How changing your mindset can help you buy your first property

Show Notes

Molly Benjamin is the Founder of Ladies Finance Club and the Author of “Girls Just Wanna Have Funds”. From a casual idea in Molly’s living room with friends, Ladies Finance Club has changed the lives of women all over the world by building a supportive community of women who are taking control of their finances and having fun doing it. 

In this episode, Molly explains how to make financial literacy more interesting and why it’s so important. She also breaks down how having the right mindset can help you to achieve your dream of home ownership and talks about how using mantras can make a difference in your financial future. Plus, Molly shares the inspiring story of a Ladies Finance Club member’s journey to buying their first home.

Transcript

Michael 0:00
The information contained in this podcast is general in nature and is not to be taken as financial or personal advice.

Michael 0:06
It does not consider your objectives, financial situation, or needs.

Michael 0:10
You should consider whether this information is suitable for you and your personal circumstances before acting on it.

Michael 0:17
Hi and welcome to The Home Run your guide to buying your first home in Australia.

Michael 0:21
On the show, I’ll walk you through the home buying process from every angle we cover the steps to take the pitfalls to avoid, and the answers to all your questions you’ve been dying to ask.

Michael 0:31
No matter what stage you’re at, you’ll learn everything you need to know about buying your first home.

Michael 0:35
I’m your host, Michael Nasser, and I’m a mortgage broker at Lendstreet, and I really love helping people buy their first home today on the show.

Michael 0:46
I’m joined by Molly Benjamin.

Michael 0:48
Molly is the founder of the Ladies Finance Club, an exclusive women’s finance club that empowers women to take control of their financial futures and get money savvy.

Michael 0:58
Molly is also the author of the excellent book Girls Just Wanna Have Funds.

Michael 1:02
Molly has really impressive journey and in today’s episode, you’ll hear all about it.

Michael 1:07
Molly will share how she founded the Ladies Finance Club.

Michael 1:10
She’ll talk about the importance of having the right mindset for first-home buyers.

Michael 1:14
And she’ll breakdown why she believes that education is so important for first home buyers.

Michael 1:19
Let’s get into it.

Michael 1:24
Molly, thanks for joining me on the show today.

Molly 1:26
Thanks so much for having me excited to be here.

Michael 1:29
So you’re the founder of an organisation called the Ladies Finance Club.

Michael 1:33
And I wanna talk to you about that in a second.

Michael 1:35
But first I wanna talk to you about how did the journey get started for you?

Molly 1:38
OK, so if we’re going back to the start, it is, I think 2017 or something like that.

Molly 1:44
I’m in my apartment in London.

Molly 1:46
It’s a Sunday afternoon.

Molly 1:48
My girlfriends are over.

Molly 1:49
And I’m like, Wow, we’re all complaining about how broke we were after the weekend.

Molly 1:54
Like I’m so broke.

Molly 1:55
No, I’m so broke.

Molly 1:56
And it was almost like a bit of a joke.

Molly 1:58
And I’m like, What is going on?

Molly 2:00
We all have good jobs.

Molly 2:01
We’re earning pretty good money, but we’re living paycheck to paycheck.

Molly 2:05
We have no emergency savings.

Molly 2:07
We’re not investing.

Molly 2:08
Then the next day, I caught up with one of my guy mates and he was buying his second property.

Molly 2:14
He was investing in the share market.

Molly 2:16
And I’m like, What is going on here?

Molly 2:19
And so really, Ladies Finance Club was born in my living room.

Molly 2:22
I was like girls instead of a book club.

Molly 2:24
We’re gonna have a money club because me myself, like massive confession.

Molly 2:27
I was horrendous with money like, yeah, living paycheck to paycheck.

Molly 2:30
I had a great job, but nothing to show for it.

Molly 2:33
I thought money.

Molly 2:34
You earned money so you could spend money not l,ike, keep it and build strong financial foundation.

