Season 2 Episode 7: Money and Narcissism

 

IN THIS EPISODE

Mel and Darlene start by reflecting on the cathartic nature of discussing their personal financial journeys and how listening back to their own discussions feels like getting sage advice from a friend.

In this episode we explore the challenges of dealing with increasing health insurance premiums and the decisions about coverage and excess.

Then, we talk about Mel setting up systems to manage finances during tough times and the empowering feeling of having control over your budget, even while planning a much-needed holiday and juggling medical expenses.

In the heart of this episode we tackle the topic of narcissism and its impact on financial decisions and relationships. We delve into how narcissism can manifest in financial power dynamics, both in personal relationships and in professional settings like the finance industry. Learn how to recognize and respond to manipulative behaviour, educate yourself to make informed decisions, and maintain your self-worth in the face of financial narcissism.

Mel and Darlene share their passion for discussing financial challenges openly, and recognising and responding to ego-centred financial interactions, and empowering yourself by education and informed decision-making. One of the key points is knowing when to move away from an unbalanced financial interaction.

Join us for a conversation filled with practical advice, personal anecdotes, and a touch of humour, as we navigate the complex world of finances and personal empowerment. Whether you're struggling with health insurance decisions, budgeting challenges, or navigating difficult financial relationships, this episode has something for you.

FURTHER SUPPORT

Money can bring up a lot of emotion. If you felt triggered by some of the things we discussed in this episode please reach out to us or see some supports you may wish to reach out to below.

·       Lifeline Australia: 13 11 14 or SMS 0477 13 11 14  https://www.lifeline.org.au/

·       Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636  https://www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support

·       National Debt Helpline: 1800 007 007 https://ndh.org.au/

·       Fair Work Ombudsman: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employment-conditions/national-employment-standards

·       Financial Counselling Australia: https://www.financialcounsellingaustralia.org.au/

·       White Ribbon Australia: https://www.whiteribbon.org.au/helplines/

  • 0:00

    Welcome to the Money Collective Podcast. We're here to uplift your financial wellbeing. Your hosts are me, Mel Pearce, and Darlene Neu. We are the cofounders of The Money Collective and together we have over 50 years of finance and banking experience. We provide the tools, information and guidance to better understand your money and feel confident making money decisions.

    Hey, how you doing? Yeah, good. Welcome back to the podcast, Darlene. Here to uplift your financial wellbeing with The Money Collective. That's right. Welcome to all of our listeners.

    0:30

    Very excited to be here once again and we love to do it. And I was talking to someone the other day. I think we love it. Well, we love it a lot cause it's us. It's fun,

    0:42

    but it's very therapeutic. It's nice to talk about stuff out loud that we might all be thinking, Oh my God, I do that all the time. So I've been listening back to our podcast and I just think obviously that I love listening to us. Yeah, for some reason? maybe because I'm a narcissist? I don't know, possibly, but we're going to get to that later in today, actually in this episode. Maybe I'm egotistical, but I think it's what you just said. It's therapeutic. Yeah, it is therapy. Do you like,

    1:12

    Um, hearing the continuous issues I have with my money?

    1:19

    It makes me feel like for some reason that it's not even me that I'm listening to and that I'm just getting really good advice for myself.

    1:28

    Get in the car. I was like, who are those people? Yeah. And yeah. So it really helps. And I think it we are just talking about those things that are obviously helping us in our personal lives, but hopefully very relevant to you in your life as well so that you can get those therapeutic benefits as well. In the meantime, we'll just keep working on doing our own therapy in these podcasts. We will And hopefully, yeah, that's right. All the stuff that we talk about is everyday stuff that we're all going through and is linked to financial

    2:00

    wellbeing. And hopefully it's relatable to some of you as well, get some benefit out of trying to break down all of those, you know, taboos that we think about money and the things that we never say. Yeah. We just wanna say them. Exactly. Yeah. And let's start with our truth today. So my truth is I reviewed my health insurance. Yeah. And it's got the reminder, you know come first of July, you increase is going up. I’m with NIB health

    2:31

    insurance and it was going up to about $612 and I think it was around $570 before that. And so a month per month and that that prompted me to have a think about reviewing it and that's insurance for three people, you and Dennis and your daughter. That's right. You hear me talk about Logan a lot. He is 22 and he came out. I kicked him off the policy about 12 months ago. Logan. Yeah, but you're on your own kid. That's right. But it's about adulting and growth.

