The holiday hangover nobody talks about: your bank account.

0:01Welcome to IOU Some Money Education. Today we have Hannah Hart back on the podcast. You may have known her as Hannah Kamakis. She's recently got married, which is very exciting. And she is kind of the poster child for all things money, budgeting, personal finances. On today's episode, we are going to be talking about how you save towards short-term goals. So that could be anything from a house, maybe a holiday, a car, an engagement ring. Something else that we're going to be talking about is an emergency fund, which I would say is quite possibly one of the most important short-term goals. But not only that, we're also going to be looking at your immediate short-term goals, maybe like mini goals, and then also your long-term as well, and how they can be a little bit more easy to start saving for.

0:43If you want to learn how to implement everything that we're going to talk about in this episode, and you want it in more granular detail in terms of from the beginning, how do you budget all the way through to investing towards like long, long, long-term investments. So how do you invest in the stock market? We have the perfect beginner money course. It's called IOU Some Money Education, The Practical. And you can find all the details for that in the podcast show notes. We recorded this with Lucy Blackiston from Shit You Should Care About. It's practical. It's easy to follow. It's really fun. And it's actually super affordable.

1:18So for all of those details, look in the show notes. This episode of IOU Some Money Education is proudly brought to you by the Bank of New Zealand. When you're just starting out, managing your money should feel easy so that you can focus on winning at whatever you're doing. Whether you're flatting, saving to travel or making a career move, they have all the tools to help you master your money from the get-go. Thanks so much to the Bank of New Zealand for making IOU, Some Money Education, possible. Don't forget to check out IOU, The Practical Lessons, to put what you're learning into practice. Find the details in the podcast show notes.

1:48Hannah, I don't know what we're going to do when we've got no more episodes to do with you. I'm like, every time we record them, I learn heaps. Our producer, our whole team's like, I love Hannah. She's so amazing. Anyone that didn't listen to our last episode on side hustles, highly recommend. Very good for getting more money in the bank account. I also think you're probably the most prepared, passionate person I've ever had on this podcast in terms of like really wanting to make sure your facts are right, that you do a good research job. I'm obsessed. I love it. So thank you for coming on again.

2:21Oh, it's been so fun. I have been so looking forward to jumping on again and talking about this next episode, which should be good. I know. I think so. Just to set the scene before we get into what we're actually going to be talking about today. I don't know if you've spoken about this publicly, but can we mention the fact that you are officially married? Crazy. I know. I said a lot of times. Thank you. So exciting. It's actually funny. I do have to tell this story, I think. because it's quiet. So basically, Hannah and I DM. Like we message, we probably should take it to WhatsApp because the whole Curve team can see our DMs.

2:58Anyway, I was messaging Hannah about something and I can't even remember what. And there was this flash of this diamond that came across the screen. And I thought, that's a very nice ring. And also that appears to be on the engagement finger. And I replied to her saying like, excuse me, are you engaged? What's going on? She was like, no, no. I was like, I like to pretend sometimes. This episode today, we're going to be talking about saving for short-term goals, which I think is probably the most confusing, overwhelming part. I actually, it sounds weird because you would assume that it would be investing and the long-term investing that gets people.

3:35But I actually really think that it's short-term goals. So today's episode, we are going to be really focusing on how you can save towards a specific goal. And I feel like the perfect person to speak to this is someone who has saved, budgeted, been aware of what you're spending from such a young age. You've gone through all different types of savings goals. You know, when you're 10, you're saving for something that's very different to what you're saving for 20 and 25. And so today we're really going to be drilling down on how you actually, A, figure out what you want, B, how to get there, where the money goes, how you should think about it.

4:13We're going to go into quite granular detail. But before we get into it, I just wanted to mention for anyone that did listen to the last episode that we did with Hannah when we spoke about side hustles, this was such a loved episode by the Curve team and by so many people who listened. if you did the extra credit, which we set last month, was just to see, you know, could you bring more money in? Can you comment wherever you're listening or send us a personal note to say what you tried, if it worked, if it didn't? Because I do think expanding your mind to think about how can I bring more in rather than just how can I save and be really clever with what I've got is such a powerful mindset.

4:51Whether it's you got a pay rise, whether it's you found something to earn a bit of extra money, you know, one day a week. Would love to hear if anyone's actually gone in action to that. But yeah, before we get into it, are you in the red or the green this month?