Molly 2:39
So we get someone in to talk to us about finance.

Molly 2:43
I’d put on pizza wine, get my girlfriends to come along, and we started learning about money, and I was like, Wow, so many of my girlfriends are interested, and people would be texting me being like, Hey, I miss that money thing.

Molly 2:54
Are you doing it again?

Molly 2:55
And so I was working for a bank in the UK at the time, which is like, not embarrassing because a lot of the women I was working with had no clue about money, and and I’m sure it’s the same with the guys.

Molly 3:04
But my focus was women.

Molly 3:06
And so I was like, I’m gonna put on my first event in London and see who wants to come along and it’s sold out.

Molly 3:14
Most of the women worked in financial services, and that’s kind of where it was born.

Molly 3:18
So if you fast forward to where we are now, I moved back to Australia.

Molly 3:23
I set it up in Australia.

Molly 3:24
We’ve had over 35,000 women through our events, courses, masterclasses, programmes.

Molly 3:31
And it’s all about helping make women rich because unfortunately, the gap is just big and we live longer.

Molly 3:39
That’s absolute fact.

Molly 3:40
We live on average five years longer.

Molly 3:42
We earn less.

Molly 3:43
We get paid less for doing the same job as guys, you know, for every dollar.

Molly 3:47
Unfortunately, we’re still earning 87 cents to that dollar.

Molly 3:50
So what this means is over a period of time in retirement, and I’m sure you’re very familiar with this and so are your listeners.

Molly 3:56
But we’re retiring on a lot less than men, and that gives us a lot less control over our lives.

Molly 4:02
And I think one of the big stats which really motivated me to start my business as well, is when I found out that the highest growing demographic of people experiencing homelessness was single women over the age of 55.

Molly 4:13
These women who’d like you know, either given up their lives to raise families to bring up the next generation of Australians, and then they are retiring into poverty.

Molly 4:22
And I just wanted to do something about that.

Molly 4:24
I didn’t want that for any woman.

Molly 4:25
And I was like, OK, let’s start educating ourselves because that is the key.

Molly 4:30
The education piece is the key.

Michael 4:32
Totally, and I think from what you mentioned there, that there’s a bit of a strategy piece there which I guess we’ll talk about, too, because it’s about being mindful of what you doing.

Michael 4:39
As you mentioned at the beginning.

Michael 4:41
You know, you were making money, but you were spending it so that there’s probably a lack of strategy there, and and that’s what you’ve started to pick up on now.

Michael 4:47
But this has inspired you to create the Ladies Finance Club.

Michael 4:50
Tell me about this club and tell me about how it works and and why was it so important for you to start this organisation?

Molly 4:56
When I started learning on my own like my own financial literacy, education, everything and excuse excuses, I just found it very male, pale, stale and blue and freaking boring. And I was like, I do not want to engage with this.

Molly 5:09
I’m social.

Molly 5:10
I love doing stuff with my girlfriends.

Molly 5:13
I was like, Why does this have to be boring?

Molly 5:15
Let’s make this fun.

Molly 5:16
So you know, it started off as events.

Molly 5:18
And then when covid hit, we turned it into an online club.

Molly 5:21
So we do monthly master classes.

Molly 5:23
What I do is I get the best experts.

Molly 5:25
Generally, they are females.

Molly 5:26
Sometimes they’re guys as well.

Molly 5:28
And we break down different topics of finance, from budgeting to investing to superannuation, retirement, getting on the property ladder.

Molly 5:36
We work with amazing mortgage brokers.

Molly 5:38
We work with fantastic property investors and just like creating this really lovely supportive community where I guess each other’s cheerleaders.

Molly 5:46
But we’re educating ourselves on the way, and it’s really cool to see women come in with no financial literacy and then they’re buying property or they’re like I bought my first ETF.

Molly 5:56
I bought my first shares.

Molly 5:57
And you knew three months ago they had no idea what an ETF was.

