October 12, 2025 • 40 mins
An interesting report came out this week about budgets: the average household spending has only gone up two dollars a week since 2023.
50-percent of respondents said they're actively seeking out discounts and promotions - and 30-percent downgrade brands.
It's one thing to be spending less on non-essentials, eating less, or wearing cheaper clothes, but sometimes that can chip away at our mental health and confidence. So how can we still feel good and financial okay, with what we've got?
On the topic of household budgets: when do you merge finances with your partner or spouse? How do you do it? What should you be careful of?
Financial specialist, and author of top Personal Finance book - Money Matters - Amanda Morall joins Tim Beveridge for Smart Money...
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
B Oh, yes, what a good energetic way to get
(00:54):
into the next that's actually that song to be fair
was not the choice of my guests. Well, I'd like
to let the guests have a choice, but we'll we're
going to find something because we're a bit late asking.
So I said, look, let's just roll with some A C.
D and away we go. But anyway, welcome back to
the Weekend Collective. If you have just joined us, you
know we want your calls on our eight one hundred
and eighty ten eighty in text ninety two and for
(01:17):
this hour, it's welcome to smart Money. Actually, one of
the things we're going to dig into before I introduce
my guest, even though you've been listening, you know who
it'll be is there was an interesting report that came
out this week about budgets. With the average household spending's
only gone up a couple of dollars a week since
twenty twenty three, food prices have jumped more than that. Obviously,
we know that. I think everyone feels that you've got
(01:39):
sort of feels like the same amount of money, but
it's not going as far. I definitely feel like that
now household quite radically. Actually, I'm sort of getting a
little bit irritated by it. But anyway, fifty percent of
respondent say they're actively seeking out discounts of promotions, thirty
percent downgrade brands. But here's the thing. There are always
someone else is poorer than you, And you could look
(02:01):
at yourself and there'll be somebody who looks at you
and go, well, they're doing all right. And we've all
got someone we thinks better off than us, so worse
off than us. And I wanted to have a chat
about how you can actually feel good and financially okay
with what we've got anyway, among other things. So how
do you actually try and how do you feel less
stressed about money? Because in the end, maybe a lot
(02:24):
of it's actually about our attitude to what we can
and can't do. Anyway, joining us, she is a financial
specialist's been a regular guest on our chape for well,
I won't say for years because that might make us
sound older than she is, but she's author of a
top personal finance book, Money Matters. She joins us for
Smart Money and Amanda Morale, Hello, how are.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
You great to see again.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
You're good.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I'm good, very well, and thank you for playing the
ECDC song. I might actually get my younger son to
listen to the show worthy.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
You just say it's worth metal genre, it's worth? Is
it heavy metal or hard rock?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Okay, maybe that's hard rockers.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I don't know what heavy metal is these days, but cup,
I'm gonna I've actually enjoyed having guests make a choice
in music. I've made a note for myself, and my
liked list in Spotify is expanding to a whole bunch
of things that I haven't listened to for yoks.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Anyway, everybody likes choice, Yes, we do, thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Hey, is there something in this you think? Because a
lot of the time conversations and households around just how
expensive life is. We've got rates that are going up
inflation most people, I mean, I know, the private sectors
and the public sectors going through its strikes and things
(03:36):
like that. We got teachers and all that. But I
was thinking himself, well, actually a lot of people haven't
really had the pay rises to make up for it.
But how much of our attitude towards money is simply
because the way we classify ourselves is broken hard up?
And how much do we make things hard for ourselves
because we're just framing it like life sucks. Therefore, it's
like somebody says, you know what, if you think that
(03:58):
life's miserable, you're probably right because that's the way you're
looking at things, as opposed to someone would come over
from a lower income group and go, oh, my goodness,
of what you had it. Just have such a good life.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
It's so true. Listen, there's no denying that the cost
of living is exorbitantly high and everybody's feeling the pinch.
But what I would say in a general sense is
that the psychology aspect of money is incredibly important and
it can drive good outcomes in bad accades. So you know,
put aside, you know the cost of butter right now
(04:30):
and rates going up, et cetera. I think it is
really critically important to always come back to assessing the
good that you do have, the stuff material stuff that
you do have, and beyond those things of a financial value,
the things that are truly meaningful and important to life.
And maybe that sounds a bit woo woo, but if
(04:51):
you wake up, you know, you wake up, there's millions
of the people that didn't wake up. So a you're alive,
you know, have you got a roof over your head tick?
For most people in the zone, you know, do you have?
Are you surrounded by a group of friends or family
that you can count? I mean, so if you zoom
out and just be super super grateful for all the
real goodness in your life, when you're not focused on
(05:14):
the mortgage payment, you can kind of reset and think, actually,
my life is pretty good. Going back to the comparison
of you know, am I living in Gaza in a
tent or whatever that might be. I mean, everybody circumstances
a different, but I do think it's really vitally important
to every day really if you can to appreciate what
(05:34):
you do have, take a deep breath and not mentally
get stuck up on the things that you don't have
or the stress, because when you're in that stressed out mindset,
it's really hard to see through everything else is going
on in your life and to appreciate that there is
a way forward. So a lot of people are doing
it hard, but there's always a way forward.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
I think, yeah, because yeah, and there's some people who
are in straightened time, So you know, the worst thing
to do would be not be able to meet your
basic financial life obligations and things like that. But this
is a question we want to hear from you on
because a lot of people do feel they've got a
less to go on. But how do you actually cope
with that financial stress? If you're looking at your bank
(06:17):
statement all the time and worried about it, you are
going to be miserable all the time, aren't you.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
It's not particularly constructive. And you know, our grandparents, I mean,
I don't know what the average of most listeners are better.
Grandparents certainly went through some tough times. I think about
my grandmother and going to visit her in her house,
and you know, she went through out I mean, she
wasn't a horder, but she went throughout rubber bands, she's reusing,
you know, wrapping paper, and everything was repurposed and you know,
(06:44):
reconstructed if possible. And she's still you know, she was
never a poor woman by any stretch. But again, this
is what I'm talking about and valuing the stuff that
you do have in not being wasteful and readjusting your mindset.
There are generations who had it quite rough before us
during the depression. I eat lots of goods that we
have widely available even while we're struggling. They didn't have
(07:06):
sugar rations, et cetera. So I think again it's important
to zoom out, appreciate what you do have and don't
get like fixated on the things that you think you
need or struggling with. Because there is a way forward
and things are starting to lighten up in the economy
right now. You know, we can talk about the ocr
later down going down and stuff, so there will be
(07:27):
some relief down the track, I think for a lot
of people. But again, just in that general sense, it's
taking a deep breath and appreciating what you do have.
And you know, if you've got your health, basically you're
the richest person in the world. Somebody else wishes they
had your health.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I guess there'll be something when people run those arguments
like there's someone there. It's the old line, I mean,
the cheapest way of putting it in. Pardon me for
such a crude expression, but you know, there wouldn't many
many people will have been told when they're feeling down
and they luck somebody will have said to them, will
they are children starving in Africa, things aren't so bad.
And sometimes I wonder how helpful that actually is, because
(08:01):
if you're feeling bad, you're feeling bad, and you're not
going to cheer it up by the fact that someone
else's worse.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
So yeah, I know, remember that there was that period
of be happy kind of you know, just that that
sort of pop psychology but don't worry, be happy kind
of thing. That there's that McFarlane's song or whatever to that.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I think we're going to have that. It does pick
you up.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
That song, like listen, Yeah, it is a nice happy song,
but again it sometimes it would seem patronizing to hear
that when you're really in the pooh. But what you know,
even during all that financial stress, and I work with
people because they do have a financial mentor. And you know,
when I when I question people about that one thing
that has got them really stressed out, and again you
(08:42):
break it down, you zoom it out, it's never quite
the stress that they've made it to be in their mind,
or if not, there's a solution that they've overlooked. And
so that's what I'm talking about the psychology of how
you relate to money and look at it is like
massively important to your overall well being, and also how
you kind of get out of that and drive progress.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
We'd love to give from you on this on how
do you actually how do you how have you do
you cope with maybe a shift in your financial circumstances.
But if you are looking at things and going gosh,
life's expensive and all that sort of thing, if you
really focus on all the time, I guarantee you probably
will be depressed. But how have you coped with financial
(09:22):
stress and putting things in context? But also how richipoor
do you feel? You might not you know, and might
be buying the lotto ticket and thinking that that's your
little bit of optimism you have each week and find
you haven't won a cent. Speaking from personal experience, but yeah,
and how do you cope with financial stress? Are there
things that you've learned when you look at your situation
(09:45):
and go, well, you know things aren't so great, but
you know, I've got other things that give me joy
and you realize that the financial stress maybe isn't the
worst of it. We'd love to hear how do you
cope with it? On eight hundred eighty eight text nine
two nine two and I guess maybe the broader question
is how can you just be happy with what you've
got or is it part of the human condition that
(10:07):
you really we always want something more? But I mean
we can all think of you meet anyone in any
socioeconomic group, don't you, Amanda, who's thinking. I mean, the
person who's got this massive student loan, you know, and
they've just got out and they're thinking, when am I
going to pay it off? Is looking at the person
who's paid off their loan, and that person's looking at
the person who's paid off their mortgage, and that person's
(10:27):
looking at the person who's saved more.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Hey, And there's lots of very wealthy people out there
who are miserable. So they've got all the money in
the world, but they don't know how to create happiness
for themselves because somewhere along the way they've lost what's
truly meaningful and important to them.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
So maybe is that what we're really talking around? Does
money by your happiness? Maybe that's the broader question, but
we'd love to hear from you on eight hundred eighty eight.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Have you.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
Have you.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Experienced happiness which is unhappiness related to your own financial set?
