March 11, 2025 • 22 mins
If you've had your head in the sand over money, putting things in the too-hard basket, or just not sure where to start - don't panic. Join Canna and Michael as they look at why we avoid money decisions, and how it's never too late to take control of your financial future.
The information in this podcast is general in nature and does not take into account your personal circumstances, financial needs or objectives. Before acting on any information, you should consider the appropriateness of it and the relevant product having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs. In particular, you should seek independent financial advice and read the relevant Product Disclosure Statement or other offer document prior to acquiring any financial product.
Canna Campbell is a Corporate Authorised Representative and Corporate Credit Representative of Wealthstream Financial Group Pty Ltd ABN 35 152 803 113 Australian Financial Services Licensee AFSL 412079.
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 (00:01):
Welcome to How Do They Afford That? The podcast that
peaks into the financial lives of everyday Australians. I'm Michael Thompson.
I'm an author and co host of the podcast Fear
and Greed business news. As always, I'm with Canna Campbell,
financial planner and the founder of Sugar Mama TV, which
is the financial literacy platform that you'll find on Instagram
and TikTok and podcasts, books, threads everywhere. Really, Hello, Canna, Hello,
(00:25):
good morning, Hello, Hello. Today a slightly personal one for
me because recently we met with our financial planner who
was terrific and I'm sure you're very happy to hear that.
We're so happy finally kind of doing something and she's terrific.
She asked a whole bunch of questions and she really
got us thinking right, thinking about kind of where we
(00:47):
want to go with our finances, how we want to
live into the future, kind of even as far ahead
as retirement, and kind of what we want to do,
how much money we need in retirement, all of this.
But what I realized while we were preparing for this
meeting was just how much I had my head in
(01:10):
the sand. I suppose when it comes to my finances
for quite some time, despite doing this podcast. I know
you tell me most weeks that my head has been
in the sand, and in fact you have been imploring me,
begging me to remove it from said sand. But it
was just like things like not paying attention to where
(01:32):
money was going, putting a lot of things into the
too hard basket and making this is not going to
surprise you, making a lot of assumptions about how difficult
it was going to be, and in reality it was
not actually that hard money that Okay, So there's going
to be a lot of attitude in today's episode. Today
(01:54):
it's all about what to do when you've got your
head in the sand over your money.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I'm hoping from today's episode, by people hearing what I
have to say, they will have this awareness and they
will quickly pull their head out from the sound.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, and look, I think a lot of people are
in this same boat, because really everyone is so busy.
Life is so so busy, and the thing that you
hear about all the time is kind of life admin.
It just keeps on piling up, and then you've got
your work on top of that, you've got family on
top of that, you've got all of this kind of thing,
and something that seems to get pushed to the back
burner a lot is money. It's just about getting by,
(02:33):
and it is just about making sure you're paying the
mortgage and paying the rent and paying for your grocery
bills every week. And there isn't this kind of long
term planning because it is more than you can kind
of handle. I'm clearly speaking from experience on this one.
Why do people ignore their finances? Is it just because
we're too busy?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Look, there's no straightforward answer really, but you know, I
would say sometimes people are scared, they're actually worried about
what they're going to find sore it's not there, and
they just continue on burying their head in the sand,
or they feel completely overwhelmed, like like yourself. You know,
you thought it was going to be really complicated, it
was going to take hours, and it could be too
hard and you'd come out more confused and stressed or
(03:14):
take up too much time then you actually discovered yourself.
Or quite often I think, and this is what I
can sometimes fall into, is a lack of urgency or reason.
You know, if things are just bubbling along, ticking along, nicely,
even not necessarily perfectly, but you know, they're always able
to meet the bills. They've always got enough emergency money.
(03:34):
You don't really have that call to action. You don't
have that firecracker to go, oh my gosh, we need
to fix their finances, and you can very easily fall
into that Oh look, I'll deal with it later because
things are actually fine. There's no red flags coming up
the room financial trouble. What the problem is is actually
they're missing out on amazing opportunities to achieve more and
do bigger and better things with their financial wellbeing and
raise their mention march or financial wellbeing. And then, of course,
(03:56):
finally the common one is avoidance, which is avoidance is
easier so short term really from just completely avoiding the
problem feels better than actually facing it, but obviously that
is only a temporary fix. In reality, the more you
do this by just burying ahead and the sand, the
bigger and the more expensive that particular problem can come
with much more serious long term repercussions.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
You said something interesting there about kind of just time
time being one of the big kind of challenges. Does
that mean then that we should be prioritizing this and
setting aside time for this and treating it with the
same importance as say, going to work or kind of
cooking dinner or something that you should be kind of going. Okay,
(04:40):
our money, our finances and securing our financial future is
just as important as everything else. We need to carve
out that time.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yes, this is financial well being that we're talking about here.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Does that mean then that you kind of prioritize it
alongside your fitness because it does contribute to your mental
health and your this sense of well being that you have.
