Uncensored Money Season Five: Money Chats with MFAP Alumni: Catherine's Story.
Melissa Browne: Ex-Accountant, Ex-Financial Advisor, Ex-Working Till I Drop, Now Serial Entrepreneur & Author, Financial Wellness Advocate, Living a Life by Design | 22/04/2024
Show Notes
Wish you could listen in as someone just like you chatted about money? That’s what our Money Chats are all about.
In this episode, Mel talks with My Financial Adulting Plan alumni, Catherine, a creative who was thanks to her financial education, is excited to learn about money, and feels she has a right to. Catherine talks about her journey, from working in theatre travelling to lumpy inconsistent income, to finally settling down and purchasing her first home at 50.
Listen to this exciting episode, and be inspired to take charge of your own finances.
Books and resources mentioned in this episode
If you're on insta, come play over at @MelBrowne.Money and make sure you’re signed up to Mel's Money Musings 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: Hey everyone. I'm Mel Brown. I'm an ex-accountant and ex-financial advisor, so I have the theory, but I also have the life experience. I'm now financially independent in my own right after coming back from less than nothing in my early thirties. I want this podcast to be like a chat with your girlfriends about money. My aim is to help you discover why you're behaving the way you are with money, to suggest new ways you might behave that are a better fit for you, and to increase your financial literacy and financial confidence. I hope it inspires challenges, educates and empowers you with how you do money. So let's get into it. Welcome to Uncensored Money.
Mel: Have you ever felt that you're not at the age and stage you should be? Or looked over at someone and thought, gosh, I wish I knew how they got there. I wish I knew where they were at with their finances or what they did to get there. I think we talk about a lot of things, but we're not necessarily sharing our money stories. And yes, Lawsie and I can share our stories and we do that a lot here, but not all of you will relate to where we've been. That's why I wanna share more stories. And inside the My Financial Adulting Plan, I have thousands of them, so I wanna start sharing them individually here. So today I'm sharing with you one of those stories. Enjoy.
Mel: Thank you so much for having a chat with me today about your money. I know it's not something people necessarily feel comfortable about, so I love that you've been so willing to do it with me today.
Catherine Mayne: Oh, no worries. And I feel any opportunity to talk about things like this. I'm up for, I never used to talk about it, so I'm like, let's do it.
Mel: Yeah, I love that. So you said you never used to talk about money. So let's start back there. I always love to ask the question, what was your money story growing up? So tell me about your money story when you were younger.
Catherine Mayne: I think I had a pretty bog standard middle class upbringing. We didn't talk about money, we didn't feel we went without or anything like that, but we certainly want weren't on the the end of the scale where we had whatever we wanted. But as little kids, we just never really thought about it. And then growing up, leaving high school and going to uni, I was at a real loss to figure out how to deal with it or how do I make it <laugh> and then how do I make it work for myself? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> because bless my parents, I love 'em. But one thing I remember they told me, and it's the only thing Mel I remember is that they'd said, save 10%, save 10%, save 10% of whatever you earn. So my first jobs at McDonald's, I was trying really hard to save 10%, but it kind of felt like you're always trying to lose that two kilos and I just could never do it. And I didn't.
Mel: I mean, when you're earning $4 50 at McDonald's, saving 10% is hard, I get that.
Catherine Mayne: And I just didn't know why I had to do it and all, ah, the career I chose is in theater, in costume production and wardrobe supervising. So certainly in that environment, no one talked about money. We all whinged how we didn't have enough, but we didn't really know how to make it. And we all did Jobs for Love and it was like the Direst money story I think I could set out with <laugh>. That was it really. That's what I grew up with.
Mel: What about now? How has it changed? What did you reject of that and what did you keep?
