Teaching our children about financial literacy is crucial. In the latest episode we dive deep into the topic of investing for kids and how parents and grandparents can set them up for a financially secure future.

RAIZ Invest, a platform dedicated to making investing accessible and educational for young people. We discuss the importance of starting early and how even small contributions can lead to significant financial growth over time. With the power of compounding interest, investing for children can create a nest egg that grows exponentially as they reach adulthood.

One of the standout features of the RAIZ app is its user-friendly interface that allows adults to set up investment accounts for their children. Brendan explains the simple process of opening a RAIZ Kids account, emphasizing the low minimum deposit requirement of just $5. This accessibility means that anyone can start investing, regardless of their financial situation.

The episode also highlights the importance of financial education. Brendan shares his personal experiences teaching her own children about investing, focusing on breaking down complex concepts into bite-sized, relatable information. This approach not only helps kids understand the mechanics of investing but also instils a sense of financial awareness from a young age.

Listeners will learn about the different types of portfolios available through RAIZ, including conservative and aggressive options, as well as socially responsible investments. Brendan emphasizes that parents should choose portfolios that align with their values and financial goals, making investing a meaningful experience for their children.

Moreover, the podcast touches on the behavioural aspects of saving and spending. With the app's roundup feature, users can save effortlessly by rounding up their purchases and investing the spare change. This innovative approach encourages a habit of saving that can last a lifetime.

TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS AFTER THIS BRIEF MESSAGE

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Phil: The company and or guest has contributed to the costs associated with producing this episode of Shares for Beginners.

Chloe: Shares for Beginners. Phil Muscatello and FinPods are authorised reps of Money Sherpa. The information in this podcast is general in nature and doesn't take into account your personal situation.

Brendan: Imagine the power of their super know Once they get 18 or they start the workforce, they have su super and they put that little bit extra into their super by the time they're 60. We're talking Isabelle's for our, uh, kids accounts to 18, that's 14 years. But when she goes from 18 to 60 odd, that's where it's really easy to show what the impact or the effect of compounding can do.

Phil: G'day and welcome back to Sharers for Beginners. I'm Phil Muscatello. How can you start investing for kids? And more importantly, what steps can you take to teach them about investing from a young age for themselves? Today I'm joined by Brenda Malone from Ray Invest to explain investing for young members of the family and some of the traps to watch out for. G'day, Brendan.

Brendan: Morning, Phil. How are you going? Good to be here again.

Phil: Good, thanks. Yep, thanks very much. Good to see you again in the big end of town there.

Brendan: Yes. Based in Sydney, so bit cold for the beginning of January or for the middle of January, but we're pushing through.

Phil: Fantastic. Okay, now look, we're going to be talking today about investing for kids, or in my case, grandkids, and the experience I've had, all of the traps and the ins and outs and how you can do it with rays. And I just want to say at this point, this is to do with my personal experience of raise. I signed up before Christmas because my grandson, who's three years old, I wanted to be able to start investing for him because every Christmas, every birthday, there's some, you know what it's like. Sometimes presents, especially at that age, they're going to last for 10 minutes and then they're gone. But, you know, you want to give them a bit more of a, um, something that they can take further in life. So I signed up for my own raise account, which is a prerequisite, and then set up the grandson account. Is it as simple as that?

