Uncensored Money Season Three: 5 Financial Questions We Ask When Making Decisions 

Melissa Browne: Ex-Accountant, Ex-Financial Advisor, Ex-Working Till I Drop, Now Serial Entrepreneur & Author, Financial Wellness Advocate, Living a Life by Design | 15/11/2022

 

Show Notes

We often don’t get any insights into how other people make decisions, particularly financial ones. So in this episode, Mel and Lawsie share some of the questions they ask themselves or things they think about when making decisions, particularly financial decisions. 

Resources mentioned in this episode: 

• 50+ Ways to Find $10k in 12 Months

If you know you need more help with your finances make sure you join the waitlist for the next round of the My Financial Adulting Plan. 

If you're not already, come play over at insta at MelBrowne.Money and make sure you are signed up to Mel's Money Musings and Monday Money Moments (yep, we love us some alliteration) for more tips, tricks and ideas on how to best work with your money.

Finally, if you love this episode please make sure you subscribe and leave us a review.

 

Transcript

Mel: How do you make decisions when it comes to investing, spending, holidays or anything else when it comes to money? How do you know what to prioritise? How do you know what you can afford? Is there a question that you ask that helps guide your decision and what is that question or series of questions?

I started wondering about this because of the question I was asking myself when I was booking a hotel overseas earlier this year, and it made me wonder whether other people did that too. Did they think of doing that? We don't often get an insight into how other people make decisions, particularly financial decisions.

And so in this episode, that's why I wanted to lift the lid on a few things Lawsie and I do. The questions we ask. Now, some might be things you are already doing, but I'm hoping that we'll share one or two that will make you think and even adopt into your own financial toolkit. So this episode what we are gonna do is that Lawsie and I are going to share up to five questions we ask or things we think about when it comes to making decisions that affect us financially.

Obviously this is not exhaustive. We just picked some random things and there are many, many voices and questions in my head.

Lawsie: I was gonna say speak yourself.

Mel: There's not a podcast episode long enough for all of the many conversations that I have.

Lawsie: And all of those personalities.

Mel: Many, many. So let's get started. I know some of Lawsie's lead into one another as she was saying. So I'll do my five. I'll go then you'll go.

Lawsie: Ah, lovely. What's your number one question?

Mel: Well, the reason that I started it, and then I started thinking about this, was when I was looking at hotels overseas. I was looking at Paris and then I was looking at the UK. We stayed in an Airbnb through the Plum Guide, you and I. 

And what I would do is when I looked at a hotel, particularly for Paris, where we wanted to stay in quite a nice hotel, I would look at the menu in the bar and I'd make sure I could afford a drink and a coffee. So my question was can I afford to drink and eat? Could we go for a drink that night and can we have a coffee in the morning?

And if I looked at the menu and went, Oh good lord, then I'm not staying at the hotel. And I think it's ridiculous cause it's part of that, just because you can doesn't mean you should. And some of them were kind of at the top end of my accommodation budget. But there's no way. And it's that thing of could I have afforded to, yes, I could have afforded to have paid $10, or let's be honest, in some places a $15 coffee or a $40 drink. But I just don't want to. And Tony would've been horrified so we then wouldn't have done it. So that then made me go, no, And it's part of that thing I know if I was looking to live somewhere and I know when we were at Miller's point, we rented there first, we rented at Pyrmont first.

And part of the decision was, can we afford to live here? Do we enjoy it? Because whether it's a holiday, whether it's living or more, there's one thing to afford the accommodation or afford the home. And it's another thing entirely to afford eating out and to afford everything else that goes with it.

So in the UK we did the same thing. I looked at different suburbs cause we ended up looking at the Plum Guide and booking an apartment. But I looked at the suburb and went, what cafes are near it? And couldn't we afford just to walk a short distance and buy a coffee. And one of the suburbs, we actually said no, cause it was so expensive.

And we settled on Marylebone cause it was a little bit expensive but not ridiculous. And there were lots and lots of options so that you go to really cheap. There were cheap pubs, there was a Lingue cafe. So I looked at it and went, Lingue cafe lives there, that's not crazy expensive But it also means I know the quality and the type of price I'm probably gonna pay. So, strange opening question.

Lawsie: No, but I really like that cause I think it is hilarious cause how many times do you go into a hotel and you look at things and you go, Oh good lord, I'm not paying that for that. And but if it's actually really important to you to be able to grab a coffee from there or just go, we've had a big day, we just wanna head to the bar and have a drink. You wanna do that and enjoy it and not be like...

