Ever wondered how everyday women invest in shares? Listen to the episode above or read the transcript below to learn how investor, social influencer and single mum Sandra K stewart does exactly that.
TRANSCRIPT
Meaghan Smith
When it comes to being financially secure, and creating wealth, one of the common challenges is that we simply don't know how to do it. Some of us haven't grown up with parents who taught us about investing, or taught us how to use our money to create more money. Sometimes all it takes to get started is simply a little bit of exposure to women investors to realise that investing is available to all of us.
When we can see other women doing it. It opens the door to possibility.
We see that women investors are not special unicorns. They are regular women just like you and me. Today on the show, I am delighted to have the lovely Sandra K. Stewart on to talk all things money. She is an investor and she's going to share with us what she does to create wealth and how she invests her money. If you don't move in social circles with women who like to talk about money, here is your chance to you don't have to be a financial advisor or work in finance to understand money and know what to do with it. I encourage you to listen and learn from the conversation today. What is possible and what Sandra is doing, but remember that there's no one way to invest. Once you start to learn what is possible. You get to decide for yourself, what is possible for you and also what's best for you. And remember, because I know I've said this on a few other episodes and in Book Club, just take one thing, just take one thing from what Sandra says today and, and learn it, apply it, you know, give it a go or consider. Maybe I could do that. It's a great way to learn new skills. So Sandra and I met online. She's best known for her pretty pictures on Instagram. But she's also an investor and passionate about helping women become interested in investing. And she does that through her platform on Instagram. She's also an incredible Illustrator. She's got some amazing pictures. I really like her ones of the bees actually, she's a social influencer, a single mum with an amazing ability to make the everyday look super glamorous. Ladies, you should really check out her Instagram account. It is as gorgeous as she is in real life. So Sandra welcome to the show.
Sandra K Stewart 03:01
Thank you so much. That was such a lovely introduction. I'm so excited to be here and talk to you today.
Meaghan Smith 03:09
Oh, me too. When I asked you to come on the show, I was so pleased when you're like, Yes, I'll come on. I'll talk about what I do with investing because I think it's so good for other women to hear what other regular women do. And I mean, when I say regular, come on, all right, you're not regular. You're amazing. But you know, aren't we all but it's, you're not a financial advisor or a person in finance. And I think that that's what other women need to hear that, you know, we can all do this.
Sandra K Stewart 03:44
Absolutely. I mean, I definitely would consider myself to be you know, like a case study of the modern mum trying to do all of the things and trying to you know, follow creativity and passion while also raising a family and looking after the family and leading with finances, and, you know, building an online community and inspiring other women, I think, you know, we're in an amazing time and we're very much, you know, I kind of I kind of am regular and it's, it's, you know, it's amazing, we have these things and we can connect and leave out all of our possibilities.
Meaghan Smith 04:28
Well, Sandra, for those people who know nothing about you, or haven't seen your incredible Instagram account, do you want to just start by sharing a little bit about who you are what you do, just so our audience can get an idea of who Sandra is?
Sandra K Stewart 04:45
Yes, sure well. First of all, I'm a mum to a teenage daughter, and I would consider myself a very multi passionate person. So I have lots of interests, very diverse interests. Which has, you know, it's actually led me to connect with some amazing people. And I guess because I'm interested in lots of ideas, I was able to expose myself to different opportunities as well which, which has been incredible and basically, you know, manifested into the life that I have. So with my interests, as you said, I'm very interested in finance and investing. I am also a very creative person, so I love to paint and cook. And I'm very interested in fashion. So I guess my Instagram page where which is the platform where most people know me from is basically a mood board of all the things that I love and I'm passionate about.
Meaghan Smith 05:49
I love it. And Sandra you're what we call a social influencer, right?
Sandra K Stewart 05:58
I guess I guess sorry. I mean, I always kind of like feel a bit funny about the word influencer. But I guess you know, yes, it actually is one of my side hustles. And it's been a really successful side hustle. And it's, I'm really lucky to have it. And I do do paid sponsorships with large companies and collaborations which has been amazing. And you know, that is that's definitely one part of my platform and one one of my income streams.
Meaghan Smith 06:31
I want to ask you more about that, but perhaps we might start with how did you get into investing? Iike was there a person of influence like are parent, great with money? Did you learn from them or how'd you get started?
