Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of Money with Alpha. This one is a solo episode and it's a very reflective one. I started to listen to a podcast recently where there were some reflections about the year. And it's the time of year where you start to do some sort of planning, reflecting, looking at, you know, how we want to end the year, how we want the next year to sort of start and, and be. And it's been, it's been quite a, quite a big tumultuous year. And there's a sort of, there's certain pattern to how you kind of do some reflection, so I'm gonna take you through how my year has sort of wrapped up and some of the impressions that I've had of not just things that have happened directly to me, but of things that I've observed, what's come up in working with clients, and working with others as well. So, the, the, sort of the five things that I tend to go through, again, there's the five is what worked well what didn't work well, what did I learn, what do I want more of next year, and what do I want less of next year? So they're, they're sort of like the, the main topics that will drive sort of the, the way I'm gonna go through this. But it's, it's very, it's an interesting thing when you start to look back, 'cause I, I kind of think back to the beginning of the year when I had plans and the things that I wanted to do, and you know, there's I guess a certain degree of excitement that there's a, not a clean slate, but it feels a little bit like that. But then life happens. Things get thrown at you that you weren't expecting. And it's recently, I've now sort of been hearing and seeing quite a lot of people sort of talking and, and writing about the Year of the Snake. And I knew it was the Year of the Snake. I even have, like, a little snake emblem sort of hanging in my, in my dining room, 'cause I went to the Chinese New Year celebration back in, I think was February. And I didn't know what it really meant then, and now I'm hearing about, you know, there's the, you know, the the snake sheds its, its skin to sort of it's that kind of rebirth, starting afresh, starting anew. It's also the year nine, I think, in astrology. Don't quote me on that, 'cause that's not my area of expertise at all. But all I know is that whatever the year is, it's like an ending. And next year is the Year of the Horse. It's also a one-year, so is very much about momentum and flow and newness and creating new paradigms and patterns and, and all of that kind of thing. So probably just disruptive to a certain extent, but hopefully less like undoing, more doing rather than undoing if that makes sense. And, and I can sort of feel that energy, 'cause this this year, I had some plans of things that I wanted to, to do and it absolutely just didn't happen the way I wanted it to. I had planned to, to launch my software. It's not gonna be ready now until next year. There's, you know, it just came a bit slower than I expected. And, and my book I wanted to, to have published this year, that's also not gonna be ready now until next year. I'm about a quarter of the way through writing it, so I better, you know, hurry up. Over this Christmas period, I'd like to get quite a bit more done. We'll see if that happens. I make, need to make the plan to make it happen. So in terms of the things that went well I suppose actually having, I guess, more clarity on how I'm working and the clients that I had to work with this year have been beautiful humans. I am so lucky that I get to work with some amazing, amazing people. Mainly women, but then I've had some husbands join in this year as well, which has been really good to see the desire to have that more cohesion as a couple when it comes to finances. And quite often, they're both entrepreneurial or business-minded. Some of them help each other in the business, so I have one client where she helps in the business, and it's, it's his business, but then she wants to start her own as well. So there's, there's that like-mindedness, I suppose, in that kind of, that approach to, to life and, and earning money. But it also then does create a lot of unease or disruption and irregularity of income when the entire household is relying on business income. So it's trying to create that, that level of consistency and calmness when it comes to personal finances, which is more the area that I tend to, to focus on, because I believe that the wealth is really built in their personal life. You can invest in businesses, you can build a business. Unless you're planning to buy, scale, and sell it, it's often just more of a, a job-style business if it's a small business. And that's okay. But then the, the wealth-building process becomes, becomes a bit different. And that's then done more in, in that personal financial space. But yeah, so that, that worked well, like having I managed to attract and had a lot of referred business this year as well, which, which was really nice. In my personal finances, I was, I used my money pie. I, at the beginning of the year, I was like, "Oh my goodness. My daughter has, like, three years left of, of primary school. I need to really start kind of thinking about..." Well, thinking about the school, that's been happening for a while, so I've been, you know, tossing and turning around that. But the, the, the the funding side of it, so so I really need to make sure that... I mean, I've got an investment fund for her, but I don't want that to fund her education. I want that to be for her future. So I was like, "Well, I have to, to start thinking about this." So I started that, and it's amazing how I've managed to find, at the moment, an additional, like, $12,000 that I had allocated elsewhere, but I haven't reduced anything else either. So I was like, "It's, this is incredible." Like, and it just, it just really reinforces to me the power of that money pie framework and how you can actually get the things that you want without feeling like you're going without and without still not doing the things that you want to do and perhaps already are doing.... like, I'm still putting And I end up actually now investing more. And so, I'm just, like, I'm just being better with my money somehow, and I don't feel like I'm denying myself anything. Yeah, so it's, it's a really, really