Get Growing
We loved welcoming award-winning financial adviser, educator and Financially Fierce podcast host Jessica Brady to the START WELL® podcast recently to discuss her new book, Get Growing: A No-Nonsense Guide to Cultivating Wealth and Financial Freedom.
Through her work, Jess has helped thousands of Australians build confidence with money and is passionate about making financial education more accessible and inclusive, particularly for women and the LGBTQIA+ community.
In Get Growing, she blends behavioural science, practical frameworks and candid storytelling to help readers better understand their relationship with money and create financial freedom on their own terms.
During this episode, Dawn and Jess discuss how our childhood experiences shape our relationship with money, the lessons children absorb without us realising, and why financial confidence is about so much more than understanding numbers.
Here are a few key takeaways from our chat.
Personal stories are powerful
Unlike many finance books, Get Growing begins with Jess’s own story.
She writes about growing up in a single-parent household after losing her father as a baby, and the financial experiences that shaped her relationship with money. Sharing these raw, vulnerable insights from her own life was an important part of getting her message across.
“I wanted people to know everyone makes mistakes with money. I wanted to connect it to human stories… because money is human.”
Understanding our own money story can help explain why we save, spend or worry the way we do today, and gives us the opportunity to create healthier financial habits moving forward.
Your kids are learning from you – whether you realise it or not
The young people in our lives are constantly learning about money, even when we don’t realise we’re teaching them.
They notice how we respond to bills, the conversations we have around the dinner table, and the way we make spending decisions.
“If you have a child over the age of seven, your child already has a money belief… whether you realise it or not, whether it’s healthy or not,” Jess says.
But that doesn’t mean parents need to have all the answers. Rather, it highlights the importance of modelling healthy behaviours and creating opportunities to talk openly about money.
Sometimes those lessons come from everyday moments, whether it’s running a lemonade stand, visiting a garage sale or explaining how interest works on a savings account.
Our spending is tied to our emotions
Jess also explored the emotional side of spending, explaining that purchases are often driven by feelings rather than logic.
“We spend to band-aid… we’re trying to feel less stressed, less alone, less agitated, more excited,” she says.
Instead of turning to retail therapy, Jess encourages readers to create what she’s very cleverly called a “zero bucks given” list – simple activities that boost your mood without costing anything.
Money is exciting
Jess believes we can change the way young people think about finance by making it more engaging and giving them the confidence to participate in conversations about their future.
As she puts it: “We’ve made money so boring. Kids would rather literally poke their eye out with a fork than listen to it. But money’s really exciting. The world is shifting and they could jump on the wave and be part of that.”
This chat was a fitting reminder that understanding money isn’t just about building wealth – it’s about knowing ourselves better, and giving us and the next generation the confidence to make informed choices.
Listen to the full episode of START WELL® with Jessica Brady to hear more about building financial confidence, understanding your money story and raising financially capable young people.
Listen to the episode: Get Growing: Jessica Brady