    3:02

    So, you know and he seemed cool with it as well. So I think that was a good thing to do.

    3:07

    Didn't change the insurance premium by the way when I took them because he's on a. You've still got a family policy. Yeah. That's interesting. There you go. So I don't know what you probably have five kids. I'm not sure whether when it changes but it didn't change the policy at all when we talking about might be worth finding out you know because if he gonna take out insurance as well. Well, no. No he's not. He will. He's a young. He's healthy, you know, talked about this before, he said. Apparently invincible,

    3:38

    I did suggest to him to take out ambulance cover in case you know, but otherwise no. And just use that before. I do think thinking of your situation and talking about health insurance, I do wonder a lot whether it's actually worth it or not. I mean, you know it's only those non urgent things that depending on how long we wanna wait, depends on what the healthcare system seems is important or not. I know. Anyway. So anyway, but we have always had top hospital cover and we have extras and the extras are always.

    4:11

    I've I've always do we need them or not. And I wish I was one of those people that years and years ago worked out what that premium was and always put that monthly amount in a separate bank account. And if I have my time over, I think I do that and I still watch how I do it now that's a definitely a mind barrier at the moment. So we don't have full extras cover but we have optical, dental and physiotherapy and the hospital cover. We've always, always had that full, as I mentioned with nil access and I think that's just given me

    4:46

    a view of I've got peace of mind then. Yep. (Barking) And yes that's our lovely dog Apollo where we record in our background. So you know yeah. I hope you enjoy him singing shout out for a follow but you just mentioned that you've got mail excess and I've been talking to a lot of people about health insurance lately because it's our life at the moment this health. Yeah, all these health issues and people who think they've got no excess. Depending on the surgery and the surgeon, there may sometimes

    5:17

    the excesses like people who say I my, I've got premium top cover, I don't have it, but false Peace of Mind, isn't it? Sometimes it's false Peace of Mind. And I think that's the same for many types of insurance policies. And I think it's also why people don't claim sometimes because it's all confusing and you don't know what's what or you think you're covered and then at the end of the day you've been paying those premiums and you're not covered or there's still out of pocket expenses. And I think with healthcare, I think it's inevitable order. I think it's good

    5:47

    to bake in the assumption that there could be some out of pocket expenses no matter what premium. Really important to think like that, you know, I mean ours just come up and I didn't even realise this. So this is about really understanding your terms and conditions of your policy. So I had to have some new glasses a while back and I went and I've never asked the question before and you know, they cover some of it and then I've always had to add extra to it. But I haven't asked the question before as to why that actually is or

    6:18

    just assumed that's the way it worked. Yeah. Anyway, the lady at Specsavers mentioned to me that I've gone a policy that covers 60 percent, 60% or whatever the bill is. And I thought, right. So then that got me twigging about the math and I did some math about whether I thought it was worth it or not or, you know, based on that 60%. So that's really interesting. So I would absolutely know your terms and conditions. And I know you can't think of every situation that might occur,

    6:48

    but some of those common ones actually look to see if it's worthwhile and do some math. Anyway, I reviewed it. That hospital cover premium, I put a $750 excess on it. Hmm. Did you increase it? I was 0, So we had 0 excess. So to go to $750, I'm saving $158 a month. That's amazing. So that's like 2 grand a year, Six months of not claiming and you're ahead, right. And I worked out. So that's like 3 hospital visits

    7:19

    a year to be in the same position. Wow, $750. Yeah. It's, it seems like a no brainer. I hope we don't have to go to hospital or have some major incident that causes 3 every year, right. No, Gosh, no. Not do that. No. No. So yeah. So that's my story this week. Yeah. There you go. That's a little win. Well, I am going to stay on the topic that I am always on. That's me and my life at the moment and Percy surgery and everything.