Brendan: Look, it is as simple as that, Phil. And for the listeners out there, just a quick recap on what raise is. Not actually what raise is, but what we build our core principles on. And this is why it's so important for someone like your grandsonson who's three or I've got a six year old son and a four year old daughter and you know, it's heartwarming and realistic to me what race kids can do and what difference it can make. So race was built on the two core principles that small amounts add up over time and that we can use or you, uh, in your case, or me, my case can use something like raise and the technology that we have today to lean on that to both uh, financially educate and financially aware financial inclusion but also save and invest at the same time. So small amounts over time and up and I think a testament to raise in the hard work that the team have done here over our coming up to nine years next month is that we've got over $1.6 billion of funds under management. So small amounts, whether it's a dollar a day, dollar a week, dollar a month add up and we've got 1.6 billion in funds under management. So it's huge. Uh, and as I said, you raise kids is the simple way to save and invest small amounts regularly for your children or your grandchildren in your case. We uncles and aunties can set it up or any other dependents, your gotidechildren or something like that. And the way that we see or receive the feedback, it is that wide range of people and it is, you know, I love it. You know, my father uh, does it for my grandkids because it is better than a toy as you say. You know, toys come and go but what the difference is. And we've seen the stats, we've seen the guys talk about AVO and toast and m what we d see the big end of super, uh, saying what does five dollar a day a week mean to your retirement in next years? It's exactly the same principle. You know, by the time Tom turns 18, he will have a nest egg there for him that I probably wouldn't have had. Uh, I couldn't turn up on his 18th birthday and say here you go disosing.

Phil: Well, I'm hoping this for the big O as well. I won't mention his name, but we'll call him the big O for this. Uh, for the purpose of this interview now, I just wanted to go through the mechanics of setting up the account. So basically when I set up the account, you have to have a minimum deposit of $5 per week. Is that the case?

Brendan: Yes.

Phil: And then there's the cost, there's the $4.50 per. Sorry, I can't remember now.

Brendan: I'll start from the top. Phil. It's to have a raise kids account you have to be an adult and open an adult raise account. To get an active account started you have to have a minimum of a $5 deposit. Now I mean if you. I recommend that all listeners read the PDF s and the additional disclosure document. Anything that I'm saying here is is general advice, not personal advice. And we don't take into consideration individual's personal circumstances. So from a higher level you set up a raise account as an adult, you pass the KYC'and um, you link your debit card or your credit card to it for our, what we call our roundup functionality. KYC know your client. So it's a bit like opening a bank account. You sort of, you've got to provide your ID to say that you it is Brenda Malone opening that account and then

00:05:00

Brendan: you link your debit card or your credit card to it if you would like to use the roundup function. So what that means is you buy a coffee for $4 50 downstairs we see that transaction, we round that to $5 and we put that 50 cents into your portfolio. And this is where the minimum of $5 investment becomes prevalent. Because as those 50 centss are at those amounts add up to $5 or more, we will direct debit your bank account or your funding source that you've linked and put it into the share portfolio you choose.

Phil: So you, because that's the other part of it as well. There's the $5 a week that you're putting in just as a basic minimum. But then you've got the roundup. So uh, when you add your credit card for example in my case I seen over certain periods of time that a few dollars go into the account as well from these roundups.

Brendan: Yeah, exactly, exactly. But just you need $5 to open an account. That's the minimum investment. It's not a five dollar weekly reoccurring the individual. We've got the reoccurring functionality that you can set it up. It could be $5 a day, $5 a week, $5 a month. We see a lot of people set and I presume that they're either on monthly or fortnightly or monthly. So you can see that on the 18th of the month or the 2nd of the month people have a monthly contribution coming out. So you can set it up as long as you as frequently or infrequently as you like. But because your bank account is linked to it for a funding purpose, you can have one or flumps deposit. So it might be big o's birthday. So instead of grandparents and, and the friends and all giving $50 cash, they can put $50 into the bank account and you can make that one off lump Su deposit into their raise account. So it is as simple as that. The registration flow for setting up an account usually takes sort of three to five minutes depending on your personal circumstances. And linking banking account.

Phil: It was prety fast. Uh, was very fast.

Brendan: Yeah.

Phil: And the verification and it will also, the verification is incredibly fasting because you know this is rock solid bulletproof regulated as well, isn't it? By all of the appropriate bodies regulated.

