Speaker 1: Welcome to How Do They Afford That, The podcast that
Speaker 1: peaks into the financial lives of everyday Australians. I'm Michael Thompson.
Speaker 1: I'm an author and the co host of the business
Speaker 1: news podcast Fear and Greed, and as always I'm joined
Speaker 1: in the studio by financial planner Canna campbell Ley, founder
Speaker 1: of Sugar Mama TV, the financial literacy platform that is
Speaker 1: just about everywhere YouTube, Instagram, podcast like this one. Hello, Canna,
Speaker 1: good morning.
Speaker 2: How are you?
Speaker 1: I am well, and I'm intrigued because today's episode just
Speaker 1: a little bit different.
Speaker 2: It's actually one that I requested.
Speaker 1: Yes, which is you know what You're very insistent I
Speaker 1: want to talk about. Luck is basically what you said,
Speaker 1: and this idea of kind of why do some people
Speaker 1: seem to get ahead what seems to be very easily right,
Speaker 1: while others feel like they're constantly on the back foot.
Speaker 1: Is it luck, financial luck that is kind of playing
Speaker 1: a role here, or is it something else? Is there
Speaker 1: some kind of secret ingredient may be that it is
Speaker 1: causing them to get ahead? And if it is in
Speaker 1: fact luck, if it is some kind of financial luck,
Speaker 1: how can we improve it? If we feel like we
Speaker 1: are maybe the unlucky ones. When someone says right that
Speaker 1: they are financially lucky, what are they referring to? What
Speaker 1: are we kind of talking about here?
Speaker 2: So normally it's something like after the lucky event. So
Speaker 2: you know, someone has bought a home before a massive boom,
Speaker 2: or someone got a really high paid work opportunity or contract,
Speaker 2: or someone has financial support or you know particular type
Speaker 2: of like special education or is well connected to you know,
Speaker 2: a wealthy, successful uncle or a rich grandmother, or you know,
Speaker 2: they happen just to make the right investment at the
Speaker 2: right time. And this is where people, you know, I
Speaker 2: say it's after the event, because people are looking at
Speaker 2: the outcome completely disregarding the process behind the scene. Because underneath,
Speaker 2: luck is so much about the timing, the access, the
Speaker 2: exposure to the opportunity, the resilience, you know, because obviously
Speaker 2: some things are full of risk, and you've got to
Speaker 2: really sort of you know, if you're feeling nervous, you've
Speaker 2: got to weigh up all those risks, you know. And
Speaker 2: also they've got to have the ability to have the
Speaker 2: income or perhaps even the savings to be able to
Speaker 2: be in a position to actually take on those risks
Speaker 2: or borrow that money, or you know, actually be able
Speaker 2: to experience that particular event.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm already starting to get a feel for
Speaker 1: the way that you think about financial luck. Does this
Speaker 1: mean then that you don't think luck just as a
Speaker 1: as a kind of almost like a almost a supernatural
Speaker 1: thing plays a big role in financial outcomes. It's more
Speaker 1: about a combination of those other things.
Speaker 2: I think luck plays a huge element in someone's financial success.
Speaker 1: One day, but it's going to make a success alone.
Speaker 2: It isn't like I'm going to be really firm about that.
Speaker 2: You know. This is why say, if you look behind
Speaker 2: the scenes, go deeper as to what the person's gone through.
Speaker 2: You know, nine times out of ten it has been
Speaker 2: a huge amount of really hard work. It's about, you know,
Speaker 2: being consistent over a long period of time, is about
Speaker 2: it being incredibly patient, mentally resilient. It particularly when things
Speaker 2: have been you know, scary and fragile, and also having
Speaker 2: a sound system you know, behind you, enabling you to
Speaker 2: stick to the process and the strategy in order to
Speaker 2: create this successful or lucky outcome.
Speaker 1: Okay, so there is clearly then what luck feels like.
Speaker 1: It's an overarching term then that describes the position that
Speaker 1: you are in once you have done the hard work,
Speaker 1: that you have opened yourself up to those opportunities. You
Speaker 1: have demonstrated your willingness to have a go and get
Speaker 1: in there and put yourself out there. So does that
Speaker 1: I mean then the difference between luck and positioning there
Speaker 1: really isn't one.
Speaker 2: Well, hen, let's just go back a second, because there's
Speaker 2: actually some science behind you know, luck and successful outcomes.