Molly 6:00
And they’re really setting themselves up.

Molly 6:02
And this information, this education is gonna stay with them for life.

Michael 6:05
It’s empowering.

Michael 6:06
I mean, I, I can just feel that coming through while you’re speaking about it, that you know that passion and and I can totally get it.

Michael 6:11
And having seen you know, your socials and seen your website fun definitely is something that I can I can see comes across.

Michael 6:18
It’s like turning this boring topic, you know, which is, you know, you’re very heavily dominated by males and all that sort of stuff, but making it fun and making it more appealing and attractive to an audience that you obviously resonate with and bring that message to them where they otherwise couldn’t and you mentioned there’s 35,000 people that have gone through it, so it’s obviously hitting a chord, and that’s fantastic.

Michael 6:36
So, congratulations on that.

Michael 6:37
And I think you know, you’re kicking some massive goals there.

Michael 6:39
You’ve written a book as well. I noticed.

Molly 6:40
Yes

Michael 6:41
Tell us a bit about that.

Molly 6:42
Yeah, so it’s called Girls just want to have funds and it’s all about starting from the beginning, with your mindset going through all the different areas of personal finance.

Molly 6:52
But we also touch on, like the basics investing super insurances tax.

Molly 6:57
But then also getting divorced.

Molly 7:00
Separation, teaching your kids about money, how to negotiate your salary.

Molly 7:04
So I’ve interviewed some of my most favourite women in finance all around the world.

Molly 7:09
And, yeah, we we put it into a book.

Molly 7:12
And then we just got out a journal as well with the founder of Kiki K, Christina Carlson’s new company, Dream Life.

Michael 7:18
Well, OK, and we’ll have information about the show notes a bit further on.

Michael 7:21
But that’s congratulations on that as well.

Michael 7:22
Mindset.

Michael 7:23
You’ve mentioned that, and I think it’s a critical thing, and it’s definitely a foundational concept, and I know you talk a lot about the importance of having the right mindset before we talk about why it’s important for anyone who doesn’t know.

Michael 7:34
What does it actually mean to you to have the right mindset?

Molly 7:37
I think it’s around having the right belief but also understanding where your money, like, especially your money mindset has come from, because if you can understand where it’s come from and you do a bit of a foundational work, because a lot of time, our money mindset is made up by the time we’re seven years old.

Molly 7:54
It’s heavily influenced by how our parents behaved with money or didn’t behave with money, or if they were good or bad, or if they thought about it, or how they behaved with it is very much influenced with how we are.

Molly 8:05
So if there are potentially some behaviours there that need changing, which I would say, majority of people I speak to, they don’t have positive relationships with money and positive mindsets around money.

Molly 8:17
So for me, yeah, it’s really about what do you really believe about money, your feelings and thoughts.

Molly 8:23
And as you said, it’s so foundational.

Molly 8:25
So you know you can learn all you want about investing, budgeting.

Molly 8:28
But if the mindset isn’t right, then none of the other stuff matters.

Molly 8:32
So it’s really, about nailing that one first.

Michael 8:35
What would be one of the biggest mindset challenges that you see from, You know, the experience that you’ve had dealing with people on this topic is there one particular challenge that you see more often than not or can it be really diverse?

Michael 8:46
And it just depends on the individual.

Molly 8:48
There’s quite a few different ones.

Molly 8:50
There’s a quite a big scarcity mindset.

Molly 8:53
And also like, I’m just not good with money.

Molly 8:55
That’s a belief.

Molly 8:57
I hear a lot and I’ll kind of challenge that.

Molly 8:59
And I’ll be like, OK, can you remember a time you were good with money?

Molly 9:02
Do you pay your rent every month?

Molly 9:04
Oh, yeah, Absolutely.

Molly 9:05
Do you ever miss any bills?

Molly 9:07
Oh, no.

Molly 9:07
Never miss a bill.

Molly 9:08
OK, so you’re actually not that bad with money.