Do you kind of Hey, if you can spare kind
of forty five minutes to go to the gym or something,
or to go for a walk, you should be trying
to carve out that same time to get your money sorted. Well.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
It's like, well, how much do you want, like how
much financial wellness do you want it in your life?
It's exactly the same principle with how fit do you
want to be? Do you want to be fit? Do
you want to be strong to be able to go
run in a marathon? If your answer is yes, you've
got to step it up. You know that means I
need to go to the gym or often it means
I need to run further or faster, I need to
maybe do more weights. I maybe you need to include
(05:31):
a yoga session, just give my muscles, you know, a
stretch and relief. The same with financial wellbeing. If you
want to have financial harmony, you want to make sure
that your mortgage is coming down, your investment portfolio is
going up, your retirement is looking like it's going to
be long and luxurious, You're properly protected. You've got to
put the effort in there. You know, what you put
(05:52):
in is what you'll get out. So yes, just like
we know we need to take our medication or vitamins,
or eat a nutritious balanced diet, go to the gym,
get sunlight, being amongst nature, financial wellness comes in here.
And this is why I'm so passionate about financial wellness.
And I think what was my biggest calling in the
world of financial planning is fincial stress acts like a
(06:13):
parasite into so many other areas of our lives. But yes,
this is you know, until people are aware of that,
they continue to bury their head in the sand.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
What I particularly like about listening to you say this
is that you are saying this, there's a little bit
of frustration in it, but there's no judgment in it,
which I think is kind of And that's the financial
planner coming through that. Yes, you understand that people do
this and that this is the reality of life that
a lot of people do not prioritize money, But you're
not actually judging me for that so much.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Absolutely not, because you're innocent here. This is probably the
only time I'll ever say that you are innocent.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Here, and you're doing it while the tape is rolling.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Everyone can listen to me being nice for about ten seconds.
But like you want to know, it's like someone who
has never been taught how to eat healthily and they eat,
you know, it's fizzy drinks and please and fried food
all the time because no one's ever actually taught them
that's actually really bad for your cholesterol and your heart
and you know, your kidneys and live it like they
didn't know. So why would you go and blame someone? Yeah,
(07:10):
you know, this is why I said at the beginning
of this episode, I really hope that this creates awareness.
People go, wow, I fitn't into that. That sounds a
little bit like me, and it is serious. People ud
saying the longer you delay it, the more expensive the
problem is going to be, or the longer it's going
to take to fix it, or you know, the more
risk that's potentially needed to take to fix it.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
You probably could afford to be a little bit more
judgmental with me, considering I've been across from you in
this studio now for what one hundred and thirty episodes
or something, so I don't think I have that same
ignorance kind of excuse.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Well that ten seconds now is officially over. I can
be back to being a little bit of a bitch
to you.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Now, Wow, a little bit judgmental. Is this kind of
head in the sand approach more common with certain aspects
of your money? Like is it kind of say, credit
card debt because you just don't want to know about it,
or is it about investing because it feels too hard,
or is it superannuation because it kind of happens automatically.
Your pay is automatically going in there and it just
(08:07):
kind of just builds up in the background and you
just like, Okay, that's fine, I don't need to do anything. Technically.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
No, there are lots of areas where people bury there
head in the sands, so they may have one or
two or three or four areas in their lives financially
that's going on, and there's one particular ERAa they just ignore.
So you know, of course, there is a classic one
like credit card debt and buy now, pay later, and
you just think, I'll just pay the minimum and deal
with that problem later. There's also superannuation, which I think
is a lot more unspoken than what we realize, and
(08:35):
where people think, oh, why do I worry about my
super I'm not going to retire for another thirty years,
you know, my future meet can like figure this out
close to the time, and that's probably the worst thing
you could possibly do. And then there's you know, things
like coming into our budgets where we're not checking our
subscriptions and those direct debits and we think, oh, it's
no big deal. It's ten dollars a month, or it's
twenty dollars a month, you know, not doesn't really cost
(08:57):
me much. But in fact, over the course of a
year or a couple of years, that can really add
up to be a large amount of money. That's money
that could actually be used to put towards financial goals
like paying off debt. You know, putting money to super
investing that money. And on that topic of investing, people think, oh,
you know what, I've got my super sorted. You know,
I've got my mortgage, it's coming down, I've sticked my budget.
(09:18):
I don't really have any problems with my credit cards.
I don't understand investing, though, so I'm not going to
bother even trying that until you know, I know what
I want to invest in, what I want to buy.
But the thing is they don't actually put any time
into learning about investing, so it never actually happens, again
burying the head in the sand. And then and finally,
I think another one I see is insurance, and you
(09:40):
might be someone like this. I'm going to suspect you
would have been before you saw the financial planner, but
not really knowing what insurance cover you've got in place.
Now most people know they've got you know, home and
contents for example, or current insurance. But do you know
how much you're covered for? Do you know what the
excess is? Do you know what you're paying? Do you
know if there's any exclusions? And then I don't want
(10:01):
to open up account of worms here, But what about
your life insurance? How much life insurance have you got?
