Why net worth is an important conversation starter | Broke Girl Wealth

Maddy: [00:00:19] Hello and welcome to youre in good company, a podcast that makes investing accessible for everyone. I'm Maddy, and as always, I'm in some very good company with my co-host Sophie, everybody. 

Sophie: [00:00:30] We're also even in more company today. We've got our 

Maddy: [00:00:33] producer Sascha here and 

Sophie: [00:00:35] we've got the lovely Alex from Broke Girl Wealth. Welcome! 

Alex: [00:00:39] Hi ladies. So exciting to be here.

Sophie: [00:00:42] It's exciting that we get to be in person. That's what really excites me. So coming up on today's episode, we are going to speak to Alex all about the idea of net worth, why you feel it's important to share it with the community. And we're also going to jump into a little bit of a controversy corner where we unpack some opinions about some finance trends and news at the moment, which I'm personally very excited for. 

Maddy: [00:01:05] So, Alex, thank you so much for joining us on the show today. If someone hasn't heard about you before what you're doing, I mean, first of all, definitely go and check out your Instagram, but can you give us some background on what your I guess all about? 

Alex: [00:01:18] Yeah, so thank you for letting me come along later. It's so exciting. We've been chatting. Good morning. I am a lawyer and I started Berko Wealth about a year and a bit ago because I've been investing for a while and there was a bit of content that was pitched at young people. But it was very American and we don't have like Roth IRA, like whatever it is that so no one was talking about superannuation, no one was talking about women and investing. And I was like, Coming in, are you being like, Oh, it's so sucky that there's no like women talking about finance? And I was like, Oh, why don't I start talking about my own journey? And again, I'm like, You, I'm still learning, but I just think that there's been such a community and groundswell of women that are like, Actually, I do want to secure my future, and I do want to learn how to invest. And I think women, like everything we learn by talking about it and sharing and sharing our successes and failures, I think it's really important to share that we're not all perfect as well, and that finance can be a bit of a learning curve. 

Sophie: [00:02:18] Where did the name Burt go wealth come from?

Alex: [00:02:21] Such a good question. Well, the idea was that when I was like 18 19, I was broke. I was in about $3000 worth of credit card debt, and the idea was that I slowly figured out how to budget. That was the first step. And then from there, I slowly built my wealth. So broke to wealth, broke taboos. It's kind of nice. 

Maddy: [00:02:44] I love it. Well, Alex, but it's not every episode with the same few questions, so I'm keen to get into it with you. What is the best thing that's happened to you in the last seven days? 

Alex: [00:02:53] So last week, I posted a tik-tok that went a little bit viral in the Raven Dollars 

Maddy: [00:03:01] source 

Alex: [00:03:03] miss. But the reason it was really exciting was because it was all about the difficulties homeowners face and that generation faces becoming homeowners. And it resonated with a lot of people. And I think the video is like part of a series about how people can actually get into the home market and strategies to get into the housing market that aren't like coffee and strip all the joy from your life. I think it's really unhelpful as a tip, so that was pretty cool. 

Sophie: [00:03:30] It's pretty awesome. I can imagine if I were Tik-tok Ren bio for us, that would be the best thing that happened all year, not even in the wake. And if you could have it, do you know with anyone who would it be and why?

Alex: [00:03:41] Oh, guys, I deliberated about this question for such a long time, but I actually genuinely think that I would want to have dinner with Michelle Obama and then I can convince her to run for president. Yeah, I can be quite persuasive and annoying when I want to say

Maddy: [00:03:54] it's the lawyer and you like, I love it. Yeah. And if you could be a stock of company, who would you be and why? 

Alex: [00:04:01] I would love to say that I would be as cool as Ark Invest, like I would love to be like on that cool. I'm trendy, but I actually think that as a human being, I'm far more of a Berkshire Hathaway. 

Sophie: [00:04:14] Fair enough. Yeah. So, Alex, on your Instagram, I guess one of the areas that you touched on a lot is about your net worth and you kind of show your audience your journey of how you're building that up. And we kind of wanted to get into that concept today because we do say it a lot. Can you give us a little brief overview on, you know, what net worth is for an individual and how it's calculated? 