5:03Hannah Hart: Never, not in a million years, absolutely not. In the red. Green with envy. Or green. I'm imagining probably we're in the green. I mean the red, given what's happening in your life. I'm very much in the red, eh? Like, I think every single episode I've been on, I've been in the red because renovating, bit of wedding stuff as well and then yeah we knew now because we've officially merged together and so that's really fascinating we've now got a joint bank account so it's really interesting but we are unfortunately a little bit in the red but we are looking looking up from here though so you've never had a combined financial like you know not an account or anything until you were married yeah it's crazy it's so because you're so you're so you're i think you're probably the most financially literate person of your age I've ever spoken to.

5:53Was that a conscious decision in terms of let's just not combine this and let's have shared goals and work towards things together but let's not combine officially until we're married? Was that a really conscious decision? Well we actually had combined just before because we had switched to BNZ. So BNZ were our new banks when we then bought a house together and we bought a house before we were actually married and so it was just so much easier i was like look we're getting married in literally two or three months i know that we're going to get married and merge our accounts we may as well merge our accounts now so technically we had merged earlier a few months earlier so now we're only kind of now getting to the stage of going okay cool we're merged how does it look like how does budgeting look like you know tomorrow we're actually going to sit down and work out how does our budget look together which is going to be really interesting and so i'm excited you've done this before not with him no no this is like it's exciting stuff it's so funny the only person to ever be that excited about their shared budget do you think you guys have similar approaches to savings goals i mean in the last however long you guys have been together has that been something that you've seen in action because it is you know a lot of people say your partner is the biggest financial decision you'll make how and maybe because this episode is specifically about saving towards goals when it came to the wedding or other things.

7:14Yeah. How did you make sure you're on the same page with how you approach stuff like that? No, so he is very good at saving as well. So we, we both are very aligned with our money kind of goals. I have obviously so many more bank accounts. And I remember when I first joined up to BNZ and I had to create all the accounts, it was literally like the best day of my life, creating all the different accounts, adding all the different photos. It was literally, it was so good. And it's funny because I had photos of all of me and my husband and then whenever I screenshot and post it online to TikTok I had to edit all the images and take off all the photos of me and my husband and then re-put them back on again so I just love it so much like it looks so beautiful but you know we're fortunate that we're both very very similar very aligned um with our goals and so now looking forward tomorrow is literally the day we're going to sit down and go what holidays do we want to do we want to do Japan in 2028 okay how do we save for that so literally tomorrow is the day so I'm really excited to talk about this through the podcast because I'm also journeying with the audience as well.

8:14This is so exciting. I'm really looking forward to this. And actually, because I'm in a similar position where like, I don't know, I think as someone that has, you know, learned about money and spoken about it for a really long time on the podcast, it's so interesting to watch myself in a relationship dynamic. It's still super early for us, but like financially in terms of the idea of being on the same page it's really funny how I I know things theoretically but putting it into practice with someone else is a whole nother thing and I think this will be super helpful for anyone whether you're single whether you're in a relationship and you have been for a long time and maybe you're like we could probably approach joint goals better you know there's so many different ways that you can interpret this hopefully it'll be really helpful for a lot of people but I would just like to um before we get into the goal part but quickly touch on the emergency fund piece because I think that that really is the first big goal that most people, I mean, obviously we're not telling people what to do, but really a financial buffer, some kind of FU fund, your emergency fund is so, so, so important.

9:21If you don't have that already, that should be what you focus on in terms of taking what we talk about today and implementing it into that first big goal. Maybe a fresh perspective from someone else who's built one is quite helpful to hear. But for me, it was like quite life changing. Yeah, no, 100%. I think when people first think of an emergency fund, they get really daunted really quickly because they're like, oh my gosh, I need to have six months of my salary. I just don't have that. I'm going to give up. I'm not even going to bother to start. And so I think that's the danger is people think it needs to be this massive amount, which yes, theoretically, that would be amazing.

9:57But you have to start from somewhere. And I think that big figure scares a lot of people. And I did talk to my audience and I did ask them also, like, what do they think of emergency funds? How much do they have in there? And it was really fascinating hearing from a vast group of people of what they actually think you should have in your emergency fund. But I think the biggest misconception is needing to have a massive number in there. But honestly, you just need to start small. So what we talk about at The Curve, and I don't know if this is different to what you teach, but we say generally three to six months is optimum.

10:37You know, it's completely different for everyone. You know, if you have 10 children and your base costs are enormous, the emergency fund you probably need is going to be bigger than someone that has no kids, is not married, you know, doesn't have a mortgage, et cetera, et cetera. So it's completely personal. But yeah, I think your point of saying a lot of people think they need their whole salary for three months or six months. It's not that. It's just the things that you have to pay for before, you know, so for example, if you had no money coming in, what are the things you absolutely need to pay for to be happy, healthy, able to stay in your house, et cetera?

