OD #9 - Build Wealth Without Sacrificing Your Lifestyle

In this episode, Oscar from The Finance Bible & Asset Road breaks down the real reason so many young Aussies feel stuck financially — even when they’re earning more than ever before.

Whether you're just getting started or looking to sharpen your game, this 15-minute episode covers everything you need to know to start managing your money with purpose and building long-term wealth without sacrificing your lifestyle.

🎯 What You’ll Learn:

• Why lifestyle creep is quietly draining your finances
• The 3-Bucket Money System that makes budgeting effortless
• The biggest money traps to avoid in your 20s and 30s
• How $200/month can turn into $500K by retirement
• 3 simple actions to take this week to change your financial future

🎧 Enjoyed this episode?
Follow us on Instagram @zekeguenthrothofficial @oscardonproperty and @assetroad for daily insights, property breakdowns, and behind-the-scenes updates.
Explore more at www.assetroad.com.au

Disclaimer:
The information provided in this podcast is general in nature and does not constitute personal financial advice. It has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information, you should consider the appropriateness of the advice, having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs. Asset Road Pty Ltd recommends you seek independent financial, legal, taxation or other advice as required. All investments carry risk. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

🎧 Enjoyed this episode?
Follow us on Instagram @zekeguenthrothofficial @oscardonproperty and @assetroad for daily insights, property breakdowns, and behind-the-scenes updates.
Explore more at www.assetroad.com.au

Disclaimer:
The information provided in this podcast is general in nature and does not constitute personal financial advice. It has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information, you should consider the appropriateness of the advice, having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs. Asset Road Pty Ltd recommends you seek independent financial, legal, taxation or other advice as required. All investments carry risk. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Millennial Money Problems
• 3:02 The Three Bucket Money System Explained
• 8:29 Common Financial Traps to Avoid
• 14:39 Action Steps and Financial Goals
• 17:22 Final Thoughts and Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

Welcome back to another episode of the Finance Bible Podcast. Zeke here and your co-host, oscar. But before we get into it, please note that nothing in this podcast should ever be considered personal financial advice. Of course, if that is what you are seeking, reach out. We'll get you in touch with the correct professionals. Get the job done properly, sit back, relax and enjoy the show. Let's get into it. Welcome back to another episode of the Finance Bible Podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:42

If you're in your 20s and 30s and listening to this right now and you feel like you're earning decent money but have nothing to show for it, well, this episode is for you. Today, I'm going to give you a straight up breakdown of how to manage your money, grow your wealth and stop living paycheck to paycheck and, the most important thing, without feeling broke in the actual process. So let's get into it. Firstly, let me hit you with this stat 73% of millennials say they're financially unprepared for the future, even though most of them earn more than their parents did at the same age. Let that sink in. It's not that we're not earning, it's that we're not managing the money in the best way possible. So most people fall into what's called lifestyle inflation or lifestyle creep, if you've probably heard that before, basically, the more you earn, the more you spend. So you get a raise at work and all of a sudden you upgrade your car, you move into a more expensive apartment, you buy, let's say, airpods Max instead of actually fixing your own budget, and just like that you've got no more money than what you had when you were 21. And for me it was eating tuna out of a can with some brown rice. So now add in comparison culture on socials and suddenly you're behind. If you're not doing the Europe trip every summer or you're wearing the best brands that you see all over TikTok and Instagram at brunch, or whatever it may be, you think you're behind, but you're not. The truth is, if you don't take control of your money early, it will control you and trying to replicate all these influencers and people you see online who are trying to sell the dream of traveling all the time and buying the most expensive cars. The funny thing is, behind closed doors, they might be struggling to pay off this car because they've just gone to buy a car with a car loan expensive car loan, high interest and just to look like they're wealthy. But I guarantee behind closed doors they're not as wealthy as you think.

