Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to separate bathrooms. We would like to
Speaker 1: acknowledge the Gadgo people of the Eora Nation, the traditional
Speaker 1: custodians of this land, and pay our respects to the elders,
Speaker 1: both past and present.
Speaker 2: Hello. From wherever you're listening this from. I'm Ali Daddo.
Speaker 3: I'm cam Dada. Wherever you're listening this from. There's a
Speaker 3: two in there, isn't there? I know, not being picky,
Speaker 3: I just say that again.
Speaker 4: I know it's okay. I love that you said it,
Speaker 4: and it's so good.
Speaker 1: I just should be in radio. I mean, I just
Speaker 1: think my language is amazing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you present ideas really well.
Speaker 2: You're my grammar. I make up work.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean that's the thing.
Speaker 3: You listen to separate bathrooms, and you can learn more
Speaker 3: about the English language.
Speaker 2: Can learn more punctual, how to speak.
Speaker 3: Learn learn to be more punctional. You get some electrocution
Speaker 3: lessons to speak more punctional.
Speaker 2: Exactly.
Speaker 3: I love that today we're going to be learning to
Speaker 3: speak more punctional about money?
Speaker 4: Correct, money? Money? Why did I just suddenly lean into
Speaker 4: a Donald Trump thing? It's weird because he's all.
Speaker 3: About the money, isn't He's a transactional fellow. Anyway, enough
Speaker 3: about that, we've certainly had our ups and downs with money.
Speaker 3: Honey brings up some emotions for me.
Speaker 1: I know, yeah, I know, you're still PTSD on money.
Speaker 4: I am a bit, Yeah, I'm a bit, but that's okay.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I've had forty years in the entertainment business.
Speaker 4: Contracts sometimes come and sometimes go. We've got to be
Speaker 4: okay with it.
Speaker 3: Look, it is a safe bet to say that most
Speaker 3: of us want to not only have more money, but
Speaker 3: we want to be better at using the money that
Speaker 3: we are getting.
Speaker 2: Correct.
Speaker 1: Well, we have Tash and James Millard on the podcast
Speaker 1: day and they've got a mission to help us and
Speaker 1: to help you together.
Speaker 3: They've created and operate a financial planning company. It's called
Speaker 3: Sufficient Funds.
Speaker 2: And James actually has a book out, but it's called
Speaker 2: Insufficient Funds Making the right money Decisions to bring your
Speaker 2: big plans to life. Now.
Speaker 1: The way they've written insufficient though, they've got like the
Speaker 1: im sort of faded into the background, and then the
Speaker 1: sufficient part of that word is in bold, so it's
Speaker 1: sort of like you go from insufficient to sufficient funds.
Speaker 4: That's why, that's why it's subliminal suggestion.
Speaker 3: It's interesting because that word insufficient funds talk about PTSD
Speaker 3: because how many times in the past have we stood
Speaker 3: in the line at so many times as the market
Speaker 3: and you pay for your food and your groceries and
Speaker 3: then insufficient funds come down.
Speaker 2: Only the groceries there and go come back.
Speaker 4: Ye'd be right back to get this stuff. Yep.
Speaker 1: So the book is it's about to plan your future
Speaker 1: and find financial freedom and define what sufficient means to you.
Speaker 2: And it's not just about settling for less.
Speaker 3: I like that, it's get a definition. Yeah, So because
Speaker 3: often we have these terms used. We use the terms
Speaker 3: they're delivered on us, but people have different definitions for
Speaker 3: what they are. So it's good to get clear on that.
Speaker 3: All right, we're hoping to get the inside scoop and
Speaker 3: maybe a little more. Welcome Tash and James Millard, you too,
Speaker 3: Tash and James. Welcome to separate bathrooms.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Thank you very much.
Speaker 3: Before we get into the subject of money and how
Speaker 3: it makes most of us cuckoo, this is a relationship podcast.
Speaker 3: Now you guys work together, you're in money. We'll get
Speaker 3: to that a bit later. As I said, how did
Speaker 3: you two meet as he finally gets to it.
Speaker 5: I love this one. What did you start with that?
Speaker 4: Tash?
Speaker 6: Sure? So we actually met at UNI so interestingly enough,
Speaker 6: James was studying the same thing as me, which was science,
Speaker 6: so it wasn't finance back then. And we actually met
Speaker 6: out at a nightclub.
Speaker 5: We met at a nightclub called Surf City Old School,
Speaker 5: unfortunately is no longer.
Speaker 2: Where was that Newcastle?
Speaker 6: Did you?
Speaker 5: Says new Castle?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Was that in the last millennium or this millennium?
Speaker 5: It was right on the edge.
Speaker 3: So you met at a nightclub, which is kind of great,
Speaker 3: Allie and I met at a nightclub.
Speaker 2: Too, we did. It was pre organized, but it wasn't
Speaker 2: a nightclub.
Speaker 4: That's where.
Speaker 3: Correct and not about us?
Speaker 4: Was it love at first sight? What happened?
Speaker 6: Oh gosh, we were pretty young, so I'm not sure
Speaker 6: if I'm not sure?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: And how long were you? Were you dating a while
Speaker 2: before you pop the question? Did you?
Speaker 6: Yeah? I think we were about eight years Yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh, you gave it a good long shot, yeap.
Speaker 1: You weren't quite sure for a bit or you just
Speaker 1: wanted to stretch it out, probably.