Mel: Or we can't here.

Lawsie: This is so expensive. And that's of course gonna make your drink taste not so lovely.

Mel: And part of me enjoying the hotel is enjoying all the amenities. And if you can't afford all the amenities except for your teeny tiny room, which let's be honest, in Paris, it's often a teeny tiny room. Then there's just no point. So we ended up finding an incredible hotel in the La Marais district that kind of has just opened up from a new hotel line. It was extraordinary, but it passed all my tests.

Lawsie: Yep.

Mel: We were all good.

I told you some of these are gonna be random, but I hope, again, I hope they make you think and go, Oh my gosh, I've never thought to do that. I'm gonna start doing that now, because just say you love the idea of going to Noosa, but you can't afford to eat on Hasting Street. Maybe you'll stay at Noosaville instead, or you'll still stay further down the Sunshine Coast. That's just an easy Aussie example. Where does it have can you afford to enjoy where you're gonna go?

Lawsie: Yeah. Very important.

Mel: Number two that I ask a lot is it a want or a need? So if it's a need, then that's fine. And that just part of life. But if it's a want, that's clothes or shoes or if it's anything but holidays. I don't have this rule for holidays cause I guess we don't go and do that a lot. But if it's a want, I have to be able to afford it times three. So my personal rule is that if it's a want, I have to be able to spend the same amount in shares and I then donate the same amount.

So my first question is, is it a want or a need? If it's a want and if it's a material want, then I have to be able to times it by three.

Lawsie: So if it's a hundred dollars shirt, you're like, Yep, I've gotta have $300, cause it's gotta be a hundred for the shirt, a hundred for the shares, and a hundred for whichever charity.

Mel: Yeah. And I really believe in sustainability. I'm a DINK, I can absolutely overspend. So it's that pain point. It stops you and goes, oh, do I wanna pay three times for that? But it also means I'm enjoying now and I'm looking after future self. And the number of times that I've gone, you know what? I've got something in my closet. So it makes you then go back and use what you've got. And that's what I would do if you had kids, I'd get them to parrot that question to you, Is that a want or a need? It's that little annoying parrot that's doing it to you, but it's also teaching them there is a difference between a want and a need and then we prioritise them differently. So that's my second.

My third is if I want something we haven't planned for in our Best Year Yet, I have to ask how I can afford that outside my normal income. So we have as something called our Best Year Yet, we are gonna have a future episode on this, but I know we've done one in the past if you wanna go and look at that.

We've also spoiler alert, got a goals mini-course coming out very soon. May even be out now. So keep an eye out. But part of the planning for that is in that goals mini course. But so Tone and I sit down and for all parts of our life, we build out our best year. You know, what will we spend on this? What will we do for this? And it doesn't mean that I still personally won't go and do things, but just say, an overseas holiday wasn't on my best year yet. So this perfect example was this year. I never intended to go overseas this year. Absolutely didn't. But Tony was going overseas for a long period of time for work, and, the previous year, he'd spent three months overseas. I didn't want that long period of time apart again, and he'd been really unwell, so I didn't want him flying back and forth. So that was totally outside our normal expenditure. So then I had to sit down and say, how could I find it? And for me it was I took, I said yes to more speaking opportunities and more sponsorship opportunities.

And I remember I was saying to you when they'd come in, great, that's Europe, because that's exactly how what I was thinking of them. I'm like, Great, that's that paid for. Now when we do it, what I'll do is I'll say yes to speaking. So speaking's my go-to for saying yes to things in order to fill that bucket but also selling clothes on Depop.

I've got a whole bunch of events coming up that I didn't necessarily want to spend too much on. But of course I'm in outfit overwhelm with what am I gonna wear to these events? I go into my closet and I've got stupid number of clothes.

Lawsie: I'm glad you admitted that.

Mel: A stupid number of clothes, but I've said to myself, this is outside of my normal spending.

So if you wanna bring anything else in over and above what you already planned for these events, you gotta make it from selling stuff. Which is why on the weekend a whole bunch of things appeared on Depop. Some I'm proud to say, have already sold. But that's part of that, is this included in what I've planned for?

If not, so just say, I know with Financial Adulting Plan peeps, they look at what's coming in, what's going out. They have bills, every day and we teach them to live to what's in their everyday account, and not their bills and their savings. If there was not enough in your everyday account, which is essentially what I'm saying with this, is that I have to say, great, how am I gonna go find that?