Molly 9:10
So that’s a common one, I hear.

Molly 9:13
Oh, gosh, there’s a lot.

Molly 9:14
There’s a real lack of kind of confidence with money because I also think this is a big part of it.

Molly 9:20
We’re not socialised as women to talk about money, and, you know, sometimes that might be because women could only open their own bank account in their own name like it wasn’t that long ago in like the seventies, like you couldn’t get a home loan without a male signature.

Molly 9:33
So women haven’t been having these conversations for generations and generations.

Molly 9:36
Men have always been controlling the money.

Molly 9:38
So there’s a lot of different, reasons that in the book, the first chapter is all about mindset and how to reframe some of those negative thoughts as well.

Michael 9:48
Absolutely.

Michael 9:49
And I think it’s a matter of perspective.

Michael 9:50
And you know, you’ve mentioned there how you, you know, you speak to people and they’ll highlight an issue.

Michael 9:54
But then if you spin it and particular perspectives like Hold on, you’re not right in thinking in that way.

Michael 9:58
Try thinking about it this way and all of a sudden that just opens up new doors, I imagine.

Molly 10:01
Yes.

Molly 10:02
And I think especially with home ownership as well.

Molly 10:04
A lot of our women are single women, and they kind of have this belief that I will never be able to get on the property ladder as a single woman.

Molly 10:12
And I’m, like, again challenge that.

Molly 10:14
How come there’s guys buying property all the time by themselves and actually going OK, Well, you’ve just got to look at what other avenues are there.

Molly 10:22
If you can’t get that 20% deposit, OK, what else can you do?

Michael 10:26
And that leads into our next question quite well because when it comes to first home buyers specifically and that’s obviously the market that we speak to here at the home run, why is it important for them to have the right mindset?

Molly 10:35
Your actions are your beliefs.

Molly 10:36
Your beliefs are your actions.

Molly 10:37
So iF you really believe that you’re never gonna be able to buy a property?

Molly 10:41
What’s your action?

Molly 10:42
You don’t take an action.

Molly 10:44
What happens?

Molly 10:44
The result is you have no property.

Molly 10:46
If you believe you can get on the property ladder, you start taking action.

Molly 10:50
You go.

Molly 10:50
OK, well, I’m just gonna chat to a mortgage broker and see.

Molly 10:53
Where am I currently at?

Molly 10:55
Where do I wanna get to?

Molly 10:56
OK, I’m gonna start looking around.

Molly 10:58
I’m gonna look at what other options are there.

Molly 11:00
Oh, cool.

Molly 11:00
There’s some government schemes.

Molly 11:01
OK, great.

Molly 11:02
I could rent vest.

Molly 11:03
Oh, great.

Molly 11:03
I could get my parents to be my guarantors.

Molly 11:05
You start taking action and I’m a big believer of mantras, goal setting and actually changing the messages in your head to say no.

Molly 11:14
I will be a property owner.

Molly 11:15
I will get on the property ladder and actually believing it.

Molly 11:19
I remember speaking to, a lady in London, and she was in HR earning a pretty good wage.

Molly 11:25
And we walked past a house together and she’s like, I’ll never be able to afford a property And I was like, Why is that?

Molly 11:31
And she’s like, Oh, you know, I just don’t earn enough.

Molly 11:33
I’m like, How much do you earn?

Molly 11:34
And she told me, And I’m like, You earn plenty enough to get on the property ladder.

Molly 11:38
Maybe you can’t start with your dream house like, you know, with the beautiful, you know, white fence and this.

Molly 11:45
But you can definitely become a property owner and build your way up to that dream home.

Molly 11:50
So, yeah, there’s always a way if you want it.

Michael 11:53
Absolutely, and it’s about finding it out.

Michael 11:54
And it’s that education, because once and it’s something I deal with a lot is that people don’t know what’s possible because they don’t know what exists to make it possible.

