How to level-up your investing routine | Emma Edwards, The Broke Generation

Maddy: [00:02:23] Hello and welcome to You're 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. 

Sophie: [00:02:33] Hello, Maddy. Today, I'm so excited for this episode because I feel like we've fan girled over our guest for a little while now. But today we really jump into, you know, the motions of debt, which we've never really touched on before, and how your emotions can impact the way you spend. And I guess think about money. 

Maddy: [00:02:51] Then we go into some tips for achieving your financial goals without saying no to margaritas on a Friday night. 

Sophie: [00:02:57] Now, that sounds like a perfect segment for us because we never say no to the Margarita. 

Maddy: [00:03:02] And then we're going to go into how to optimise your investing, retain and really integrate it into your everyday life. 

[00:03:08] But first, let's hear from a YIGC community member about their portfolio. 

Speaker 4: [00:03:16] Hi, my name is Lucy. I'm 24 years old and I'm a graduate lawyer. After Tax and Hex, I'm earning roughly $1500 a fortnight. My investing routine involves placing $100 per fortnight into a separate investing account, and I invest when that account reaches $500. Today, the total value of my portfolio is six thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars. And since I started investing in March of 2020 after the Covid crash, I've made a total profit of $450. I hold shares in CommBank, Bendigo Bank, Vanguard Australian Indexed ETF and I see which is a random nickel mine that I bought on a stock to. My biggest losses have been on that stock tip, and my investing goals are to build my research skills and backed myself more when I have interest in an emerging industry. 

Maddy: [00:04:02] I really love Lucy's goal this year. It actually reminds me of one of my favourite financial investing quote. It is. Know what you own and know why you own it. And I think we're going to have lots of chats about goals today. So let's get into the episode. Today, we're very excited to be chatting with the host of one of our favourite money podcasts, Emma Edwards, a self-confessed natural born spender until the age of 26, Emma says that she lived rich with nothing but financial regret until something clicked, determined to help others live a life of financial optimisation, not frugality. Emma started the broke generation to share her journey to financial freedom. Today, she provides informative and entertaining resources for millennials and gen Y alike, who want to learn how to get financially fit. Emma, welcome to you are in good company. 

Emma Edwards: [00:04:57] Oh, thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Sophie: [00:04:59] We're so excited for today and we will start off with the questions that we start with every guest, the first being, what's the best thing that's happened to you this week? 

Emma Edwards: [00:05:08] I was kind of nervous for this question because it's only Tuesday, but yesterday it's kind of really silly and a little bit like Woo Woo. But I had so I've recently resigned from my job and I'm working for myself, and I kind of have this moment where I was like, Oh shit, like, this is all I have to do now. This is my whole job. This is how I spend all of my days, and it was just kind of like, quite nice. So that was probably the best thing that's happened to me so far. 

Maddy: [00:05:31] So exciting to hear that you have left your job to take the broke generation of full time, and we will talk more about that later. But first, if you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be and why? 

Emma Edwards: [00:05:43] Naturally, everyone famous fell out of my head at the point of learning. I would be answering this question, but I've heard other people say that they would choose like relatives that have passed away. So I'm going to go down that route as cliché as it is. But my gran, who is my favourite relative ever, I don't really have that many relatives. Our family is tiny and we're not very close, but my grandma is my favourite person ever, and I kind of hate that she didn't get to see me as an adult. So probably with her. 

Sophie: [00:06:08] Oh, I think that's a really sweet answer. And if you could be a stock or company, who would you be and why? 

Emma Edwards: [00:06:14] OK, I wanted to say Canva. I know that other people have said this, and it's not even, you know, we can't even buy it at this point. But I am going to die on this hill and I'm actually going to say I adore beauty, which, you know, looking at its current price is probably not a very good answer, but it was the first ever individual stock I ever bought. And so look, I've got faith because I have to assets. Otherwise I'll lose money. So I've got faith is going to do well, and I kind of figure that if I am going to die on a hill, choosing a stock and also investing in a stock that's, you know, female founded and is, you know, everything that I think is great about door, then I'm kind of okay with that. So I'm glad that I backed it when I did, and I have faith that it will recover to more than the price I paid for it. 

Maddy: [00:06:59] We were so lucky we actually interviewed the CEO of Adore Beauty not long ago, and one of my favourite things about the interview is she told us about how that had people reaching out to them, females in particular wanting to invest for the first time because of the popularity that adore beauty. I feel I had, and I just think that that's so nice, and it really goes to show the power of, like more female founded companies becoming more successful and being able to list on the stock exchange. 