Of circuit.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
I was thinking about when I was a poor student,
you know, and like I hear my kids, I don't
complain all the time about being poor, but actually they've
got more money than I ever did. They just spend
it on the wrong things, so you know, like you know,
bows a big boozy night or vaping or you know.
But I remember literally having five bucks for groceries for
that week, and my big splurge was turning my instant
(11:24):
rice into an elegant, sophisticated Spanish rice by putting tomato,
not tomato sauce, tomato juice into tomato juice. And so
like there was some time like that, you know, for me,
it was like my diet was rubbish, and I felt
a little bit sorry for myself. But at the same time,
you know, hey, how lucky am I that I'm actually
a student. And you know, there's always there's always improvements
(11:48):
around the corner. You know, you get a job, somebody
helps you out, you're down on your luck, things invariably
do change. But the worst thing you can do is
to be stuck in a negative mindset where you think
about what others have and that you don't, and you're
just focused on the negative to the detriment of achieving
a better outcome for yourself. So I appreciate, well, it's
(12:10):
not helpful sometimes hearing I'll just cheer up, you know,
blah blah blah again. You know, it's you have to
draw on those internal resources within yourself to shift their
perspective and find a way forward. And again there would
be some relief for people coming down the track. But
I think if you maybe you want to share what
your darkest moment was financially and how you men all
(12:31):
the time, and how you mentally, I mean, was it
the worst thing in the world? At the lessons for you?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
There's denial, Well, I was performing artists for so long,
and so it puts you beyond that. You know, it
means you're later doing everything in life. And my line is, actually,
I'm probably going to retire later than everyone asked, but
I hope I'm going to die later as well. And
I didn't make light of it. But there's an element
of denial that go denial. That is an interesting one
(13:01):
because I do worry about things financially. I worry about
paying off mortgages and then getting a retirement fund set up.
But also I guess for me, I sort of also
live in the present of enjoying my family and join
my daughters and what they're doing. And I've got to look,
I've got a job I really enjoy and I love
(13:21):
having the people on the show, But it doesn't solve
the problem that I want to solve.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
But how many times can you think of when you
were in the po and things like you get into
that fear of mentality and where the fear is as
bad as you thought there were going to be, or
did something come along that changed the outcome?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Well, I mean my golden rule is if something's worrying
about at night, you've got to stop and think about
it in the morning, because the worst thing is to
the worst thing is to go to sleep with a
problem in your head and try and solve it at night.
That's one of my little golden rules. Because as soon
as you get up and moving, all of a sudden,
there's something about being up and moving with the day
that things feel a little less.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Yeah, well there's a new day, but yeah, the worst
thing you're going to do to yourself is a ruminade
over it, not get any sleep, and then that the
problem even it magnifies the problem and then your health
is affected. So it's a downward spiral. So you want
to get yourself into an upward spiral of more optimism,
Go for you know, do whatever it is that can
(14:18):
shift you out of that really dark state. If you're
in a dark state, and then other things, you know,
they don't seem so bad, and then there is a
new day and things do shift for you financially, and
they always do.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Right, Yeah, I think that's that's what we want to
dig into you. How do you feel rich and happy
even when you're not necessarily I eight one hundred eighty
ten and eighty And what do you tell you? I mean,
I think that pragmatically, what we just talked about on
a more just a philosophical thing, is that actually the
permission I give myself if I'm worried about something at
nighttime and my daughters, you know, kids want to talk
(14:52):
to you about things, and I do try and say, honey,
there's nothing we can do about But the good news
is you've got you've got every excuse in the world
to forget about it tonight, because the most important thing
is that you get to sleep and you can deal
with it in the morning, right it down, whatever. But
I do I've worked on giving myself permission that once
it's bed time, that there's nothing else that should be
(15:14):
done right now. And that does take a bit of jump.
It's like a bit of a jump, it does.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
It's a bit of work. There's a lovely flow chart.
I think they've got the Buddha. You know, can did you?
You know, can you do something?
Speaker 4 (15:25):
Yes? Or no?
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Can you fix this tonight?
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (15:27):
No?
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Did it?
Speaker 3 (15:27):
And it invariably brings you back to this place. Well,
if you can't actually fix it, then what are you
worrying about? You've got to just drop the worry because
something will change. So I mean, that's my message really,
I know, again not to minimize the financial pain that
a lot of people are feeling. It is very real.
But you know, the worst thing can happen, what you
you know, your your house gets sold on mortgage sale
(15:51):
and you're out. You know, some people find actually, you
know that was quite liberating. Didn't like the house, didn't
like the neighborhood. It was in a bad position. And
then there's a light at the end of the tunnel,
and that's that's kind of the message. There's usually a
light at the end of the tunnel. We just can't
see it, So.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Want your calls on this. How do you deal with
financial stress and financial wellbeing? How can you actually feel
ritual happy even when maybe you're not, Because we've seen
plenty of examples of people who've got less than us
who seem to be way happier. So it can't be
about the money. So when you're under financial stress, what
is the clue? What is the queue or the clue
to maybe not being so dissatisfied with your lot? We'd
(16:26):
love your calls on this. My guest is Amanda Morale.
She's a financial specialist and author of Money Matters. Were
back in just a moment. It's twenty three past five
news talks. He'd be don't worry, be happy, don't be happy.
(16:51):
Well that's the song for this hour. Really, I'm TIMBEVERI
this is smart money. My guest is a mana Morale.
We're talking about basically, how can you be okay psychologically
with what you've got financial wellbeing? You might not have
everything you want. You might still be buying the lotto
ticket thanking God. It wouldn't it be nice of a
one ten to fifteen million bucks. But how can you
actually feel happy with what you've got when maybe you
(17:13):
keep comparing yourself to your mates and you think, oh,
well they've got the flash car, they've only got ten
years to go on their mortgage. I've got all this time.
How do you make yourself feel happy with it? How
do you cup with financial stress? And that's what we're
talking about it. We love your calls on this. I've
got a few texts to kick off with. But there's
spear lines there. Eight hundred and eighty ten eighty. This
one says Amanda. I never wanted to see this is
(17:37):
an interesting one. I never wanted to be rich, just
financially comfortable.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
I e.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
If I need to get tires for my car or
my fridge fails, I can sort it without worrying. I'm
rich in life, wife, kids, job, fishing. Aha. I mean,
I'll tell you what. That's an interesting one on the fishing.
Then the people who are turning to that that's from Steve.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Yeah, but I think that's a great attitude, right, I
mean to some extent, depending on what your quantum of
wealth is, it can really complicate your life. You know,
you have five houses, something's breaking down.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, well could some people go People tell me that
rich people are can be miserable as well.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
This is very true. I know a lot of wealthy people.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
But I'd love to try being rich and miserable. Someone
did somebody say to me once with wealth that you know,
money doesn't solve all your problems, but it allows you
to approach those problems with in a nice car and
more in style. Should I say to drive to your
(18:38):
psychologists and the roles.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
That's what this fem I was saying too, that he
would like enough to be able to pay for things
that if they break down, et cetera. And he's appreciating
things that are truly meaningful and important to him in
that case, So you know that for him, that's a
set level of happiness. And you know, of course it's
nice to go on holidays and have a few perks
and da da da da, But at the end of
the day, are those if you if you, if you
(19:00):
really questioned you know your values or as the new
beamer or the batch or the boat, the thing on
your deathbed that you're going to look back and said,
oh that really made me happy.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
I have spoken to quite a few people I've met
my job. I guess through not just talk back, but
through singing and stuff. You meet people from a range
of backgrounds. And yeah, somebody said to me, yeah, you're
not going to look back on, you know, what assets
you managed to build. You look, most people will look
back on the quality of the relationships or friendships and
family and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Have you ever read that book, The Five Regrets of
the Dying. No, it was written by I think that's
the title, but it was written by a nurse, a
palliative care nurse who recorded, you know, the last you
know memories of all these you know, they weren't wishing
for more material wealth. They were, you know, regretful that
they didn't have more positive relationships or they didn't do
(19:58):
you know. So that's what I'm saying. I mean, as
much as people are you know, again really pushed to
pay for all those groceries and go up for dinner,
et cetera. Again, like somehow you get through it without starving.