Michael 12:02
So if you can outline the path for them, then it’s like, Well, hold on.

Michael 12:05
Now that I know what I need to do, do you still want to do it?

Michael 12:08
I guess at the first instance, and if that’s generally yes, then Well, let’s start on that path.

Michael 12:11
So totally see, how you know, outlying that journey can at least make it more empowering for the individual to then go on that journey and realise their ultimate dreams.

Molly 12:20
Yes, and it’s so funny.

Molly 12:21
I think, when people make that decision and then you see this belief that they they’re like, Oh, my gosh, I’m gonna buy a property And then all of a sudden, they’re a bit of a financial hot mess, and then it’s like overnight they’ve, like, got their tax sorted.

Molly 12:33
They’ve got their pre-approval done, they’re looking, and it happens quickly.

Michael 12:37
It’s like tunnel vision effectively.

Michael 12:38
It’s like now that I I’ve got that in place.

Michael 12:40
I know that I can do it.

Michael 12:41
This is the strategy. And then all of a sudden, everything else falls into place.

Molly 12:42
And I think that’s where mortgages brokers play a big role in that education part as well.

Molly 12:48
And I know a lot of the mortgage brokers we work with as well.

Molly 12:51
I think they just spend, like, 90% of the time just educating people on that process.

Molly 12:55
Which is why we’ve started running Webinars on what is the process to buy.

Michael 12:59
So for anyone on the journey to buying their first home what what are some of the ways that they can improve their mindsets?

Molly 13:05
So I think there’s a couple of things you can do the mantras or the affirmations like I am gonna be a property owner.

Molly 13:13
I know it sounds a bit Woo Woo, but like literally changing the messages you’re telling your brain and then challenging those messages when the negative messages come up, you’ll never be able to afford it.

Molly 13:24
You won’t be able to do this by yourself and actually challenging those and going Is that true?

Molly 13:29
Has there been any single people this year that have bought property?

Molly 13:32
Absolutely.

Molly 13:33
There Have You can totally do this.

Molly 13:34
So really believing that again.

Molly 13:36
I ain’t gonna sound weird to some of the people on the podcast, but manifesting telling the universe that this is what you want and getting really clear and focused talking to a mortgage broker.

Molly 13:46
I think that’s great for the mindset because it actually makes you go.

Molly 13:49
OK, I’m actually getting serious about this, and I’m gonna even if I’m not ready to buy right now, I’m gonna find out what I have to do and I’m gonna look at Do I need to start doing some credit repair on my credit score?

Molly 14:01
Even writing a letter?

Molly 14:03
I don’t again.

Molly 14:04
Sounds weird writing a letter to yourself about when you bought the property.

Molly 14:08
So it’s such and such I bought the property.

Molly 14:10
This is how it makes me feel.

Molly 14:11
This is why I wanted to buy it.

Molly 14:13
And really thinking about why do you want to buy a home?

Molly 14:16
What is it in you?

Molly 14:17
Is it?

Molly 14:18
So you’ve got this security and comfort, is it?

Molly 14:21
So that’s something that’s yours and no one can take away from you.

Molly 14:24
Is it?

Molly 14:25
Because if you want to start a family, there might be numerous reasons.

Michael 14:29
I think recognising that why.

Michael 14:30
And if you speak to buyer’s agents or, you know, when it comes to purchasing, generally, the first question they ask is, Why do you wanna buy?

Michael 14:36
And so being able to recognise what that why is can be very powerful.

Michael 14:40
But I think the things that you mentioned there were Woo.

Michael 14:41
I mean, perhaps maybe 10 years ago, perhaps people thought like that.

Michael 14:44
But I think more and more that type of thinking and that type of being is really becoming more common, and people are recognise that it’s totally OK to be like that and the changes that it can make are are immense. And I feel.

Molly 14:54
I know the mindset is incredible when you really believe.

