62. Align Your Money Goals for the Life You Desire

Did I hear you say, new year, new money goals? When it comes to financial planning - alot of us don’t really have a plan. No shade whatsoever.  We might have a big goal we want to achieve and we start to save for it but then life happens pushing that goal further ahead. The reality is that money touches all areas of our lives so how can we build a better relationship with money and hit those big beautiful goals we have. 

If you think about your goals in the past or even goals you might have right now, for example quitting your job and starting your business, starting a family, going on that holiday, moving overseas, upgrading your car or home. Guess what all of these areas require planning our finances so that we can achieve these goals and feel financially secure. 

Our guest today will be talking to us about all things financial planning so that you can achieve your financial goals sooner rather than later. 

Our guest is Sam Woodhouse, a financial adviser with over a decade's experience in financial services, Sam knows the levers that you can pull to get ahead in your financial life. He knows how sorting out this money stuff can ultimately give you more clarity to enjoy life.

Sam and I talk about:

• The common issues faced by busy professionals in managing their money;
• Managing your money to align with your financial goals; and
• How to create financial goals so you’re more likely to achieve them. 

We talk about this and so much more. 

Now let's dive into today's episode with Sam. 

Connect with our Guest:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuelwoodhouse/

Instagram: @sam_woodhouse_money

Website: https://intunefs.com.au/ 

Join Sam’s email list HERE. 

Connect with the host:

Website: https://marijaduka.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marija-duka/ 

Instagram: @marija.duka

Join The Unbound Lawyer Program HERE.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Welcome to the Career Confidence Podcast, the podcast for driven the lawyers wanting to step out of the traditional path and build fulfilling and purposeful careers. I'm your host, maria Ducar, legal counsel and career coach, helping you navigate your career with intention and confidence. In this podcast, we don't show away from having real conversations about topics that matter to us, driven AF go-getters From manifesting your dream career, negotiating the salary you deserve, creating your personal brand, knowing when it's time to pivot. We cover these topics and so much more. You ready, let's dive into today's episode.

Speaker 1: 0:53

Did I hear you say new year, new money goals? Well, when it comes to financial planning, a lot of us don't really have a plan. No shade whatsoever, because I too am in this category. We might have a big goal we want to achieve and we start to save for it, but then life happens pushing that goal further ahead. The reality is that money touches all areas of our lives. So how can we build a better relationship with money and hit those big, beautiful goals we have right now, rather than waiting for retirement? If you think about your goals in the past, or even goals that you may have set for yourself right now, like, for example, quitting your job and starting your business, starting a family, going on a holiday, moving overseas, upgrading your car or home guess what? All of these areas require planning our finances so that we can achieve these goals and feel financially secure.

Speaker 1: 1:48

Well, our guests today will be talking to us about all things financial planning so that you can achieve your financial goals sooner rather than later. Our guest is Sam Woodhouse, a financial advisor with over a decade's experience in financial services. Sam knows the levers that you can pull to get ahead in your financial life. He knows how sorting out this money stuff can ultimately give you more clarity to enjoy life. In this episode, sam and I talk about the common issues faced by busy professionals in managing their money, tips on managing your money to align with your financial goals and how to create financial goals so you're more likely to achieve them. We talk about this and so much more. Now let's dive into today's episode with Sam Woodhouse. Hi, sam, welcome to the Career Confidence podcast. I'm really excited to have this conversation with you today about all things financial goals and budgeting.

Speaker 2: 2:49

Nice to be here.

Speaker 1: 2:50

Awesome. Well, let's just dive straight into it. Would you please tell us who Sam is, and what do you do?

Speaker 2: 2:57

Yes, so I'm Sam Woodhouse.

Speaker 2: 2:58

I'm a financial advisor and I work exclusively with people in their 30s and 40s.

