Financial Secrets Revealed

Michelle Hoskin

September 15, 2021 Amanda Cassar Season 1 Episode 1
Financial Secrets Revealed
Michelle Hoskin
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Show Notes Transcript

Welcome to the Financial Secrets Revealed podcast episode where Amanda Cassar introduces the fabulous Michelle Hoskin, aka Little Miss WOWW!  

Michelle is full of enthusiasm and energy, has an infectious personality and a unique outlook on what she calls, the “magical industry” of financial planning.

Michelle is the Founder and Director of Standards International Ltd®, based in Hitchin north of London; that delivers a wide range of innovative solutions designed to tackle common challenges faced by financial services professionals around the world.  Her mantra is that everyone has the power to realise their extraordinary potential.

Michelle is the author of The Little Book of WOWW! and Best Practice Makes Perfect.

I ask her about life growing up in the UK with a hard-working builder as a father, the financial lessons her parents passed down to her and what she would like her daughter Ruby (aka Mini Miss Woww!) to learn along with way.  She also talks about her own personal financial setbacks and what lessons she has learned, sometimes the hard way.

When Michelle is not helping her clients; you will most likely find her traveling, camping, speaking at a conference or event, or at the gym.

“The best strategy I’ve been taught for managing my own money has been to put my income into various pots.” – Michelle Hoskin


Links
Standards International | Welcome (Company Website)

Michelle Hoskin – Little Miss WOWW! (Speaking Website)

Michelle Hoskin | LinkedIn (LinkedIn profile)

Women Who Run with the Wolves : Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype, Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estes | 9780345409874 | Booktopia – BOOK: Women who Run with Wolves: Myths & Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype, Clarissa Pinkola Estes

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Financial Secrets Revealed: Cassar, Amanda: Amazon.com.au: Books

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Financial Secrets Revealed, Collective Wisdom from Business Gurus, Financial Geniuses and Everyday Heroes by Amanda Cassar | 9781925648546 | Booktopia

Purchase your copy of the book on Barnes & Noble:

Financial Secrets Revealed by Amanda Cassar, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)

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Catch up with Amanda Cassar, host of Financial Secrets Revealed on Twitter and Instagram @financechicks or on LinkedIn at Amanda Cassar | LinkedIn

Websites: 

 Find Michelle Hoskin on Twitter @l

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Intro:

Hi, I am Amanda Cassar and welcome to the Financial Secrets Revealed podcast where I have collected the wisdom from some amazing people around the world to understand better their money story. I have financial advisors, multimillion dollar corporate executives and those surviving on centerlink even running global charities. I hope you enjoy listening to the episodes as I speak with these incredible people about their stories.

Amanda:

Hi, it's Amanda from Wealth Planning Partners and I am with the lovely 'Little Miss Wow' Michelle Hoskin all the way from Hitchin in the UK. And I think this time it's your summertime so it's nice and warm for you. Well, it's, well a very chilly probably 20 degrees winter in Australia. So it's probably about the same temperature.

Michelle:

Yeah, we're not talking about your winters. They're fake winters. Don't give me that.

Amanda:

We are very, very fortunate. So Michelle, can you tell us a little bit about what you do, who you work with, your company Standards In ernational and just all about yo?

Michelle:

Yes, certainly could. So uh, yeah, Michelle Hoskin, As Amanda said, I'm also known as little as 'Little Miss Wow', and I have the beautiful privilege of working and coaching and supporting financial planners, predominantly who run businesses. So my skill set allows me to advise them on how to run efficient, effective and successful financial planning practices and I do that with financial planners all over the world, which is how Amanda and I met. I have a daughter who is 9 going on 19, who as we're talking about money has only recently had her own little credit card. That was catastrophic mistake number one, on my part. But we'll talk about that for sure.

Amanda:

At 9?

Michelle:

So I've got Ruby who's 9. Yeah, just busy. Obviously the current pandemic with the Coronavirus has thrown interesting challenges our way, recently single. So that's obviously been quite interesting and exciting and traumatic all at the same time. Yeah. So I'm just really excited to join you on this podcast.

