# BONUS EP – RM Richie with Brendan & Chantal | CHANGING LIVES | Season 3 Ep 88

An episode of [Money Mentor Podcast™](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1632604767), 26 Jan 2026, 24 min.

Audio: https://episode.flightcast.com/wt0d6b77eiinbm8il5bl6736.mp3

In this episode of The Money Mentor Podcast, Richie sits down with Brendan & Chantal to unpack a journey that proves you don’t need to start “perfect” to completely change your financial future. Before Infinity, Brendan & Chantal were living pay to pay with a $200k home loan, HECS debt, novated leases, minimal savings, and no real structure, to the point they even joined Infinity using a credit card. Despite earning well, they were struggling to get ahead and felt stuck in the cycle. Since joining Infinity in September 2023, their transformation has been incredible. They’ve closed and cut up credit cards, paid down their home loan to just $42k while building significant redraw, reduced their FFF from $800 to $600, paid off novated leases and student loans, built a growing investment portfolio (including SMSF), and are now pre-qualified for their fourth investment property. This episode is a powerful reminder that structure, community, and accountability change everything. 👉 Watch the free webinar to start your journey: https://bit.ly/43V2jKN

## Transcript

[0:00] So we came in to infinity with $200,000 in debt on a mortgage.
[0:07] We're now down to $42,000 remaining.
[0:11] In what time period?
[0:13] Two years.
[0:14] So we've reduced from $200,000 down to $42,000 in two years with three investment properties and... And another one on the way, right?
[0:24] And enough equity now to look at a fourth.
[0:28] Yeah.
[0:29] Money isn't rude of all evil, the fucking lack of it is.
[0:31] Not money, the lack of understanding money.
[0:34] When I put that into emphasis, when I realised that psychological effect and how it hit our family, I FDB in a fucking way.
[0:40] You are now watching the Money Man Troll Podcast.
[0:43] With Graham Hines.
[0:44] Graham Hines.
[0:45] Graham Hines.
[0:45] Graham Hines.
[0:46] Graham Hines.
[0:50] So welcome, Brendan and Chantel.
[0:54] For those in the community who don't already know you, do you want to just give a brief interaction to yourselves?
[1:00] Well, I'm Chantal and this is Brendan.
[1:03] We're from Victoria and we live in the western suburbs of Melbourne and we have one daughter.
[1:09] She's five years old and one fur baby, Ace, who's a Roddy.
[1:14] Yes, who's our second baby.
[1:17] And we both work for the Department of Education.
[1:22] And what's it like having a relationship manager at Infinity?
[1:27] It's just having someone who knows your family, your goals.
[1:33] It's someone that you can bounce ideas off of.
[1:36] It's someone to keep you accountable with your budget and brainstorm different solutions, different ideas on how we can live abundantly, but also being smart and managing our money.
[1:50] I think of it as an angel and a devil on my shoulder.
[1:54] On one hand, the relationship manager provides you with so much information and strategies and ways of doing things better or providing you with opportunities.
[2:07] And on the other hand, they also hold you to account.
[2:11] You know, they're more than happy to sit there and question, what was this for?
[2:19] And it makes you think about where you're spending your money and how you're doing it.
[2:25] So you set up a goal.
[2:27] are we heading towards that goal?
[2:29] Is that going to be beneficial?
[2:31] And that accountability that you spoke about, has that been very important to keeping you focused and to achieving your goals?
[2:40] 100%.
[2:42] In the past, the discretionary spending was where we were losing track of our money.
[2:49] So being more accountable, being checking through the portal and
[2:54] going through our statements that's all stuff that was led through by our relationship manager which is you and we couldn't have asked for anything more
[3:06] Yeah, it's that awareness of what you're spending your money on.
[3:09] And then if you can see the numbers added up, you know, what's going to pull you in the direction of your goal.
[3:16] And it's to help that consistency, you know, scheduling in a meeting with you and bouncing ideas back and forth, checking the portal, seeing if we're on track, just to make sure that we're maintaining the pace of where we want to go.
[3:32] We can talk about finance between ourselves, but I feel like having that outside third party is a major benefit.
[3:40] You get that perspective, a difference of perspective and opinion.