Speaker 5: More stretching we were, Yeah, we we were early days
Speaker 5: at UNI. So there was Yeah, I don't know, it
Speaker 5: was a it was a good time.
Speaker 1: So by the time you guys married, were you then,
Speaker 1: because you went into finance first, didn't you, James?
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I I kind of I started at Union
Speaker 5: Science and was then into commerce. I rolled into a
Speaker 5: very boring corporate money job in Brisbane for a couple
Speaker 5: of years and went from there. So yeah, I was
Speaker 5: kind of right into the money world. Yeah, Tasha's story
Speaker 5: is probably a little bit different.
Speaker 6: Yeah, So we even though we started the business together
Speaker 6: six years ago, I was still I was actually on
Speaker 6: maternity leave at the time when we started, and then
Speaker 6: I went back into my corporate role, which was in
Speaker 6: medical research, so I was doing that for a while
Speaker 6: still until two years ago I jumped into the business.
Speaker 1: And tell us about though, that first moment of deciding
Speaker 1: to go start your own business, like what was going
Speaker 1: on for you at the time and in the world
Speaker 1: as well far.
Speaker 5: Out So, I mean we were Tash was Tasha was
Speaker 5: pregnant with our second child at the time, and we
Speaker 5: were living in Sydney in the wonderful Queenscliff and gorgeous.
Speaker 5: Kind of dropped into a mortgage that was really extending
Speaker 5: ourselves a couple of years earlier, and then made the call.
Speaker 5: I started a business with two others and that wasn't
Speaker 5: really going where we thought it would, so we made
Speaker 5: this split and then Hash and I started Sufficient Funds
Speaker 5: together at the start of July twenty eighteen, which and
Speaker 5: Eden was born in August twenty eighteen, so our two
Speaker 5: babies were well two of them, business and Eden all
Speaker 5: at the same time. And yeah, that was that was
Speaker 5: an incredibly rocky start.
Speaker 6: He was born premier, so it was a lot of
Speaker 6: time in hospital, right, Yeah, we kind of had to
Speaker 6: drop everything at that point in time, didn't we.
Speaker 5: Yeah, what was it a month in hospital before he
Speaker 5: was born, and then a month after in and out
Speaker 5: a bit more after that, So yeah, we had like
Speaker 5: that was a I mean, we got a lot out
Speaker 5: of that. That was probably one of those lessons very
Speaker 5: early on in business especially, but in life it just
Speaker 5: you sometimes you just got to drop everything in perspective,
Speaker 5: just takes over. You kind of have no choice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, tell us about the business because you are
Speaker 1: a finance business basically, but tell us a bit more
Speaker 1: about it because the way you sort of approach money
Speaker 1: and your clients is a little bit different, and I
Speaker 1: actually really loved how you approach that.
Speaker 5: Yeah. So, I mean the focus is always for me,
Speaker 5: and kind of where I've lean in terms of the
Speaker 5: money stuff is that that side of things isn't very approachable,
Speaker 5: as most of the world will agree, I'm sure, and
Speaker 5: so we lean pretty heavily towards life and then life
Speaker 5: being let's get really clear on all of that, so
Speaker 5: that then you can allow your money plan just to
Speaker 5: facilitate that. And money really is an enabler and that's it.
Speaker 5: So don't get stuck and caught up in it and
Speaker 5: what you're doing and how you're doing it. Just make
Speaker 5: a plan around aligning your decisions to everything you want
Speaker 5: to do, that you actually value, that you really care about,
Speaker 5: and the money side of things. Once you get that right,
Speaker 5: it can take care of itself.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I love that.
Speaker 3: I was sitting next to a guy an aeroplane on
Speaker 3: an international flight. We were up the front, I was
Speaker 3: being paid for up the front of the plane. I
Speaker 3: had no business being out there except that I was there,
Speaker 3: and he was clearly very wealthy with his dripping in
Speaker 3: gold and a roll, excellent sort of stuff.
Speaker 4: And we're having a chat about nothing.
Speaker 3: About two hours into the flight, clup my glasses, Champagne.
Speaker 3: I leant over to him and I said, what is
Speaker 3: your definition of money? And he said that's a good question.
Speaker 4: And then he looked at me his square in the eye.
Speaker 4: He goes lube.
Speaker 1: And I'm really, he owns a loube business, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: astro glide or something like that.
Speaker 2: Could you imagine my own at Gli.
Speaker 4: Valve, you know what I mean? Val Yeah?
Speaker 3: He no, he said lubricants. And he said it's it's
Speaker 3: simple as that. He said, you really shouldn't be scared
Speaker 3: of money. He said, it's just just call more in
Speaker 3: and I said, it's probably easy for you to say.
Speaker 4: I don't remember how the rest of the conversation went, do.
Speaker 1: You you you asked him for a million dollars years
Speaker 1: because you do?
Speaker 2: You have some more, mate, You spare a mill.
Speaker 4: You've got five hundred of them. You're not going to
Speaker 4: miss one, just one. Come on, do you have a
Speaker 4: definition of money?
Speaker 5: What is it?
Speaker 1: Few?
