Uncensored Money Season Six: Money Snapshot: Where you are, and where are you going
Melissa Browne: Ex-Accountant, Ex-Financial Advisor, Ex-Working Till I Drop, Now Serial Entrepreneur & Author, Financial Wellness Advocate, Living a Life by Design | 6/01/2025

Show Notes

It’s a new season and we’re heading back to the basics to help you reduce your financial overwhelm and start (or keep) doing money better. Today we’re talking about your money snapshot – where you are now and where you’re going. And no, we’re not going to tell you to go and start a budget – in fact we’re going to talk about why they don’t work.

But we are going to stop some of you from driving off that financial cliff you’re headed towards.

As always, Mel & Lawsie share their experiences but also talk about the importance of a money snapshot, how detailed you need to get and give you some tools and tips to help you go and create your own money snapshot too.

For more tips and resources, visit us at melissabrowne.com.au, on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok @MelBrowne.Money or send us an email at [email protected].

The link for the My Financial Adulting Plan is here

The link for our HIIT new year money challenge is here

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

Transcription

Mel: Welcome to Uncensored Money. I'm Mel Browne and I'm here to help you do money better. Money can be an enormous source of stress and it can be what makes the biggest impact on our lives. I want that impact to be a positive one. I've helped thousands go on the journey to learn, grow, and become financially better off as an exponential advisor and an accountant, author, and educator, with over 25 years experience in the financial industry, I'm joined by Lauren Law, AKA Lawsie, hello, who is also an ex financial advisor, a personal finance educator, and my work wife. We both have so much financial choice and are here to help you have the same. We invite you to join us as we unsend some money. Hey, lovely. Today is an episode that we are probably more excited about than you <laugh>, but it's an episode that is so important.

Mel: If you want to do money better, we're talking about your money snapshot. So where you are now and where you're going, and know we are not gonna tell you to go and start a budget. In fact, we're gonna talk to you about why they won't work. But we are going to head some of you from driving off that financial cliff you're headed towards. And as always, we're gonna share our experiences but also talk about the importance of a money snapshot, how detailed you need to get. And we're gonna give you some tools and tips to help you go and create your own money snapshot too. Let's do it. So Lawsie, when it comes to creating our own money snapshot, I think we probably do this very differently. Yeah, I think you we're probably far more detailed, how surprising than me <laugh>. So let's talk about maybe how we do it and how often we look at it and maybe talk about, how we've seen some of our clients or alumni do it.

Lawsie: So yes, I would, I'm very detailed, very structured with this. So in terms of looking at where I am financially, I would look at it every month. Like it's just a habit that I do. It's not even, something I think about. It's just,

Mel: So when you say we look at where we're at financially, income, expenses, assets,

Lawsie: just sitting a financial position. So assets and liabilities. So understanding where my investments are sitting, where my super is sitting, if we've got any loans or whatever. Like all of that. 'Cause I just wanna know overall what's my one number, what's my net asset position if we wanna be Yeah, gotcha. All accountant and financially like, basically it's like if I was to sell everything, what's the amount of money that I'd be walking away with with.

Mel: And that's just for everyone listening. That's your Net asset position. It's your assets less your loans. What's left. Yeah.

Lawsie: and ideally I wanna see that going up doesn't always go up, but that's okay. That's, you know, that's the joys of investing I guess. But, so that's something that I check in and do. I'm not so stressed about my income and expenses. It's surprisingly or very structured and it is all very routine with that. So all of my finances just get, you know, I get paid thanks boss <laugh> and then it just goes straight, you know, into my separate little buckets and I know, 'cause I've already done the pre-work that that just works. It's not something I have to consciously be thinking about.

Mel: Did you used to track it but you don't now?

Lawsie: No. <laugh>,

Mel: I love this. Okay. No, it's good.

Lawsie: I don't, but I think it's because you have the buckets. Exactly. Because I already done the work.