interesting. So that, that's, that's what's worked well financially. I was very excited when I, when I've been seeing her account grow. And I'm still pulling her current school fees from it, as well as all of her activities, you know, between gymnastics and circus and piano and, my goodness, dance, what ... Anyway. So but yeah, and it's still growing. So I'm like, "Aah. Just, hah. Okay." That, that always it always reinforces to me how, how powerful that is, and which is why my clients love it as well, because it works. And it's easy. Simple, probably not always easy, but it can be. It feels easy after a while. Anyway so that's what went well for, for me when I'm reflecting. And it's ... And the things that didn't go well were, some of it was partly out of my control, I guess. In in February is when it really started to, to hit when my father had a, a car mishap which wrote off his car and that was sort of like the beginning of a, a decline and a lot of extra work for me helping to support him through that, and also being the brunt of his anger. That was, that was also quite a, quite a challenge. The financial side of it was probably less so, to be honest. I found thing, more things worked than didn't work. One thing that didn't work as, as well, and that's partly exchange rate. When we went to visit my, my father-in-law I was surprised at how much more expensive everything was. Our exchange rate with the euro is pretty poor anyway and the Swiss franc too, because we He lives near Switzerland, so we always fly into Switzerland, so there's usually some Swiss expenditure. We try and minimize that as much as possible. We did a day trip into Switzerland to go to the Lindt home of chocolate and we brought all our food and snacks and water and everything, so we ... The only thing we bought there was chocolate from the, the shop in the in the the factory area. So, 'cause just, I still remember having gone to Switzerland, I think it was two years ago? Maybe not that long ago, and it was like $26 for a sandwich. And I thought, "I'm, yeah, no. I can make my own sandwich." Even though it's in euros, it's still cheaper to, to buy the ingredients and make it myself. So yeah, so the, so that, that, that brought the cost of the holiday, and of course the, the trip itself got interrupted when my father passed. So that created a, a bit of a, firestorm of, of, yeah, reorganizing and, and yes, all that. And then of course, there was a, a lot and this is, this is actually probably the interesting thing. It probably didn't work, but it did work at the same time and this is something ... yeah, that's And I'm trying to figure out how to articulate this, because it's something that you're probably ever gonna have to do maybe once or twice, and that is to deal with, with, you know, death and terms of the financial aftermath of it. All I can say is, having an emergency fund or having a funeral sort of insurance or something around those lines, you don't really need to have funeral insurance per se, but having at least a, an emergency fund of money set aside that can deal with things like this is so important. I couldn't believe how expensive the whole I mean, I, I knew that funerals were expensive 'cause I still remember, I've had to organize a few, unfortunately. I had to organize my grandfather's, my grandmother's, and then my aunt's. So I've, I've experienced the different varietals, whether it's a like a burial or a, a cremation, and this one was going to be a, a burial. But it was, I think, upwards of $20,000 which is probably a little bit extreme, because there was some cultural things going on in there as well. But just the plot, the, the land, the plot, like all of that cost about, you know, three and a half thousand dollars. And then, yeah, there was just ... It it felt like everybody had their hand out. And you're already in a very fragile emotional state, and they're just going, "Oh my God, I'm so glad that I have the financial resources to actually do this." Otherwise, because we had another family member pass as well, and the, the like my ... It was sort of a one step removed family, and they did not have the the financial resources to, to pay that. And thankfully, I then could help a bit. There's, there's always complexity in those sorts of things, but I, I just, I looked at that situation and just went, "Oh my God, what do you do? d'you have to take out a loan?" Like I, I, I foolishly thought that there was some kind of state burial kind of process, which there isn't. So anyway, so that, that was part of what sort of didn't go well, but also did. I, the, the part that I, that didn't was just the cost and the fact that I was not prepared for how much it was actually going to be. It was a lot more than it was when ... mean, my, both my grandparents were cremated, so the costs were substantially lower. But yeah, so it's really interesting. And they were also older, so when, you know, there, came time to actually do the service, there was pretty much nobody there at my grandmother's, because she was 92 and everybody had either passed on or were in a home with dementia or Alzheimer's. So it's it's a really, it's been an interesting year from that perspective as well. So, there's been a bit of heavy energy. So I don't wanna keep harping on that one. But the things, what did I learn? Again, I was reminded as part of my learning about the power of the money pie, like I said and the power of having a decent buffer for the unexpected. The other things I learned was definitely to make sure you continue to communicate with with your close loved ones in terms of their finances and how things are going. I mean, I was in a very fortunate position, 'cause I'd been managing my father's money for about seven years, because it was just a mess at one point. And so I had streamlined it to the point where it actually made it a lot easier for him to also understand what sort of care he could afford and then also how all of that ... played out. But also then talking to my husband. So it's it triggered a lot of conversations, as you can imagine, 'cause there was a lot going on you know, to make sure that we are all clear on what our wishes are and that we'd shared them with each other. And yes, all those uncomfortable conversations that hopefully