And when you kind of take some of the pressure
off of that aspect of it and you think, again,
how do I feel? How do I generate a better
(20:19):
feeling of wellbeing? You look at the things that are
actually more meaningful and important to you, which tend to
be your friends, your family, and your health. So again,
it requires a mental mind shift, and it's not always
easy to do, but when you switched gears in that regard,
you can step back and say, yeah, I'm okay, things
are going to get better. So psychology is a really
(20:41):
important part of financial wellbeing, I would.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Argue, Yeah, here's some more texts. I complain at home
as we get stressed sometimes and never seem to have
cash sitting around forgetting that my seventy hour weeks for
the last thirty five years blimey, mean that another five
years at fifty five, I can actually retire if I want.
We haven't had the overseas holidays, and only very recently
actually bought our first new fridge, lound, sweet and vehicle
(21:05):
after always chasing future security by going without. The only
thing that scares me is I'm not sure I know
how to relax now that I'm getting close to that time.
That's actually an interesting one because this person's been working
their butt off for a while, isn't it. I would
wonder if i'd suggest to someone who's worked their butt
off and can retire is that they shouldn't think about
(21:27):
retiring because it sounds like it's what gives them their
sense of who they are. Look, I work hard, and
I earn hard, and why would you turn the tap
off from that at fifty five of you still active?
Speaker 3 (21:37):
It really depends what your goals are and what lays
you up. I mean, I think I've said this before.
My father, who's eighty three, is still working not because
he needs to be, because he loves to. It is
what kind of keeps him going. And so that's a joy.
He loves his job, he always has and so God
bless him. I gave up on the retirement thing, you know,
(21:58):
decades ago with him because he's any still.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
You have yourself given up on the retirement thing as well.
Speaker 6 (22:04):
Well.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
I need to be kept busy as well, like I.
You know, I could, I could. I'm in a position,
thankfully where I could scale back, and but I'm just
the type of person that likes to, you know, work
my brain. I like to be engaged with the outside world,
and you know, I'm just trying to find the balance
it suits me. But the fact that you can't relax
(22:25):
is a big, a bit of a worry. So you know,
that's why things like meditation and yoga and fishing and
those whatever, there's pursuits that get you into a place
of relaxation are vitally important to find those, otherwise you're
going to be pretty stressed out at home. Why did
dress out your wife or husband?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
I did see something about that. Just in terms of
and this is people talk about the importance of spirituality,
which is sort of people will think that I'm going
to go against this because I'm not religious, But what
they meant by spirituality was having certain rituals or things
that you do that are just part of you have
(23:05):
time for yourself. Like the person I was talking to
you said, well, Tim, you spend a day and a
half baking a loaf of bread. That's your sort of
spiritual thing. The process of cooking and doing things that
are to me, it's not intuitive, but it's part of
a normal. There's something about it for.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Me, it's joyful. For you, I went to it right,
and there's something that's relaxing.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
And it's relaxing and it en forces me to be
patient because literally, you have to feed a starter once
or twice a day, and then you have to wait
for it to rise, and you are to work the
dough and all this sort of stuff, and then you
have that magic moment of lifting the Dutch oven and
seeing that that bread having gone from something that looks
a little bit sad, suddenly both it's just popped. But
(23:47):
that's the person said, well, that's your spiritual thing. It's
your routine, it's your ritual, it's something you do and
it is I think it important to have that sort
of stuff.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Is a post where it may be a walk that
you take every morning. I mean, I've got a dog,
so walks are not optional. I got to get out there.
And you know what, I'm really grateful because you know,
in the worst of moods that I have, I'm always
shifted out of a bad mood or a stressful moment
because I you know, nature is relaxation, relaxing for me,
and so you know, it doesn't have to be a
(24:15):
complex thing that involves the expenditure of money in a
fancy holiday that gets you into a more relaxed state.
And you know, it's amazing how elusive that is for
many people who've spent their lives busying themselves that they
can even answer the question what brings you relaxation, joy
and happiness, so that that needs to be an exploration.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Yeah, Roches says, Hi, guys, I heard this one the
other day. Money isn't everything, but it comes a close
second to oxygen. Well, that's the thing, because we don't
want to pretend that money doesn't matter. You want to
You've got to be able to pay for your groceries
and all that sort of stuff. I mean, it's a
difficult to be a conversation like this because you don't
want to trivialize the importance of That's how we have
structured our economy. That's how you pay for your power
(25:02):
bills and your rent and all that sort of thing.
It's money, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
But like, you can't look at money as something completely
separate from everything else in your life. And I was.
We did a podcast with a former colleague of years,
just a couple of weeks ago on this very subject
and got deep and meaningful with Francis Cook and explored
a lot of these subjects about you know, money as
a means to an end, right, and so again, if
(25:26):
you're chasing the mighty dollar just because you're you know,
want X Y and z which has just stressed you
out your whole life, and then you get there and
you die of a heart attack. Well what was it
all for? So I think at every step, I mean
not every second, you have to question, is you know,
what you do for a living actually something that makes
you happy or miserable? You know, is your expenditure really necessary?
(25:50):
If it's a high expenditure, I e. You know a
lot of people send their kids to private schools, is
that really making you or the child happy? What is
it achieving? Would you know another option be providing you
a little bit more financial freedom, you know, same thing
to the cars, et cetera, et cetera. So there's a
lot of you know, discretionary spending that takes place in life,
but I think much of that is done for the
(26:13):
wrong reasons. You're either filling emotional voids, You're trying to
impress people who really can't give a crap. You're chasing
goals that really weren't your goals, but expectations that your
parents or somebody else forced on you. So again, you know,
you can't you can't separate money from everything else that's
going on in your life. And that's what I'm talking
about that financial well being peace.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
It's an interesting I was MC for a conference recently
for they've actually been up. We've had one of their
financial guys from Concilium, being Brinkoff, was on my show
a couple of times. But as MC for their conference,
it was actually interesting having conversations because that's all about
it was all I mean, there was a lot of
financial advisors and catching up on all the latest and
(26:57):
the information around investing. And I don't want to sum
up what the conference was about because I'd probably do
it an injustice, but it was interesting having a conversation
with people whose business it is to make money for
their clients and philosophically how a lot of them. You know,
money is important, but I was talking with someone about,
(27:18):
you know, trying to find that balance between you know,
obviously key we savor. That's all about saving for retirement
and not going so far that you're spending all your
efforts saving for a retirement to look back on a
life that you haven't lived exactly, And that is I mean,
that's a broader philosophical question. But actually, and everyone the
(27:39):
people I mentioned that too, said, yeah, that's the constant
sort of wrestling at the time, how much do you
how hard do you work to save to look, you know,
to live after sixty five or whatever you want to retire.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
And how much is enough?
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Yeah, So that's that's the philosophy and the psychology. It's
all tied up and you know, chasing that mighty dollar.
So it's almost like you kind of, you know, ideally
want to have those those questions answered ahead of you know,
the settings or reverse engineer. It is another way to
do it in terms of how much money do you
need to chase up? But you can't really avoid the
(28:11):
question what makes me happy? And I'm not talking about
you know, this euphoria or whatever. What makes you content?
Like that fellow who identified that I've got all the
things in my life that you know matter to me
and I'm good. I don't need, you know, two million
dollars in the bank or whatever it is. So again,
you have to at that moment of darkness or where
(28:34):
you're super stressed out or you can't think of a
way out, you got to just put that to one side.
Count your blessings is something my grandfather used to say
all the time. Count your blessings and then you know,
do some evaluation and then move forward, because things are
never as as dark and arduous as you may think
they are at at at a point in time. They
(28:56):
always change.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Yeah, you calls on this matter. Just with people feeling
that they've got least money to go on, how do
you cut with the financial stress? Well, as one of
your wives, to do is just one think about it
too much and just get on whatever. We'd love your
calls on this, but we're also going to come back
and have a quick chat about the announcement from the
Reserve Banker as well about the cutting of the cash
right by point five and how much of the surprise
that well, So any thoughts you've got we'd love to
(29:19):
hear from it. We'll be back in just a moment.
It's gosh, time's fly. It's twenty one minthes to six
News Talks that be with Tim Beverage right, capping with
financial stress? How do you put things in perspective? So
many different ways to ask the question. Let's start with
Aaron good A.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
Yeah, hi, jam.
Speaker 6 (29:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:36):
So's life about the destination or the journey or a
bit of boat and given the ultimate end destination death
and people deal with that in different ways. And spurious
religious groups that have their ending and so on and
so forth in and afterlife or not. Take your pick,
but I or is it the other one you talk
(29:58):
about when you're talking financially, You're written Bracket's retirement. I
sit in the camp that I'll never retire. I neither
stop working the day I die or I'm going to
finish the day before. But I enjoy working excellent.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
That'd be a depressive function for your gig, isn't it.
What are you doing next, Aaron, Well, I'm dying. But
I mean, I don't want to make light of these things,
because people do have serious things.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
But yeah, yeah, well, well I enjoy the journey. I
work seven days a week. I have around five different jobs,
and I enjoy all of them, and so I can
doing seventy eight hours a week is not a problem.