Speaker 2: 3:05

More specifically, I work with service-based professionals or business owners in their 30s and 40s that have a family. So I used to mainly work with retirees at the end of their working life, and I learned a lot from that experience around sacrifices that people needed to make because they didn't have the resources or even the health to continue going with their work. So now I work with people earlier in their life to address those pain points that I was seeing way later in life, to get on top of them and apply that knowledge that I learned very early on to people at a very much younger age. What I like to get across is all of those people I would meet, no matter how successful their career was or their business was, at this point in their life when they were thinking about scaling back a little bit. The word they would always say is I wish I'd started thinking about this, planning stuff a little bit earlier. So that's my mission, that's my job is to start having more discussions earlier in life as people without money.

Speaker 1: 4:04

Yes, that's fantastic. I love that you picked up on that through conversations that you had with your clients, working with them in their later years of life and seeing that gap in the market of. Yeah, I can actually help people here. I have this knowledge and this inside information. I can help them when they're starting their career or kind of a few years in and to set themselves up for better and more prosperous huge so they're not stressing out and have those regrets.

Speaker 2: 4:31

Yeah, it's a really fulfilling job that I have very, I would say. I think when people click as to how much they can control in their life that relates to money, you just see that light bulb click and they connect all these different puzzle pieces together and actually realize they can get somewhere and have a declarative about where they're heading for themselves, for their family unit. So I really enjoy what I do. But it is that barrier of getting through to people initially to going hey, this money stuff is probably something you can pay a bit more attention to, because it naturally slides down the order of priorities for most busy people, right Like we don't have a certain amount of time in the day.

Speaker 1: 5:06

Absolutely, absolutely, but it's so, so important, because being financially free is something that we all, you know, dream of and we all aspire to, but it's about making that a priority earlier rather than later. And what are some common issues faced by busy professionals in terms of managing their money, like? What are some key things that you see that you can talk to about with our audience so that they might be able to identify it within themselves?

Speaker 2: 5:34

Number one I see because, remember, I'm dealing with people in those ages is time and how they manage it. So I think we all remember these stages of life. You know, I can remember myself when you take on your first full-time job and you just feel like, how do people do this? Like all that time disappears in the day, right. And then you maybe take on like a management or senior position, like, oh my God, this is where's all my time going.

Speaker 2: 5:57

And the big one for me that I see, for all of my clients, is when kids come into the picture, because really what they end up doing is taking on another, much more difficult job. Even though they are managing staff maybe they're an operating business they effectively take another job on top of that. So what typically happens is people shorten the amount of time that they're looking ahead, so they go. Even some people I've spoken to much younger than my typical clients in their 20s, are starting to think about that long-term stuff. But all this responsibility wax on people at this one time Time disappears and then what they start doing is looking one day ahead, one week ahead, maybe a year ahead, right. And then that a fog of uncertainty creates beyond that, because you can't really tie back what you're doing in your money life to what you actually want to do in the future.

Speaker 2: 6:48

So the big one for me is to break through and go. No matter how busy you are, you're never going to get out of this hamster wheel If we can't think beyond the next week, beyond the next year. We've got to really be working towards that life that you want now, not kind of waiting, because what I've found a lot of the time is people that often get stuck on, that will stay there until they're in the 50s or 60s. And you've worked for 20 years and you're like, well, what was actually doing that whole time? I was working super hard, giving my time and effort to whether it's your clients or your boss or even your own business, but you haven't actually gone. Well, what did I want to get out of this?

Speaker 1: 7:23

Yeah, and what are some ways? Like how can you break free? How can someone break free from the hamster wheel? Like what is the thing that you recommend that for someone that is busy they're on the hamster wheel, it's all too hard, too hard basket. Like, what would you say to them to break free of that Be? Like, no, hang on a second. I really need to prioritize this.

Speaker 2: 7:45

I think simply for someone that's really deep in that rubble hole is just to stop for 10 minutes and go. What do I want my life to look like in three years? Because if you save your time, it's too far away. Right, it's this ambiguous time zone that you can't really think about and people think it's how you're going to sit on the beach and have margaritas and all this stuff. It's too far away, so it's not going to incentivize what you're doing today. One year it's maybe a bit close. It feels like you can't really make too many changes. So three years is a sweet spot for me. Go from today.