Is it the right level of cover? And you know,
did you have other little bits of cover like accidental
cover off a random credit card footing around somewhere else,
or do you have a couple of old superannuation accounts
that also have life in DPD cover?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Like, can I tell you something? Yeah? Is this this
is a confession? Give me father five sin One minute ago,
sixty seconds ago, you saw me kind of fiddling with
my watch while you were talking, and it was a
call that I was receiving, and I hung up on
the call, obviously because we're in here recording this podcast.
And then a follow up message came through, and it
(10:40):
was from my insurer, my life insurer, saying you're about
to have a renewal, please call us to review your
changes and to review these And you know what I did,
I just swiped to dismiss the message and just pushed
it straight out of my mind. And then, as though
the universe was listening, you looked at me and said,
(11:00):
you are probably ignoring your insurance, aren't you. I'm like,
how did you know?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
I'm very very I have magical.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Balance that is quite intense. So yes, instantly, like here
if you were talking to me about not having my
head in the sand, and I am actively putting it
deeper into the sand here in the studio, trying to
ignore this part of my finances.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
You have two young children, a wife, a mortgage, a cat,
a dog, You're self employed, Like insurance is a really
important part of your financial wellbeing. I know, I do
not know, know, like I hope your financial planet is
right onto that you probably haven't told you've been dismissing
(11:46):
like this.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Well I only dismissed it, what now, two minutes ago,
So I've already had one lecture. I do another one. Look,
we've used up a lot of time now with all
of this. The myths that people tell themselves that keep
them stuck in this avoidance mode. What things like everything
will be okay, It'll all work itself out in the end, Superms.
(12:11):
I'm just telling you what goes through my head on
a daily basis.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
So in things like, oh, I don't make enough money
to actually have a budget, I don't need a budget
becuse I have no money, Like that's just ridiculous, or
I'll deal with it when I earn more.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Oh so just pushing it down the road yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
So you know, we'll let me say for your head.
If you're one of those people that says that if
you can't manage sixty thousand dollars, are you're not going
to be any better at managing one hundred thousand dollars
a year, so stop that. It's just a ridiculous, flaky excuse.
The other thing is, I'm bad with numbers, so if
as long as you have a calculator, you're going to
be just fine. And most of the budgeting tools, even
(12:48):
the one I do in my budgeting program, it adds
it up automatically and also divides it up so it
tells you the instructions as to what money goes into
which bank account for you, so you don't even need
to a calculator. And then of course there is if
I don't look at it, it's not real, but spoiler alert,
it is very real.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
So you're saying that not opening letters from your bank
doesn't make it go away, and I know you're guilty
of that. Yeah, But usually it's just like statements and things, and.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Statements are kind of important, don't you think, because it
lets you know where you stand financially, where your money is,
or perhaps where.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
It is not me looking at it isn't going to
change the outcome. Oh, instant regret. I'm saying that. Just
then I'm like, because it actually does. Looking at it
will mean I'm aware of the fees that I'm paying,
the interest that I'm paying. I can see how much
I paid off, how long I have left to go
on the home line. Just open the damn letter. It's
like a credit card.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
If you don't know how much you own your credit card,
I'm pretty much guarantee you're going to go keep spending
on your credit card. And also the other one that
I see is people saying I will wait until I
meet someone to get serious about money.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Oh really yeah? Oh that no, I know that's a
hard one because that's assuming that something is going to happen.
And why wouldn't you want to just take control of
your own money now exact, so that if you meet someone,
then you're going into it in a really good financial position.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
And what if they're really there with money? That is
just a recipe for disaster.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Oh god, Okay, you mentioned the tools and the things
that you can use and some kind of practical strategies
to start kind of getting some control I want to
go into those in a bit more detail, but we
will take a quick break first and do it in
a second cana. We are talking about what to do
(14:35):
if you've got your head in the sand over your finances.
We've talked a lot about why people do it and
some of the lies and the myths that you tell
yourself in order to kind of keep yourself there. What's
the first practical step that someone can take when they
realize that they have been avoiding their money.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Rip that band aid off immediately. Okay, okay, set aside
forty five minutes, put a timer on, make it coffee
or a glass of wine. If you really need to
and look, sit down and look at your accounts and
do a financial stock take. Start small, don't try and
fix absolutely everything in one day or even one week.
Just even doing a financial stock take and knowing where
(15:15):
you stand today is extremely powerful and very effective. As
we just spoke about that awareness, So perhaps you know,
you go, okay, I'm going to focus on getting my
budget done for this week or this weekend, and then
next week I'll look at my superannuation. Then of course
you've got to completely reframe it, you know, mindset over matter.
So doing this is not about punishment, is actually about empowerment.
(15:36):
So each step that you take gets you closer and
closer to fixing the problem, and you will start to
see the stress alleviate, have more controlling your life, and
feel a sense of clarity and relief, as well as
obviously having direction and purposes. You know what you're going
to do for the next couple of weeks. So knowing
where you stand and knowing what needs to be fixed
as a priority is brilliant.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Okay, So that's assessing your overall position, and that includes
kind of how much debt you have, all of those
bits and pieces. You just need to rip the band
aid off and just understand where you are and then
you can pick the things that need the most urgent attention.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Right, what's stressing you about the most, I would say,
is where you can hone in on immediately?