And I think a lot of people find work to
be a trap, not not a release or an empowerment
(30:46):
or anything like that. And it's that attitude towards work,
I think is people's biggest problem in their entire life.
Because if you enjoy what you do, and I see
people that clean toilets that enjoy their job, you know
you can have pride. If you have pride in your
work and enjoy it and find ways to enjoy it,
that is such a relief and a relief in life
(31:07):
that then the recent tends to fall into place, because
if you can just work more out, you can catch
up on your bills eventually and get a HUD and
so on and so forth. Actually, even if your minimum wait.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
It's interesting Aaron and Madame Morale is my guest today.
I think I always felt that we're not far away
from that conversation that Aaron's sort of in the direction
that Aaron's gone with, because I feel that there's the
idea there used to be at one stage. You know,
there's a message we were given that you get it.
You know, you do whatever, and you at sixty or
sixty five you retire. And I wonder if we're moving
(31:39):
away from that in general, because actually I enjoy the
people I work with and what I do, and if
I wasn't doing this, I'd find something else and hopefully
I'd enjoy. But that's the cue, isn't there.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
I absolutely agree with you Eron, You've got the right attitude,
and you know there's that all cliche if you do
what you love and you never work a day in
your life, So it's a mental shaft, which is what
I'm talking about. This psychology behind the money is so
incredibly important, and I think it is a mental trap
that a lot of people fall into, and they you know,
they waste precious days because you know tomorrow is not
(32:08):
guaranteed struggling and laboring. So if you can, you know,
figure out what brings you joy and try to play that,
particularly if it's a useful skill to society, you're going
to find a way through Aaron.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Someone's texted me saying is Aaron a masochist or something?
I was like, well, I think they're trying to be funny,
by the.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Way, or they don't have a job that they like.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
Yeah, possibly, yeah, well yeah, but we can all find
jobs we enjoy. I have this problem that I drive
past somewhere and see a sign up for a situation's
vacant and I go, oh wow, I'd like to do it,
and I go how.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
Do I set it in? So I constantly see other
jobs or careers and go, man, I wish I was
doing that. I wish I could do that, even though
I love the ones I'm meant so lucky. As soon
as you can find a way to light work, it's
awesome on it.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Actually, there is something about that as well that they're
in touch. Time is even when you're doing a job.
I remember talking to someone who was, no, maybe not
enjoying their job or something, and then they got a
commission or something. But how good did it feel when
you got that paycheck? And they said, oh, I felt amazing.
And it just so it's about well, some jobs knowing
why you're working.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Yeah, and some jobs have outsized remunerations. So I get
why some people might, you know, put themselves to the grinder.
I remember one stage I was a court reporter working
in you know, Alberta. I was trying to cover like
so many court rooms back then. You know, yeah you
have to take a short time. I was so stressed up.
My heart was like constantly in palpitations. And they know,
(33:35):
I've like, I've got to, you know, make a change here.
I mean I was a young person back then, and
I thought it was going to have a heart attack
at you know, twenty.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Eight or so. So you worked out that there wasn't going
to be Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
I knew, but you kind of you fall into a
trap where you think you have to do what it
is you're doing and you don't see out, but you know,
and maybe it's just getting older where you kind of
realize that it's easier to let go of things that
you might think and there's always an option.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Right, let's take some more course. Doug High, Hello, how
are you?
Speaker 6 (34:03):
Yeah? I look for seventy six years, and I've had
a life that's gone up and down, and there's been
major catastrophes and major good ones. I've had some windfalls
with money and stuff like that and jobs and so forth.
But what I've discovered looking back, quite surprisingly, is that
times when it was going swimming, had the family was
(34:26):
fine and the job was fine and everything like that,
and not necessarily the ones that you look back on
as being the best, if you know what I mean.
I mean the last plot, I had a major robbery.
Basically they're just flattened the house I was starting trying
started a new the new firm sort of thing, a
new enterprise, and they basically took everything. I didn't get
(34:49):
anything back. I mean, the justice system doesn't do a
hell of a lot. The guy I pleaded guilty, you know,
to the robbery but the people.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
That can't be sold destroying stuff, that fair enough. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (35:00):
But the thing was that I discovered that I'd also
been stupid because I thought that I was swimmingly going
on with this job, you see, and it was going
to be fine. And I got someone else to run
my day to day business, if you like, like paying
rates and stuff like that, and she didn't. She took
off to Australia and left me with a huge debt.
(35:23):
And what I found good about this was that I
had all these guys that were saying, oh, we're going
to take the house. I mean, you can't keep going
to the house if you haven't paid the rates sort
of thing. And so I eventually got onto this guy
at the at the rates. So it was a good
guy basically, and he said, you'll have to pay it back,
which I knew I would have to pay it all
(35:44):
the money, of course, with the little that I had,
But we worked out how much I had and how
much I would have to pay, and he said, right,
we'll do that, and you'd have to step to it
or we'll come down to him down on top of
it like a ton of bricks, you know. So I did,
and I remember that that was about a year until
I got out of it. Basically, we've got out and
(36:06):
got Beth into you because you know, I mean, I'm
a teacher and I clicked you find jobs and things.
So I eventually got back on top of it and
you look back on there and I literally enjoyed this.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Yeah, good on, good stuff. Doug Hey, thanks for you,
cole mate. Unfortunately, we've got to take a break before
we come back. We're try and squeeze in another call
or two. It's eleven minutes to six. News Talk said,
b News Talk said, be talking about dealing with financial
stress and finding your sort of happiness. Anyway, we're going
to try and squeeze in a couple more cours and
for the callers, they're holding at a couple of callers
holding literally we've got about three and a half minutes,
so you have to be quick. Julia, Hello, Hello.
Speaker 7 (36:44):
So my opinion is that, you know, time is the
most important thing in life, and it's like com fifty five.
I've got grandchildren, but I've always thought to myself, I'm
not doing a forty hour week, I mean, and so
what I did was I ended up just reducing my
hours to buy one day to work thirty two hours
(37:04):
a week, and I've now managed to actually get it
down to three days a week, like because you know,
you don't know how much time you've got here and
spending time with them you love and doing the things
you want to do. To me, that is just the
most important thing in life, Julia.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
And that's short and sweet, but I'm so I absolutely
agree with you. I feel I get time to spend
with my kids after school and things, and I know
they're incredibly lucky to do that.
Speaker 7 (37:35):
Oh absolutely, And I know that I am too. You're
just your time is so precious, you know, like why
would you waste it away in a workplace of people
you don't choose to be around, and you know, like
it just frees you up if you can manage it,
like you know, budget wise and well yeah, and you're right.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
What you've talked about is, you know, making a.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
And where there's a world, there's a way.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Yeah, good on you. Hey, thanks for you Cord. You're left.
Sorry were having to hurry the callers because we're just
about wrapping it up. But I think lucky last Peter, Well.
Speaker 8 (38:06):
People like to make a difference. But with budgeting for
a timent. I know one person who didn't want to
acknowledge financial responsibility and will have no money in retirement basically,
and the other person who didn't really want to know
much or we're bad at finance, so we don't have
to listen to financial advice. And then someone else when
(38:26):
they were young.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
What's your key? What's your key to happiness?
Speaker 8 (38:31):
Well, either you've got to surround yourself with the people
do what you want to do. And they say about people,
if you want a perfect person, trying to be the
perfect person yourself with yourself because you're the one yourself.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Because I think that's that would be a life of disappointment,
wouldn't it. Well, I don't mean you, I mean everyone
you know.
Speaker 8 (38:54):
Yeah, yeah, Well you speak to yourself the longest eat
day and apparently every day people tell about four or
five lives. But I haven't seen the search to see
how many lives people to themselves each day.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Well, we might have. We would have to explore this.
I think, Peter on another time, because we've only got
about a minute and a bit before we hang up.
But thanks for your call. I think that I don't know.
We're not going to give anyone the meaning of life
in a session like this. But it's useful just to
hear other people's stories, and it's.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
Putting money into context, proper context. Yes, you know, get
your KI server settings correct. Yes, don't be a fool
with your credit card spending, et cetera. But you know,
just find a way to make a living that you
enjoy doing to the best of your ability. But you know,
be a kind person, but appreciate what you've got. And
you know it's not it doesn't have to be complicated.
(39:45):
But I think you know, there's these expectations I'll blame
it on Instagram that you have to have this life
or that life, or you know, to have the glossy, shiny,
you know, Disneyland style, which is not really what we're
chasing here.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
It's interesting and quite a few messages just around. You know,
sixty five not being the age of retirement is not
because the money side of things, a lot of people
won't be able to afford to retire. But this one says,
just to wrap it up, my sister and I a
birdt seventy five. She still teaches part time into college
because she loves it, and I love being holiday all
the time. Able to go to events and talks that
(40:19):
a cam midwek during the day or coffee with friends,
so well maybe to each there are I haven't read
the second part of it text to be fair anyway, Hey,
lovely to see you, Amanda, Thanks so.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Much, always a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Do tune and to go and check out our podcast
if you missed any of the hours. We had fascinating
politics there as well as chat with Alex Flint as well,
and that was smart money. I'll be back with the
same time next week. Sunday at six is next. Thanks
my producer Isaiah. Great job mate, as always, catch you soon.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
For more from the Weekend Collective, listen live to News
Talks it'd be weekends from three pm, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
B Oh, yes, what a good energetic way to get
(00:54):
into the next that's actually that song to be fair
was not the choice of my guests. Well, I'd like
to let the guests have a choice, but we'll we're
going to find something because we're a bit late asking.