Speaker 2: 8:14

What do you want your life to look like in three years? You know, what do you want it to feel like? What do you want to do every day? What's your typical week going to look like? And then let's go backwards from there.

Speaker 2: 8:23

How can we make measurable progress week on week to get you closer to there? It could involve your career, it could involve money, could cross into your area in terms of really how you bend your career to how you want. That's a timeframe that you can work around and it works around the practicalities of having a family, having a partner, maybe that you need to work through this progress with, but really having a vision of where you want to get to and all those big decisions that need to be made. Because typically, when someone starts to think, oh, I can take control of a certain aspect of my life, it starts to open up the world to them. I can decide where I want to live, I can decide how many bedrooms I want to have in my home. I can decide how many, potentially, how big, my family's going to be not in everyone's control. You can decide things like how many days per week do you want to work? Do you want to work for yourself? It can really open things up, and the second thing is make it a habit of doing this as well.

Speaker 2: 9:17

So, in my world, to say here's everything you can do in the next three years and overwhelm you, it puts a lot to take on right. So for me, if you've got a career that's taken up all your time, you've got kids, you're already feeling stressed. The last thing you want to do is put all this on top of you. So then we need to make measurable progress, and that's why I work a lot with clients about let's just break it down 15 minutes a week. Let's at least do that to start right Like really measurable things. If 15 minutes too much, let's break it down to 10. I'll give you 10 minutes or something that you can make some progress and at least that starts to make the habit of it. Even if you just did 10 minutes a week for 52 weeks, that's a fair amount of progress you can make.

Speaker 1: 9:56

Absolutely. And what are some things that you've seen that have really worked for your clients that has really cut through to create those habits where they've like? Okay, this is actually achievable for me. I can do this. What has been something that you've seen that has really worked for your clients to cut through? I?

Speaker 2: 11:36

think, seeing other people and seeing it from an inspirational lens, like going hey, this is someone that's in a similar situation to me. They had the same barriers and constraints, the same time constraints, and here's where they got to. So you know, in terms of, say, your world, where you're working with a lot of professionals, I know in the legal fashion, for example, where they're feeling very tight on time, and I can show them five different examples, obviously and obviously, of people that are in worse positions than them that have got where they want to get to by just starting right. So just starting on this, rather than that feeling of, hey, this is all too much, I don't really want to think about it. We know where that's going to get you, which is somewhere. But what if you just dedicate a little bit of time and you had somebody to assist you? So that's where I come in as a professional.

Speaker 2: 12:22

So often people are coming to me. They're just overwhelmed. They just want to be told hey, what are our options? Right, because that could take you a couple of years to figure out yourself. So we'll work on whittling down the options to say five, and then we'll whittle it down to two, and then I'll guide you in detail on those broader paths that you could do over the next three years, the next 10 years, for example. And then, once you've done that, it's a really hard part. It's then really easy to say, well, let's just break it down over 12 months and say here's what we want to achieve over the next 12 months, here's what we want to achieve over the next month. Let's get started on that. When you get stuck, you've got me to help you through that.

Speaker 2: 12:57

So it could be something like hey, we've never invested before. We want to start investing. Well, you know, broadly, do you want to invest in property? Do you want to invest in shares? Do you want to start a business? Let's whittle down those options and then, once we decide on that, okay, well, what's the first step we need to do to get an investment property, for example? Well, maybe it's. We need to work out how much money you can lend or how much cash you have around, things like that. That's a pretty big picture thing that it's often what I find a lot of busy professionals really struggle to is the implementation side of things. They kind of know I should be doing this and I should be doing that, but it just makes you feel crap when you constantly talk about what you should do. It's almost like you could do this. And here's how you do. It is keep the implementation. Does that make sense, meron?