Catherine Mayne: The thing that springs to my mind is that now I love being educated about it. And I think doing the course has really helped me be cool with the fact that I'm really curious about things to do with money. Mm. And I also grew up in my family where we were very creative. So I wasn't particularly encouraged in the Smarts department. I wasn't discouraged. It just wasn't made a thing of, yeah, I was off on my little sew machine. Now I feel I'm excited to learn about money and I feel I've got a right to, and I feel I'm smart enough to, and I don't see a problem with any of that anymore.
Mel: I love that so much. Yeah.
Catherine Mayne: Even though we don't have millions of dollars, we don't have 10,000 properties and all that sort of stuff, I don't care about that. To me, I'm really proud of the fact that I'm really happy to ask questions and I'm unhappy to be in the dark about something. Yeah. That would be the biggest thing I think. And I'm also helping my husband also not be in the dark about things. 'cause I think he's quite happy to just like your husband, I feel has the cash in the bank and that's good enough. That's cool. Uhhuh <affirmative>, I feel like the biggest thing is educating myself and to be happy about it.
Mel: Was that a recent thing or has that been something that's bubbled away for a while? Or was Money Story was, was it kind of the first you heard about it in the course?
Catherine Mayne: No, I have to say it's bubbled away for a while. And the first time before I got to do the course, 'cause by the time I was ready for the course, I was really looking for more and I was looking for the almost someone to talk to about it. And I saw your fabulous space on a business webinar. I was doing the dishes and the webinar was in the background. And I'm going, oh my gosh, she's talking my language here. Who is she?
Mel: <Laugh>
Catherine Mayne: And then that led to the course. Wow. But prior to that, I remember I toured a lot for 12 years and my money story touring around the world for work was disaster zone. And I remember getting on a plane and going, there's gotta be a better way. I've now decided to stop touring. So I need to figure out how to come back down to Earth and live like a proper person. <Laugh>. And so <laugh>, I picked up a book, I think it was Suze Orman?
Mel: Mm. Yeah. Us author. She wrote some great books. Yeah. So
Catherine Mayne: She started the awareness.
Catherine Mayne: And then it's just been a really steady sort of, how am I gonna do this? Or what's out there to help me. Yeah. That's taken years. But like I said, to come to your course was pretty pivotal because it helped me understand how to invest and to buy property and to be cool with the fact that money's gonna come and go and my work comes and go, so does my husbands. And to also not freak out about that. Don't freak out. Did
Mel: She say your work and your husband's come and go? That's so, I kind of love that <laugh>, the husband
Catherine Mayne: Work.
Mel: That's so I love the slip of the <laugh>.
Catherine Mayne: No, he does not come and go.
Mel: He does not come and go. Definitely.
Catherine Mayne: No, that's hilarious. No. So yeah, both our work is kind of, you know, seasonal up and down. Mm.
Mel: Which makes it difficult then, doesn't it? If you're trying to do money when you've got that work where as a creative, often you're not valued for what you do, so you're not paid perhaps what other professions are. It's seasonal, so it can be lumpy. How do you deal with that lumpiness and the seasonality when you are trying to do money?
Catherine Mayne: Good question. I definitely try to say as into like buffers. Yeah. Into buffer accounts. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So that it's just there for when there's a lull. Like I've just been through two weeks of no work. Like we're waiting on fabric, we're waiting on different orders. So it was just, okay, so there's no work tomorrow. And then it turned out to be no work over two weeks 'cause of Easter and everything then you sort of dip into your savings. And I think, and my husband does the same also, as long as we keep adding to that buffer, we know it's there to ride out things like this. Yeah. And honestly, Mel, we're so used to it. We've both been in the creative arts industry since for all of time we sort of know it. But your course helped me to be less freaked out about if I don't.
Mel: Yeah, I love that.