And it's learning how to find money that's out outside of your normal income. And we've got a free webinar that will teach you how to do that. If you're going, Mel, I wouldn't know how to do that, called 50 plus Ways to Find 10 K in 12 months. So we'll put a link to the show notes so that might be something that you wanna do.

But I know. You might say to me, But Mel, you don't need to do that. And no, I don't need to do that. But if I wanna have a great financial base, then I want to do that. So that's why, that's the question. That's why I keep asking that.

Lawsie: Number four.

Mel: Four is what will my cost per wear be? This sounds like such a random question, but I've asked this for so long. I remember writing an article for Fairfax about this back in the day. So cost per wear is simply if an article's a hundred dollars, how many times will each wear cost? If I go, oh, I reckon I'll wear that 10 times, then my cost wears 10 bucks, which I think's not too bad. But for a high-ticket item, like for a casual everyday item, I expect my cost per wear to be less than a buck.

Otherwise, it's not worth it. So my jeans, my t-shirts, singlets, all of that. They need to be a buck. And it's not from buying fast fashion for me, I'm not gonna buy I just simply won't support fast fashion cause if they're listed on the modern slavery index, I'm simply not gonna purchase from them.

So it might be that it's a $50 tee, so that means I've gotta have 50 wears from it. And if I can't because I don't think it's good quality or because it's trendy and I might wear it for six months and throw it out, then I cannot buy it. If it's high, I also have to ask the question, am I better off renting it, which I've not done yet because I just don't love the idea of renting it. So what I generally tend to do is I look to a second-hand store. So if Tony and I ever go to dress up, we always go to second-hand stores cause the cost per wear is way too high. And I don't wanna rent it necessarily, so I'll go to a second-hand store and then give it back.

But also if something is really faddy, let's just say it's come in from the 1960s, I'd rather go find that, and I've got some really cool bags that are from Salvation Army stalls or what have you that. Tiny cost, but they're amazing. Or I ask the question, is there a cheaper non-fast fashion version that I can buy? So for example, just say fluro was in and I knew that this is only a short, potentially gonna be a short window trend.

I'm not gonna be able to hit my cost per wear. But it might even be going out and so it's more expensive. So my cost per wear for going out, I might be happier for it to be a hundred bucks, but I'm still not gonna be able to get it down to that. Then I would look for a non-fast fashion. I'd go like a high street store and find out do they have a version there that I can buy where it will be a lot cheaper, or I look to see if it's a trend that I'll have longer. So I know this is ridiculous, but

Lawsie: You're not a fashion junkie at all, are you?

Mel: But if it was fluro, I would absolutely buy shoes or bag, cause I know that's gonna be around for ages. That's something that I can play with even in five years time. If fluro is gone, I could still pull in a pop of colour and actually that will still be okay, rather than the head-to-toe fluro look.

Fourth question, what will my cost per wear be? And I think people don't do this enough. Cause I think most people are probably okay, but for going out, particularly as we're coming up to Christmas with lots of events, I think for event dressing, people overspend.

Lawsie: Yeah. Or they buy that dress and wear it once and go, Oh, I really like it, but it just stays in their cupboard. As opposed to being able to pull it out on multiple occasions.

Mel: And the cost per wear is excessive, whereas that’s why I'm a fan of shopping your girlfriend's closet if you're similar sizes and if you go into things that they're not gonna attend. So no one knows it's borrowed. Why not? I know for you, when you've looked at stuff at where you've needed shoes or bags before or if we go to the races, you've pulled the same hat which goes with so many things. Oh, you're like, do you have, can I borrow that hat that goes with this or those shoes? I'm like, Yeah. Like, why on earth would, when I am a racing nut and I've got so many, why would you buy them if you're going once a year? It doesn't make sense. So what will my cost per way be is number four?

And the last one is how long will I need to work to pay for that decision? So back in the day, that used to be an hourly rate. So I remember when I started to pay a little bit more for things, I'd sit down, I knew what my hourly rate would be, and I knew that, wow, that's two days. Is it worth working two days for? Hell no. Or those, that's a week. Is it worth a week? Hell no. Or sure. Okay. Yeah, I'll do that. But now, because I now have the opportunity to work or not, I'm really funny with this. So we are looking at doing renos we are looking at buying an office and not for me, we're looking at potentially buying other investments.

And my question is, how long will I need to pay for that decision? Because even if they're smart decisions, even if they're wise decisions, I still wanna know the opportunity cost of doing that. Because I then mentally need to prepare for that to go, All right. If that's gonna be a five-year cost, that means for the next five years I'm working.