Mel: But that's, we mean different bank accounts.

Lawsie: Yeah. To be able to look at it and go, you know, I know what our expenses are, I know that historically. So I can set up a system so I don't have to think about it because as much as I love numbers and Excel and stuff, I'm really not interested in going, oh, I spent $17 extra on my groceries this week. Yeah. And you know, or but I saved $53 on fuel 'cause I didn't drive my car. Like yeah, I'm not interested in that data. I know it absolutely works for other people. So I know, you know, people that we work with in the course and things, that's the thing that keeps them in track and in control with their finances is tracking it. For some of them it's even right. Literally writing out every expense. 'Cause it's just that connection. For them.

Lawsie: Which is where this is all gonna be personal and where we are different, let alone what everyone else is doing. But, for me it's just that monthly check-in just to go okay, how is everything going? And then in terms of where I'm going, I guess I've got the long-term financial goals. So, again, it's all set and forget I know what it is. Everything's just very routine for me. But if there's something that we're wanting to do that is, you know, a step away from that long goal of you know, financial independence and those things, then I'm gonna be checking in and adapting our goals. So it's gonna be a bit more of as needs basis. But for the most part, I just love having everything set and forget. But it's a structured set and forget. Not just flying by the seat of my pants. What do you do? You don't check in, do you?

Mel: No, I actually do hearing you talk about it. I check in more than I think.

Mel: So I am set and forget for my income and expenses as well. So I have lots of automations happening, which is something that we are both big proponents of. So the way, and we'll talk about this later on in tools and tips, how you can get away with not having a budget is having multiple bank accounts and automating, like that is the key to financial success and not having to look at it so constantly. So we definitely do, I do the same so I don't look at my spending because I know what I have left to spend with and I can make deals with myself around. Right. I really want that. But, I only have this much in my everyday account, so I will go without that <laugh>. The going without is often an eating out. Like eating out is always a thing that suffers for the pretty shiny thing and I'm okay with that.

Lawsie: New shoes.

Mel: But, I don't look at a net asset position. I will look at my investments, and I will probably look at those weekly, um, but make decisions around them monthly. So, I like to check in on a Monday. I just have a look and see how everything's going. More from a curiosity position rather than I'm going to do something about this. But that looking at every single Monday means that once a month when I do look at it and I decide if I wanna rebalance or what I'm going to purchase next, means that I already know. Because I've been looking at it regularly. So really, I guess the thing when it comes to a money snapshot is if you've never looked at this before, Lawsie and I can spend less time on it because we've done the pre-work.

Mel: So, it's figuring out where you are on that continuum? Are you someone that doesn't know anything about your financial position? Do you kind of know that it's more of a guess? Or do you have everything in different buckets so, you're automating and you're looking at it regularly? Because depending on where you are, that's going to depend what your money snapshot, how much time you have to spend figuring that out. And I guess the thing as well, before we get into it, I think a lot of people, and there's a lot of coaches at the moment talking about money mindset and that's really important. I am all about understanding your money story, figuring out your relationship with money, understanding your money type. You know, the first two weeks of our course, we live there, much to your disdain <laugh>.

Lawsie: It's not where I would live, but I appreciate its value for everyone else.

Mel: Uhhuh <affirmative>. But, for too many people, that is where they live. And they think that by simply becoming, having a better money mindset means that they'll do money better. And I'm here to tell you that's not the case. Yes, money mindset is important, but if we are actually not opening bank accounts, realising what we have, realising what we owe, understanding what our position is, then it's really like trying to drive blindfolded. Yeah, I could be great at driving, I could be confident at driving, which is what I really could understand who I am as a driver. But if I can't see where I'm going, then that is where I'm going to drive off that financial cliff. And that is where I am seeing, and I have seen with clients, too many people get into that position. And just one example of that is, I remember having a client when we were financial advisors where she came to us and she hadn't, she had a great business, but she wasn't looking at her numbers.