Speaker 1: 13:37

Yeah, it does. It does. And I love how you really work with your clients around clarifying the goals for them, because I think it's important to have a goal attached to you, know the reason why you want to actually like save up money or whatever it may be, and that goal has to mean something to you, because we could all just say I should be investing in shares or whatever it may be, or I should be buying a property, but it's like does that goal actually connect with you? Is that your true goal? Is it all the shits that you're taking in? So I love that you spend time with your clients, actually get clear on their goals and then build the steps around their goals to make it achievable. Is that where you see, like when your clients have that goal that's meaningful to them, that they're more likely to achieve?

Speaker 2: 14:24

Yeah, it's almost bringing purpose back to what you do, right, like it's kind of what I look for. Is that aimless of doing? Like if you're working for the sake of working or investing for the sake of investing, it's almost like you're doing it to fail at some point because you're not really building any strategy around it, like you're just doing for the sake of doing. So yeah, goal settings are massive part of financial advice and I find it's particularly helpful for younger individuals 30s, 40s relatively young, I would say Because really you've got a long way to go in terms of you know you're probably coming into the peak of your career and income earning years. There's a lot that you can control, but setting goals is difficult right in itself. So it's actually value that I can add in terms of guiding individuals, or particularly couples, to go through this process, because it's difficult to go Okay, well, what are my goals and what are my financial goals? Like you could sit there for a day and do it and often people will write. So this could be the start of the year. You're coming to new years, it's just gone and people are thinking, hey, I'll set these lofty resolutions, like I'm going to lose 10 kilos and save 100 grand over the year. And then February kicks around and you've put on two kilos and you're like, okay, I'm done, like that's a goal, but it's not really done in the right way in my mind. I think we've got to set a goal, we've got to set measure barriers to get there, we've got to work on building a habit to get there and we need to really assign, like, what values he actually trying to work through there.

Speaker 2: 15:47

So I work with a lot of clients that come to me and say, hey, I want to invest money and I'm like, well, what are you investing it for? You're investing it for your kids school? Or you're investing it for the sake of seeing growth, because you don't feel that sense of growth, you're investing it for that far off concept of retirement, those things. So it all comes back to, firstly, what are you actually investing in? Typically, when I ask people that go, oh well, my parents or my friends said, well, you need to invest, you know you should invest in property or you should invest in chairs, and I'm like, well, your parents aren't you right, like you can design your life? And often people are investing. It's actually working against their financial goals and what they want to do.

Speaker 1: 16:24

Wow, yeah, that's so fascinating to say that like we feel just blindly following someone else's advice because they told you you should. You know that it will ultimately work against you because you're not doing it with purpose and it's not necessarily suited to what your actual goal is or your lifestyle, what you're wanting to achieve.

Speaker 2: 16:45

Yeah, I'm not sure if you've been through this process yourself, maria, but it's about those. I'm sure you've had the corporate lingo, the smart goals, which is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound. Like it's all good to say but really it's a bit corporatey. Right, like it works writing it down. But then you got to think well, say, you're in a couple. Right, like sometimes the goals are work against each other. Right, like one could be saying why I want to stop work sooner and have a bit more flexibility while the kids are younger and the other ones, like I, want to grow well, as quickly as possible so we can reach out to them. You know you're tired early and it's like well, you need to find a compromise, that you need to prioritize your goals, you need to attach your values to that.

Speaker 2: 17:24

So I'm a big fan of what's called values space financial planning, which is actually understanding what your history was, money today it's been, and how you relate that decision you make, because I know from my background, from many clients I worked with wheels think about money in very different ways. So if you're even copying someone else's goals, it may not work for you. A big part of my role as a financial advisor is also to work in that accountability element. If that's an area you need help with is to make sure hey, what's our measurement points for getting that? Because I know for a lot of my clients and I have goals like, hey, we want to grow this much, well, so pay this much debt back. Well, that's all good to say, but when are we actually checking in at those? Because again, you're busy, right.