Amanda:

Thank you. So the purpose of today's chat was to go through and rediscuss with some people I'd interviewed in Financial Secrets Revealed about, again, I suppose their history with money, their family values and beliefs and how that's impacted them. What lessons they've had to learn along the way, and what lessons they'd also like to pass on. Now, Michelle, you said your folks, it was all very middle class. Mum and dad both worked or mum was a homemaker, dad worked. Can you tell us a little bit about life growing up for you?

Michelle:

Yeah, so my mum was only 20 when she had me, and then she had my brother at 24, well 19 and 23. So my mom was still growing and I suppose and still finding herself when we were born. So, my dad, as a natural provider, you know, he's very much and my brother, interestingly, we've got a few dramas going on with my brother at the moment, but he's very much taken my dad's approach to family support, like in terms of his , if you know, if you interviewed my brother, he's almost a carbon copy of my dad. It's incredible. So, you know, Dad was always extremely hard working, no challenge too small, worked as a builder, kind of learning electrics, plumbing, all on the side, as he did when he was also working down the mines. Because obviously, where we were living in sort of rural Derbyshire, there was still the mines and the pits that were open at that time. So you know, Dad, I just remember, I remember my dad being around a lot. It's quite interesting, because I remember him being there a lot. And I also know on this in the same vein, how incredibly hard he worked, and end up doing double jobs. And then when he wasn't working, he was building the extension on the house that we lived in, or is building a garriage or he was renovating sort of doing the garden there was always something going on, but the I always remember him being around really and then as we got older, mom took part time jobs. She worked in a factory, in a fabric factory making clothes for Marks & Spencers and the like which obviously all those factories have now gone of course because industry in that area just sort of vanished overnight, and she used to work what was called a twilight shift and I used to remember back on this memory of mom going to work was, dad would then be looking after us at night and put us to bed. Before bed every night he gets a little bowl of sweets, a little mixture of sweets. We'd sit on the sofa in our pyjamas after we'd have a shower or a bath and we'd eat these sweets watching Telly. Now there's no

Amanda:

I was gonna say, it's a wonder you slept after that. way... Parenting tip 101. What not to do.

Michelle:

Now wonder I get the same energy at 42, I'm so full

Amanda:

I remember you saying when I spoke to you last time of sugar. But we just used to do that and then mom would, we must that sheer drive was the main message she learned from your have picked her up at nine o'clock I reckon. We must have still been awake. I don't really remember times, it's funny looking at, you'll forget stuff like that. But yeah, just father's example and just being a really hard worker, but also extremely hard working and it's the same now. If I shared some of the stories of the stuff that he's done, it's just in that they were never you couldn't recall any redible for days, but he's ju t got that drive and he's al ays had it,always. conversations ever about money or any formal education, even about money. But I suppose there's all those unspoken lessons that you learn, just get off your butt and get out there. But I've watch him. I mean, ultimately, I watched him and it's interesting. So just to kind of put that into perspective, right. So you know, I mentioned in the book that my dad you know, I never I don't ever remember going on the crap holiday. Never. I don't ever remember going to somes dodgy 1 star, two star resort, never. So my dad used to work incredibly hard and we used to go on beautifu, from the age of probably I would have been 8, Paul would have been 4. We went to Ibiza, it was our very first holiday. And it just got better and better and better these holidays. And, it's interesting because weirdly, you know, these kind of 4 or 5 star hotels, which must have cost an absolute fortune at the time now I kinda think back. I've been quite insistent on keeping that standard of holidays going, interesting right? So I would, I won't go on lots of holidays. But I go on good holidays, where my brother, he's gone for cheap, kind of horrible holidays like, you know, 2 star. So it's bizarre like so he, my brother's gone into this sort of save money mode quite frugal with money in certain aspects, where I've sort of maintained some of my dad's standards when it comes to things like holidays and stuff.

Outro:

Well one of the things you said was the quality over quantity was a family trait. Your bedroom had no cheap toys, or touristy purchases, nice quality bed linen, one nice pair of jeans, good clothes, good quality experiences. So...