Emma Edwards: [00:07:24] Yeah, totally. I listen to that episode too, and I really enjoyed it, and I was kind of like, It's good to invest in something that you do understand, like, yeah, I can invest in robotics and all those kinds of things that we don't really understand. But it's like, I do understand a little bit and I follow Kate for a long time, and I'm pretty sure I've met her before that she wouldn't remember, but I'm sure that I have, and I just kind of I'm comfortable with it, even if it's not performing all that well at the moment, but I'm comfortable with it as a decision. 

Sophie: [00:07:50] Well, I guess we're going to get into it then, Emma. One of the reasons we love your podcast and your social media so much is that you're all about not really giving up exactly what you love to get financially fit or free. You can still incorporate what you love and on your website. It says that if you want to optimise your lifestyle so that you can still guzzle Aperol with your mates. The second the sun shines, My darling, you're in the right place. So we thought we would play a game of Would you rather frugal the fancy addition to say, you know where your head's at with all of these items? 

Emma Edwards: [00:08:23] I'm pretty excited. 

Sophie: [00:08:24] So are you ready? the first one is the Dyson Airwrap Complete or your standard Kmart curler. 

Emma Edwards: [00:08:33] I've got the Dyson Airwrap Complete, so I'm going to have to say that. However, I will caveat that with if your hair doesn't do the things you want it to do with other styling tools, then don't waste the money on the Arab. Like, it doesn't change the hair that comes out of your head. So my hair will hold, so it's worth it for me. But a lot of people are like, it didn't transform my skin, limp hair, and I'm like, Well, no, it won't. So, you know, I unfortunately take that with a grain of salt. If you've got hair that does what you want to see with other things, definitely that love it. 

Maddy: [00:09:04] The next one is, would you rather an expensive bottle of wine or a $10 bottle of wine, 

Emma Edwards: [00:09:10] an expensive bottle of wine every time, every time? I got no comment with honesty. The honesty. 

Sophie: [00:09:22] Now the next. One's taken from a rant that you actually had on social media the other week, which is linen sheets that take a year to soften or the classic, you know, target cotton sheets. 

Emma Edwards: [00:09:33] mean, that's hard because I'm not crazy about the target, either. Oh, I don't know neither of those, but I [00:09:42][9.5]

Maddy: [00:09:44] for those who didn't see it, can you give us some insight into the rant about linen sheets? [00:09:48][4.1]

Emma Edwards: [00:09:49] Yeah, sure. So I everyone's got linen sheets, right? They're all in Country Road. They look really like rust. I can see a nice and I wanted some for ages and I was like, God, they're expensive. So I put them on my Christmas list and I got the sheet set. And then I eventually bought the quilt set to go with it. And then I kind of wriggled in and it felt like I was in a brown envelope going to bed. And I was like, Why is it so rough? Why is no one talking about this? Everyone's just saying how amazing linen is. And then at home is replying that, yeah, those often in about a year. And I was like, sorry? A year. Like, No. And I just thought it was weird that no one was really mentioning that everyone's like taking these Gorgie pics of their bedding, and no one's mentioning that they have to wait for it to soften. So, you know it is what it is. Take it with a grain of salt. 

Maddy: [00:10:35] Fair call. All right. The next one is would you rather home brand oil or Cobram estate olive oil? 

Emma Edwards: [00:10:42] I'm not that fussy with my olive oil, so I'll go the home brand. If I'm cooking with it, I'm not stressed if I'm pouring on my burrata. Different story, but if I'm cooking with it, definitely, definitely. Home brand is good enough for me 

Sophie: [00:10:56] and new clothes or op shop purchases? 

Emma Edwards: [00:11:01] It's going to be a combo of both. Oh, I like that. No, I can't say that I've got to be on both because that's, you know, there are certain things that you want to buy new and certain things. It's worth buying new. And there's other like more trendy bits and pieces. That's better to just pick up from the op shop. And then you can just read only when you're done 

Maddy: [00:11:16] nice and would you rather a basic Brie or an expensive brie? 

Emma Edwards: [00:11:21] Oh God, an expensive brie. Those cheap brie's that like, don't they just hold their shape all the time, no matter what the temperature is, they're just like so rigid and triangular, and you're like, Why aren't you melting? Going to be going to be a melty brie? Sorry. 

Sophie: [00:11:33] I'm glad you said that because Maddie is a cheese fan, and I'm not sure she would have gone through the rest of this interview. OK, if you said that it was the non expensive, very, very keeping happy family here, which is nice. 

Emma Edwards: [00:11:45] It's got it's got to be expensive every time 

Sophie: [00:11:47] and last one. And this one is an interesting one because it's actually a company that has appeared recently as well. But you know, are you an Olaplex girl or you stick to the basics, something like a Garnier? 