Michael 15:01
totally on the same page with you, with that and and I think you know some of our listeners. If they’re thinking that it is II, I challenge them to give it a go because and I think the key is doing it consistently, you can’t do it for one day.

Michael 15:06
It’s just got to be something that you’ve got to ingrain in your process, right?

Molly 15:09
So, yeah, like if I look at my phone right now, I’ve got my vision board on my phone and it’s got the property I want to buy.

Molly 15:16
Like I look at that every day.

Michael Molly 15:18
I look at the 12345 different areas of my life that I’m visualising at the moment and I see that every single day.

Michael 15:25
Yeah, no, I think that’s a great tip as well.

Michael 15:26
For people that are thinking about it.

Michael 15:28
Manifesting your reality, I think, is very much something that’s a possibility and something that people should embrace as a concept and not think of it as being weird.

Michael 15:34
So hopefully we if we can challenge one person to break down that mindset, I think we’ve done a good job here.

Michael 15:39
So the other thing that you’re really big on is the importance of education, and we’ve already touched on it a few times here.

Michael 15:44
But I want to understand why is it important for first home buyers to educate themselves?

Molly 15:49
Well, you don’t know what you don’t know.

Molly 15:51
And when you educate yourself, you can save huge money, like even women who come along to our property sessions, and they learn about mortgage brokers.

Molly 16:00
If they use the right mortgage broker.

Molly 16:03
That’s gonna save them thousands and thousands of dollars than if they were to just walk into a random bank.

Molly 16:08
You can go, Hey, does my square profile fit your square cookie cutter?

Molly 16:13
And I think as well around insurances and cooling off periods, all that information which we don’t know about it, because why would we?

Molly 16:23
We’ve never been taught it.

Molly 16:23
There’s no university subject.

Molly 16:25
We didn’t learn it at school like unless you read about it or listen to podcasts like this.

Molly 16:30
You don’t know about these different processes that can save you huge money in the long term,

Michael 16:34
And it can speed up the process as well as, and that comes down to money as well, obviously.

Michael 16:39
But if you aren’t aware of something that can accelerate the time in which you can purchase, well, that’s a bit of a game changer, too so.

Molly 16:44
Like getting your pre-approval done like some people go.

Molly 16:47
Oh, if I want to find a house, I start looking on realestate.com.

Molly 16:52
I find the house I want.

Molly 16:53
It’s like No, no, no, you get your pre-approval.

Molly 16:56
You’ll work out what your lending capacity is.

Molly 16:58
You’ve gotta get it in the right order, which I know for many of our women, like again, Why would we know?

Molly 17:04
We don’t know unless you’re speaking to someone.

Molly 17:06
And then again, if you’re speaking to the wrong people or you’re listening to your parents or friends of your parents and they didn’t know either, then, yeah, you might not be getting the right information.

Michael 17:16
I think the parents is very much a concept where people can be misguided, and it’s not ill intentioned by any means.

Michael 17:22
But it’s just like you said.

Michael 17:23
They they perhaps don’t know because they’re not first home buyers.

Michael 17:25
And the challenges they faced, although they were probably great in their day, is not the challenges we face today and so.

Molly 17:30
No, very, very different, environment. uNFORTUNATELY.

Michael 17:34
Well, that’s just the way it is, right?

Michael 17:36
And I’m sure in 20 years time when you know our listeners have kids, if if they don’t already have them and it’s gonna be similar to that and things will be different, then that’s just the way of things.

Michael 17:43
They grow and evolve.

Michael 17:44
Obviously, we’ve got our podcast here that people are already listening to, or you’ve obviously got your mechanisms at the Ladies Finance Club.

Michael 17:49
And are there any other places that people can get some information that you’re aware of for first home buyers that you’ve had success with or you’ve known people that you know listened to or anything else in that regard?

Molly 17:59
Yeah, so we we we have a podcast, and there’s some fantastic mortgage brokers, buyers, agents on, like Tiktok and Instagram.