So I said, look, let's just roll with some A C.
D and away we go. But anyway, welcome back to
the Weekend Collective. If you have just joined us, you
know we want your calls on our eight one hundred
and eighty ten eighty in text ninety two and for
(01:17):
this hour, it's welcome to smart Money. Actually, one of
the things we're going to dig into before I introduce
my guest, even though you've been listening, you know who
it'll be is there was an interesting report that came
out this week about budgets. With the average household spending's
only gone up a couple of dollars a week since
twenty twenty three, food prices have jumped more than that. Obviously,
we know that. I think everyone feels that you've got
(01:39):
sort of feels like the same amount of money, but
it's not going as far. I definitely feel like that
now household quite radically. Actually, I'm sort of getting a
little bit irritated by it. But anyway, fifty percent of
respondent say they're actively seeking out discounts of promotions, thirty
percent downgrade brands. But here's the thing. There are always
someone else is poorer than you, And you could look
(02:01):
at yourself and there'll be somebody who looks at you
and go, well, they're doing all right. And we've all
got someone we thinks better off than us, so worse
off than us. And I wanted to have a chat
about how you can actually feel good and financially okay
with what we've got anyway, among other things. So how
do you actually try and how do you feel less
stressed about money? Because in the end, maybe a lot
(02:24):
of it's actually about our attitude to what we can
and can't do. Anyway, joining us, she is a financial
specialist's been a regular guest on our chape for well,
I won't say for years because that might make us
sound older than she is, but she's author of a
top personal finance book, Money Matters. She joins us for
Smart Money and Amanda Morale, Hello, how are.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
You great to see again.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
You're good.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I'm good, very well, and thank you for playing the
ECDC song. I might actually get my younger son to
listen to the show worthy.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
You just say it's worth metal genre, it's worth? Is
it heavy metal or hard rock?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Okay, maybe that's hard rockers.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I don't know what heavy metal is these days, but cup,
I'm gonna I've actually enjoyed having guests make a choice
in music. I've made a note for myself, and my
liked list in Spotify is expanding to a whole bunch
of things that I haven't listened to for yoks.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Anyway, everybody likes choice, Yes, we do, thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Hey, is there something in this you think? Because a
lot of the time conversations and households around just how
expensive life is. We've got rates that are going up
inflation most people, I mean, I know, the private sectors
and the public sectors going through its strikes and things
(03:36):
like that. We got teachers and all that. But I
was thinking himself, well, actually a lot of people haven't
really had the pay rises to make up for it.
But how much of our attitude towards money is simply
because the way we classify ourselves is broken hard up?
And how much do we make things hard for ourselves
because we're just framing it like life sucks. Therefore, it's
like somebody says, you know what, if you think that
(03:58):
life's miserable, you're probably right because that's the way you're
looking at things, as opposed to someone would come over
from a lower income group and go, oh, my goodness,
of what you had it. Just have such a good life.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
It's so true. Listen, there's no denying that the cost
of living is exorbitantly high and everybody's feeling the pinch.
But what I would say in a general sense is
that the psychology aspect of money is incredibly important and
it can drive good outcomes in bad accades. So you know,
put aside, you know the cost of butter right now
(04:30):
and rates going up, et cetera. I think it is
really critically important to always come back to assessing the
good that you do have, the stuff material stuff that
you do have, and beyond those things of a financial value,
the things that are truly meaningful and important to life.
And maybe that sounds a bit woo woo, but if
(04:51):
you wake up, you know, you wake up, there's millions
of the people that didn't wake up. So a you're alive,
you know, have you got a roof over your head tick?
For most people in the zone, you know, do you have?
Are you surrounded by a group of friends or family
that you can count? I mean, so if you zoom
out and just be super super grateful for all the
real goodness in your life, when you're not focused on
(05:14):
the mortgage payment, you can kind of reset and think, actually,
my life is pretty good. Going back to the comparison
of you know, am I living in Gaza in a
tent or whatever that might be. I mean, everybody circumstances
a different, but I do think it's really vitally important
to every day really if you can to appreciate what
(05:34):
you do have, take a deep breath and not mentally
get stuck up on the things that you don't have
or the stress, because when you're in that stressed out mindset,
it's really hard to see through everything else is going
on in your life and to appreciate that there is
a way forward. So a lot of people are doing
it hard, but there's always a way forward.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
I think, yeah, because yeah, and there's some people who
are in straightened time, So you know, the worst thing
to do would be not be able to meet your
basic financial life obligations and things like that. But this
is a question we want to hear from you on
because a lot of people do feel they've got a
less to go on. But how do you actually cope
with that financial stress? If you're looking at your bank
(06:17):
statement all the time and worried about it, you are
going to be miserable all the time, aren't you.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
It's not particularly constructive. And you know, our grandparents, I mean,
I don't know what the average of most listeners are better.
Grandparents certainly went through some tough times. I think about
my grandmother and going to visit her in her house,
and you know, she went through out I mean, she
wasn't a horder, but she went throughout rubber bands, she's reusing,
you know, wrapping paper, and everything was repurposed and you know,
(06:44):
reconstructed if possible. And she's still you know, she was
never a poor woman by any stretch. But again, this
is what I'm talking about and valuing the stuff that
you do have in not being wasteful and readjusting your mindset.
There are generations who had it quite rough before us
during the depression. I eat lots of goods that we
have widely available even while we're struggling. They didn't have
(07:06):
sugar rations, et cetera. So I think again it's important
to zoom out, appreciate what you do have and don't
get like fixated on the things that you think you
need or struggling with. Because there is a way forward
and things are starting to lighten up in the economy
right now. You know, we can talk about the ocr
later down going down and stuff, so there will be
(07:27):
some relief down the track, I think for a lot
of people. But again, just in that general sense, it's
taking a deep breath and appreciating what you do have.
And you know, if you've got your health, basically you're
the richest person in the world. Somebody else wishes they
had your health.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I guess there'll be something when people run those arguments
like there's someone there. It's the old line, I mean,
the cheapest way of putting it in. Pardon me for
such a crude expression, but you know, there wouldn't many
many people will have been told when they're feeling down
and they luck somebody will have said to them, will
they are children starving in Africa, things aren't so bad.
And sometimes I wonder how helpful that actually is, because
(08:01):
if you're feeling bad, you're feeling bad, and you're not
going to cheer it up by the fact that someone
else's worse.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
So yeah, I know, remember that there was that period
of be happy kind of you know, just that that
sort of pop psychology but don't worry, be happy kind
of thing. That there's that McFarlane's song or whatever to that.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I think we're going to have that. It does pick
you up.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
That song, like listen, Yeah, it is a nice happy song,
but again it sometimes it would seem patronizing to hear
that when you're really in the pooh. But what you know,
even during all that financial stress, and I work with
people because they do have a financial mentor. And you know,
when I when I question people about that one thing
that has got them really stressed out, and again you
(08:42):
break it down, you zoom it out, it's never quite
the stress that they've made it to be in their mind,
or if not, there's a solution that they've overlooked. And
so that's what I'm talking about the psychology of how
you relate to money and look at it is like
massively important to your overall well being, and also how
you kind of get out of that and drive progress.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
We'd love to give from you on this on how
do you actually how do you how have you do
you cope with maybe a shift in your financial circumstances.
But if you are looking at things and going gosh,
life's expensive and all that sort of thing, if you
really focus on all the time, I guarantee you probably
will be depressed. But how have you coped with financial
(09:22):
stress and putting things in context? But also how richipoor
do you feel? You might not you know, and might
be buying the lotto ticket and thinking that that's your
little bit of optimism you have each week and find
you haven't won a cent. Speaking from personal experience, but yeah,
and how do you cope with financial stress? Are there
things that you've learned when you look at your situation
(09:45):
and go, well, you know things aren't so great, but
you know, I've got other things that give me joy
and you realize that the financial stress maybe isn't the
worst of it. We'd love to hear how do you
cope with it? On eight hundred eighty eight text nine
two nine two and I guess maybe the broader question
is how can you just be happy with what you've
got or is it part of the human condition that
(10:07):
you really we always want something more? But I mean
we can all think of you meet anyone in any
socioeconomic group, don't you, Amanda, who's thinking. I mean, the
person who's got this massive student loan, you know, and
they've just got out and they're thinking, when am I
going to pay it off? Is looking at the person
who's paid off their loan, and that person's looking at
the person who's paid off their mortgage, and that person's
(10:27):
looking at the person who's saved more.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Hey, And there's lots of very wealthy people out there
who are miserable. So they've got all the money in
the world, but they don't know how to create happiness
for themselves because somewhere along the way they've lost what's
truly meaningful and important to them.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
So maybe is that what we're really talking around? Does
money by your happiness? Maybe that's the broader question, but
we'd love to hear from you on eight hundred eighty eight.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Have you.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
Have you.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Experienced happiness which is unhappiness related to your own financial set?