Emma Edwards: [00:12:00] That is an interesting one. I haven't actually used Olaplex because I don't really know what it is like. I've totally heard of it. I totally know what you're talking about, but I don't really know what it claims to do. And I've got this kind of thing with haircare that like, no matter how much I spend or what I put on my hair, my hair's the same. So I'm a bit like, I don't know if it will be that good. So I don't I don't really use Garnier, but I just use like the stuff that my hairdresser tells me to get. And that's it. Nothing really fancy out on top of that. So I don't know. Please enlighten me about all the blacks if you've used it. 

Sophie: [00:12:33] I haven't used it. But there's so many girls on Tik-tok that rave about it. And then they share, like their 10-piece product set that they use on their hair every night and like your hair is gorgeous. But like, I also don't have $700 to spend on my hair every day. Seven. 

Emma Edwards: [00:12:47] God, I guess it was like one product. I know nothing clearly. Yeah, no. I mean, what is it? Is it shampoo or is it like serum? Or is it the whole thing? 

Sophie: [00:12:55] Whole shebang. There's like 10 different products. All different, you know, can leave some in, can wash some out. Like, I think there's a whole thing. 

Emma Edwards: [00:13:05] It's a lot of admin, isn't it? Yeah, no. So I'm not sure. 

Maddy: [00:13:08] Emma we want to get a little bit into your own money journey now. The intro to your podcast is not so long ago I was a hot money mess. For those who don't know your story, what did this hot money mess entail? 

Emma Edwards: [00:13:21] For me, it really came from like a background of just not being engaged with money at all. Like, my parents didn't ever talk about money apart from in a really negative way. They went through a divorce, and I only saw the negative side like I just only saw the negative side of money. And I think I grew up with the perception that like money was hard and like spending. It was the sweet relief of that which sounds really silly, but like my parents and invest, we didn't have any. They didn't have any property or they didn't kind of ever talk about anything positive, anything positive about money. Aside from, you know, some people have it and some people don't. And it's just really hard and you kind of work really hard and you never really get anywhere, which is, you know, that's kind of a sad reality for a lot of people. And I think if you grow up around that, it's really hard to believe that there's ever anything else. Like, I knew they were wealthy people. But I didn't ever really know that. I honestly don't think that I ever entered my brain. That investing was something that actual people did. Apart from, like, obviously wealthy people like, I didn't know that you could do it with obviously, increasingly more so recently. You can do it with less and less money, but I just didn't ever think that it would be anything that I would ever be able to do like. I thought that our participation in the world with money was that you went to work and it spent it worried about it quite a bit, maybe got divorced over it and that was there. And so I didn't really. I didn't even know that like financial confidence or whatever came from reserving a portion of your income and saving it for later in life. Like, I just didn't happen because I hadn't grown up around it and I hadn't been told about any of it. So it was just really like a state of complete, I mean, ignorance for want of a better word, but that makes it sound a bit more intentional than it was. I just didn't really know what I was supposed to be doing, and I didn't know that anything better than spending my money in on, you know, crappy polyester clothes and rent was was anything. I thought that was all there was for me, really. And then when I kind of got a bit older than that, you know, older than I'd like, unfortunately, I started to realise that people had been saving and I was like, Oh, people have been saving money and I've got debt. So what? What's gone wrong here? What have I missed? And those gaps started to fill in and there was social media and I started to learn things and there were less I podcast then. But since then, podcasts have come out and I started researching things like micro investing apps are starting to come out, and it was just suddenly this kind of lightbulb moment of like, Oh my god, OK. People are saving some of their income. And if you do X, Y and Z, you can sort of have a bit of a surplus and you put that away and then that becomes more. And that's kind of how it all works and that's how people are buying property and. It kind of all fell into place in terms of how it works, its finances themselves took a lot longer to catch up, unfortunately. But yeah, it was really a lack of knowledge like honestly complete lack of awareness of what was even possible. 

Sophie: [00:16:14] Yeah, we had a guest on, I think you were one of our first seasons who spoke about how you know your experience with money and how you handle money really comes from your money story and that comes literally from your first experiences of money. So if you have people like your parents speaking about it in a negative light, then you know, for a large portion of your life, you could be thinking about money in a really bad way. We're so lucky now that we have the resources that you can be enlightened to what money is. And that's obviously happened in your case. But on your social media and across your podcast, you do talk about your experience with debt, and we want to know if you could tell us a little bit about your experience with debt. And I guess if you think that this debt was really linked to emotions at all? 