Speaker 6: I don't know if I've got a definition of money.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's it just comes back to that. It's
Speaker 5: just it's there to do all the things you want
Speaker 5: to do. It's not a like don't don't make it
Speaker 5: the core. Don't make it the core of what you're
Speaker 5: trying to do, right, Like this, this idea of money,
Speaker 5: money is scary, and and you just want to go,
Speaker 5: where's my life at? And how do I just align
Speaker 5: it with that? And I mean, we can unpack if
Speaker 5: you want to to how to do that. And that's
Speaker 5: kind of what we attacked in the book is some
Speaker 5: really critical steps in just getting clear on what you
Speaker 5: want to do and then bring it together.
Speaker 4: So it's really okay, so that's it.
Speaker 3: Then have an idea about what it is you want
Speaker 3: to do, and then and then take action based on
Speaker 3: that rather than like, shit, we just got to make money,
Speaker 3: and the stress all around that.
Speaker 5: As advisors where we're constantly approached by people who come thinking, well,
Speaker 5: they're money people, we better tell them our money problems
Speaker 5: or our money goals, right, And that's critical and it's
Speaker 5: all part of it. But if you go to an
Speaker 5: advisor and they say to you, what are your goals,
Speaker 5: you're going to straight away naturally say well, I want
Speaker 5: to reduce tax or save more or invest or deal
Speaker 5: with this lump some of just got inheritance or whatever
Speaker 5: it might be. And if you lead with money, you
Speaker 5: skip over the important stuff. You dive straight into trying
Speaker 5: to fix, into solutions mode, trying to fix those money problems.
Speaker 5: All of a sudden, life takes over and everything else
Speaker 5: changes and the plan. At worst, the plan can completely
Speaker 5: fall apart because you're investing, but you forgot why. And
Speaker 5: so if you can come back to get clear on
Speaker 5: the stuff up front that actually matters, list your values,
Speaker 5: out list your goals, think about milestones that are coming up,
Speaker 5: all of that sort of thing. We call this define
Speaker 5: and it's the first step. It's the missing step really
Speaker 5: for how to attack your money plan.
Speaker 6: And it can be so much more scary when you
Speaker 6: look at it from a financial perspective or this financial jargon.
Speaker 6: If you look at it from life. Everyone's got life goals.
Speaker 6: Everyone understands what they want to do next, what they
Speaker 6: would like to achieve in the next five to ten years. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 6: just makes it easy.
Speaker 1: Tash, have you seen some really great success stories from
Speaker 1: the advice that your company give to people.
Speaker 6: I think we see and you know, I'm not personally
Speaker 6: a financial advisor, but through the business, we see people
Speaker 6: achieving their goals every day. So that's something that I
Speaker 6: think we're very lucky to see that. We see we
Speaker 6: definitely see people come to us that aren't in the
Speaker 6: best spot, but we also see the amazing work that
Speaker 6: comes through every day. If I can think of, you know,
Speaker 6: people that have been left with unfortunately large inheritances, I
Speaker 6: can think of her client who was widowed and she
Speaker 6: had to really figure out where to go from there,
Speaker 6: and to see her move on from that from a
Speaker 6: you know, a life goals perspective, but then also get
Speaker 6: her money sorted and feel confident getting your feed back
Speaker 6: under it was really that something that stayed with me.
Speaker 3: It's interesting you say that because you said unfortunate and
Speaker 3: a large sum of money, you know, in the same sentence,
Speaker 3: and that's not normally well, I wouldn't have thought that
Speaker 3: would be an unfortunate event.
Speaker 2: But under the circumstances.
Speaker 4: As a widower.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, campslow dollar signs.
Speaker 1: Are got excited about someone's life being someone.
Speaker 4: Maybe that's it. Maybe that's what I just go A
Speaker 4: big chunk of money. My god, it's so driven by money.
Speaker 4: It's terrible.
Speaker 2: Not actually driven by money.
Speaker 4: I wish we had more.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you need to come and work with us.
Speaker 4: Can we do? That's the thing.
Speaker 1: And now we've been reading your books well and I'm like,
Speaker 1: this is really good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, j Allie says to me when we were when
Speaker 3: we were preparing to meet you guys, She's like, I
Speaker 3: think we need to work with these two and I'm
Speaker 3: like really, She goes, yeah, I think so. So well,
Speaker 3: let's just have a chat to get to know them first.
Speaker 5: Well, so far Ali's Alie's good, which she's met that
Speaker 5: she's met the criteria. We'll work on you.
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, you can work on me. I guess where
Speaker 4: I was going with that question though, Tash was.
Speaker 3: I hear a lot about people who win the lottery
Speaker 3: and that's a good news thing and then two years
Speaker 3: their life is in the ship. Yeah right, because I'm
Speaker 3: guessing in America, if you win the lottery, that actually
Speaker 3: make you I think, well, I can't make you do
Speaker 3: anything because you're Fifth Amendment or whatever amendment it is,
Speaker 3: but they actually have you go through some kind of
Speaker 3: a money course on how to manage this massive, you know,
Speaker 3: win fall that you've experienced.
Speaker 4: Is that a common thing?
Speaker 2: Do you think winning the lottery?
Speaker 7: I'm not sure.
Speaker 3: Definitely is more common than not, but large summer money
Speaker 3: and not knowing how to deal with it at.
Speaker 6: The moment, we are about to see the biggest lot
Speaker 6: of inheritance come through from the from the elder generations
Speaker 6: through the younger generations, this intergenerational wealth transfer, and we're
Speaker 6: one of the things that we advocate for is having
Speaker 6: those conversations up up front early before people pass away
Speaker 6: and then you're left with figuring it out at the end.