11:10No, 100%. I do agree with you as well. Three to six months is really important. But I think what I was meaning before is that people seem to think they need this big amount and they don't know how to get there. It's this abyss of going like, how am I going to get there? So I think what's really important is potentially we really quickly run through how to work out that figure. It's a short-term savings going away, but it is probably your most important one. Like, yes, going on a holiday to Italy or getting a beautiful engagement ring, all those things are really important, but the psychological safety of knowing that you can get yourself out of any situation is priceless.

11:48And it's just, I don't know. it's it's revolutionary having this money there that you're like oh i know i'm gonna be okay yeah and it's okay it's like yeah if you go through something that you're like oh i did not budget for that but that's okay i've got an emergency fund so i think what people do is they they think of this massive number they get daunted they don't start so instead of doing that let's kind of reverse it and let's start by a start with a small number and let's start going backwards What we do need to do is really work out the three to six months. And it is really up to you personally if you want to choose three months, four months, five months, six months.

12:23But that range, three to six, is a really good kind of buffer to start with. But what you need to do is you need to work backwards. So you first of all need to work out and think about your rent, all your mortgage, your groceries, your utilities, insurance, transport, debt repayments, any other bills that you can think of, that if you were to lose your income, you can still cover that for three to six months. Would you also agree? Yeah, yeah. That's exactly what we do. It's basically, yeah, what are the necessities? And for some people, it's actually exercising and paying for the gym. Some people, they absolutely need therapy.

12:57But yeah, it's essentially what are the things that you really feel like you need, not that you want? And what I would say is, you know, Hannah saying you could do sort of three, four, five, six, whatever works for you. For me, coming from a place of quite a lot of scarcity, it's really easy for me to edge into thinking I need four or five, six months. Sometimes zooming out from your situation and actually saying, what is risky right now for me? You know, if your job feels precarious, maybe you do want to have a bigger emergency fund. Maybe you want to leave your job having a larger emergency fund.

13:29If your relationship's a bit shaky and you're like, actually, do you know what? I think I want more. There's so many different reasons why you might want to edge towards six. But I do think you won't get stuck on needing more and more and more in cash because you're not going to be able to grow your wealth fast or even get onto other short-term savings, which we'll get to in a second, if you're constantly focused on just having as much money as possible in cash for an emergency. But yeah, I think like if we were to go back to making sure that you've got all those amounts that we talked about, and like you said, it could be fitness and those things that you're like, I do need this.

14:04You know, what you need to do, and we talked about this on one of the podcasts as well, was adding everything together. And so say if that for a month is$3 ,000 and you are going, yeah, okay, I'm going to do three months. So 3 ,000 times three months, that's$9 ,000 that you should ideally have. So I think it's really important when you're thinking of an emergency fund, trying and get that number and then try to work backwards on how can I start to get that number? How can I start to reach that? So for me, I actually only put aside like$100 a month, which wasn't amazing, to my emergency fund. And so I think it doesn't need to be this crazily daunting amount.

14:40It just needs to be something that can be manageable as well. Essentially, what I've just run you guys through is basically what I'm going to do tomorrow and sit down and go, cool, this is the figure I need. And then I'm going to divide that and go, actually, how much is a reasonable amount to put aside every month? It can literally be. I know a few of my community members said to me, I don't have any spare money to put aside. And I think you don't need to put aside$1 ,000 a month. You don't need to put aside even$100 a month. Just start something and it will accumulate. Do you think that you will have your own separate emergency fund as well as your joint one with your husband?

15:17I don't think we will, no. I think the only two separate accounts we have is our like fun accounts that we've decided on. And so it's like you get a little bit of money that you can do whatever you want with. It's a little bit of fun. We still got access to each other's. But yeah, those are the only two accounts that we will have separate. You can take this with a grain of salt. Absolutely say not interested. I am very aware. I'm not going to do it. But something that has come up a lot with so many different people that I've interviewed on this podcast is the idea of having your joint emergency fund for sure, but also having your own one should shit absolutely hit the fan.

15:52Yeah. Obviously, you just got married. Obviously, you're really happy. Obviously, things are great. I don't know if you've read that book, Strangers by Belle Burton. No. You should definitely read it. It kind of shook me a little bit. But basically, she was married and it really one day just turned to absolute shit. And I know that we don't want to be going into relationships or marriage with that mindset. I think that that's not the plan, but it's more just things happen. And I think if you don't have money that you can access by yourself, should you need to get somewhere, whatever. It's just interesting.

16:29I remember speaking to Frances Cook, who I know you've been on her podcast too. And they've been together since they were like so, so young. And they have their own separate emergency funds. And I was like, that's so interesting to me because often I see all the people we've interviewed have emergency funds that are separate when they've been together later in life. They still have their own – a lot of them have joint finances in lots of other ways, but I just thought it was interesting to share. If at some stage, maybe in the next few years, you're like, do you know what? Actually, maybe I will build my own one up just so that I have that.