[3:45] And you have that expert knowledge.
[3:47] We're not expected to have all the answers.
[3:50] And it's nice knowing that we can go to someone who we trust, who knows us, who knows us.
[3:56] you know, our family and to be able to guide us in a way that makes sense for us and that we feel that there's a lot of value in that.
[4:06] And if we were to do it on our own, it would be harder tenfold.
[4:11] We might be able to do it, but not as consistently.
[4:15] Thank you for that.
[4:16] That's great feedback.
[4:18] Talking about budgeting, what would be your biggest and best budgeting tip?
[4:25] I think having a clear plan of where you're going to spend your money, knowing what you're going to spend it on and having that, you know, everyone says it, the wants versus the needs, but actually understanding what your needs are versus wants and allowing some of those wants.
[4:45] Yeah.
[4:46] being really selective and true to your goals and what you want to do.
[4:52] And Brendan might be able to share a little bit of what we've been able to tweak and learn along the way with our budget.
[4:58] Yeah, so one of my big undertakings was looking forward and saying, okay, well, what bills are coming up and how can we factor that in with our income and our earnings?
[5:11] Where is that money going to come from?
[5:14] So I developed like a four-week schedule that we can work around.
[5:18] So it's a monthly thing.
[5:20] So I break our food fuel fund expenses up into four weeks.
[5:27] And in all four weeks, we do our generic shop, which is, you know, the essentials.
[5:32] But in week one, we might focus on doing a bulk meat buy.
[5:37] And then in week two, we focus on refilling the cars.
[5:41] Week three, we focus on buying dog food.
[5:44] So we're not hitting all of those massive expenses all at once.
[5:49] It's divided up evenly across the month and we accommodate for any additional expenses and stuff that way.
[5:58] So we can shift and change.
[6:00] Okay, I need to refill this week.
[6:01] That's not a problem.
[6:03] We can make so many easy adjustments because we've planned for it.
[6:09] And do you get excited about your rapid repay results every month?
[6:14] Do you like looking at those reports and seeing your progress?
[6:17] Yes.
[6:17] Yeah.
[6:18] It's just we like structure.
[6:22] We like plans.
[6:23] And if we have a plan, we like to follow it and sort of challenge ourselves at the same time to see if we can improve even more on that.
[6:31] But just to see how much that we are paying down our mortgage is worth.
[6:38] Yeah, it just is motivating to keep going and to push further.
[6:41] Yeah, absolutely.
[6:42] And do you want to share with everyone the results that you've had so far because they've been really impressive?
[6:48] So we came in to Infinity with $200,000 in debt and a mortgage.
[6:54] We're now down to $42,000 remaining.
[6:59] In what time period?
[7:01] Two years.
[7:01] Incredible.
[7:03] So we've reduced from $200,000 down to $42,000 in two years with three investment properties and... And another one on the way, right?
[7:12] And enough equity.
[7:13] Mm-hmm.
[7:13] now to look at a fourth.
[7:16] Yeah.
[7:17] And we've had some hiccups along the way as well.
[7:20] So we got hit with 20 grand medical expenses.
[7:23] That's right.
[7:25] And, yeah, we've been able to take it on the chin because of all the changes that we've made.
[7:32] Yeah.
[7:33] It's all helped us through.
[7:35] Yeah.
[7:36] And so April next year, is it, when you're going to pay off your home loan?
[7:40] Yeah, we're anticipating April.
[7:43] Obviously, you never can see the future, but the current schedule says that we'll be debt-free by April.
[7:52] Right.
[7:53] And you know Infinity will send you a big hamper when you pass down the road.
[7:56] Yeah.
[7:56] You'll get a trophy as well.
[7:59] Let's talk about FFF.
[8:01] So you've reduced your FFF over time, your budget.
[8:05] Was that difficult to do?
[8:08] And do you feel like the FFF, that it's very comfortable for you now?
[8:13] Yeah.
[8:14] It started at $800,000 and we got along with that really easy.
[8:21] Before infinity, we didn't have a budget, so it was probably a lot higher than $800,000.
[8:25] So the first initial impact was, oh, $800,000, how are we going to do that?