Speaker 1 (16:17):
All right, what if when you're going through this financial
stock take, if you find something that is actually quite scary,
like I said, suddenly you're doing it and go I've
been paying an extraordinary amount of credit card interest every month.
How do you deal with that shock for one thing?
And how do you stop it from making you just
(16:38):
put your head back in the sand, going I can't
deal with this, I'm overwhelmed.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
You've got to call it professional. So this is when
you make a call to a financial planner or a
national helpline, or you go and see a financial advisor
or a financial counselor someone that actually is going to
give you advice or someone who can talk to you
about what your options are, even perhaps a lawyer if so.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
On that, then the financial planner, what role do they
play in kind of resetting your financial mindset When you
walk in there and you say, this is what I've discovered.
I have kind of realized I've been paying X amount
every month in credit card debt. It's getting out of control.
A lot of what they do is not just kind
of the practical strategies. It's about kind of changing that
(17:22):
mindset around it, Isn't.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
It absolutely seeing that Okay, all right, it's great that
you're discovering this now, not in three years time or
five years time, and then talking to you about, all right,
let's go through your financial situation. Let's see what we
can do to fix this. And this is where I
sort of say, like, you know, financial plans are like
a swimming coach. They can't swim the laps for you,
but they will walk up and down the pool with
(17:44):
you as you're doing lap, showing you how to improve
your technique can go faster, and they will obviously connect
you with the people that can help fix the situation.
For example, you might have a credit card debt or
hex debt that's just blown out, but you also might
have a home loan, so they look at this and go,
you know what, there might be an option for you
to baby to consolidate this debt back into your home loan. Now,
if you do this, you have to be very careful
(18:04):
about this because your home loan will go up by
this amount, but at least you'll be paying it off
now at a lower interest rate. Let me connect to
you with a great mortgage broker that will help you
do this in the best way possible for you.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
So they will talk you.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Through the practical strategies as well as addressing your mindset
and a good financial plan or a good mortgage broker
will work with you ongoing, so they don't just help
you overcome that hurdle. They'll go, great, you paid off
that credit card debt that was frightening you. What are
we going to do now to make sure that this
never happens again? You don't repeat history? And what did
you learn from this that we can now maybe look
at building up an investment portfolio, or building up emergency money,
(18:39):
or perhaps looking at something that includes your superannuation now,
so there are steps. It's not a magical overnight financial transformation.
Don't ever expect that, because you'll be bitterly disappointed. It
is about a journey, an adventure that is sometimes a
bit scary and has setbacks and challenges, but you keep
going and growing because you're dedicated to actually fixing and
(19:01):
coming out to be wealthier.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
A lot of people listening to this, though, they would
have heard us talking about financial planners and the importance
of talking to a financial planner. But the problem is, though,
that not everyone has, say, kind of five thousand dollars
just lying around for it. And if they are in
this position, we know that the financial planner is the
gold standard money here, But what if you can't afford it?
What if you can't afford a financial planner? Which I
(19:23):
do actually need some help. I cannot do this on
my own. Are we talking kind of financial counselors for
that situation, financial.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Counselors, and also you know, these days a lot of
superinneration companies actually offer general advice as well, and they
have various levels of Some of it is paid, but
it's heavily discounted, and some of it's free, so you know,
and then again there is the library. There are books,
there are podcasts, there are so many different resources out
there to help you that you can use to get
(19:51):
out of the situation and to learn, and really boils
down to financial literacy, financial education, understanding money, understanding what
a budget is, how it works, how it keeps you know,
shopping safe. You know why you should have a financial goal.
What are great financial goal is to have and break
everything down into bite sized goals.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
All right, So you've got financial planners, you've got financial counselors,
you've got a whole lot of different resources. Is the
most important thing, though, just to go anyin. No one
else can make you do this right. You just need
to actually go all right, I'm going to start paying attention.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Look, it's about small steps today and that's going to
have a huge impact in your financial future. You know,
even small savings plans ten dollars a week or small
investing plans fifty dollars a month. This really does matter,
and this is going to make a difference. And obviously
you've got to fix the urgent stuff, the frightening stuff,
but don't at your eyedrop of the big picture, which
(20:45):
is you living in a financially harmonious world. You know,
it's all about heads up, eyes open, and happy wallets.
So avoiding your finances is only going to make things
so much harder for yourself. And the moment you step
up and start paying attention, you're actually taking back control,
just like you've done yourself by seeing a financial planner.
(21:06):
So for anyone that's listening to this, I have to say,
if you've got your head in the sand, this is
your sign to start looking up. And you are more
than capable of fixing your financial situation and you will
never regret doing the work.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
So saying I should call the insurer back that called
me while we're talking, perhaps, okay, maybe I will. It's
a good first step. All right, Canna, how do we
find you? If we want more information?