Alex: [00:04:35] So your the idea of net worth is just a metric that you can use to kind of ascertain how you how your overall financial health is and there's lots of different ones. But I like net worth because it's really simple. All it is is you take every asset you have. So your superannuation, any personal items that you have, like millennials, you might have your two and a half thousand dollar beat up Corolla. That's an asset. So you put them. Into a pool and then you minus any liabilities like credit cards, hex debt, you might have Afterpay whatever. No shame. And then you just take assets minus liabilities and the number at the end, whether it's positive or negative, is your net worth. So as an example? Hundred thousand dollars of assets. 50K of liabilities, you've got a $50000 net worth. I like it as a metric just because I think we're in such a culture where it's really easy to compare yourself to other people and you see people on Instagram with like flashy lifestyles. Net worth I found was a really good way of me being like, Ignore all that noise. I can say that I'm making progress on paying down my home loan and increasing my investments month on month. And it's a nice way to like, OK, I'm better than I was last month, or this is how I'm tracking in my journey. Yeah. Rather than being like, Oh, I wonder if that person is a millionaire when they could be like swimming and drowning in debt? 

Maddy: [00:05:54] And what have you found are the benefits of being out? Actually, I guess share that with a broader population because I can imagine that it like, I mean, personally, I find it really helpful being able to actually just have that clarity around what other people are doing. It kind of makes me feel less nervous about what I might be missing out on or not knowing. 

Alex: [00:06:12] I love sharing it. I just think if we're all far more transparent about our money, we can all learn and I am by no means have the perfect portfolio or have had the perfect money. Jenny, I'm far more save a spender than a saver, but it's just a really helpful metric. And I think if we share it just exactly like what you guys do in the podcast here, we can create a community where it's okay to talk about it because I think a lot more of us are probably not in as healthy a financial situation. I certainly wasn't when I started. But you have to acknowledge that it's bad first and net worth is kind of a cold, hard number to look at and go, hmm, maybe not as good as I thought I was doing, and that can be helpful as well. And if we destigmatize it, so there's nothing wrong with having a negative net worth in your early 20s. Mine was zero or minus for a very long time because my ex was accumulating and I wasn't actually developing any assets or actually earning very much. So it takes time, but I find that you share it and people are sharing that debt free journeys. People are sharing the Afterpay, you know, closing their Afterpay accounts. All of that de-stigmatize is it. And for the people who are like, Oh, I just don't look at it because it's too scary. It just helps open that conversation up and they can go and get, you know, financial counselling help if they need it, or even just talk to someone about it, about getting that help. They need to get out of debt or build their wealth. 

Sophie: [00:07:31] Yeah, it's so true, right? Like if people, if we're investing and it's like exciting and we're making money off that, like it's really easy for people to be like, Oh yeah, it's like on the investing side, I'm making money. But then you don't really talk about that side where, you know, if you're in your early 20s here and have a lot of superannuation, you could have hexed it as well. You might be, I don't know, looking to do other things such as travel instead of buy a house so like. Of course, that's going to be a negative number for a lot of people. So it's kind of good to bring in that other aspect of, I guess, what your wealth is made up of. But one part, obviously of your net worth. I keep saying net wealth, sorry, is your investments and we aren't investment investing focussed. Can you tell us about your story of your first investment? 

Alex: [00:08:13] Oh, this takes me back my very first investment and this is going to be really you. I was so terrified of investing, and so I was like, OK, what's the number that I feel comfortable losing? And it was $15 and Bryce the first money I put into, right? So I started with a micro investment platform because that felt safe and it felt accessible. And then after that, I kind of started putting more money in as I got more comfortable. But yeah, it was Bryce, which honestly still around it was acorns when I invested in it. And you could like do round up sort of like add 10 cents to your investing portfolio and that felt like, Wow, I'm a big girl now. [00:08:48][34.8]

Maddy: [00:08:51] So did Networth Update last July, when you had that very exciting announce that you have hit 100K invested? So I guess from your first investment, hitting 100K would love to, I mean, amazing. No congrats would love to sort of get into the debate about how you got that. 