Michelle:

Everything, everything, everything was that. And my dad still the same now like, he won't just go and buy wardrobes for bedrooms. He'll have them made. He won't just go and buy sofas from the sofa store, he'll have them made. He's had beds made, everything's super high quality,super expensive.

Amanda:

Is that because he likes, thinks, believes the quality lasts, and it's more economic in the long term

Michelle:

Yes. 100 percent.

Amanda:

Okay.

Michelle:

I mean, these will I mean, I'm looking at these wardrobes and the stuff that's surrounding me. They'll outlive me, they're that good quality. To be fair, they'll probably outlive Ruby.

Outro:

So that expression they don't make 'em like they used to is about everything your father gets made by the sound of it.

Michelle:

100 percent. That's why he makes them. And he'll look at stuff and go this is crap. He'll touch it and go, this is crap, this is crap stuff. And then he'll go and have them made. It's insane. He's a one off. For sure. For sure.

Outro:

Now I asked if you'd had personally any financial setbacks, and you were talking about the breakdown of your relationship with Ruby's father. That was quite a time for you, a financial setback. Can you talk us through what happened there?

Amanda:

Yeah, I mean, it was a financial setback. And probably when you interviewed me, I was still dealing with that financial setback. But in truth, you know, the whole grand scheme of things, it kind of really wasn't. What I suppose I had to do was, I had to..big sums of money. I had to be a consideration for me. So, Martin and I bought a house relatively cheaply, because we bought before the kind of housing market in the UK just absolutely skyrocketed. So we saved up some money, lived with his granddad and we saved 24,000 pounds. So we saved 1000 pounds each per month, for a year. So we put a 25 24,000 pound deposit down, bought a house. And then our outgoings were quite modest, really. So then when we separated, luckily the business that we were both in and are still in was generating enough income to run both of our households. And all of a sudden we were buying brand new sofas for Martin, TVs, beds, literally we kitted him out in his own flat because he was moving out. So, it wasn't necessarily traumatic really. But what it was is, I just understood what it felt like to handle big sums of money again, you know, and then we sold the house, of course, and then you've got 150,000 pound land in the bank account, which you didn't have before. The whole thing was traumatic because of the separation. But money obviously was the means by which lots of things could happen. So I was very thankful that we had money and we've been modest in our spending and we've not so have been, you know, living beyond frivolous with money. So and it allowed us to have a relatively steady separation because we had the money to make stuff happen after that.

Outro:

Yeah. Now you work with a lot of financial professionals, obviously. So one of the questions I liked asking you was what's the best financial advice you've ever been given. Seeing as your entire life is spent around financial professionals. So, do you remember what you told me?

Michelle:

I do. I remember. Wasn't it about sort of splitting up the money? It was, wasn' it? just, I think, well, since then, I've actually had better advice. Interestingly, When Martin and I were thinking about selling the

Amanda:

Excellent. house, I was stressing out to the eyeballs on, should I sell, should I buy Martin out? should I keep a property, should I sta in the property market, bla bl bla, bla bla. And my financia advisor, who actually is more o a, to be fair he's not real y a planner, he just is more of a sorts my life insurance out and my sort of product require ents if you like. And he said, Just don't worry about it. ocus almost on what makes you appy at the moment. So if sellin the house was traumatic, r if buying the house was traum, so the house was traumatic, r by Martin, it was traumatic, i you don't need to do it, do't I don't stress about money. Yep. So what what the best b t of advice I had was, put your well being before the money. An you asked me that question, just before we started recor ing, because I'm currently in a rented property, I still go 120 grand in the bank. And y u're like, Well, are you goi g to rent and I'm like, yea, well renting logically m kes no sense. Because you're effectively paying som body's mortgage and the property prices are going up. But I don t want the responsibility t this moment of a prop rty, of maintaining it, of hav ng that fixed asset in a fix d asset that at some point I mi ht have to sell or might not be able to sell. So I think the est bit of advice I ha since you interviewed me for t e book was just give yourself breather, if that's what you eed, don't get stressed abo t what the markets are doing. And if you need to rent, you n ed to sell sell it, sell it, j st do what you need to do. So. Yeah, it's interesting. I think hat's, you know, and advisors, a visors are very knowledgeable as you are one and I think somet mes they do bring an element o logic more often than p obably most consumers give the credit for really, there's he money is important, but i's not more important than you well b

Outro:

No you're right, absolutely. It is one of the main causes of stress and breakdown of marriage as well.