Speaker 2: And there is Professor Alessandro paul Chino, who is I believe,
Speaker 2: an Italian professor of theoretical physics, and he's won two
Speaker 2: Nobel Prizes about this, and he was actually this is
Speaker 2: I think important to flag before we jump into the
Speaker 2: next question. But he was able from his studies to
Speaker 2: prove that success is actually you know, and success when
Speaker 2: I say luck is from talent, from of course lucky events,
Speaker 2: but also from taking actions. And what his studies showed
Speaker 2: is it isn't actually necessarily the smartest people that or
Speaker 2: even the most talent people that were lucky and successful.
Speaker 2: It was simply because they actually acted on those opportunities.
Speaker 2: So yes, luck might open the door, but you've still
Speaker 2: got to be able to turn that door knob and
Speaker 2: walk through bravely, all.
Speaker 1: Right, And to what extent then can you create your
Speaker 1: own luck? And I think we will after the break,
Speaker 1: we'll kind of get to the ways that you can
Speaker 1: do it. But by the sounds of this, you can
Speaker 1: actually manufacture those circumstances and that mindset that allows you
Speaker 1: to take advantage of financial luck.
Speaker 2: So this is to answer your question about you know,
Speaker 2: luck and positioning. So luck is obviously being in the
Speaker 2: right place at the right time, you just got lucky.
Speaker 2: Positioning is different and that you intentionally put yourself in
Speaker 2: places where you know these opportunities can find you and
Speaker 2: even land in your lap. So it's like someone who
Speaker 2: really wants to meet a new partner. You know, they've
Speaker 2: been single for a while and they desperately want to
Speaker 2: meet the one, But yet they go and spend all
Speaker 2: their weekends sitting at home watching Netflix. They're not positioning
Speaker 2: themselves to go and meet someone of the blue bump
Speaker 2: into them. You know, they're staying at home, so they're
Speaker 2: not positioning themselves in order to help make that luck
Speaker 2: actually happen.
Speaker 1: Okay, this is sounding an awful lot like manifesting by stealth.
Speaker 2: No, like if we think about it from a practical
Speaker 2: point of view. You know, when you put yourself out
Speaker 2: there and you have connections with people and you see opportunities,
Speaker 2: but you also then act on opportunities. This is where
Speaker 2: we start to create the shifts and we start to
Speaker 2: actually see that there is an ability or an opportunity
Speaker 2: to make things different and better. And it also, I
Speaker 2: really believe it shifts our mood and how we actually
Speaker 2: show up when we can see that there is potential,
Speaker 2: there is hope, or there is faith.
Speaker 1: Okay, is there a risk then that you can attribute
Speaker 1: too much to this idea of luck because if all
Speaker 1: of a sudden you just go Joe blogs He's always
Speaker 1: so lucky, he always gets all of these things, and
Speaker 1: I'm always so unlucky, none of it ever comes to me.
Speaker 1: There's a luck of accountability there.
Speaker 2: Right, one hundred percent. And also it creates this sense
Speaker 2: of helplessness, which is what I'm sort of talking about.
Speaker 2: You know, why would I even bother trying? Which is
Speaker 2: very disempowering, and it keeps you playing and playing as
Speaker 2: a victim, you know, which doesn't help anyone. But also
Speaker 2: when you attribute a lot, you know, things that have
Speaker 2: happened in your life to luck, it builds gratitude, and
Speaker 2: I think that's really important and also helps keep you
Speaker 2: humble as well. You know, there are things in my
Speaker 2: life where I think, Wow, this happened. I'm so incredibly lucky,
Speaker 2: and I'm so incredibly grateful. Things aren't lost on me
Speaker 2: that have happened in my life.
Speaker 1: Okay, I don't want to sound like I don't believe you,
Speaker 1: because I do.
Speaker 2: I do.
Speaker 1: I genuinely do believe you about the way this works.
Speaker 1: But on the flip side to good luck and positioning
Speaker 1: yourself well and appreciating those opportunities when they come and
Speaker 1: acknowledging that, hey, not everybody gets those opportunities, and so
Speaker 1: there is an element of luck there. But on the
Speaker 1: flip side to that bad luck. And when you are
Speaker 1: someone who feels like that that bad things keep happening
Speaker 1: to you, how much of that is bad luck? And
Speaker 1: how much of it just comes down to a lack
Speaker 1: of planning, a lack of your financial buffers. When surely
Speaker 1: everyone gets bad things happening at times, but just some
Speaker 1: have equipped themselves better to deal with it.