Speaker 2 (21:33):
If you ever any questions at all, send me just
direct message on Instagram at Trugamma TV or Canna Campbell.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Official and you can hear me every day with Sean
Aylmer on Fear and great daily business news for people
who make their own decisions. Thank you very much for
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(21:59):
very much for you company. Join us again next week
Welcome to How Do They Afford That? The podcast that
peaks into the financial lives of everyday Australians. I'm Michael Thompson.
I'm an author and co host of the podcast Fear
and Greed business news. As always, I'm with Canna Campbell,
financial planner and the founder of Sugar Mama TV, which
is the financial literacy platform that you'll find on Instagram
and TikTok and podcasts, books, threads everywhere. Really, Hello, Canna, Hello,
(00:25):
good morning, Hello, Hello. Today a slightly personal one for
me because recently we met with our financial planner who
was terrific and I'm sure you're very happy to hear that.
We're so happy finally kind of doing something and she's terrific.
She asked a whole bunch of questions and she really
got us thinking right, thinking about kind of where we
(00:47):
want to go with our finances, how we want to
live into the future, kind of even as far ahead
as retirement, and kind of what we want to do,
how much money we need in retirement, all of this.
But what I realized while we were preparing for this
meeting was just how much I had my head in
(01:10):
the sand. I suppose when it comes to my finances
for quite some time, despite doing this podcast. I know
you tell me most weeks that my head has been
in the sand, and in fact you have been imploring me,
begging me to remove it from said sand. But it
was just like things like not paying attention to where
(01:32):
money was going, putting a lot of things into the
too hard basket and making this is not going to
surprise you, making a lot of assumptions about how difficult
it was going to be, and in reality it was
not actually that hard money that Okay, So there's going
to be a lot of attitude in today's episode. Today
(01:54):
it's all about what to do when you've got your
head in the sand over your money.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I'm hoping from today's episode, by people hearing what I
have to say, they will have this awareness and they
will quickly pull their head out from the sound.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, and look, I think a lot of people are
in this same boat, because really everyone is so busy.
Life is so so busy, and the thing that you
hear about all the time is kind of life admin.
It just keeps on piling up, and then you've got
your work on top of that, you've got family on
top of that, you've got all of this kind of thing,
and something that seems to get pushed to the back
burner a lot is money. It's just about getting by,
(02:33):
and it is just about making sure you're paying the
mortgage and paying the rent and paying for your grocery
bills every week. And there isn't this kind of long
term planning because it is more than you can kind
of handle. I'm clearly speaking from experience on this one.
Why do people ignore their finances? Is it just because
we're too busy?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Look, there's no straightforward answer really, but you know, I
would say sometimes people are scared, they're actually worried about
what they're going to find sore it's not there, and
they just continue on burying their head in the sand,
or they feel completely overwhelmed, like like yourself. You know,
you thought it was going to be really complicated, it
was going to take hours, and it could be too
hard and you'd come out more confused and stressed or
(03:14):
take up too much time then you actually discovered yourself.
Or quite often I think, and this is what I
can sometimes fall into, is a lack of urgency or reason.
You know, if things are just bubbling along, ticking along, nicely,
even not necessarily perfectly, but you know, they're always able
to meet the bills. They've always got enough emergency money.
(03:34):
You don't really have that call to action. You don't
have that firecracker to go, oh my gosh, we need
to fix their finances, and you can very easily fall
into that Oh look, I'll deal with it later because
things are actually fine. There's no red flags coming up
the room financial trouble. What the problem is is actually
they're missing out on amazing opportunities to achieve more and
do bigger and better things with their financial wellbeing and
raise their mention march or financial wellbeing. And then, of course,
(03:56):
finally the common one is avoidance, which is avoidance is
easier so short term really from just completely avoiding the
problem feels better than actually facing it, but obviously that
is only a temporary fix. In reality, the more you
do this by just burying ahead and the sand, the
bigger and the more expensive that particular problem can come
with much more serious long term repercussions.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
You said something interesting there about kind of just time
time being one of the big kind of challenges. Does
that mean then that we should be prioritizing this and
setting aside time for this and treating it with the
same importance as say, going to work or kind of
cooking dinner or something that you should be kind of going. Okay,
(04:40):
our money, our finances and securing our financial future is
just as important as everything else. We need to carve
out that time.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yes, this is financial well being that we're talking about here.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Does that mean then that you kind of prioritize it
alongside your fitness because it does contribute to your mental
health and your this sense of well being that you have.
Do you kind of Hey, if you can spare kind
of forty five minutes to go to the gym or something,
or to go for a walk, you should be trying
to carve out that same time to get your money sorted. Well.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
It's like, well, how much do you want, like how
much financial wellness do you want it in your life?
