🌱 She works in finance but has never invested | How this 32-year-old will get started

Get Started Snapshot
Name:  Jess ‘T-Swifty’ Swindon
Age: 32
Hometown & current home: Durban, South Africa & Currently Bondi
Profession: Business Development Manager at Equity Mates
Favourite book: The Housemaid Series
Most extravagant purchase: It’s not a ‘thing’ but travelling as much as possible on weekends when I lived in London. I ticked off so many bucket list destinations across Europe.
Favourite money-saving hack: Quit drinking alcohol…. I didn’t actually realise how much money you spend until you stop! (going out, ubers, uber eats etc etc). It has been an absolute game changer for me over the last 10 months and I couldn’t recommend it more!

What was your relationship with money like growing up?

We moved from South Africa to Australia when I was nine (+ 2 older sisters). My parents arrived with almost nothing and had to start over again. They did an incredible job making sure we always had everything we needed but I knew money was tight.

Once I started earning, I’ve always been a spender…. focusing more on living in the moment than ‘future Jess’.

What was your first job? (And how much did you get paid?)

Donut King… I can’t actually remember how much I got paid but it wouldn’t have been much (all the free donuts at the end of my shifts made me popular at school the next day!). I got a little pay rise by upping my game and moving to McDonalds shortly after!

How did you first come across investing?

I actually ended up in the investment world by accident when I got a job in recruitment, working with financial advisers. After a few years, I moved to London and was recruiting for investment managers.

When I moved back to Sydney, I took a role in investment media, so all up I’ve been around the investment industry for nearly a decade. I know what I should be doing, I’ve just never actually done it for myself!

What made you reluctant to invest up until now? How have you gone about overcoming those barriers?

I used to think I just hadn’t prioritised my future self, that it was easier to focus on what I want now and not think too much about later but even when I made a conscious decision to try start investing I felt completely blocked.

What’s shifted for me was actually saying it out loud. Telling Bryce and Ren that I hadn’t started but wanted to was a huge step. I’ve committed to going all in now! I’ll be getting my money/budgeting plan sorted, working with a financial coach to understand my relationship with money, speaking with a financial adviser about my goals/how to allocate my money, investment specialists and lots more!!

We’re documenting my entire investing journey on the Get Started Investing podcast (think fly-on-the-wall style where you can see me doing this in real-time, with my own money) so people can follow along and hopefully take the steps with me.

Fun fact: I put $100 into a brokerage account in October 2025… and completely freaked out. I pulled it back out before I even invested it in anything and that’s my only experience with investing so far …watch this space!!!

Once you do start on your investing journey, where do you see it taking you in the future?

I want a future where money isn’t something I stress about or worry over. I want it to feel positive, like a tool that gives me freedom, not pressure.

For me, that looks like having the flexibility to live life to the absolute fullest without relying solely on a 9-5. I’d really love to experience van life around Australia, spend more time in the ocean (my happy place) and sail as often as I can. Just being outdoors, adventuring and living in a house by the water with some kind of boat is really the kind of life I’m working towards.

What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to someone who’s reluctant or hesitant to invest ?

If it’s something you want to do but feel stuck for any reason, please talk to your friends about it.

Before I opened up to my friends and the Equity Mates team, I was carrying around this constant feeling that I was behind, that I’d missed the boat and just wasn’t someone who was good with money or ever going to feel a sense of stability. Saying that out loud was uncomfortable, but it changed everything.

We’re all on our own journeys in life and when you talk honestly about where you’re at and where you want to be, it becomes a lot less scary. You realise you’re not alone, and that shift can honestly be enough to help you take the first step.

• We want to hear your ‘How I Got Started’ stories. Respond to this email if you would like to be featured and we’ll get in touch!

Be sure to catch Jess in the latest Get Started Investing Series that launched today!

Over the course of the next 12 weeks, Jess will start investing in real time. Each week, she’ll speak to an expert who will walk her through the steps, answer her questions and help her take action to get invested. Plus she’ll chat to Equity Mates community members about their investing journey, getting real-world advice from all walks of life.

If you’ve been delaying investing or have someone in your life who wants to, this is the sign to start and go on the journey with Jess. (Spotify | Apple | YouTube)

Why we invest

Jess spoke about her hesitations to invest throughout her life so we thought it was important to reiterate why we invest and why we believe everyone should invest. This was taken from the episode titled ‘Why Investing Is for Everyone’ (Spotify | Apple | YouTube)

There a number of reasons why we invest. We've got four that we think are really important. The first is:

1. Financial freedom

Investing gives us the opportunity to have choice in our lives and live in the way that we want. It's not about retiring early and lying on a beach for 40 years. It's about money NOT being the biggest driver of our decisions. It gives you the power to say no. You can say, "I wanna take a lower paying job, because it interests me more or because it's more aligned with what I wanna do, because I don't need to chase the pay check to pay for my life."

2. Compounding

We work hard for our money, so we want our money to work hard for us. Putting it in a bank account is not gonna do that. Investing it and letting compounding be the power that drives that. That is the second reason that you should be investing.

3. Have the smartest people in the world work for you, literally from your bedroom.

Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, these guys run or have run the biggest companies in the world. They're some of the richest people in the world and you can invest in these companies and let them make you money.

And then the fourth one, is not so much a financial outcome, but more a personal one.

4. Investing just makes you more informed about the world. 

You really get to learn a lot about yourself, who you are, what you're interested in. You’ll explore topics that I think you would otherwise not even consider going deep on.