Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of Money with Alpha. Today, I want to bust one of the money myths that I hear a lot, and I'm really... I really, really, really want this to no longer be a myth because it is. It's not, it's not real, not because we don't think it is, but because it doesn't have to be, if that makes sense. So myths quite often come about because of genuine reality, but it's... we keep them alive by continuing to believe in them. And so this particular myth is that money is complex and money is overwhelming. So I've put these two together 'cause they're, they're, they're related, and money does not have to be either. We put so much emotion and so much responsibility on money that... and so much self-worth gets attached to it, that I think we've, we've kind of lost the real view of what it actually is. it's really just a tool. It was something that was invented so that we could exchange value for, for time, for things that we've made, for services that we could provide, and it's, it's, it's really grown into this industry. I've just spent the last month going to a couple of different money events. I went to a big conference on money for women, in particular, in Sydney last week, and, and it was... it reinforced to me that it, it is simple, but there's so much negative emotion attached to it, and there's so much stuff in the market that adds to that level of complexity that does not have to exist. Like with so many things, we can make our lives as simple or as complex as we want. We just have to take responsibility for that and then do something about it if we wanna change it. So I'm gonna go through five things that I think will help to put it into perspective to how to reduce that complexity and that overwhelm. I'll say what they are first, and then I'll go into the detail. So the first one is clarity, and clarity on your life. I'll go into more shortly. Secondly is visibility. The third one is your habits. Then comes beliefs and stories around money. And finally, chunk it down. there's, there's so much that... there's so many things I, I wanna... I'd love to go through, and, and I feel very, very passionately about this because I hear it way too often, and it holds so many people back. And because there's so much out there that we can, we can get ourselves tied in knots with it as well, and we can question ourselves. I even was looking at something recently 'cause I was like, "Oh, know, I've, I've, you know... maybe I'll do like, something extra with, with the investing side of, of what I'm doing." And then I went and did one, one seminar on something, and then I did this conference which was money in general, and it covered shares, property, business, and and just generally money and I was like, "You know what? It really is simple." I've made it simple for myself deliberately to the point where sometimes you're like, "Oh, it sort of feels like it's too easy. surely it can't be that easy," but it can, and you just have to recognize what it is that you want. I, I really, especially now as I'm getting older, and this year I've had a a lot of complexity and... like, emotionally, family-wise, that the fact that I have my money simple and sorted is just such a relief, and it's so much more relaxing, and it allows me so much more choice. I can help people who need helping. I can support charities that I wanna support. I can have experiences that I wanna have. I can go to places and do the things, and that doesn't always have to relate to needing to have money to do it, but I have the choice, and that is the key. And so that's, that's where we need to, you know, try and push the complexity and the overwhelm aside, and then get really, really, super clear on what kind of life do you want. And to be honest, the older we get, I think, the more clear we get because we've had so many other experiences in our lives, and I think it's just taking a pause, stopping, breathing, leaning into, and actually looking around and going, "Is what I have what I want? Or have I manifested something that I haven't?" Quite often, we've actually... we're actually more on the path than we often realize we are. The amount of times I, I work with clients, and I was like, "You already know. You're asking me, but you already know the answer." It's just a matter of kind of almost giving yourself permission, especially if it, it's a little bit counter to what people in your life expect. I've been doing this my whole life where I'm kind of... people don't understand, necessarily, some of the choices I've made, and that's okay. I think this is where self-acceptance, self-love, self-belief come, becomes really, really important, and surrounding yourself with people who aren't judgmental, who, while they may have your best interests at heart, you can choose whether or not to accept their advice which I put in inverted commas 'cause quite often it's opinion, and it's often based on their own fears and, and things like that. So I, I have to deal with that constantly as well, as we all do. So that first one, getting clear what kind of life do you want. Do you want a, you know, a tiny home? I was... I was speaking with someone yesterday, and they just want a, a little house in a rural environment. They want to build a plan. They they don't want to be in a big, bustling city. They, they want to, to have a smaller community. That, that's, that's what they want. And so I was like, "Okay, well, verbalizing it is really the first step," 'cause in, in my experience in life, as soon as you verbalize something, it's like you're really, like, putting it out, obviously, to the universe. You're prepared for others to hear the words, so you're prepared for what it will be when you get it. So that... but that clarity is really, really important because the money needed to fund that kind of life is very different from the money to fund possibly one where you're traveling the world constantly, or you, you're buying the yacht, and the house, and the cars, and the... all the things, and the toys, and the jet skis, and all of that. So that, that's a very different proposition in terms of what you actually need. So what are you working towards? Because this, like, constant grinding, churning busyness, it-That in itself doesn't make you happy. You're working towards something, but if you don't know what that is, then it feels empty, and it also will mean that your money won't help you get there because you're not clear on what that direction or that destination even is. And that's not to say that that direction and destination have to remain stagnant. It can change over time but it's important to revisit it so that you are still clear on where things are going. Do you want to be able to send your children to private schools? Do you