Mel: She was just spending, and she had three boys. They were all in private school. And when we looked at the numbers, she had to make the heartbreaking decision to okay, which of the boys don't stay? 'Cause she could not afford all of them to keep going there. And she kept the oldest one in because he was in year 11 and she moved the other two out to another school. But if she had kept going, she would've fallen off a financial cliff. She would've found herself potentially having to sell her house. Like it was financially problematic. And this is the importance. I don't wanna scare people, but this is what we are facing potentially if we're not looking at it. But also the reverse can be true. You know, again, I can think of one particular client that she was incredibly fearful when it came to her financial situation.

Mel: She did not wanna spend money. So she was someone who really struggled spending money on herself. When she did the money snapshot, she realised, I'm actually doing okay. I have more than I thought. And she could actually become more relaxed about her finances. So, and it's everything in between as well. But unless we're facing the numbers, really we are not. This is money 101, but it's such an important one to start with because as we said in the previous episode, we're here to talk about the basics for a while because what we are seeing are people that are jumping into what's a quick win? I just want something to really get me there quicker. But they're forgetting the basics. And if we don't have beautiful foundations, the whole house is gonna fall down. How many allergies can I put into this? I just wanna really stress the importance. So why does this matter? I think I've already really sold that. But I guess with anything you do that's new, it's really important to figure out what your baseline is. So Lawsie, I know that you've actually done this recently and you are doing this recently with a lot of your health and fitness. It's actually establishing that, what am I working with?

Lawsie: Yeah, definitely. So I think it's, yeah, like you said, if you're, I don't know if you're going, or wanting to go on a nutrition plan. If you're trying to figure out what you're doing exercise wise, like you need to actually know where you're at. And I don't wanna say the w word of weight 'cause there is more to that if you're doing nutrition. Yes, agreed. There's so many different, and I'm clearly not a nutritionist that is not the space that we play. But there's so many different ways to get an understanding of what your health is. You know? Yeah. People might do it from photos, from measurements, from getting DEXA scans, like all of these things that you can be doing. But all of that is happening with that is just to establish a baseline. Yeah. So you can understand where you're at. So then as you're putting in these changes with nutrition or when you're doing starting an exercise plan, you can go, oh, yes, look at my biceps. They're growing <laugh>. And all of those things are wow, now I'm, you know, look at my six pack or whatever it is that you're aiming for. Or if you're wanting to run something in particular time, like you need to know how fast you run 5K if your goal is without breaking.

Mel: True. Yeah.

Lawsie: But also then to be you know, use that as that base so you can be like, oh great, after three months of following this great training program or working with this PT or whatever the thing is that you're doing, you can go great. I can see the results of that. And money is absolutely no different. Like you need to actually face where you're at now, as confronting as can be for some people. Or as pleasantly surprising as that can be for others as well. You do really need to know your baseline. So you go, great, that's where I'm starting from. And then you can start to see progress and results from there.

Mel: And I would say, I would add to that, establishing a baseline means that you can start to celebrate how far you've come. 'Cause otherwise you don't have a clue either how far you've fallen or how far you've gone forward. So, establishing that baseline means you're going, oh my gosh, I'm actually going backwards. What do I need to do to rectify that? But at least I can realise that. Or Oh my gosh, look how far I've come. And I didn't realise that. And we're seeing that at the moment. It's the end of the year when we're recording this. And inside the My Financial Adulting Plan, we're seeing a lot of people share their wins over the last 12 months. And I've been really fascinated to see that a lot of them have written, I didn't think that I'd made that bigger change this year.

Mel: But when I went and did a review, I realised I've paid off this much of this. I've saved this much of this, I've invested this much of this by having that money snapshot when they started, they realised how far they've come and they've been able to then celebrate a win. And I'm sorry <laugh>, but I love the dopamine hit of an atta girl or a celebrating a win. We're all humans. So it's having that baseline so that you can, so it's simply looking at where you're at now, it's not about creating and sticking to a strict budget. No, they don't work. And I know I tease that in the outro, but, Dr. Elaine Kempson, who is an emeritus professor from the University of Bristol, discovered this accidentally probably about eight, nine years ago now. And she simply discovered what I already knew, that strict budgets work for a period of time.