    7:50

    So he's had his surgery, It's been done. We ended up going through getting a work cover claim. I'm not sure if I've mentioned that before on the podcast, which is great. Just means that when I dropped him off I got an invoice for $0.00. Oh, I love that I did like that, not having a $20,000 invoice. And that was a friend of ours who suggested to put a work cover claim in and see how you go through the things we sometimes forget. And do you know, actually on that. Sorry to interrupt, but things like when you do have seen incident

    8:21

    at a Sports Club. Yeah, lot of sports. You pay a premium insurance, your insurances, aren't you so reminded me, I had a friend that hurt her knee on the tennis court and the actual club had insurance and she didn't have to pay for anything for her need surgery. Yeah. So yeah, I think sometimes we do forget about all that. All the extras, I wouldn't have thought that too. So it's lucky that somebody said that to us. But yeah, if anybody's worried about Percy, who's doing great in recovery,

    8:51

    Hi Percy! Glad you're covering up and about, yeah, but other than that. So that means he is off work for three months. That has started and I have budgeted the crap out of our life, as you know, to an inch of our lives. We're all loving it, actually. We've adjusted really well to a new normal. And I don't think I'll ever go back to how I used to spend. And I have set up and automated our entire system to cover us for the next three months. And then also when

    9:22

    he goes back to work and starts earning again, I'm going to set up our systems again because we're on a bare minimum at the moment. So we've got no extra going into our superannuation. We're not paying anything extra for our home loan. We are just like paying the minimum of everything. And I've got a system set up his self employed to go into his account to maintain his business expenses. He's got some asset finance in there to make sure that those happen. I've projected the whole thing out and we're going on the holiday.

    9:52

    Didn't have to cancel that, which is great news that's happening in four weeks. It's Oh my gosh, it's so close to me. And I've had every day. Yeah. So. And I feel really good about my budgeting around that. I've got all the money ring fence for that into a separate account. So I actually feel for this particular stage, cruising. Oh my God. I don't feel stressed. Yeah. And I can say, like, Mel, I reckon right now you're the least stressed I've ever seen you. I’m going on holiday soon I'm going to Disneyland. No. But it's

    10:23

    even though, you know, budgeting, operations, right. You know, all the things that have happened in the last couple of years. But Oh my gosh, yeah. Well, like I keep saying, I'm glad I hang out with you all the time because I take all the advice and I implement. Oh do you know, I was thinking about this the other day, actually. And I think the best way in life is to do one. Like, it's one step at a time. If you're trying to do everything at once to improve our life or, you know, healthier living or whatever. The thing is,

    10:53

    you just can't. But if you focus on one thing and however long it takes, nail that thing. Yeah. And then you've got headspace to actually work on the next thing that's most important to you. Yeah. And so on. Yeah. And those life changes. And I think that it's, it's so different to back in money world compounding or. And you know, that is what we are all about. Whatever you do over time have a compounding impact. But. Well, there's no difference to life. No. Absolutely. Right. So that's why I also started wall

    11:25

    pilates. Ah, there you have too, pilates. Yeah. Like, I'm like, I don't want one of those hip problems in my solving that one. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. There we go. Yeah. Well, fabulous. That's us. And today what we want to talk about is narcissism. Yes. So what is narcissism? Maybe start with the definition. Well, let's go to doctor Google again. Yeah, that's our favourite. The definition is selfishness involving a sense of entitlement,

    11:57

    a lack of empathy and a need for admiration as characterising a personality type. MMM, not fine. And I think that it's been a bit of a hit word the last few years. Yes definitely trendy to talk about it. Gaslighting. Yeah, and we just wanted to talk about that in a more of a money sense. Well, I think narcissism and money is super correlated, right? Because money is a part of the means to do life.