Speaker 1: 2:43

The three bucket money system is a system that I use myself and for certain clients who come to us and want to talk just general about money and savings, et cetera. This is what we also teach them from time to time. So, yeah, it's called the three bucket system and it's very simple. So you've got three buckets. Bucket one is your living bucket, so 60%. This is all your day-to-day stuff. So your rent, your food, your fuel, your gym membership, your nights out, socializing, so obviously this is where you put 60% of your pay when you get paid, and here's where most people blob it up. So they live at 90% or even 110% of their income, hence credit cards, et cetera. So they're spending more than they actually make. So go through your bank statements, highlight every subscription if you haven't done this already and figure out what's actually going out on a monthly basis. How much money have you got towards your binge, your Netflix, your HeyYou, your KO, all the streaming platforms? How much you have to go into your gym membership, your insurance, your rent, your Wi-Fi, electricity, literally everything. Figure it all out, because we've seen people paying 800 a year. Because we've seen people paying 800 per year for apps that they actually forgot existed. And then, when they look at their bank statements and figure out where all their money's going to, they have the realization of, oh, that's where it's going and that's why I'm feeling like I can't get ahead. So definitely do that if you haven't already. We have spoken about that on many other podcast episodes, but that's a a no-brainer and something which is really important to actually do.

Speaker 1: 4:34

Bucket number two is 20 to 30 percent of your pay goes to your wealth. So this is the money that builds your freedom and financial freedom. So we're talking, firstly, paying down debt. If you have debt so credit card debt, car loans, personal loans, any debt that you have that you want to get rid of, like consumer debt First thing, pay that down with this bucket. Secondly, high interest savings and then obviously, investing. So that could be dollar cost averaging into shares, putting more money into your superannuation or building up the savings deposit for a property to get into the property market.

Speaker 1: 5:21

A good tip for this one is to actually automate this bucket. So treat it like a non-negotiable bill. So figure out depending on what bank you're with. You can actually do automated transactions to pop in every second Friday after you get paid to put in a certain amount, so you don't have to think about it and then all of a sudden you've got the money going in and you actually forget about it over time.

Speaker 1: 5:41

But we've got a real life story of you know a situation with the bucket two. So a client of mine uh, you know, roughly 29 years old at the time, earning about 80 to 85 grand came to us with zero savings. So after just chatting, chatting to them, um, and figuring out what they wanted to do, he set up the three bucket system and after 14 months he had around 12 to 13 grand saved and on his way to investing into his first investment property and purchasing that with the deposit. So obviously you can't say it straight away, it takes time, like everything, but at least it's a big difference to where they were when they came to us. So that's why having a three bucket system is really important for things like that. It was yeah, it wasn't magic, it was system and consistency. So automated transactions, get it going automated, don't think about about it. And then all of a sudden you've got 13 grand after a year.

Speaker 1: 6:47

The last bucket is bucket number three. So this one is about your, the future. So, depending on how you really want to do your splits, you know roughly 10 to 20 percent, but this one's often forgotten but it's very important. This one's for like starting a business, you know, saving for a holiday, doing a course which can increase your knowledge and actually get you qualifications, perhaps as well as putting a deposit down in your dream home, just like the wealth one. You could even combine these if you're wanting to just solely put a deposit down, but think of it as investing in, think of it as investing in future you. So when you break it down like this, living, wealth and future money becomes less overwhelming and it kind of becomes fun and more strategic and you're going towards a goal as opposed to just living day-to-day, paycheck-to-paycheck, wondering where all your money's going. Now you know exactly where your money's going and you know exactly what goal you're wanting to actually achieve. So those three, that's three bucket system and if you have any questions with that, obviously, obviously you can reply to us on Instagram or the Spotify show notes. You can actually comment on that now, but that is a simplified version of it stuck. How I figured out these three.