Alex: [00:09:08] Yeah, I think the first thing to say is that it didn't happen overnight. It was probably about six years ago when I was working part time and then I was studying and then I was working full time. But I wasn't earning very much and it took me a long time and it only starts to compound and get easier as the number gets bigger, which is kind of annoying because you're just slugging it and it's just you putting the effort in the compound. Interest comes later, but yeah, six years. And to be honest, the the number grew because my income grew like I became a lawyer and I was working, you know, I got a promotion. So all of those things helped to kind of speed up the road to 100000. But certainly at the beginning, it was just me and my tiny little net worth tracker. But it was going in the right direction, which was exciting. Yeah. 

Sophie: [00:09:54] So when you, I guess, kind of did start making your salary, did things become more consistent in terms of. You're investing like, did you have any do you have any specific strategies even today that you implement to keep that, I guess, figure growing? 

Alex: [00:10:05] Yeah, automation, I cannot sing the praises of automation. If you are neurodivergent, if you are just someone like me who finds it very easy to dip into their savings. I think that number one, my number one tip is out of sight, out of mind. So if you can turn on your investments to be automatic, if you can salary sacrifice into your superannuation, whatever it is, the less you're doing, the less likely you are to be like, you know what? Feels really good? A big, like boozy weekend instead of putting that money into super. So all of it happens without me looking at it. And then what I'm left with is what I can spend. And I found that so much easier than being. I invest $200 this week or buy a new outfit, and the outfit would inevitably win, unfortunately. So automation really helped. 

Maddy: [00:10:52] It's hard as well. Like when you say cash sitting in your bank account, it feels like it's money that you're able to spend, and it is much harder to sort of psychologically be lackner know. Like, even though it's there, I need to move it out. You sort of save the money there and you're like, Oh, my great is on a Saturday. Yeah. 

Alex: [00:11:06] Whereas if it's like in an account labelled investing, or if it's in an account labelled like car insurance, you're like, If I take it out of there, how am I going to pay my car insurance, Stanley? Suddenly, the moderators don't look as exciting. Very true. 

Maddy: [00:11:20] Can you give us some insight into what your share portfolio is looking like currently? And I guess when you are adding things to it now, like what can you talk us through the decision making process behind what you're deciding to invest in? 

Alex: [00:11:32] I love talking about this. I want everyone to share what they're investing in. So I'm predominantly an ETF investor. I just like again, the set and forget of it. I would say about 80 percent of my portfolio is in global, so probably 80 percent my is in ETFs. And all of that is probably like a 30, 40 and probably a bit more in the Australian stock exchange, a stock market. But I would like it to be 80 percent of my portfolio ETFs, 30 percent global, 30 percent American and 30 percent Australian. I think I like the franking credit aspect of Australian shares and then the rest of it is single stocks, and that's a combination of listed investment companies. But I also have square. What used to be Afterpay is now square. I have a couple of what I call my sustainability punt stocks, which is like, I feel like they're my. I love this company to do well, and that includes things like there's a company that makes solar panel glass in Perth and a company called Calix. So 20 percent is in single stocks. 

Sophie: [00:12:38] We always get asked by people when you know you are kind of investing in those satellite companies, how do you find those opportunities? Like, is it through reading the paper, listening to podcasts like What's your strategy for finding things that are kind of outside that ETF range? 

Alex: [00:12:53] Plagiarism I stock fund managers. And I look at what they're adding and removing from their portfolios because they have a whole team of analysts and as much research you can do. You're never going to be a McKinsey analyst sitting in a room with a whole bunch of people who have all the goss and all the insight. So I do that. I, uh, have a look at Morningstar and other companies will do recommendations. But again, because I mostly do ETFs, for me, that's the that's sort of the automotive side. And then when I'm feeling particularly like, again, my sustainability punt stocks and I'm like, I would really love this company to be the next Apple. Like the climate change Apple, I'll sort of figure out you what other people think it's a buy, but yet ultimately plagiarism I completely plagiarised smarter people than me 

Maddy: [00:13:44] makes a lot of sense. I think the biggest game changer for me was when I realised Cathie Wood like lists everything that OK, yeah, and I was like, Oh my gosh, is a watch list? Exactly, exactly. The slowest ticking them off of that.