[8:31] And we started smashing it.
[8:34] And then we're now down to $600,000.
[8:38] And even now we're finding that that's more than accommodating.
[8:45] So jumping in on the challenge that we went through last month to reduce our FFF by 100, that helped us to find new and other ways to look at where we were spending our money.
[9:03] every now and then we have like a fridge and freezer and pantry clean out week so that week we only buy the essentials and we try and clean out whatever we've got left in the pantry so we're
[9:19] What started in the community is a bit of fun to see if you could challenge yourself to reduce your FFF by 100.
[9:28] It's still helping us to learn new things about ourselves and budgeting.
[9:32] So we're finding new and unique ways of, oh, we've got all this food that we'd end up throwing away because it's going to perish.
[9:39] Or we've got all this food sitting in the freezer.
[9:42] We don't have to go out and buy more stuff this week.
[9:45] Let's use what we've got.
[9:47] And that challenge was announced in the monthly accountability meetings that we have.
[9:52] What's your impression of those meetings that we host?
[9:56] I think it just brings the community together.
[9:59] It's not competitive against each other.
[10:03] It's everyone coming together and achieving and reaching goals and celebrating with one another.
[10:10] And it's just inspiring.
[10:11] It sort of gives you a pep in your step to
[10:15] keep pushing and to keep being creative.
[10:18] And afterwards you might look up something within the Facebook group and start to implement fresh ideas.
[10:28] I'm sure people on the outside looking in will think that this is weird.
[10:33] But you actually jump into the – we look forward to these meetings.
[10:37] And like Chantal said, we celebrate so many people's success.
[10:42] Yeah.
[10:44] And it's a weird thing saying that out loud sometimes that we talk finances and celebrate people's successes.
[10:50] Yeah.
[10:51] Like openly with complete strangers, but we're all on the same path and we all have the same goals and focus in mind.
[10:58] And yeah, it's a really supportive community.
[11:02] And the community always puts on little challenges or fun things to get that engagement within the community.
[11:08] And it's just really inspiring.
[11:10] And empowering because we find that we can apply these strategies and we can further decrease, you know, our FFF budget after one of these challenges.
[11:21] And it's just empowering and nice to see other people experiencing the same thing.
[11:26] What financial services company provides health and well-being support and challenges?
[11:32] That's right.
[11:34] It's more than just money.
[11:35] Yeah, definitely.
[11:37] And both of you are very active on our social media channels, including School, S-K-O-O-L. What do you think about School and that community and what's happening in there?
[11:50] I feel like community engagement is something very important.
[11:55] Part of my role as an educator is always sharing knowledge and that's what I thrive for.
[12:02] So, you know, making posts on social media or on school and sharing that knowledge with others, even if it just reaches one person, that's a win.
[12:14] That made that post worthwhile.
[12:17] I like the platform school because there's not only the ability to, you know, watch and re, you know, expose yourself to the masterclass and relearn those things if you've sort of forgotten and a nice refresher.
[12:31] But it's something that's not where you're scrolling and you're getting distracted by other, you know, ads or other posts.
[12:40] It's just primarily, you know, it's only the Infinity family and you really get to go in there and you can...
[12:46] message other, you know, members in the school app and comment on each other.
[12:52] And it's nice to just like people's posts, you know, that you resonate with.
[12:56] And I found that I can connect with people on there.
[12:59] When you read about other people's stories, they provide alternate answers to problems that you might be facing yourself.
[13:07] Mm hmm.
[13:07] So it's all relatable information.
[13:09] Yeah, it's happened to a different family in a different state, but the problem is similar.
[13:14] And sometimes you sit there and you're reading through posts people have made and you're like, I never thought of solving a problem that way.
[13:22] So, yeah, it's really connected and we all build on each other and it's fantastic.
[13:28] And for someone who's never been to an Infinity Christmas party before, how would you describe an Infinity Christmas party to them?
[13:36] Next level.
[13:39] Wild and next level.
[13:40] Next level.
[13:41] Just the generosity, first and foremost.
[13:45] You know, all the planning and what's provided and everything is, you know, something that I'm really grateful for every time we can go to an Infinity event.