Emma Edwards: [00:16:54] Yeah, it really was. And that's kind of what's loving to do a lot of a lot of the work that I do now because, you know, some people are like, you like you guys are experts in investing. And that's kind of like you're saying, for me, it's like so many steps lower than that. And it's about working out those those emotional barriers to to getting even further through the money process. I've, you know, triggered what I know about to mention eating disorders. I've had like an experience with binge eating, binge exercising and binge behaviour translated to spending. And so I did the exact same thing to cope with emotions where I might overeat or over exercise or overspend when things were not going right in my life or when I was feeling some kind of way about, you know, whatever was going on in my life at the time. I just like turn to those external forces and spending was just one of those things. And that's kind of how the debt came about. Like I was given an, you know, a lot of it comes down to irresponsible lending. I was given a credit card far too young. And in the UK, student overdrafts are a really big thing because I went to uni in the UK and everyone was in their overdraught like, that's just part of your student life, like it was, it was just part of the vernacular. Everyone was in their overdraught. That's just the way that it was like, Oh, I'm getting paid today from my part time job. That means $500. We paid off my overdraught of £500 and then you spend it again, like, that's just what everyone was doing. Unfortunately, some of those people were getting help from their parents that I didn't know about, so I thought we were all in the same boat when we were. But the kind of day to day behaviours of money were very similar, and I think the thing with my debt and a lot of people kind of relate to this, especially on the younger side. I didn't have anything to show for it, like I hadn't been going off on all these holidays or buying designer bags. Like I had nothing to show for it, except just like existing with maybe an extra dress from pretty little thing or whatever was the thing back then. I didn't have loads of stuff. I hadn't been loads of places and been travelling underneath the stuff, but I had this debt that just kind of like, followed me around like a mountain. I had to climb when I had, like my financial awakening of like, Oh God, everyone's been saving money. And I have to realise I was already so many paces back was really confronting because I had not only to start saving, but to pay off the debt first as well. And that was, you know, that was a lot to kind of deal with. And then, you know, there is obviously individual responsibility there as well. I spent on things that I didn't need and, you know, kind of got stuck in that cycle that so many people got stuck in. And, you know, regardless of how you got there, you've got to get yourself out. And I was new to Australia at the time, so I was paying off from another country and I was earning a really low income when I first came here because I was a contractor. And yeah, it was just like I just had to get in the headspace of just tiny steps forward, stop using the card and then just tiny steps forward. And it took about, I think, three years and end to pay off. Luckily, it doesn't sort of take it doesn't get taken into account in the same way if it's a debt in another country. So it was a kind of considered against all the things I was doing here locally. But that's that's absolutely not an advertisement for getting debt in. And I thought, yeah, sorry, that was a long winded answer. But yeah, it was just like a real kind of like journey of realisations and then having to back step in and do the work kind of retrospectively. 

Maddy: [00:20:03] So you mentioned you had a financial awakening, and now I want to go into that a little bit further. What sort of was your turning point? How did you break the cycle that you were in? 

Emma Edwards: [00:20:12] Yeah, it's a really good question. And it's really funny. Like looking back on it from like so many things when you look back on them, they kind of play out a lot. There are a lot more simplified than they were at the time. So I'm like really trying to tap into that time whenever I'm whenever I'm asked to recall it. But I think that sort of in this in that period of time where I was kind of like having this realisation that everybody was doing all these things. There was like this real frustration with myself because like with so many things, with money, with healthy eating, with going to the gym like, you know what you've got to do like, even though I wasn't really engaged with money and I'd grown up around this kind of real, you know, invisibility to any kind of financial confidence, I knew that if I spent less than I earned, I'd be okay. Or if I wanted to ever have money left over, I needed to stop spending or I needed to budget or whatever. But I. Just wasn't doing it. So even though it was really hard to kind of like, have that realisation and then start putting one foot in front of the other, it was hard from like a mindset and a engagement with the process perspective, but the actual things that you need to do a remarkably simple so. And I think that when you've kind of tried things in the past or you've maybe tried and failed at things, it's really easy to think, Well, that's not what I need to be doing. I need to bring something else. And it's just the secret sauce that everyone else seems to be able to do that I can't get. But it is really a case of just organising where your money is going. It feels horrible when there's involved because everyone else is running off into the distance with their, you know, 100 bucks a week or whatever they can spare and saving and investing it, doing all these things with going, travelling with it or buying a house with it. And you're like just chipping away at this like massive pile of shit. But just kind of like reframing how you see progress is really important to me and just, you know, I got into those I just really got into the habit of putting one foot in front of the other, making sure that I wasn't, what's the word sort of like. I'm doing all my progress because that's what I kept doing with using this credit card and putting stuff back on. I kept saying, you know, I've made progress and then rewarding myself for making progress by putting more stuff on the credit card, which, like, saying out loud sounds so ridiculous. But this is honestly what was going on in my mind. I'd pay off like $500 and be like, Oh, just pop 35 or 95 back on there, as if it didn't matter, but it does matter. And really, just like paying attention to every little dollar when you are in that stage, I know there's loads of narrative online being like the coffees don't matter or the small numbers don't matter. But when you were in that shitstorm, they really, really do. When you've got seven grand of debt to pay off and you're earning $400 a week. The Armour Cappuccino really, really matters to totally been there and not shaming myself. I'm not shaming people, but really getting clear on your situation and what matters to you, because what matters to somebody who's got money invested or they're earning six figures or whatever? Yeah, it all my, you know, isn't going to make that much difference. They can focus on bigger things. But if you're trying to get yourself out of that really shitty situation, those tiny things really do matter. But as long as you're moving forward and you're not coming backwards, you eventually start to see clearer. And then you know what to say before you know it. It's not before you know at all. But I did eventually get to this place at the end of 2019, where there was like $800 to go and I was like, Oh my God, I can pay it off. And now I'm done. And what that process does, and honestly, weirdly, if I hadn't had the day, even though it felt like the debt was what was holding me back, if I hadn't had the debt, I don't know when I would have learnt how to manage my money because I learnt to manage money, paying off debt. And then when I paid off, I was originally putting like a bet in savings and a bit towards debt, like spending that equally so that I didn't need to use debt for emergency savings and things like that. But then when that was done, both of those amounts that I'd been used to living without were going into savings and suddenly it was like jumping up. My numbers were my home and I was like, This is the good life that everyone else has been living all the time. 