Catherine Mayne: And also taught me a lot about, okay, here are your bills. How much do you need to earn this week? Or how much do you need to go get more work? Or do you need to, well you fine. Or does it mean you just don't put anything in your buffer that week because you're taking it out? Yeah. Again, it just gives me an awareness. It gave me an awareness and an education so that I wasn't afraid. Mm-Hmm. And I was cool with it all. Yeah. I was like, okay, I can see how this ebb flows and we know what we have to do to ride out the times we don't have money. But generally we like to put it away because we know it's coming. Yeah. We know we might have six months of really good work and really good money and then it will drop off for two months or a month or something and we're more ready for it than ever.
Mel: Which that's a big part of the battle, isn't it? Mm. It is. The not being buffeted by it, it's being, no, okay, this is here. It's not ideal, but actually we're good. We're ready for it. Yeah. We're
Catherine Mayne: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And I've also, since doing a course, opening my eyes up to the fact that I'm fairly multi-skilled within my little world in industry, how can I use them as more constant income streams?
Mel: Yeah. Just
Catherine Mayne: Add to the money pot. <Laugh>. Yeah.
Mel: And I guess as a creative, you harnessing that skill of, Ooh, okay, how can I use that beautiful creative side that maybe I cut my money off from? Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. Because I thought I had to be pragmatic. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Have you tried to like building different streams and things like that? Have you been able to apply that creative side to money?
Catherine Mayne: Yes. In fact it has made me think about, okay, how creative can I be? And the other thing is I want to, I keep saying I want to start a business, but in actual fact, I am my own business as a sole trader. I have all these different things I can do, but there's definitely some income streams that I want to develop further and get really creative for myself and for how I make that money. But again, it's not just one thing, it's just tapping into doing this and this and this and all comes together. And I think maybe being from the creative industries, you get used to the change and you get used to giving it a go. And you get used to not being stuck in one rigid spot because you just can't.
Mel: Yeah, that's so true. Yeah. Not allowed. Whereas someone else might freak out. You're like, here we are back again. <Laugh>. Yeah,
Catherine Mayne: Yeah. Yeah. Not to say that I love it every time. Certainly there are times in my career, not many I have to say. 'cause I really love what I do. But there are certainly times in my career I go, well I got this all wrong. Should I have been doing a steady job and I've just got it wrong? No, not for me. Not
Mel: For, yeah. It's adapting rather than, yeah. Moving into something that's not right for you. I think back, Catherine, to where you were before you joined up. So I know that you're a creative person. You'd already started to do some reading and sort of moving forward a little bit financially. But what was the reason why? Like what was the trigger for you that when, okay, now I need to do something more. So that would be part one. And then part two would be, what do you think, thinking back to that person, would they have not realized that you'd end up doing?
Catherine Mayne: I think my husband and I were ready to commit to buying a house, a property to facilitate this move we wanna do up north. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And it was really about, well how do we do it? And look, we might have some cash here, some money here, but surely it's more involved than just having a bit of cash in the bank. And I was thinking, oh look, we've got 10 grand. That's amazing. Can we buy a house yet? <Laugh>?
Mel: Yeah. Yeah.
Catherine Mayne: To me going, no, come on. Like get educated. So that was probably where we both were before I did the course. And then I was surprised to discover that I just really took the bull by the horns and I pretty much brought that house, which we have now. The property. I went through the whole process with my husband's support, but I pretty much did it by myself. And I'm like, get outta here. Look what I just did. 'cause When I think about previous past life where I've been too scared to look at the bank statements or the credit card statements or whatever and now force myself to do it. And actually, actually now I love doing it. But when I think back to the not wanting to know how much I had or didn't have, or too scared to ask questions to a stranger on the end of the phone or to ask a question, then I thought, is this really dumb? I used to be in that spot before doing the course. Yeah. I sort of was like, I was fully on fire. I'm going, okay. And then I'll ask this question and then I'll get the answer to that one and then I know what we'll be doing here and then we'll put the money here and I could explain it all to my husband. And I think that's really surprised me. Yeah. And you know what surprised me? I really loved it.
Mel: Ah, that's cool. Yeah.