Mel: And as any nutritionist will tell you, at the end of that period of time, the person almost always puts all that weight back on and more we see have seen the same over and over and over again as financial advisors. When it was strict budgets with clients, it would work for a period of time. And then at the end of that, the money would all just be grabbed <laugh>. And next thing you know, our clients on a trip to Bali. It's like, no. So it's really realising that strict budgets don't work long term. They might for a season, but ultimately that's not gonna work. Instead that, it's figuring out how much does it cost you to live, what does it cost you to keep your lights on? And that might be your rent, your mortgage, your electricity, your heating, your phone, your internet.

Mel: It is not your insurances. It is not gonna include your haircuts and your clothes, etc. So it's your needs, not your wants. And that's what we want. That's your baseline, that's your money snapshot. This is how much it costs me to live. All the extra stuff is icing on the cake. And then this is what I have and what I owe. And we're gonna give you tools and tips to find that number later on. But if you think of your finances as a car, just to throw in another analogy, you know, too many people are in the passenger seat or in the boot or even standing outside, let's be honest. Or you're driving blindfolded 'cause you don't know where you're at. But you also don't know where you're going. And as I said, that means for some people, they're headed off a financial cliff. But you can't pick that and easily change direction 'cause you can't see it. And for others of you, you can sit back and enjoy the drive. So it's just really stressing the importance of understanding that this is important.

Lawsie: Yeah.

Mel: So I feel like we've hammered that enough. <laugh>. I feel like if you haven't got that now, I've got no more analogies for you.

Lawsie: I think you need to drive. So, let's give that message though, that

Mel: drive <laugh>.

Lawsie: Oh yeah. That's terrible, isn't it? But it's just when you are going through and doing this, and we'll talk a little bit more on the specifics of that. It's just this's just facing the facts. And it's very easy for us. We we're very desensitised to numbers. We don't have an emotion attached to numbers for the most part. But it's just understanding that whatever this is gonna reveal for you, it always was this. Yes. And it's just that you haven't faced it before and by actually facing it now, you can make changes and decisions to help ensure that you are, you know, working towards the life that you want. So for some people it's gonna be yikes, rightio. Yeah. Need to, you know, I've faced where I am now and that's gonna be that trigger where you're gonna be making the changes with how you're spending your money and the priorities that you've got. Yeah. For others, it's gonna be, oh wow. I actually can make decisions now around, I do wanna drop down to four days a week and actually I can afford to. Yeah. Or I wanna be able to take that sabbatical in a couple of years and things are looking up and I'm actually able to do it so, I think, yeah, don't feel like it's going to be this negative thing. It's just facing Yeah. Where you're at. Better or worse, it's that baseline and you can always then improve and change your position from here. So

Mel: To give us a little experience, we're joined by the very lovely Marnie, who we got to see in real life this year, which was very exciting when we see alumni in real life. So welcome Marnie. Do you wanna just, tell us when you joined My Financial Adulting Plan and why you just what you thought that you needed to financially adult?

Marnie: Yeah, of course. Hi Mel. You know, thanks so much for having me on today. I think it was probably three years ago now, so three years ago, this coming Feb, that I joined the MFAP program, and that was after having read all your books, interviewed you, and done all sorts of things and followed all of the things that you pop out, the free webinars, everything I'd done everything. And I'd probably waited three programs to actually join. So I'd watched what was going on and then finally I said, now is the time. Now's the right time. Yeah.

Mel: Which I get because money is that we have that fear and that hesitation and it's that, no, no, no, I can do this. You know? I can do this on my own. But sometimes we just need that extra help.

