The Financial Bloke | Public figure
The Financial Bloke
Reviews
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24.01.2022 Failure! That one word has the potential to sends shivers down the spine of most of us. It is the adult version of the BOOGEY MAN. Society has ferociously taken to ridiculing and humiliating anyone who fails, especially if they do so publicly. We are all guilty of it to some extent! The sad part is that when we put people down for ‘failing’, it hurts us more than them. It sends a little message to our brain that we should do everything in our power to avoid failing and this r...elegates us to a life of missed opportunities and mediocrity. We all ‘fail’ continuously. I ‘fail’ everyday! I ‘fail’ at being the best Dad, the best son, the best husband, the best adviser, the best friend, the best storyteller, and the list goes on. Sometimes it makes me sad, unbelievably sad, but most of the time I see it for what it is, reminders that I can and must do better. The best of the best sportspeople, entertainers, entrepreneurs, business owners etc all know this. That is why they are successful. Failure is essential. There can be no success without ‘failure’ and usually lots of it. It is feedback, the feedback needed to tell us what works and what doesn’t and it is a message that we need to change tack if we want to get better results. Better health, better relationships, better businesses, better careers and even better finances. One of my biggest successes in life will be when I have ensured this lesson becomes part of my daughter’s belief system. Because if I don’t do that this would be a ‘failure’ truly worth being miserable over! So let’s celebrate our failures (and those of others) and teach our kids to see them for what they are, just the necessary stepping stones in their journey to greatness.
21.01.2022 Feel eternally sorry for the hard working families that look to have been duped. What is interesting, every time I see these stories there is a common thread. "Unbelievable returns" and the con-artist is leading a "flashy lifestyle". The government and the law will not protect you. That's because con-artists and criminals will always cover their tracks well and do enough to look legitimate. They are also the masters at tapping into peoples emotions which often override their... common sense. The best protection is to educate yourself and learn to have a good bullsh*t detector. If it seems too good to be true or you get that feeling that something isn't right, trust your gut and walk away. https://apple.news/Axz_ChMRQRQy1BX3yQuHenw
17.01.2022 Sailing, Investing & Risk... what do they all have in common?
15.01.2022 As a loving parent, I struggle with giving my daughter more than I had as a child but not enough to rob her of the gift of some adversity. Adversity is what builds resilience, persistence and character. Ask any successful person if they 'had it easy' and they give you a resounding no...
14.01.2022 What an Awesome Year We human beings are a naturally goal driven species. Study after study has confirmed that taking the time to document and regularly review your goals is the rocket fuel required for success in all areas of your life. The sad fact is most of us fail to invest the time to develop and document our goals and then complain when we don’t get what we want.... Goals don’t have to be fancy or complicated as in their simplest form they are just something that you really want. I want 1,000 breeders, 50,000 acres, a close family, good health, $1m in the bank, happy healthy kids, to have an impact on the world etc. Some of the most successful farmers and graziers I know have big goals. Goals that most of us would listen to and pass off as fanciful. I know one grazier who wants 20,000 head of cattle. They have built to 6,000 and are only in their early 40’s. So if they get to 15,000 and not 20,000, so what. That’s an amazing success story. It is at this point, that I also stress the point that goals and success are not always measured in financial terms. I know lots of people that are not successful in a financial sense but have an amazingly impactful relationship with their kids or grandkids, the sort of relationship that will echo through the generations. What I have come to understand is that part of the problem is that we are asking ourselves the wrong question. Questions are powerful and a small change in the way we phrase a question can have a significant impact on the result. In my experience rather than asking yourself what your goals are, you should try instead: If we were sitting here 12 months from today, what would had to have happened for you to look back and say, what an awesome year. As a financial adviser I have asked this question hundreds of times and it always impresses me how we all engage so much better when asked this. So take the time now, grab a piece of paper and on one side write down at the top ‘My Goals’. On the other side write down ‘Your Awesome Year: It is November 2021 and I have had an awesome year because.’ Almost everyone I know that has done this ends up with one side almost blank and the other side filled with cool stuff. So next time you are thinking that you are in a rut and you need to start really kicking some goals grab that piece of blank paper and put right at the top ‘It is (Insert 12 months from todays date) and I have had an awesome year because’ and then start filling the page with dot points. Make sure you save it somewhere safe and read it each week so that you know exactly what an awesome year would look like. And remember, People are not lazy. They simply have goals that do not inspire them - Tony Robbins.