want to homeschool? This is something my, my husband and I sort of are talking about. It's like, "Oh," I'm, to be honest, really loving the idea of homeschooling and just traveling, just making it sort of, that seems even simpler somehow, even though logistically probably isn't. But but the thing is, we get to choose, and once we're clear on that, it makes it a lot easier to plan it as well. And so, once you have that clarity, you can then gain the visibility of your money. So not just where it is right now, because that's also a big thing, and that's something else I see that a lot of people don't, don't have, is visibility of where their money actually is. Do you have too many bank accounts, too many credit cards, loans here and there, Afterpays, and da, da, da? there's so many different things that just, it creates mind clutter, and it becomes really, really difficult to manage. So, but, so having all visibility about all of that, and just, even if you just put it, like, you can just write it down on a piece of paper. I like to use spreadsheets, but then that's just me. But you don't have to do that either. You could just, like, write it in a Word document. You can, you know, literally physically write it down with pen and paper, as long as you can see it. So once you have that clarity, and then the visibility, then you can actually start to go, "Okay, well, where is there a bit of a mismatch? If I'm doing these things, now that I have visibility over my money, but I want this, this isn't gonna get me there. So let's have a look at my habits, which is number three, of what I'm doing with my money." Am I just randomly spending... Do I have, like, one bank account and everything goes in there? But I know exactly what's in there, and I know what I need to pull out for this and this and this, especially if you're a business owner. I spoke to someone recently, and they had all of their, their money in one account, but they knew what was, they, they were, they, they were okay with it. They knew where things were from, like, what they needed to pay to the tax, tax man what they needed to pay for them operating expenses, da, da, And I was like, "Well, your brain works a lot more orderly than mine does. I need separate bank accounts for things like that just because it's easier to manage." But again, that's also where the flexibility comes in too, is to understand how you like to operate. I, I need to see things in very distinctive areas. Like, they need to be organized. Otherwise, I am just gonna feel overwhelmed and afraid that I'm gonna be pulling money out of one account and I won't have enough to pay the tax, or my salary, or whatever else it happens to be. So you still have to work within what you're doing. But this is also where the habits come in. What do you do every month? Are you tracking your numbers? Do you know, do you pay your credit card bill off every month? Are you tacking on a little bit of you know, buy now, pay later, after pay because there's a sale on and you really want that thing, or, and you haven't put the money aside for extras? What what are, how are you managing your mindset around money? Are you feeling overwhelmed by it because you can't see it, you're not clear on what it needs to do for you, and that you don't really know what to do with investing? And there's, and that's, that's understandable because there's so much information out there. I listen to direct share investors who, you know, they like to time the market and actually actively pick stocks and trade in and out. Then I listen to people who talk about ETFs, where you, like, buy and hold and just, you know, have an index fund. And then I'll talk to people who like to buy investment properties, and their goal is to get to, like, five to ten investment properties. That is something that, it sounds like my worst nightmare, to be honest, managing all of that admin. I'm like, "Oh, my goodness, I would much prefer to pop it into the share market," where you do tend to get a higher return than with property. However, you don't tend to use debt as leverage, so it's a different proposition. So it's, and it, none of it is right or wrong. It's just choosing the thing that works for you, and then just doing that rather than trying to do all of it because you think you need to do all of it in order to be successful financially. So looking at your habits and where your, where your day-to-day thoughts are, where your day-to-day actions are, what are you doing each month? Is it complete avoidance? 'cause again, I see that quite a lot. They're just like, "I'm overwhelmed. I don't know what to do, so I'm doing nothing." Rather than going, you know, "I'm, I still find it complex and it's still a level of overwhelm, but I, I do this." Like, "I'm, I, you know, I automatically direct debit into an investment account, and I'm just gonna let that keep going 'cause I don't know what else to do." That is better than nothing. Putting money into your super fund, depending how old you are as well as, and how much you put in there, but it's a really good investing way to invest and be tax-effective. That's if you're in Australia. But there's just, there's a few little things that you can do to be able to at least keep things churning along before you have that clarity of the bigger picture. But it's important to have awareness of what your habits are, because if they're not serving you, then you need to start looking at how to change them. Changing habits can be tricky but not impossible. It's very possible to do, but again, you need to be clear on what it is that you wanna do. So that goes back to clarity. And the visibility links also to it's not just visibility of your money, but it's also visibility or awareness of your habits. Because unless you're aware of them, you can't change them. So it all builds on itself. And then we start to look into the beliefs, and I, I'm putting beliefs and stories together because the more I work with, with clients, the more I see there are kind of two sides of a coin. A lot of the time, we have these beliefs about what we think or what we believe about ourselves in relation to money, that we're either not capable or that we're not good with math or that, you know, we're not smart enough or whatever it is. We might have dyscalculia, dyslexia, whatever it happens to be, and for whatever reason, it's just not possible for us.... their beliefs. Quite often, though, I've seen the actual evidence of the things that they've achieved in their life have disproven those beliefs, in which case they're just stories. Stories can be more easily rewritten. Beliefs take a little bit more work. You have to delve back into, where did the belief come from, when did it start, why you believe it, why do why is it still true, if it