#037: Getting personal with finance - Adrian Stone

Summary: For show notes and links: neuralle.com/podcast  Adrian Stone ( @SmallTimeVC ) is your favourite small-time VC, and a self-confessed personal finance geek. Adrian has started and sold a multi-million dollar insurance technology business, seeded numerous startups and founders in Melbourne, all the while building a comfortable real estate portfolio. I’ve been wanting to cover the area of personal finance for a long time now, and being that Adrian is an expert on the topic (with intentions of writing a book), I thought it made sense to rope him into speaking to you again. Everyone claims to understand personal wealth and finance, but Adrian makes a valid point in that unless you’ve had some form of financial success in your life, you really shouldn’t be writing about it. So why is personal finance important? If you think about it, personal finance allows you to work back and ask - why am I doing what I’m doing with my life? By articulating why you’ve chosen your profession - the business you’ve started or lifestyle you’ve created - you’re able to clearly delineate how you want to spend the time you have in this precious life and how you will fund it. At the end of the day, we need cash to live. Warren Buffett has always said that “money doesn’t know where it comes from...it all spends the same”. Whether you run a brick business or a technology startup, knowing how much is coming to you and when is important for outlining and defining the lifestyle you want. This episode is then a nice primer for future episodes covering all the key topics across debt, budgeting and finance. Talking points included: Polish Jewish history the holocaust Australia, immigration multiculturalism His new project: Glide luggage Personal finance: thoughts advice Buying your first property Personal finance goals Debt and borrowing money Mistakes and decisions most people make Guides and where to learn Personal finance: what he would change? Enjoy the episode, Jordan Lauren