11.01.2022 True wealth is in wisdom and wisdom comes from knowledge, experience, reflection and is taught at the school of hard knocks!
10.01.2022 Everyone I know who has achieved financial success, has first imagined that success in their mind, well before it became a reality.
10.01.2022 Failure Is Essential If You Want Success The most successful people in the world have learned that failure is a critical part of success. The worlds best actors, professional athletes, business owners, entrepreneurs, surgeons, all see failure as simply feedback, helping them learn and improve and ultimately, be the best. It is funny how our kids instinctively know this. How many times have you seen your kids fail at something and they just dust themselves off, get back up and... have another go? Their eagerness to keep trying new things and ultimately experiencing never ending failures, never seems to dull their enthusiasm. Learning to walk, my daughter Sophie fell down over and over but giving up was never on the cards for her. Every time she tried to get up and fell straight back down, it gave her the feedback she needed to adjust what she was doing and get better. After what seemed like a thousand tries, she was up and off, ready for her next adventure, never once obsessing over her failures. For some reason, once we become adults, we lose the ability to accept that failure is just part of getting better at things. It is also the essential ingredient of success that the ‘do’ers’ of the world know, and the ‘whingers’ of the world ignore. Society has conditioned us to thinking that failure is a disgrace and something you should be embarrassed about. It’s that kind of thinking that stops people from getting out there and having a go. Avoiding failure will save you some pain in the short term but long term, it is a recipe for a life of unfulfilled ambitions and ultimate unhappiness. For the record, I am stubborn, driven, I hate to lose and if I fail at anything, I quite often take the failure personally. This is normal to feel this way. We need the pain of failure to convince us that we need to change our tact. So how do you turn a failure (or feedback) into something useful. I use a process which I read about a while back called, Progressive Mastery Questions. It comprises of 4 simple questions you ask yourself, designed to give you the feedback required to continually improve and ultimately become successful in that activity or pursuit. 1. What worked? 2. What didn’t work? 3. What is the lesson? 4. What can I change? If you apply the above process consistently to all your endeavours, whether it be investing off farm, your breeding program, your cropping program, your relationships with your family, kids or friends and even your health and fitness, you start to see ‘failures’ for what they are, just feedback on what you need to do different next time. And remember, what the famous author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, said Don’t waste a good mistake, learn from it.
08.01.2022 My daughter knows that her most valuable asset ISN'T her My Little Pony Collection, nor her pink scooter, or her Frozen DVD but rather it is the quality time with her Mum and Dad. The excitement of getting a new My Little Pony wears off quickly but playing My Little Ponies with Dad is always exciting for her.
06.01.2022 This is just one of many scams I have seen people fall victim to over the past couple of years. Nowadays the criminals don't always wear balaclavas and sneak around in the night. Cybercrime is so much more common than you think. The common misconception is that only stupid people get scammed. In my experience this couldn't be further from the truth. Be alert but not alarmed people.
06.01.2022 I love helping others, it is burned into my core. Often, I get more pleasure from helping someone else win, than winning myself. I learned that lesson from Dad. I wasn't always that way. As a child I used to get frustrated. There was never enough time to do the fun things kids like to do on the farm but my Dad would always find time to help a neighbour fix the fence or fix a piece of machinery, help a mate find a bull to buy, inspect a new property, etc. I never knew why unti...l he had some health problems many years ago. The amount of people that came out of the woodwork to say, "we want to help" was amazing. Now as he is ageing, there is always a never ending line of people that love to have a chat and want to return the favour (if he needs it). But let me be clear, he never did it to get something in return. He did it because he sees life through the lens of giving and that is why my Dad is the most UN'depressed or UN'anxious person I know. True winners know that their significance isn't measured by the size of their balance sheet, their profit and loss statement or by the accolades they get, it is the difference they make to someone else's life. That is what makes you truly significant!