16:57It's just interesting because you're like – you don't go into marriage or relationships thinking that's going to happen. But often when something does go awry, all of your accounts are frozen. So do people have that in their – like a different bank account with their own name? Yeah. Oh, wow. Oh, yeah. People are like very happy relationships, not ones that they're like, oh, trying to, you know, siphon money off in a secret way. Like they're really open about the fact that they both have their own money should they need it. And I just thought that's really, really interesting and it makes a lot of sense.

17:30So I don't know, maybe something you want to think about at a later date. Yeah. Okay. So now we've moved on from the emergency fund. Let's chat about short-term goals so I think that the timeline piece is probably what trips a lot of people up how long do you need to get there how much do you need and therefore how do you work backwards in terms of figuring out what you should be putting in ideally having that target and breaking it down for me reduces overwhelm I think to your point on emergency funds sometimes if you think about okay we'd love to go on a holiday or I'd love to go on a holiday I think I need 10 ,000 to go and have a I don't know six week travel or whatever it looks like for you that is a huge number when you look at it in one sort of lump but when you break it down it's a lot less scary but I think yeah what I'd love to talk about is like real examples perhaps it's things that you and your partner partner husband we're gonna husband so I'd love to give some tangible examples perhaps let's just talk about and maybe you could give your own definition of how you think about short short-term savings outside of your emergency fund, outside of things like your KiwiSaver, your long-term investments, outside of your budget?

18:43What is this for you? What is a short-term savings goal? In terms of savings, I feel like travel is something everyone can relate to. Everyone wants to go on holidays. Everyone wants to be able to travel. And so what I would do is that I would actually work out a budget, like quite an accurate budget, and go, great, it's going to cost me$10 ,000 to go and travel. I think my last Europe trip was just something astronomical, but working out how much it's going to cost, say$10 ,000, and actually divining it, going, okay, I've got 15 months, divining that by 15 months and working out, okay, how much should I be putting aside in order to make this trip worth it and to actually end up going ahead with it.

19:19So it's really important to plan ahead, hence why me and my husband are talking about Japan in 2028, because we're like, great, we have a good amount of time to save for this and making it a much easier goal to save for rather than oh my gosh I have to put aside two thousand dollars a month you know it's going okay I can only I only need to put aside you know a few hundred funny bring up the date like 2028 when you said that earlier I thought oh my god that's ages away but it's a really good example of it then makes the goal not that overwhelming because you're spreading out the amount that you need but what about for people who are listening who haven't planned very far in advance now all of a sudden they're realizing shit I do want to go on holiday before two and a half years time do you recommend or do you talk about focusing on what it is that you want and the amount and then working backwards or do you think the timeline is more important because you know let's say for example someone does want to go on a trip and they ideally want to go within a two-year period because it's just so far to wait for a holiday let's just say this is their mindset because it would be mine let's say then the ideal holiday would be spending 10 but then when they work backwards in terms of that date they realize they have to put way too much in to get there to that goal say it's 500 would you adjust to the total in terms of what it is that you're going for or would you extend your timeline i feel like it's a little bit of both but i would say if you can't hit it it's reality you can't hit it like you can't go into a store and want to buy a Ferrari today.

20:50It's like, you don't have enough money. So it's going, okay, I'm just going to adjust my expectations and maybe a Mazda is in my budget. Or going, actually, no, I do want a Ferrari, but let's just wait a few million years. So I think it is very much a mix of going, what is the most important to you? If you say to me, I want to do a world cruise, I can't really adjust that because it's set. So, okay, I will need to extend that. But if you're like, no, I'm just going to go on a cruise, let's just do a three night. Let's do something a little bit more in a budget cruise line rather than the one that I want to go on.

21:20So I think it really comes down to what do you truly want for yourself? And then I guess how much are you wanting it? And can you wait? Okay. So let's just say then, because I think this is a really important point, is that you actually, unless you have a lot of money, you have to adjust your expectations or your timeline or your, you know, there's going to be a bit of ebb and flow with what you want, when you can do it, and if it's the total amount that you're talking about. So let's use this travel example of 10 ,000. If someone has, say, 300 a month that they can put towards, whether it be future investing money, so in the stock market, things that they, you know, for future, future you, which hopefully everyone listening is thinking in that way, because really you don't want to be using 100 % of your surplus money after your budget on just short-term stuff.