Catherine Mayne: I really loved it. I really discovered that I loved it. And that I'm not done with numbers. I'm not brilliant, but who cares? Like I can figure it out. And now if I don't get something, I just keep asking away and I keep working on it until I understand it. And there's, oddly enough, there's a joy for me that comes in doing that. Ah,
Mel: I don't know about you, but sometimes I wish there was an easy way, a silver bullet, a magical unicorn, a fairy godmother ready to grant me three wishes. I mean, think of all the miracle diets, fitness fads, promising a six pack in six weeks, or finance bros promising riches by following this easy formula. Do you believe a word of it?Well, the part that longs for a quick fix might be taken in, but you are smarter than that. Personally, what I believe in is consistency, educating myself, finding an expert to help me, surrounding myself with a community who are going to motivate me to keep going and make me feel like I can do it because they're doing it too or are further down the road than I am. That's exactly what we've created inside the My Financial Adulting Plan. If you feel like you're on top of your finances, you have a plan for this year that you're super comfortable with and have everything you need to make that happen, then just ignore this ad. But for the rest of you, make sure you check out my life-changing 12 week course or for less than the price of a cup of coffee a day. Head to the show notes to join the wait list for the next round. Or you might be lucky enough to find that the doors are open and you can join now.
Mel: I think people are scared to ask questions that actually it's so wise to ask questions.
Catherine Mayne: Yeah. I kept thinking, Mel, if I'm here and I need to get there, I really need some more information. Mm. And how am I gonna get the information I could sit? 'cause I'm a discerner, I could sit on the internet and gather all the information myself. Sure, yeah. But I'm gonna have to get outta my comfort zone and ask some real people <laugh>. Yeah. To get to where I wanna know we need to go. I really had to push myself to keep finding in the answers and keep asking the questions. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> in an area that I had no real clue about. Yeah. So out of my comfort zone. It is good. Now, I think back on that time, 'cause that was, gosh, we're coming up to a year since we bought property. And I think you remember that time you were like this super person and you just went and you brought a house. <Laugh>.
Mel: I love that. I was a super person as I just, you know, casually <laugh> went
Catherine Mayne: And bought a house. And I think remember the energy you had and the curiosity and trying to apply it in other areas.
Mel: Was that the first house you'd bought or you owned your home before?
Catherine Mayne: No, no, no. That's first.
Mel: And can I ask a rude question as to how old you are? 'cause You can tell me to rack off because I probably would if you asked me. No
Catherine Mayne: Way. Anyway, I was 49 at the time. So I've turned 50 Yeah. Since then.
Mel: And there's a lot of people that will say to me at that age, I've never bought a house before. I'm 49, 50. I don't think this is for me. Like I would hear that a lot. So for you to say, actually no, I just did it. It's a big deal.
Catherine Mayne: I did it. Do you know Mel? Sometimes I wonder, had I, 'cause my husband and I met quite late in life, I wonder if I had not met him and if I was still a single person, would I have been so gung ho about it because I wonder about it. And I think would I have kept on with some old stories? Some of my friends have said in my industry, well, we would never buy a house. We can't afford it when we're working in this industry. And I wonder whether I would've held myself back.
Mel: Yeah. And been affected by that group think Yeah. The group think.
Mel: Yeah.
Catherine Mayne: Yep. Yeah. Which I'm not usually a fan of, but buying it at this age has also surprised me. But the journey has been really great.
Mel: Mm. Do you think that when you've told others in your industry, Hey, I've bought a house, have they been surprised or have they asked questions around how did you do it? Or?
Catherine Mayne: Yes. They have been surprised. And I've been able to, I can think of two people, help a couple of my friends go, look, this was the process for me and I can help you more if you want. And I always refer, I like to refer and go, look, this person was good. Yeah. Yeah. Or they're gonna need this much information. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. Don't be scared about that. I've tried to help, but without being in your face about it. 'cause Some people are not ready to hear something. Yes. Don't want to receive the information. The moment they just tell you that they're thinking about buying a house, it doesn't mean they're actually thinking about doing it today.
