Has your 2024 not started the way you'd hoped?

In this week's Video I talk about how I am part-chinese and the many gifts this meant including the gift of a second start to the new year. Plus I talk about a simple thing you can do if you want to reset your 2024 this Lunar New Year. 

Kung hei fat choy!

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Transcript 

Hey, welcome to Mel’s money Musings. Today I want to talk about restarts and resets and even potentially the money story that you're telling yourself and how we want to rewrite that for this year. And I want to start through the lens of Chinese New Year. And that's because you may not know this about me, but I'm part Chinese. 

My Nana emigrated here from Hong Kong in the late 1930s. And when she stepped off the boat to arrive here, she looked around and went, What? Where have I ended up? Like what Backwater town is this compared to bustling Hong Kong. Sydney was like a sleepy country town. And one of the things that she brought with her being part Chinese or half Chinese herself with all of the customs and traditions, including Chinese New Year.

And what I didn't realise growing up in very white Western Sydney was what a gift that was. Because one, it meant that I got to see another part of life that I simply didn't see before. But also, it meant that for us, we got two bites at the New Year. Yes, we had the traditional New Year that was usually by the beach and we'd have seafood or usually prawns and sitting around and sharing.

What you would want for that year with the family. But then we would have Chinese New Year with my nana where we would have red envelopes or my preferred eggs chocolate inside a red envelope. We'd have some sort of Chinese New Year present. This is the Year of the Dragon, my gift to myself this year. But if it meant also that if you didn't have a great start to the year, you really had a second go with it. 

And what I loved with the customs leading up to it, the this idea sweeping out the New Year and getting everything done before that New Year hit. And then really for the day of the New Year stopping and really appreciating that this is the start of a New Year and what I want to offer to you is the gift of a reset, the gift of a restart.

Because what we know is that by 1st of Feb, 80% of New Year's resolutions fail, and they do that because they're vague, which is really no difference in kind of going, *crosses fingers*, instead why not to use this Lunar New Year as the opportunity to have a fresh start, having a brand new crack at a different crack at a New Year especially when it comes to finances and instead of vague, hoping that it's going to be okay. 

What I want you to think about is one thing that you could do this year, that if you were to do that, it would have a big difference to your finances. That one thing might be that you put aside time every single week. It's a date with yourself, maybe half an hour a week to do one thing about your finances.

It might be to finally sit down and look at your superannuation or your retirement account and look at how it's being invested, what's the insurance is like and more. It might be setting up multiple bank accounts and automating it might be finally starting to share invest. It might be cutting up your credit cards and paying them off before the end of the year.

I want you to think about one thing that if you were to finish this year and have done that, you'd go, You know what? I did that. I felt good about that because what we can do is have shopping lists of all that. I would love to have done this and this and this and this. Then it almost sets us up for failure from the get go because we've created wish lists that we don't necessarily know how to bring into place.

For me, a reset and deciding what's the one thing that you're going to do differently. That one thing might simply be deciding that you're going to talk to yourself differently about money. Inside the My Financial Adulting Plan, I have I have as many people as I can encourage to introduce themselves. And one person they introduced themselves with a phrase that I know, that

I've seen every round and I've I've been told multiple, multiple times by people in that is that I think I'm bad at money. I just believe that I'm bad at money. If that's you, maybe it's just rewriting that for yourself this year. Imagine how it would feel to finish the year not believing any more that you're bad with money.

What's one thing you would need to do to change that opinion for you? Saturday is Chinese New Year. Lunar New Year. As my nanny used to say to me, kung hei fat choi, I will have stuffed that out completely. But essentially it means a happy New Year and health and prosperity to you all. So I can't be giving you a red envelope that you gave to those friends and family during this time.

What I want to give to you is the gift of a restart. Let me know how you go.