Speaker 2: There is no doubt about it. There are things that
Speaker 2: genuinely happen that are bad luck, like a job loss,
Speaker 2: getting sick, being in an accident, unexpected expenses. You know,
Speaker 2: but this is where that lack of buffers really does
Speaker 2: increase your exposure and your vulnerability. And you know, this
Speaker 2: is where things can you know, spiral and you know
Speaker 2: it's really unfortunate. So you know, bad luck and not
Speaker 2: having a safety net can have a very dangerous toxic
Speaker 2: domino effect. You know, you get sick, so therefore you
Speaker 2: can't work. You can't work, so you can't pay the rent.
Speaker 2: You then have a risk of being a vi did
Speaker 2: which then obviously damages your tendency records and even your
Speaker 2: credit record, and then it's much harder to recover. There
Speaker 2: is no doubt about it. So you do need to
Speaker 2: obviously be sensible and why and understand that bad luck
Speaker 2: happens to everyone, but you need to build some safety
Speaker 2: nets as you can as your situation allows to help,
Speaker 2: I guess, quarantine any bad luck and allow you to
Speaker 2: get back on your feet.
Speaker 1: Ah. Look, this is a rare episode of this one
Speaker 1: where it feels almost as though I'm getting more skeptical
Speaker 1: the further we go on. But I think we're going
Speaker 1: to take a quick break on the other side of
Speaker 1: the break, My skepticism is going to get moved to
Speaker 1: one side, and you are going to give me a
Speaker 1: masterclass in increasing my own financial luck. And I suspect
Speaker 1: part of that is to stop being so skeptical and
Speaker 1: questioning everyone and everything.
Speaker 2: You read my mind.
Speaker 1: Okay, quick break back with more cana. We are talking
Speaker 1: today about financial luck, about whether some people are just
Speaker 1: inherently lucky when it comes to money and others have
Speaker 1: been cursed with bad luck from the day they were
Speaker 1: they were born. We've gone through the idea of positioning
Speaker 1: and how kind of setting yourself up for success, but
Speaker 1: also being open to those opportunities when they come, knowing
Speaker 1: that that sometimes things just happen. And if you are
Speaker 1: in that mindset and being able and being prepared to
Speaker 1: accept it when it comes, then you're going to be
Speaker 1: in a better position. How can you increase your own
Speaker 1: financial luck if you're one of these unlucky ones who
Speaker 1: just like the car breaks down one week, you finally
Speaker 1: start investing, and then all of the market crashes and
Speaker 1: all of these kinds of things, or you lose your job,
Speaker 1: how do you go about trying to overhaul and increase
Speaker 1: your financial luck.
Speaker 2: So the first place to start with, which is going
Speaker 2: to be hard for you to swallow here, but a
Speaker 2: sense of gratitude because you're taking your mindset from a
Speaker 2: place of scarcity, you know, an awareness, so you actually
Speaker 2: look at what you've got. When things happen, when we're
Speaker 2: feeling I've had a really bad day or I'm just
Speaker 2: going through a bad phase of bad luck, i just
Speaker 2: can't help. But you know, get hit with things that are,
Speaker 2: you know, coming left, right and center at me. This
Speaker 2: is where I was talking about that victim mentality. But
Speaker 2: if you can just stop and take a moment to think, well,
Speaker 2: you know what, look at what.
Speaker 1: I do have?
Speaker 2: You know, all right, I've got two beautiful, healthy children.
Speaker 2: I have a job which really I love and it
Speaker 2: fulfills me. I have and by the way, I'm talking
Speaker 2: about you, not me.
Speaker 1: You've just forgotten one of your kids.
Speaker 2: Yes, I have a fabulous wife who is hilarious and
Speaker 2: witty and makes the best cupcakes in the world. I have,
Speaker 2: you know, a roof over my head. I have some
Speaker 2: money in my bank account. When you can start to
Speaker 2: appreciate what you have, that tends to raise your mood,
Speaker 2: and as Oprah says, what we appreciate appreciates, But it
Speaker 2: stops that toxic spiral that we can do where we
Speaker 2: start to catastrophize everything and we think, oh, here it comes,
Speaker 2: and we start almost for this confirmation bias, look for
Speaker 2: the next negative thing that's coming away, just to confirm
Speaker 2: to ourselves of look like, look how unlucky I am.
Speaker 2: I can't seem to get any breaks. I can't seem
Speaker 2: to win everything, and everyone around me is winning. Is
Speaker 2: this something you're relating to? It's fascinating.
Speaker 1: Oh I do that probably three or four times a year.
Speaker 1: It's a quarterly spiral.