[13:56] But also just the community coming together in person.
[14:00] And, you know, it's great being on our Facebook page and school.
[14:05] But when you come in and you're in person and you can actually talk face to face with some of the people you've been following along in their journey or you've been looking up to them or aspiring, you know, through their stories and getting to meet them.
[14:19] We're looking forward to this year's Christmas party.
[14:21] We've made multiple friendships over school and Facebook communities.
[14:27] And.
[14:28] this is another opportunity to meet up with those people face to face and have a celebration, but in person.
[14:36] Yeah.
[14:36] Yeah.
[14:37] Just around the corner now.
[14:38] A couple of weeks.
[14:39] Yes, not too far away.
[14:41] And as you know, our health is our wealth.
[14:44] And like Brendan mentioned, Infinity is not just about wealth, it's about health and community as well.
[14:50] So how has Infinity had an impact on your health as well?
[14:56] I think just mental health and wellbeing, your mindset, when you're stressed around money and that can have an impact and affect other areas of your life, but having different focuses of health and doing 60 Strong and looking at meal prepping, healthy meals within a budget.
[15:18] It's just been really inspiring.
[15:20] I have been recovering from a back surgery.
[15:23] So not too long after we joined Infinity, unfortunately I ruptured a disc in my back and I had to have spinal surgery.
[15:31] And whilst getting through that was one battle, but also on the other end of things life after that.
[15:39] Having this community and leaning on other people who,
[15:44] might be experiencing similar things, is nice knowing you have people to talk to about it.
[15:50] But also looking at that's not going to stop me because look at what's possible.
[15:56] And I have all these people behind me, you know, supporting us and encouraging us.
[16:00] And Brendan with his health as well.
[16:03] It's been really exciting to see him prioritize him again after looking after me.
[16:10] Yeah, so I've jumped in on the 60 Strong Challenge.
[16:13] So 60 days of healthy eating and exercise, no cheating, no alcohol and whatnot.
[16:20] And yeah, I guess it had been a long time since I'd focused on myself.
[16:28] And, you know, I jump in to everything that I do and give it 100%.
[16:33] And it's just been absolutely rewarding it more ways than I can imagine.
[16:39] particularly with my health, because I have a rare liver disease, which I've had since birth.
[16:47] It's genetic.
[16:48] But, yeah, just the extent that the community jumps in and supports each other, even through 60 Strong, there's a community page for that where we all discuss eating plans and meal prep and exercise and activities.
[17:05] But...
[17:06] Also with our relationship manager, you know, I love catching up to chat with you about how things are going.
[17:15] And that alleviates some of that financial stress and, you know, being able to have that external source of communication.
[17:25] I'm not weighted down by all those stresses that a normal person would have on their own.
[17:32] So I can share what's happening with you and we can work through problems together to get to a solution.
[17:39] Yeah.
[17:40] Yeah.
[17:40] And we chat about everything, don't we?
[17:42] We chat about life.
[17:43] We chat about the excursions that you go on, family.
[17:48] Yeah.
[17:48] Kids.
[17:49] Kids, family.
[17:50] Yeah, everything.
[17:51] So, yeah, it's kind of like a friendship, isn't it?
[17:54] And we've developed that family bond within the community, which is really good.
[18:02] What words of wisdom or philosophies would you like to share with our community?
[18:08] Oh, definitely the most important thing that I've come across is actually having a budget.
[18:18] We thought we had a budget originally.
[18:20] And even after two years with Infinity now, we're still learning new ways to do things and new ways to make changes.
[18:29] So would you say having a budget is really essential to everything?
[18:35] Yep.
[18:35] But it's the learning associated with it.
[18:39] A budget isn't just a way of saving more money.
[18:42] It's what the budget allows you to do in addition to cutting down your expenses.
[18:51] So there's all those teachings about serviceability and how sticking to a budget can impact on what you do next in life.
[19:01] So if you want to go for an investment property, the bank looks at your serviceability and your food, fuel and fund budget.
[19:10] covers that aspect of it as well it's not just about your standard of living and what you can and can't do but it's also setting you up for success in other areas and also if you have a lower fff you can sweep more into your home loan which has better rapid repay results which gets you closer to your next investment property it all has a flow on effect doesn't 100 percent yeah
[19:33] The more you can pump off during rapid repay, the sooner you're ready for the next steps.