Okay, great. I can do that. But it's a different head space to, I need to work to pay for that decision. Is that decision worth it?

Lawsie: Yeah, very important. I really like that one. The cost per wear is also very useful, but as I pull out the same. My cost wear would also be very low.

Mel: To interrupt you briefly before five is I came up to your closet. When did we do this? Six months?

Lawsie: Oh, as well, Yeah. Probably six months ago now.

Mel: And you had some things that you weren't wearing, I think from memory. And so your cost per wear was high in some a few cause you were like, I don't know how to wear this.

So I came up and did that, jh, you could do this or this, and suddenly your cost per wear is plummeting on those things because, sometimes if you've got those items, it might be worth either having that girlfriend come over to help you see different ways to do it or, and pay for one session with a stylist, which might not be that expensive, but suddenly means you are shopping your wardrobe versus having to go and buy more stuff to add in that you don't know how to wear.

Lawsie: No, that is very true. That is very true. But I do really like your, how long will I need to work to pay for that decision? And I've absolutely done that at different times. I'll be like that's my hourly rate. And other times you're like, yes, I'm working damn hard. I don't care if it's two days, this thing is that thing that I really "need" (inverted commas), not want or whatever. But then other times you go, no, it's not worth the three hours of my pay.

Mel: Yeah, I reckon asking that decision crystallizes that decision for you, makes you go, hell yes, or hell no.

Lawsie: Definitely.

Mel: What about you, Law Dog? What are the five things that you ask yourself?

Lawsie: Yeah, mine are a little bit different because, and this is why I wanted to do them together cause I just wanted to give the context around it because I strangely have everything very systemised and very automated. So I won't look at something and go is this a want or a need? I've already set it up and I know what my overarching financial goal is, and therefore from that, I've already set up my system about how much I'm investing. So that doesn't change for me. And therefore I'm like, yes, because I want financial independence. So I'm chucking money at that and therefore what's left is what's left.

So, that is some context as to why some of these might seem a little bit potentially a little bit strange. But basically, in terms of doing that, everything is very systemised, very automated because I've got a certain amount goes every pay to be going to be invested and then whatever is left, and that's all then automated to go into different little buckets.

Mel: Yep.

Lawsie: And I know that I have more little buckets than your little buckets because we do things so differently. With that in mind, my first question is, have we got the right dollars sitting in the right bucket?

Mel: Oh, I like that.

Lawsie: If I, say for example in one of my buckets, I might have going out and I'll buy clothes and shoes and the fun discretionary stuff sits in one bucket. So if I'm going, Oh my God, I love those pair of jeans. I need more jeans in my life. Then I'm like if the money's not there, the money's not there. That's the end of the conversation in my head. It's not, can I go and put it on credit? Can I do this? Can I take it from this other bucket? I'm like, It's black and white. If the money's there and buy it. If not, that's it too bad, so sad, move on. Or, alright, if I still really want it, I'm gonna have to wait till there's a bit more money in that bucket. It might be a week or two, then I can do it.

Mel: What buckets do you have?

Lawsie: I have lots of buckets. I would have a fun bucket. I have a holiday bucket, my Christmas account bucket. We have a bikes bucket.

Mel: Yeah. It's one of your expensive hobby. Holiday.

Lawsie: Yep. Definitely have holidays. And then just like our everyday living and then like a dog bucket as in, vet bills and buying stuff that you need for the dog and all that kind of stuff. But it just, it really is clear for me. And a bill's bucket.

Mel: And by bucket you mean bank account?

Yes. Yep.

Lawsie: Yeah. But in saying that though, it's one main bank account with a few sub-savings accounts.

It's not that I've got a thousand debit cards sitting everywhere. But yeah, just having those buckets represents what I've said that I'm prepared to spend for the year. Bang. Done. It's there or it's not. Sometimes that can be a little bit hardcore, so it might be running out on moisturiser. You've spent all the groceries money, you're gonna have to wait another week for that, which I know you would be horrified cause some non-negotiables for you. I'm like, I'll scrape whatever crap is left in tube.

Mel: Oh no, I do that.

Lawsie: Get me through it, and then I'm like, Oh, there's a couple of days.

Mel: Yeah. I love that.