Mel: So true.
Catherine Mayne: They might not wanna hear it. Yeah. So I kind of sort of gauge them out a bit.
Mel: Mm. You said you talked to people about the process. What would be a few key things that you did that meant that at that and stage you were like, yep, I'm able to do this.
Catherine Mayne: We definitely went through a mortgage broker. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. I couldn't recommend that highly enough. It does depend on your mortgage broker. Yes. But I found our mortgage broker was awesome. Answered all my questions like and then some. So I found that really important going through a mortgage broker because I also thought, you know what? I could go through the banks and everything, but how much time have I got to sit there?
Mel: And some banks are more, they prefer, sole traders, some banks prefer employees. Yeah. Yes.
Catherine Mayne: Correct. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. And I went, no, let's just cut to the chase and see if our mortgage broker could put us in the right direction. Which he did. So that was definitely a big tick. Money-Wise, we just kept putting as much money as we could afford into our savings to show that we've got the savings and we're confident to do it. And we definitely didn't spend any money <laugh>.
Mel: Oh yeah. The thing that we don't talk about is that we had to not spend in order to,
Catherine Mayne: It wasn't things like I didn't go get a haircut, it was more just things like, I didn't buy 10 pairs of jeans in one hit or something like that. I'd love to do that, but I don't <laugh>. We were just sort of aware, aware of the money going out and could we attribute it to either of our businesses? If not, then can we just hold off on it for a little while? So we are pretty conservative about that. And then I also talked to selected friends and family who have brought a house. Because often you'll find people, like I was talking to you about before, people love to give you advice. Mm. And sometimes I didn't have the energy or the time to listen to everyone's stories. I kind of kept it quiet, but was very definite about who I did want to talk to about it. Mm. And made a point of asking them for their advice and for their help. Like what they had done in in the past. And that helped a lot too, because then I could shut out all the silliness.
Mel: Oh yeah. The noise. And
Catherine Mayne: The noise and go to the people who I respected Yeah. And understood them and who they were so that I could take some of their advice from them. Mm-Hmm. Does that make sense?
Mel: Oh absolutely. It does. Yeah. I always say, look, I would never go to my mom for business advice. I could just, she'd look at me or she would tell me, you should work less. It's not gonna be helpful. But you choose who you go to. Yeah.
Catherine Mayne: Yeah. And it wasn't that I went to the three types of the same personality type. I just three, four people who had different circumstances in their life. And that helped a lot. Yeah.
Mel: Yeah. No, I love that. What about things that were hard? Like was there anything that you just found really that you had found difficult when you were doing the course where you were like, Ugh, I just don't know about this life. <Laugh>.
Catherine Mayne: Yes. But there was something that was really hard. But I'm a bit of a sucker for light bulb moments and breakthrough moments. Like if I feel I need one
Mel: Yep.
Catherine Mayne: I'll grip my teeth and go in <laugh>.
Mel: Yes. Yep. I understand that a little bit. I must admit she's a punter. She's absolutely one for that. Yep.
Catherine Mayne: I love it. And this is a bit full on, but when I had this moment, I was going, are you kidding me? This is wrapped up in money. I had a breakthrough about my weight and food. Yeah. And it was also tied up with my money. It was something like, I think it might've been week two Mel. I can't rightly remember. Maybe it was about your money story. And I remember thinking, okay, so what happens is if I'm feeling whatever, X, Y, z <laugh>. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, one of my favorite things is to go get a treat or go and have a coffee or go treat myself to a breakfast or something. Yep. And I realized, yeah, but then I don't have any money in my bank account to buy some clothes. 'cause I'm all for mending my clothes. 'cause I sew. I don't really give myself permission to go buy clothes. But I thought, no, that's really important to me. I really would like to do that. I was going, oh, where's my money going? And then I tracked how much money I was spending on going out and the difference between like a coffee, maybe one coffee once or twice a week to three coffees every day I'd go and buy or a breakfast or a lunch. Or maybe I was a bit hungry, so on the way home I might get a sneaky McDonald's or something like that.