Sophie: [00:14:01] Yeah, I think we could talk about Cathie Wood all day. So I think this is the perfect moment to take a break

Maddy: [00:14:05] for us coming up 

Sophie: [00:14:08] and we will be right back to head to our controversy corner. So, Alex, one of our favourite things that you kind of post on your Instagram is like when you have little rants about love my 

Maddy: [00:14:19] rants, I love your rants 

Sophie: [00:14:22] as well. It's like where I get all my information from. I guess so. But we thought because, you know, there is so much happening in the news at the moment, all about finance, there's just daily stories. We thought why not bring a bit of controversy into the studio and debunk some of the finance, news or finance trends that are happening at the moment? So we're going 

Maddy: [00:14:40] to start off simple. I mean, a little bit topical from the conversation thus far. Warren Buffett investing star Big Cathie Wood investing style. 

Alex: [00:14:49] I think this is like the perennial. I feel like people will come down on both sides of the fence when they like. This is this is my side of the fence. And don't you dare like this is the best side. I going to be really annoying. I'm probably a bit of a fence it. I like the fact that Kathy has come in with this very fresh thesis. She has a really fresh approach. And I think a lot of the companies that she's invest in, she sees a long term future for. I think her approach I see as like encouraging investment in innovation. So I think they are a little bit of a riskier. And she says herself, like, if you look at, you know, financial disclosure statements for her Ark Invest or print or three day whatever. They're certainly more companies that she sees with, you know, the apple of the future. And you know, Warren Buffett has been a long term. He's like a legend in the industry, and his thesis is, you know, good value companies. And both of those approaches have their place. I think, you know, Berkshire Hathaway has had a phenomenal year now that we're experiencing interest rate fluctuations and sort of market risk because he invested a lot of companies that are like the things you can't live without. You can't live without water and utilities. Whereas Cathie is looking at, well, what's Tesla going to look like in 10 years? And then that's what she's basing her investments on. So I think there's a lot to learn from both of them actually about how to structure your overall portfolio, especially as young people, because we're going to be here for whatever Tesla ends up doing in this time. 

Maddy: [00:16:25] I mean, it's kind of just the classic like growth, the value argument, isn't it? And I think the best thing about soap and I have this discussion a lot, and I think the best thing about our situation as young investors is we can do both. Like, yeah, you can have your ETFs and things like that that are your big companies that follow indexes and you can get exposure to all those value companies. Then you can also go through Cathie Wood's HSA and take off those and other into your portfolio as well. 

Alex: [00:16:51] Yeah. And we've got the Harat, the long term investment horizon. You can kind of weather it and see who comes out trumps. 

Sophie: [00:16:57] Yeah, well, I actually wrote an article about it saying they were saying that they thought that, you know, a lot of the Ark ETFs would do a lot worse, but a lot of young investors are sticking to excel like we'll call. There's a dip now, but like, I'm here for the long term. So that like, yeah, other investors have been surprised. Yeah, they're like, why haven't they ditched her yet? 

Alex: [00:17:13] Imagine young people being prone to impulsivity.

Maddy: [00:17:17] Next one are pretty topical still. I mean, it's been quite controversial for a few years now. Buy now, pay later. And then, I guess, like square acquiring Afterpay, I would like to talk about it in this context because Square is a very up and coming like, impressive player in the financial services space. And I think it's interesting that given that some of the controversy the Afterpay has bought, especially in the Australian market, they obviously say long term potential in it. Hmm. 