Brendan: And our security systems as well. What does keep me awake at night to make sure we're doing it right, doing it accurately and everything's safe and secure. So once you've set up a raise account for yourself and I'll say Brendan, in this case then I can go in and inside the app there'll be a functionality called RaceKids and I can add a new account. And what that uh, does is at the Brendon level I can have a portfolio. And if you're using our standard portfolios for an E explanation or an example, we have conservative portfolios up to aggressive portfolios. Each one of those portfolios are made up of seven different ETFs or exchange traded funds quoted here on the ASX. But it's the weighting between the conservative to the aggressive that sort of creates that risk change from a conservative portfolio to an aggressive portfolio. So as an adult account you pick which portfolio you would like. There's also our Emerald which is our socially responsible or our Sapphire which has a 5% allocation to crypto for the individuals that would like to learn and understand what Bitcoin is and how it works and the volatility of it. We have some property portfolios because we run our own raised residential property fund here that now is 13 Australian residential properties across here for the individuals that would like some exposure to the property. And then we have our plus which sort of gets a little bit more complicated because what the plus portfolio does is you can create and weight your own Portfolios with about 102 ASX listed stocks, 48 ETFs, a 5% allocation to Bitcoin or up to a 30% allocation to our property. Residential property. So you create that uh, in your name and then when you set up a kids account you could have it exactly the same portfolio because these are all pre made so you can select them to make life easier for new investors. Or you could have different portfolios. So for Example, my account'in the plus portfolio because I'm testing and constantly changing the makeup of it. But Tom's account being a six year old boy, he's in the Sapphire portfolio because he's, he does actually at 6 know what crypto is and talks to me about it. And Isabel's in the social responsible portfolio. So under my name I've got Brendan Malone in the plus portfolio and then I have two sub accounts, one for Thomas in the Sapphire, one for Isabel in the Emerald portfolio. So that there is different exposure for those guys as well.

Phil: No, uh, Trump Coin then?

Brendan: Absolutely not. But as I said, Tom, I don't know where he gets it from at 6, but he did bring that up last week and something and he said, but Trump's wife's got something now, dad.

Phil: Yeah, that's right. She had to get in on the action. It was funny. I was just, just as a bit of an aside, I was um, looking at an account on X. Someone who works in financial services had just finished a 13 hour a day and she was talking to the cleaner and the cleaner told her that he'd made $95,000 on Trump coin in two hours and she thought, what am I doing? Well, yeah, we know who we're talking about here.

Brendan: Yeaheah. Yeah.

Phil: Okay, so getting back to sensible investing. Sensible, but maybe not quite so, so profitable.

Brendan: Y a point on that is that why did we develop the Sapphire portfolio? Because investors want to get an understanding of it. And per our

00:10:00

Brendan: previous conversations that we've had and podcasts only one of my key philosophies is only invest in what you know and understand. So we built this Sapphire portfolio to have a 5% allocation. So it's only a maximum of 5%. And I explained to you last time that when Bitcoins goes to the moon, the investors will say, well, why does raise only allow me 5%? But when it comes down they say, oh, now I understand why it raise only allows 5%. So we created it from that. You know, I'm not advocating crypto but uh, I wanted people to understand in an environment with guardrails on it, that you can have up to a 5% allocation in Bitcoin to understand what it is and the volatility of it.

Chloe: Super is one of the most important investments you'll ever make. But how do you know if you're in the best fund for your situation? Head to lifesh shera.com.au to find out more. Life Sherpa, uh, Australia's most affordable online financial advice.

Phil: So what kind of recommendation would you make for parents or grandparents, aunts and uncles in terms of preparing for the future? I mean I guess what I'm trying to say is what happens if the worst happens? How can you record it? You need to tell the parents what's going on that there's an account here that's in their name.