Molly 18:08
There’s podcasts, so I think it’s just about finding because there’s so many.

Molly 18:12
It’s about finding who is your style and who works for you.

Molly 18:16
But again, I know it sounds a bit nerdy, but the government’s money-smart website’s great and there’s also the first home buyers.

Molly 18:23
It’s a government-run site as well.

Molly 18:24
And it just tells you what latest schemes are available as well.

Molly 18:28
And actually looking into what are those schemes?

Molly 18:30
And then, yeah, I guess just being aware that with certain financial websites that you’re gonna get certain biassed information, so just making sure that you are kind of looking at everything with a bit of a lens as well.

Michael 18:44
You raised a good point there, and it’s something I guess you have experienced in creating what you’ve created.

Michael 18:48
There are multiple ways of obtaining this information.

Michael 18:50
It’s definitely available, and it’s becoming more available.

Michael 18:52
But I think the key to it is finding someone that you resonate with finding somebody that you know you can go on the journey with because that’s just as important as the information that they provide.

Michael 19:01
You wanna feel connected to that person that you want them to feel like they understand you and and your challenges and I think that’s a really critical thing.

Michael 19:08
So I guess if anyone’s out there looking for, you know those educational platforms, see what’s around, see what’s there, see what works for you.

Michael 19:14
And I think that’s gonna give you a big, better chance of being successful.

Molly 19:17
Yeah, And I think, you know, there’s not pressure to go with the first person you speak with or or like, even say mortgage breaking.

Molly 19:23
You know, you can date before you get married kind of thing like you can try out, make sure you like them.

Molly 19:29
They align with your values, they be supportive.

Molly 19:32
They’re gonna be that person who maybe helps educate you.

Molly 19:34
If you need to learn a bit more about the process because it is, it’s a big decision and you wanna make sure I yeah, you feel confident and you’ve got the right team behind you.

Michael 19:43
One of the things I know you talk about a lot is salary sacrificing, and it’s a particular concept here that we’ll draw on this term.

Michael 19:49
It does get thrown around a lot, and I know that a lot of people ask me about salary sacrificing as well.

Michael19:54
But what does it actually mean.

Michael 19:56
And if we’re explaining it to a first time, why that hasn’t heard it for the first time.

Michael 19:58
How do we explain it to them?

Molly 20:00
Yeah, so it’s just before.

Molly 20:02
So, for instance, if you work for a company, they’re just taking some of that income before it’s taxed and you’re sacrificing it and you can do it towards your super.

Molly 20:13
And if you’re doing that, that’s where you might look at the Super Seda scheme and you can depending again.

Molly 20:18
It very much depends on the company you work for and if they offer it.

Molly 20:22
But yeah, it’s just putting Pre tax salary away before it’s taxed.

Michael 20:27
And how can this help a first home buyer and how how can they use it to their advantage?

Molly 20:31
I always work with the experts on this one, but yeah, there’s the the first home saver scheme, the super saver scheme, where, you know, instead of being taxed at your normal rate, you’re being taxed at that 15% rate.

Michael 20:44
And the benefit of that is basically, you’re able to build up your deposit a little bit quicker because then you can access it.

Michael 20:48
So yeah, absolutely something that you gotta be in the loop with and and in that instance and understanding how that can help us step where a mortgage broker can assist you with there.

Michael 20:56
All right to close things up.

Michael 20:57
I wanted to ask you, in particular, if you had any success stories with members who have bought their first home with the help of the Ladies Finance Club.

Michael 21:03
And if you have a story like that, if you could share it or even a scenario, perhaps if it wasn’t related to that, how it helped them start the particular path to ultimate success when it comes to purchasing their first property?

Molly 21:14
There’s one who is about to buy, and I love this story because she’s a nanny working in Sydney and she when she first came to Ladies Finances Club.

Molly 21:23
She’s been with the club now for two years, like she just never thought property was ever gonna even be an option for her.