Sandra K Stewart 06:46
Well, I guess I was very young when I mean going back to the very, very start. I was about 14 when I got my first job. So I was working in high school and I go to school and work and work to actually quite late. In the evening, and I can't always had my own money so I could make my own decisions. From that I think because my timeline started a bit earlier. By the time I was 18, or 19, I was very interested in buying property. I was very interested in this idea of security. And even though my parents were not investors themselves, I was very, very lucky to be brought up with a family that had conservative values. And one of the things I always heard was don't go in debt and pay off your mortgage. And you will have freedom after your mortgage is basically finished. So I guess it was kind of implanted from a young age that this idea that you had to be debt free to have true freedom. I was I was lucky to have that kind of drilled into my head. And yeah, with a combination of kind of having my own opportunities young and maybe, you know, being a teenager and spending money on silly things like fluffy slippers and chocolate and I kind of had I kind of made the mistakes earlier on a smaller scale. So I moved a little bit quicker ahead maybe then some other people.
So yeah, my, my first I remember that one of the first books that I actually read was a book by Robert Kiyosaki. I think that's how you pronounce his name. I'm sorry if it isn't. And one of the it was the Rich Dad Poor Dad series, which was like it was really big back in that era. And another thing that kind of stayed with me was his diagram of the Cash Flow Quadrant, which basically explained that the wealthier, the wealthy spend the money in a different way. So if you invest into investments that make you money, you obviously can spend that income, if you have an income from a job or another source and you spend it, you have no source of, I guess, passive income to kind of keep you going, you're really reliant on yourself. And as only so far you can really go. So this idea basically really, really struck a chord with me. And that, I think the combination of being debt free, and then creating income that you didn't have to work for. That seemed to just be in my mind from a young age. So I kind of worked towards towards that much, much younger than a lot of people would.
Meaghan Smith 09:44
Ah, that is amazing. Yes, because when you learn about making income outside of trading hours for time, it's kind of mind blowing, you know, and you can't unlearn it. I mean, that's how I feel. It's like once you understand that, that you can create passive income and I kind of hesitate when I say passive because none of it's really passive. In fact, I need to do a podcast episode on it. It all takes work like buying shares and, and investing in property and so forth. But yes, we have this ability to create other forms of income that are outside of our regular nine to five job, so to speak. And that's incredibly powerful. So how amazing that you learned that at such a young age and also, I'm just curious what got you working so early? Was that like a family thing?
Sandra K Stewart 10:43
It wasn't necessarily and no, it wasn't in the family business. It just kind of happened to be and I don't actually remember the, you know, the exact reasons for it. It's just that you know, we had time after to school. And there happened to be a local Big W that was very close to the high school. And I got to work in the retail section and you know, stack the shoes and play with makeup and do what we call recovery, which was basically tiny out the messy shelves of people, you know, trying on clothes and touching makeup products and stuff. So because I was interested, I guess in in makeup and creativity, I was attracted to that. And it was another form of I guess it just comes maybe it's interest that I was interested in something and it led me to a job and you know, it just, yeah, it just kind of worked out that way which my sister actually ended up working there as well. And she was even younger than me. I'm not sure that it would even be legal in this day and age. But yeah, and we actually made very, very good money because we were working late at night. We were getting over time sometimes it was Do the stock tape to, you know, one two in the morning and we would make all these, uh, you know, these, this extra income from doing the, you know, the overtime. So it was, it was great.
Meaghan Smith 12:16
I love that so much. So Sandra, tell me what was your first investment and why?
Sandra K Stewart 12:23
So back and we're going probably over 10 years ago now, back in that time I got into property first. And the reason why I got into property at that time was because with about, you know, 40 to $50,000, you could easily put a deposit on a great unit somewhere, you know, coastal or just out of Sydney and you would, you would be able to actually have the rent cover the whole mortgage repayment, which is what I what I did So we had a couple of units when I was younger. And obviously we're in a time now where that we're looking at a very, very different buy in price.
Meaghan Smith 13:15
Yeah, like all all property investors talk like that, like back in the day, the prices were amazing. And in Sydney where you're from, yeah, I don't know, when it kind of wrapped up maybe 12 or 18 months ago, there was just like, such amazing growth. So it's kind of funny to talk about the times when you could afford it.
Sandra K Stewart 13:36
Absolutely. And you know, anyone even buying a primary place of residence now, it's incredibly, incredibly challenging. And so because of this new challenging era in in property, I changed my investment strategy and basically, I moved on equities, which is the stock market. So now I'm I'm primarily primarily focused on investing in shares over property.