Mel: Yeah. Add it all adds up and it
Catherine Mayne: All adds up. And I was horrified by how much money I actually spent on it. And then I went, why am I doing that? What is making me go and do these things? Mm. And then it was like, okay, escaping. Okay. From what? And so it went on and then I realized, oh my gosh, if I just stopped doing that, I would have a healthier body and healthier bank account. Then I was like, suddenly it became just doing it and knowing the why helped with not doing it. Yeah. And it made me feel good about the fact that I finally, and I'm talking years, like my whole lifetime. Right. I've trying to figure it out. Yeah. Why can't I leave this, I dunno, two kilos or whatever. It's why do I have this addiction to sugar? And it just all came together. And I remember sitting at my desk and writing it going, are you kidding me?
Mel: <Laugh>? Is
Catherine Mayne: This it? I'm 48 or something. And now I figure it out. I've tried all my life to figure it out in my own personal way. It was a really beautiful moment. Oh
Mel: Absolutely.
Catherine Mayne: Kind of funny. But at the same time I'm going, oh thank God I finally practiced. Yeah. Your course helped me do that.
Mel: <Laugh>, that's a very random that also always say that you life, like we don't live in a silo. Your money doesn't live here and then your health doesn't live here. And the fact that you are behaving that way with money and the trickle effect is this. Yeah. If we're not looking at our money, then we don't realize the effect of that.
Catherine Mayne: Yeah. And Mel, I thought the habit of having the treats and the buying this and the buying that. Mm. I thought that was the big thing that I had to figure out. But it was actually through figuring out my finances. Yeah. That actually helped me crack that code.
Mel: Ugh. I like that. That is an unusual, I think it's one
Catherine Mayne: Of favorite things. I love going out <laugh>.
Mel: Yes. So do you still go out but you just go out strategically now? Or you go out consciously or .
Catherine Mayne: Correct, yeah. Yeah. Or if I go, oh, just go to the corner cafe and get a coffee and I'm going, really? You've got your milk and your coffee machine at work. There is nothing you need girlfriend. Go
Mel: <Laugh>.
Catherine Mayne: Don't like stop. Yeah.
Mel: Yep.
Catherine Mayne: Like come on, get a grip. It's helped me. It's helped me tremendously. Mm-Hmm. So now if I do do it, I do it going, this is fantastic. What a treat allowed this money for myself to do this or with friends or with my husband. There's so much more clarity about why I spend that money and it's really helped me to save lots of money.
Mel: And don't you enjoy it more? Because it's not as often, like it's not three, four times a day or whatever it was. Yeah. But it's also the ooh, the anticipation and the enjoyment. Yeah. Yeah.
Catherine Mayne: I love it. I still sit there sometimes and go, this is a form of escapism to me. Yeah. Like if I was to go to the movies on my own or something like that, it's like total escape. I love it. It feels like that. So it, if I'm doing it, I'm choosing to do it and I relish it 'cause I go, I'm doing something for myself.
Mel: Yeah.
Catherine Mayne: It's a big treat to me. It means nothing to the rest of the world. But I'm treating myself and certainly not as often. And it is a treat now. Not just something that I'm doing out of habit. It's the habit really. Yes. That I've managed to crack.
Mel: Yeah. I love that.
Catherine Mayne: Yeah. And the meaning behind it.
Mel: What about something or things that you're proud of that you've done? I mean that's definitely one, that's a good one. That's like a habit and a proud of moment. But what about other things that maybe you're proud of?