05.01.2022 Spending your time unwisely is like using a credit card to pay your bills and never knowing how close you are to the limit. You do not know how much time you have left until you run out. Spend your time wisely my friends!
05.01.2022 Remember that INVESTING is not just about buying shares or property, it is also about investing in your relationships, your health/happiness and even in your community. But the investment that will give you the greatest return is constant and never ending investments into improving your knowledge. Mix that with a dash of curiosity and a splash of action, then you have a true recipe for success.
04.01.2022 Buying shares for the first time is like buying a new pair of boots The first time someone suggests you should invest some money into super or buy shares to build your off farm investments, most farmers and graziers admit they would rather go to the dentist for a root canal treatment. It’s because most of us have had very little experience investing in shares or super and therefore it feels very unfamiliar. Our brains are wired to feel familiar and comfortable with what we kn...ow and what we have experience in. That is why buying an investment property for a farmer feels more comfortable than buying shares. Farmer have experience with property as they own a farm, hence stepping into an investment property is much more familiar to most farmers and graziers than buying shares. The same goes for a new pair of boots. You know how when you have an old pair of boots, as soon as you put them on you know they’re your boots because they feel so comfortable and familiar. Now I want you to think back to when you replaced your old boots with a shiny new pair. You took them out of the box, slipped them on and took your first walk around the house. They’re the same brand, the same size, but they just feel different. They feel unfamiliar and your brain instantly tells you, ‘they’re not your boots mate.’ Now the good thing is, with time those new boots get more and more familiar until one day, they have become ‘your boots’. The same thing goes for shares. Once you have ‘tried on’ a portfolio of shares, as time passes you build on your experience until finally it has become familiar and comfortable. You just need time for your brain to get familiar with it and for your experience to grow. One important point I want to raise. Whenever you buy a new pair of quality boots, they tend to be a little uncomfortable in the beginning and quite often they may even give you blisters. But no one would throw them in the bin straight away just because of that. You oil them or wear them with slightly bigger socks to stretch them and you give them time to be broken in and for your feet to get used to them. More importantly, when they become your boots you oil and polish them regularly to keep them looking their best. The same goes with shares and superannuation. You need to buy quality assets and you need time for them to become familiar. You need to break them in by doing your research and planning and to oil the portfolio by completing portfolio reviews at regular intervals. So next time you feel uncomfortable trying something new, like buying shares or investing off farm, be curious and ask yourself whether you feel uncomfortable because you haven’t had the experience to know if it is a good idea or not or if it is just because the idea is unfamiliar. Doing something that’s unfamiliar might lead you to an opportunity of a lifetime.
04.01.2022 One of my greatest fears for the kids of today, is the lack of the right adversity. I am not saying they won't have it tough in many ways, but I fear they may not have it tough enough to build spirit and grit required to build true resilience.
04.01.2022 FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR RURAL FAMILIES! With the pressures of living in a rural community, keeping on top of what's best for you family's finance can be tricky a...nd overwhelming. That's why we've created a day to hook you up with everything you need to know to make sure your family finances are all set for the future. Featuring guest presenters: Ben Law, The Financial Bloke: The Wealth windmill & investing off-farm Noel Hazeldine, Prime Super: Top Tips for your super Chris Leahy, Leahy Lawyers: Getting your affairs in order Lisa Herbert, author: The Bottom Drawer Book TUESDAY 8TH DECEMBER 2020, 9:00am-3:00pm, Glen Dawn Woolshed, 574 Glen Legh Rd, Glen Innes. Don't miss out on this fantastic opportunity for your rural family! Register by Friday 4th November at bit.ly/windmillgleninnes or phone 02 6732 3443.