Meaghan Smith 14:12
Okay, well, Sandra, are you able to give us a bit of a rundown on what that looks like so there will be people listening, there's lots of women who listen who already are taking care of their finances. But there's also a lot of women who listen to this show who are not at that stage yet when they're investing. So maybe we could talk about it from a beginner's perspective on how you first got into investing in shares and how you go about doing it.
Sandra K Stewart 14:43
So basically, I started investing in shares. And it's really important to say this, that I was actually already financially secure when I entered into buying equities. So for me, I kind of got the idea that I wanting to buy shares. And what I personally did was I researched it for about a year and made sure I had a really, really full understanding of the risks. I developed over that time and investment strategy. And I decided what I felt comfortable with and what I did not feel comfortable with. Another really, really important thing to mention is within that time, I built a quite large emergency fund. So I'm not completely at risk with my share portfolio. I have cash holdings for emergencies, which is for me, it's 12 months of the salary in case something happens to me or my family or one of my properties. And in case basically my investments go really bad which we've seen a very small you know, exposure to that now during COVID that things don't stay up forever, they will inevitably go down and move around. So it's incredibly important to really build your financial house properly and take the steps to do it right instead of rushing in and you know, trying to time the market and jump into a situation like COVID, throw all your money into something like this, trying to make, you know, a quick profit. I'm not for that I've never seen it works successfully for anyone. I've seen a lot of my friends get in a lot of trouble because of minor decisions that have snowballed to be, you know, just ended up out of control. So I guess I'm...
Meaghan Smith 16:51
Sorry, I wanted to interrupt you. Before you went on because I wanted to just ask you said that you've researched for about a year. What did you do? Were you reading? Or did you do a course or because I know there's courses available on the ASX website and things like that? What did what did you do?
Sandra K Stewart 17:09
Yeah. So, um, at that time, I actually started retraining in finance as well. So I had my training from work coming through, and I did my own learning by watching videos, podcasts books, I would also read a lot of personal opinion articles and I would weigh up, you know, not just investment information coming from for example, coming from banks. So coming from big financial institutions, I would also really spend a lot of time listening to advice, people's strategy, recommendations and personal experience because I have this ideal that if you can gather enough information And if you can learn from those who have made the mistakes before you, you can save years and years by not making those mistakes yourselves just just by, you know, listening and taking on board, other people's opinions and really, really thinking quite critically about your position and what you really want to be getting into essentially.
Meaghan Smith 18:29
So after you did that research, what did you then do? Are you happy to share your strategy? Like, are you a long term? I'm assuming you're a long term investor.
Sandra K Stewart 18:38
Yes. Yeah, absolutely. So my ideal is to keep my portfolio for a very long time. Ideally, it would be amazing to pass down what I've built to my daughter and her family and build generational wealth. And I am very low risk. I'm very, I don't like debt, I'm not in debt currently, and I don't take out loans to invest, I don't do anything that's, that has a potential for you know, toppling anything over or. And another thing is I, I'm really into the idea of not only producing wealth and you know, saving and investing growing this money from a capital sense, but I'm interested in the reoccurring passive income that it can create, which will essentially give me freedom to be work optional, spend more time with my family and go on holidays and have, you know, an another source of income other than work, which was one of like I was saying at the very beginning one of these ideas that was just implanted that you you could find another way and I've kind of been a little bit obsessed about that ever since, like, there are better ways and I'm gonna, I'm gonna jump on board with that as well.
Meaghan Smith 20:11
So inspiring. So, Sandra, let's talk. Let's talk a little bit more detail here about let's help the women listening. What, what happened, let's paint a picture for them. So we can demystify a few things. So how do you actually go about buying shares in something? Do you use an online platform? What do you do? Do Do you have a, you have to have a broker, a broker that you ring up and put a call through to buy something? How do you do it
Sandra K Stewart 20:42
So for me personally, it was actually really incredibly simple. I personally use ComSec which is can be easily attached to your online banking, I'm the Commonwealth Bank anyway. So all of my accounts are there. was quite simple to set up an account, you can also have a cash holding account, which you can basically use to save money into. And when you buy shares, the money will be taken out of this cash holding account. So you can really easily see on the dashboard, and you can actually plan and budget for your investments as well. So I believe a lot of the big banks have these platforms. They're very, very easy to set up.