Of circuit.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
I was thinking about when I was a poor student,
you know, and like I hear my kids, I don't
complain all the time about being poor, but actually they've
got more money than I ever did. They just spend
it on the wrong things, so you know, like you know,
bows a big boozy night or vaping or you know.
But I remember literally having five bucks for groceries for
that week, and my big splurge was turning my instant
(11:24):
rice into an elegant, sophisticated Spanish rice by putting tomato,
not tomato sauce, tomato juice into tomato juice. And so
like there was some time like that, you know, for me,
it was like my diet was rubbish, and I felt
a little bit sorry for myself. But at the same time,
you know, hey, how lucky am I that I'm actually
a student. And you know, there's always there's always improvements
(11:48):
around the corner. You know, you get a job, somebody
helps you out, you're down on your luck, things invariably
do change. But the worst thing you can do is
to be stuck in a negative mindset where you think
about what others have and that you don't, and you're
just focused on the negative to the detriment of achieving
a better outcome for yourself. So I appreciate, well, it's
(12:10):
not helpful sometimes hearing I'll just cheer up, you know,
blah blah blah again. You know, it's you have to
draw on those internal resources within yourself to shift their
perspective and find a way forward. And again there would
be some relief for people coming down the track. But
I think if you maybe you want to share what
your darkest moment was financially and how you men all
(12:31):
the time, and how you mentally, I mean, was it
the worst thing in the world? At the lessons for you?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
There's denial, Well, I was performing artists for so long,
and so it puts you beyond that. You know, it
means you're later doing everything in life. And my line is, actually,
I'm probably going to retire later than everyone asked, but
I hope I'm going to die later as well. And
I didn't make light of it. But there's an element
of denial that go denial. That is an interesting one
(13:01):
because I do worry about things financially. I worry about
paying off mortgages and then getting a retirement fund set up.
But also I guess for me, I sort of also
live in the present of enjoying my family and join
my daughters and what they're doing. And I've got to look,
I've got a job I really enjoy and I love
(13:21):
having the people on the show, But it doesn't solve
the problem that I want to solve.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
But how many times can you think of when you
were in the po and things like you get into
that fear of mentality and where the fear is as
bad as you thought there were going to be, or
did something come along that changed the outcome?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Well, I mean my golden rule is if something's worrying
about at night, you've got to stop and think about
it in the morning, because the worst thing is to
the worst thing is to go to sleep with a
problem in your head and try and solve it at night.
That's one of my little golden rules. Because as soon
as you get up and moving, all of a sudden,
there's something about being up and moving with the day
that things feel a little less.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Yeah, well there's a new day, but yeah, the worst
thing you're going to do to yourself is a ruminade
over it, not get any sleep, and then that the
problem even it magnifies the problem and then your health
is affected. So it's a downward spiral. So you want
to get yourself into an upward spiral of more optimism,
Go for you know, do whatever it is that can
(14:18):
shift you out of that really dark state. If you're
in a dark state, and then other things, you know,
they don't seem so bad, and then there is a
new day and things do shift for you financially, and
they always do.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Right, Yeah, I think that's that's what we want to
dig into you. How do you feel rich and happy
even when you're not necessarily I eight one hundred eighty
ten and eighty And what do you tell you? I mean,
I think that pragmatically, what we just talked about on
a more just a philosophical thing, is that actually the
permission I give myself if I'm worried about something at
nighttime and my daughters, you know, kids want to talk
(14:52):
to you about things, and I do try and say, honey,
there's nothing we can do about But the good news
is you've got you've got every excuse in the world
to forget about it tonight, because the most important thing
is that you get to sleep and you can deal
with it in the morning, right it down, whatever. But
I do I've worked on giving myself permission that once
it's bed time, that there's nothing else that should be
(15:14):
done right now. And that does take a bit of jump.
It's like a bit of a jump, it does.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
It's a bit of work. There's a lovely flow chart.
I think they've got the Buddha. You know, can did you?
You know, can you do something?
Speaker 4 (15:25):
Yes? Or no?
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Can you fix this tonight?
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (15:27):
No?
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Did it?
Speaker 3 (15:27):
And it invariably brings you back to this place. Well,
if you can't actually fix it, then what are you
worrying about? You've got to just drop the worry because
something will change. So I mean, that's my message really,
I know, again not to minimize the financial pain that
a lot of people are feeling. It is very real.
But you know, the worst thing can happen, what you
you know, your your house gets sold on mortgage sale
(15:51):
and you're out. You know, some people find actually, you
know that was quite liberating. Didn't like the house, didn't
like the neighborhood. It was in a bad position. And
then there's a light at the end of the tunnel,
and that's that's kind of the message. There's usually a
light at the end of the tunnel. We just can't
see it, So.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Want your calls on this. How do you deal with
financial stress and financial wellbeing? How can you actually feel
ritual happy even when maybe you're not, Because we've seen
plenty of examples of people who've got less than us
who seem to be way happier. So it can't be
about the money. So when you're under financial stress, what
is the clue? What is the queue or the clue
to maybe not being so dissatisfied with your lot? We'd
(16:26):
love your calls on this. My guest is Amanda Morale.
She's a financial specialist and author of Money Matters. Were
back in just a moment. It's twenty three past five
news talks. He'd be don't worry, be happy, don't be happy.
(16:51):
Well that's the song for this hour. Really, I'm TIMBEVERI
this is smart money. My guest is a mana Morale.
We're talking about basically, how can you be okay psychologically
with what you've got financial wellbeing? You might not have
everything you want. You might still be buying the lotto
ticket thanking God. It wouldn't it be nice of a
one ten to fifteen million bucks. But how can you
actually feel happy with what you've got when maybe you
(17:13):
keep comparing yourself to your mates and you think, oh,
well they've got the flash car, they've only got ten
years to go on their mortgage. I've got all this time.
How do you make yourself feel happy with it? How
do you cup with financial stress? And that's what we're
talking about it. We love your calls on this. I've
got a few texts to kick off with. But there's
spear lines there. Eight hundred and eighty ten eighty. This
one says Amanda. I never wanted to see this is
(17:37):
an interesting one. I never wanted to be rich, just
financially comfortable.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
I e.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
If I need to get tires for my car or
my fridge fails, I can sort it without worrying. I'm
rich in life, wife, kids, job, fishing. Aha. I mean,
I'll tell you what. That's an interesting one on the fishing.
Then the people who are turning to that that's from Steve.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Yeah, but I think that's a great attitude, right, I
mean to some extent, depending on what your quantum of
wealth is, it can really complicate your life. You know,
you have five houses, something's breaking down.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, well could some people go People tell me that
rich people are can be miserable as well.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
This is very true. I know a lot of wealthy people.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
But I'd love to try being rich and miserable. Someone
did somebody say to me once with wealth that you know,
money doesn't solve all your problems, but it allows you
to approach those problems with in a nice car and
more in style. Should I say to drive to your
(18:38):
psychologists and the roles.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
That's what this fem I was saying too, that he
would like enough to be able to pay for things
that if they break down, et cetera. And he's appreciating
things that are truly meaningful and important to him in
that case, So you know that for him, that's a
set level of happiness. And you know, of course it's
nice to go on holidays and have a few perks
and da da da da, But at the end of
the day, are those if you if you, if you
(19:00):
really questioned you know your values or as the new
beamer or the batch or the boat, the thing on
your deathbed that you're going to look back and said,
oh that really made me happy.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
I have spoken to quite a few people I've met
my job. I guess through not just talk back, but
through singing and stuff. You meet people from a range
of backgrounds. And yeah, somebody said to me, yeah, you're
not going to look back on, you know, what assets
you managed to build. You look, most people will look
back on the quality of the relationships or friendships and
family and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Have you ever read that book, The Five Regrets of
the Dying. No, it was written by I think that's
the title, but it was written by a nurse, a
palliative care nurse who recorded, you know, the last you
know memories of all these you know, they weren't wishing
for more material wealth. They were, you know, regretful that
they didn't have more positive relationships or they didn't do
(19:58):
you know. So that's what I'm saying. I mean, as
much as people are you know, again really pushed to
pay for all those groceries and go up for dinner,
et cetera. Again, like somehow you get through it without starving.
And when you kind of take some of the pressure
off of that aspect of it and you think, again,
how do I feel? How do I generate a better
(20:19):
feeling of wellbeing? You look at the things that are
actually more meaningful and important to you, which tend to
be your friends, your family, and your health. So again,
it requires a mental mind shift, and it's not always
easy to do, but when you switched gears in that regard,
you can step back and say, yeah, I'm okay, things
are going to get better. So psychology is a really
(20:41):
important part of financial wellbeing, I would.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Argue, Yeah, here's some more texts. I complain at home
as we get stressed sometimes and never seem to have
cash sitting around forgetting that my seventy hour weeks for
the last thirty five years blimey, mean that another five
years at fifty five, I can actually retire if I want.