    12:27

    And um, you know, what is? You know, narcissism. It's somebody's feeling correctly or incorrectly, or two people or two. It could be, you know, have different relationships. It could be at home or in a workplace

    12:44

    or anywhere really where you feel one person's got more power than the other. And that could be in our own minds if we're receiving that. Or it could be reality. Or on the other part, it could be unaware or totally aware. Yeah, of us doing it. And money is such a power thing that people can have over each other. Yeah, I feel like narcissists don't have an awareness of what they're doing.

    13:15

    It is like an inbuilt thing that they learn. It's manipulation. Yeah, How to get what they want and how they wanna feel. Yeah, and they know how to do that. And they, I've actually got a list of things that they commonly say you need to toughen up. No one will believe you. You're not intelligent. It's not a big deal. That's all gaslighting type stuff. It's very much where you push it back onto the other person. And that seriously could be their belief,

    13:43

    being told that it's something's your fault, that you're crazy and that they did something to yourself. It's all in your head. You're too sensitive, You're crazy. And then also being, you know, I love you at the same time. Yeah. Because they're keeping and manipulating the, the control and the power in a relationship or a situation. Yeah, Yeah. And so what we want to talk about is if you're on the receiving end of that,

    14:13

    then that can what that's meant to evoke and how the manipulation happens is an emotional response within you. So when somebody's treating you like that and I'm saying all of those words, it's so that they can hold the power in a relationship like you were saying, yeah, and they want us to fall apart and they it keeps the power balance in place because that other person starts feeling crappy about themselves and also their self belief diminishes overtime. So it's hard to

    14:43

    remain empowered definitely and I would have maybe I've talked about this on a previous podcast, but it's permanent in a relationship situation. I say particularly to young couples that are just starting out on their journey of maybe buying their first home that it's so, so and it's for all of us so, so important that we understand our money and how it works at home. Don't outsource it to your partner.

    15:11

    Understand how where the money is going, what it's doing and and have a voice. Make equal decisions. Don't either outsource that or let somebody else make that decision. And so that's easy to say. It is easy to like, just make equal decisions. Yeah, when somebody is, when you feel like crap all the time and that's the power play happening. And the way to have equal decisions is to get educated. Like if there's a particular topic that you're being overridden on and it might be around making money decisions,

    15:42

    then you need to know about that money decision. Like instead of not participating in what is happening, you need to educate yourself. And like an example of that might be,

    15:54

    well, actually this happens not only in relationships but in other environments like the finance industry. Wow. Yeah, so aching. Right. So we're women in finance and OHS, my gosh, that's hard for us to even be in. And we're trying to like to keep our sense of self worth within the industry. Yeah. Because what the finance industry traditionally has liked to do is be all powerful and project an image of importance. And that we might even have imagery in our own mind

    16:25

    that you've got a bank manager, a man sitting there in a fancy blue suit or something like that, and who's dictating terms to you about what you can and can't do. And I think that that's a narcissistic relationship. Absolutely, because there's an imbalance. So we you know in that sense if you think about it in that old style you went to see your bank manager because you need money you know or if you're going to see your bank these days or you know even maybe some mortgage brokers or whatever that you're going because you're you're

    16:56

    that power relationship is that they've got the money to give and you need it. That's right. That's it can create that inequity of power. That's right. And definitely in the finance industry I think there is a a lot of that ego driven self importance and and so many, so many case studies or times that this has happened comes to mind

    17:26

    there where people getting dressed up to go and see the bank or having a speech ready to say yes. But what we need to do, no matter what the relationship is, if there's that power imbalance, is to educate ourselves, is to understand how the system works. And if it doesn't, like in that home loan situation, if you're going to the mortgage broker or banker or somebody, you need to be able to ask your questions firstly to that person. If that person is coming back to you and they're not answering your questions or making you feel like you're stupid

    17:57

    or diminishing the situation because it's a very big financial decision that you're making, then you need to maybe leave that situation. Yeah, and find somebody else who's not gonna treat you like that. Yeah. Don't feel. Look at the end of the day if it's that home loan example. If you're seeking money, you're a customer of the person that you're seeking it of. So you've if you can change your mind thoughts that that gives you actually

