📣😯 Announcement: Money Chats is Adding 2 New Things

The money stuff that you wish they taught in school

There’s 3 big things to cover in this newsletter. Straight to the point:

• I’m adding a paid subscription option

• I’m adding 2 new newsletter types

• I'm going to explain those 👆🏽 decisions

I’m doing this ‘wrong’.

See, what you’re meant to do is try to distract people with a bit of “look at all this cool new stuff that’s happening!” and then do the whole “and you can get it for this low low cost!”

But everyone sees straight through that. So I decided it do it the other way round.

Stay with me. As always, I’ll try be really clear and honest with you about what’s happening (and why) 🤞🏽.

This Newsletter

1. What’s Changing?

2. Q&A 💬

3. 📩 What You’ll Get #1: A New Newsletter

4. 📩 What You’ll Get #2 : A ‘Best Of’ Newsletter

5. Over To You 🙂

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1. What’s Changing?

This part is short.

1. I’m going to add 2 new regular newsletter types to Money Chats.

2. I’m also going to add a paid subscription option to Money Chats.

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2. Q&A

Q: Do I have to pay?

Nope! This is just an invite to update to a paid subscription if you want to access some extra Money Chats content. You can choose whatever option works for you / your family.

• The regular ‘Q&A’ edition that you’ve been reading up until now will stay free.

• A new, in-depth, ‘Big Question’ edition will be for paid subscribers (more details below).

• A new monthly ‘Best Of’ newsletter will be for paid subscribers (more details below).

Q: Why are you charging for part of Money Chats? Why don’t you just do all of it for free?

I could do that. But Money Chats is work. Don’t get me wrong. When I say ‘work’ I don’t mean it as a bad thing. I just mean that it takes time and effort to collate, research, write, edit and publish every edition of Money Chats 👨🏽‍💻.

I hope that Money Chats is useful, interesting and valuable to many of you reading. And I believe that if you are good at something and it provides value to other people then it’s ok to invite them to support it by paying for it (and that it’s also totally fine if they don’t want to).

Q: Couldn’t I just learn this stuff for free from somewhere else?

Probably! There are literally thousands of sources of information out there about money, personal finance and education. Plenty are free.

But in my opinion a lot of them aren’t very good 👎🏽. They’re badly written. Or boring. Or written by a company trying to sell you a credit card or a loan.

As far as I know, Money Chats is unique. Because it’s:

• a) ✅ written specifically for teens and young adults,

• b) ✅ by an Australian writer, for an Australian audience,

• c) ✅ not chasing views / likes on social media, and,

• d) ✅ totally independent of any company.

But you’ve got to choose the learning option that works best for you. If that’s Money Chats, that’s brilliant! If it’s something else, that’s awesome too.

Q: What are you going to use the money for?

Well, that kind of assumes that anybody subscribes, which might not happen 😅. But if they do, here’s the plan.

• I’ll automatically be saving 20% of it, like I always have (and as I’ve written about here before).

• We’ve got a mortgage. And like most younger and new-ish homeowners, it’s pretty big. So we’ll be using some of it to help pay that!

• And if anyone at all pays for a sub (seriously, even just one person) we’ll definitely be going to the local Vietnamese bakery for a celebratory Banh Mi + Rice Paper Rolls lunch on Sunday (and I’ll post pics to show it in all of its amazing glory 🍽😋).

Q: Will you keep doing Money Chats even if no one pays for it?

Yep! Here’s why.

I’ve got a day job. The work that I do there is interesting and challenging. I work with people who are smart, motivated and kind (mostly anyway 😅). So I’m very lucky: I really like my job.

But I love writing Money Chats for you guys. That’s why I get up early or stay up late to research and write it. It’s incredibly cool to get your questions and then provide you some data and research-backed answers to think about when you’re making your own money choices.

I think Money Chats helps people. And my wife says that it’s one of the things she’s seen me get really passionate about 😊.

So yes, for all those reasons, I’m going to be doing this even if no one upgrades to a paid subscription.

Q: How much?

• $10 a month, or,

• $90 a year (a 25% saving).

That works out to $2.50 or less a week, which I hope makes it accessible to anyone who wants to read it. Since it’s educational you could ask your parents to help with the cost of it if that’s something you’re comfortable doing.

And of course, you can cancel at any time if it stops being useful to you!

This offer is for those who choose to subscribe by the 8th of October:

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3. 📩 What You’ll Get #1: A New Newsletter ‘The Big Question’

• I try to be really concise and clear when I’m answering your questions. It’s part of the reason Money Chats works.

• But sometimes I get a question that needs more research and words to answer it. That’s usually because it covers a REALLY important financial topic.

• So I’ve decided that there’s going to be two regular editions of Money Chats from now on.

  • The Regular ‘Q&A’ Edition that you’ve been reading already (stays free).

  • A new ‘Big Question’ Edition (for paid subs).

Here’s some of the questions and answers that will be in the first few ‘Big Question’ Newsletters.

Q: “I got FOMO so I went and spent heaps on Taylor Swift tickets 😭. Should I try sell them to get my money back?”

Q: “I’ve got a part-time job but I don’t think I’m getting paid super. Is that allowed?? How do I check?”

Q. “Is it ok to get a sports betting account? The ads are everywhere so it must fine right?”

Q: “Why is the cost of everything always going up (inflation)?”

Q: “I’ve read that compounding interest is important. But I don’t really get it. Help?”

I’ll publish an example of a ‘Big Question’ Newsletter next Tuesday.

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4. 📩 What You’ll Get #2: A Monthly ‘Best Of’ 🏆🥇

You’re busy. I get it. School stuff, friends, part-time jobs, learning to drive, sport, assignments, relationships, TikTok, pets, exams, gaming, family stuff, deciding senior subjects, uni courses, exercising and sleep.

With everything you’ve got going on, I find it incredible that so many of you find the time to read Money Chats most weeks. Nicely done 👊🏽.

But there’s going to be times when you don’t get the chance to read every week. So I thought I’d try help with that.

Paid subs will get a monthly ‘Best Of’ email as well. It’ll pull together the best stuff from:

• The regular ‘Q&A’,

• the ‘Big Question’ newsletters, plus,

• include the best of other resources I’ve read / listened to that month (articles, podcasts, books).

Here’s a shiny purple button to click in case you want to see the subscription options (monthly or annual):

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5. Over To You 🙂

If you have any questions for me, please don’t hesitate to reach out (you can just hit ‘reply’ to this email).

In the welcome email that I send when someone signs up to Money Chats I say this:

The Big Goal

My goal with this newsletter is to make YOU feel more in control of all the big money decisions you’re facing (and that you will face as life comes at you).

I think Money Chats might be doing that out there. Here’s why. It’s some incredibly kind feedback I’ve gotten from readers (or parents of readers) like you:

“Love this!! I only finished high school a few years ago and cannot stress enough how much this is needed.”
-L.S., Brisbane

“I just wanted to say that I love how you respond to the kids questions with humour, humility and respect. They are perfect for a range of ages and really neatly done.”
-S.M., Sydney

• I want to keep reaching more people with Money Chats, and making it better for you.

• If you / your parents choose to support the newsletter with a paid subscription, you’ll be helping me do that 😄

And thanks so much for the time you take to read this newsletter every week. I am very grateful for your support, feedback, stories and questions.

-Ry ✌🏽

P.S. If you want to receive the paid sub version of Money Chats but can’t do $10 a month at the moment, send me an email. We’ll figure something out to make sure you get a copy of every newsletter.

If you decide that it’s a good choice for you, you can upgrade your subscription with a discount for an annual plan here (or just try it out for a few months to see if it’s useful to you)