing come up again and again with clients and it's there's a lack of understanding, I suppose, of that path with money and what is right for you. and it came up really, really obviously with with a client recently where we were looking at what choices can you make and what are the different results that if you... You know, we looked at a couple of different scenarios, or four actually. One was buying a property outright, and they'd had some inheritance, so there there was some money there. So this is why there's some options here that might not be possible for everyone. But one was, you know, what would it look like to sell the current sort of, or sell out of some investments that they had as a result of the inheritance and put them all into a home, and what that would look like over the next 20 years, and how you'd have to sort of like build back the investment side of things again, but you would at least have a home that's yours. Then the second option was having a lower priced home, so maybe a unit instead of a home, so you'd still get the benefit of money invested as well as a fully paid off home. So so we're purely looking at numbers here. Now, I'll get into the emotional side of this shortly. And then the third scenario was buy the home, like the house, with some debt, keep investments because the interest rate on debt is still lower than what you can potentially get as a return in in the share market and what that would look like, and then to continue investing over the next 20 years and what that would look like. And then the final scenario was what is termed rentvesting, which is don't buy at all, keep everything in investments, and just rent forever. Now, interestingly enough, just purely based on numbers, in those four different scenarios, the one that came up like by far and away the best financially was rentvesting, which I was sort of surprised about, but also not as well because you're not chowing up a chunk of money all at once in one asset. The caveat with this, though, is as humans we want security and safety and a place to call home. If you're in a rental, it's highly unlikely that you're really going to ever feel that. They're not your walls to hang pictures on. If you want to fix something, you can't. If you want to change something, you can't. Like it's always someone else's property that you're living in. So there's the emotional attachment and the emotional side of that as well, especially if you want to raise a family like these clients do. Are you going to raise them in someone else's home or your own? and you can't really put a dollar figure to that, that's an emotional safety and security. But again, it comes back to what your values are, which is why it's really important to get clear on what's important to you, what your core values are, what sort of lifestyle that you want. so that that was a really interesting exercise to do. Plus there's also the possibility that the share market won't continue to return on average what it's been returning. I also ran that scenario if the rate of return was even just 2% less, and that dropped the value substantially to the point where that scenario where rentvesting all your life actually came out almost the same as purchasing a home with some debt and using some of that debt as leverage. So it was it was a really, really interesting exercise to do. and that's where I was like this is where we often lack that sort of, well, what are our options? What do we want? Like how do we do this? And that's why the three main areas that I focus on are having clarity, visibility, and flexibility. Because the other thing, too, is that the things that you want now, if you're in your 40s, think back to when you were in your teens. I'm pretty sure you're a different person really, 'cause we grow and evolve, especially if you're into personal development, and if you're listening to this podcast you might be because I talk about it just a bit. But the things you would have wanted as a teenager would be very different to what you would want in, say, your mid-20s, jump to your mid-30s, and if you're like me, you're in your mid-40s, it's different. And then again as you get older. Like the things that you want change. The pace of life tends to slow down a bit. Like I look at what I was doing in my 20s and I was lucky enough to work for an airline there for a while in their tax team. So I was it was cheap to fly, so I was flying all the time from, you know, work. I would go down to Tasmania, I I went to Europe, I went to America. Like I went all over the place because I had the opportunity to. And I could literally fly in from Los Angeles at 6:30 in the morning, and then, you know, my car had been at the airport and I would just drive to the office and do a work day. And yeah, I was a bit tired by about 3:00, 4:00 in the afternoon but it was okay. I bounced back. Whereas if we did that now, we actually came back from Europe last year no, two years ago it was it was a 6:30 a.m. arrival, and admittedly this was a 24-hour flight, which is different from a flight from Los Angeles. Oh my gosh, I literally could not keep my eyes open past 2:00. God.I was out for the count on the couch. So it is, it is very, very different, the pace at which you can do things and the, the amount of kind of sleep and recovery time and all those things that, that we need as we get older. Plus the desire is different. You know, the the idea of actually, you know, my, my daughter we had some friends who went on a cruise, and she's like, "Oh, Mom, I'd really love to experience a cruise." And if, if you, like, told me that, like, even 10 years ago, I'd be like, "No. I'm never going on cruise." Whereas now, I actually like the idea of just, like, sitting and not being able to do anything because I'm on a boat on the ocean and just, you