Speaker 6: Why not see the benefits of passing that money onto
Speaker 6: your offspring a bit earlier.
Speaker 5: So, yeah, it's always that crazy time with someone coming
Speaker 5: to us, and it's often and because we work with
Speaker 5: a lot of people under fifty and sometimes they're in
Speaker 5: their kind of mid to late twenties with this lump
Speaker 5: lump sum like we're talking about. They didn't want it,
Speaker 5: they wish it was different, but now it's there and
Speaker 5: they feel this incredible responsibility to steward it well. And sure,
Speaker 5: you know, but sometimes, I mean, what we've been as
Speaker 5: Tash was alluding to there, is having these conversations with
Speaker 5: people earlier and getting it on the table. So if
Speaker 5: you've got an estate plan in place, tell your kids,
Speaker 5: tell your family, tell them who's getting what it looks like,
Speaker 5: so they can get their heads around it and if
Speaker 5: they've got a problem, bring it up now and we
Speaker 5: can talk about it. So, yeah, it's a very it
Speaker 5: can be a very touchy subject. I mean money is
Speaker 5: it's so taboo for everyone or so many Yeah, and
Speaker 5: you know, unfortunately that means it doesn't get talked about
Speaker 5: until it's too late.
Speaker 1: Sometimes do you have couples come in and they're at
Speaker 1: odds with each other.
Speaker 6: So not necessarily at odds with each other. We have
Speaker 6: so about seventy five percent of our clients are female,
Speaker 6: and it's mostly the females that are coming. Even when
Speaker 6: it's a couple, it's generally speaking the female that's leading
Speaker 6: that conversation. So sometimes we can see people with mal
Speaker 6: aligned goals or you know, not necessarily you know, someone
Speaker 6: might be on board and the other one's not. But
Speaker 6: generally that's kind of part of what we do. Unpack
Speaker 6: those goals up front and make sure that everyone's on
Speaker 6: the same page, because that's important. When you're a couple
Speaker 6: and you've got money that you're sharing, it's really important
Speaker 6: to get that right. And it's okay to have you know,
Speaker 6: the separate bank accounts. So that's a question we get
Speaker 6: off and is it okay to have a separate bank account.
Speaker 6: You can run off with your money or whatever. It's
Speaker 6: okay to do that, but it's the conversation upfront to
Speaker 6: have if you want the combined bank accounts or if
Speaker 6: you want the separate bank accounts or a mix of both.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Interesting.
Speaker 1: Cam encouraged me to get a separate bank account.
Speaker 2: Not that long ago.
Speaker 1: We've been together thirty two years and it's probably about
Speaker 1: a year ago.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we've been together for over thirty years and
Speaker 3: we just had a joint bank account.
Speaker 4: Every Yeah.
Speaker 3: She was saying, honey, you're making your own money. You
Speaker 3: really should be putting money away for yourself. And that
Speaker 3: was more about from the example of my mom, because
Speaker 3: she's always had her own little stash, you know, and
Speaker 3: she'll give her grandkids a present, or she'd be up
Speaker 3: selling her pottery and she'd put her money in her
Speaker 3: own bank account, you know. So I thought it was
Speaker 3: important that you had it.
Speaker 4: Is it? Are you glad you have that?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: And there was an I remember we had many many
Speaker 2: episodes ago there she's.
Speaker 4: Got more money than God. By the true so I
Speaker 4: have no access to it.
Speaker 1: Think no, But I remember this female money advisor who
Speaker 1: talked about that, because I don't know if you've come
Speaker 1: across this as well, Tash and James, that a lot
Speaker 1: of women often don't have their own account and there's
Speaker 1: such an empowerment in that. And I feel so empowered
Speaker 1: by having my own bank account. I absolutely love it
Speaker 1: and that's good.
Speaker 2: I really like.
Speaker 1: It feels so good to me and I love watching
Speaker 1: it grow. And I love to be able to go
Speaker 1: Let me treat you, Cam, It's my treat, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. I just love to be able to
Speaker 1: do that. And yeah, same buying stuff with the kids,
Speaker 1: or I mean, my trip to Tahiti's coming up on my.
Speaker 2: Own and I just can't wait.
Speaker 4: To go on that.
Speaker 5: How ridiculous is it that we're actually having this discussion though, right?
Speaker 5: I mean, the equity between partners should should be there,
Speaker 5: and you know it's not necessarily in so many cases
Speaker 5: we had, I mean, one part that we like we
Speaker 5: added into the book and put a kind of a
Speaker 5: fairly big section on it was this idea the gender
Speaker 5: pay gap and gender super gap that then comes as
Speaker 5: a result, and that's not necessarily driven by anything other
Speaker 5: than the systemic issues around the government and how we
Speaker 5: support people when they start a family, especially, and things
Speaker 5: like superbalances starting off similarly, and yeah, the wage balance
Speaker 5: might be off, and if that's the case, then they
Speaker 5: stop work and it might be the female is having
Speaker 5: the child and spending more time off and returning to
Speaker 5: part time and that's all generally, that's a natural occurrence
Speaker 5: for so many, but it lends itself to them getting
Speaker 5: closer to retirement with a superbalance that's way off in
Speaker 5: terms of partners. And I mean, there's all sorts of things.
Speaker 5: I actually delivered a plan to a clients yesterday and
Speaker 5: we talked through he was actually going to split twenty
Speaker 5: five percent of his contributions into her account. And you
Speaker 5: can do that if you meet all the criteria. So
Speaker 5: there are options to kind of do things like that.