[19:41] That's exactly right.
[19:43] And Chantel?
[19:44] Yeah, I think just being consistent, you know, work out a plan with your team and just try sticking to that.
[19:52] And if you feel like something isn't working or you're coming up to a challenge, you know, voice that, ask the questions, reach out to the team members.
[20:01] They're here to support you.
[20:04] And it's just freeing knowing we've set up this budget.
[20:08] And I know people hear budget and they think, you know, am I still going to be able to do the things that I want to do?
[20:14] and, you know, quote, unquote, you know, live a life.
[20:18] But it's just freeing knowing we can do all the things we want to do, yet we're still reaching our goals with our rapid repay.
[20:28] You know, we can go to rugby and football games and we can go out and we can do things as a family and spend time together.
[20:36] We haven't had to make sacrifices yet.
[20:39] from our normal lifestyle to create the budget that we have.
[20:44] We didn't go and sell a whole heap of toys to cut down our mortgage.
[20:49] We didn't go and get different.
[20:51] We're not working two jobs or three jobs to increase our salary.
[20:56] We're still on the same salary that we've always been on.
[20:59] And it's just what we've done with it that's changed.
[21:04] And so the final question is, what does the future look like for your family?
[21:10] Well, that's really exciting, actually, Richie.
[21:13] Yeah, it seemed not real.
[21:17] Sometimes it doesn't seem real where we've gotten to in such a short amount of time.
[21:21] But to be able to provide long-lasting knowledge of what to do with your money, where to put it, the opportunities that we have now and just continuing to grow, yeah.
[21:35] The opportunities are limitless now.
[21:37] Like before we sort of had goals of ambition, oh, we need to save so we can go on a holiday.
[21:44] How long is it going to take?
[21:45] You know, oh, we want to go overseas and see Chantal's family.
[21:49] It's going to cost thousands.
[21:50] It's going to take ages.
[21:53] Those things were big worries and concerns.
[21:57] Those pressures are gone now.
[22:00] We know that we're on the track and we've set ourselves up to be successful where it's like, okay, we want to travel overseas to see Chantal's family.
[22:09] When do you want to go?
[22:10] It's no longer a worry about how long is it going to take us to save that money.
[22:16] And how good will it feel not having a PPR, a bad debt mortgage?
[22:21] It's crazy, right?
[22:22] Yes, I know.
[22:23] Yeah.
[22:24] Just unreal.
[22:27] I think it means we would have paid off our mortgage in like 11 years.
[22:34] And almost half of that was in the two years we were with Infinity.
[22:39] So what were we doing for the first nine?
[22:45] Very good point.
[22:46] Any last final comments before we wrap up?
[22:50] I'm just forever grateful for all the support and just our team.
[22:56] You know, it's not just a team.
[22:58] You alluded to it before.
[23:00] We've sort of...
[23:01] formed friendships and bonds beyond just, you know, this is this person who looks after this, you know, part of my finances.
[23:11] And it's just, I don't know, it's comforting.
[23:14] Oh, look, we couldn't.
[23:16] Yeah, it is comforting, but we couldn't be more thankful.
[23:20] having you to reach out to at any waking hour of the day.
[23:28] It's been a godsend.
[23:29] We shouldn't advertise that, actually.
[23:32] I'm sorry for my late texts, but if something pops into my head, I'm like, he doesn't have to read it now.
[23:38] I just want to shoot it off and get it before I forget about it.
[23:43] But we do appreciate it when you respond.
[23:47] but even talking finance with Dean, we love catching up with Brenton and talking about the possibilities.
[23:56] So like you said, it's a big team of people and you all do your role so well.
[24:03] We couldn't be more thankful.
[24:05] Thank you so much to both of you.
[24:06] We're very thankful to have you as clients as well and you're such good role models to our community and we're also very grateful for both of you.
[24:14] Thank you.
[24:14] So thank you so much, Brendan and Chantelle.
[24:17] Thanks, Richie.
[24:19] You're fucking gone.
[24:20] See ya.

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