Sophie: [00:23:58] So do you have, I guess, for anyone that's listening that, you know, hasn't experienced it or aren't happy with the way that they're spending at the moment or allocating their money? Do you have any specific kind of steps or advice that you would give to people like that, you know, to kind of get out of that routine or level up and actually to start saving or investing? 

Emma Edwards: [00:24:17] Yeah, I do. And for me, it really starts with getting really clear on what your money's going. Whether that's money that you were using credit for or whether it's just maybe you're not in debt, but you're just not comfortable with where your money's going. And I say that because I think that that works across the board with any kind of financial change you want to make. Because I was talking about this on Instagram the other day, I started doing these weekly spending reviews on Instagram Live. I say I've started, I've done one, I'm going to do them every week or review where my money went that week to make me cry and also to kind of demonstrate to other people as well. But whatever it is that you want to do, knowing where your money is going. Kind of answers so many questions, no matter what's going on for you, because you might be living perfectly well within your means, but actually you're spending on other stuff that you're not even really enjoying and missing out on the opportunity to invest, or you might be in debt and putting money on cars that you're not even getting any like lifestyle value from. So you get really, really clear on where your money's going. You don't have to like truck every single dollar all the time, but just regularly reviewing where things are going. And then, like my sort of signature tip, I suppose, is to rank your transactions. However, often you want to do it is fine, and it would depend on what's going on you, but rank your transactions by how much joy or value or whatever you want to call it. They brought you because that gives you sort of like a heat map of how much you're actually getting in exchange for your money. Because every time we spend money, we're trading money that could be invested or used for property or whatever. Like, it's obviously not as black and white at night as that, and you need to enjoy your life at the same time. But every dollar you spend today is one less for tomorrow's just mathematically the way that it works. It doesn't mean you never should spend any, but if you're going to spend it instead of investing it, whatever you want to be getting something for it. So reviving your transaction so you know not only where your money's going, but whether you're actually enjoying where it's going or getting anything out of it, is like it answered so many questions for me because it made me understand where I was doing the emotional spending and maybe understand where I was leaking money, maybe on the side where I was spending for, you know, reasons related to my mental health or to impress other people. Or sometimes you literally off physically spending money on other people. You might be picking the bill up every time because everyone knows that you don't know you're a lawyer or whatever, and maybe they think you earn more than them, but actually, you don't. Or, you know, people make assumptions about who should pay more for stuff. Maybe you're paying more in your relationship, like getting clear on where your money's going is. For me, the first step to whatever you want to do, no matter how financially confident you are or how good it looks on paper, if you know where your money's going, you'll be able to do more. 

Sophie: [00:26:50] It's so funny. This year was the first year that I actually kind of reviewed like my spending habits from the previous year, mainly because I was listening to a lot of like self-help 2022 financial goal podcasts. And I was like, All right, if this many people have told me to do this, I'm going to have a look. And I was actually so interested to see like the amounts I was spending on things that I wasn't spending on, like I found subscriptions that I was linked up to that would just go on my car and it would be a small amount, but it would add up over the year or like, this is so random, but like when you go to the supermarket and don't do your weekly shop, but you just go to get a couple of things and it adds up to like, you know, you'll get a drink because it's cheap on half price and then you'll get, you know, something because you're a bit hungry. And those things, like I used to think my weekly shop was a certain amount, but I might know it's so much higher. So it's so it actually is so valuable to assess. It seems like a daunting task, but it's so valuable to assess where you spend your money. 