Speaker 1: 18:09

Absolutely, and I think that accountability piece is really important to have, because, yeah, it's hard to sometimes keep yourself accountable and check in with those goals, that you have Blind spots and then you get also busy with life again and, yeah, that's the really key part. I think choosing someone to work with that's a financial advisor that can really support you both setting the goal, keeping you accountable, really helping you get clear on those actionable steps and you know how can someone choose the right financial advisor for them. Because it's something that, particularly for the younger generation I would say, like people that in the 30s it's something that's maybe a foreign concept, something new, that they've never gone to a financial advisor before, so it feels daunting. What are your tips for choosing a really great financial advisor?

Speaker 2: 18:59

Yeah, I get it. I know some people when they say, hey, I'm a financial advisor, they probably have a picture in their head and you know some jump to asking me for things like stock tips or something like that. And well, yeah, I do advise on things like investment, but that's a very small slice of the cake, right? So what should you look for in a financial advisor? Well, it's someone to partner with. That will get you where you want to be. But also, the first question I would ask of anyone or any professional I'm looking to engage, whether it's financial services, otherwise is who do they serve, right? So, for example, I work with service based professionals of his owners and their families in their 30s and 40s. I don't, and I used to work in the retiree space, I don't, right? So if you're approaching a financial advisor just deals in that space, which is mainly retirees, that probably not the right financial advisor for you. So, work out who they serve. If they're serving a lot of people like you, that's going to have a lot of benefits and collective knowledge that they can apply directly to your life. The next thing I'll say is what's the business model? So, again, a lot of Practices, or financial advice practice out there mainly deal with people boomers at the moment, plus in terms of people that are either entering retirement, being in at age 55 plus or already in retirement think 70s, 80s, even age care advice type of interest. So that's a majority of my industry that just service out and what that means is they tend to focus on superannuation and investments and that business model is all built around managing money and big pots of money that people have a way in superannuation and investments and typically what they would do is proposition will manage your money similar to, say, a property manager for rental properties and will charge you one percent for that, which is Mainly investment advisors, mainly around managing money.

Speaker 2: 20:55

It's not really what I do. I'm more working with younger clients and my proposition is I'm going to help you build wealth. It's a much different skill and how I typically work is I don't do that percentage base structures. Instead, my clients have a subscription with myself and we make sure that I'm adding value to their life as they are building wealth collectively and the terminology. I've had a number of people that have come to me because They've actually gone to another financial advisor and it's typically their mom and dad's financial advisor and figured out the fit wasn't right for them because that advisor was mainly working in the retirement space and all the value they added was really with people making that transition. So what I'm looking to do is really say, well, I want to work with those ambitious families earlier in life, so that's who I serve, if that makes sense for us. So just look for who serves people like you, rather than trying to squeeze you in if that makes sense.

Speaker 1: 21:49

Yeah, it does. Yeah, I think that's really important something that until I spoke to you I didn't really think about. I'm really happy you're talking about that because, yeah, there's not much knowledge more personally, I didn't know too much about financial advisor until we started chatting and I think that's really important to ask who are they serving, to see, I guess, if they have your best interests at heart or potentially might not be the right fit because you're a different age bracket or whatever it may be.

Speaker 2: 22:18

That's the same as just off the bat. I know many great financial advisors in our industry has gone through some massive changes in that I've been in my industry for over a decade now and I've seen some massive changes for the good as we progress to being towards the professional side of things, which is what I hope is that we're seeing beside accountants and lawyers as professions of trust. That's where I hope that our industry is heading and it's been some massive changes happening as well. I know some people out there again. When they have that vision of financial advisor, it might have been when they were younger and they walked into a bank or something. Can someone put them towards a financial advisor as such? That's not the profession anymore. Luckily, with some big things out there like the Banking Royal Commission, it's really flushed those people that were really aligned with products and effectively sales people under the banner of financial advice. We've brought our education standards up.