Brendan: I think it varies and we can see the behavior on the kids accounts. Like I said I've got a four and six year old. They're not logging into the app through the kids portal and checking ah out the account balance. Tom will ask me Isabell at for has s got no interest in it but Tom now understands to a certain to a very limited extent you what the market is and I did show him when the market dropped that his balance did go down on our performance graph. So he sor. He says so what's market movement? So it's what uh the idea of that at the 4 to 6 to 7 or 8 or even 9 tens and 13s is to be financially aware and sort of start developing that base of financial education. I have a 16 year old nephew who is works at McDonald's the funding source for his account is his dad's account but he said dad I want to put dollar into my raise account and he can have a look at them. The parental controls we have in the app is is the kids account are they able to change the investments? They won't get access to our raise rewards program they won't have access to our super ed is just that portfolio. So we put some guidelines and some parental controls in there. So at that sort of 16 year age where they are interested in sort of savings and investing either the crypto market or the stock market they can actually have a hands on experience but with guard rails and the controls around it. But it's all about the whole process and even raise as a wider product. You know our number one goal when we launch was to make sure that we can financially educate financially include with a hands on experience in the palm of your hands and people can understand what the markets are get exposure to it save and invest and you know back to the previous conversations that we have had know everybody's got a bad habit of saving spending so let's create a bad habit of saving and that's why that roundup functionality tool you're saving.

Phil: As you go getting ahead by spending.

Brendan: More M my wife does say that but I say money put it in.

Phil: Into raise your path to wealth spend.

Brendan: More well mean people won't We've all done it for years. We've had Excel spreadsheets, we've had pieces of paper with budgets and things. But I think we did a survey a few years ago and 78% of customers said that they have a budget but only 43% of it stick to it. And in again this time of year in January, everybody's got two new year resolutions or it's now three actually before COVID it was get fit and save money. Now it's get fit, save money and travel more when we talk to our customer base. But it all goes very well for January, February, people stuff dropping off and you know, going back to their old bad habits. So if we can create this automated functionality where you've got dollar going into a rent account or five dollar five going into a utilities account or a holiday fund or an emergency fund and that behaviour gets stuck with them at a young age then hopefully it'll work for the rest of their life and they learoon.

Phil: Let's talk about the tax treatment of a kid account because there's two ways of setting up a kids account, especially in the old school world. One is where it's actually in the child's name and they have a tax file number and then the other way is the way that you've chosen with raise what's the difference there?

Brendan: Yeah, look at the end of the day it's still a sub account of your account and the funding comes out of your bank account and by no means is this tax advice and we suggest that you speak to it a tax advisor in relation to your own personal circumstances as well. But so what happens is the Tom's account will stay there as a sub account to mine and then when he turns 18 you'll get saying would you like to transfer this? It's been in Tom's name'll transfer it to Tom's name He will need to be KYC or complete the sign up process to make sure it is a real person and it is Thomas opening the account, provide the tax lo number etc. And then it's his account there. So then there'll be a decision to be made on the tax treatment of that when he sells those assets.

Phil: But in the case of when like I'm setting up the account for the big O I'll be responsible

00:15:00

Phil: for any of the capital gains and dividends and income that might be arising.

Brendan: Yes. So if you put some money in it and then you need to take some out of it, it'll be sold down and uh, with Raise. We provide an annual tax statement every year and that'll come under your annual tax statement that say any distributions that you receive. As a side note, I was just looking at the numbers today. We've invested over $15 million in dividends in January for our customer base, which is huge. So any of those distributions that you would receive, either in your name or in the kids account, will be on that annual statement for you to declare in your tax return.

Phil: Can you opt for dividend reinvestment plans?

Brendan: It's all reinvested because of the structure and the IP we have behind it. We all the ETFs paid dividends and that pays the cash. And then we reinvest that back into your portfolio. So you might get a dividend from the ST. You have $10, but we won't put that $10 back into that specific ST ETF. We spread that $10 across your portfolio so everything gets reinvested.

Phil: Okay, let's talk about education. How can you use the app to educate the kids more in their financial future?

