Chapter 1: What are we actually working for?
Welcome to How Do They Afford That, the podcast that peeks into the financial lives of everyday Australians. I'm Michael Thompson. I'm an author and the co-host of the business news podcast, Fear and Greed. And as always, I'm with Canna Campbell, financial planner and founder of Sugar Mama TV, the financial literacy platform covering Instagram, books, podcasts, YouTube, threads, TikTok and more.
Hello, Canna. Good morning. Now, today, a slightly bigger question, I think this is. We're setting a pretty high bar for us today. We spent a lot of time talking about saving and investing and building wealth, but it is worth stopping and asking, what are we actually working for? Are we doing it for more money, doing it for more freedom, more security, I don't know, something else altogether?
Chapter 2: What do people typically say they are working for financially?
What is your big why behind this?
Exactly. You have worked with a lot of clients over the years. What do people usually say when you ask them what they're working for financially?
So normally it starts with this kind of like surface level why. You know, I want to be able to retire. I want to have financial security. I want to pay off the home. And they're sort of blanket responses. Yeah.
Chapter 3: What deeper meanings lie behind financial goals?
But when you start to go deeper... There's actually so much more behind it and what that goal actually represents. So it often represents like more time, a slower pace, less stress, having like flexibility and choice. And then we start to explore, well, hang on, what does that then look like? Like, you know, what does that represent?
So is it perhaps having the ability to travel, to have more experiences and adventures, to be able to be perhaps maybe more generous with your time or even money with, you know, say, doing some charity work or...
Does it look like having the ability to be able to help children or grandchildren out or help pay for things like weddings or be able to take your whole family on a special international holiday, you know, perhaps somewhere where you grew up as a child? You know, you start to...
go so much deeper and have a much more meaningful conversation, you see things start to light up in people's eyes because they're like, okay, this is actually, I've been told I have to come to this appointment. I've been told I should be doing this, but now I get why I need to be having these conversations.
Chapter 4: How can financial goals impact our mindset and attitude?
And money is very rarely the end goal. It's actually what the money then allows you to do, but also what the money allows you to be. Yeah.
Okay, that is really interesting that you need to dig so far, that you need to ask so many kind of follow-up questions. And it makes me wonder then whether if people are kind of giving almost these default answers to these questions, does that then represent probably a bigger problem with the way that they are working as well?
They're almost on autopilot working towards some point in the future that they think they should be working towards later. or paying off the mortgage just because everyone else does it or they think everyone does it.
So often the goal is fine itself, but it's the lack of connection to that goal and the lack of deep understanding as to what that goal represents for them and feels like for them. Yeah.
And I think it's really important to invest time exploring, which is why I often say the importance of, you know, loving your goals, investing time exploring your goals and learning how to create them in a powerful, concise, you know, way for yourself to follow.
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Chapter 5: What happens when partners have different financial goals?
People will initially think numbers first, and there's a disconnect there. It's quite mindless, and I'd even say at times quite soulless. They're going off to work, doing this to pay the bills, doing this to eventually one day retire. Like, where's the passion and excitement in that? And how is that mindset and that attitude showing up?
But if I was to show you, well, you're going to work because you're going to be able to retire at age, you know, 60 on $80,000 a year and you'd be able to take a family on a holiday every year. Like, suddenly going to work is not so hard and painful and, you know.
And people think about numbers initially, but what they really want deep down when you can safely explore the goals and the why and what it means and the money story often where it came from is people want connection and they want freedom and they want to feel that they can contribute.
Do you see then that kind of impersonation of someone who's just going to work and just going through the motions to pay the bills, to pay the mortgage, all that kind of thing? They are just kind of like the autopilot goals.
Chapter 6: How can we balance living well now with future financial security?
But have you actually seen people then who are... chasing goals that are actually wrong for them entirely. And it's not until you kind of sit down and talk to them that they might actually have a goal to pay off the mortgage by 50. And once you actually get talking to them, it turns out that they don't, it doesn't actually matter to them. They don't mind having a mortgage that lasts a bit longer.
They want to be able to live a bit more freely now and travel a bit more and have a of people who are living according to the wrong goals entirely.
Yes. And this is where the power of financial literacy comes in because you can actually show people, well, hang on. Yes, that goal is a great goal to have, but you're also missing three quarters of the other picture here.
Chapter 7: What questions should we ask ourselves to clarify our financial goals?
And how those other important elements of your financial game plan and your goals actually all sort of kind of interdependent upon each other to help get you to where you want to be to actually achieve all the values behind those goals.
So, you know, sitting down with a financial planner and, you know, I always say to people when you're going to see a financial planner, spend time really thinking about what's important to you and what your goals are because that financial planner can then tell you whether you're
got the wrong goals you've got unrealistic expectations or you need to include other things in those goals and a classic example of this is where people are so focused on paying off the home loan yeah that they can and that they have been told that's what you're supposed to do and that's what genuinely believe and yes that is technically correct but they're also missing out on the importance of super the importance of diversification outside of the family home the importance of emergency money like so yes i definitely would have come across that plenty of times
Okay, this idea then though of just working so hard and working to get to this point somewhere in the future, do you think we confuse doing well financially with living well? That the two are in fact kind of can be slightly different things?
Yes. So, and I think also social media has a big element here where, you know, it's what looks like the, you know, you're living well, you know, you're ticking all the boxes, you've got, you know, the car, the outfit, the home, but then really what's going on behind the scenes. Mm. Are you really doing well?
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Chapter 8: How can financial literacy help in achieving personal goals?
Do you actually, from a financial literacy point of view, actually know that you are making good progress? Not to be the richest person, but to actually know that we are actually making progress, we're actually being intelligent and we have a respectful sense of balance in our lives with the goals that we're working on.
Because we come here with nothing and we leave with nothing, we have to have a respectful sense of balance and that we're honouring all the different pillars in our lives. So yes, there is a big difference between what looks like you're living well and actually genuinely living well.
And I think having that progress, which is not always linear and perfect, particularly right now, you know, sometimes the progress and process is actually just staying afloat. But then knowing when to change gears and tweak and change the journey and direction as things shift and change.
And it would certainly change depending on your stage of life as well, right? If you're younger or if you're mid-career or if you're approaching retirement, this question of what you're actually working for may evolve entirely.
Absolutely. And also things can suddenly change in life, you know, situations change and, you know, windfalls and then setbacks and challenges. And I think having that deep connection to your why and the big picture here is going to act as your beacon of light through tough times, through challenging times, because you know it's hard, you acknowledge it, but it is going to be worth it.
It will pay off. You will get there eventually and you will come out a stronger person, a better person, a more educated person when it comes to money, a wiser person.
Okay. On the other side of the break, I want to ask you how we figure this out because it's a big question, this idea of what you're actually working for. And I want to know how we can all answer that. because you talked about the various kind of follow-up questions that you as a financial planner had to ask to dig deeper.
So I'm curious to see whether we can kind of take a shortcut and just get to the core of it in an instant.
This is like a very fast initial financial planning appointment.
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