The Pay Off with Sylvia Jeffreys

Women make up two in three beginner investors. But as investing gets more advanced, that representation starts to fall away.
Global X portfolio manager Jessica Leung thinks confidence is a big part of the problem — and she knows what it’s like to feel out of place in finance, having spent much of her early career as the only woman on her team.
Jessica joins Sylvia to strip investing back to basics: how ETFs actually work, what to look for when choosing one, the fees that can eat into your returns and why a boring, long-term strategy might be a good thing.
Plus, they unpack the AI investment boom — including why the opportunity extends well beyond the big tech names to data centres, infrastructure and even copper — and the biggest mistake Jessica sees new investors making.
This episode contains general information only and does not constitute personal financial advice.
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Why does a strong CV disappear into a recruitment black hole? Former recruiter and Project Roar founder Catherine Harris joins Sylvia Jeffreys to explain how hiring has changed, what can stop your application reaching a person, and why spending hours on job boards may be getting you nowhere.
They cover:
How to make your CV easier for recruitment software and recruiters to read
What to do if you’re worried your age is counting against you
How to explain a career break, including time spent caring for children
How to use conversations and referrals to find opportunities
Catherine also shares what employers could gain by hiring more workers in their fifties and sixties.
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Australia is one week out from the RBA’s next interest rate decision — and the possibility of another rate hike is firmly in focus.
So what is the Reserve Bank actually watching?
RBA Chief Economist and Assistant Governor Sarah Hunter joins Sylvia Jeffreys to take us inside how the bank thinks about interest rates, inflation and the Australian economy — and bust some of the biggest economic myths along the way.In this episode:
What the RBA is weighing up ahead of its next rates decision
Why interest rates affect far more than just mortgage holders
Whether higher interest rates really push up rents
Whether migration is adding to inflation
How government spending factors into the RBA’s thinking
What’s behind Australia’s housing downturn — and where prices could go from here
Whether Australian households are showing signs of mortgage stress
Why the RBA remains concerned about inflation
Plus, Sarah explains what happens behind the scenes before every interest rate decision — from the economic data her team analyses to the papers that land in front of the Monetary Policy Board.
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SportsGrad founder Reuben Williams quit his own company — then figured out how to buy it back.
But that’s only part of his story.
Reuben has gone from landing his dream job at Cricket Australia, to redundancy, entrepreneurship and almost losing the business he built. He’s helped close to 850 people find jobs in sport, travelled the world chasing some of its biggest events, and rebuilt SportsGrad after a buyback deal left him under enormous financial pressure.
At the same time, Reuben spent six years navigating the legal system after taking a former colleague to court over a sexual assault. The experience led him to speak publicly about what happened and become an advocate for survivors.
Reuben joins Sylvia Jeffreys on The Pay Off for a wide-ranging conversation about ambition, resilience, work and what happens when life doesn’t follow the path you expected. In this episode:
The CV mistakes that could be holding jobseekers back
Why AI is changing the entry-level jobs market
What his experience taught him about the barriers facing sexual assault survivors
The four values shaping how he lives and works
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Phoebe Saintilan-Stocks has built her career around a question: who gets heard — and who gets a seat at the table?
After working inside Parliament House, she founded Missing Perspectives to give young women a bigger voice in media. What started as a Squarespace blog has grown into a global media platform, backed by major brands and amplified by the likes of Reese Witherspoon.
Now, her new book The Right Hand takes her inside another world of influence: the chiefs of staff behind some of the world’s most powerful leaders.In this episode, Phoebe talks about:
Why working in Canberra changed the way she thought about power and representation
How a cold LinkedIn message helped launch Missing Perspectives
Why she turned down early investment — and later quit her job to go all-in
What traditional media gets wrong about reaching younger audiences
What the people closest to Tony Blair, Jacinda Ardern and Justin Trudeau revealed about leadership behind closed doors
The surprising role empathy, trust and difficult conversations play at the highest levels of power
Why sometimes the hardest part of building something is simply getting started
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