even is? If it's not still true, then you need to start to release it, and this becomes a conscious effort of writing these things down, looking at them, investigating them, and doing some meditation and breath work. And there's some other modalities which I'm reading about at the moment which sound really exciting to be able to help clear things. But for now, just awareness is the first, and making sure that we're aware of what's actually a belief and what's really a story, because quite often we take on things that aren't even ours. There, you know, I, I think back to, to when I was at school, and I wasn't the greatest at math. I was, I always thought I was more of a words person, but when I actually was starting, when I was at university, I'm going, "I'm actually probably more a numbers person." I I love words and I love writing but I don't necessarily have that really, like I'm, I'm, I'm very traditional, I suppose, and conservative when it comes to the way I write. And I read other writing which is a lot more vibrant, and you go, "Oh, I'd love to be able to write like that." But as far as numbers and spreadsheets go, that, that's a lot more black and white, and that, that's a lot more relaxing. Like last night in the evening I was like, "Oh, I had all, I had all the tax returns for the family to do." So that was my downtime. I did all our tax returns , between my husband and I, my mum and my dad, and it was my dad's last one, but yeah. So that, that, that's, that's a relaxing exercise for me, which sounds really weird. But it's funny how that never I never believed or thought that that's what would be for me. So we change over time, and that awareness creates so much freedom. And then number five was chunking it down, and I, I call it that because anything, and there's, this is where I love Marie Forleo's Everything is Figureoutable. You know, I don't even know if that word's in the dictionary by now. It probably should be 'cause I've heard a lot of people refer to it. But we can figure anything out, especially if you're clear on what it is that you want, you're aware, and you have visibility over that. You know what your habits are, and you're aware of your habits and what you need to do to change them, and you have awareness of your beliefs and stories. Once, once you have all of that, it is a lot easier to start to, to figure out what you need to do and then to chunk it down, because in our minds, overwhelm will make us freeze, and that is not a place... We wanna move you beyond that and go, "Okay, well how do we make it less overwhelming and less intimidating for our brains?" And that is to do little steps. It might just be find out, if you wanna do property investing find out about what's happening in the property market. There'll be reports out there. Find somebody who has done it already and ask them. I have someone that I can refer people to for property investment that helps them access properties they probably wouldn't normally get access to with greater margin. So if that's the case, reach out and I'm happy to refer. There's shares and trading, and there's, I was just listening to a podcast actually that was talking about building a $100,000 ETF portfolio, and I'm trying to find the resource as to where it is 'cause I haven't found that yet, but but I love ETFs. That's, that's my, my go-to investment vehicle. So, but chunk it down. It might just be talking to somebody, doing one thing, set up a micro-investing account, setting up an auto invest. There's really a really a lot of information out there, and ETFs have have opened up the, the game so completely, and it's changed things for, for investors. We get access to, like I was at this conference last week. They had a representative there from Perla, and you can invest into U, the US stock market directly through Perla. You could, they have a, a kids game that you can, that they can play, so introduce your kids to, to investing. There's different ways to access at such a, such a small level. So micro-investing makes it a lot easier and a lot less financially risky in terms of the, amount of money you have to invest. I remember previously, you know, minimum five grand to get into one account, and if you wanted to access certain industry funds, it was $100,000. That's not very accessible for many people. So, whereas now it's, the game has changed. So many, so many of us can access so much, so much cheaper and easier through ETFs and micro-investing. So there really is no excuse, and I'm gonna use that lovingly, that term to be able to get into investing. So just little by little, and understanding compounding is vital. Even if you're in your late 40s, early 50s, and you think, "Oh, it's too late for me," it is not. You can have between 20 and 30 years still looking at life expectancy these days, and you can still have cash off to the side, but you can invest as well and watch that grow. And putting it on autopilot makes it a lot easier, and it removes some of that overwhelm because you don't have to think about, "Oh, have I done this?" It's just, it just ticks along. And then what you need to focus on is the rest of your life, because your money life will be pretty sorted, and then you can revisit it once a year and go, "Okay, am I still on track?" Or revisit it when a major life change happens, if you either get married or a relationship breaks down or you enter a new relationship or your kids start to, you know, fly the coop and then you have a bit more resource, financial resources around because they then start to, to work and take care of themselves. So the stages of life then begin to change. So when you actually are in that sort of late 40s, early 50s, for many of us, that's actually a freedom if you, I mean, I had my daughter a little bit later, but then when you, if you are at that point then where your children are getting a bit older and you might not have to be as financially responsible for them, you get to start to enjoy things too. So, so it's understanding what you want and remaining flexible enough to be able to make your money match that. So the complexity and the overwhelm, I'm saying it's a myth. I, I think there are so many different ways to make money simple, which, you know, coming from someone who names their business Money Made Simple is probably not a surprise. But I hope that's helped try and, like, take a, like, bit of a state break to go, "You know what? I can, I can do this. I don't have to sit in this, in this place of procrastination because I believe that money is complex and overwhelming." That is purely a belief. It is not the reality, or it doesn't have to be your reality. So I will let you sit with that. If you have any questions, please reach out, but I hope that has been helpful money myth number one.