Speaker 2: 23:14

I really think that, whether it's me or another financial advisor, there's a great people out there that are just looking to help people, but there's one that's a stigma in itself around people opening up, around money and then finding that aspect of trust. I think ultimately, at the end of the day, when you're trying to find an advisor, you want someone that you connect with. I know, when I'm working with clients, I really want to have that connection because I know that they'll probably be with me for a decade or two to come because we're really working on that plan together. I'd encourage anyone to meet with a couple. Have open conversations. If you're ever feeling not comfortable, don't go with that person. You want to be able to have a dialogue, like we are today. Just have a chat about do we actually connect? Are you going to be able to bring the best out of me to get where I want to be?

Speaker 1: 23:59

Yeah, absolutely. It's really interesting with you as a financial advisor. There's also so much psychology involved in that, really, because you're touching on so many parts of someone's life. Then, as you said before about, you, do the value-based approach and then look at someone's history with money as well. You really do provide that holistic approach. It's not just about what's your financial goal I want to save X amount for this reason and then you just keep them accountable for that. There's just so much more that goes into it. It's really good to say that that's the type of service that you provide to someone really does feel supported, because it can be such an overwhelming process.

Speaker 2: 24:39

Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that because I was economics trained. That's what you do in university and stuff. You learn all the stats but then you break it down. When you start working with individuals, you work out that people can do very well with money by luck, but a lot of the time you see the same temperaments in terms of the way that they've got emotional intelligence over time Again, taking the emotion out of money. There's a lot of emotion in money. It's a great skill to have. But also you notice, as a financial advisor, often a lot of my job is to protect my clients from making silly or wrong decisions.

Speaker 2: 25:15

This is something that I find a lot of people try and do themselves and often make mistakes without really knowing it. If that makes sense, I kind of worked really hard and I made money over a couple of decades. But what I actually find when you retrospectively go back and you never want to tell people this is all right, you lost a hundred grand there. You paid five grand more a year in tax than you could have because you weren't really looking for advice. If that makes sense for you, the reason I always say this to people is engage somebody. At least get an assessment of where you're at, because sometimes there's a lot of corporate lingo but a lot of low-hanging fruit that can be kicked off straight away.

Speaker 2: 25:53

I find that a lot with people idealists in their 30s and 40s they may have an accountant. That may be the only kind of engagement they have in the financial world. Nowadays not really typically accountants. Either people do their own tax or they just email their stuff through to their accountant. There's not really that proactive person in their life looking for solutions. If people sometimes make the assumption that their accountant or their mortgage broker is looking at those areas, I could tell you with almost certainty 90% of accountants or mortgage brokers won't, because they're so busy focusing on their day job. It takes that exceptional 10% to look at other areas that they could improve. To be frank, a lot of these professionals are very shy about waning outside of areas that they aren't 100% on. I think financial advice is a great area for being that opener to a lot of different areas of your finance, because it's our job to be proactive and project manage and make sure that you're actually covering all those areas. Does that make sense?

Speaker 1: 26:54

Yeah, it does. I like that proactive approach because, as you're saying, a lot of us these days are just sending our tax stuff to our accountants and they just do it through online. That's the extent of that relationship. That's what I do. It's just got me thinking it's really important to be proactive and to actually understand your goals a little bit more, rather than just to send off your tax return and then get some back or whatever, or maybe sometimes you have to pay some to the tax office and not understanding why. I think that proactive approach is really pivotal and so important that we all should really take that time. Even you take that time at the start from your busy schedule, but then you save yourself so much time and headaches and money down the track as well. I think it's really worth it to be investing in a financial advisor for that support.