Brendan: I'm very proud of what we're trying to achieve and I think we have achieved in the wider data customer base, uh, over the last sort of nine years because of that, creating that, reoccurring savings and investings and awareness of the market, etc. And I think I've told you before, I'll go to a room of hundred people and do a presentation or a webinar on financial education and I'll say, hey, put your hand up if you've got a super fund. And they all put their. You, especially in Australia, everybody's pretty much got a super fund if you're working. And then I'll say, leave your hand up if you're invested in the equity market. And I guarantee 95% of them will put their hands down. Now, it's highly likely that they've got their superannuation is invested in the equity market in an Australian super fund. So it's that education and awareness that we're getting out there from financial education, um, you know, all the old terminologies, financial literacy or financial financial jargon. So I'm proud of what we do there. But then on if you bring it back down, what I'm really proud about and what interests me is the behaviors. By having something like raise and having that roundup functionality, it makes people aware and more conscious of where they're spending their money. Well, because I'm getting these roundups. How did that six, $52 or roundups come? Well, it was off my Netflix subscription, my Disney subscription, my st. Well, do I need all those? So it's making people aware. A lot better and a lot more transparent because it's in the palm of your hand, not necessarily in the format of your bank statement or anything traditionally that you've got. It's making people aware. So it not only does the financial education, financial awareness, financial inclusion, but it also makes an individual stop and look back and go, okay, well where am I spending my money? Where can I actually save some money and potentially invest? So it's huge. I mean even watching the kids product grow over the last sort of two and a half, three years and we've got over 45,000 accounts there. The fact that they're being set up by parents, grandparents, godparents, you know yourself, fathers and mothers, it's that they're thinking about their kids future, they're thinking about that financial intergenerational and I don't want to use the word wealth transfer because uh, it's starting to get a bit, uh, overused. But it's providing the tools and the awareness and the education that there is something like rays that, that can help for tomorrow.

Phil: So when you're talking with Thomas, are you going right into the nuts and bolts? Like you're sort of starting to explain the portfolios and the asset breakdowns. You re getting to that kind of level. But how do you approach it with him?

Brendan: Yeah, one week he's fully into it, next week he's back on his iPad doing something else or playing Mario Kart. It's a bit like the way that we try and do financial education. It's, some of it can be very complicated, but we try and break it down into bite sizes, chunks of information that a customer can sort of compute and understand and relate to it. Uh, like one of our most successful posts on Instagram was what does the ASX stand for? Because people see it on the news, they see it front page of the paper, but they don't actually know exactly what it is. So when I'm talking to Thomas, I explained to him that you're in the Sapphire portfolio, mate, because you've got the equity market and crypto, whereas Isabel's just in the equity market. And that's where he jumps on and says, you Trump coin the things that he's seen and heard and doesn't really understand. But he's starting to get the difference between those two. And that, that's at the age of six. Ah, I didn't have that education at six. The access to that information, as I said, I try and explain to Thomas that Isabel'in the socially responsible. And then we've got a thing about uh, he leaves a shower running or he's too slow to get in. I like mate, what's that doing? And uh, affects the polar bears because the ice melts. And that's how he understands environmental climate change. So that's what I try and explain the socially responsible side of that. So I'm m trying to take it back to real life 6 year olds. Whereas when I speak to my 16 year old nephew, he's all over, he understands that. He goes, he's even used it with his mates to sound good. He goes, he says I love the content because we have a definition of the week go out in our weekly newsletter.

00:20:00

Brendan: It might be compound interest, it might be diversification, it might be a merger and acquisition. They're bite size, usually less than 30 words that we try and explain something so people can remember it. But he says I've quoted it to my mates and it makes me look good. So it's giving you education that way.

Phil: So with compound interest, presumably we're talking about kids and we've got it maybe 15 to 20 year window in which their assets can compound. How do you view that? And especially in context of your own children.