we only ever need to really have once and then park it and then making sure all the documentations and things were in order. And, you know, it made us both check and go, "Okay, do we need to make sure our wills are still current, that we have our enduring power of attorneys, and that we both know where all the documents are and all of that?" So I, I learned, I suppose, reminded rather than learned about all of that, because this these are things I do sort of talk about with my clients as well. So yeah, so and I also, one thing one of the biggest probably things I learned was more in the investing space because I got into a real I suppose rabbit hole of trying to understand what are the different investing options out there for people when you do receive a certain lump sum, like an inheritance? And I'll, I'll do a separate episode on that. But you know, because I've had a few clients this year who've had lump sums, whether it be from redundancies or from an inheritance, and then what do you do with that? So I went to seminars. I went to property investing seminars. I went to general money investing seminars. I went to share investing I've, I've actually done quite a lot of extra learning this year and I'm listening to a podcast now where they have some really good conversations. I can't think of the name of the podcast at the moment. It'll come to me. And but it's really interesting talking about like ETFs what to do with super, self-managed super funds, property investment, investing in property inside or outside super, all of, all of the different nuances and the different sort of combinations. going through a financial advisor, going through a stockbroker, like doing yourself, like how to, how to navigate the actual implementation of what you want to do. But just even figuring it out, like I've, I've literally been flip-flopping all over the place about, do I do this, do I do this, do I do this, and da-da-da, and how do I want it to play? Tax issues legacy issues, trusts, like the, the whole gambit, and it, it can feel quite overwhelming. So I've gotten to a place now of peace with it. So if you would like to know more about that, please reach out with some questions, and I can make sure I cover them when I do a specific podcast on this. But you're almost spoiled for choice in a way. And it really comes down to how you want to actually live, how, how you want to manage it, what fees you want to pay, what tax bracket you're in. So there's a little bit of those other extraneous kind of conversations and things to consider where you might need to consult a professional. I'm lucky enough to have an accounting background, so when I do some of this research, I can understand it. But I will still be reaching out to an accountant as well, just to go validate, like, "Is this kind of the, the right idea? Have I missed anything from a tax perspective?" Stuff like that. So we all still do need help, but there are overarching strategy I'm happy with what I've created, and or what I will be creating. It's not even implemented yet because there's still, stuff that goes on after all of the admin that comes with with someone's passing unfortunately. And it does take a little bit longer because you're somewhat emotionally sort of fragile is probably too extreme a word, but you're certainly emotional. So I, I didn't want to make any decisions or do anything until I knew I'd given myself a bit more time. And who knows how much time that actually even is? So, so there's that learning that's still continuing on that on that scale as well. So, so then I what do I want more of next year? Next year, I would want, I would like more calm and and a bit more joy. to say, I would like a little bit more just, you know, lightness. And I can't say certainty because, you know, the only thing that's certain is uncertainty, really. But and I suppose just more of having the, the lovely people around me that I've had this year, whether they be clients or friends or colleagues, and, and that level of support and creating that community. I've got something coming in January, and it's, it's been bubbling up inside me a, a bit for a while, but I really, I value having, having the right community of people around, because there's so much negativity, there's so much gossip, there's so there's so many things that we don't, we don't need and don't want to and and should not also, I don't like the word should normally, but should not surround ourselves with. So I I want to create or I'm creating a, a space, a container for us to be able to do that in a, in a beautiful way. So that's something I want more of next year, is lovely community and, and support, and being able to do that both ways. So me being able to do it, and also me allowing myself to receive it 'cause I'm not always great at that. And I know there's a lot of ladies out there who also need to get better at receiving and accepting support and help. So that's what I would like that to do. And then what do I want less of next year? It's the flip side. It's a it's the other side of the coin of that one, so a little less, I guess, drama or a little less sadness or a little less heaviness. I, yeah, so that and again, I don't have control over a lot of that either. But I would like to maybe be able to respond better, and so in terms of that, I need to have a bit more time for myself, a bit more self-care just a little bit, bit more of a space and time and allowing myself that time. I took some time a few weeks back and even though it was only a few hours, day, it was just amazing, and that rejuvenated me for for so many things, and it gave me so many ideas and clarity over things too. So that is what I want more of, and then the less of which is just the busyness.... that that just seems to, to take things up and that interjection of time. You know, there's stuff that happens, like we had a, a hailstorm here last night, and we did get some damage. And so, there's been a bit of scrambling today, which of course has eaten into my day. Which that's, you know, that happens. But as long as it doesn't happen too often. And if it does, then I would have to start questioning what energy and what am I attracting into my life, that things like that are coming in too often. So that, that's a bit of