Michelle:

So it's interesting. I kind of do mentally, physically Another thing you told me about managing your money was to allocate it into various pots. Do you still do that? 20% of your income to your daughter, 20% to travel, 10% to save, 50% to live? I don't. Because obviously when I sold the house effectively, I got about 150,000 pounds land in my bank account kind of overnight. So there was there was less of a need to allocate. But what I did do, I don't know why we can talk about that another time, I suppose. But I went on this buying rampage of buying T5 transporter camper vans.

Outro:

Yeah, which you still have a bit of a fetish for. It was lovely when visiting the UK to drive one. It worked for me.

Michelle:

People, I say to people, you know, most girls by Jimmy Choos and Christian Louboutin shoes, I buy T5 five transporters.

Amanda:

I'm sure Volkswagon would be very grateful.

Michelle:

But at one point I had like, I had three. Well randomly, I have now got one so effectively, I sold my house and I got about 150 grand in the bank, I bought various vans of which I have only recently just sold two of them. So now I have my one van that I love called Alfie. Black, beautiful T5 Transporter, love him, right. So he's the one that I'm keeping, he cost me 30,000. So I have actually not really wasted too much money, and I've got 120,000 pounds in the bank. Now I've sold my vans, and I feel like I've got my pot of money back to what my pot of money will ever be, I now can make some decisions about what to do with it, whether I invest, whether I allocate it into pots, but it's still that same logic of how to save in part and put in but what I do do is I obviously get my wages, I get my salary. I know from a personal budgeting perspective, what I'm going to spend and at the end of the month before I get paid again, I literally just move all of my leftover money into my what is currently known as my house pot, take it all in at the end of the month, I'll have like 50 pounds in the bank account that I'm going to get paid again. And then whatever I don't spend, I move it all over. I'm starting to build up quite a nice amount of money because I live by myself with Ruby and we're locked in because of the global pandemic currently. So I've not really spend anything other than the amount of food.

Amanda:

I have heard some of the online spending trends have gone up a bit so if you're not an online you should be okay.

Michelle:

There was a picture that I shared on Facebook the other day. It said, I had done so much shopping if UPS turn up with a Llama, I wouldn't be surprised. Because I have totally forgotten. I have actually forgotten what I've ordered. And I didn't I order like a, about a month ago and it's still not here. Yeah. If a Llama did turn up, I would not be surprised.

Outro:

We weren't able to get our nails done at the very beginning, my daughter's like, Oh mum you've got to buy a kit. And of course, it took eight weeks to turn up and the salons opened the week after. I was like, whatever. Obviously you can't rush these things.

Michelle:

I've never spent so much money on food in my whole life. If I keep going, I'm going to be the size of the large universe.

Outro:

Again, if you're buying and eating at home, it probably means you're saving by not going out to the restaurants that are all now closed. So there's probably a trade off there as well.

Michelle:

Which is true. Yeah, for sure.

Amanda:

Now remember speaking to you after we done the book, and you said to me, Amanda, the question you asked me about Ruby, nobody's ever asked me that before. And I'd said to you, what would you like her to learn about money? And at that stage, you went, Oh, I don't know.

Michelle:

Yeah.

Amanda:

So you did come back to me with an answer. Said you don't give her pocket money as a gift. You do make her work for her pocket money, is that changed since we spoke?