Alex: [00:17:48] It's really interesting to say. I mean, I think everyone in their dog has a buy now, pay later product now. And I mean, full disclosure, I own Afterpay shares. I would love to see more regulation in that space. It really feels like buy now, pay later is the credit card of the 80s. It's like people are just advertising it disingenuously. It's your place to be buying pub meals with Afterpay now, like it's becoming a bit ridiculous and you can really say that the. The terrible side of it is that young people in particular, especially young women, actually who are, if you read Afterpay investor disclosures, they target their target consumer is an 18 to 24 year old woman who is struggling with her money because otherwise, why would you use Afterpay to as a form of budgeting tool, I suppose. And it's fine when it's used responsibility, as all credit is like if you're responsible with your credit cards and your debt, right? Good for you. It's a great way to leverage wealth. But where I really find the Afterpay situation and the CommBank step pay or whatever it's called painful, and I think PayPal has one now is that there is a potential at the marketing and the product itself is preying on people who are vulnerable. And that's what I find really icky. 

Sophie: [00:19:06] And it's so interesting. We were just talking about our net worth discussion before we were saying people in their early 20s. That's the likelihood of, you know, that time you're going to be having the most debt because you do have your hacks and you might be, as we said, travelling or whatever else. So it's just, I guess it's really upsetting to say that their target demographic is that type of person who will definitely be struggling the most, that it's likely not on a full time salary. 

Alex: [00:19:27] And there also. The interesting thing is both Klarna and Afterpay report that consumers are more likely to spend more when they use their services because I think the upfront payment is low and it's sort of psychologically laws until I can afford this. And again, there's nothing wrong when it's used responsibility, responsibly responsibility. But I would love to see these brands take more of an active role in regulating their products to prevent consumers because it is debt. Know you don't have credit check, so you can have buy now, pay later with every single provider. And that's dangerous for people who are vulnerable. Because, you know, I remember going to the grocery store during Covid an hour. Teller was like, like talking to the lady in front of us about her Afterpay because she was using Afterpay to purchase her groceries. And clearly, this is the difference for people between being able to eight and not being able to eat. And so I think debt has an important role to play where unfortunately government is a little bit slow, but it has to be regulated and it has to be safe for consumers. 

Sophie: [00:20:30] It'll be interesting to see where regulation does go with this stuff because there is a lot of regulation in the banking system, especially around credit cards, and everyone can just get a credit card. So it will be really interesting to say, especially because it's so global now how governments around the world are going to react to this. 

Maddy: [00:20:47] It's pretty surprising that it hasn't happened yet, to be honest, like one up highlight has been around for a while now. Yeah.

Sophie: [00:20:52] Big corporations had bad influence on a bit of input. Yeah, yeah. So our next controversy, which I'm actually really excited to ask about, is and if tease. 

Maddy: [00:21:03] Hmm. 

Sophie: [00:21:05] What are your thoughts around these? And I mean, we haven't even done an episode on NAFTA, and we're definitely going to because I think it's such an interesting space to give a bit of background on what your thoughts are of what NFTs is, obviously. And then, yeah, 

Alex: [00:21:17] well, I'm going to say before us, I pride myself on Instagram that my controversy corners. I try to be as open minded as possible, so I think you have to get someone in that is pro and days as well, because I'll start this by saying that, hey, wasn't NAFTA all right? So the first thing you need to understand is things that are fungible, and I don't know why they use this term. I made it, but I think they pick sometimes terms that they think sounds more technical and like smart than they are. So just means I can give you. I can have one and you can have one. And if we swapped, we wouldn't care. So if you had a one dollar coin, yeah, I had a one dollar coin, though both Australian dollars and we just switched them. You wouldn't care because that's the same thing. Yeah, but things that aren't fungible are like a piece of art or something where the rarity or the uniqueness of the products means that you couldn't sort them out. Yeah. So the idea of NFT is let's create a digital version of something that's unique. And the technology is that when you purchase an NFT, that ownership of the NFT is recorded on the Ethereum blockchain, essentially, and you now have digital verification that you own something. And I thought that the technology behind and if TASE is pretty awesome because suddenly, you know, we all transact online, you want businesses want to know that what they're buying is real. And in the in the supply chain, for example, authenticity is really important. So you want to know that this bag was created by, let's say, Louis Vuitton and that it was, you know, number five of this collection. So in that respect, and it's make a lot of sense, and certainly the luxury brands are bringing out NFT esque products to give you that digital ownership where I just cannot understand is. 