It sounds scary, and it sounds overwhelming. But once you kind of get the hang of it, they're, they're surprisingly actually quite simple to use. And a lot of them now have apps you can check and monitor and invest on your phone. And most of these platforms actually have tutorials as well. So if you get stuck, you're not alone. You know, it's not as scary as It seems because, you know, anytime of the day within working hours, you can actually call one of these hotlines from a bank. And they will help you they will walk you through things. There are online tutorials, I guess. It's the idea of it is quite unknown to a lot of people and I didn't grow up with my parents investing in the stock market, either. It was kind of assumed that the stock market was incredibly risky, and they had heard of people losing, you know, their life savings, losing money, and it seems to be a lot of people just don't have an understanding of how it works. And there is a tonne of bad advice and dangerous advice out there. So that's I think that's why I read a lot of personal opinions and stories about people and was quite interested in investment strategy because there was that negative association with the stock market being risky, but but it doesn't. It doesn't have to be. That's something as well.
Meaghan Smith 23:12
Okay, so let's just take a step back here, because we know that you're very experienced at doing this. But for someone who just listened to the first time, and they're like, what is a cash holding account? So this is like a, like a savings account. So it's not like you you buy a share and you you just Bpay or something. So it's an actual account that you hold. And then when you put an order through, the money comes out of that account. Is that what you're saying?
Sandra K Stewart 23:37
Yeah, so I'm not sure exactly how it would work with other banks and other brokerage platforms. But I know through Commonwealth Bank, which is the one I use, it is quite easy to use, and that's basically exactly how it works. You can buy and sell your shares and look at the dashboard which displays share prices, you can access the historic information and very easy to read charts. So if you're not that great with numbers, you can look at a chart and basically visually see what's going on over the last 10 years. And, you know, they're quite a lot of good blue chip stocks, like your very, very established Australian businesses like Woolworths or banks, you know, they're quite safe and without over explaining for people that don't understand, you can also invest in index funds and other you know, very, very safe ways to basically track the market overall instead of placing your bets on one particular company. So there are definitely definitely ways to make it incredibly safe and you know, when you crunch the numbers a lot more, a lot more profitable than property as well.
Meaghan Smith 25:15
So note to you listening at home go and look up what index funds are, and we just heard that so that's definitely something to investigate. What I want to know Sandra is do you invest in individual company shares? Or do you have a strategy where you buy index funds or ETFs and ETF sorry ETFs or exchange traded funds? Sorry, guys, I forget I should say the full words.
Sandra K Stewart 25:43
Yeah. So I I do both of those things. I do invest in very good Bluetooth companies in Australia. And then I do invest in index funds and ETFs And listed investment companies as well. And part of my strategy being very diversified is also to purchase international shares as well. So I would say that, you know, maybe my strategy isn't the best to just start out with. I've been doing it for some time. So it's kind of grown and progressed and reevaluated what I've done to kind of get to the point where I am. But you know, for somebody just starting out, index funds are an incredibly popular, very well received secure way to start and you don't need to have lots of companies, you can just have one. And that's you are diversified within that. You know, that one purchase that you've made, and yeah, so it doesn't have to be overwhelming. And before you start thinking of, you know, what's an ETF? What's a listed investment company, how do I buy an international share? You can just start at the beginning and buy something simple that you are comfortable with. And as your knowledge grows, you can build that over time as well.
Meaghan Smith 27:15
Yeah, I love that. Personally, I actually just have one index fund, because it's really simple for me at this stage in our life when we've got multiple things going on and with young kids, and it's like, right, we've got this one index fund. We put money in it every month. And that's it. Like, easy days.
Sandra K Stewart 27:35
Yeah. And that's, you know, I heard this incredible interview with Peter Thornhill recently, and he's somebody that you should definitely check out as well if you're new to investing, because I personally believe his advice is absolutely sound reasonable and gold standard. So he said, I would rather spend time playing around with my wife and kids. Here's some playing around with the stock market. And I thought that that was so incredibly powerful as well.
Meaghan Smith 28:06
Yeah, I love that. And I think as humans, we're very good at over complicating things and making things more difficult than they need to be. So let's just keep on the investing track for a minute and get a few things covered that I think some people might be curious about. So with your ComSec account or trading account, do you have to pay a monthly fee or do you have to pay, do you get charged a fee each time you buy shares? How does it work?