Michelle:

Well, I tell you what I actually watched and if you want to, you know, share the link, I can share the link with you. But Cameron Herold, who was a speaker, I first met him at MDRT Top of The Table, which is, people will know you, know that you're a massive MDRT fan in terms of the professional body. And he was speaking in Hawaii, to the Top of The Table members. And we, I managed to get chatting to him afterwards and we we're talking about kids. And he said, have you seen my TED talk on teaching children entrepreneurship? And I said, No, I haven't. But at that night after I left him, after just having drinks and stuff, I went and watched it when I snuggled up in bed. And it basically talks about the fact that all children probably aren't entrepreneurs, but you can teach them entrepreneurship. So I think what the lesson now Ruby is older, following on from our first interview is a couple of things. And I'm doing it in a softy, softly way. But for example, she wanted a load of Lego Friends, which is you know, Lego, but it's all the kind of girlie set. So, what we did was only one set, did she buy new, all of the other sets, she bought off Facebook marketplace, but she bought them with her own money. And she kept all the boxes. And I explained to her that if she kept all the boxes and all the bags and kept the books nice. what that would mean is that the when she wanted to sell them, she simply made them back up, put them back in the bags and the book boxes, and we'd sell them. And I can tell you it because there was so much of it and she spent so much on it. She was careful how she kept the pieces. She was careful how she kept the books. And now we're at the phase in lockdowns, a perfect opportunity for us to do this to rebuild all this Lego. And she's going to post it on Facebook Marketplace and she'll sell it, in some cases more than she bought it for. Because some of the some of the sets when I saw them on Facebook, I'm thinking that's way cheap, way too cheap. That woman doesn't realize what Lego is going for. So that's what I'm teaching her at the moment. It's sort of buying, selling. We're doing things like sorting out stuff to go to the charity, like the thrift stores and stuff. But she's asked if we can do a car boot sale like a market stall when it all opens again. And I've kept it and it's all going into storage. And I said yeah, absolutely. And she'll wheeler deal with the customers for sure.

Amanda:

Oh look, I wouldn't want to be on the end of a wheeling and dealing with Ruby. I remember when she toured with ou on your speaking tour, and f somebody did not buy wh t you were selling, she wasn' impressed with t

Michelle:

My sister, well, even that day when we did that tour. I said to her Ruby, we was like why would you not want to buy my mommy's book? I would not want to buy it. I remember literally rescuing this poor lady from Ruby. Going Ruby, she doesn't want my book. It's so embarrasing.

Amanda:

At least she's an advocate. She's a raving fan and I suppose that's what you want for your daughter.

Michelle:

She was only 5 Amanda. Yeah, so that's what I'm teaching Ruby's to look after stuff, keep it clean, keep it together. And you'll probably sell it for the same amount if not more than what you bought it for.

Outro:

Yeah it's a good point. I actually taught my son about entrepreneurship quite early. He's actually now a financial advisor in my business but he wanted to buy a gaming console and look I'm just not a fan don't allow myself, time waste, whatever, all the reasons. When he came to me of course as a young teenager and went you know, mum I want to get a PlayStation. And I said to him, look, I will never buy one for you. But if you earn the money, do the research. I will not stop you from buying one. So you come to me with a plan. So he ended up getting a lawn mowing run and carwash business going in the driveway. And I mean when these were $700 I think back at the time and I said you Doesn't need to come to me with three offers that you've researched in the marketplace, go to three or four different retailers, come back and tell me who's got the best deal, who's including the most accessories or games so that you know, to play him off. And he actually came to me one day and goes, mum, I figured if I charge$25 for that car, but I get my mate to wash it for 10, I actually don't have to do any of the work. And so he sort of took it the next level. And look, he did make the money, he did have to label it and pay it off over some time, which the retailer was fine with. But I don't think those lessons ever, ever hurt when they're young to be able to achive something and they appreciate it.

Michelle:

Absolutely and you've just told me about finding a Fitbit, tracking your GPS for now, you've just told me exactly what you've just done, which is research the market and you've got it for $400 and not $1,000 your words were I'm pretty happy with that. Well, actually, regardless of whether you can afford $1,000 or not, it's quite rewarding to do what you've just done. Because you know, you've got a deal and you've saved money. And you've it's like wheeler dealing. I think one of the things that are less than that I think I picked up during the time of separating from Martin, selling the house is it's good to hustle.

Amanda:

Yep.

Michelle:

It's in there.

Amanda:

Yeah, absolutely.

