Where's My Money Season 4, Episode 10

Season Four of Where’s My Money?, now a multi-award-winning podcast, has arrived and we will share all the insights covered across the episodes by host Reagan White and his guests.

enable.me partners with rova to bring this podcast to life and stimulate the conversation about finances with everyday Kiwis. Where’s My Money? follows the story of Reagan – a man chasing the Kiwi Dream but feeling stuck living month-to-month – and his discussions with the experts about what he may be doing wrong and how to fix it.

One man. One million dollars of debt. One podcast to find a way out.

Everyday Kiwis Grace, Caitlin, and Sam are back on Where’s My Money? after two weeks of tracking their cash flow – money in and money out. It’s the second episode in the Money Month series where the three put their budgets under the magnifying glass to get real feedback about their spending.

If you missed the first episode in the series, you can find it here. In it, the trio reflected about their relationship with money and how ‘good’ they think they are at managing it.

This week, listen in as enable.me financial coaches and advisers Katie Wesney and Shelley Palman engage in a live coaching session with each of them. Follow along as they dive into their spending and saving behaviours; discovering the ways they can improve their money habits to meet their financial goals.

Grace Shares How Prioritising Your Spending Unlocks Happiness

Initially, Grace rated herself a financial 7.5-8/10. After two weeks of tracking using the moneyfit.me Tracker app, she shares what she discovered about her money habits.

It turns out she was on track with her self-reflection. The main message the two coaches have for Grace is that she is doing better with her money than she perceives herself to be.

“As to be expected, the Grade-A student with saving,” says Shelley. But the two coaches have a warning that will resonate with other savers who may be listening to the podcast – make sure not to live such a small life you forget to do the things that bring you joy as well. Otherwise, what are you saving for?

Katie says, “definitely a tip would be to be a little bit kinder to yourself in terms of your budgets… if you go too low, you’re always beating yourself up a bit, but it wasn’t even realistic in the beginning.”

Grace and her partner are already mindful about how they spend their disposable income and ensuring that their ‘non-negotiables’ are taken care of first.

“We have prioritised our wellbeing this year, which is awesome,” Grace shares.

They have a nutritionist and make sure to nourish themselves with food that makes them feel good – and enables them to focus well on other parts of their life like work and personal interests.

Within their relationship, Grace and her partner have open conversations about their budget – in terms of both their separate, and joint, spending.

Together, they consider their goals before they look at big-ticket items, looking to bring happiness into their lives in the most financially efficient way; financial decisions like the guest list of their potential future wedding or travelling to New York for a white Christmas.

To wrap up, Grace says, “where I say I’m good but not great is I think I am too hard on myself and I’ve had such lofty goals for myself in terms of buying the house and having the nice car.”

“So I save really hard to get there but then, yeah, where’s the payoff? Where’s the relaxation or the giving myself permission.”

A feeling many people relate to; how do I enjoy my personal freedom and interests, without feeling the guilt about spending money to do them?

Caitlin Comes Face to Face with the Idea That She’s More ‘Great’ Than ‘Good’

Caitlin described herself as good but not great in her first podcast session, rating herself as a financial 5.5/10. She’s back with the hard data from two weeks of tracked spending, in the hot seat with the enable.me coaches, to examine the reality of her financial situation.

Shelley says, “in my mind you undersell and underrate yourself. There’s a lot of psychology around money… there’s so many things that feed into how you behave around money.”

“And there’s a confidence piece and an empowerment piece that we somehow need to instil into you somewhere in there.”

Caitlin shares that being able to see her spending come through on the moneyfit.me Tracker app and need to take the action to code it correctly made her a lot more conscious of her spending.

But it wasn’t all easy. She describes a feeling many people may have had – that needing to code some of her spending made her want to throw her phone aside and not come back to it.

Katie and Shelley are quick to point out that this is a totally normal reaction. The key here is to have firm financial goals that motivate you to pick the phone back up again. Building the small wins into your plan so you can feel success along the way is also emphasised by the two financial coaches.

The perfect goal for Catilin is home ownership and then starting a family – removing spending that doesn’t contribute to this goal is the next step.

Katie and Shelley discuss with Caitlin the tip of carefully considering generosity and giving, making sure to look after yourself and your own financial goals first.

“Let’s be generous to ourselves first, because you can’t pour from an empty cup,” says Shelley.

“Whether it’s that you’re always the person who shouts the round or if you’re that auntie that buys the expensive gifts for the nieces and nephews, you know, let’s make sure we’re filling up your cup first before you can then let that spill over to others.”

They note an area where Catilin is excelling making sure she is insured and covered for any bumps along the road. It’s important to have this cover for peace of mind and an added layer of financial security.

Caitlin ended the episode with a more positive view of her financial capability – and some thought-provoking takeaways from Katie and Shelley to build into her planning.  

Sam’s Shopper Tendencies Have a Plus Side

On the last episode, Sam rated herself a financial 3/10 but was persuaded by podcast host Reagan to upgrade this to a 4/10. Now, after diligently tracking her spending, she examines the areas where she could reduce her budget to build her savings.

Overall, Sam found tracking her spending to be a positive experience that has unlocked her curiosity towards how she can improve her money habits.

“I really enjoyed it and I kind of have this motivation to know more about how I can save or how I can spend my money or just even understand the tracking side,” Sam says.

“Sometimes it’s very transactional and I’m like, I have the intent to save, but if I don’t necessarily see it saving… It’s not happening.”

Sam is also in a unique situation; she is a twin and, between the two, they’ve split their “generous” clothing budget between them to both share one wardrobe. They also have a self-regulated ‘credit’ system of doing activities together; one of them paying for both, and the other paying them back.

Like many of us, the twins see clothing as an expression of their identity – and doesn’t it feel motivational to look great?

The enable.me coaching duo dive into this element of Sam’s budget and make a statement that surprises her – she had come in expecting they’d tell her to stop splitting the budget with her twin, and to stop spending on clothing. But that’s not the case.

“I think that’s that there’s a bit of a misconception when people come to a financial coach,” Katie explains.

“They think that we’re going to say, “You’ve got to do this. You’ve got to cut ties with your sister. You cannot have a coffee every day.” It’s not about that. It’s about identifying what you want to do, what’s really important for you, but cutting out the things that aren’t.”

Sam is grateful for the approach, and takes the opportunity to self-reflect and think about her financial aims:

“I probably don’t need to be like, “Oh, I deserve this” or like “let’s treat me” moments every week or second week. You know what I mean? So, it’s probably just being smarter, like maybe treat yourself once a month.”

With the goal of buying a house either in Auckland or closer to home in the South Island – and to also have some funds set aside for travelling – firmly in her headlight beams, Sam left the podcast with a clearer idea of the road she wants to travel down.

Live The Best Possible Version of Your Life

Setting yourself a spending plan is not intended to be a highly restrictive exercise or sap all the joy from your life. Katie finishes off the podcast by reminding us that the whole point of saving is to enable us to live with freedom and choice.

She emphasises, “and again, it’s not saying, “well, I’m going to live the smallest version of my life.” It’s quite the opposite. I’m going to live the best version of my life, but I’m going to be super intentional about it. I’m going to make it happen.”

Stay tuned to Where’s My Money? so you can revisit the progress made by Grace, Caitlin, and Sam in a future episode of the podcast.

Disclaimer: The Where’s My Money? podcast and the information shared by host Reagan White and his guests does not constitute individual financial advice. If you’re interested in receiving financial advice, you can book a consultation with an enable.me coach. Costs apply.