Catherine Mayne: Before I met my beautiful husband, I would consider myself a very solo person in everything that I do. Mm-Hmm. Yep. Going through the journey of purchasing a home to someone else, it might go well, derr, of course you have to do it together with your husband. It was a challenge. But I'm very proud of the fact that even though I was leading the way, I was able to share it with him. Mm-Hmm. My life partner and go, okay, now this and we need this and we need that. And to success. We got the house habitually. I'm very inward. I keep things quite close and I forget, it's not that I don't want to, I just forget to share sometimes. Yeah. Information, experiences and stuff like that. I feel that helped me personally, but helped us also. And that I was able to do that I think successfully. You might wanna ask him.
Mel: <Laugh>,
Catherine Mayne: I'm proud of that shared journey that I was able to take as on. Yeah. Proud of that.
Mel: Do you talk more about money now as a result? Mm-Hmm.
Catherine Mayne: Yeah. Yeah. I have to check myself sometimes because if I'm out with friends I wanna get, oh yeah. So what are you doing with blah blah blah. And I go, no Catherine, not everyone. <Laugh>.
Mel: <Laugh>. They're kind of cool that you're the one leading the The conversation sometimes.
Catherine Mayne: Yeah. Because I listen to myself and go, who are you woman <laugh>? This is, who are you?
Mel: <Laugh>.
Catherine Mayne: <Laugh>. So I'm proud of that. I'm proud that I'm not scared to talk about it. Yeah. I'm like, I don't know everything, but I'm not scared about it anymore. Mm. Yeah. I'm most proud of that.
Mel: And I kind of love that despite you having bought the house, you are most proud of how you bought the house and the conversations that you are having and the habits that you're breaking because sure the house is important, but it's all those other things that lead up to long term, sustainable, great finances rather than just a moment.
Catherine Mayne: Yeah. Now that you say that. Yeah. The house is excellent. That's our future. That's what we feel our future is up there, but the habits Yeah. That I've created or the habits I've stopped Mm. To me are pretty big for me for my personal journey. Yeah. So I guess I'm most proud of that. Yeah. Because they help me achieve creating better financial habits, help me achieve things that I want to, but be aware that it's okay to want financial goals and it's okay to work towards them. And it's okay if they don't happen overnight. Yes. But you've just gotta identify and keep working at them and you do it at your own pace. Yeah. Who cares if the next door neighbors have 10,000 cars and I dunno, stop.
Mel: Oh, I agree. If I could wave a wand and have us all stop comparing. Our finances would instantly be so much better and would be less stressed. Yeah.
Catherine Mayne: I feel because I've worked and other people might kill me for this, but I feel like as I've worked in the entertainment industry all my life, I feel like we've been on the back foot anyway. So I kind of threw all that should have by now. Should have done this by now. Should have got that by now. I've kind of just let go of that. You let go of it, I go, I've let go of it.
Mel: Yeah. Which is a beautiful position to be in. Yeah.
Catherine Mayne: That's not to say I don't have FOMO about some things, but mostly I just go, can you just be a bit kind to yourself? 'cause This is where you're at and this is where you're at. Yeah. And you didn't know before. Yeah. You just didn't know.
Mel: But you do now and you,
Catherine Mayne: But I do now
Mel: You're starting maybe something you're surprised by what you've done.
Catherine Mayne: I'm certainly surprised when I ask other people about certain money things like go, like I said, who the hell are you?
Mel: <Laugh>? That surprises me. Love that.
Catherine Mayne: Sometimes I get surprised that I do slip into old habits. Mm. And I go, you should know better. Like you've done all the work. I think this is what actually used to annoy me about say any weight I'd put on or whatever. Or heck, I wanted to stop eating food or sugar or whatever for two days and I couldn't. I would say, you've done the work Catherine before, why is this still an issue? Mm-Hmm.
Catherine Mayne: So I get surprised that I still sometimes have to tackle how to deal with things. Like if I go, you just spent money on that very easily. Yeah. You didn't even think about it. Mm-Hmm. But there was no awareness. Yeah. That's not your new habits. Well that's not like you these days. And then I have to go, ah, really? I have to go back and figure that one out. So I get surprised I'd do it and then I have a bit of a laugh and just get on with it and just go, this is always gonna happen because life, it
Mel: Is always gonna happen.