Brendan: I think that's important. I mean I hear a lot of people and they say it's the 10th wonder of the world or something like that. But compound interest is you're earning interest on your interest and that people go yeah, but, but a lot of people sit there and say, you know, on um, my transaction account I get 48 cents interest a year or something like that because they're not the right interest bearing product as such. But what they've got to understand is that the market, you think of the market where you're putting in a regular deposit, you're buying the units or the ETFs or the shares, then you're getting the dividend reinvest and it's building on top of that. So you know, and basic example, you have $100, you get a dollar dividend, then the next dividend is on $101, not $100. So it's compounding and I think there's so many graphs out there. There's so many examples of, you know, if you do a dollar a day between now and the time you're 18, it'be you know, a million dollars or something, little *@ 5, at 8% presumed growth, no fees, etcetera but they can understand that. And then that's where if you can get the young kids to understand what that means to them today, or just on that account. Imagine the power of their super Once they get 18 or they start the workforce, they have super and they put that little bit extra into their super by the time they're 60. Now we're talking Isabelle's for Kids accounts to 18, that's 14 years. But when she goes from 18 to 60 odd M, that's where it's really easy to show what the impact or the effect of compounding can do.

Phil: Yeah, that's the Warren Buffett story, isn't it? Because you always see that most of his wealth that was made after, I think he was age 60 and it was just because it had been sitting there compounding for so long for most of the time. Yeah. What's it, the inaction bordering on sloth, I think is one of their, their investing tenants.

Brendan: Yeah, but it's kind of like I was talking to my brother about it the other day. He's up on the Gold coast and you, the traffic and things like that on the highway when he's driving up and he says he sits there and watches guys where he just stays in the same lane, puts his foot down, goes. And you see these guys going back and forth and trying to chop and change, chop and change. And then they get to a set of lights and Cameron's next to him. It's kind of, it's a bit like investing. People try and chase. They sell something because they want to chase a thematic or chop and change because there's a new lithium stock that's going to go nut or something like that or crypto coin that's going to go nuts. But yeah, at the end of the day, consistency, small amounts over time and staying in an asset can absolutely win again. Har and tortise, you know, it's a story that you and I've known for 50 years. So think there's nothing wrong with that. It actually works.

Phil: So you've recently launched jars and before we started chatting off air, you were talking about the incredible behavior that you're seeing in terms of these jars. Now, presumably jars is you say, okay, I want to put money into this jar because I'm saving for something. Tell us about that and the insights that you've gained.

Brendan: Yeah, look, it's like the kids accounts that we've just been speaking about. It's. People are out there saying, well, I don't have kids and uh, kind of like Uh, I do want that segregation of m my money or pots or goals. So we've come up with this. It pretty much runs along the same concept of the same technology and the same, it does have an actual better UI at the moment. And we're just, we are upgrading our kids program, our kids in app to go in line with jars. But what essentially it is, it is, is exactly the same philosophy where you have it have Brendan account but then you have these sub account and you know we launched on the 14th of January and we've had a jar created every 2.6 minutes since. And this at raised. We build products because our customers are asking for it. So we fingers crossed they use it and it's been great. But as you and I'TALKING before was, I'm stopping and pausing and looking at uh, what people are calling these accounts and you know we've all done it. We've all had bank accounts where we have sub accounts where you might have a rent account, you might have an electricity utilities, you have a holiday account. But, but with the online stuff it's very easy just to get on transfer, transfer it back to my main account, direct debit. So that, oh I need that, I need to buy something. I need that instant gratification of a new pair of shoes or a pair of jeans or a surfboard or something. But this is sort of creating jars underneath. And I could again have myself my account in the uh plus portfolio but I could have a school fee account or a holiday account under a different portfolio. So

