A Christmas Special on Money, Perspective, and Feeling Behind 🎄

Christmas Eve has a way of slowing everything down and bringing perspective into focus. In this special episode, we talk about money, clarity, and what it really means to feel “behind” financially, plus how to reset your thinking before the new year begins.

Chapters

• 0:00 Christmas Special: Set The Scene
• 1:52 Clarity Over Pressure
• 2:44 Review Your Year’s Spending
• 4:05 Stability As A Money Skill
• 5:12 Learn Before You Invest
• 6:30 Delayed Gratification Mindset
• 8:03 December Traps And Judgment
• 9:21 Reflect, Don’t Restructure
• 10:31 Three Questions For Next Year
• 12:04 Support, Sign-Off, And Subscribe
• 12:20 Slow Years Are Not Wasted

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Merry Christmas from the Finance Bubble Podcast. Welcome to our Christmas special. Now, tonight or today, depending when you're listening to this, isn't about fixing your finances. It's about understanding them because clarity is a better starting point than pressure, especially at the end of the year. Tune into the Christmas special, short and sharp episode, and we'll dive into about how you're fixing your finances for 2026.

SPEAKER_01: 0:37

Welcome back to another episode of Let's Ear, and you come home with Oscar. But before we get into it, please note that nothing in this podcast ever being to this person's planet or cool. That is what you were thinking. Reach that will get you in touch with the correct effectively to get the job done properly. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04