Emma Edwards: [00:27:41] Absolutely. The supermarket thing was one of the first things I learnt when I first started doing this. Back when I was in the debt, I kept popping in for basil and coming out with, like all these ridiculous things. but then I'd be looking at my bank statement and thinking, Well, that was for the supermarket. So I can't, you know, I can't change that. And there's obviously no money. There's no spend money, but it's like, No, I need to just plan ahead and I'll spend less. And then you actually free up so much more money. And when you are freeing up money on those things that other things you're not getting any value out of, it's like free money because you you aren't missing the money in the first place and then you just get to reallocate it to something, whether that's spending it on something else or investing, you just redeploying the same money that you didn't even know that you were wasting on something that's actually valuable for you. I'm using my hands and gesticulating, and no one can see. But you know what I mean? 

Maddy: [00:28:38] I was laughing so much when you said that. So because literally just last night, I went to the supermarket last minute and change was on sale and I was like, Oh Jesus, we are going to take a quick break for our sponsors, but we'll be right back to get more tips for setting up a successful investing routine. 

Sophie: [00:30:55] So, Emma, I guess we've heard a little bit about your hot money, mess self, but it seems like you've migrated past that point and talk about investing and saving a lot. So why do you believe money habits are so important for people that are wanting to invest? 

Emma Edwards: [00:31:14] your money habits of the day to day of what's happening in your bank accounts? And it's so much more important than we realise because we do underestimate those smaller numbers. But if you are overspending by $200 a month on stuff that you didn't really want and that is key, I'll never suggest that you give up things that you do want. But if you're spending $200 a month on things that you don't even want, that's like two and a half grand a year. And if you invested that each year because you redeployed it because you didn't even know that you were missing it in 10 years, you could have like 35000 if we were using a seven percent example and you reinvest it. I'm not saying sweat the small stuff all the time. But if you can just keep an eye on them every month or every quarter and just make sure that you're sweeping anything that you might otherwise be wasting site trimming wastage and putting it to better use. I think there's probably a line after which those smaller habits maybe aren't worth your effort, but like, I've never been a particularly high income earner. So if you're an average person and you're in your 20s and you're still only entry level or a little bit more salary, this smaller staff can add up to quite a lot. And I still really believe that, and I'm still saying, you know, still saying do that without giving up all the things that you like. We do buy things that we don't want. As much as we say that we don't. We absolutely do. I do anyway. Maybe anyone that doesn't. Maybe, maybe you were different. But I know that loads of people I know do. And we can redeploy that into stuff that makes us way more financially confident in the future. And that's to me, that's the easiest win because it's money that you were already going to spend and you've just changed where it's going. 

Maddy: [00:32:44] You mentioned financially confident there. And I think one of the best ways that you can really set yourself up for financial confidence is with a plan or with goals. Might you did an awesome summer series? And I would highly recommend any of our listeners to go and check it out. But one of the things that you did chat about throughout that summer series was setting up an investing plan. And, you know, the new year can be a great time to do that. What are your tips for doing this? And I guess we'd love to hear about some of your goals of the year ahead, too. 

Emma Edwards: [00:33:13] So my one, this is a little bit wacky because I really need to focus on my super this year because I don't have employer contributions anymore, only really newly. So I've never really contributed extra to my super. I've kind of focussed on investing like little bits outside of Say, but I don't have loads invested. My portfolio's worth like I think 17000 at most is probably dropped a little bit now. I don't have loads and loads, but this year, because I don't have those employer contributions anymore. I do really want to prioritise my Deep Dive. So for me, it's going to be there and it looks a little bit different because I don't really know how much I'm going to be earning. But what I have done is looked at what my employer would have contributed if I was still there, and I want to work to at least match that so that I'm not behind because I've gone self-employed. However, other years when I've been setting up like an investing part, the first thing I do look at how much you're actually going to take home after tax because I think as much as social media people telling their stories of their network and everything is amazing. Sometimes you can be kind of like, Oh, I want to have 100k net worth by next year, but you're taking home forty three thousand after tax and you're like, got pay rent with like, it's just you need to work out what is actually going to be available to you. And this is like massively something. I would just pluck a number out my arse and be like going to the pharmacy, and I was earning 30 bucks. My baby not let it go. So start with how much is actually coming in and your expenses and work out what your actual gap is and then start thinking about what you can do with that and how that's going to look. So are you going to invest $200 a month? Are you going to save it up and invest it in like bundles? Some people do that. Are you going to use more of a micro investing app and it's going to just take it out of your weekly pay, like maybe you're doing smaller amounts if you want to pay something with a monthly fee rather than where you're paying brokerage every time. And obviously, you know, work out what you're going to invest in, you might already know, and you might just be putting it into what you've always been doing. Or you might be starting for the first time. So you might want to start with one of those lower entry points, like an app or a robo advisor, or whatever it is that you're going to use and setting that plan and committing to it just like you would if you were putting money away for saving for a trip or something. It's one of those things. Again, we know what we need to do. If we were going to Thailand for two weeks in June, we started thinking, Okay, I need X amount going to put this amount away, but because it's much more instant gratification, but just apply the exact same principles as if you were getting a trip to Thailand at the end of it, but putting it into your investing and working out. When are you going to do it? Where that money's going to come from and how viable that is and just set and forget is usually how I would approach it. Once you've kind of done that groundwork. 