Maddy: [00:23:09] Guerillas with cigars, and they're 

Alex: [00:23:13] like, no, no, I'm going to flip it to the whole investment thesis of some of these, NAFTA's is all flip it for a profit. And where I wonder or where I feel really uncomfortable is who is left holding the bag? So you flip it for five, the next person flips it for 10, the next person for 15, who is left owning a $40000 GIF that I can screenshot.

Maddy: [00:23:37] So for some background, if you have no idea what we just started talking about, that says basically it's like this NFT is NFT that have kind of gone viral. That's like a GIF, a GIF. 

Sophie: [00:23:49] It's called the Bored Ape Yacht Club. And he says that makes perfect sense. And yeah,

Maddy: [00:23:54] explained it all now. And it's just 

Sophie: [00:23:57] photos of monkeys in different outfits that look like sailors, almost. But they go for like millions of dollars, which is insane. But on the flip side, I understand completely what you're saying, but Mario and I have had conversations about NFTs before and my when I come down to it, I always think so. The technology behind it is something that is very valuable. But I'm like, Why do you buy a piece of art? You buy a piece of art because of the artist, and that's where the where it holds its value. At the end of the day, you can go into like an art studio or not gallery, and it can literally be a circle on a wall like a black dot, and it'll be worth $40000 because of who painted it. So is that the same kind of. I guess understanding with NFTs is that you're buying something because of who's created it, like, that's where the value lies. 

Alex: [00:24:40] Yeah, potentially. I think there's been some interesting stories coming out about people that have been converting actual original art, stealing original art from, let's say, DeviantArt or other online platforms from artists, converting them into NFTs and flipping it essentially. So stealing. And so you wonder, well, it's online. NFT is supposed to be this perfect authenticity card, and yet they're actually just being used for copyright theft. So in that respect, yes, the uniqueness of the art, if you are have an interest in that artist, right? And then there's definitely been some charities as well that have been using it as a form of fundraising. So again, it has its utilities, but there are definitely projects that I think are just pure scams. And that's you've got eBay, you've got to be discerning. Some of them are like early stage games. So the software developers are using the NFT as a way of crowdfunding, and the games go nowhere. The project ceases to exist. You're left with a monkey with a cigar, which you know the great Twitter avatar

Sophie: [00:25:38] cost you $24 million dollars. And now I think mature adults. 

Maddy: [00:25:42] Very, very interesting. Well, stay tuned for our upcoming nuptials. When reminded of that episode, 

Sophie: [00:25:48] I to get you on its website. 

Maddy: [00:25:52] So maybe Alex nfter is not an area that you are investing in just yet. Always, always room for improvement. Yeah, exactly. But we do love to find out what you are interested in at the moment. So each episode we have been asking our guests to add a stock company, news trend or even industry to our watch list. And the purpose of this is really to get us thinking outside the box and broaden our horizons in the investing space. Of course, we are not financial advisors and it's purely for educational purposes. But what are your range, the watch list today? 

Alex: [00:26:23] Oh, I'm going to bring. So I talked about sustainability pumps, right? So this might you're going to be like, Alex, why are you investing in this company? Full disclosure, I actually own this stock, but I'm bringing into the watch list because I think they they're going to provide an interesting discussion. OK, I invest in Fortescue Metals. I'm a mining company. And the reason I have a I'm a bit bullish. I hate that word, but the reason I'm passionate about this stock is it's all. I suppose my theory is it's all well and good for us to support companies that are creating climate or carbon neutral tech. But what about everything else? What about the, you know, ASX 10, which is just full of banks who invest in fossil fuel projects and equally mining companies like BHP Billiton? Like, if we don't get them on board the climate train, we're kind of doomed because they're the ones contributing most significantly to climate change. Fortescue Metals is headed up by CEO Twiggy and at the 

Maddy: [00:27:26] old man told me, Oh mate Twiggy. 