Speaker 2: 27:56

As I said, I think it's got to be right. For you it's a bit like saying exercise and everyone's got to have a personal trainer. I don't really need it. From the motivational side of things, I'll rock up at the gym, but it's more that I'm getting a bit overweight at the moment. This is front of mind for me since having my second kid. I need to rock up, but also I'm very short on time. When I rock up to the gym I don't really have the several hours like I used to do before I was a business owner, before I had kids. I really need half an hour, 40 minutes to bang out what I need in the most efficient way and then beyond my way to move on with the next thing. Whereas some people need to work with I like personal trainer analogy because it worked quite well with financial Some people need that motivational side to actually show up every week.

Speaker 2: 28:40

It's about what fits best with your personality as well. Some people will go well. Actually I can do most of it myself. You might just need someone there to check your form Whereas you're doing weight exercises, for example, because I know that if you slightly get one exercise wrong, it can stuff you back, for example. It's about really thinking of it in that way what do you need? Someone to guide your form, someone to be your motivator, or someone just to make sure you're efficient. It kind of works the same in the financial world. So you've got to kind of work out what you need. Some people will go listen, I want to do it all myself, and that's fair enough. If you want to do that. My comeback to that would be the people that dedicate their whole job to being across this thing. If you think you can do it on your spare time, on the weekends, it's very difficult to do and you're probably missing something.

Speaker 1: 29:26

Yeah, and is there a common thread that you see between your clients of what they need or what they're lacking in terms from a psychological perspective or from their money story, the way they've dealt with it? Is there like a common thread that you generally see?

Speaker 2: 29:42

Yeah, it's definitely. There's that lack of clarity to make a decision right. So, like working backwards before, if we don't kind of know what you're doing, at least in the next three to 10 years, it's very hard to commit to bigger changes like, hey, do we upgrade the home? Do we do that renovation? Do we invest in an investment property? We, do we put money in share? So they end up just putting it in the two hard basket and doing nothing.

Speaker 2: 30:05

So is that feeling of being Overwhelmed but in working with someone like me. So I got well, let's just work on getting the foundations in place today so money coming into your life is managed well. Then let's map out the next 10 years ago broadly, in the ideal world. Here's where heading. Let's look at all the roadblocks that will come along the way. Again, we can't identify them all, but there will be things that go wrong. Let's go through those scenarios and go well, what would we do when we go through these roadblocks again, preforming it? And then that gives us a confidence to make those big decisions around.

Speaker 2: 30:39

I was working with a couple last week, for example, and they're looking at either a major renovation to their home to potentially the renovation would be 300,000 to half a million dollars to spend on the home or they move right. So that stuck at the decision point and they've been stuck there for two years because I know they need more room, that kids are getting older, but all this pieces can't move together. All the stuff going on and they just go to a basket will push it down the road a little bit more and then eventually they need to make a decision. And that's danger point right, because if I make the wrong decision it's very costly to talk about hundreds of thousands dollars in that point. But often there's things that get missed along the way. That was the emphasis to come to me for advice but we've found 10, 15 immediate things that they could work on to be in a better or healthier financial position.

Speaker 1: 31:30

And I think the key there is like the lesson that I got from that story, from your clients as well. I just don't wait till it's like that tipping point, that pain threshold where it's like all too consuming. Like be proactive, as we were saying before, before it gets to that scary point and, yeah, like you still could jump in and help out. Of course, so it's not the end of the world, but I think it's really important to take that step forward before you lose any more money or before it's just overly overwhelming, I think.

Speaker 2: 32:03

I think that's the other thing is on, whereas people often think, hail, I'll go to a financial advisor either when I have the complexity in my life to need it or when I get in financial trouble.

Speaker 2: 32:12

Right, it's a bit like that fitness analogy if you keep going, you only get stronger, but if you stop showing up to the gym or stop going for your run, it falls off pretty quickly. And when those things come, it's almost like you're calling up to get insurance when your house is on fire is a bit late, and I'm saying this from the point of not people that is even struggling with dead. And those top of people is people that are extremely successful. I've seen people that you know have salaries in excess of half a million dollars get themselves in a lifestyle that they didn't want. I've seen people with millions of dollars in assets get in positions where the whole world sees them as successful but the life they've designed themselves that don't feel successful and they feel very trapped. So it's almost like saying it doesn't really matter where you're at. There's probably benefit of getting an assessment of where you are and where you want to get to. It's an a point as to when you want to invest in yourself to just keep that accountability there.