Sophie: [00:35:46] yeah, I feel like taking the first step in all of that is sometimes feels like the hardest thing, the most daunting thing thinking about how much you actually make and where you can. But once you start, it seems like he can get into a routine pretty easily. Now he touched on it a little bit about, you know, making investing a part of our routine. But we had a listener question and one listener said, How do you make both saving money and investing a part of your everyday life? Do you have, I guess, any tips or recommendations around integrating these things into, you know, often what people have is very busy, busy lives. 

Emma Edwards: [00:36:22] First of all, it's really valuable to address that saving and investing are still both important. I think they're sort of particularly as inflation starts to rise. There can be a little bit of a rhetoric of like if your savings account is earning you less than inflation, then you're losing money. And again, mathematically, that's true. But that doesn't mean go and invest all your money in the stock market and aim for a seven percent return because you need to have liquidity and you have access to money for emergencies or whatever. So firstly, don't sort of think I'm done with with saving and I'm only investing now or I'm investing all my savings in those spending and they're saving those investing. And they're all really important to all of us in different ways. But making, saving and investing part of your everyday enjoyment of life, I think it's really about balancing those habits that we talked about before. So your money that your investing needs to be surplus income. And so how do you split your surplus income, work out what your expenses are and then work out what your discretionary spending is going to be. Because we spend we're human beings, that's how we exist on the planet and enjoy our time here. So then how are you going to split the rest? Are you going to put so much into savings or so much to debt and so much toward savings, much towards investing in whatever order you're doing everything in? But, you know, work out what that surplus is that you might otherwise be using for other things and just sort of factor that in. Some people would like to think about it like a bill, so they pay themselves in their savings and their investments. And then what's left is what they spend. It really kind of depends on how your money comes in. But get really clear on what your surplus income is and then just split a portion of it non-negotiable. Just like you would if it was a gym membership, for example, however small or large, that portion ends up being for you. I think it's just really important to factor in rather than kind of thinking, Oh, I might invest some money this year if I've got any spare, because it's hard enough to say you're going to save it. But when you've actually got to invest it and take a risk in doing that, with all this noise of stock prices dipping and everything, I think it's even harder at another level to say you will invest unless you've got a plan. So kind of working out what percentage or what chunk of your surplus income is going to go there? 

Sophie: [00:38:28] I feel like it's such a good point. Like actually over the past two years we've had Covid, so we've been kind of locked up and not doing a lot and so much of my money. And I know I had a lot of conversations about this went to investing because we were like, Well, we're not spending on going out of doing other things. And then it comes around to this year and you have to reassess your goals and you're like, Wait, what if I want to travel? Like, I have to save for that. Like, I can't necessarily invest for that because that's the short term. So I guess it's a good point of just like trying to work out what those little goals are for the year and then fitting it in just to your everyday routine. 

Emma Edwards: [00:38:59] Yeah. And it's like something I've had to contend with this year, having for the first time. Absolutely no kind of expectation or regularity in my income. I mean, I was honestly before this podcast thinking, God, I'm going to go on this podcast and be like, I'm not investing this year, but no, I really need to. I mean, I need to take my own advice. Listen to what I'm saying to everybody. But it's a different experience for me at the moment, and I'm really still feeling it out. 

Maddy: [00:39:22] So in your experience, once you have got into quite a good routine and you're on a roll with your money, do you have any tips for how to mentally really stick to it and stay on top of things? And I guess especially in times like this, when the market is quite volatile and there is a lot of noise around? 