It's exactly the same principle with how fit do you
want to be? Do you want to be fit? Do
you want to be strong to be able to go
run in a marathon? If your answer is yes, you've
got to step it up. You know that means I
need to go to the gym or often it means
I need to run further or faster, I need to
maybe do more weights. I maybe you need to include
(05:31):
a yoga session, just give my muscles, you know, a
stretch and relief. The same with financial wellbeing. If you
want to have financial harmony, you want to make sure
that your mortgage is coming down, your investment portfolio is
going up, your retirement is looking like it's going to
be long and luxurious, You're properly protected. You've got to
put the effort in there. You know, what you put
(05:52):
in is what you'll get out. So yes, just like
we know we need to take our medication or vitamins,
or eat a nutritious balanced diet, go to the gym,
get sunlight, being amongst nature, financial wellness comes in here.
And this is why I'm so passionate about financial wellness.
And I think what was my biggest calling in the
world of financial planning is fincial stress acts like a
(06:13):
parasite into so many other areas of our lives. But yes,
this is you know, until people are aware of that,
they continue to bury their head in the sand.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
What I particularly like about listening to you say this
is that you are saying this, there's a little bit
of frustration in it, but there's no judgment in it,
which I think is kind of And that's the financial
planner coming through that. Yes, you understand that people do
this and that this is the reality of life that
a lot of people do not prioritize money, But you're
not actually judging me for that so much.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Absolutely not, because you're innocent here. This is probably the
only time I'll ever say that you are innocent.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Here, and you're doing it while the tape is rolling.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Everyone can listen to me being nice for about ten seconds.
But like you want to know, it's like someone who
has never been taught how to eat healthily and they eat,
you know, it's fizzy drinks and please and fried food
all the time because no one's ever actually taught them
that's actually really bad for your cholesterol and your heart
and you know, your kidneys and live it like they
didn't know. So why would you go and blame someone? Yeah,
(07:10):
you know, this is why I said at the beginning
of this episode, I really hope that this creates awareness.
People go, wow, I fitn't into that. That sounds a
little bit like me, and it is serious. People ud
saying the longer you delay it, the more expensive the
problem is going to be, or the longer it's going
to take to fix it, or you know, the more
risk that's potentially needed to take to fix it.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
You probably could afford to be a little bit more
judgmental with me, considering I've been across from you in
this studio now for what one hundred and thirty episodes
or something, so I don't think I have that same
ignorance kind of excuse.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Well that ten seconds now is officially over. I can
be back to being a little bit of a bitch
to you.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Now, Wow, a little bit judgmental. Is this kind of
head in the sand approach more common with certain aspects
of your money? Like is it kind of say, credit
card debt because you just don't want to know about it,
or is it about investing because it feels too hard,
or is it superannuation because it kind of happens automatically.
Your pay is automatically going in there and it just
(08:07):
kind of just builds up in the background and you
just like, Okay, that's fine, I don't need to do anything. Technically.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
No, there are lots of areas where people bury there
head in the sands, so they may have one or
two or three or four areas in their lives financially
that's going on, and there's one particular ERAa they just ignore.
So you know, of course, there is a classic one
like credit card debt and buy now, pay later, and
you just think, I'll just pay the minimum and deal
with that problem later. There's also superannuation, which I think
is a lot more unspoken than what we realize, and
(08:35):
where people think, oh, why do I worry about my
super I'm not going to retire for another thirty years,
you know, my future meet can like figure this out
close to the time, and that's probably the worst thing
you could possibly do. And then there's you know, things
like coming into our budgets where we're not checking our
subscriptions and those direct debits and we think, oh, it's
no big deal. It's ten dollars a month, or it's
twenty dollars a month, you know, not doesn't really cost
(08:57):
me much. But in fact, over the course of a
year or a couple of years, that can really add
up to be a large amount of money. That's money
that could actually be used to put towards financial goals
like paying off debt. You know, putting money to super
investing that money. And on that topic of investing, people think, oh,
you know what, I've got my super sorted. You know,
I've got my mortgage, it's coming down, I've sticked my budget.
(09:18):
I don't really have any problems with my credit cards.
I don't understand investing, though, so I'm not going to
bother even trying that until you know, I know what
I want to invest in, what I want to buy.
But the thing is they don't actually put any time
into learning about investing, so it never actually happens, again
burying the head in the sand. And then and finally,
I think another one I see is insurance, and you
(09:40):
might be someone like this. I'm going to suspect you
would have been before you saw the financial planner, but
not really knowing what insurance cover you've got in place.
Now most people know they've got you know, home and
contents for example, or current insurance. But do you know
how much you're covered for? Do you know what the
excess is? Do you know what you're paying? Do you
know if there's any exclusions? And then I don't want
(10:01):
to open up account of worms here, But what about
your life insurance? How much life insurance have you got?
Is it the right level of cover? And you know,
did you have other little bits of cover like accidental
cover off a random credit card footing around somewhere else,
or do you have a couple of old superannuation accounts
that also have life in DPD cover?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Like, can I tell you something? Yeah? Is this this
is a confession? Give me father five sin One minute ago,
sixty seconds ago, you saw me kind of fiddling with
my watch while you were talking, and it was a
call that I was receiving, and I hung up on
the call, obviously because we're in here recording this podcast.