Lawsie: So that would be the first one. The second one is, can I get a better deal? So as much as it is very automated, the downside of that is the money can just be going out and we're all guilty of it. Automated or not, everyone's got direct debits that are coming out from your phone bill to your Netflix subscription, to your internet, all of those things. So for me, again, it's systemised and I don't sit down every day and look at all of these things, but it is that, February, I know that all my personal insurance is coming up, so I'll always review those. September's house insurance month, and then I think it's March or April, I will always just look at my phone bill, cause new phone plans are coming on all the time. Sometimes I am in a contract, sometimes I'm not. So it is just making sure can I get a better deal on any of those expenses? And yes, you've gotta spend a little bit of time doing it, but if I can make savings and stuff there, then it means that I've got more dollars left for the other things in that, particular moment with rising groceries and all that stuff. It's cool, I've made some savings here. That offset then the increase that I've had there without again, having to worry about anything for my investing goals. So that is definitely my second question. The other one that I do, and similar to yours as well is, particularly for those discretionary items, is there other income that we can make to do it?

And I think the biggest area that we do that is the bikes stuff. Like we had a couple of bikes that were just, this sounds ridiculous, but we do have a lot of bikes that we just had sitting there and we're like we're not riding them. Like your cost per wear, it's like cost per ride. This is huge if I'm only using this bike once or twice a year. So fine, we're selling it, and then Adam wanted to use those dollars for then something else to do with the bikes. But at least yes, we had the money.

Mel: You're using it

Lawsie: But it's also how can you be smart with that? Because again, our thing is around financial independence. I've definitely got access to money. It's not that we can't afford it, it's, I'm choosing not to afford it because this bigger goal, is kind of that overarching thing. And it's also just being savvy with it. Cause I think we're all guilty of that, that instant gratification thing as well.

He wanted power meters. They're like the pedals for your bike. I actually, I don't even know if they're pedals, Someone's listening to you are gonna go, she's got no idea what she's talking about and they're probably very correct. But basically they're like pedals or things in the pedals or the crank or, I don't know. But it measures the power going through the pedal.

Mel: Yeah.

Lawsie: Again, you don't need them. Anyone can ride a bike with pedals, but he really wanted these, and I'm like, Yes, but of course it's a bike thing. It's expensive because it's a specialised nature of what it is. And so we could have again, just gone, Oh no, we can do that. Or, our thing was is there enough money in the bike bucket? No. So what can we do? And then it was like you're wanting these, why don't we just use what we would spend on your birthday present? Use that with a bit of money for the bike bucket. You have to wait till your birthday to use them. But we can get them. And yes, you're gonna have to wait a few months, but you don't need them. Like it's that whole thing around. So I guess for us it's how can we be savvy with what we are doing and then, hello! It saves me from trying to figure out a birthday present to buy. And so it's a win-win all around. So yeah, I think it is, are there things that we've got that you can sell to fund that, particularly for those bigger hobbies and stuff that you do?

The other thing that I do is, again, because everything's audited and systemised and so the other question that I then ask is, like I annualise and percentigise, if that's even a word, our expenses. And so what I mean by that is I look at it and go, sure, we put X amount in for holidays and we do this and everything. And that just happens every week. I don't even think about it. But it's super important for me each year when I go through just to revise those amounts that are going into all of my little buckets. To then go, how much are we actually committing to that each year? And then what is that amount as a percentage of our income that we bring in. And then it's also just s sanity checks. I think anyone can do that, but I think cause sometimes you might go, oh, I'm not spending that much on these little things. I am not doing it on everything. Like this is very much mostly just grouping on what we are prepared to spend in those bigger buckets.

Cause I do not have the time to, and I don't care enough to sit there and analyse every expense, which is why like my little buckets work for us. But yeah, just doing that sort of sanity check. Cause you might go, Oh yeah, I'm really happy spending a hundred dollars a week on something and then suddenly looking go, oh, but that's actually five grand a year, which is actually X percentage. And if my goal is for this, am I really comfortable with that? Or that percentage is more than what I spend on this other thing that I think is really important. And so it can just be that sanity check.

Mel: Yeah. A value shift. Yeah.

Lawsie: Absolutely. And I'm horrified when I do it, when I look at how much I'm spending in insurance and those kind of things, when you look at it as a percentage, like it makes you almost vomit a little bit.