Marnie: Absolutely. I, I'd call it almost rudderless until there is some direction.

Mel: Yeah. I love that. It's funny that you mention the word 'rudderless,' because this, in this episode we're talking about where you are now and where you wanna go and how if you don't understand where you are now and you don't understand where you are now, where you wanna go, it's kind of hard to get excited and you actually might just be driving blind off a cliff. Can you relate to that at all and what have you done as far as figuring that out?

Marnie: Absolutely. Last year, it was the second year that I'd done, my best year yet. And so I'd spent four years studying, completing an MBA. And as Lawsie will say, and as you'll say, you know, the greatest investment you can make is in your own education. So that's where I was heading. And so I had these really, really big goals about, financial independence and not having to work and all that sort of stuff, but I didn't really know how I was gonna get there. So, I was studying big goal of completing that MBA and all of the sudden that came and went for me. And I'd graduated, we went to Disneyland. 'Cause that's what I'd set up once we finished, I get to go to Disneyland and so I took my daughter to Disneyland, came back burnt as a crisp, from four years of studying while working full-time in media.

Marnie: And then kind of went, I don't really know what I do next. And so it was really good having done, my best year yet, the previous year I sat down and said, right, what does this year look like for me? And having MFAP behind me as well. So just knowing how to do the things I wanted to do, that was probably the biggest. I knew what I wanted to do, I just didn't know how to do it. So, modules like investing and businesses and, you know, being an ADHD business owner, you know, jumping from one business to the next to the next

Mel: because

Marnie: everybody has to become a business. So I kind of, it was a year of this year really settling down. The first half, my word for the year was effort as in F it <laugh>.

Marnie: And yeah,

Mel: I love

Marnie: it. So you was basically saying, I'm just gonna do it. Yeah. You know, my friend was going to Ireland. Okay. I'll go to Ireland. Why don't we go to the UK. Okay, I'll go to the UK and by halfway through the year, I had no money left, Mel. I had gone from having this really great amount of money behind me, but what somebody pointed out to me was, you didn't do it on a credit card. Yes. You lived within your means. You had the cash there. And you deserved it. You had four years of studying work, covid lockdowns, schooling at home, like all those horrible, horrible things. So why not? And you could actually afford to do it.

Marnie: Absolutely. I think the only reason I opened a credit card was purely for security on higher cars in America. That was the only reason. And when I came home, I closed it.

Mel: So after your six months of effort, which I heard is E-F-F-O-R-T, at first I'm like, wow. When I said it

Marnie: <laugh> Yeah. When I said it, I was like, oh no, I need to clarify <laugh> two words.

Mel: So what was the following last six months? And is like, where are you going now? If you, I know where I'm at, which I know you know where you're at, where are you, where are you going, where you driving that car now

Marnie: Balance.

Mel: Hmm.

Marnie: So it's really now my number one, value is financial security. Yeah. And it was never more prevalent than the first half of this year when I really just felt a little bit out of control. There was no money behind me. I felt like it was constantly going out because I was paying for overseas holidays. And I really need to find the balance between really enjoying life and living for the now, but also setting up that financial security for the future. Yeah. And it really made me stop and think, Mel, you always say, you know, what are you prepared to sacrifice for your goals?

Mel: Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Yep.

Marnie: And I decided that travel's really, really important to me. Yep. I didn't like to say it because we never went on overseas holidays as kids. Like, the money wasn't there. Yep. My parents went on an overseas holiday for the first time just before Covid to New Zealand. Like, that's where we're at. So, I don't actually need to do that. That's a want, but I value that want. Yeah. So I'm now looking at an overseas holiday every two to three years. I think at the moment it's three years. We're going to New Zealand, in a couple of months with UN Women Australia, and fundraising with them. So that's really exciting on a five-day hike.The hike's not so exciting, but, the rest of the rest of it is fair.

Mel: Fair.