Speaker 2: Look and every and now and again even I get
Speaker 2: a bit like that. And so just tooms you've got
Speaker 2: to help each other out. So in stcemarily having a
Speaker 2: negative moment, give me a call and I'll get you
Speaker 2: back out of it. But when you start, when you
Speaker 2: can catch yourself and you can go all right, take
Speaker 2: a press pause. What have I actually got here? Let's
Speaker 2: get a big picture here all the wonderful things that
Speaker 2: I have in my life. It then sort of presses
Speaker 2: pause and allows you to actually see, all, okay, what
Speaker 2: can I do about this. What are the opportunities around
Speaker 2: me to fix this? Do I have any faith and
Speaker 2: belief in myself to actually move through this and bring
Speaker 2: all the pieces back together again? You know? Am I
Speaker 2: willing to actually have a go and try it fixing?
Speaker 2: What's that? What's happened? And many people don't actually lack opportunity.
Speaker 2: They sometimes just like the courage to act, you know,
Speaker 2: so's you can. That's where I talk about this victim mentality.
Speaker 2: They just sit because and some people actually like being
Speaker 2: a victim. I know that sounds really harsh and bitchy
Speaker 2: to say, but I've seen this firsthand where they love
Speaker 2: the attention that they get from being a victim and
Speaker 2: they stay there. You know it's Is it disenabling? I
Speaker 2: think is the word almost? And that's why I really
Speaker 2: want to create this conversation around luck and that you
Speaker 2: can actually cultivate it within yourself. And you know, it
Speaker 2: starts by gratitude and also talking about yourself in a
Speaker 2: positive way. For example, do you think you're lucky? Yes?
Speaker 1: What would you believe? Oh my god, you made me
Speaker 1: do a yes or no answer and it forced me
Speaker 1: to reveal it. Yes, I do actually believe that I
Speaker 1: am that I am lucky?
Speaker 2: And would you say that in feeling lucky, you're more
Speaker 2: willing to take chances and jump on opportunities.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, because I also have this belief that everything
Speaker 1: will work out in the end.
Speaker 2: This is sounding very positive like claffhast full. Would you
Speaker 2: say that you're more willing to put yourself in different
Speaker 2: and new environments and have different conversations with people you
Speaker 2: may have never met before, always wanted to speak with
Speaker 2: to help cultivate more things or positivity and successful outcomes
Speaker 2: and lucky outcomes in your life.
Speaker 1: Okay, you've gone way too far. Now, that's well outside
Speaker 1: of my comfort zone. Us you are an in Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but no, I genuinely talk to at.
Speaker 2: Least recognize there are more opportunities.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, absolutely. And the more conversations that you have
Speaker 1: with people that you don't know, the more opportunities do
Speaker 1: come up. I absolutely see that, and I do appreciate
Speaker 1: that that is an important part of it. I just
Speaker 1: would prefer not to speak to anybody ever again.
Speaker 2: Am I on that list as well?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Start?
Speaker 1: Did you like how long I thought about that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? No, your nose is growing. It's fine.
Speaker 1: No, No, No, were okay, but.
Speaker 2: You know when it kept boiling it back down to money.
Speaker 2: Having those conversations, when you have a bit of faith,
Speaker 2: you can tell yourself you're you know, actually I'm not
Speaker 2: on lucky. I'm actually quite like because look what I've
Speaker 2: got so there, and you can start talking about the ideas,
Speaker 2: the strategies, the solutions to help rebuild your luck and
Speaker 2: rebuild greater fortune and success.
Speaker 1: At a practical level, what about building up the kind
Speaker 1: of your emergency money, your buffers, just those those really
Speaker 1: practical things so that when you do get hit by
Speaker 1: bad luck, it doesn't just completely overwhelm you.
Speaker 2: So incredibly important and you know, this is where things
Speaker 2: get really messy, and this is where people end up
Speaker 2: being homeless, like this is like this call it as
Speaker 2: it is, you know, not having that emergency money to
Speaker 2: back yourself. And you know, I always say, you know,
Speaker 2: building wealth is like building a house. If you want
Speaker 2: to build a house that survives all the elements, the rain,
Speaker 2: the storm, the fires, you've got to build it with
Speaker 2: a really strong foundation. And that foundation is savings, having
Speaker 2: emergency money so that if you know, you can quickly
Speaker 2: and easily get back on your feet again and you
Speaker 2: you know, even if it does mean starting from scratch,
Speaker 2: you have all the strategies behind you because you've done
Speaker 2: it before and you can repeat it again and get faster.
Speaker 1: So, say I want to become a more financially lucky person.
Speaker 1: What behaviors do I need to be changing? Is there
Speaker 1: anything in particular? And so obviously the first step is
Speaker 1: to start from a place of gratitude. Is there anything
Speaker 1: else in terms of not just mindset, but behaviors, practical
Speaker 1: practical points.