22:12Otherwise, you're constantly only working towards these short-term goals and you'll have to work forever because the point of long-term investments is that if you invest, it then means there's a point in time you don't need to be working to have money coming in. How would you then look at that surplus, say it's 300, say you have a goal of 10 ,000 that you need to get to to be able to do your European holiday. How do you think about how much goes towards those short-term goals or that short-term goal versus then also your future investments? oh I always err on the side of putting more aside to my long term but you know like for example I pulled up just before this um before this podcast just to hear it was just to read over what are my percentage splits of my old income this is this is important it's old because it is something before I got married and it's quite interesting seeing that if out of my savings I actually have 15 % going towards long term whereas my holiday is only 4.2 percent my short term is 4.5 percent so you can see a big hefty chunk is towards long term but I am in a very different position to other people so did you say 15 percent of your overarching salary or money coming in is going towards your long term yes okay that's so interesting and then you said four percent is going towards short-term goals-ish.

23:36Yeah. So total of 19 % is going towards my short-term, long-term saving. Then I've also got holiday on top of that, emergency on top of that, insurance on top of that, and then another short-term goal, which is a piano that I want on top of that. Oh, so your holiday is actually separate to that as well. It is separate to that. So I think all up, if I was to calculate how much I am saving, you're looking around about 35%. Oh, that's amazing. about yeah about up to 30 percent and so just to clarify when you're talking about savings you mean the money that's not going towards the spending money whether it's the things that you need or want it's your short-term goals your long-term goals it's anything that's going towards something yeah like holidays or or investing or say a wedding or all those things it's around 30 percent that's so amazing so yeah so essentially what we're saying is the money you have left over your surplus the rule of thumb is 20 but the reality is you if you can do more for sure go for it like Hannah's doing 30 of that you only have a certain amount so if you are constantly putting that 300 every single month i.e your 20 surplus or whatever it is for you towards your short-term goals you're never investing that's what the biggest thing to remember here is that you could probably spend all of your surplus for the entirety of your life on short-term goals but it's really not ideal to be doing that and so you kind of have to like have a conversation with yourself and be like how much am I willing to put towards short term and maybe it ebbs and flows if you have a holiday that you want to go on in six months maybe you do prioritize 100 % of it towards that for six months you can get there and then you go you know it's different for everyone um i think this is one of the hardest parts of it if i'm being honest because i feel like if i look at what i could do with my surplus if i was splitting it between long-term and short term it's like five years before i can do any of the short-term goals which sucks i know no it is it is really specific to each individual person and i think if you have a general rule of you know say start with 50 30 20 for your budgeting role and then you work out okay from there how much is important for me to set aside but I really it literally comes down to work backwards on every single goal if you want to buy a house work backwards does that mean you can afford a holiday no you can't do both so then if you go oh no I need to get to five hundred thousand dollars by x amount of time which means I have to do you've only got so much income hence why go back to the previous episode and listen to our side hustles because you if you're capped you literally can't do both you can't save for that mortgage at the same time to hit it at one you know in five years time as well as a really big holiday sometimes things do need to shift and move or you increase your income as well so it's it's really working backwards on every single goal working it out and going exactly how much do I need to set aside and then actually do I have enough money coming in cool I do then great I can do both but you you really need to just work backwards that's like the only thing you can do because it is really goal specific we can't give like a this is the amount that you need to set aside every single month for a holiday you need to work out what do you want what specific holiday and goal do you want and work backwards okay so let's then just pause and say right if a short-term goal is anything less than five years because that's what we say when it comes to long-term investing anything that you don't need for five years ideally should go in long-term investments like the stock market or property or other things so if you were then looking at the next five years of your life maybe a really early exercise would be to write down what are all of those things that you would like within a five-year timeline so is it an engagement ring is it a wedding is it a holiday is what are they is it a new wardrobe like whatever it doesn't matter but actually think of it in a five-year timeline not just the next year because I think that that then when you look at what those totals are and then let's say you've got four short-term goals within the next five years write down what you need for each of those you add those up you're going to have to then work backwards and the reality is and what you're saying is a lot of the time you can't do all the things you want to do in the timeline then you actually just have to prioritize yeah so then it's probably about ordering it what are the most important goals, one to five.

27:58And if you're looking at that and thinking, if I have to do all these things, it means I sacrifice long-term investing to hit all these goals. You probably should pull out some of those short-term goals because otherwise you're going to constantly be in this loop of saving for things within a five-year period, not investing in the stock market, not growing your money as fast as you could. Okay. Let's talk about your goals. Have you saved for a big goal and not priced it properly? What did you learn from that? the renovation that was something I just literally it's tripled it's tripled it's gone from like literally 100k up to about 300 and more I can't even begin to talk about it it's a lot more so I think that is quite possibly it's the icing on top you know it's okay that there wins for how the most overblown budget I could have ever yeah think of what did you learn from that in terms of what you did do to plan for that and what you probably could have done better?