a, bit of an a wrap-up of the year. In terms of how I've seen things overall, there has also been a lot of turmoil in the financial side of things. I mean, there's, there's been a few announcements made by some international leaders that have caused markets to completely flip-flop around. So we've seen steep declines, and then just as steep, you know, returns. And it's, you know, there's that whole question about AI. Is AI, you know, is it a bubble? Is it bursting? When NVIDIA has just announced that they're going to be investing even more money into, into the technology around what they're doing. So, there's still hope. Property prices have just, like, skyrocketed. Like, I literally was looking at some property in March, and then by the time I kind of looked again in September, it had gone up, like, $150,000, $200,000. And I'm just like, "Whoa." So there's, there's a, there's a line. There's, there's some property advisors that I, that I that I work with, or work alongside, and they're like, "It's so hard to get stock right now." People have to be making decisions really quickly which means you need to be very clear on what it is that you want and what your strategy is. Otherwise, if you hesitate to make a decision, and you miss out, then... and you, it actually turned out that that was something you wanted. If it turns out that it wasn't what you wanted, then that's fine. But if it is something that you wanted and you missed it, and you're like, "Oh, I'll come back in in a few months," it's going to be more expensive. So the, and it, but then you don't want that, that knowledge or those, that sort of FOMO to drive your thinking to the point where there's a certain level of desperation, and then, then you're stuck with a whole lot of debt. So it's, it's been a really interesting time to sort of see how this is playing out and, and what's happening in the psychology of buyers when it comes to property. Shares, because we've all got superannuation hopefully we're all in the share market. So we can all get impacted by it, but then if we look at it too regularly, it can create fear and anxiety. So part of it is getting yourself to the position where you're investing, but it's, it's not about trading, which is buying and selling. It's about investing and holding. And you might do a ... I do my own performance reviews every quarter. And it's really interesting when if I happen to look, like, in the midst of that quarter, I can see a dip. And then by the time I actually do my review, it's gone up again. I'll think, "Oh my goodness, this is why I don't look at it regularly 'cause it'd do your head in, how volatile things sort of feel like they are at the moment." The ultimate trajectory is up, but it's, it's the, some of the bumpiness that goes on to get you there. So it's been really, really interesting watching and then seeing new ETF products, so that exchange-traded funds. One of the one of the conferences that I went to had a, an ETF specialist come on and was talking about it, and I'm, I'm a big fan. I, I I really like ETFs. I like the, the level of spread that you get over different companies and businesses. I love the different sort of industries that you can invest in, in different markets. You get access to things that you normally wouldn't get access to and companies you wouldn't get access to as a, as a, what they call a retail investor. So I think it's, they hold a whole lot of value. And yes, they've been around for a long time now, but I, feel like they're really coming into their own now. More and more people... And you can do it yourself. You don't need to go through a broker to do it. You don't even need to pay brokerage, which is the fee to buy them. Because a lot of the platforms, like Vanguard BetaShares and that are out there are offering those trades for free when you buy. I think when you sell there's a fee, but when you're buying, and if your, if your strategy is to buy and hold, then you're not gonna be paying on that front end. They're very low cost. I actually even heard about one the other day that has, like, zero cost. It has a performance fee over a certain benchmark. I was like All right. Well, there we go." But you can get, like, .05% management fees, which is, which is really, really low. So the the barriers to entry have really dramatically reduced. And so they're they've, they've changed the game. They really have. And like I said, they're very, they've increased, I think, in, in knowledge and popularity, and more and more people are investing in them, particularly women. So women often make... There, there's research that shows we often make the best investors 'cause we're more levelheaded. Love it. So yeah. So that's, that's what I'm seeing for next year. Again, I'm reading about property prices increasing anymore. I, I don't know how much more from an inflationary standpoint we can handle. And if it does keep going up, then the interest rates are going to keep going up to try and reduce demand. So, there's a potential for that to happen. You know, we had a couple of rate reductions this year, but there is the potential for the rates to go back up again a bit next year. So just make sure you look at your serviceability and your overarching budget and how you can streamline it as much as possible. So there are some of my personal reflections as well as some of the more financial reflections as well from this, this year just gone and then the year coming. I'll probably do a little bit more on planning. I'll see, I'll see how we go. But in terms of any topics that you would like me to cover, if there's any concerns that you've got about money or financial future or what's coming or what could be potentially coming please send them my way and I'm, I'm happy to, to cover them off, yeah, either in a Q&A podcast episode or just in a specific topic. So with that, I'll leave you to perhaps do some of your own reflections. It's good to write them down or at least verbalize them, have that, have a conversation with your partner or a good friend just so that you can, you can play it bit, back a bit so you can plan more effectively for the next year and be intentional and clear on what it is that you want to achieve. Okay. Well, have a wonderful week and I will catch you next episode.