00:25:00

Brendan: they might be the aggressive portfolio or the emerald portfolio or the pro portfolio. But what we've seen in the Last sort of 7, 14 days of being launched or 17 days is what they're actually creating for these accounts. And I think it's great. And it goes back to two core principles. Small amounts add up. Uh, but also we need to use the technology or lean on the technology that's out there today thate automated reocurring deposits and the sort of set and forget mentality. People are setting up accounts called haircut people are setting up. You someone set up an account called Europe 2034. That's a 10 year goal. So we're giving, enabling them with the tools to set up and they've put recurring deposits on it whether it's a weekly, daily or monthly. And you sort of, you can set a target and say this is what where a goal. It might be a 10 grand target or an 8 grand target. People are using it for haircuts people. And this is what they're naming the accounts new MacBook 14 inch Pro. You several for new, uh, cars, several for homeowners, several for new cat, new dog. It's exciting to see that we as rays can create this tool or in the departmentl of hands to set that up for them. And, you know, they might not get to their goal because they might need the MacBook Pro earlier, or you they find a dog or a house, but it's helped them on that journey and that's exactly what we're trying to do. So to see that, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how it goes over the next sort of month to really get the number of jars up. Ah. Because it does say, well, I do have it. Previously, before jars, you'd set a savings goal. I want to go to barley on the 1st of March or $2,000. Um, and you'd get that. You'd reach your target, you'd go to Bari, you take the money out and, you know, you sort of have a good time. But you forget about savings and investing here at this time. You know, you've got a barley jar, but you might have an emergency rainy day fundl and with'still that reoccurring going on. So you're still remember that habit of.

Phil: Saving, and that's really important, having an emergency jar or an emergency fund as well. Are you seeing that sort of behavior or would you even recommend that kind of behavioior?

Brendan: Yeah, absolutely. You know, I grew up with making sure I had an emergency fund in case, you know, I needed a couple hundred dollars to fix the car or, you know, there's a water leak or, you know, I've had an accident around in the car or the house. I'GOT to replace a laptop. It's always important to have that emergency fun or that access to it. And now if you can park it away in a equity market portfolio like Buffett did, and it can just sit there, it'll do its thing, as the market's shown over the years.

Phil: Hey, look, I know you mentioned it before, but I just wanted to cover it again. When the big O turns 18 or 20, 21, whatever the age is. What is the process you go through with the account now that it's worth a million bucks, which maybe at that stage is not going to be worth that much money.

Brendan: Yeah. So you'll get a message as the, uh, owner of the account and say, hey, Phil, the big O'TURNING ad. Would you like to transfer this to an adult account? And then you'say yes. Then You'have to provide the full name, date of birth, uh, address and email address and then everything will get sent to that. And then he opens an account, all the PDs, the aid, everything gets sent to him. He check does the checklists. He'll probably your link a your bank account unless you still want to fund it. Your call for big O. But it's just exact same process that sort of goes back into the flow of opening an adult and m getting.

Phil: Back to jars as well. If someone's got a short term goal rather than a long term goal, should they be thinking, and this again, it'not investment advice. Should they be thinking to be in more conservative investments when they're doing that rather than the maybe more aggressive ones?

Brendan: Look, there's performance of the portfolios or past performance is no indication of future performance. And again, this is just general advice.

Phil: Not, uh, it is general advice, but that's worthwhile understanding, isn't it that you know, because we hear the people saying all the time, past performance is not any indication y But it's so important to understand that point.

Brendan: Yeah. What really upsets me is a lot of other businesses out there promote their returns, uh, only when they're good. And they don't consider that the, the market will have down days. It always has and it always will. So you can't just look at the past performance and go, right, I'm in there. I would not recommend that to anybody. I think the important part is that if you're going into these portfolios, you've got to understand the risk curve on it and then you're got to be able to accept and understand what your risk profile is or your risk levels are for the portfolio that you're going into. And I wouldn't necessarily say consider it short term versus long term. It's stop paus Understand what you're going into, understand the risk levels and make sure you're comfortable with it.

Phil: Just as a general observation, Brendon, I've sort of noticed from doing this podcast how much of the weight of the wealth management industry is so focused on people with a lot of money. And, you know, m happy you're doing good work here, or it feels like you're doing good work here in terms of providing this kind of tools for, for everyone as well. But, you know, it's just astonishing the number of businesses out there that are

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Phil: targeting people who've got, you know, 2, 3, 4, $5 million or, you know, huge annual incomes. But then the focus then kind of dissipates away when you haven't got a lot of dosh.