We haven't had the overseas holidays, and only very recently
actually bought our first new fridge, lound, sweet and vehicle
(21:05):
after always chasing future security by going without. The only
thing that scares me is I'm not sure I know
how to relax now that I'm getting close to that time.
That's actually an interesting one because this person's been working
their butt off for a while, isn't it. I would
wonder if i'd suggest to someone who's worked their butt
off and can retire is that they shouldn't think about
(21:27):
retiring because it sounds like it's what gives them their
sense of who they are. Look, I work hard, and
I earn hard, and why would you turn the tap
off from that at fifty five of you still active?
Speaker 3 (21:37):
It really depends what your goals are and what lays
you up. I mean, I think I've said this before.
My father, who's eighty three, is still working not because
he needs to be, because he loves to. It is
what kind of keeps him going. And so that's a joy.
He loves his job, he always has and so God
bless him. I gave up on the retirement thing, you know,
(21:58):
decades ago with him because he's any still.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
You have yourself given up on the retirement thing as well.
Speaker 6 (22:04):
Well.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
I need to be kept busy as well, like I.
You know, I could, I could. I'm in a position,
thankfully where I could scale back, and but I'm just
the type of person that likes to, you know, work
my brain. I like to be engaged with the outside world,
and you know, I'm just trying to find the balance
it suits me. But the fact that you can't relax
(22:25):
is a big, a bit of a worry. So you know,
that's why things like meditation and yoga and fishing and
those whatever, there's pursuits that get you into a place
of relaxation are vitally important to find those, otherwise you're
going to be pretty stressed out at home. Why did
dress out your wife or husband?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
I did see something about that. Just in terms of
and this is people talk about the importance of spirituality,
which is sort of people will think that I'm going
to go against this because I'm not religious, But what
they meant by spirituality was having certain rituals or things
that you do that are just part of you have
(23:05):
time for yourself. Like the person I was talking to
you said, well, Tim, you spend a day and a
half baking a loaf of bread. That's your sort of
spiritual thing. The process of cooking and doing things that
are to me, it's not intuitive, but it's part of
a normal. There's something about it for.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Me, it's joyful. For you, I went to it right,
and there's something that's relaxing.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
And it's relaxing and it en forces me to be
patient because literally, you have to feed a starter once
or twice a day, and then you have to wait
for it to rise, and you are to work the
dough and all this sort of stuff, and then you
have that magic moment of lifting the Dutch oven and
seeing that that bread having gone from something that looks
a little bit sad, suddenly both it's just popped. But
(23:47):
that's the person said, well, that's your spiritual thing. It's
your routine, it's your ritual, it's something you do and
it is I think it important to have that sort
of stuff.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Is a post where it may be a walk that
you take every morning. I mean, I've got a dog,
so walks are not optional. I got to get out there.
And you know what, I'm really grateful because you know,
in the worst of moods that I have, I'm always
shifted out of a bad mood or a stressful moment
because I you know, nature is relaxation, relaxing for me,
and so you know, it doesn't have to be a
(24:15):
complex thing that involves the expenditure of money in a
fancy holiday that gets you into a more relaxed state.
And you know, it's amazing how elusive that is for
many people who've spent their lives busying themselves that they
can even answer the question what brings you relaxation, joy
and happiness, so that that needs to be an exploration.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Yeah, Roches says, Hi, guys, I heard this one the
other day. Money isn't everything, but it comes a close
second to oxygen. Well, that's the thing, because we don't
want to pretend that money doesn't matter. You want to
You've got to be able to pay for your groceries
and all that sort of stuff. I mean, it's a
difficult to be a conversation like this because you don't
want to trivialize the importance of That's how we have
structured our economy. That's how you pay for your power
(25:02):
bills and your rent and all that sort of thing.
It's money, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
But like, you can't look at money as something completely
separate from everything else in your life. And I was.
We did a podcast with a former colleague of years,
just a couple of weeks ago on this very subject
and got deep and meaningful with Francis Cook and explored
a lot of these subjects about you know, money as
a means to an end, right, and so again, if
(25:26):
you're chasing the mighty dollar just because you're you know,
want X Y and z which has just stressed you
out your whole life, and then you get there and
you die of a heart attack. Well what was it
all for? So I think at every step, I mean
not every second, you have to question, is you know,
what you do for a living actually something that makes
you happy or miserable? You know, is your expenditure really necessary?
(25:50):
If it's a high expenditure, I e. You know a
lot of people send their kids to private schools, is
that really making you or the child happy? What is
it achieving? Would you know another option be providing you
a little bit more financial freedom, you know, same thing
to the cars, et cetera, et cetera. So there's a
lot of you know, discretionary spending that takes place in life,
but I think much of that is done for the
(26:13):
wrong reasons. You're either filling emotional voids, You're trying to
impress people who really can't give a crap. You're chasing
goals that really weren't your goals, but expectations that your
parents or somebody else forced on you. So again, you know,
you can't you can't separate money from everything else that's
going on in your life. And that's what I'm talking
about that financial well being peace.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
It's an interesting I was MC for a conference recently
for they've actually been up. We've had one of their
financial guys from Concilium, being Brinkoff, was on my show
a couple of times. But as MC for their conference,
it was actually interesting having conversations because that's all about
it was all I mean, there was a lot of
financial advisors and catching up on all the latest and
(26:57):
the information around investing. And I don't want to sum
up what the conference was about because I'd probably do
it an injustice, but it was interesting having a conversation
with people whose business it is to make money for
their clients and philosophically how a lot of them. You know,
money is important, but I was talking with someone about,
(27:18):
you know, trying to find that balance between you know,
obviously key we savor. That's all about saving for retirement
and not going so far that you're spending all your
efforts saving for a retirement to look back on a
life that you haven't lived exactly, And that is I mean,
that's a broader philosophical question. But actually, and everyone the
(27:39):
people I mentioned that too, said, yeah, that's the constant
sort of wrestling at the time, how much do you
how hard do you work to save to look, you know,
to live after sixty five or whatever you want to retire.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
And how much is enough?
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Yeah, So that's that's the philosophy and the psychology. It's
all tied up and you know, chasing that mighty dollar.
So it's almost like you kind of, you know, ideally
want to have those those questions answered ahead of you know,
the settings or reverse engineer. It is another way to
do it in terms of how much money do you
need to chase up? But you can't really avoid the
(28:11):
question what makes me happy? And I'm not talking about
you know, this euphoria or whatever. What makes you content?
Like that fellow who identified that I've got all the
things in my life that you know matter to me
and I'm good. I don't need, you know, two million
dollars in the bank or whatever it is. So again,
you have to at that moment of darkness or where
(28:34):
you're super stressed out or you can't think of a
way out, you got to just put that to one side.
Count your blessings is something my grandfather used to say
all the time. Count your blessings and then you know,
do some evaluation and then move forward, because things are
never as as dark and arduous as you may think
they are at at at a point in time. They
(28:56):
always change.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Yeah, you calls on this matter. Just with people feeling
that they've got least money to go on, how do
you cut with the financial stress? Well, as one of
your wives, to do is just one think about it
too much and just get on whatever. We'd love your
calls on this, but we're also going to come back
and have a quick chat about the announcement from the
Reserve Banker as well about the cutting of the cash
right by point five and how much of the surprise
that well, So any thoughts you've got we'd love to
(29:19):
hear from it. We'll be back in just a moment.
It's gosh, time's fly. It's twenty one minthes to six
News Talks that be with Tim Beverage right, capping with
financial stress? How do you put things in perspective? So
many different ways to ask the question. Let's start with
Aaron good A.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
Yeah, hi, jam.
Speaker 6 (29:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:36):
So's life about the destination or the journey or a
bit of boat and given the ultimate end destination death
and people deal with that in different ways. And spurious
religious groups that have their ending and so on and
so forth in and afterlife or not. Take your pick,
but I or is it the other one you talk
(29:58):
about when you're talking financially, You're written Bracket's retirement. I
sit in the camp that I'll never retire. I neither
stop working the day I die or I'm going to
finish the day before. But I enjoy working excellent.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
That'd be a depressive function for your gig, isn't it.
What are you doing next, Aaron, Well, I'm dying. But
I mean, I don't want to make light of these things,
because people do have serious things.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
But yeah, yeah, well, well I enjoy the journey. I
work seven days a week. I have around five different jobs,
and I enjoy all of them, and so I can
doing seventy eight hours a week is not a problem.
And I think a lot of people find work to
be a trap, not not a release or an empowerment
(30:46):
or anything like that. And it's that attitude towards work,
I think is people's biggest problem in their entire life.