Speaker 5: So even if you do see yourself together forever, which
Speaker 5: most people would say, yeah, that's the case for us,
Speaker 5: it's sometimes it's not going to be the case, right,
Speaker 5: And so having a bit more stability, even just in
Speaker 5: the numbers like that, even with that very boring topic
Speaker 5: of super can actually change someone's complete like outlook on
Speaker 5: it all.
Speaker 1: Is there something as basic that you could give us
Speaker 1: as three top financial tips?
Speaker 2: Is that really hard to do?
Speaker 6: No? No, And you know we try and make everything
Speaker 6: really relaxed and relatable, so absolutely we can. We can
Speaker 6: do that. So Number one, we definitely advocate for just
Speaker 6: knowing where your money is going, so ins and outs
Speaker 6: of your money, opening up your bank account and just
Speaker 6: seeing where is your money and the number of people
Speaker 6: that just don't do this or don't have a good
Speaker 6: rhythm around doing it is astounding. So I think that's
Speaker 6: just an easy one. You can sit in a waiting
Speaker 6: room on a train and just open up your bank
Speaker 6: accounts and just have a scroll through.
Speaker 5: Getting on the same page is a really important part.
Speaker 5: And this comes back to that same that overall kind
Speaker 5: of discussion around being super clear on what you want
Speaker 5: to achieve. That's not an individual discussion. That's what that
Speaker 5: part we call define is get really clear on your goals.
Speaker 5: And you guys can have joint goals, but you're also
Speaker 5: going to have individual ones. Yeah are you are you
Speaker 5: taking Cam to Tahiti?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 5: No, so there you go.
Speaker 4: To do that?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 6: Where are you going?
Speaker 4: Probably go? I'm making this up?
Speaker 2: No, one's no one's going anywhere, but it does luxury escape.
Speaker 1: It's nice at home making spaghetti pollinaise to my younger.
Speaker 4: D next year.
Speaker 3: Next year, we're going somewhere special together, are we?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Surprised?
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, you.
Speaker 4: Have a big celebration next year for you job.
Speaker 2: That's anyway? All right, go ahead, go ahead?
Speaker 5: Yes, Later, getting control, getting control of your money, getting
Speaker 5: super clear on what you want to achieve, And that's
Speaker 5: defining it before you start planning for it. And then
Speaker 5: I mean something we could probably talk all day about
Speaker 5: and we won't. But defending the section in the book,
Speaker 5: it's the fourth chapter. It's called defend and it's when
Speaker 5: it shit hits the fan. And this is, you know,
Speaker 5: just making sure that couples have a plan for it
Speaker 5: going wrong. I mean a lot of people talk about
Speaker 5: having an emergency fund, but also having that discussion of
Speaker 5: what happens if we have to use it and how
Speaker 5: do we bounce back from that? And I mean that
Speaker 5: shows up in all sorts of ways. It depends where
Speaker 5: you're at. It might be starting a family, like we
Speaker 5: had the fun of in and around all of that
Speaker 5: at the same time as the business and the mortgage
Speaker 5: was huge, or it could be the widow scenario or
Speaker 5: divorce or whatever else it might be. So you've got
Speaker 5: your kind of outs. And I mean, something very boring
Speaker 5: that we talk about, super critical in terms of financial planning,
Speaker 5: is that that idea of income protection insurance, having life insurance,
Speaker 5: having mechanisms in place where if it really goes wrong
Speaker 5: and you don't fall apart completely financially.
Speaker 4: So you do advocate for that for insurances.
Speaker 5: Yeah, definitely, And I mean they're like those types of
Speaker 5: insurances that we're talking to clients about, Like it's not
Speaker 5: a broken finger, something's really gone wrong.
Speaker 2: You see, you're.
Speaker 5: Injured, you can't work, and in the money side of things,
Speaker 5: everything can completely fall apart, and most of the stuff
Speaker 5: is something you can't, like you're either selling if you've
Speaker 5: built up some decent assets, you could sell things to
Speaker 5: get yourself through. But in many cases it's it's just
Speaker 5: a looking at having a look at that and saying, well,
Speaker 5: if this happened, where would we be, and could insurance
Speaker 5: that make sure it's affordable. Some of it can be
Speaker 5: paid through super as well, Can that fill the gaps
Speaker 5: if we need it?
Speaker 2: All the tricks of the trade, they're so good.
Speaker 1: I also heard too that particularly as the female in
Speaker 1: the relationship. I'm sure it goes both ways as well,
Speaker 1: but make sure you know, like whose name is on
Speaker 1: the account, like I've heard of like when the husband's
Speaker 1: passed away and it's a it's all in his name
Speaker 1: and the wife has difficulty getting access.
Speaker 2: To the accounts. Is that correct because she hasn't of it?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I mean this comes back to
Speaker 5: that idea of joint accounts for almost everything, right, And
Speaker 5: I mean if you're a couple and you're trying to
Speaker 5: work this through, we do a lot of work in
Speaker 5: that that idea of blending or merging accounts. Often if
Speaker 5: people are like you, guys, were fully joint right until
Speaker 5: you set up your separate account. But a lot of
Speaker 5: couples that are newer will have everything separate and then
Speaker 5: they'll join maybe one account for expenses because they're paying
Speaker 5: the rent or the mortgage together, and then it grows
Speaker 5: from there. But often people get stuck then. And I mean, ultimately,
Speaker 5: the perfect the perfect result for us is often ninety
Speaker 5: five percent of clients we do the same thing for
Speaker 5: in terms of couples, and they end up with their
Speaker 5: personal spinning out each but everything else is joint because
Speaker 5: most of the time, I mean, you're planning a life together,
Speaker 5: your goals are all joint in most cases.
