Know Your Money with Bronwyn Waner and Craig Finch
Know Your Money with Bronwyn Waner and Craig Finch
82. How Community and Friendships Boost Your Financial Health Wheel of life 6
Can strong community ties and friendships really boost your financial health? This episode of Know Your Money uncovers the surprising impact of social connections on your financial well-being. Join Bronwyn, Craig, and Warren as we explore how engaging with your community and maintaining meaningful friendships can lead to a more balanced, fulfilling life. Craig shares heartfelt anecdotes about helping his neighbours, like the memorable story of the local newspaper guy who receives a special treat from his community every year on his birthday. These small, yet impactful gestures highlight the essence of community spirit and its positive effects on mental health and decision-making.
As we navigate through our discussion, Bronwyn and Warren reflect on their lifelong friendships and the effort required to sustain them. We emphasize that nurturing your social circle can lead to better financial planning and decisions, as a happier and well-balanced individual is more likely to make sound financial choices. Whether it's helping a neighbour or staying connected with old friends, these relationships provide invaluable support and emotional stability. Tune in to find out how investing time in your community and friendships can lead to greater happiness and financial stability.
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Welcome to Know your Money, where we will explore our relationship with money and how the psychology of it impacts our financial decisions, as everyone thinks about money differently. In our podcast, we'll be presenting a variety of financial topics in an easy to understand way, which we hope will assist you with managing your money. Hello everybody, welcome to Know your Money. Craig Warren, how are you today?
Speaker 2:I'm good. Thank you, Bronwyn, and you and Warren, how are you First you?
Speaker 3:Bronwyn. How are you?
Speaker 1:I am very well, thank you. I feel like I play Ching Chong Chaz, to whose name I should say first yeah, you do, and I think you're trying to elicit a reaction from us all the time, but do we remember who's first? It doesn't really matter, does it? No, it doesn't matter, it's one big family.
Speaker 3:It's like community, isn't it?
Speaker 1:It is. How did you know? So we are on the wheel and today is about community and friends and where you are sort of tracking on that 1 to 10, about spending time with family or friends and community.
Speaker 2:So some people don't think friends are important. What about them? So they might put it on their wheel as number 2 out of 10 and they might be happy with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's me. I think if you're happy with that, that's totally fine. The point of this wheel is we want to try to help everybody get to a point that they are happy with. How do you find time for more community and friendships if that means something to you, If it doesn't, that's okay.
Speaker 3:So I think for me community is important, but friends not so much, right? So community, my neighbors here, I like to help them when I can. There's the old boy, larry, next door. He always needs help with something, okay.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 3:I love to help him because I want a strong community. I want us to all care about each other. Okay, Because, I think that it can only help us as people right, Whether it's financially or not. So the community, I think, is very important.
Speaker 2:So it could be the newspaper guy. We've got a newspaper guy down the road. Yeah, we've known him for almost 20 years. It was his birthday yesterday. But a week before his birthday he puts a sign on himself saying it's my birthday next Thursday or whatever day. Every year we know it's his birthday, so all of us in the family we give him extra money, we baked him a cake. I mean he just loves that. So that community can be, that you know the small little gestures that you can help somebody in your community.
Speaker 3:It doesn't, matter what it might be, you know, I think helping people in the community or just being a good member of your community can lead to you being happier, more productive, and it's just been in a selfish way. It's beneficial to your own well-being. And so, to tie it back to finances and financial planning and everything, the more balanced you are as a person, the happier you are. You're probably going to make better decisions.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. That's the point of this wheel, and how do we help you get to a space? Because we've got to help you think about these different areas, like do friends mean something to you? Does community mean something to you? Are you doing any of that? Highlight that, because if you do start doing a bit more of that, it will affect your health, your money and all the other things.
Speaker 2:For me, friends are really important. I value my friends. I've had many friendships over the years that go back to school days, until before I went to school.
Speaker 1:I value those friendships and I look after them and they make you who you are today.
Speaker 2:And it takes effort to look after your friends and the relationships with them. It's not just they're going to phone you. You've got to put some time and effort into it and make time to see them, make time to phone them. I phone a few of my friends every week and we chat about stuff and it's very important that I keep in touch with them. I find it's very important for my well-being and what I feel.
Speaker 1:And I also think having your community and your friends around you have someone else to talk to other than your partner. Like Josh always says, like I can't fill your cup for everything, I can't be the one that's you know, that you can bitch and moan to. I can't be the one that you can complain to all the time and do this and do that. And it's so important to have friends because otherwise, if you expect that all from your partner, your marriage might get impacted.
Speaker 1:Josh sounds wise, eh, he's very wise, he is wise he doesn't talk a lot, but when he does, he's got and I've got friends in different areas of my life.
Speaker 2:I've got sporting friends that I play sport, play golf with cycle with. I've got friends that I can have deep intellectual conversations with.
Speaker 1:You've got your podcast friend here, yeah, we can get all woohoo, you know.
Speaker 2:So I don't have All my friends, don't. One friend doesn't fill all the parts of my life, and I don't feel all their parts of life either. So that's how I look at my friends in different areas.
Speaker 3:You've diversified, your friend portfolio, that's pretty good.
Speaker 1:There's a balance.
Speaker 2:For me it's very friends are very, very important and also I think friends help impact other areas.
Speaker 1:So, for example, josh and I did have a little tiff the other day and I my friend said we finished gym and she said what's wrong? I said I don't want to talk about it and then we carried on speaking and then, towards the end, she's like are you ready? And I was like, yes, well, and I went on and off and I actually felt so much better afterwards and having her helped my marriage also, having friends that do play sports, allows you to go play sports with them. So now you're looking after your fun and recreation or your health. You know it impacts all these different areas or the sense of community. You might then go for a walk with your neighbor or do something else which you have a poiki competition in your street, I don't know, but it impacts your wheel of life.
Speaker 3:Like I say with my neighbor Larry, I love it. Every morning we say hello, it's like home improvement, do you?
Speaker 1:remember I used to talk to him.
Speaker 3:Yes, it's exactly the same yeah yeah, he tells me what I'm doing wrong and I tell him I'll try better.
Speaker 2:And you also help your community. You might be cleaning a part of the street or the river or doing anything that somebody and you know what?
Speaker 3:I know that one day, if I need Larry's help, if I'm away in the UK and something needs to be done right now, he'll come and help. Yeah, that's brilliant.
Speaker 1:And I think that's the point of today is just to stop and think like are you doing enough with your friends or your community? And if you are, that's okay. Okay, but if not, how can you get involved? What can you do to? Yes to just make your life more fulfilling and to enjoy all aspects of it a bit more absolutely I think that's it it's a good one, guys, great, yeah, thank you, everybody have a.
Speaker 2:Cheers.
Speaker 1:Bye.
Speaker 2:Thank you for listening. If you have enjoyed this podcast and would like to subscribe, please visit our website wwwgrowthfpcoza. The information we have provided in this podcast is our personal opinion. For more detailed information, please discuss your financial situation with a financial planner.