know, have somebody bring me drinks. Lots of things I don't... Like the idea of that is actually a lot more appealing now than it was 10 or 20 years ago. That's not to say I'm gonna do it all the time. Like once is, is, is probably gonna be enough. But yeah, but it's interesting when you, when you look at how things... So that's where you need to have that flexibility because the things that we want in life will change and shift. And also, if you set goals. Say you're in your 20s or 30s and you've set your goals and you've either achieved them or you're close to achieving them now, what then? So the clarity that you had then to achieve something now, you've got to get clear again because what we want changes. And once we start to achieve things, the amount of times I've spoken to business owners and they've had these real goals to achieve in their business and they hit them, and then suddenly they're like, "Oh, what do I do? Is that it now? Do I just, like, sell or do I blow it up?" Which I've seen happen. What do I do?" So there is actually a bit of a danger in setting goals and then achieving them. We've got to recognize that we have to have a plan beyond that initial goals. Like, well, and then this is where that clarity piece really comes into it. And the visibility is important too because you need to know where your money is. Have a plan for it. Have that pathway of, okay, well, I need to... I'd like to get from here to here. Like I remember when my daughter was born, I had this figure in my mind, was like, "Oh, I want her to have this by the time she's 21." So I reverse engineered it. was like, "Okay, well in order to get there, how much would, would we need to put aside and invest?" 'Cause I set it up as sort of like a trust investment structure. What would I need to do on a, like a quarterly basis? 'Cause I sort of monthly just, you know, it seems to happen too often, so let's do quarterly. So now I'm at the, almost the halfway mark. My daughter's 10. And I was like, "Wow, I'm actually gonna hit this a lot sooner than I planned." So now I was like, "Okay, so now what's my stretch target?" I hadn't actually set that. And I also noticed I, I love the arts and I live in Brisbane in the state of Queensland. And the Queensland Ballet I have been going to since I was a child and I love them and I I donate to them every year. And they have this annual giving day, which they literally just had two days ago. And it's, it... Every donation gets matched. And they had a, a fundraising goal of $2 million. And so, I did my donation and the match is actually four times. So they've got benefactors who are matching it four times over, which is amazing, which is why I generally donate on that giving day because I know whatever I donate is amplified. And it was a really interesting thing to watch because the evening would have finished at 9:00 PM the, the the fundraising day, and I had gotten busy that day. I hadn't actually focused on it until it was like 5:00. I was like, "Oh, crap. I need to donate before 9:00 PM." And at that point, they'd only reached 58% of their target to get to $2 million. And then I think it was maybe an hour or two later, they were at 75%. I was like, "Whoa, okay." And then it was just before 9:00 and they actually... I think it was like 45 minutes, like quarter past 8:00 in the evening and they had to they had to stretch their target because they'd actually exceeded the $2 million. So you could see, you know, somebody in the background would've been like going, "Oh my god, oh my god, we have to scramble now 'cause we need a stretch target." So it's a little bit like that in our lives as well and this is where we need to have the visibility and the clarity, but also that flexibility and those three things need to work together. And it's an iterative process constantly. And that's not to say that you've got to, like, focus on it all the time, but the more momentum you get, which is why I'm calling this the money momentum pathway. The more you want to look at it, the more it makes sense and the more you can see these pieces fitting together, the the clearer that you want to be. You know, the more you want to see your money, there's that visibility, and then the more you're comfortable with ambiguity because you know you have the ability to respond 'cause you get flexibility in how you're managing your money. So it's really, really important to have all of those and to recognize how things change and move in our lives. Like this year has been a really big year of change in, in my world and I've seen it for a lot of people. Relationships breaking down family members passing away. Other, like I've just had a, another family member pass away in the last week and it's just, I'm just I have to admit, I'm still in a little state of just trying to like process everything because that's, you know, two sort of closest family members in two months and what does that mean? And then, and I have to admit, it's also created this like more like joie de vivre. It's okay, we need to enjoy life. Like we don't know how much time we've got on this planet. Let's just, you know, do the things we want to do. Don't put things off. You know, say the things to the people that we want to say. Tell our loved ones we love them. You know, don't put off the trip. Don't put off the investing. Like do the thing. And so that, that's, that's what this is, has really kind of, you know, you know, after I've gone through the initial level of just stage of shock I suppose, I've kind of gone, "All right, now, now it's game on." You know, let's and what does that mean for me? And you should be thinking the same thing too. Do you want to invest in property? Do you want to invest in shares? Do you want to do something else? What lights you up? If, you know, I was, I was