Marnie: But still looking forward to that financial independence and saying, what if I could retire at 50-55 knowing I'm 41 now, so it's actually not that far away mm-hmm <affirmative>. And I have to prioritise it. So, that's probably my biggest thing. And more recently I came back and redid the MFAP course. Just because I was feeling a bit rudderless. I felt like, as I said, all these big goals had been achieved. So what's next? Yeah. And the're this huge goal is sitting out there 10 to 15 years time. Yep. That doesn't feel like it's, it doesn't right now feel like it's achievable because I have to put all these little things in place. But really I've had to sit back and go, okay, what is more important and how am I gonna feel in 15 years time if I'm not there? Because I've gone on overseas holiday twice a year. Yeah. That's, I'm not gonna have valued that in hindsight.

Mel: And I love that you said that, 'cause it is not a one and done finances and with exercise we don't go on day one of the new financial of the new year. I'm just gonna do 24 hours worth of exercise and I don't have to do it for the rest of the year. Like, you gotta do it regularly. I love that you we're like, I needed to come back and do it again because I was feeling I'd hit that goal and I was feeling rudderless again. So it was time for that next goal, which is that seasonality and the what's next.

Marnie: Absolutely. And being okay with taking those small steps along the way. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So it doesn't have to be graduating with a master's degree. Yes. It can be, can be small, you know, I've, yeah. Well that's it. And I've started planning, for the coming 12 months. And looked at it going, you know, what, what do I need? Like personally and professionally, what do I need? And I'm thinking, I'm ready to take the next step in my career again. You know, so what does that look like? And looking at mentoring walks. And what I can participate that's low in, that's low cost. But really help me to find that vision and that, that direction in my professional life to then ultimately get to that ultimate goal in 10 to 15 years time of financial independence.

Mel: I love that. Thank you so much, Marnie. I so appreciate you sharing that with us today.

Marnie: Anytime, Mel.

Mel: So how do we do it? Where can we find this? How do you do a money snapshot? So again, this is something that we can teach you, inside the course that we run the My Financial Adulting Plan, where the financial plan that we used to create for people as advisers we teach you how to do this yourself, but here is some tips and tricks so that you can start if you just wanna get into it. So the income, this, for many people, this is really easy. It's pulling out a payslip. It's looking at your bank account, like it's there done to the amount of dollars it hit that bank account. So it'll be a regular amount that's going in that you can extrapolate out. But for others it's not that crystal clear. So, if you we're someone that has bonuses or commissions, I would be looking at this is what my baseline is.

Mel: This is what if I didn't do a single, overtime. If I never received a bonus, this is what my base is and I will make a plan for that. And then the cherry on top is this, and I'm gonna decide now what is going to happen with that if that comes in. So I'd almost have my income as this is known and this is unknown, I'm not gonna rely on it, but I'm going to make a plan for it. Businesses is the same. So if you are in business and you are not paying yourself a wage, but you're just eating out of the pot of your business account, you need to start transferring a regular amount to yourself, even if it's a small amount. And then you supplement that with quarterly amounts if you get lumpy income. But it's really important to start relying on and getting used to a regular income. Expenses, Lawsie I feel like we've already talked about. It's that what it's your needs.

Lawsie: Yeah. It is that thing of what it costs to live. And for, you know, for some people you go, oh my God, I don't wanna have to do that. But it's not that it's not too bad. Like it's just the easiest thing's gonna be to export your bank statements or your credit card statements and whatever. And to then go through and categorise it in Excel or Google Sheets or whatever plethora of other systems are out. Or if you're already using tracking apps and stuff, this will pull it together for you quite easily. And even banks, you know, depending on the bank that you're with. A lot of them will categorise your expenses as well. So it's not as like, oh my God, how am I gonna do this as it might otherwise seem. Because what you're wanting to do by downloading that three months or six months worth of expenses, is just to get an understanding of how much do you spend on groceries, how much do you spend eating out, how much do you spend on fuel and travel? Like travel as in train and all of those expenses, not holidays, you know, all of those things. So you're getting an understanding of what it actually costs you to live, but you do need to do a little bit of work. Yeah. For it. Particularly if you're someone that hasn't tracked this historically, it's gonna take you a little bit longer, but it's really worthwhile