Speaker 3: Anyway, the book is called Insufficient Funds Make the right
Speaker 3: money Decisions to bring your big plans to life. How
Speaker 3: soon after you guys formed your company Sufficient Funds did
Speaker 3: you decide to write the book.
Speaker 6: Well, it's pretty much straight away, wasn't it. We kind
Speaker 6: of had this micro goal of this will be a
Speaker 6: little tool that will help educate clients as they come
Speaker 6: on board. But it kind of it morphed into a
Speaker 6: much bigger project, didn't it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I did. It morphed into something that I mean
Speaker 5: now we're super proud of it. But I mean that
Speaker 5: idea of Insufficient Funds was from way back looking at
Speaker 5: the ATM slips and even in our UNI days we
Speaker 5: were selling trucker caps and T shirts to what we
Speaker 5: thought would be our big brand, the Surf, and that
Speaker 5: we'd sell to self for sixty million and never work
Speaker 5: a full time.
Speaker 2: That we all think that companies.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 5: That didn't happen and here we are. But we were
Speaker 5: looking back on that thinking, well, and that's where the
Speaker 5: name sufficient Funds came from in terms of the business
Speaker 5: was the flip side of that. It's no longer all
Speaker 5: time and no money. It's now less time and money.
Speaker 5: But how the hell do we bring it all together?
Speaker 5: So the book was insufficient Funds? How do we get
Speaker 5: to sufficient funds? And then those five kind of main
Speaker 5: steps to take that everyone can follow to get you there?
Speaker 1: Do you both as a couple celebrate financial milestones?
Speaker 2: And how do you do it? If you do do that?
Speaker 6: So we have in the past, I think we need
Speaker 6: to do it more. And actually I had a really
Speaker 6: good We've just started this new idea which I've stolen
Speaker 6: from someone else, But it's having a bottle of wine.
Speaker 6: If you've given a really nice bottle of wine and
Speaker 6: you put a label on it and write your goal
Speaker 6: on it. So my house, I want to hit this
Speaker 6: particular salary or whatever it is, and then when you've
Speaker 6: hit that goal, you enjoy that wine together.
Speaker 3: I love that with the person that gave it to you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so nice. Yeah, just with you and me?
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: The reason I said that with the person that gave
Speaker 3: it to is I when I'm giving a bottle of wine.
Speaker 3: I will write the person's name, gave me the bottle
Speaker 3: of wine. And then maybe if they you know, we're
Speaker 3: still pals to years later and they come over, I'll
Speaker 3: pull that bottle out and go I remember this, that's
Speaker 3: had a moment to rest.
Speaker 4: And that's always nice sharing that. I like that saying that.
Speaker 5: In saying that, we've probably always got bottles in the
Speaker 5: fridge ready to go, so it doesn't have to be special.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Sure, if there's bubbles ready to go, I mean the
Speaker 5: smaller milestones will crack something very quickly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's nice.
Speaker 1: It's nice to celebrate even the small ones because it
Speaker 1: feels like you're moving in the right direction.
Speaker 2: Okay, asking for a friend. So, say, if there was
Speaker 2: a couple that.
Speaker 1: Really wanted to buy a house and they basically realized
Speaker 1: that they are of a certain age and banks don't
Speaker 1: want to give them much of a loan because they're
Speaker 1: of a certain age. Now, is there any advice for
Speaker 1: those couples?
Speaker 6: Speaking generally, James.
Speaker 3: So, because we're not writing this down or anything.
Speaker 5: Most of the time, I mean.
Speaker 2: It's like our friends that need help.
Speaker 5: So for your friends, there are the bank. Unfortunately, what
Speaker 5: the bank does is they're looking at, hey, we're going
Speaker 5: to lend you for a loan. We're going to we're
Speaker 5: going to put it up for thirty.
Speaker 1: Years, I know.
Speaker 5: And that's the challenge they're looking at. Okay, well, where
Speaker 5: are you at that point in time? And will you
Speaker 5: be working? And what does that maybe look like?
Speaker 4: Young at hand, so young at heart, fit and healthy.
Speaker 2: Baby, you'll be mighty in thirty one we're still via
Speaker 2: Island working.
Speaker 4: I'll be virile. Can I be working? Bloody?
Speaker 3: Dick Van Dyke just got nominated for a Daytime Emmy
Speaker 3: Award and he's almost one hundred I know, so I can.
Speaker 2: Bet you beyond his own house it does.
Speaker 4: So go ahead, Jenny's there's.
Speaker 5: No there's no cap on running Smooth FM.
Speaker 4: Surely exactly.
Speaker 5: Yes, they're looking for exit strategies and so you've got
Speaker 5: to come up with a plan around, well, if we are,
Speaker 5: if we're ninety and we can't we're not working and
Speaker 5: we can't afford this. Can we pay out the loan
Speaker 5: with superbalances other investment? Is there anything else there that
Speaker 5: would facilitate all of that to make sure that they
Speaker 5: don't have to sell the house if you stop working
Speaker 5: and stop earning, so right, if you can, yeah, if
Speaker 5: you can, if you can drum up a proper story
Speaker 5: around that, or if you don't, if you don't have
Speaker 5: a good mortgage broker, well then you can talk to
Speaker 5: us or someone else and sort that out.