Speaker 1: 8:07

I've kind of gone through over the last few years mainly what I've seen day in, day out, with people commenting on our TikToks or people messaging us and having meetings with us, and this is generally what we find most. So number one trap that you hear a lot is I'll start later or I'll invest down the track, or when things clear up or when I become less busy. The thing is, you're never really going to become less busy and time is your biggest asset. So if you invested $200 a month from the age of 25 at a typical 8% return, by 55, you'd have over half a million dollars, and if you waited until 35 years old to start, you'll need to double that monthly amount just to catch up. That shows that time and getting in earlier rather than later has such a big effect on the overall outcome down the track at the other end of the line. So, yes, you might be really busy and you might be putting something off, but we've seen people I spoke to a couple of clients five years ago who said they were going to do it in six months back then and fast forward. Now it's five years, so they've missed out on five years of growth, and five years of growth can be, you know, one to $300,000 over time, depending on the investment they did and what they're wanting to do. But that just shows how time can just creep up on you and you know you've really got to figure out what's the most important thing for you. Is it investing for future you? Or is it telling yourself you're too busy, that you don't wanna set yourself up and your kids and your family? So start now. Start small, but just start. That's the main thing to do. You just need to start.

Speaker 1: 10:10

Second most popular trap I hear is people living on borrowed money. So credit cards. Let's say you've got a $15,000 limit, you've got $1,000 in your bank account. You're just living on borrowed money. You're eventually going to have to pay it back and if you're spending too much that you can't afford, the interest on the credit card is going to come to bite you down the track and you're probably never going to really get on top of it, especially if you're not making those repayments and trying to smash it down with snowball techniques, avalanche techniques which we have talked about in previous episodes, but that's the conversation for another time.

Speaker 1: 10:53

But as well as credit cards, you've got buy now, pay later, schemes like zip and after pay, which at the time feel great and harmless, but you kind of forget about it and it's a slippery slope down. The alarming thing that is, more than 50% of young Australians using buy now, pay later have missed payments week in, week out, which is you know why. Are you buying this if you can't afford it? Now you've probably heard the saying if you can't pay for it in cash, or if you can't pay for it right now and double the amount, you can't afford it. So that's something you should probably listen to if you find yourself living on the credit card or after pay especially the younger Australians, because that's kind of who it's targeted at. And the problem is now people can actually purchase it with flights and accommodation which you can after pay, which is, you know, great if you're on a budget for a little bit and you've got the money. But if you don't have the money and you know people see divided up in four payments and it seems cheap, but then four night later, when you got to pay your second, third and fourth payment, all of a sudden you can't afford it. So you're paying tomorrow's money for today's dopamine hit and the interest is brutal. So, like I said, if you can't afford it twice, don't buy it once. As simple as that trap number.

Speaker 1: 12:18

And probably one of the most important factors and points is having no emergency fund. We've probably spoken about emergency funds on 20 to 30 different episodes. Emergency funds are really important. You need an emergency fund for things that you don't think are going to happen. They're emergencies, so you might get sick, your car might break down, work goes through a termination process and cuts down your hours or even, um, you know, lets you go, and then suddenly you're dipping into your rent money. You've got no money to save, or you've got no money to eat food, and then you're stressed and you can't really live the life that you're wanting to live. You don't need 20 grand saved. You might might only need a thousand bucks, two thousand, three thousand. But figure out what your expenses are like per month and then you know rule of thumb which is generally spoken throughout a lot of different platforms is you know, aim to build around two to three months of expenses in that emergency fund. So if anything did happen to your work or if you got sick of your car, you know, generally speaking, you can actually get back on your feet or figure something out within two to three months. So that's why that buffer is actually quite important. So you can, if you're struggling and you need to find a new job, you know, smash out some interviews and then within two to three months you'll have a job and you'll just be living off your emergency fund. So, very important the buffer that you have is mainly peace of mind, because if you're behind, if you got, let's say, $200 in an emergency fund or nothing, and then you're digging into all your savings that you've been putting towards for your investment property or your home that you want to buy and live in, well, that will just make the whole process stressful. But if you do have an emergency fund, you feel a bit more freedom and, like I said, massive with peace of mind.