Michelle:

It's hustling. That s all it is. I think most peop e lose their ability to hustl. I've got no intention of losi g my ability to hustle, as do y

Amanda:

Well people, you can become complacent, you might go, I've got a better income now I don't need to do that. But like you said, it doesn't hurt to keep those skills in. Every dollar you don't spend can go towards something else. And whether that's paying down debt or an investment or whatever,

Michelle:

Or buying your dream house, it doesn't matter does great idea it?

Amanda:

No. Now I know you've had some regulatory changes for financial advisors in the UK. Australia's just coming off the back of a royal commission and massive regulatory changes, and you work with advisors. Now, a lot of people, there's a lot, there's a lack of trust. There's those stories of you know, the one guy who ripped everybody off. What value do you see for Mr. & Mrs. Bloggs, or Joe average who goes, I don't need an advisor? What advantage do you see for people to go, actually, you know what, this is what you can achieve from working with an advisor? Yeah, I think, I'll answer the question, but just just to lay that in one of the reasons that I work with financial advisors, and I've chosen to only stay with financial advisors as a coach is because ultimately, my drive is is that if I let, let's imagine I help you have a better business and a better team and a more successful financial planning practice effectively, that has a ripple effect on every single consumer, Mr. and Mrs. Bloggs that you help because they're going to get better service, they're going to get a better version of you. So when I say the words that are going to come out of my mouth, I don't say them light heartedly. I've selected to work with a profession, i.e financial planners and give my whole life to an industry that I see so much value in and that's actually cost me relationships. More than one because I work incredibly hard to support a sector across the world that can do so much and so give so much value. So, these are not just words coming out of my mouth. This has cost me my personal life in many many times. So I think for Mr. and Mrs. Bloggs, money is a mechanism, money is the means by which ultimately, you can or will not live the life you want. So if money is attached to aspirations, to dreams, to a lifestyle that you crave or that you desire, why on earth would you not seek advice on how to maximize every dollar to get you the life you want? Ultimately, that's what it boils down to. So it's like we have our health and it's the same reason people don't get a nutritionalist why would you not get a nutritionalist? Because your body and your health is the only thing you have. Why would you not go and seek out a professional person who knows their, their expertise to advise you on the best things to put into your body? Why would you not, you know.

Outro:

I suppose the accountability as well like the PT you know how to exercise at home, but are you going to do it as hard as you do when this person's telling you to do it? So, the same as the advisor.

Michelle:

Yeah, and you know, there are, there's a lot of horror stories about financial advisors as there are with other professionals, you know,

Outro:

There's dodgy lawyers, there's dodgy priests, there's dodgy teachers, there's dodgy in every profession. So unfortunately, that's never gonna go away. So you find someone you're comfortable with.

Michelle:

Absolutely. And I was just about to say like it's fit. You've almost got to feel like I would say I'm quite in tune with my spiritual side and I have been more so over recent years as I've got older, and I realized that the universe is gonna do what the universe needs you to do and will do for you what it needs. But one of the things I would say is that when you sit down with an advisor, or anybody, whether this be friends or anybody, you've got to feel the vibe, you've got to feel the fit, you've got to feel the sparkle that happens between two people or three people. And you know, if you sit down with an advisor, and you're sitting there thinking, this just don't feel right. It's because it's not.

Outro:

Yeah, absolutely. I've even advised to go and interview advisors as we go interview two or three and work out who you're comfortable. Because it is horses for courses. I mean, I know personally, there's, there's people you just resonate with, and there's people you don't, So..

Michelle:

It's the fit. It's the vibe, it's the your tribe are your vibe and your vibe is your tribe and I think you've got to surround yourself with people that that get you to understand you and you know, financial advisors, they're different, but, money makes the world go round, you know, money got me and Martin out of a situation amicably rather than nastily, because we had the the means by which we could make stuff happen, I've just separated from Mark. And because I've got 100 grand in the bank, I literally just walked out the front door and went set myself up in a flat somewhere else with me and Ruby, and we're dead happy. But only money allowed that to happen. If I had no money, I'd been in a terrible situation. And you need, you need advice, you need to know what's best to do with that money. Even if it is or just sell the house and sit on it for two years if that makes you, makes you well and that makes you happy so.