Speaker 4: See.
Speaker 3: Also, we are so fortunate guys in that all of
Speaker 3: our parents are still alive. And so I'm hoping. Although
Speaker 3: my dad did say to me, because hey Bartie, I'm
Speaker 3: spending all of your inheritance.
Speaker 4: It's good on your dad.
Speaker 2: There's also five of you, so get rid of it.
Speaker 3: All I said, you just make your last check bounce,
Speaker 3: have fun, you know, to go for it. And so
Speaker 3: I guess in that, like when you talked about the
Speaker 3: transfer of wealth that's coming, of generational wealth that is coming.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I'm not relying on any transformation of wealth from our folks,
Speaker 3: like I really mean it. I want them to spend
Speaker 3: their money and have a great time. They absolutely have
Speaker 3: worked a lifetime to enjoy.
Speaker 4: Whatever they want. Yeah, you know. At the same time,
Speaker 4: Oh my fuck, terrible area.
Speaker 5: We're trying to buy hous here.
Speaker 2: Do you have any dreams or aspirations for your future?
Speaker 4: Oh we're best seller.
Speaker 6: So I think for us, it's really that concept of
Speaker 6: complete freedom. So we're already kind of working towards that.
Speaker 6: So I think that's putting all our eggs in the
Speaker 6: one basket with the business is really a step towards that.
Speaker 6: And then yeah, freedom of time, freedom of location.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean we started we started sufficient funds remotely
Speaker 5: and we've got a team of twenty four now and
Speaker 5: everyone's working from home and so like it kind of
Speaker 5: we could do it from anywhere, and that was kind
Speaker 5: of the initial goal. But you still need the money
Speaker 5: to support it. And I mean, because I guess what
Speaker 5: we love is the fact that we probably don't see
Speaker 5: ourselves selling this an anytime because if we can keep
Speaker 5: it rolling the way it's going, it's a lot of
Speaker 5: fun and good and we feel like we're doing good
Speaker 5: work and we're getting results for clients, and so I mean,
Speaker 5: ultimately it's it's just it needs to be more profitable
Speaker 5: and support us to be able to go and do
Speaker 5: all the fun things we want to do and probably
Speaker 5: dial things back at some point. But yeah, complete freedom
Speaker 5: and more adventure.
Speaker 3: So our listener can find you online and can work
Speaker 3: with you from anywhere. Like you said, you can you
Speaker 3: can be remotely have meetings on Zoom and things like that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, everything's everything's online excellent.
Speaker 4: That's not helpful.
Speaker 1: And you guys have got three it's three kids, two kids,
Speaker 1: two kids?
Speaker 2: So are you already?
Speaker 4: How old are they?
Speaker 6: Seven? And just about to be six on the weekend?
Speaker 2: Ah, happy birthday? Just about to be six.
Speaker 1: So you they're lucky kids because you will know how
Speaker 1: to assist them from an early age. I would imagine
Speaker 1: money wise, because that was something love my parents.
Speaker 2: But they had to that like all the things like I.
Speaker 1: Owned my own apartment when I was nineteen years old.
Speaker 1: Now if someone had to said keep the apartment because
Speaker 1: I had no reason.
Speaker 2: To sell it.
Speaker 1: If someone had is it, just keep it, we would
Speaker 1: be in a really good.
Speaker 4: Position, very different position.
Speaker 1: Like there's so many things that like you look back on,
Speaker 1: but you guys know that already.
Speaker 2: So your kids are going to be super money smart.
Speaker 5: We just we just make them negotiate on jobs and
Speaker 5: have the money if they Yeah, I mean, I guess
Speaker 5: the skills, it's.
Speaker 4: Skills.
Speaker 5: I think I think the sales skills is probably more
Speaker 5: important or as important as the money skills is being
Speaker 5: able to have conversations with people, and so yeah, we
Speaker 5: I mean we do it.
Speaker 6: We do.
Speaker 5: We do the savings, the jars and all of that
Speaker 5: sorde of things. And we don't like, we try not
Speaker 5: to reward everything. Because you live in our house, you've
Speaker 5: got to do some stuff. You got to help out. Yeah,
Speaker 5: but but yeah, I mean at a line, our daughter
Speaker 5: will come to us with a bunch of unfolded towers
Speaker 5: and go, hey, I'll follow these for a dollar.
Speaker 2: All right, right, Yeah, she's a good negotiator.
Speaker 1: And do you think it's ever too young to learn
Speaker 1: about sort of the value of savings and you know,
Speaker 1: understanding that side of things.
Speaker 6: I don't think so. I think so many people miss
Speaker 6: out on even the language just communicating about money. So
Speaker 6: I think, yeah, it's never too young.
Speaker 4: Yeah, great, All right, guys.
Speaker 3: The book is Insufficient Funds Make the Right Money Decisions
Speaker 3: to bring your big plans to life. It's available in
Speaker 3: all good bookstores.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, online as well.
Speaker 3: Okay, excellent, And you are at Sufficient Funds dot com
Speaker 3: dot au.
Speaker 5: That's the one.