    18:28

    being a small business owner and you know having power should be there should be on the way the customer and the fact that everything should be equal or human but it in that's where we should be going. Yeah, but we're not right. So, but in that sense, you're the one that is, you know they're providing a service. You know that they get paid for

    18:49

    you. You should be entitled to ask all the questions you need to ask to get comfortable with what you want to do. After all, in a big transaction like that, you're signing lots of paperwork, you're you're going to owe lots of money and you need to repay that. So you you need to get comfortable with whether you're happy with that or not. Don't outsource that to your partner or not. Make sure you're all, if you're sitting against a finance person you know across the table from a finance person,

    19:20

    make sure that you ask all the questions you need and do the research or and if you're not getting what you need, go somewhere else. Yeah, that's right. And you it's not even just that one conversation. It's like all the follow up conversations and all the way through and even post care support. So finding the right environment is really important.

    19:40

    And look, this happened to me in another point of sale transaction. It wasn't to do with finance. I had decided to well, my daughter wanted to go horse riding for her birthday and I booked in a horse riding adventure. We were very excited about it and.

    20:03

    I booked it in online. That was the only method of booking it in. And then I kept on looking online and I found something closer and better and cheaper closer to home. So I tried to cancel the horse riding adventure that I booked in and I called them up and they said no, sorry, we don't take any cancellations. It's online, no refunds turn up. So sad. Whatever.

    20:25

    And I'm like, I tried to plead my case and yeah, the guy I was speaking to, the owner of the business would have none of it. So anyway, it wasn't resolved and I committed to, well, stay with that first choice. Yeah. And I went and booked accommodation because it was pretty far away and we went to set off on our little horse riding adventure. And I'm in the driveway, so I'll just double check that the confirmation. And I had a cancellation notice on my phone

    20:55

    and I call it. So we booked earlier Carnation ready to go. And I called the guy and I said he said you wanted to cancel. I said yeah, but we hadn't decided that. And he said, but there's nobody else turning up to that horse riding. Yeah, like it's on the. Yeah, yeah, me, it was my fault. And I said, but you said there is no cancellations on company. Then you got him, then he's like, OK, well, I'll put it back on. We start driving for three hours into the trip and he calls me and he goes, I'm sorry, but I'd care. I cancelled the person

    21:26

    and he just made it and I he there was he's trying to give me a refund at that stage but the lack of empathy, the no care in that situation and I was visibly like I was emotionally and then you feel like he was talking to me was like I was so stupid and I was saying trying to say I run a business as well. I don't treat people like this. Yeah,

    21:48

    yeah. And yeah, the absolute no empathy and for the whole situation. And I said, this could have been a fun experience. All of that and every single interaction I had with this person was so awful.

    22:05

    Yeah. So I'll never go down there. Yeah. Again, I can't remember the name of that business, but I might have shouted it out. Yeah. Yeah. And The thing is, I couldn't control my emotions in that situation. I think he wanted all. Yeah. I he kept on telling me to calm down and settle down. Yeah. I actually think though, showing your emotions is probably a really good first step because I think what happens in our society with all these things that we encounter everyday, I think they're happening everyday around us. And mostly

    22:35

    we might go into our shell and just accept whatever's happening to us. So I actually think by having that emotion, I really like to stand up for myself and like be empowered. Say what you think, talk about the experience you’re having right now so that they understand. But I kept being shut down and told I was like a stupid woman. Yeah, yeah, but you had a reaction. I think actually that's like a if I had to put those steps in order, like I think most of us would have just accepted what was being done and

    23:06

    done it and moved on versus least you raised and made it uncomfortable enough to say, hey, this isn't right. You know, I think that's a start because it's all about awareness. If we can be aware in the moments that it's happening to us. And yes, maybe next time around, you know, you might do something a bit different. But that's all about growth, I think, and learning. And because I think this is happening everyday,

    23:33

    gosh, all the time. And we've just got to think how we respond to it differently in the moment. That's where I've got to get to. Yeah. So next time I would like to be less emotional and just kind of cut my losses, cause The thing is, I couldn't change the outcome. Hmm. And I think with narcissism, you are very rarely going to change an outcome of a situation. Yeah. And that could be,