Amanda:

It gives youthe breathing space to figure it out.

Michelle:

100% but you need that advice. I love advisors and I say all the time Amanda. You know how I feel about you guys as a profession. It's the most rewarding job on the planet and people need to have a bit of that in their life.

Amanda:

It's funny. Australia, I suppose, eased their restrictions in the last couple of weeks and actually sitting down face to face with clients gain. I'm like, I forgotten how much I really love this because its been through a webinar a phone call.

Michelle:

Putting your arms around them are ya? I said to, I said to, honestly like and this is true and I'm so bad. If there's words in my brain, they have to come out of my mouth.

Amanda:

I know there's a few that will take you up on it. And I said to a client the other day, I was like, let's hope there are no conferences this year because I'm going to snog every financial advisor. Then I thought, oh my god,I really did just say that out loud. That wasn't even a thought in my head that I kept.

Michelle:

And they're all like, good luck with conferences by the time November is here. I'm literally. I just I can't wait. I can't wait to get back with my tribe. And we obviously we should be at ...yeah, you should be, you know, and we'll miss it. And the only reason I wasn't actually going is because I should be in South Africa.

Amanda:

Okay

Michelle:

The only reason, because I was supposed to be speaking at the FPI conference, but that's why I couldn't be in two places at once. But yeah, we're going to be Frenchie-ing advisors left, right and center by the time it's all over

Amanda:

All right, so after all that advisor snogging What is your favorite form of investment? Oh, my goodness, your favorite form of investment.

Michelle:

In myself, in myself. So do you mean other than in myself? ah, favorite form of investment. Well, for me at the moment, I think property has got to be up there. The UK property market is just going through the roof in terms of investing in. If I was to do anything, I would take my 100,000 pounds and I would buy another property with it. I think that's obviously quite key. In terms of investing in the market, personally, I'm always a little bit scared of it because it's a non tangible, it feels a bit, sort of, it's in the hands of somebody else. But then I'm very much, I think I'm very much a passive investor in terms of, I let the money do what the let let the money do what the money needs to do. I wouldn't get stressy about it. I wouldn't try and track the market, beat the market. I'm not really into shares and buying shares in firms because then my money is in totally somebody else's hands. So I think I'm, I invest in the market, I would invest in the markets, but I would I would probably be, you know, let the world do what the world's gonna do. And let the money just ride with it. And then even that, obviously the coronavirus pandemic, you know, people have overnight, you know, I know from speaking to so many of you guys that their clients were just losing it because the markets went down by 8%. But actually, they've recovered and they'll keep recovering. And if they go down again, they'll recover again. So I think if you're gonna invest, it's got to be for the long term.For sure.

Amanda:

You also said you're business was a big favorite of yours.

Michelle:

Oh, yeah. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, absolutely. I invest in my business, which is why I only take out of my business the money I need. So I take a modest salary and a modest dividend payment of shareholder dividend. And I you know, and I invest in the people, I invest in products because you know, effectively If I put money into my business, it's probably the best return I'll ever get more than I'll get in property.

Amanda:

Yep.

Michelle:

So it's a bit like,it is definitely my cash cow, I would say. Putting money into the business and hiring a new member of staff on which the effects of it's $80,000 Aussie dollars $90,000 a year. If I put that into the business on a monthly basis, then that person probably would make me more than 90,000 Aussie dollars .

Amanda:

That's the investment isn't it. The return on the investment, Yeah.

Michelle:

It's incredible. So as a person that has a business, I would say my biggest, best chance of return on my investment is my business. So that's probably why I've never invested in the markets. I've only ever invested in property. And I mean, if you look at it, right, it's interesting. So the property piece, I banked 150,000 pound, and I had that house for 14 years. I bet if you look, I probably paid not to shy of that in interest to have that house to the bank. So have I really made 150,000 pound? I've got it in the bank, but it's only what I've paid in interest.

Amanda:

It's enforced savings over that time.