Because if you enjoy what you do, and I see
people that clean toilets that enjoy their job, you know
you can have pride. If you have pride in your
work and enjoy it and find ways to enjoy it,
that is such a relief and a relief in life
(31:07):
that then the recent tends to fall into place, because
if you can just work more out, you can catch
up on your bills eventually and get a HUD and
so on and so forth. Actually, even if your minimum wait.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
It's interesting Aaron and Madame Morale is my guest today.
I think I always felt that we're not far away
from that conversation that Aaron's sort of in the direction
that Aaron's gone with, because I feel that there's the
idea there used to be at one stage. You know,
there's a message we were given that you get it.
You know, you do whatever, and you at sixty or
sixty five you retire. And I wonder if we're moving
(31:39):
away from that in general, because actually I enjoy the
people I work with and what I do, and if
I wasn't doing this, I'd find something else and hopefully
I'd enjoy. But that's the cue, isn't there.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
I absolutely agree with you Eron, You've got the right attitude,
and you know there's that all cliche if you do
what you love and you never work a day in
your life, So it's a mental shaft, which is what
I'm talking about. This psychology behind the money is so
incredibly important, and I think it is a mental trap
that a lot of people fall into, and they you know,
they waste precious days because you know tomorrow is not
(32:08):
guaranteed struggling and laboring. So if you can, you know,
figure out what brings you joy and try to play that,
particularly if it's a useful skill to society, you're going
to find a way through Aaron.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Someone's texted me saying is Aaron a masochist or something?
I was like, well, I think they're trying to be funny,
by the.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Way, or they don't have a job that they like.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
Yeah, possibly, yeah, well yeah, but we can all find
jobs we enjoy. I have this problem that I drive
past somewhere and see a sign up for a situation's
vacant and I go, oh wow, I'd like to do it,
and I go how.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
Do I set it in? So I constantly see other
jobs or careers and go, man, I wish I was
doing that. I wish I could do that, even though
I love the ones I'm meant so lucky. As soon
as you can find a way to light work, it's
awesome on it.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Actually, there is something about that as well that they're
in touch. Time is even when you're doing a job.
I remember talking to someone who was, no, maybe not
enjoying their job or something, and then they got a
commission or something. But how good did it feel when
you got that paycheck? And they said, oh, I felt amazing.
And it just so it's about well, some jobs knowing
why you're working.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Yeah, and some jobs have outsized remunerations. So I get
why some people might, you know, put themselves to the grinder.
I remember one stage I was a court reporter working
in you know, Alberta. I was trying to cover like
so many court rooms back then. You know, yeah you
have to take a short time. I was so stressed up.
My heart was like constantly in palpitations. And they know,
(33:35):
I've like, I've got to, you know, make a change here.
I mean I was a young person back then, and
I thought it was going to have a heart attack
at you know, twenty.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Eight or so. So you worked out that there wasn't going
to be Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
I knew, but you kind of you fall into a
trap where you think you have to do what it
is you're doing and you don't see out, but you know,
and maybe it's just getting older where you kind of
realize that it's easier to let go of things that
you might think and there's always an option.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Right, let's take some more course. Doug High, Hello, how
are you?
Speaker 6 (34:03):
Yeah? I look for seventy six years, and I've had
a life that's gone up and down, and there's been
major catastrophes and major good ones. I've had some windfalls
with money and stuff like that and jobs and so forth.
But what I've discovered looking back, quite surprisingly, is that
times when it was going swimming, had the family was
(34:26):
fine and the job was fine and everything like that,
and not necessarily the ones that you look back on
as being the best, if you know what I mean.
I mean the last plot, I had a major robbery.
Basically they're just flattened the house I was starting trying
started a new the new firm sort of thing, a
new enterprise, and they basically took everything. I didn't get
(34:49):
anything back. I mean, the justice system doesn't do a
hell of a lot. The guy I pleaded guilty, you know,
to the robbery but the people.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
That can't be sold destroying stuff, that fair enough. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (35:00):
But the thing was that I discovered that I'd also
been stupid because I thought that I was swimmingly going
on with this job, you see, and it was going
to be fine. And I got someone else to run
my day to day business, if you like, like paying
rates and stuff like that, and she didn't. She took
off to Australia and left me with a huge debt.
(35:23):
And what I found good about this was that I
had all these guys that were saying, oh, we're going
to take the house. I mean, you can't keep going
to the house if you haven't paid the rates sort
of thing. And so I eventually got onto this guy
at the at the rates. So it was a good
guy basically, and he said, you'll have to pay it back,
which I knew I would have to pay it all
(35:44):
the money, of course, with the little that I had,
But we worked out how much I had and how
much I would have to pay, and he said, right,
we'll do that, and you'd have to step to it
or we'll come down to him down on top of
it like a ton of bricks, you know. So I did,
and I remember that that was about a year until
I got out of it. Basically, we've got out and
(36:06):
got Beth into you because you know, I mean, I'm
a teacher and I clicked you find jobs and things.
So I eventually got back on top of it and
you look back on there and I literally enjoyed this.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Yeah, good on, good stuff. Doug Hey, thanks for you,
cole mate. Unfortunately, we've got to take a break before
we come back. We're try and squeeze in another call
or two. It's eleven minutes to six. News Talk said,
b News Talk said, be talking about dealing with financial
stress and finding your sort of happiness. Anyway, we're going
to try and squeeze in a couple more cours and
for the callers, they're holding at a couple of callers
holding literally we've got about three and a half minutes,
so you have to be quick. Julia, Hello, Hello.
Speaker 7 (36:44):
So my opinion is that, you know, time is the
most important thing in life, and it's like com fifty five.
I've got grandchildren, but I've always thought to myself, I'm
not doing a forty hour week, I mean, and so
what I did was I ended up just reducing my
hours to buy one day to work thirty two hours
(37:04):
a week, and I've now managed to actually get it
down to three days a week, like because you know,
you don't know how much time you've got here and
spending time with them you love and doing the things
you want to do. To me, that is just the
most important thing in life, Julia.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
And that's short and sweet, but I'm so I absolutely
agree with you. I feel I get time to spend
with my kids after school and things, and I know
they're incredibly lucky to do that.
Speaker 7 (37:35):
Oh absolutely, And I know that I am too. You're
just your time is so precious, you know, like why
would you waste it away in a workplace of people
you don't choose to be around, and you know, like
it just frees you up if you can manage it,
like you know, budget wise and well yeah, and you're right.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
What you've talked about is, you know, making a.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
And where there's a world, there's a way.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Yeah, good on you. Hey, thanks for you Cord. You're left.
Sorry were having to hurry the callers because we're just
about wrapping it up. But I think lucky last Peter, Well.
Speaker 8 (38:06):
People like to make a difference. But with budgeting for
a timent. I know one person who didn't want to
acknowledge financial responsibility and will have no money in retirement basically,
and the other person who didn't really want to know
much or we're bad at finance, so we don't have
to listen to financial advice. And then someone else when
(38:26):
they were young.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
What's your key? What's your key to happiness?
Speaker 8 (38:31):
Well, either you've got to surround yourself with the people
do what you want to do. And they say about people,
if you want a perfect person, trying to be the
perfect person yourself with yourself because you're the one yourself.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Because I think that's that would be a life of disappointment,
wouldn't it. Well, I don't mean you, I mean everyone
you know.
Speaker 8 (38:54):
Yeah, yeah, Well you speak to yourself the longest eat
day and apparently every day people tell about four or
five lives. But I haven't seen the search to see
how many lives people to themselves each day.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Well, we might have. We would have to explore this.
I think, Peter on another time, because we've only got
about a minute and a bit before we hang up.
But thanks for your call. I think that I don't know.
We're not going to give anyone the meaning of life
in a session like this. But it's useful just to
hear other people's stories, and it's.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
Putting money into context, proper context. Yes, you know, get
your KI server settings correct. Yes, don't be a fool
with your credit card spending, et cetera. But you know,
just find a way to make a living that you
enjoy doing to the best of your ability. But you know,
be a kind person, but appreciate what you've got. And
you know it's not it doesn't have to be complicated.
(39:45):
But I think you know, there's these expectations I'll blame
it on Instagram that you have to have this life
or that life, or you know, to have the glossy, shiny,
you know, Disneyland style, which is not really what we're
chasing here.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
It's interesting and quite a few messages just around. You know,
sixty five not being the age of retirement is not
because the money side of things, a lot of people
won't be able to afford to retire. But this one says,
just to wrap it up, my sister and I a
birdt seventy five. She still teaches part time into college
because she loves it, and I love being holiday all
the time. Able to go to events and talks that
(40:19):
a cam midwek during the day or coffee with friends,
so well maybe to each there are I haven't read
the second part of it text to be fair anyway, Hey,
lovely to see you, Amanda, Thanks so.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Much, always a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Do tune and to go and check out our podcast
if you missed any of the hours. We had fascinating
politics there as well as chat with Alex Flint as well,
and that was smart money. I'll be back with the
same time next week. Sunday at six is next. Thanks
my producer Isaiah. Great job mate, as always, catch you soon.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
For more from the Weekend Collective, listen live to News
Talks it'd be weekends from three pm, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
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