Alex: [00:27:28] And his proposition at the recent climate conference was he wants to invest and find solutions for green, what they call green and blue hydrogen. So like varying levels of climate positive hydrogen, and I suppose my thesis on Fortescue was, I want to say, and I want to support companies that are being realistic about how we're going to get to net zero. I love companies that are carbon neutral, but I think there's a lot of greenwashing in the space as well. You know, Apple says they're, you know, carbon neutral, but their supply chain is dirty. So and just because they wash their hands of that side of it, you know, they're not the ones mining lithium for their chip boards and their computers doesn't mean that they're actually carbon neutral. So I'm really keen to see your sort of like dirty miners doing good for the environment and figuring out how they can be better. You know, carbon capture, carbon mitigation and whether you support it or not has to be something that's aligned to your values. But I would love to see those companies be pushed by their investors and by, you know, super funds. You need to get your act together and you should do it fast. We need to see a plan now

Sophie: [00:28:44] where transition story? Yeah, I was going to say we had on our sustainability app with Tim. I think you'd like our first season. And she was saying, she added to the watch list. Or maybe it was a part of the conversation that what she watches for is big behemoth companies that already exist that are changing their ways because that is just as valuable as a new sustainability start-up that's coming through and trying to make an impact because you've already got these huge companies that have so much impacts that actually them changing their ways is probably going to be better than, you know, finding something that might flop at the end of the day. 

Alex: [00:29:15] They've got the much harder transition, but that's the more impactful one because they're already contributing so much to emissions per capita basis 

Maddy: [00:29:24] So, Alex, before we get to our final question, if people want to find out more about you for your journey, where can they hit you up? 

Alex: [00:29:32] Well, if you want more controversy, Connor, 

Maddy: [00:29:35] I don't have an answer. I can see 

Alex: [00:29:39] what a what a what a delight. What a privilege that would be. I'm on Instagram and tik-tok at Broke Girl Wealth. Yeah, if I may. The more Radzi around are on Tik-tok.

Sophie: [00:29:50] They love it. And if you had one piece of advice for someone who's listening that's starting out on their investment journey or in the middle of their investment journey, wherever they are. What would that advice be? 

Alex: [00:30:02] I have really been exploring the idea of being the circuit breaker in your community. I come from a family, you know, they worked really hard. My grandparents were migrants and sort of slowly built their wealth. But investing in the stock market was that was terrifying. They saw that as gambling, and I realised that no one was going to teach me how to invest, so I had to teach myself. And that can be really scary. But I think there's such an opportunity not just to start the conversation and help your own finances, but I have found that, yeah, it was essentially a circuit breaker. My friends now regularly message me and go, Oh, I'm investing, or can you help me set up an account? And it has such a ripple effect. And I think about those small, even if it's like $50, it doesn't matter. Start small and then your community. Your success will inevitably spread to your community. And that's what we want to say. 

Sophie: [00:31:01] I love that. That's such a nice piece of advice. 

Maddy: [00:31:06] Spreading the love? Yeah. Well, I think that is a beautiful point. And today's episode, Alex, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. I mean, I was a pleasure. 

Sophie: [00:31:15] I think round two with controversy at some point. 

Alex: [00:31:19] Anytime, anytime. 

Maddy: [00:31:20] Thanks, Alex.

Sophie: [00:31:22] What a joy that chat was. As always, if you're finding us on social media, head over to our Instagram at Y I G C podcast.

Maddy: [00:31:30] We'd love to hear your thoughts on our controversy corner. Jump into the Facebook group. Why, say, investing podcast discussion group and we will continue the conversation there. 

Sophie: [00:31:39] And of course, tik-tok. Please support us on Tik-tok 

Maddy: [00:31:43] also at YIGC podcast and we will catch you next week.

Sophie: [00:31:48] Bye.