Sandra K Stewart 28:35
Yeah, so basically, in Australia, we do get charged a brokerage fee for placing trades. Depending on what bank you are with, it can change I think the lowest brokerage platform charges $9 95, which is Self Wealth a little bit of a tongue twister. But they have I believe no commissions a flat fee Commonwealth Bank, it's a sliding scale. If you invest a little bit more, you get charged a little bit more to I believe it's around 0.03 of larger trades. And your your average is about $19 95. per, you know, trade I think it's over $1,000 um, don't quote me exactly on those brokerage fees, but that's kind of, you know, a very average cost for placing a trade, which is why Australian investors like to invest usually over $1,000 because of that brokerage cost. But you know, it's not something to really get discouraged about it's, we we have other systems that kind of like, make up for that in Australia. Anyway. We have our franking credits and other things that, you know, this is a different tax structure compared to what you might hear from US investors. So that's just another thing to be mindful of when consuming information like if the information is Australian and relevant.
Meaghan Smith 30:19
Yes, I think that's a really good point because a lot of financial books out there are American and you just need to be careful because it is different over there. But I love that because even just from what you've said, there, that's such a simple strategy. Okay, every time I save up $1,000 in my account, I can buy some more shares. Yeah, so just to be clear, a long term investor. What you're saying Sandra, is that you're not, because we're using the word trade, but you're not actually selling shares, right? You're buying shares and holding them for the long term. Is that correct?
Sandra K Stewart 30:39
Yeah, yeah. It's, you know, like you said, it doesn't have to be complex and difficult and, you know, hard you can make it really easy and you can turn it into a fun challenge yourself and you know, a lot of my money side hustles goes into, you know, the share market and buying whatever I want to buy that week. And you can be really creative and make it a really, you know, fun challenge for yourself rather than stressing yourself out about the complexities of it all. Because if you're a longtime investor, and you make reasonable decisions, and you don't touch your money for a number of years, you do very, very well. And it's proven it's yeah, I think it's kind of the less is more attitude with touching it and fussing around too much. Absolutely. So I'm definitely a buy and hold investor which which is a term basically that is exactly what it says. You buy a share and you don't mess around with it. You've paid your brokerage, it's in your account. Just leave it, let it do let it do its thing. let it grow itself. You don't have to worry about it. You don't even have to check on it.
Meaghan Smith 32:19
Yes, we don't. It's it's easier than we think. Truly, I really I'm talking to you listener, please hear me it's easier than you think. So I just want to move on to a bit of a different focus. Now Sandra, tell me, what do you want your daughter to know about money? Do you teach her about what you're doing?
Sandra K Stewart 32:42
I think my daughter has pocket money and she's got her own debit card now because she's, you know, just a teenager now. And it's time to kind of give her a little bit of financial independence. But I kind of don't take the tact to I don't really lecture her I don't really want to have these overly deep conversations because one I don't think she will fully grasp the a lot of the complexities behind quite big you know, economic subjects and there's not a need for it now I kind of try to model the right thing to do because I believe that's more powerful than you know, kind of pushing it upon them I think. I think she's quite good at saving anyway she's she doesn't have a desire to buy a lot of things she never asks me for really. She doesn't ask me for toys she doesn't you know, ask me for like little trinkets or gadgets. So she's she's not asking me for the latest iPhone. She's quite content. So I'm lucky in that sense. And I guess, when she's a little bit older when she wants to know she, she can definitely come to me. But I think more what I'm showing her, hopefully will make the biggest difference. And also I will say, my myself and my sister, my friends kind of openly talk about it anyway. So without me having to direct the conversation to her and it becomes oh mum's telling another story. Here we go. She is exposed to it, and she does he these words, it's just not pushed upon her. So I'm hoping that the example will be stronger than basically any advice. Like I could give her.
Meaghan Smith 34:48
Yeah, I love that because I can think back to maybe my brain can go back that far when I was a teenager and yeah, I didn't think I was very interested in what my parents had to say, but I can totally relate to having it just around like being the conversation being around. I think that's really fantastic that it's not done in secret. She gets exposed to it still.
Sandra K Stewart 35:14
Yeah, exactly. And, you know, if she develops an interest in it, she does. And, you know, life is about more than money. So I want her to be happy. And as long as she makes wise decisions, it is it's not make or break. It's, you know, it's for her to decide on her own, what she does, and just like all of us, we will all inevitably you know, make our own choices in life and I and I can only do so much as well. I have to kind of hold those expectations because I'm interested in something that she will also be interested in something as long as she's happy. That's perfectly fine.