contemplating this myself recently and going, "You know what? Certain investing, I, just like makes me feel like I'm, I've got this big heavy weight on my chest." I don't want that.But then I look at other options, like, ooh, that really sparks my curiosity. So I have to follow the curiosity. And that's, that's where the, the joy kind of comes in, that clarity to understand what your body's telling you. You know, the signs, you know, the, breathing. Is it flowing easily or is it, like, short, sharp breaths? Are you feeling overwhelmed? You know, what, what is the... where is it coming from? Is it a lack of clarity? If it is, then that's, that's a relatively simple fix. You can get clear. And again, this is why I've been working in this space now for so long that I've, it's, there's so many, there's some frameworks and tools. So I have, like, the Money Pie Framework, which I spoke about in a podcast episode not long ago. But I've also got, like, my Money Mindmap framework where we delve into your beliefs, your stories, your habits, and your lifestyle vision, your core values, and there's this whole suite of tools that I have inside this framework. So I'm bringing it all together and doing it in a way that is going to allow you to have a hybrid. 'Cause that's the other thing I've noticed over the last few years, is we've gone from, you know, like, the COVID years where everybody was at home, so online courses really sprung up, to, you know, when we all kind of went, "Oh, no, I want everything, I want in real life now." I was watching something recently, and someone said, "IRL," and someone's like, "What does that mean?" Like, in real life. It's a new acronym that we didn't even have before COVID, because it wasn't really a thing. People did mostly in real life. So so it's, it's bringing it together, you know, one-on-one, group, online, and in real life, to try and make it as seamless and, and as simplistic as possible with very clear frameworks, very clear understanding of the touch points over six months. Limited numbers of I'm gonna limit this to ten women, because I really want to make sure that everybody gets the most out of this. So watch this space. I do have a wait list for this at the moment, so I will put the link to that in the show notes. If you're interested in just finding out more watch this space, because I will be revealing as I start to launch it, because I've also got a book coming out and a software both of which you'll get access to as part of this Money Momentum Pathway. Because I really, really want to make money as like, the boundaries to, or the barriers to understanding it and managing it better as low as possible. There is still going to be effort on your part. That cannot go away, because you are the person who this is for. You need to, to take ownership of it, and, and you are going to learn to love it. Like, believe me. You might not necessarily always find stuff interesting, and this is one of the reasons why I'm doing the software, is to try and automate as much of the manual data analysis and entry and all of that stuff so that you can actually focus on the stuff that's interesting, which is watching things grow. It is amazing, the what momentum does to your motivation when it comes to money. And the the questions around, "How do I stick to a budget," just, like, dissolve, because that's not the right question anymore. The right question is, "How much more can I put into my investing fund?" Or, "How much more can I scale my, my wealth and my business to support that wealth building?" So they then become the conversations and the questions. Not about, "How do I spend less?" or, "How do I not, you know, buy things so often?" Like, it's, it's, it... That, that, that stuff will just disappear, because you'll be so clear on what you want in your life. You'll have so... Your money will have so much purpose that it won't even want to be spent on things like that. I know this sounds weird, but believe me, I've seen it, I've experienced it. It, it does work this way. So I'm going to, to leave it there, because I've, I've just, like, you know, put out so much information there. But just to give you a little bit more clarity over what it will be, it's going to be starting within the next two months. It's going to be called the Money Momentum Pathway. It's a six-month program. There will be fortnightly touch points in terms of master classes. Some of them will be groups, some of them will be online. I'm sorry, one-on-one. There'll be online master classes. There will... If you're in Brisbane, there will be an in-person event at the end. If you're not in Brisbane, I will do an additional one-on-one session with you so that you still get that added value. You will also get the live stream and recording of the in-person event as well, if you would like to participate in that. There'll be resources. You'll get beta test access to the software. You'll receive a copy of my book when it, when it comes out, which at this point will probably be early next year. Even when the program, if, even if the program is complete by the time the book comes out, you will still get a copy. It will... there'll be resource online. So there'll, there'll be a, a a dedicated communication community where you can all ask questions so that you can see how people are struggling with the same things or the questions they have. If you don't feel confident enough to ask, then you'll see them ask, and then you start to build up some confidence and realize that this is going to be a very safe, supportive space. So yeah, so if you're interested in gaining access to that, I will put the link to the wait list page in the show notes. So I'll leave it there for this week. But again, if you have any questions or topic suggestions, please let me know. And have a wonderful week.