Mel: And it's your needs, as we said, not everything else. So a tracking app for example, is Frollo is one F-R-O-L-L-O, and if you can just Google what are some free tracking apps online? If you're in business and you're used to Xero, you might choose to use that personally as well 'cause you know, it, if you hate Excels and you're scared of it, you might download and go old school, highlight your somethings in yellow, highlight some things in orange, and then manually added up. Like, you don't have to buy anything. It doesn't have to be fancy. It's just simply understanding it. And probably the biggest thing we find when people do this is food. Yeah. Every time. That's the thing. That time make people sick. Pardon the pun <laugh>, because they realise how much they're spending on groceries, how much they're spending on Uber Eats.

Mel: That's usually the frightening one. How much you're spending on eating out. And again, this is where, this is what it is, this is what it always is. But now we can make changes. 'cause once we realise it, that's when we can influence it. If we don't know what it is, then it's really hard to say, well, I wanna improve it if I don't know what I'm working with, for what you have, so your assets, it's starting with your investments. And you might go, well, I don't have any investments, so that's gonna be easy. Well, your bank accounts, or investments so how much money do you have in the bank? How much money do you have in your superannuation or your retirement account? How much is your property worth? How much are your shares worth? How much do you have in Bitcoin?

Mel: There are places that you can look, uh, to find shares that you might have. Embarrassingly, I've done this recently and found, discovered that my husband <laugh> had some things that we weren't aware of. So even if you are like, uh, there's no way I would have some stuff go and have a look for unclaimed shares, unclaimed money, unclaimed super, because you may have things sitting there that you simply didn't aware of. So your money snapshot could be a money win at the same time. And then of course, Lawsie, it's the opposite side of that.

Lawsie: Yeah. So if you've got credit card debt, if you've got buy now, pay later. If you've got loans, it's just logging into those mortgages platforms. Yeah. And just to then see what is the balance of those loans and how much do you owe on those? Or how much do you owe on the credit card? All of those things. So you're just getting that understanding of, yes, I own all of these particular things, but I owe this particular amount. So you can get a sense of what your overall financial position is.

Mel: And as Lawsie said, remember it was always this, you just didn't know it. And knowledge is power. And once we know it, we can start to make a plan to influence what we know. So for some of you, you're gonna be pleasantly surprised. For others of you, you, you're gonna feel a little bit sick. It was always this, but once we know it, we can influence it. We're not gonna give you strategies at this point for any of those things. That's what's coming up in the following weeks. Your money snapshot is simply right. What do I have? What do I owe? What's coming in? What's coming out? It's quite simply what you, what we said. Again, if you want help with this as we're gonna list some tools, uh, and things that you might use down in the show notes. But again, this is something we're gonna talk about in the HIIT challenge, which is the free challenge we're running in January, so make sure you sign up to that.

Mel: And we're gonna talk more about things like, what's your number? We're gonna talk about debt investing spending and more. So head to melissabrowne.com.au. Remembering I'm a fancy browne. I have an E on the end and you can find out more there. Or as always, check the show notes.

Mel: We hope you enjoy this episode. And I'm motivated to take your own money snapshot. Remember, it's not about creating a strict budget, it's about figuring out where you're at and where you're going so that we can do something about that now.

Mel: Thanks for listening to Uncensored Money. If you found value in this episode, make sure you click follow to stay updated on the latest episodes and leaving Review helps others find us here. For more tips and resources, visit us at www.melissabrowne.com au. There's an E on the end of Browne 'cause I'm a fancy browne on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok. It's @Melbrowne.money or send me an email. There's links for all of these and any other resources we've talked about in the show notes.

 

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