Money Chats FAQs
There's a gap in how Australian teens and young adults learn and talk about money. Hopefully this place helps you with that.
All the questions I’ve been asked about Money Chats. Don’t see what you want to know? No problem. Just email me at AusMoneyChats@gmail.com.
📌 Q: What is the point of Money Chats?
A: Money Chats exists to give clear, unbiased, 100% independent advice to teenagers and young adults about money.
📌 Q: Isn’t the stuff people ask here taught in schools?
A: It should be. But it isn’t.
Most of us don’t realise that until we graduate. That was definitely the case for me, and most of my friends.
One of the most common things we said to each other when we were in our early 20’s was ‘Why didn’t they teach us this money stuff at school??’
So this is meant to help give you a head start (and hopefully avoid some pretty annoying money mistakes too).
📌 Q: Can’t I just ask my parents / teachers this stuff?
A: Yes! You should absolutely do that.
But not everyone has the kind of relationship with their parents and teachers where talking about money is normal. For a lot of people (parents included) money is a topic that they find awkward / stressful / scary. That means that they might not be totally comfortable talking about it.
And if we’re being totally honest, not all adults have great money habits or a good handle on what works and what doesn’t.
Something like Money Chats is handy for teens and young adults in those situations.
And even if you have the ability to chat openly about money with the adults in your life, this is just another source of information for you.
📌 Q: So should I just be doing everything you say?
Nope.
I’m never going to pretend I know everything or that anything here is the ‘only right way’ to do stuff. There’s plenty of different ways to save and spend. But the stuff here is supposed to be another point of view that you can take on board alongside what you learn from parents / teachers and others. I definitely encourage you to talk about what you read here with trusted adults too if that’s something you’re comfortable doing.
Then, the final decision of what you do is always up to you. But wouldn’t you rather make those decisions with more information and points of view rather than less?
📌 Q: So is money the most important thing? Seems like you’re saying it is.
A: Nope.
Money is definitely NOT the most important thing.
For me, I think the people in your life that you have good relationships with are the most important thing. Closely followed by your passions, hobbies and basically anything that makes you happy and content.
Money is just a way to do more of those things, with the people you choose to do them with (see the next question for some of my personal examples of those things 👇🏽).
Having money, avoiding mistakes with it and spending it well gives you more choices.
That’s why I think money stuff is worth getting right whenever you can. Hopefully reading this helps you with that.
📌 Q: How did Money Chats start?
A: In a completely different way actually. I’ve tutored high school aged students for years. As I got to know a lot of them better they began to ask what I’d call ‘life questions’. A lot of them had to do with money stuff.
Questions about whether they should be saving (and how much), how to stop spending too much, tax, Afterpay, friends wanting to borrow money, credit cards and way more.
A lot of the time the last 5 or 10 minutes of our tutoring sessions wouldn’t be about a speech they had to do for English or a History essay, but about their questions about ‘money stuff’. That’s where the idea came from.
After a while I realised that I’d often get the same questions from different students.
And they also told me that being able to talk about this stuff was really helpful to them.
So Money Chats is my idea to take those questions that I get asked by teenagers and young adults like you and publish them with the goal of helping more people with their money questions.
And since we’re online now, if you’ve got a money question you want help with you can ask it here (it’s a link to a survey form).
📌 Q: Why should I listen to you? Are you rich? (Part 1)
A: Well, you definitely don’t have to listen to me. So that’s the first thing.
But I think I might be a good person to learn from about some of this stuff. Here’s why (but of course, you can decide for yourself).
I come from a family of teachers. My grandparents actually started a school in a rural area where there wasn’t any schools before theirs opened. And then they taught in it, for decades. So heaps of kids, mostly from poor families, who wouldn’t have learned to read and write got a chance to do that and get a shot at a better life. Pretty cool.
I actually married a girl who became a teacher too.
And I’ve always tutored and enjoyed teaching too (I started with helping my 6 and 8 year old cousins with their math homework. I was 12 at the time. It did not go well).
I’ve also learned plenty of lessons with money. And made mistakes too. But I’ve had good habits with money for a while now.
📌 Q: Why should I listen to you? Are you rich? (Part 2)
And no I’m not ‘rich’.
But I do have a pretty awesome life; one that makes me really happy (and that’s mostly because of the people in it, not because the money I have).
But those good money habits I mentioned? They’ve helped me do a lot of pretty cool things with those people:
Travel where I wanted while I studied and worked, with the people I wanted to travel with.
Buy tickets to every sporting event I’ve ever wanted to go to.
Buy HEAPS of tickets for concerts and festivals.
Pay for weekends away with friends.
Buy an engagement ring to propose to my girlfriend with.
Invest.
Buy a house before I was 30 without any help from anyone else (pretty proud of that one).
I don’t have any tricks or secrets. But I’ve definitely learned plenty of stuff. Sometimes by making mistakes. Sometimes by learning from other people (the good and the bad). And I know that I can help people like you by sharing some of those stories and the questions people like you ask.
So yeah, that’s the ‘why me’ part.
📌 Q: Is this a scam?
A: Great question.
And one that you should ALWAYS ask whenever anything money-related is mentioned by a website, company, Instagram influencer or TikToker.
But when it comes this place? No. No scams. No tricks. No get rich quick schemes. No cryptocurrency. Nothing like that at all. Just information that (hopefully) helps you make better money decisions by learning from others.
📌 Q: Are the things you say ‘rules’ that I have to follow?
A: Nope.
These are just questions that I get asked by teens and young adults and the answers I have based on research that I do and my own experience.
Take it or leave it, totally up to you.
But I figure if you have more information about the different options and the data out there then you’ll be in a much better position to make better decisions for you.
📌 Q: Can’t you put this stuff in a Reel or on TikTok?
A: I could, but I won’t.
Creating good content for Instagram or TikTok takes heaps of time and I’ve got nothing but respect for people who do it (Mr Beast or Khaby or Charli D’Amelio spend literally hours filming and editing each post). I just don’t have the time to do it in a way that would make anyone want to watch (and I’ve got absolutely zero desire to be Insta-famous).
I get it. This written format might not be for everyone. But it works for a lot of people like you. It only takes 4 - 7 minutes to read each post.
I know Money Chats is not gonna compete for the ‘most entertaining’ thing you see on any given day. But it might be up there with the ‘most useful’ or ‘most impactful’.
That’s the hope anyway! But if you find a way to learn about this stuff that works better for you, you should definitely go for it.