Welcome back and Merry Christmas to everyone listening to this around the world. Currently it's Christmas Eve in Australia when it's getting released. So if you're in Australia, maybe listen to it on the Christmas morning. What better way to open your presents and start your Christmas day than listening to the Finance Bible podcast? Uh, this is our Christmas special. Zeke is currently on the plane from the Philippines, so he will not be able to attend the Christmas special. But he's here in spirit. This is 2025 Christmas special. And if you're listening to this on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, this is usually the one night or the one day of the year where things slow down. The rush eases, the year is almost closed, and there's finally space to think clearly. And if in that space you feel like you're behind financially, well, this is the episode for you because it's not to motivate you, it's not to press you. But this episode, the short and sharp app, is to help you reset how you think about the money or your money before the next year begins and how you can, you know, level yourself up. So feeling behind financially is really about the numbers, it's usually a signal. No, sometimes that something feels unclear, sometimes, sometimes something's misaligned or out of your control. And one of the best financial lessons I've ever learned is clarity beats intensity. So when people feel behind, they try to compensate by doing more. You know, I let's say I feel really behind in my my spending, so I'm gonna put more savings, more investing, and more risk. But the smarter move is almost always to pause and just simplify. So before you plan anything new next year, get clear on where your money actually went this year. So look at your whole budget. Even get your statement from January to now and categorize where your spending's gone. You know, how much is being spent out eating dinners, lunch, breakfasts, going to bars, things which aren't important. Like, yes, they're they're good for socializing, but things that you could actually cut back on and don't need how much you're spending on bills, how much you're spending on groceries, how much you're spending on your rent, figure out what you're spending your money on before you get into the next year. Also, get clear on what decisions created stress for you and what decisions reduced stress for you. Because if you're reflecting on the year that's gone, you want to you want to start next year off knowing exactly how to avoid those situations which created stress and how to actually enable and get more into the situations that reduce your stress to get you to your overall goals of it might be getting your money back on track. So we don't talk about stability enough as a skill. So holding steady when things feel uncertain is in terms of financial very financially mature. So if you don't blow up your cash flow and you didn't increase your debt emotionally and didn't chase returns you didn't understand, that is not falling behind. That is just pure protection of your capital. And capital protection always comes before growth. So if your finances are stable, your first priority next year isn't growth. So I believe your first priority next year is maintaining that stability while you're improving your understanding. So educate yourself. If it if it comes to investing and you're not really sure about investing, it might be share investing. Educate yourself, listen to podcasts, read books, figure out how do I start investing safely and not blowing my capital. Like how can I actually push myself forward in 2026? So it might be investing in property where you've been listening to the finance Bible for over three and a half, four years, and 2026 might be the year that you're wanting to actually make the leap and get involved. So make sure you improve your understanding, and that's just improving and learning things which you haven't actually had time to do before. One of the things I like to say is the most important financial wins don't show up immediately. They might show up in two years, three years, four years, five years. You might hear the good old debate of instant gratification versus delayed gratification. So that's exactly what this means. So if you're saving or budgeting for two to three years, that is delayed gratification of you wanting to buy a house in two, three years, as opposed to go shopping and you want to buy something straight away and you use money that you don't have, i.e. a credit card, that is instant gratification. So some financial wins don't feel like wins until they happen. Saying no to a deal, waiting instead of rushing, spending less, even when you could spend more, that's a really important one because that's what I think when you are in the mindset of having goals, let's say next year you want to save for a house by May, yes, you can spend the money on going for lunch or whatever, but you don't have to. These decisions don't feel productive, but they compound over time. The people who get into trouble financially are usually the active ones, not the patient ones. Patience is boring, but over time, if you do it correctly and smartly and also conservatively, you will be better off. So one takeaway that I've been thinking about this year is if you walked away from something this year because it didn't feel right, I don't think that's a missed opportunity. I think that's discipline. If you're in a position where you're you're kind of feeling, or this year you've kind of felt a bit, you know, weird about saying no to things because you're on that savings grind or you want to reach that goal. Don't feel bad about yourself. Like don't think it's a missed opportunity. In two, three years' time, when you hit that goal, you're gonna look back and you're gonna be proud of how disciplined you were and you know how how a level-headed and laser focused you were to get that to that goal. So that's a that's a big takeaway that I believe. Now, December. December's a a good month, a bad month, stressful month for many people. Lots of financial decisions, lots of money is getting thrown around in December for some people who have birthdays, but the majority is Christmas. Christmas time, you feel like you've got to spend money and buy presents for everyone, your family, your cousins, your in-laws, your friends. And that's let's be honest, majority of Australians don't really have that excess amount of money until they look at their credit cards and then they get into credit card debt. So December as itself is as a month, it's emotionally charged. You've got also your Christmas bonuses and obviously your holidays, time pressure. Main one comparison. So comparing yourself to people who might be able to afford a lot of gifts and money is not an issue for them. But if you're comparing yourself to people who are in a completely different position as you, that's only going to tear you down and get you into more debt, which you can't actually afford. And it all just clouds judgment. So that's why one of the smartest financial rules around December is this never make big money decisions when you feel rushed, tired, or behind. Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, it's not a planning night. It is, in my mind, a reflection night to look back at the year and figure out what went well, what didn't go well, how can I increase and actually get better at what I want to do next year. So use the time to review, not restructure. Use it to reflect, not react, and observe your patterns. So patterns, consistency, it all formats and all bundles into one big thing at the end of the day, one big snowball. Now, I don't know what you might be doing right now, but as I've mentioned, short and sharp, a bit of a motivational episode, actually. But there's three financial questions that I want you to take into next year. And if you're around the Christmas table today or tonight, if it's Christmas Eve, you're listening to this, even ask your friends and family this these questions. So number one is what drained me financially this year and why? Like, what is it? Yes, it's financially drained, but what about emotionally drained as well? Try and flip the question. Secondly, what decision brought me the most peace, not profit? Yes, we're a podcast about money, but this is a very important decision for your overall mental state. And number three, what do I need to understand better before I act again? For me, back in the day, it would have been me investing in shares. When I originally started when I was a bit younger, I thought, you know, everyone's investing in shares, you just make money, throw it in, it's gonna go up. But you need to understand and actually learn and read and understand the market and how everything works and the companies who what you're investing in before you invest, because you've got capital, but let's say you're starting with two grand and you put$1,000 in something which you think's a you know a home run, all of a sudden it goes down to zero. Well, then you're you're not left with much. So before you act again, definitely learn what you're wanting to achieve. I just use shares as an example, but there's many, many examples out there. But these questions create better decisions than any resolution. So, in closing, if this year felt slower financially, it doesn't mean it was wasted. You're gonna have good years, you're gonna have mediocre years, you're gonna have bad years. If yours was slower, it doesn't mean it's bad. But if you protected your downside, improved your thinking, and stayed in control, you did more right than you think. Christmas is for rest and not pressure. Let the year end quietly. Whatever you're doing, you might be having a quiet New Year's Eve with friends, you might be having an intense rager at a party or at a club, whatever you're doing. But just relax. Next year will take care of itself if your thinking is clear. And let me tell you, if you're listening to this podcast regularly, we know that you're wanting to level up because a lot of people don't listen to self-help and financial podcasts. So the fact that you're listening to this is you're already one step ahead of a lot of other people. And that to me means that you're on the right track to getting to where you want to be. So Merry Christmas from the Finance Bible. The good old Christmas specials are back. We may do a New Year's special, we'll see what happens. But have a great night, a great day, a great celebration, and don't be so hard on yourself. Get everything ready for next year. Use this time between Christmas and New Year's to plan ahead what you're wanting to achieve. Write your short-term goals, your long-term goals. Get everything in place, figure out those the steps you need to take to reach those goals and put a timeline on them because goals without a timeline are not goals, they're dreams. So figure out what you're wanting to achieve. And I back you, we back you. Everyone at the finance bible backs you and get going, better. Have a Merry Christmas and ciao.

SPEAKER_01: 12:04

We hope you enjoyed the episode. As always, we know exactly what to do.

SPEAKER_00: 12:08

Hit that follow button, subscribe, whatever platform you're listening to this podcast on. Also, share it to your friends, family, co workers, whoever you think will benefit from. Um fortunately,