Molly 21:29
But she has been saving.

Molly 21:31
She’s got her property deposit together.

Molly 21:34
She went and saw a broker quite early on to work out where she needed to get to, and I think the nice story about that is like she’s a nanny so she’s getting paid like middle income.

Molly 21:47
But she’s still able to do it because she’s been so focused on it.

Molly 21:50
She started a side hustle to bring in extra income.

Molly 21:53
There was another lady in Tassie.

Molly 21:56
It was a first investment property, but that was She had been divorced.

Molly 22:01
She had credit card debt.

Molly 22:03
She was starting over again.

Molly 22:05
And she’s still had the family home, but again, meeting some of the buyers agents we work with.

Molly 22:10
She bought a place, and that’s done really well.

Molly 22:15
And she’s, looking to buy another one.

Molly 22:17
Likewise, with another couple of our younger male members meeting some of our buyer’s agents, one of them’s built up her third property, which is so exciting, and she’s because that’s for a lot of them.

Molly 22:29
You know, they want that financial freedom, and they want to do that through property and building up that portfolio is a way to do it.

Molly 22:35
So it’s really cool when you hear, because we started the club in Australia back in 2019, the women who were with us from the early journey and the ones who have actually taken action, they really enjoyed that property boom for the that few years, and it’s really served them well so

Michael 22:50
Yeah, and and I guess having that team around them, like is what you provide there.

Michael 22:55
I guess it’s just and I’ve used the word before, empowering in terms of giving them some clear strategies as to how to achieve what they want to achieve and then providing the mechanisms, which I think is just as important so they can achieve their goals SP.

Michael 23:04
Yeah, absolutely.

Molly 23:05
And we always run these just like free sessions that anyone can come to where it’s like we’re just gonna take you through what the process of buying property is.

Molly 23:11
So I always think it’s like a really nice first place to start because it’s like all you’re doing is showing up and learning the process, and we get literally like 1000 women registered to those events.

Molly 23:22
And I’m like, right, women in Australia wanna know how to do this.

Michael 23:26
And it’s important to know we’ve been speaking about property in particular here, but and you’ve mentioned it at the beginning, it’s it’s not just property.

Michael 23:31
You look at all you know, forms of financial.

Michael 23:33
I guess literacy and financial strategies and and whether it’s shares or other types of mechanisms.

Michael 23:38
So it’s important to keep that in mind, too, although we’re obviously very much focused on the property side of things.

Michael 23:43
Well, thank you so much for joining us on the show today.

Michael 23:45
Where can our listeners find you if they want to learn more?

Molly 23:48
Yeah, so we love the gram.

Molly 23:50
So we’re on Instagram at Ladies Finance Club or our Website
Ladiesfinanceclub.com.

Molly 23:56
Check out the book.

Molly 23:57
It’s in Big W, Kmart on book Topia and Amazon.

Michael 24:00
Nice.

Michael 24:01
Well, thank you so much for joining me on the show today.

Michael 24:03
I’ve really appreciated your time and your insights.

Molly 24:05
Great.

Molly 24:05
Thanks so much for having me.

Michael 24:08
You’ve been listening to the home run your guide for buying your first home in Australia.

Michael 24:13
This podcast was produced by Lendstreet.

Michael 24:15
Lendstreet is a mortgage broker and home loan specialist that helps first-home buyers find the right loan to meet their needs.

Michael 24:21
We know applying for a loan can be overwhelming and complex, so we help guide and support first-home buyers through the process from start to finish to find out more head to our website lendstreet.com.au.

Michael 24:32
We’ve also put a link in the show notes to make sure you don’t miss an episode of the home run.

Michael 24:37
Be sure to subscribe to or follow the show in your podcast app, and while you’re there, please leave us a five star review.

Michael 24:44
It really helps others find the show.

Michael 24:47
I’m Michael Nasser and we’ll be back next episode, covering another step on the journey to owning your first home.