Speaker 1: 33:12

Yeah, absolutely. And someone that is considering to work with the financial advisor or they're really wanting to take charge of their financial goals, like what's one step that they can take today? If it's just the one thing that they can do today, like what would that look like?

Speaker 2: 33:27

To engage your financial advisor.

Speaker 1: 33:28

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 33:29

Well, they could check out my website. So it's sandwich house dot com. That's my personal website. That will redirect you to my company site and on my website I have a whole heap of free resources. But I also have a guide on that for getting your money sorted. So that'll step you through the initial stages that I take clients through to start getting momentum. You know that's areas to think about just to Get the framework right for starting to actually get control. This again I've worked with people that have had millions of dollars in the bank and they just paralyzed by kind of fear about what to do with that money think lottery winners or inheritance is people like that and I've had people that are at the opposite end where they've had an excessive $100,000 in credit card debt. Those are those people made momentum and just started and going, hey, we don't want to be here, we want to do something about it. So that's it, my detail, that my process, and happy to share that with anybody.

Speaker 1: 34:20

Amazing, and I'll link that in the show notes as well, so people can contact you and look more into those resources. To and before we wrap up. Something I ask all of my guests is what does career confidence mean to you and what's the one tip you can offer my audience to feel more confident in their career?

Speaker 2: 34:39

I guess what I would say is too many people focus on hammering the next night and they don't really think about what they're actually building right. So, in terms of people that I see, they've committed to the university degree, maybe they've done a five year degree, maybe they've gone back into a master's and they've got this, put a lot of sun, costs into that and actually going back and going, hey, am I enjoying what I'm doing? Is this what I want to do for the next 20 years? And I'm maxed out on my growth and thinking about that and that's where so like you would come in real.

Speaker 2: 35:09

But I guess what I would encourage people more to do is to know where they are in their life financially now and where they want to get to. Because if you don't know that, you could keep on the sense of the world for 20 or 30 years and really regret some decisions later in life. So just think what do you actually want to do in life? If you don't define that, then you're just going to be hammering nails for the rest of the week, for a year, for a year.

Speaker 1: 35:31

Yeah, I really like that analogy. I haven't heard that before and this was a different answer, like I feel like every guest gives a different answer, which I love. It's unique to them and their experiences and their skill set as well, as they bring to the table too. So I really love that you tied that in with the financial side of things too, because they really do go hand in hand as well. It was really nice speaking to you today, sam. Really appreciate all your value and insights. I feel like you know, now stepping into a new year, a lot of my audience will start to be setting their financial goals and, you know, encourage them to reach out to you, to contact you, to have more of a chat with you and just to see where they're at and get the ball rolling, essentially so they can achieve their financial goals sooner rather than later. Yeah, thank you so much for your time, really appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 36:17

And Mary. I'll check one more bonus in there, given this is a new year's exercise. If anyone wants to email me at Sam at in tune FS dot com dot a u, which is I am that, t you and E. Fs for financial services dot com dot a u, I'll send you a goal setting exercise that I do with my paid clients for free, because I think, coming into the new year, often you're going to go through this point where you throw your goals out the window. But I'll throw that one in there for any of your listeners for free.

Speaker 1: 36:44

Thank you. That's amazing. That is really invaluable. Really appreciate that and know my audience will as well. Thank you again, sam. Thanks for tuning into the career confidence podcast, like what you learned today. Why not share this episode with your work, bestie, and leave us a five star review on wherever you listen to a podcast on, with absolutely love to get into more years and help more women just like you build fulfilling and thriving careers. Until next time.