Brendan: Exactly. And look, that's exactly why I joined the business. It was, um. And I've told you before, a mate, Newcastle asked me, well, what stock should I invest in? I. No, no, it's not a stock. It's a, uh, think about the diversification, understand all that. But I want to be able to provide all Australians, wherever you are on the wealth curve, to be able to have an access to this and understand. And I think the importance things with Raise Kids is that older generation with the wealth that it's not targeted, it does sort of help it assist the younger generation, get this financial education awareness, break down the barriers to getting into, you know, a CBA stock or Macquarie stock that, something like that, that is expensive in one unit, that they can get it into it on a fractional basis and get that understanding of how the market works and access to it. So I think it's uh, our main goal here is to educate all Australians, no matter where you are in the world, but put something in the palm of their hands where they can see it, feel it, understand it. Uh, and as we said, it's for a minimum of five dollar and go back to someone like a buffet or, or the big guys. You know, the best time to start investing was, uh, yesterday. The next best thing is today. Don't put it off, give it a go. And it sounds a bit cliche, but invest in yourself, invest in your future, invest in your learning, your education. And if we can educate the younger generational past, this knowledge through it would be huge. I mean if Raise Kids or even raise Full Stop was available when I was 18 and you know, I'd be in a better financial position than I am today.

Phil: Hmm. M And of course don't uh, spend all your time looking at the app and seeing how your investments are doing because, you know, yeah, maybe once a year would be a good time. I know we can't resist that temptation, can we?

Brendan: Yeah, well even I had my raised cap on over Christmas and I m tall guy, it was huge. Uh, he came out and he says raise, mate, raise. And I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I said, oh, you use it? And he said, yeah. Goes, oh look, I love it. I use it as a Christmas club account. It sort of gets me hundred dollars, seven hundred a year and it helps me get through Christmas. And I said, o, cool. I said, I. How did you hear about. He goes, oh, mates put me on under it. A couple of mates put me under it. I said, yeah, good on you, mate. He goes yeaheah. And I said, I work here. And he said that's mate, it's a good business, good business. I love it. Every year, I love it. And he doesn't log into it because he just, it's a certain forget. Because what we've noticed is that customers, if they can stay three months using it, they understand because in that three months there will be a bit of a market dip or a market correction as they may call it. But you understand the volatility and if you look over the ASX charts over uh, 20, 30, 50 years, you can see that and you know we're not expecting it. And again, back to our comment, don't look at the recent performance and thinks it's going to do it again because unfortunately there are cycles in the market. But you just got to be able to be able to sort of sit there, set, forget, look at it when you can to understand what's happening in the market. But, but don't panic.

Phil: Okay, so tell listeners where they can make their first steps in downloading the app and getting started.

Brendan: So the Raise app is free to download from the Apple Play or the Google Play Storce, Apple Saw or the Google Play Sour. Uh, we also have a web app for registration. So if you go to www.raysinves.com.au, that's R I Z I N V S, you can start your journey of education and uh, entering the market there. Very simple.

Phil: Bren Malone, thanks very much for joining me today.

Brendan: It's been great chatting, feel always good to chat and great to have some laughs as well. Thank you.

Chloe: Thanks for listening to sharesfor beginners. You can find more at sharesforbeginners.comt if you enjoy listening, please take a moment to rate or review in your podcast player or tell a friend who might want to learn more about investing for their future.

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Any advice in this blog post is general financial advice only and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Because of that, you should consider if the advice is appropriate to you and your needs before acting on the information. If you do choose to buy a financial product read the PDS and TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored to your needs. Finpods Pty Ltd & Philip Muscatello are authorised representatives of MoneySherpa Pty Ltd which holds financial services licence 451289. Here's a link to our Financial Services Guide.