Speaker 4: That's the one. All right.
Speaker 3: Before we're going to let you go, we're just going
Speaker 3: to hop into the shower for two minutes.
Speaker 4: We want you to answer these questions. Yeah, money shower.
Speaker 1: You might stay in now longer if it's some money, exactly.
Speaker 3: So, just we want you to both answer the question
Speaker 3: with an economy of water.
Speaker 4: Please.
Speaker 3: What's the most adorable habit you love about each other?
Speaker 5: Tash is talking in her sleep.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, nice and all the stories.
Speaker 6: Oh gosh, it's really help for me to decide one
Speaker 6: about you. I think when James gets an idea, he
Speaker 6: obsesses about it, So I do like to call him
Speaker 6: obsess so and he'll just yeah, he gets down a
Speaker 6: path and just runs for it. So it's much. I
Speaker 6: think it's a double edged.
Speaker 4: Sword though I love it.
Speaker 1: That sounds like a superpower obsess So is there a
Speaker 1: favorite moment that you would love to relive with each other?
Speaker 5: Yeah? The West Coast. We did a like a winner
Speaker 5: Bago trip down the west coast of the States. Oh nice,
Speaker 5: about a decade ago?
Speaker 6: Yeah, many kids?
Speaker 5: That was fun.
Speaker 7: Where we.
Speaker 5: So we did a couple of days in Vegas, then
Speaker 5: we flew up to Seattle and drove from Seattle all
Speaker 5: the way down. We took the Winner Bago as far
Speaker 5: as I think we did. We go into Yosemite, we
Speaker 5: did Smite and then San France dumped it there and
Speaker 5: got a I think we got a Mustang after that, did.
Speaker 6: The Mustang around Napper.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what a great trip. Yeah that wash How to
Speaker 2: beat that? Now you can choose the same.
Speaker 6: So the other one I would say is we did
Speaker 6: a bike trip where we rode a bike. We rode
Speaker 6: mountain bikes, a cross country mountain biking from Luang Prabang
Speaker 6: in Lao to Hanoi in Vietnam. And there was a
Speaker 6: point in that trip we we often say we're having
Speaker 6: a really hard day or a really hard moment. We
Speaker 6: say we're fou lowing. We had to climb this hill,
Speaker 6: this mountain that was just like ridiculous and we were
Speaker 6: definitely not fit enough for it. But we got to
Speaker 6: the top and I think nice.
Speaker 2: It was six up and it wasn't an electric pace, no, and.
Speaker 5: It was like we we booked this group trip and
Speaker 5: I don't want to really, that guy was going to
Speaker 5: tour it was the hottest We didn't realize, we didn't
Speaker 5: do any research. We just booked this group trip and
Speaker 5: no one was on it except us. So we got
Speaker 5: this private tour because because it was the hottest time
Speaker 5: of year, and it was also the time, so it's
Speaker 5: forty degrees every day and the guys that they do
Speaker 5: this thing they call slash and burning, where this one
Speaker 5: month of the year they just burn all their crops
Speaker 5: and so we're riding along in forty degrees just making inhaling.
Speaker 1: Just to add to the fun, the six k uphill.
Speaker 5: Was above the smoke.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 4: Well, all right, what the world needs now is patience.
Speaker 5: I think you want to elaborate.
Speaker 4: No, she said, that's good. Patients is good in the water.
Speaker 4: We're conserving water here.
Speaker 5: An ability to bite their tongue when we're going to
Speaker 5: say something silly, and that as everyone else.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, yeah, last question. One word to describe each other.
Speaker 7: Resilient, determined, Yeah, beautiful, great, beautiful, James and Tash, We've
Speaker 7: got some friends that we know are going to be
Speaker 7: calling you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that is really good.
Speaker 3: And I'm sure our listener has had their ears peaked
Speaker 3: as well, or certainly their wallets or their bank accounts correct.
Speaker 4: With what you have to offer. So thanks so much
Speaker 4: for being with us today.
Speaker 6: Thanks Cameron, Ali, thanks a lot, Thanks your time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, pleasure their book.
Speaker 1: As we were saying before I have started reading it,
Speaker 1: and it really is a readable finance like I am.
Speaker 2: I don't know any of the lingo. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I was so little about finance. But yeah, they've just
Speaker 1: written it in a very easy to read, you know,
Speaker 1: set out well, great way, and it's I'm really enjoying it.
Speaker 4: How often are you reading it? Are you reading it
Speaker 4: every day? Every day? Or no?
Speaker 1: No, just when I when I see it, I'm like ah,
Speaker 1: because I actually started reading it a lot and then
Speaker 1: I got life took over for a little bit. But
Speaker 1: I've picked it up again.
Speaker 4: And as alter picking it up, have you made any changes?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, no.
Speaker 2: I'm just ingesting the information.
Speaker 1: But what I what I want to do is actually
Speaker 1: talk to them in person and just see how they can,
Speaker 1: you know, assist us in reorganizing our life.
Speaker 4: Were you talking about us?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: No, no, just the friends can go first and they
Speaker 1: can Oh yeah, then.
Speaker 4: We'll go after good thought. Yeah, all right, it's good
Speaker 4: to know. I'm going to give too much of our
Speaker 4: personal life away here. Yeah, we can sneak around in
Speaker 4: the bathroom forever.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, all right, we're going to leave you.
Speaker 4: Thanks for being with us until soon take care