    23:58

    do you think? I don't know. I I'd love to see it over time, but I think that's because not enough people are arcing up when it's happening. If we can be more aware in the moment and then like that's on mass and we all start challenging that you're coming to the party because we can only ever try to control our own behaviour, then maybe over time overtime it will, you know

    24:28

    change. But it's a long haul. It's a really long haul and we need to kind of make these decisions all the time. Like whether we walk away from these challenges. Like it depends like you've got a kind of cut you off the sometimes. Course you do. Yeah. You gotta find the right people. You don't wanna have all that emotional energy into that thing. I mean cause that's you know that's energy that you could put somewhere else. That's right. And I think education is, if you're on the receiving end of that, but also what if you're on the giving end of that Because I think we can all kind of do that,

    24:59

    Like manipulate people. Yeah. It's easy to manipulate young people in particular. So we have to be very careful around that with our children as well. I’m usually very aware. Like I realised I was doing that one day. There was a point in my life and I'm like Oh my gosh, I am literally manipulating.

    25:21

    Yeah, so bad. So we have to have that self awareness that we're not doing this to other people as well. Yeah, because that is obviously contributing to these situations. I think if we're real with ourselves they would all there would be cases in our lives, so many of us, you know, definitely me you know where I'm doing that. And I just like I said, we're all unaware. It's about really talking about these things, challenging these things and being, you know, yeah, just change the way we

    25:51

    we we act in these situations talking about awareness, awareness, awareness and then doing something, you know, to do something differently. The other place that can happen obviously is the workplace. You've got an employer, employee relationship. You know, employer is getting paid to come to work every day. Again, I feel like it should be that mindset of more equity after all, that business, you know, needs good people. So we should be, you know, treating, you know, our people as equal humans.

    26:22

    Where does that power balance? Like in your workplace, definitely, Or in? Yeah, that's right. Or if you're an employer, how you treat your employees exactly? And what are you doing to be aware of that or what difference it makes? I came across this situation not long ago where somebody had left their work and they didn't think they were paid correctly

    26:46

    of what they were owed. And they've been there a very long time, you know, 20 odd years. And actually, you know, just by raising that and that was really hard for that person to do. They got a couple of more lump sum payments and then went back and actually did the work, checked it out, become educated. But there was pushback in the, in the first instance, correct around when the employer was questioned about, no, everything's fine, it's all correct. Don't worry about it. It's all good. That's and that

    27:17

    that they the responses, you know, And then you know how you felt like, well, hang on, I'm really don't. Yeah. And then it was actually going back through the data and working it all out and then the employer ended up beating them to the punch and they got those extra payments. They did and then it all worked out in the wash. But if they hadn't have raised it and sometimes we're too scared to ask the question. Yeah, we should ask the question. Don't think there is no silly question and we're worried about how people are going to react or behave. But at the end of the day,

    27:48

    if you can, take the emotion out. If we're a curious inquisitive, ask the questions that you're thinking in whatever, whether it's a finance meeting, for example, whether it's in your workplace, whether it's at home with a your partner,

    28:02

    you, you, you're in. We're all entitled to understand and become educated about the thing that we're participating in. And it's our responsibility to educate ourselves. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's the tip of the day. Yeah. Yeah. Don't be scared to ask. Be aware and become educated. Understand things that you're entering into. And don't be a narcissist. OK? Yeah. Cause I think we all do that too. Yes, in some situations. That's right.

    28:32

    Don’t diminish the other person. Hmm. Okey dokey. So that's our little rant for today. I've been looking forward to that one. Yeah. Yeah. But we've just had a recent budget announcement, So 2024 budget. My question of the day, The question of the day comes from me, darling. What is your response to the budget? Yes. Let's see, there's the federal budget. Oh my gosh. So it has been getting a lot of airtime. So

    29:03

    and I I I feel it's obviously very political about, you know, there's Labour and there's Liberal and you know the political view and what people feel about who writes the newspapers and the news that we're getting exactly. So in relation to the economy parts and whether it's going to drive inflation or not. So a lot of what's going on in in the media that's the fear mongering, Oh my God, what have they done? We're gonna be inflation's gonna go up right, interest rates are gonna go up. This is the worst thing.