And then a follow up message came through, and it
(10:40):
was from my insurer, my life insurer, saying you're about
to have a renewal, please call us to review your
changes and to review these And you know what I did,
I just swiped to dismiss the message and just pushed
it straight out of my mind. And then, as though
the universe was listening, you looked at me and said,
(11:00):
you are probably ignoring your insurance, aren't you. I'm like,
how did you know?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
I'm very very I have magical.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Balance that is quite intense. So yes, instantly, like here
if you were talking to me about not having my
head in the sand, and I am actively putting it
deeper into the sand here in the studio, trying to
ignore this part of my finances.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
You have two young children, a wife, a mortgage, a cat,
a dog, You're self employed, Like insurance is a really
important part of your financial wellbeing. I know, I do
not know, know, like I hope your financial planet is
right onto that you probably haven't told you've been dismissing
(11:46):
like this.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Well I only dismissed it, what now, two minutes ago,
So I've already had one lecture. I do another one. Look,
we've used up a lot of time now with all
of this. The myths that people tell themselves that keep
them stuck in this avoidance mode. What things like everything
will be okay, It'll all work itself out in the end, Superms.
(12:11):
I'm just telling you what goes through my head on
a daily basis.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
So in things like, oh, I don't make enough money
to actually have a budget, I don't need a budget
becuse I have no money, Like that's just ridiculous, or
I'll deal with it when I earn more.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Oh so just pushing it down the road yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
So you know, we'll let me say for your head.
If you're one of those people that says that if
you can't manage sixty thousand dollars, are you're not going
to be any better at managing one hundred thousand dollars
a year, so stop that. It's just a ridiculous, flaky excuse.
The other thing is, I'm bad with numbers, so if
as long as you have a calculator, you're going to
be just fine. And most of the budgeting tools, even
(12:48):
the one I do in my budgeting program, it adds
it up automatically and also divides it up so it
tells you the instructions as to what money goes into
which bank account for you, so you don't even need
to a calculator. And then of course there is if
I don't look at it, it's not real, but spoiler alert,
it is very real.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
So you're saying that not opening letters from your bank
doesn't make it go away, and I know you're guilty
of that. Yeah, But usually it's just like statements and things, and.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Statements are kind of important, don't you think, because it
lets you know where you stand financially, where your money is,
or perhaps where.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
It is not me looking at it isn't going to
change the outcome. Oh, instant regret. I'm saying that. Just
then I'm like, because it actually does. Looking at it
will mean I'm aware of the fees that I'm paying,
the interest that I'm paying. I can see how much
I paid off, how long I have left to go
on the home line. Just open the damn letter. It's
like a credit card.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
If you don't know how much you own your credit card,
I'm pretty much guarantee you're going to go keep spending
on your credit card. And also the other one that
I see is people saying I will wait until I
meet someone to get serious about money.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Oh really yeah? Oh that no, I know that's a
hard one because that's assuming that something is going to happen.
And why wouldn't you want to just take control of
your own money now exact, so that if you meet someone,
then you're going into it in a really good financial position.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
And what if they're really there with money? That is
just a recipe for disaster.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Oh god, Okay, you mentioned the tools and the things
that you can use and some kind of practical strategies
to start kind of getting some control I want to
go into those in a bit more detail, but we
will take a quick break first and do it in
a second cana. We are talking about what to do
(14:35):
if you've got your head in the sand over your finances.
We've talked a lot about why people do it and
some of the lies and the myths that you tell
yourself in order to kind of keep yourself there. What's
the first practical step that someone can take when they
realize that they have been avoiding their money.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Rip that band aid off immediately. Okay, okay, set aside
forty five minutes, put a timer on, make it coffee
or a glass of wine. If you really need to
and look, sit down and look at your accounts and
do a financial stock take. Start small, don't try and
fix absolutely everything in one day or even one week.
Just even doing a financial stock take and knowing where
(15:15):
you stand today is extremely powerful and very effective. As
we just spoke about that awareness, So perhaps you know,
you go, okay, I'm going to focus on getting my
budget done for this week or this weekend, and then
next week I'll look at my superannuation. Then of course
you've got to completely reframe it, you know, mindset over matter.
So doing this is not about punishment, is actually about empowerment.
(15:36):
So each step that you take gets you closer and
closer to fixing the problem, and you will start to
see the stress alleviate, have more controlling your life, and
feel a sense of clarity and relief, as well as
obviously having direction and purposes. You know what you're going
to do for the next couple of weeks. So knowing
where you stand and knowing what needs to be fixed
as a priority is brilliant.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Okay, So that's assessing your overall position, and that includes
kind of how much debt you have, all of those
bits and pieces. You just need to rip the band
aid off and just understand where you are and then
you can pick the things that need the most urgent attention.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Right, what's stressing you about the most, I would say,
is where you can hone in on immediately?
Speaker 1 (16:17):
All right, what if when you're going through this financial
stock take, if you find something that is actually quite scary,
like I said, suddenly you're doing it and go I've
been paying an extraordinary amount of credit card interest every month.
How do you deal with that shock for one thing?
