Mel Browne

at auctions, interest rates are going up.

So I'm seeing people smashing down their mortgages and not investing and being scared to go to auctions because no one's there.

So therefore it mustn't be a good decision because the herd's not there.

Whereas financial empowerment is, this is my long-term goal.

I know where the path that I want to take with my investing and with my finances.

And I feel really confident in the decisions I'm making, regardless of what the noise is in the marketplace, the noises in the media or what everyone else is doing.

So me, that's financially empowering because I feel like I'm in control and I feel like I have choice.

You could use that analogy with shares.

You could use that analogy with business.

People are still behaving the same way where they're so scared to go against the herd.

But it is that confidence in your own decision and your choices.

For me, it's all about education.

And it's acknowledging that that's not always easy, particularly if it's not something you feel like you're naturally gifted at.

So earlier this year, my husband is the physio for the canoe slalom team.

So Jess Fox, who won gold at the last Olympics and that team.

So he's going to Paris with the team next year and he's been travelling a lot over there for work.

So we made the decision earlier this year, we're going to study French.

So it all went pear-shaped pretty quickly because he got really sick.

But in the few, we probably did it for about four or five weeks.

The first week I was like, oh, this is fun.