    29:34

    Oh my God. And this meant to make us feel so scared. Yeah so I I think and and inflation is not gonna come down you know and and just to just a tiny bit of background to the goal for inflation is between 2 and 3% a year and we, because I looked it up last night because this is this is really frustrating me at the moment, is it's sitting at about 3.8% annualised. So our goal is 2 to 3% and we are at 3.8. The way that it's being talked about, you'd think we were at 10

    30:08

    and then that view is what it's actually going to do. So I I think there is fear mongering going on and but I do think that's actually a tactic of the government and a tactic of and they probably the media to pull those strings for them because it's all about sentiment spending and inflation is about sentiment. It's not actually about what we do. So what the government about the policies so much. No that's what the last resort. So our economy

    30:39

    is driven by how we feel. Like you me all of the Australians. And if we're feeling bad we might not go and spend if we're scared but if we're feeling good and buoyant then we're gonna go and spend the money which might Dr Inflation. So the recent budget is giving a little bit of money back in our pockets. Yeah because they're giving us 300 bucks on our energy bill and we're getting a bit of a reduction if you're a low to medium income earner on your tax. That's right. So your income tax and that is, is the the big one. But if you think of all the cost of living increases that we've had over the last couple of years

    31:10

    already and the interest rate rises, I I'm not rushing to the shops in hurry, but that could just be me. That's right and I but what you're saying is I think people aren't people are much more aware. There's definitely this fear that will hold people a bit more. And inflation is not as far out of the goal than what we think. So

    31:36

    yeah, I think everybody's being more conservative. And I Yeah, I yeah, I think, again, get educated. Get educated on what things effect us. And don't let your emotions from all of that input drive what you do. Exactly. Understand it from 2 perspectives. One is understand your own money. And this is our philosophy. Understand your own money. What's coming in, where it needs to go, You know, plan for it. So you understand that

    32:07

    and then outward in understanding, become educated on how the system really works. And you don't. Again, you know, we come back to narcissism or that power. We think it's really complex. But in some respects, if we actually start to learn about it, it's not really that complex. It's more about us just you know learning about OK, inflation. Why do we put interest rates up or down, you know to stop people spending or so they'll spend more basically.

    32:38

    And the sentiment. So you know what then you can put it in perspective I think. So what we hear in the media is just them trying to get us to have enough fear as not to spend turn the telly, telly off and don't buy the newspaper and yeah, just become educated and empowered about it. Yeah. And watch some of the key things. So I think I think we are nearing the top of interest rates and there is talk whether they'll be any more during the year. But I I'm with Mel. I feel like people are really not spending too much, but we'll see. Um,

    33:12

    how that pans out. So yeah, just yeah, get busy with understanding your own money, run your own race and your own goal and markets will go up and down. So yeah, that's right. Awesome. Well, thanks for joining us everybody. And thanks for that economic download on the budget 2024. We can do, yeah, some more education on that another day. So, alright, we'll catch you next time. See ya.

    33:40

    At The Money Collective we provide financial wellbeing, premium coaching, mortgage broking and workplace financial wellbeing programs which we couldn't do without the seamless support of our fabulous team. If you'd like to find out more, head to themoneycollective.com.au or our socials to take action and engage our services. In our Facebook group join the conversation and help us break down the taboo around money. All content in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is generally nature. For tailored personal advice, please seek out a professional.

This podcast provides general advice only. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information provided, you should consider the appropriateness of the information and the nature of the financial product in regards to your objectives, financial situation and needs. We recommend discussing your personal situation with a financial professional.

 

Podcast by:

MEL PEARCE & DARLENE NEU
Co-Founders, Financial Wellbeing Coaches and Mortgage Brokers
The Money Collective

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