28:56I didn't plan enough. Like, I didn't do research enough. I completely underestimated everything that needed to have happened. I needed to have literally gone in and looked at every single cost and actually looked at heaps of different companies as well and hunted around. Don't just go with the first company that comes up on Google. Like, actually do your research. Yeah, we've been stung. A lot's happened on the Reno that I haven't actually talked about online, but it has been are very pricey. But it's been a really good lesson to learn. And so I think I do want to share some of the stuff on my accounts to hopefully try and encourage people to be aware before they go into something like this.

29:35So when it comes to a short-term goal, could be anything, whether it's property, what are some other better examples of short-term goals? So I asked some of my audience what they were also saving for. Okay, great. So quite a lot of them said a house, which isn't really a short-term goal, but quite a few weddings which is interesting really cool saving for kids that could also be a short-term goal like really um ivf upgrading for their car a euro summer a lot of new cars um so those are some yeah i know so those are some like short-term goals which are also quite relevant for i think a few people as well so if you were to look at those goals and you were to figure out how much you think you need for them what would you add in terms of a percentage increase from what you think you need based on past experiences of accidentally blowing out because I think that's something that's worth talking about as a buffer it's quite like item specific I feel but I feel like you do need a relatively good leeway if you were to look at say something like IVF and they say you were told you need 15 ,000 or 20 ,000 you then have to think about what if it doesn't work first time around or set you know so there and it's car i guess it's kind of different right like you there's probably a set car you're trying to get to so there's not so much of a buffer needed but kids there's probably a buffer needed renovation there's a buffer needed so basically is what you're saying it probably depends on the type of goal with how much buffer you need yes but i think just having in mind to have a buffer and what it is is like in terms of the actual percentage or the split, it really does come down to item specific.

31:15But I think, you know, chuck on a bit of a buffer, maybe 20, 50%. Renovation times it by three. Okay, let's talk about saving for goals that perhaps people are feeling a little bit unenthused by or they lose motivation to keep going. Or I don't know, I think that if something is quite far away. I actually completely understand how people get bored, lose interest, need a bit of a dopamine hit. How do you stay focused on what that goal is? And do you have any tips or tricks for people who are maybe needing that constant kind of like, good job, you're doing well, to keep going? Most banking apps do have a goal tracker, which is so helpful, especially if you're a visual person like myself.

32:03And it's got like this bar at the top and it's safe, you're saving for Japan, which is 10K, it will basically say, look, you know, well done, you're halfway there, you're 80 % there. And it will really help you visually see how close you to achieving this goal. And so that's a really easy way to just to jump into an app and to also see, oh, cool, like I'm actually quite close. But there's so many other ways that you can do as well. And I think a few things that I do personally, because again, I'm a very visual person, is I love to make sure that my account doesn't just say savings. It's actually got the name of what I'm saving for.

32:35So it's got got Japan. It's got a photo of Japan on it as well. Sometimes I'll change my screensaver on my phone or my laptop. And every time I go to buy something and instead of saying, oh, no, I'm not going to buy that because I have to save money. It's going, no, no, I'm not going to buy that because I'm saving for Japan. So it's just reminding yourself why are you saving for that and try and get yourself excited for the fact that you are actually saving for an item or a thing or experience that you are truly looking forward to. Yeah. And I also think it could be kind of a good tactic if it's a big big goal for example a holiday that's not for ages you could also say get to three thousand and then start booking some accommodation or get to a certain point and then start spending a bit of it towards the goal because I think the worst thing you could do when it comes to either short or long-term savings or investing is feel like you're depriving yourself and then getting stressed out and then going and splurging because it's the restrictive piece can make people almost rebel and like you know I just I know myself and I'm quite similar in that way and then I go and completely unconsciously spend on stuff that I really didn't need and kind of like slide myself back down the hill yeah um so yeah I think that visual representation is good and also maybe just checking in emotionally are you feeling like this actually sucks and I'm not enjoying my life maybe you need to move the timeline and I totally use more of that money to do things that in the moment bring you joy because actually you're spending too much of that money putting it away and you're losing the motivation.

34:10There is a lot of emotional connections to how you spend your money, I think. Being able to check in with yourself is quite important. Heart of a cent because we don't want to be sitting here telling you to do something that's going to make you sad and depressed. We're not wanting that. So it's like, okay, budgeting, and I say this is budgeting shouldn't be about being stingy and constrained. It should be about having this freedom and flexibility of your money and being able to have visibility of your money as well. So I think we're wanting you to also try and sit there and work out, okay, what actually is important to me?