Speaker 1: 14:11

Now, last episode I finished off with a bit of an activity and some actions to actually take, and I'm gonna do it again on this episode and this one. I'm just gonna talk about three actions you can take this week or the next two weeks and just to get you thinking about where your money's going and putting you in the right place and the right trajectory and mindset. So here are three simple things you can do this week. Number one I want you to track every dollar for 30 days. So go back for the last 30 days, write out all your money, especially money that's going out. So how much have you been spending on your coffees and your socializing and going out? How much have you been spending on your subscriptions, your phone bill, all your bills, everything like that? Make a google sheet, pop it all down and and just be aware, like just figure out the money and the actual figures and then, once you've figured out how much is going out, figure out how much is coming in and figure out the difference.

Speaker 1: 15:16

Secondly, automate your savings. So we spoke about this in in the buckets. Even $100 a week adds up to 5.2k a year. So set up an automatic, automated transfer. It can be, you know, literally $20 a week, $30 a week, but set it up so as soon as your pay hits, it gets transferred into your savings account. You don't have to think about it. It's one less thing for you to do and it's one more thing for your bank account to actually benefit from. So I want you to automate your savings and, like I said, could only be 20 to 30 dollars a week, which is fine. Just do it. Lastly, we've got around six months left of the year.

Speaker 1: 15:52

So set one clear financial goal from now till december 31st. That might be save $3,000. If it is, save $3,000 or $4,000 or $5,000. Reverse engineer it. Figure out how much money you need to put aside a week and then, once you figure that out, automate that amount to your savings. You might have a credit card. Maybe you want to wipe your credit card debt out before the end of the year, start the new year fresh and feel good about yourself and not have the debt hanging over your head. You might as well, before the end of the year, you might be wanting to get serious about investing in property. So book a session with someone who can help you build a property portfolio and just give you a bit of guidance of where you'd be looking and what your purchase prices or purchase prices, or speak to a broker, but that might be something important to you. Figure out one to two clear goals and write them down and make them happen, because six months can go in a blink. But if you slowly work towards these goals, you will start well. You'll end the year on a high and you'll start the new year on a high. So clarity creates action and action builds momentum. So they are the three actions I want you to start this week to do. Write them all down, get it all sorted and actually, you know, be proactive and get on top of this.

Speaker 1: 17:16

Before I close the episode, I just want to say that you don't need to be rich to get started. That's such a big misconception, which, especially what I'm seeing on TikTok. When I'm posting some videos, a lot of people are commenting basically, why would you invest if you're not rich? Well, that's how people get rich. A lot of people start when they can just afford a deposit and that's why rent investing is becoming so popular, because it's such a lower deposit level to get you into the property market, and this is how people build wealth over time. So you don't need to be rich to get started in investing in anything or just putting money aside and putting into shares or just saving for a rainy day. But you need to start to get rich if that is what you wanna do down the track and to have the freedom and the financial clarity. So that's what I wanna leave you on.

Speaker 1: 18:13

If this episode helped you, share it with one friend who needs to hear it, and if you listen to it on Spotify, apple Podcast, feel free to drop a review. That does go a long way in terms of the podcasting game. And lastly, if you do want help building your game plan, reach out to myself on Instagram or TikTok, oscar Don Property or our business Asset Road, and we can sit down, have a chat, see what you're wanting to achieve and ultimately see if we can actually assist you in the first place, because the truth is we can't assist everyone, but if we can assist you, happy days. But until then, thanks for listening. Stay consistent, really take on what we've spoken about today and I'll catch you next time. We hope you enjoyed the episode. As always, you know exactly what to do. Hit that follow button, subscribe whatever platform you listen to this podcast on. Also share it to friends, family, co-workers, whoever you think may benefit from it. But unfortunately it's the end and we'll see you next week.