Emma Edwards: [00:39:38] Yeah, it's an interesting one. And it's I was actually having a conversation with a friend earlier today of how at one point we were really, really highly engaged with investing when we were like, really first learning about it because you have to be you have to get comfortable with Bryce is going up and down. And when you're looking to buy something, you might pay more attention to prices going up and down. But then once you're in your routine, you kind of take your foot off the gas a bit and you kind of like, Well, you know, the prices are really irrelevant because I've bought them now and I'm holding them for, you know, decades, probably ideally. So it's sort of like a case of don't be overly hands on be balance when you're being really hands on with your investments. And then, you know, with your broader money strategy more more broadly, where there's going to be spending and saving and that everyday kind of habit aspect, I just kind of look to get to a point where you're almost not coasting. Coasting is the wrong word, but where does the least resistance? So if you're sort of like panicking about your stocks and you're thinking, Oh my God, they've gone down, they've gone down. You know, I don't know. Maybe a you a little bit over investor. Do you need to kind of pull back on it because obviously not comfortable with it. A bit come about when you constantly tracking your transactions or checking how much the new savings account. Something's probably not quite right there because you're not feeling you really just want to feel like there's really nothing going on a bet like. And it sounds like a nice example, but a bit like when there was that. Rise of intuitive eating and everyone was kind of going just eat healthy and don't think about it, like stop counting calories, just eat good food and don't think about it like you kind of want the same thing. Just buy stuff that isn't that you don't regret later. Put some away for the future. Invest a bit if you can, and just try not to think about it too much. You know, check in with it regularly. Make sure you're not eating le eight Mars bars a day because you will intuitively know that you know. You know that's not right. But is that sort of like finding that balance where there isn't a whole lot of resistance and you're not thinking about it too much? It's just happening. But for me, it is massively about how I'm feeling. And if something's feeling off and I'm obsessing over something, an allocation is probably not right. 

Sophie: [00:41:34] I love that. I think that should be advice going for it. Just buy things and just set and forget about it. If I knew it was that easy, you know, well, it is is. So, Emma, before we get to our final question, you know, we think you're so entertaining. We love your social media, we love your podcast. Where can people find the broke generation? And is there anything that you would like to plug? 

Emma Edwards: [00:42:01] You can find me at the broke generation on Instagram or the broke Generation podcast anywhere you get your podcasts. I am on social media and my podcast every week, and I do sort of take a bit of a holistic lifestyle approach to money where we do still spend and it's not frugality, and it's also not, you know, seven figure net worth, you know, hats off to the people that are there, but I'm not, and I'm kind of going through the same things that my followers are going through a lot. My followers, you know, come to me with questions about, you know, what do I do with X, Y and Z? And they're in, you know, on paper, so much better financial situation to me. But that's kind of what my community, I guess, is all about. Like, I'm not an expert at telling people what to do. It's just kind of like, I have this curiosity for why we do, why we do things the way we do them. And I kind of just seek to give reason to why you might be feeling the way you're feeling about money and how we can use that information to to do better and feel better about it. 

Maddy: [00:42:58] Well, Emma, on that note, one final question for you. What piece of advice would you give to someone starting out on their investing journey? [00:43:06][7.5]

Emma Edwards: [00:43:07] So and this is just this is what I did. I read a lot of like how to guides and sort of like watch a lot of the videos and things on the ASX website and on like CommSec or the trading platform of your bank, it's really broken down. It's fact it's not somebody's opinion and it's not about what to buy. It's actually about the process of how you like. Add the thing to your cart and checkout, because that was the stuff that was confusing me so much. I kind of started to understand the principles of investing and like that all sounds kind of simple, but then you're like, Wait, why am I still confused? Because the platforms look quite confusing, and you've kind of got like beard and market caps and all these kind of numbers. And it's a bit like, well, what's all the stuff? And then the other thing I was doing for ages, if I was investing was watching stocks up on my phone, which I always thought was this like weird finance bro app that I would never need to touch. But when I realised that it was just like a wish list on the iconic, I was like, Oh. And so I was just putting names of companies in there that I knew and just watching the prices go up and down. And it just kind of. It's really helpful as well when it kind of brings up the news stories about the companies that you're watching. And you can kind of put context to what's happening in the market and be like, Oh, it's reporting season. What's that? And people's, you know, stock prices are going up and down. What does that mean? And just kind of fleshing out the picture before you even buy anything? Was like that was like a year long process for me. 

Sophie: [00:44:31] I think that is great advice. And every time a guest gives their advice, I always take something on board. So thank you very much for sharing. Emma, thank you so much for joining us today. It's been an absolute pleasure and we hope that the audience has really taken something out of this. 

Emma Edwards: [00:44:48] Thanks so much for having me. I hope you have too.