34:44Is that thing bringing me joy? Is that saving for that? Is that bringing me joy? Actually, maybe I need to revisit the split and actually give myself a little bit more shopping money because that's what gives me joy. you know it's like we're not trying to make you live the sad life I will say short-term goals that for me I think make me feel you know if I've got several short-term goals and kind of what you talk about was splitting your payoff so for example for me if it's a short-term goal of something to do with beauty like I really want to buy a new shampoo and conditioner or whatever if I have that money going to my beauty account and then I have enough to and spend it on your shampoo and conditioner I get that that hit of spending so I think there's also like you you You can kind of differentiate between short, short term goals, like stuff that is not such a big deal.

35:27It might be a new top or it might be whatever. And then you're more long term, short term, like a saving for a holiday. Long, long term, like you're investing. So I think it's just making sure that there's enough of those shorter term things that are bringing you joy so that you're not satisfying everything. Yeah, exactly. Totally. Because it is true. Everyone needs them. Let's do it. Let's call a new account short, short term. Many goals? Yeah. many goals we'll work on the creativity around that one cash and burn

36:02i would love to move to our cash and burn section which is basically you've asked your community a bunch of questions let's walk through what questions you asked what what came in because i yeah i don't know i love hearing what other people are doing saving for i think it's just breaking the fourth wall a little bit when when you're kind of for example you and your husband you're going to go and do your planning and your goals and stuff it's so nice to hear what other people are doing because it just gives you perspective um so yeah what were some of the questions you asked what okay so i asked them did you have do you have an emergency fund the split was 65 yes 35 no pretty good honestly that was pretty good like i was like okay like well done um and then i said if yes how much if no why this was fascinating absolutely fascinating because i know that we we kind of wanted to talk about like how much potentially should you have in your 20s and a lot of these people um a lot of them are in their 20s and i'm really impressed by what a lot of their answers we had the kind of the average was around 10k which is really epic and i'm i'm I'm like, well done.

37:09You guys are actually amazing. We had a few hundred Ks and I was like, you guys are living my dream. Literally. No, they need to invest that though. They must be not investing. It's crazy. Literally a few hundred Ks and one of them was over a hundred K. I'm like, man, you're like, that's insane. But then we also had, yeah, six and a half thousand. Goal is 10. But also quite a few people that are just sitting at like around a thousand. Thousands their aim. So I think the important thing with knowing about emergency funds, There's no set, you have to hit this amount. It really does come down to what have you kind of worked out that you need in your life.

37:45But I think really common is around that 10K. Someone has$40 ,000 here. A lot of people are saying three months, three to six months, three months salary, £10 ,000, four months of my net income. So$35 ,000. Really interesting hearing all of this. And I was really surprised and I was really impressed. rest. I also asked people, what was the most random, craziest thing you've had to dip into your savings or emergency fund for? Okay, so my house flooding. We had insurance, but we had to evacuate and buy an emergency place. Emergency house? Yeah, well, they had to buy like an emergency place to go and stay.

38:23Oh, that's an emergency. That's an emergency. 100%. Wood flying off a big truck, hitting my tires and ruining the metal frame while on a road trip. Definitely an emergency. 100 % emergency. Unexpected health problems? Emergency. That's emergency. But I would say definitely get insurance to not have to use your emergency fund on that. 100%. Last minute trip to India? Uh-oh. No. Unless you have some kind of emergency, like, spiritual experience that you must do or you and what be, like, no, I think that's never an emergency. That's not an emergency. 100%. Excess for insurance? I'd say that's an emergency.

39:00Yeah, because it means you've had to use your insurance. Yeah, yeah. wisdom teeth removal see this is a hard one because i recently pulled money out of my emergency fund for a new night guard because i grind like a crazy person in my face so i spent like 600 it was a lot it was i think it was 300 pounds 350 pounds and i pulled it out of my emergency fund and i must say i did think at the time i think this needs to not be an emergency fund i think i need to have like a dental fund or better insurance because i just like you can technically planned for that. I feel like I have used anything dental has come from my emergency though.

39:36Oh, interesting. Okay. Because I got my wisdom teeth taken out. It did come from that. Another one, car breaking down, car battery. I feel like those are like, to be honest, I do have a car account though, which I do think is important for like WAF or Red Joe. However, a car breaking down, I feel like that's... Nah, emergency. That's emergency. Someone did say a new car. I would say, I'm sorry, that's not good enough for an emergency. Unless... So naughty. What? No one thinks that that is an emergency, unless that car's broken down and they're actually not able to get anywhere. 100%. 100%. But actually, you need a safer car.