Speaker 2: Okay, so number one is obviously having some goals. You know,
Speaker 2: it's great to be lucky, but where are you going
Speaker 2: to channel all that energy and that luck and that
Speaker 2: focus having those goals? Obviously, then doing a budget, you know,
Speaker 2: making sure all your budget is aligned to your values,
Speaker 2: and you feel lucky to have a budget. You have,
Speaker 2: feel lucky to earn income or have money that you
Speaker 2: actually have the privilege of actually having to actually allocate
Speaker 2: money to what you want. That's itself is a very privileged,
Speaker 2: lucky position to be in. And especially when we look
Speaker 2: around the world right now, then of course, you know,
Speaker 2: building up the savings, you know, we lucky to have savings.
Speaker 2: We are in a privileged position if we can look
Speaker 2: at our investments. If we have an investment portfolio, even
Speaker 2: if it's only small, son, you got ten dollars in
Speaker 2: your investment account, we can build up from that. That
Speaker 2: is a lucky place to be building up upon from.
Speaker 2: And superannuation, which most of our listeners would have super aneration.
Speaker 2: Aren't we lucky to have superannuation? Like we have one
Speaker 2: of the best retirement plans in the world, You know
Speaker 2: we are. We're hopefully moving to a world where we
Speaker 2: aren't going to be as reliant on the government further
Speaker 2: say the age pension. We can be self funded retirees
Speaker 2: if we engage with us super correctly, listen to these
Speaker 2: podcasts every week and follow the advice that we try
Speaker 2: to instill in everyone. So we are actually very very
Speaker 2: lucky with the opportunities around on us, around on us.
Speaker 2: So around us it comes down to are we going
Speaker 2: to step up and jump on them to the best
Speaker 2: of our ability? Obviously keeping in mind right now that
Speaker 2: things are you know, are tight, but are we at
Speaker 2: least going to have a go.
Speaker 1: I like that, I reckon you may have just converted me.
Speaker 2: Can I tell you a little hack I do at home?
Speaker 1: Oh? Please.
Speaker 2: I tell myself all the time, I'm a lucky person,
Speaker 2: really all the time. And I tell my kids all
Speaker 2: the time, you guys are so lucky, and you know,
Speaker 2: you're lucky that we get to do this. You're lucky
Speaker 2: that you've got experience. That you're lucky, you know, I'd
Speaker 2: constantly say. And so they genuinely believe they are lucky people.
Speaker 2: And I think, you know, having that inner faith in yourself,
Speaker 2: that quiet inner faith. It's not boastful, it's not arrogant,
Speaker 2: you know, it's not materialistic. It's just like a bit
Speaker 2: of confidence and faith in yourself to see that the
Speaker 2: glass is half full.
Speaker 1: I am actually quite surprised that what you've done, I
Speaker 1: think is actually put into words something that a lot
Speaker 1: of people feel without necessarily acknowledging. I think we take
Speaker 1: for granted a lot of things in this country. The
Speaker 1: support that is available, the welfare is available, that if
Speaker 1: you do fall upon hard times, there is a lot
Speaker 1: of support. But also the fact that we do have
Speaker 1: the opportunity for jobs and you can potentially go and
Speaker 1: get another job if you need, if you need to supplement,
Speaker 1: that that there is good healthcare, that there is good education,
Speaker 1: there is a lot of good things going on, and
Speaker 1: you just need to look elsewhere in the world to
Speaker 1: realize we actually do have it good here. We are lucky,
Speaker 1: and you have just kind of enunciated that very very clearly.
Speaker 1: I like that you have converted me at lost for
Speaker 1: you have converted me from a luck nicest thing you've
Speaker 1: ever said to me, from a luck skeptic to a
Speaker 1: luck believer. And I do still feel that there might
Speaker 1: have been a little bit of manifesting in there that
Speaker 1: you are trying to kind of No. Okay, no, no,
Speaker 1: that's fine, that's fine. We will save manifest I talk
Speaker 1: about visualization. No, no, no, I don't think you did. Actually, okay,
Speaker 1: we're in the clear no manifesting manifesting free zone. If
Speaker 1: anyone wants to find more information from you about luck,
Speaker 1: where would we find you.
Speaker 2: The best place to reach me is through Instagram.
Speaker 1: Okay, Sugar Mama TV, and you can hear me every
Speaker 1: day with Sew nail Or on Fear and Greed business News.
Speaker 1: You can use. Thank you very much for listening to
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