But it's also a choice where I'm going well, but I'm not prepared to not have them. But particularly the discretionary stuff, I think that can be a really nice way of looking at it and just to keep track of it. So yeah, it's always, am I comfortable with the amount that I'm spending annually and as a percentage of my income? It's all spreadsheeted. You'd be so surprised to know. So there is that. But then my fifth question is as much as I'm saying everything is all automated, there are still gonna be things that are going to tempt and to push you. And similar to your question that you ask yourself around, how long do I need to work to pay for it? Mine is how do we feel if it's actually pushing our goal of being financially independent down the road? And a similar thing I guess, just approached from a different angle. An example of that for us was, I think, a couple years of Covid, like a lot of people. And then working from home, come the weekend and stuff. I'm like, Oh, I just need to get out of my house. That’s something that's super important for us. So we did what I think a lot of people do what would it look like to have a holiday home? And for us, and obviously this is a personal thing, but I was like, It's ultimately gonna mean we're gonna be having a big mortgage again to have this holiday place. And I'm just gonna feel obligated to go there. It's gonna be like a second home. And actually for me, I'm just about wanting to be outdoors and having adventures and exploring new places and all these things, so that just doesn't make sense.

So we're like, well, how can we make this work? And so ultimately we bought a camper trailer. And yes, a camper trailer is still a lot of money. A fraction of the cost of buying a house, let alone the cost of running a property. So again, it's that, it is a bit of comparison there, but for us it had to come down to, obviously, because it is a big outlay of money, are we comfortable in doing that knowing then that you're pushing that goal of financial independence, 12 months, 18 months, whatever, down the road? And that's like that final question. And it was because for us, when we looked at it, it's super important for us to get out. I'm gonna drive everybody around me nuts if I'm feeling like I'm forever a prisoner in my home. And there's nothing wrong with my home.

Mel: No, it's just that when you’re working from home, you're there all the time.

Lawsie: All the time. Yeah. but I love keeping outdoors, let's be honest, it feels like it's been raining for three years now.

So it's also that thing of there's a limit to how many times I wanna be in a tent on the ground. And having a trailer just opens up so many opportunities for us. And to be able to go away for a week or so and be totally off-grid and self-sufficient and all of these things that are important to us, I can feel that part of your soul is probably dying as I all this camping stuff.

Mel: You're not wrong, but I know you love it.

Lawsie: Yeah, of course. So yeah, because of that, we're like, actually no, this is super important and we want to be doing that. It's that fine line of doing the things where you're young enough and fit enough and healthy enough to do it, as opposed to going, oh no, we can't do anything because we've got this goal.

And I think that's that thing around we've worked out what our goal is, but it's not so set in concrete that you can't change it. It's just being able to reframe and go are we comfortable that for this big decision, it's gonna push, that financial independence piece down the road. But just equally, I was also like, I don't care about redoing my kitchen. That can just stay on the back burner, cause isn't that important to me. It still works, it's still functional. Everything still is getting invested. I'm not worried about redoing my kitchen. So it is that balance. So yeah, obviously with mine then it's just a few practical things. Have we got dollars sitting in the right account? Can we get a better deal? How can we find extra income within what we're already doing? But then the bigger picture, it's then also looking on that annual basis around am I comfortable with that amount that we're spending? And also if we are to do something that is outside of our normal that would mean that it affects our investing goals. Then we've gotta be comfortable with the long-term impact is that it's pushing down the road and are we comfortable with it?

Mel: Yeah. I love that. And I like that ours are quite different, but also they're similar at the same time. You've got like a cost per ride.

Lawsie: Yeah.

Mel: Cost per wear. We've both got a version of that. How long will I need to work to pay? We've both got a version of, can I afford that? Like you've got buckets, I've got can I afford it and for both of us, it's not that you can't afford it, it's that you're choosing not to. And with both of us, part of the reason that I wanted to talk about these questions is I hope you can hear there's an intentionality there. Like you are so intentional. Be with the strength of your systems, but also around know that financial independence is really important to me, and so I'm gonna really question it hard if it's gonna push that down the road. And for me, I feel the same. I want options. I want choice. If I feel like that's gonna be taken away, that is gonna be freaking problematic. Yeah. Okay. I like that.

Lawsie: There you go.

Mel: Interesting. So what I hope from you listening is that it's peaked you to ask questions. It's challenged you to think about what questions are you asking are you asking the right questions? Are you asking enough questions? Do you have things set up in such a way that it's moving you towards success rather than becoming problematic?

And I hope you can also hear that there's not just one way to do this. It's figuring out the approach that works right for you and then really leaning into it and embracing it. The couple of things we talked about, so the 50+ Ways guide, et cetera, will be down in the show notes, but if it's highlighted to you that, ugh, I just need more help, then make sure you jump on the wait list for the My Financial Adulting Plan.

Doors open in Jan, and it's gonna be our big first open for 2023. What a beautiful time to jump in and sort out your finances.

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