Meaghan Smith 35:59
So You still continuing to invest now Sandra for the future? Or if you just kind of, you're like, right, I've got my portfolio now, because you were saying something before about you, were, what did you say? You said you'd already got your ducks in a line really like you had your emergency fund and everything.
Sandra K Stewart 36:20
Yeah. So basically, I still invest every week, I try to invest, you know, obviously, some weeks it might not happen if there's a huge amount of bills or something, you know, goes pear shaped, but I will still try and actually, particularly at this time, because I'm acquiring stocks, really great companies and great holdings that I already own, I get to buy those at a cheaper price, hold more of them, portfolio to make more passive income. So I and I before people get too excited and run out and buy things. The important thing to know is like I like I was saying, I positioned myself years ago by saving cash first by having an emergency fund by paying all my bills on time and up to date and building a good financial habits system and budget first, before I stepped out and basically spent money that I needed to live, because if you go in and you start putting in money that you are going to need in the next couple of years, the market might not work out, it might not recover how we predict it will, if you don't, you know, the way that I see it is when I put money into the stock market, I'm not going to have that cash back for another 10 years. And if I'm not okay with that, I will not put it in and that's that's just you know, my way of doing things but it is important for people to understand particularly with a buy and hold strategy you're aiming for the long term it's for your future self if you need the money now put it in a good savings account. take baby steps you know you have you have time there's no there's no need to rush and people that do rush usually stumble and make costly mistakes. So yeah, just just be wise. You know, proceed with caution and look after yourself and your family first. And yeah, just do your research and, and save that is the biggest thing. Save.
Meaghan Smith 38:47
Sandra, you are a powerhouse investing every week. Okay, we we need to get to the bottom of this. So how do you manage? Okay, now, let me rephrase this. How do you stay motivated? For example, my mind straightaway went to if you've got those surplus funds, how come they're not going on a beautiful new pair of shoes? What's your, what's your motivation there? And how do you manage it? Because it's almost, you know, when people go on a really strict diet, they can't stick to it. But if they just make some small changes that works with their life, it's possible. So I'm wondering, do you have some sort of strategy where you have a budget for clothes or for the fun things so you've still got money to spend on that? Are you just hardcore it all goes to investments?
Sandra K Stewart 39:42
Yes, so, I definitely have a budget. That is the biggest thing. I know what's coming in. I know what's going out. I can kind of estimate it. I know my core numbers. So I've got that and on top of being really aware of my incomings and outgoings. I also have a lot of side hustles. And that is basically how I push it over the edge every week to be putting, you know, quite good amounts of money into the stock market if if I can every week but that's kind of like my own personal challenge. So anybody that follows me on instagram will see some of these side hustles and some of these things that I do and I also do a lot of my beautiful things like perfumes and a lot of my, you know, spending. You can find ways clever, creative ways to get the things you want in a really intelligent way. And you know, a lot of a lot of the things I do like, I'll give you an example for my makeup. I love buying and wearing Chanel makeup, particularly the the lipsticks and perfumes. So, in my spare time when I watch movies, I sit and do surveys, very quickly the money will add up and I will get $100, $200 David Jones voucher. And that's that's money that, you know, I have kind of I'm not spending. So instead of spending $200 on, you know, a couple of Chanel lipsticks that $200 goes to my investments. So I do you know, I find ways to work around things and yeah, it's a kind of amazing once you have the mindset of how am I going to get this instead of I just can't afford it. You become creative and clever and you can find little tricks around things and be really content with what you have while you're working. towards your future too.
Meaghan Smith 39:42
Genius, I'm going to say this as a single mum thing, because it's like a superpower. You're You're a problem solver, and you just work it out.
Sandra K Stewart 42:12
Absolutely. And like, it's fine. And I just kind of think as well, like, if I didn't, if I wasn't doing this, what would I be doing? Like, I've connected to so many amazing women, and I've been exposed to these amazing ideas. And it's interesting, and it's fun. And, you know, it's, it's amazing. It's amazing what you can achieve if you have the mindset to, you know, do it and be positive and make it fun and make it enjoyable and.
Meaghan Smith 42:49
So good. So good. Well, I think you've probably already answered this question, but I'm gonna ask you anyway because you seem to be full of a lot of amazing ideas and who knows what You've got up your sleeve. Sandra, is there any habits or rituals that you do to keep yourself on track for success? So we know now Okay, let's do some surveys so we can get our Chanel lipstick. I love that. But is there anything else that you do that you could share? That would be really helpful for the listeners?