40:11A new computer. Also depends if it's an emergency from a work situation. 100%. To buy a dog. I would say I love dogs. I love dogs too, but not an emergency. Sorry. No, no. To do a personal training course. Unfortunately not. Eggs freezing. Oh, that's a hard one. that's that's a really hard i don't think i haven't asked for that oh man it's hard man there's yeah there's quite a few funerals actually which is a hundred percent an emergency concerts unfortunately i know how much you want to go see jb but no it's not an emergency somewhat they know they know that's not a cheeky but no it was really interesting oh this one dyson air wrap girl girl you can air dry serious did they actually say they use them legit yeah no that's so bad groceries are speeding fine oh speeding fine i feel like that should be a bit of a punishment it should come out of your shopping account or something but you're a you're no that's me i feel that is a little bit me because i i have had a speed maybe it's not the worst idea though yeah especially if you're a chronic speeder look i think this has been a really helpful useful full episode I've really tried to make it practical because I do think right we talk about how to do it and the theory of it but maybe for some people they're still like I still totally am confused if you're listening to this and for some reason you actually are just like I really need practical advice or I want to do a workshop can you either like comment where you're listening message Hannah or the curve I think that if people are still question mark around this I'd honestly love to do a half an hour workshop with someone live with a bunch of people to be like hey what are your goals let's work through this together and methodically go through and help people do it because it it shouldn't be that hard there is also the iou course so if you're listening to this and it's it's actually so affordable um we'll put the link to that in the podcast show notes but we go through this in detail around how to actually do everything from your budgeting right through to short-term long-term savings so that that yeah we did that with lucy blackiston from shit you should care about and it's a really practical step by step but the whole point of the series IOU in general is to actually give you the tools to implement this and do it not just listen and think you've learned something but then not go and actually do it I figured out how you're going to earn that extra credit I think maybe extra credit for anyone listening is to actually just give it a go give it a go figure out what a savings goal is that you want to do in the next five years figure out the total amount and then work backwards that sort of homework and isolation is actually not that helpful you do really need to do your budgeting to know how much money you've got as your surplus or what your 20 percent is so you probably do need to do the iou course in all honesty if that's kind of if you don't know what that number is but yeah thank you so much hannah i always find these episodes so helpful and i just love your approach to all things money it's yeah it's really inspiring and i'm really looking forward to hearing how it goes with your husband Like, I don't know if we'll have time for it, but like, it would be kind of fun to do another one and to find out like how that went.

43:14Because I think the difference in doing goals with a partner is so, so, so different to doing it on your own. No, 100%. No, yeah, I love today as well. And I think practical advice is just get started. Like, honestly, that could be a takeaway that people, they come away from this episode and just go and sit down and go, you know what, I'm just going to create that account. every time you get paid just chuck in a little bit of money into that emergency account and just get started because honestly you're going to thank yourself so much when something comes up but I think also listen back to those previous episodes that we have talked about and do the course because honestly financial literacy is worth so much in your life and you're going to look back in a few years time and go man I wish that I just learned and invested in myself I think investing in yourself is the most important thing and potentially is another account that you could create is investing in myself because I think that's really really truly important financial literacy is something that is worth so much more than we could ever think about.

44:09So no, thank you so much for having me on the podcast. I hope everyone learned something. But no, I'm so honored to be here. That is it for this month's episode of the IOU Some Money Education. If you liked this episode and you would like to rate, review, perhaps share it with a friend, we would absolutely love that. Often beginner conversations about money are things that a lot of us avoid. If you've got a friend or family member that would benefit from listening to this podcast, please send it along go share it guys and if you would like to take IOU some money education the practical this is our seven part installation that we did with Lucy Blackiston from Sheets You Care About find out everything you need to know about all things money budgeting, saving, investing then you can find the details and the link for that in the podcast show notes thanks so much for joining us Hannah we love you thanks guys thanks thank you so much the Bank of New Zealand for sponsoring this episode of IOU some money education there is an art to starting something new.

45:04And just like any art form, you need the right tools to make it work. Whether you're flatting or you're saving to travel, maybe you want to make a career move, the Bank of New Zealand has the tools to help you master your money from the get-go. And don't forget to check out IOU The Practical Lessons to put everything that you've been learning into practice. You can find the details in the podcast show notes. Okay, quickly, the Curve was created to empower and educate you about investing, but we are not financial advisors. Our platform exists for educational purposes only, and it doesn't provide personalized investing advice for your individual needs and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.

45:37And always remember to do your own research before making any investment or financial decision. We're here for any knowledge and support you need, but the final call is always yours. And thanks for being here. You got this. Yeah, we know you got this.