Michelle:

I think it's definitely my business is my best investment and I continue to invest in it, continue to do so which is why I take out only what I need. I'm not frivolous with money, I'm sensible. I don't need to take a dividend. Because I don't or I don't need to take certain bonuses out of business, I'll just leave it in and spend it on hiring a new member of staff, which is going to make me way more money than doing anything else with that money.

Amanda:

And I know that we've had an exciting collaboration come up since we did the book as well. So for those who don't know, Michelle and I have partnered together, and we'll be releasing a course to financial advisors around the world to create financial abuse specialists. So we're pretty excited about launching that in the coming months.

Michelle:

It's incredible Amanda, you know what I mean? You take that you asked me about investing in my business, while I've invested hours as have you, as has Dee, my head of service in the business. That is such an incredible thing that we've done. And I actually, if I sit regularly thinking about it, I

Amanda:

Absolutely. don't think we realize what we've done in truth. You probably have a much better idea of being an advisor that's

Michelle:

You know. advised clients who have experienced financial abuse. But we've done a remarkable, incredible thing. Because I wrote on a little mat, I've been doing these and I'll share them with you when we get round to chatting about it. But I've done these little like word swags. And one of them says, you know, financial planners, how about rather than changing a life, you save a life? and I think ha ing somebody who, a consumer c n go to that has expertise, know edge and a certification to rove that they are a specialists in the area of financial abus might just save thei life.

Amanda:

Yep.

Michelle:

And that's a good thing. I've never been in that space before where I've literally saved somebody's life. Not that I'm aware of. But this is it. And what a remarkable thing we've done.

Amanda:

Yes. It's very exciting

Michelle:

And it's on it's all in pure effort. Yeah, it's remarkable. So yeah, I'm super excited about that. And that came from your book, it all came from you, didn't it?

Amanda:

Yes, I hope to be interviewing the lady who kicked all that off very shortly. So before we have to sign out, is there one book tip that you would give people if they wanted to learn more about money or personal development or business development. Do you have a favorite book?

Michelle:

Yeah, I think everybody should read the 4Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss.

Amanda:

Yeah, classic, that one.

Michelle:

And I think the reason that they should, yeah, the reason that they should, is because it just teaches us so many lessons about doing more with less. And I think it's like money, do more with it. It doesn't matter how little you have. If you've got 100,000 do make sure you do more with it, rather than just sitting on it time, do more with it, relationships, do more with them. And I think that's the best book to sort of capture every aspect of living and life and just making the most out of everything that you've bought. And it's been a few years actually since I read it and a friend of mine is currently reading it and it's made me, made me spark up. The other thing I would say, and it's not a it's not a money book, but honestly it's literally blow my brains out. Is that for any women listening to this podcast or any men that know women, it's a book called Women Who Run With The Wolves.

Amanda:

Oh, yes,I did see you put that up recently. Okay. I'll

Michelle:

Oh my god Amanda. It's absolutely incredible this book. have to put that on my list. And every, I mean I was literally listening to it in the car yesterday going, Oh my, literally had my hands on the steering wheel going oh my god. Incredible, incrediblebook.

Amanda:

You've set some pretty high expectations there. I'm looking forward to picking it up.

Michelle:

Every woman. In fact, I've got it on audiobook and I'm going to get Ruby to listen to it. It's incredible book for women. Oh my god. Outstanding book.

Amanda:

Thank you so much for sharing your time with me this afternoon, morning for you and look forward to rolling this out. And yes, starting the series on the book. Thank you for kicking it off for me.

Michelle:

I love you. I love you, Amanda, I love you so much. And I think the work that you're doing and everything you do as an advisor and the trials and tribulations that you go through to be an advisor with the Royal Commission and running a business. You're just one of the best. So thank you for everything you do. Incredible, thanks for the effort.

Amanda:

Aww thank you beautiful. All right, let's chat again soon.

Outro:

And that was another episode of Financial Secrets Revealed. Thank you so much for joining me. I hope you got some nuggets of wisdom out of that guest and enjoyed listening to their story. If you'd like to know more, please reach out to me my contact details are in the show notes or hunt down your favorite bookstore to find financial Secrets Revealed and learn more for yourself. I look forward to hearing from you.