Sandra K Stewart 43:21
I guess, going like kind of back to fundamentals. The most important thing you could probably ever do is make a budget. And before you start side hustling for more money, you may find you have enough money, you're just not spending it well, or you're not mindful with it or you're not, you know, you might be wasting small amounts that actually are a big amount, you know, at the end of the month, so I guess that that is really, really the core and I budget all the time. I really weigh up decisions when I make them and you know, I wasn't always like that it's just something that has developed over time and you have to start like anything you have to start to get better at it like with a fitness routine you know you've got to work to become stronger and run faster and that's the same with any of your skills you want to develop as well and your your mentality to develop a strong mindset and a positive mindset and yeah, which will help with sticking to your budget and making wise decisions and yeah, so it's all it's all infinite interconnected.
Meaghan Smith 44:38
Okay, let me ask you this. I'm not sure if you're expecting this or not, but I've seen on your Instagram account that you teased us that you were making something is this is this a budget? tool it can you tell us about that? Tell us the thing Sandra, tell us tell us.
Sandra K Stewart 44:59
Absolutely. So basically, I have been overwhelmed with messages about how do I invest? How much do I invest? Where do I find the money to do it? How, how do I get to the point to do this? And basically, like I was saying before, before you even start thinking about investing, you've got to, you've got to know you've got to know how much money is safe for you, you've got to know what your numbers are. It's the absolute foundation of everything. And so many women don't have a budget in place. They hate spreadsheets, Excel is an absolute, you know, nightmare of a thing. I use, if you don't,
Meaghan Smith 45:42
It's ugly,
Sandra K Stewart 45:43
you don't know how to use it, you know. So, um, basically, I have created a dashboard that will you all you have to do or the user has to do is simply punch in the numbers. The categories are already there. So you don't have to think too much. And this will calculate and give you your number, what is safe, how much you can put in savings. And it's a very, very cute, pretty pink dashboard. The ladies are gonna love it because it's not like excel at all. It is a very, very user friendly, amazing dash that will just make budgeting so much easier for so many people because this was just such a problem for so many people and they just had no idea where to start. So this this really really is the starting point.
Meaghan Smith 46:43
Nice so is that available yet?
Sandra K Stewart 46:47
So it's going to be available very, very soon.
Meaghan Smith 46:50
Oh, exciting.
Sandra K Stewart 46:52
I was in test mode and I'm also in the process of developing some E products that will be very, very similar and very easy to use, basically to help answer the questions that I've just been so overwhelmed to people asking how do I do this? How do I know? How do I figure it out? How do I track my numbers? How the I've got the answer, guys. It's coming.
Meaghan Smith 47:20
Just Yes. Okay, so now's a good time. What's your Instagram handle? Sandra? How do we find you because I know people listening and be like, okay, we need to find more out about this woman. And we need to get that dashboard. Okay, so it's at Sandra. K, Stewart. I'm sure that there'll be a link at the bottom. That's the spelling of Stuart, s. t. e. w. I will I will put all the links to find you in this and if you're testing this dashboard, I think you better send it over me send it over to me for a test run. I think Sandra, I want to test this out.
Sandra K Stewart 48:01
Let's do it.
Meaghan Smith 48:02
Awesome. Ah, it has been an absolute pleasure to have you on the show today. Thank you so much for joining us, Sandra.
Sandra K Stewart 48:15
Thank you so much. It's been so amazing to be on.
Meaghan Smith 48:19
Amazing. Thank you Sandra. So there you have it. Sandra shared a lot of information about shares and how you can invest in them. I hope this has inspired you to check out ways that you too can invest or to give you the confidence that it's totally possible to be in charge of your financial destiny. I just love that Sandra is such a badass, she's a single mum and she has totally taken charge of her life and what she deliberately wants to create for herself and for her daughter. As always, if you want to stay in touch between episodes and stay up to date, with all things Money Mindful, get on the mailing list ladies, follow me on Instagram and Facebook or get involved with book club. We read books about money and mindset and it's a great way to connect with other women who are interested in this as well. And if you really want to next level your money mindset or make change in your life, but you need some help to do it, get in touch by email and we can tee up a consultation. Have a beautiful week. Until next time, bye bye.
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Episode references
Sandra on Instagram Sandrakstewart or Fashion.and.Finance
Sandra's website
Self Wealth Online Broker
CommSec Online Share Trading