And how do you stop it from making you just
(16:38):
put your head back in the sand, going I can't
deal with this, I'm overwhelmed.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
You've got to call it professional. So this is when
you make a call to a financial planner or a
national helpline, or you go and see a financial advisor
or a financial counselor someone that actually is going to
give you advice or someone who can talk to you
about what your options are, even perhaps a lawyer if so.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
On that, then the financial planner, what role do they
play in kind of resetting your financial mindset When you
walk in there and you say, this is what I've discovered.
I have kind of realized I've been paying X amount
every month in credit card debt. It's getting out of control.
A lot of what they do is not just kind
of the practical strategies. It's about kind of changing that
(17:22):
mindset around it, Isn't.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
It absolutely seeing that Okay, all right, it's great that
you're discovering this now, not in three years time or
five years time, and then talking to you about, all right,
let's go through your financial situation. Let's see what we
can do to fix this. And this is where I
sort of say, like, you know, financial plans are like
a swimming coach. They can't swim the laps for you,
but they will walk up and down the pool with
(17:44):
you as you're doing lap, showing you how to improve
your technique can go faster, and they will obviously connect
you with the people that can help fix the situation.
For example, you might have a credit card debt or
hex debt that's just blown out, but you also might
have a home loan, so they look at this and go,
you know what, there might be an option for you
to baby to consolidate this debt back into your home loan. Now,
if you do this, you have to be very careful
(18:04):
about this because your home loan will go up by
this amount, but at least you'll be paying it off
now at a lower interest rate. Let me connect to
you with a great mortgage broker that will help you
do this in the best way possible for you.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
So they will talk you.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Through the practical strategies as well as addressing your mindset
and a good financial plan or a good mortgage broker
will work with you ongoing, so they don't just help
you overcome that hurdle. They'll go, great, you paid off
that credit card debt that was frightening you. What are
we going to do now to make sure that this
never happens again? You don't repeat history? And what did
you learn from this that we can now maybe look
at building up an investment portfolio, or building up emergency money,
(18:39):
or perhaps looking at something that includes your superannuation now,
so there are steps. It's not a magical overnight financial transformation.
Don't ever expect that, because you'll be bitterly disappointed. It
is about a journey, an adventure that is sometimes a
bit scary and has setbacks and challenges, but you keep
going and growing because you're dedicated to actually fixing and
(19:01):
coming out to be wealthier.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
A lot of people listening to this, though, they would
have heard us talking about financial planners and the importance
of talking to a financial planner. But the problem is, though,
that not everyone has, say, kind of five thousand dollars
just lying around for it. And if they are in
this position, we know that the financial planner is the
gold standard money here, But what if you can't afford it?
What if you can't afford a financial planner? Which I
(19:23):
do actually need some help. I cannot do this on
my own. Are we talking kind of financial counselors for
that situation, financial.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Counselors, and also you know, these days a lot of
superinneration companies actually offer general advice as well, and they
have various levels of Some of it is paid, but
it's heavily discounted, and some of it's free, so you know,
and then again there is the library. There are books,
there are podcasts, there are so many different resources out
there to help you that you can use to get
(19:51):
out of the situation and to learn, and really boils
down to financial literacy, financial education, understanding money, understanding what
a budget is, how it works, how it keeps you know,
shopping safe. You know why you should have a financial goal.
What are great financial goal is to have and break
everything down into bite sized goals.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
All right, So you've got financial planners, you've got financial counselors,
you've got a whole lot of different resources. Is the
most important thing, though, just to go anyin. No one
else can make you do this right. You just need
to actually go all right, I'm going to start paying attention.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Look, it's about small steps today and that's going to
have a huge impact in your financial future. You know,
even small savings plans ten dollars a week or small
investing plans fifty dollars a month. This really does matter,
and this is going to make a difference. And obviously
you've got to fix the urgent stuff, the frightening stuff,
but don't at your eyedrop of the big picture, which
(20:45):
is you living in a financially harmonious world. You know,
it's all about heads up, eyes open, and happy wallets.
So avoiding your finances is only going to make things
so much harder for yourself. And the moment you step
up and start paying attention, you're actually taking back control,
just like you've done yourself by seeing a financial planner.
(21:06):
So for anyone that's listening to this, I have to say,
if you've got your head in the sand, this is
your sign to start looking up. And you are more
than capable of fixing your financial situation and you will
never regret doing the work.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
So saying I should call the insurer back that called
me while we're talking, perhaps, okay, maybe I will. It's
a good first step. All right, Canna, how do we
find you? If we want more information?
Speaker 2 (21:33):
If you ever any questions at all, send me just
direct message on Instagram at Trugamma TV or Canna Campbell.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Official and you can hear me every day with Sean
Aylmer on Fear and great daily business news for people
who make their own decisions. Thank you very much for
listening to How Do They Afford That? Remember hit follow
on the podcast, and the best thing that you can
do is tell somebody else send them this episode. Send
them a link to this episode if you think that
they might benefit from having a listen to it, spread
the word about how do they Afford that? Thank you
(21:59):
very much for you company. Join us again next week
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