Melissa Browne

And it does.

So what I wanted to do is acknowledge in the book

that that is a thing, that it's real, that people aren't imagining it and that it can play it in our finances in a way that's absolutely destructive.

Where that is, with me, it was never an addictive behaviour, but it was compulsive where it was working and hustling and spending.

So I would get caught in this sabotage cycle.

But for others, it is addictive shopping.

It's addictive gambling.

And what the stats are telling us is that this is on a rise, on the rise in our society.

And what we want to do is acknowledge it and to tell people and what I've suggested all the way through that chapter is that people seek help through a financial counsellor and a therapist.

It's the only way.

That's not the sort of thing that you can fix by looking at financial habits.

That's the deeper work to realise and understand.

why that addiction is there and to get serious help with that.

And I've put phone numbers and where to go for help for that.

But my concern during this time is what we know from the stats, over 2 million people grabbed money out of super the first time, that 10 grand, 63% spent it on discretionary spending.

And for guys, the number one thing that they spent it on was online gambling.

And for me, not all of that online gambling would have been addictive.

Some of it would have been.

And that, for me, is just heartbreaking to know that this is occurring.

So in there, I do put the signs to look out for.