Catherine Mayne: What's gonna happen? Right. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. But you think you've done the work about lots of things. Yeah. You think visited this spot before and then something surprises you and you go done it again.
Mel: Yeah. That still happens. I'm actually unsurprised by being surprised. <Laugh>? Yes. Going how? Why am I there again? I'm going to do some exercise this afternoon and I haven't done it for three weeks because I fell out of the habit of it. So I am totally, absolutely hearing every word she saying <laugh>.
Catherine Mayne: And that's the worst kind, isn't it? That's the hardest bit. You just slip outta that habit for whatever good reason at the time. Exactly. And it's the hardest thing to get back into that habit. Yeah,
Mel: Yeah. But it's not just opting out, it's going, okay, well I know what I have to do to get back. I know the habit and then just starting again. Yeah. Yeah. And being kind to yourself. I love that you said that. A couple, two questions to finish up. First is, if you were talking to someone, and I know you love talking about money now, maybe they're a late starter or there's someone that they've looked around and said, you know what? I don't think I'm gonna be able to catch up because of where I'm at. What would you say to them?
Catherine Mayne: I would say you are certainly never too old or too far along in your life journey to gain information and to gain knowledge and to gain education in whatever area. But certainly in your financial area, whatever you learn is going to hopefully be impact on your life.
Catherine Mayne: Whatever you learn, I feel like it's never too late and you are where you are. It's where you're at. And just start, start getting the information or start asking the questions or start being curious or start wondering, can I get that house? Or can I buy that new car? Or whatever. Just start wondering, well, how can things be different? How can I change certain little things that might benefit me in a way that I didn't think possible? And that will maybe lead to some bit of curiosity and asking questions and learning. So I say it's never too late.
Mel: Yeah. I a hundred percent agree. Yeah. Final thoughts or something maybe that I haven't talked about that you would like to say or anything to finish up?
Catherine Mayne: Oh my God freeform.
Mel: I know I love a bit of freeform. I figured the creative would love these all be going, oh no, there's so many thoughts <laugh>,
Catherine Mayne: There's so many thoughts. Here's something that I struggle with that I feel like I should be doing. Mm. And initially when I was doing the course Mel, I really loved, well, I loved it and I loved checking in with everyone. Mm.
Mel: And yeah, the community is so good.
Catherine Mayne: Yeah. Yeah. So good. But as I mentioned before, I'm a bit of a solo person and so then I would try and jump in and connect with everybody and be there every day and whatnot. Sometimes it felt normal. And then other times I was like, I dunno if I need to do this. But I'm making lots of progress on my own. I set up my own little sort of system and made lots of progress and we're jumping for the lives and for the time we would meet up and I'm going, that is enough for me. And I feel like I'm getting what I need. I maybe would like to tell other people that you can do it your own way and get, if you are committed to getting results, which are changing a few things, you can do it and back yourself. Yeah. That's actually, I think I should have that on a t-shirt. Back yourself,
Mel: Back yourself. Yeah. Yeah. I've learned that. <Laugh>, thank you so much for chatting to me. I just love your positivity and your curiosity and I just feel like if everyone could just get a little dose of that, then they would just be in a much better position financially
Catherine Mayne: Too kind. Thank you very much, Mel. Like I said, it challenges me to talk publicly sometimes, but I appreciate the opportunity to share the story because you really just wanna encourage other people to do it. So thank you.
Mel: If you enjoyed this episode, we would love it if you subscribed and give us a review, then make sure you come and play with me on Insta. I'm at @melbrowne.money Remember there's an E on the end of Browne. I'm one of those fancy Browne's, and don't forget to check out the show notes for even more ways you can work with me to transform your finances.
Get the podcast at all your favourite locations, or jump through here:
