# Mortgage Free in 1 Year | Luke & Kelly| CHANGING LIVES | Season 3 Ep 38

An episode of [Money Mentor Podcast™](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1632604767), 9 Nov 2025, 59 min.

Audio: https://episode.flightcast.com/nunufvx5bgediuz1fwxparj5.mp3

In this episode of The Money Mentor, Luke and Kelly, a couple from the Gold Coast, share their financial journey towards homeownership and investment success. The couple, who met during their youth and have three children, initially felt stuck financially despite having reasonable jobs as a relief teacher and an electrician. Before finding financial guidance, they felt their savings were dwindling and that they lacked a clear direction towardsfinancial growth.Over 12 months, they successfully paid off $240,000 in mortgage debt, largely due to strategic cash flow management and reinforcing their financial discipline. During this period, they maintained their lifestyle, traveling extensively and still managing to remain debt free.👉 Watch the free webinar to see how you can start your own journey: https://bit.ly/43V2jKN

## Transcript

[0:00] Now that you have this real world first hand result and evidence, you can confidently go and upgrade your home and not freak out because you know what you're capable of.
[0:11] And that's just such a different feeling to friends, their neighbours chipping away going, I've got no money.
[0:17] I'm like, give me your statements.
[0:19] There it is.
[0:20] There it is.
[0:21] You would have done that yourselves in the process.
[0:24] When we started, you guys predicted it'd be four years for us to pay it off and we were like, sweet, that's amazing.
[0:29] Yeah.
[0:29] And then we've smashed in one, so that's been pretty mind-blowing for us.
[0:35] Money isn't rude of all evil, the fucking lack of it is.
[0:37] Not money, the lack of understanding money.
[0:40] When I put that into emphasis, when I realised our psychological effect and how it hit our family, I FDB in the fucking way.
[0:46] You are now watching the Money Mentor podcast.
[0:49] With Graeme Homme.
[0:50] Graeme Homme.
[0:51] Graeme Homme.
[0:51] Graeme Homme.
[0:56] Welcome back to another episode of the Money Mentor and the Changing Lives Financially episodes.
[1:01] And this morning we have some very, very lovely guests, Luke and Kelly.
[1:04] How are we?
[1:05] Good, thanks.
[1:06] Yeah, really good, thank you.
[1:06] Lervous?
[1:07] Lervous.
[1:08] Lervous?
[1:08] Lervous.
[1:08] Yeah, a little bit.
[1:09] As long as we don't pee our pants, it's fine.
[1:10] Okay, I've already done.
[1:12] Lervous, pay a toilet break.
[1:14] So welcome, welcome.
[1:16] Tell us, I guess, a little bit for people listening in at home, and the whole concept of these is to celebrate your success because you've done bloody phenomenally well.
[1:24] But also that if there's just one other family out there that go, hey, we've got that many kids and we do that for work, why aren't we doing this?
[1:31] So tell us a little bit of background about you guys, where we're from, family size, what we do for work, all that sort of stuff.
[1:38] You go, babe.
[1:39] We grew up on the Gold Coast and we've got three kids.
[1:45] They're aged 7, 10 and 12.
[1:49] I'm a relief teacher and have my own little side business and Luke owns his own electrical business.
[1:56] Um, yeah, it kind of sums us up very quickly.
[1:59] So would you classify yourself, relief teacher, side business, electrical company, local and the Goldie, three beautiful kids.
[2:07] Would you summarize yourselves as huge income earners or low or middle class everyday sort of normal income?
[2:14] Yeah, definitely middle.
[2:15] Probably middle class.
[2:16] You know, we've always felt like we've done okay.
[2:18] Not driving around in Lamborghini I don't know about.
[2:20] I've got a Kia Carnival.
[2:21] I've got lots of kids to remember.
[2:22] I've got a work van.
[2:23] Work van?
[2:24] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[2:25] Very good.
[2:26] So, born and bred on the coast?
[2:29] I was born in Port Macquarie, actually.
[2:31] Oh, back to you.
[2:32] I've been here since I was two, so we actually went to school together just up the road from here.
[2:37] High school sweetheart.
[2:38] Well, we got together in London when I was 19.
[2:42] He was 21, and...
[2:44] Yeah, but we knew each other from high school a little bit.
[2:46] Who's a year older than me?
[2:48] Yeah.
[2:48] Okay.
[2:49] Yeah, so...
[2:51] So talk to us pre-infinity.
[2:53] What were you like financially?
[2:56] You've got the electrical company.
[2:57] You've got relief teaching, business on the side, three young kids.
[3:02] What was life like financially?
[3:04] Would you consider that you were fairly well managed?
[3:07] Was it chaos?
[3:08] Was it stress?
[3:09] Explain to people how you felt before you got some help.
[3:14] It felt like we weren't going anywhere, basically.
[3:16] We were just cycling through that.
[3:18] We were living, but we weren't, nothing was getting achieved.
[3:22] We were probably getting ahead.
[3:23] I think he would always say to me, we haven't saved any money pretty much since the kids are born and now they're 12.
[3:29] And I was like, really?
[3:30] Surely not.
[3:32] We had savings pre-kids.
[3:34] Yep.
[3:34] Which we still had after, but we would slowly tick away because we'd go on a holiday or we would.
[3:39] Right.
[3:40] Because Kel was only working when the kids were young and then it kind of.
[3:43] Part-time, yeah.
[3:44] I just never felt we could get back on top.
[3:46] I think it's a good point for any family with young kids as they're raising because obviously, typically, mum is out of the workforce for a period of time on maternity leave.
[3:54] I mean, unless us boys can learn to breastfeed, we're probably, you know, it's a bit of a thing.
[3:59] But, and then there's that time obviously with a newborn bub.
[4:02] Then there's time where you sort of slowly ease back into that detachment from bub back to, you know, kids chucking the crap shits when you're dropping a daycare.
[4:10] Cheated three times.
[4:11] So that was... You're sort of in and out of the workforce, right?
[4:14] Yeah, absolutely.
[4:14] And that might be a few days a week or it might be school hours.
[4:17] Yeah, you never are back at full capacity until they're all at school, which when you've got three kids and they're spaced out, it takes a long time to...
[4:24] have that two incomes.
[4:26] So would you think that, does it sound like, do you feel like when you say like, she, we haven't saved anything since we had the kids.
[4:32] Do you kind of feel like you're existing?
[4:35] Like, how would you explain?
[4:35] Cause you're like, you're working hard, you're running the house, you're kids, you know, but you feel like you're not getting too far ahead or ahead at all.
[4:42] when you say you haven't saved?
[4:43] Yeah, I did.
[4:44] Kel, she's not that way inclined.
[4:46] She wouldn't look at it too much, whereas it would kind of get to me a bit.
[4:49] Right.
[4:50] So you're more focused on checking the numbers, balancing the checkbook.
[4:54] You're like, oh, good.
[4:55] She runs the day-to-day.
[4:56] We had lots of different accounts, so I could like things he didn't look at, and so I could hide money.
[5:02] and spend stuff on the kids and myself and they, he wouldn't even know.
[5:05] And then, so we had an account he could see.
[5:08] Freaking out and you've got all this secret squirrel over here.
[5:10] He'd call me out on it and be like, what's this?
[5:12] What's this?
[5:12] And so I was like, okay, I was going to start spending from this account that he doesn't see as much.
[5:16] Okay.
[5:18] So.
[5:18] Yeah.
[5:19] How long do you think it felt like that after meeting young, traveling, all that?
[5:23] You traveled a bit as well in there?
[5:25] Yeah.
[5:25] Yeah.
[5:26] So we spent a lot of our 20s traveling and studied and, you know, got our professions and stuff.
[5:33] But then...
[5:35] Yeah, I think when most of our friends were buying their first properties, we were buggering off overseas and doing big trips again.
[5:42] And yeah, and then we got back and then we were just in our early 30s and decided to start having babies then.
[5:49] And so we didn't get our first property until we were our mid-30s, 36, 37s.
[5:55] Myla was one.
[5:56] Oh, yeah.
[5:57] Oh, yeah.
[5:57] Yes, she was one.
[5:58] Yeah, our youngest.
[5:59] No, she was only a baby.
[6:00] Oh, baby, yeah.
[6:01] Yeah.
[6:02] So your current home, you bought that in 2018?
[6:05] Yeah.
[6:05] Yeah.
[6:05] That's the year she was born.
[6:08] And we had been renting two doors down in the same complex and...
[6:13] We liked the community and stuff.
[6:14] And then when that went for sale, it took me a lot to convince him to buy anything because he just always thought the prices were going to go down.
[6:23] He's like, they can't keep going up.
[6:24] They can't.
[6:25] Ah.
[6:26] And so over the years.
[6:27] I swear at me.
[6:29] Something I have to wear for the rest of the month.
[6:31] Yeah.
[6:32] Let's just push that one under the mic.
[6:34] And so we used to look at properties and I could never convince him to buy anything because he's not going to buy anything.
[6:40] It's got to go down.
[6:41] And then with this one, we ended up getting it for under asking price, which, you know, it's kind of unheard of.
[6:46] Yeah.
[6:48] Yeah.
[6:48] And because we had a nice community there, I was like, we're paying rent anyway.
[6:52] We're living here.
[6:53] Let's just store it.
[6:54] It's two doors down, you know, so he succumbed.
[6:57] And now he's like, fucking thank you, Kel.
[7:01] I bet.
[7:03] Jumping into that for a second, where do you think that comes from?
[7:05] Media, mates, family, where do you think that you hear?
[7:10] Because we hear stuff, right?
[7:11] And some of it we ignore, like we're Teflon, it's like, ding, whatever, slips away.
[7:16] But some of it we do hold and we're like, shit, the world's going to crash or the sky.
[7:20] Where do you think that comes from growing up?
[7:22] Yeah.
[7:23] Probably scarcity maybe in a way.
[7:25] And also I think when you're uneducated, you have an opinion of something you know nothing about.
[7:31] And I knew nothing about what I was saying.
[7:33] It was a very solid opinion clearly if you were like, no, we're not buying, it's going to crash.
[7:37] So you held on to that for quite some time.
[7:39] Yeah, way longer than I should have.
[7:42] He looks like, oh, we should have bought that house.
[7:43] We should have bought that one we looked at.
[7:45] I'm like, yeah.
[7:46] Well, we're still young, we've got plenty of time.
[7:49] Okay, so, and when we bought that home, we had a mortgage of how much, about 300 and
[7:56] 320 so we bought it for 380.
[7:58] 380 okay.
[8:00] And a 320 debt?
[8:01] Yeah.
[8:01] And a little bit of savings?
[8:03] We had a little bit yeah.
[8:04] Yeah.
[8:04] We use a lot of it for the deposit but we had a little bit yeah.
[8:07] Yeah.
[8:07] And that's just as the youngest was born?
[8:10] Yeah.
[8:11] Okay.
[8:12] And then from there it felt like it was a- And it was really hard to get it too.
[8:15] I think because we had three kids our bank wouldn't do it and so the- We got rejected by pretty much the most banks.
[8:22] Yeah because we had three kids.
[8:24] We were trying it, buy houses before that.
[8:27] And then that surprise came along.
[8:28] So had you guys sought any advice from somebody before?
[8:33] Just when you bought that home?
[8:34] Well, we'd spoken to brokers a few times.
[8:38] And then, yeah, we...
[8:39] when we got our place, it was just so stressful, the whole process.
[8:43] Like, we have the money there, you know, we're paying the rent anyway.
[8:47] Like, why would you not give us money?
[8:49] But, you know, we got it, but it just felt like such a stressful process.
[8:53] So it was drawn out and stressful.
[8:56] Yeah, yeah.
[8:56] And it's like, oh, you might not get it.
[8:58] And it was just, yeah, it was kind of quite horrible, wasn't it?
[9:01] Yeah, it wasn't as good as it was.
[9:03] It wasn't as joyful as buying a home should be.
[9:05] No.
[9:06] No, it was far from it.
[9:08] Sounds a bit fucked.
[9:10] sounds like the excitement faded very quickly they make you feel kind of like you're not worthy in a way even though you can make repayments but yeah you don't meet our criteria so you don't fit in the box yeah it was a bit that was not a great feeling okay okay now when did you who and when did you find us
[9:29] Thankfully it was...
[9:30] It was me.
[9:31] So we were away for her birthday and I was reading Rich Dad Poor Dad.
[9:37] Yep.
[9:38] And I was kind of in this, we were away on holiday.
[9:40] It was this beautiful place and I was like, there's got to be... At the Maldives.
[9:44] Oh, okay.
[9:44] It's my 40th birthday.
[9:46] She's always wanted to do it.
[9:48] And we were away and I was like, there's got to be a bit away.
[9:50] Now I know why we feel like we've never got any money.
[9:52] We're on holidays at the Maldives.
[9:54] Come on, guys.
[9:57] Continue, continue.
[9:58] So interesting.
[9:59] So we're in the Maldives, not a cheap holiday, but 40th, fair enough, deserving.
[10:03] And then you're like, how do I fucking pay for this rich day?
[10:06] Give me the answers.
[10:07] Robert, help!
[10:10] So I finished that book, we came back, and I must have seen one of your ads pop up.
[10:14] Okay.
[10:15] And I watched a bit of it, and I said to Kel, what do you think?
[10:18] And she's like, if I'll come with an idea, she's generally like, yeah, let's do it.
[10:22] Let me ask her.
[10:23] Okay.
[10:23] Yeah.
[10:24] We then watched, did the free webinar, and then it was like, well, let's do it.
[10:29] Let's give it a crack.
[10:29] When was that?
[10:30] When was the free webinar for you guys?
[10:32] May.
[10:33] May 2024.
[10:34] May 2024, yeah.
[10:35] Okay, yeah.
[10:36] And Masterclass then?
[10:38] Yeah.
[10:38] Then we do the masterclass in July.
[10:40] Okay.
[10:41] Yeah.
[10:41] So a month or two later, July.
[10:43] Okay.
[10:43] Yeah.
[10:43] And then, so July and then end of masterclass, you're like, give me some feedback where you're like, oh, we can do all of this.
[10:50] Or like, holy shit, there's so much that could be done, but we need help.
[10:54] Yeah, we're all about to help.
[10:56] Masked glass is a bit hard to explain in that short free webinar.
[11:00] So many people go, oh yeah, I can do that.
[11:01] And they structure their loan correctly.
[11:03] Hey, I'm 30 grand ahead.
[11:05] I'm 80 grand.
[11:06] I'm like, I love those messages.
[11:07] You've got all that for free, right?
[11:08] Yeah, yeah.
[11:09] But it's way too impossible to explain the two days at the end of that 40 odd minutes.
[11:14] It's like...
[11:15] okay we're going to do this this and this but i can't explain because it's it's full on it's a lot of info yeah yeah even for the two days it's a lot to take in you know we would take notes and go back over it because it's so much information that you have no idea about you think you do but you don't yeah well you can watch it all in school now yeah yes put it in so you can go and rewind and watch it so master class july and then did we did we jump on board straight away did we take a
[11:43] Yeah, we jumped on straight away.
[11:45] Yeah, we were all in, really.
[11:47] Like, we're just like, we need help.
[11:49] This sounds amazing.
[11:50] It just made sense too.
[11:51] But it's just stuff we did not know.
[11:55] It was not in our scope at all.
[11:57] Then we spent a couple of months design a new strategy, get everything happening, let go of the old bank, all that sort of stuff, right?
[12:05] So when did you actually start your new infinity structure?
[12:09] So that wasn't until November we started our budget.
[12:15] Yeah, so before that, you guys were like, yeah, just keep living.
[12:19] Life is normal.
[12:20] Worry about that when you get your budget.
[12:22] So that was November.
[12:23] But before that, we got to go to a REM in Melbourne.
[12:27] And that was really, really cool.
[12:29] It was really cool.
[12:29] Yeah, we loved that because we got to go to the Goerner's.
[12:32] Yes.
[12:33] It was really cool.
[12:34] Except they didn't put the drinks out and they didn't have enough bread and I was yelling at everybody.
[12:38] The venue wasn't that cool.
[12:40] But anyway, the event was great, but the venue I was a bit upset.
[12:43] I was yelling at everyone.
[12:45] Okay.
[12:45] That was really fun.
[12:46] It was a cool event.
[12:48] So that was November.
[12:49] So we're in November now, right?
[12:51] So we've sort of had our first 12 months of restructure.
[12:54] Yep.
[12:55] Even though we had a couple of months of sort of just ticking along.
[12:59] And our balance when we started was $250.
[13:02] $240,000?
[13:03] $240,000, yeah.
[13:03] In November?
[13:05] Yep.
[13:05] Okay.
[13:06] And what's the home loan balance today 12 months on?
[13:11] $1,000.
[13:12] Sorry?
[13:13] That's $1,000.
[13:14] $100,000?
[13:14] $100,000?
[13:16] Just $1,000.
[13:16] Just one?
[13:17] Just one.
[13:17] Just one.
[13:18] Just $1,000.
[13:19] $1,000.
[13:20] So, and could you pay that $1,000 out today?
[13:23] Absolutely.
[13:23] Yeah.
[13:24] Okay.
[13:24] So the home loan balance is zero.
[13:26] Yeah.
[13:26] We're just keeping that account open, which we'll talk to.
[13:29] So the natural reaction of people listening to this is...
[13:33] Oh, well, you've got to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to pay $240,000 off.
[13:37] That's the, maybe even yourselves when you hear a podcast or a thing before you come on board.
[13:43] Are you guys earning three, $400,000 a year?
[13:45] No.
[13:45] No.
[13:45] Okay.
[13:47] So relief teacher, electrician.
[13:50] Mine's very casual.
[13:51] Um...
[13:52] Yeah.
[13:53] He's got his own business and it's doing well.
[13:56] Did you sell houses and cars?
[13:59] You must have done something because you've obviously had $239,000 cash flow from somewhere.
[14:06] We had nothing.
[14:07] We had savings.
[14:08] We had 60 grand in savings, which we then...
[14:13] put into the offset.
[14:14] Good, okay, so let's be fair and say the 240 drops to 180, because you've got that 60 savings.
[14:21] So really, we've attacked $180,000 in 12 months.
[14:27] And then we were, on average, we were anywhere from five to six to 7,000 a month, we would sweep.
[14:33] Sweep, coming off the loan.
[14:34] And that was just purely by budgeting, and us combining our wages into one account.
[14:40] On the same page.
[14:42] That was a big change.
[14:43] Let's dig into that a little bit.
[14:45] I have a saying.
[14:46] I say what's mine is Rebecca's and what's Rebecca's is Rebecca's.
[14:49] I like it.
[14:50] A bit like Steve and Sue Ann.
[14:52] I like it.
[14:54] Explain how the money and the finances were being managed previously.
[14:57] Was it separate accounts scattered all over the place?
[15:00] Was it we're in the same boat we row together?
[15:02] It sounds like it was sort of a bit scattered everywhere.
[15:05] When you say to me...
[15:07] We merged it all together.
[15:09] We had a structure.
[15:10] Like that tells me that it was a bit different previously.
[15:13] Yeah, it was.
[15:14] We had a couple of accounts each.
[15:15] We had one joint account, but we would get paid into others and we'd transfer bits into, for the home loan.
[15:21] And it was, looking back now, it was.
[15:25] It was messy.
[15:26] It was messy.
[15:27] And the way we do it now is,
[15:28] And it was over two different banks as well.
[15:30] Yeah, it was just – yeah.
[15:32] Yeah, I don't know.
[15:33] So was there any structure to it previously or was it just as you'd been taught to evolve or grown in life?
[15:41] Well, when we had our loan, we were talked into having a visa card, which we'd use that.
[15:48] And that was linked to that whole –
[15:51] So we lived on that.
[15:52] So using a credit card, thinking if I clear it, it's okay, but you could be spending more than you earned that month.
[15:58] The business could have a huge cash flow, could have no cash flow.
[16:01] You could be doing relief work.
[16:03] You could do no relief work.
[16:04] You could have no income for the month combined.
[16:06] And we just didn't know.
[16:07] We didn't know.
[16:08] We could always pay it off, but we didn't know how much we were spending.
[16:11] We didn't.
[16:11] No.
[16:13] And the kids would go, and they kind of still do.
[16:15] It's like, just tap it, Dad.
[16:16] Just tap it.
[16:18] Because it's that mentality of, which is not a good way to.
[16:22] No.
[16:22] Okay.
[16:23] So we've really nailed 180,000 in 12 months, which is wild.
[16:29] We've obviously got some pretty cool structural things happening in there with business cash flow and accounting wise and all that sort of stuff, which is good.
[16:37] um restructured some things too around cars and obviously hey we've got the business and structured the car so that's handy for people at home i try to tell people all the time don't pay cash for cars they're a depreciating asset yeah and if you're a business owner it's a deductible expense if it's used for business purposes yeah so there's a lot of things people don't know before we sit down with something that i learned
[17:02] just from the infinity Facebook group was somebody had got their husband to buy her car in the business.
[17:09] And I was like, we could do that.
[17:11] Cause I, I thought I was doing the right thing, had my car in it, but I'm a sole trader and it's bad debt.
[17:18] So anyway, we got him to buy it.
[17:21] Then that freed up more money for me.
[17:23] Yeah.
[17:24] Um, so that business was able to acquire the car.
[17:27] Yeah.
[17:28] That's you personally.
[17:29] Now you've got all this cash.
[17:30] Well, yeah.
[17:31] Pay off the mortgage.
[17:31] Yeah.
[17:32] Happy days.
[17:33] Yeah.
[17:33] Okay.
[17:34] Yeah.
[17:34] So there's one asset sale in there to help with the $180,000.
[17:38] How much was the car purchase?
[17:41] I think it was like... 50?
[17:43] Yeah, or something like that.
[17:45] Yeah.
[17:45] Okay.
[17:45] So we've done about $130,000 after the car cash flow changed hands.
[17:51] Yeah.
[17:51] That's wild.
[17:52] Yeah.
[17:52] Yeah.
[17:53] That's huge.
[17:54] That's absolutely... You should be really bloody proud of yourself.
[17:56] Thank you.
[17:57] Yeah.
[17:57] Yeah.
[17:57] It's...
[17:58] Does it feel real?
[17:59] No, it doesn't.
[18:00] It still feels a bit.
[18:01] You sit in there and you're like, I don't know.
[18:04] I expected it to be this big, like, we've paid it off.
[18:07] But then you get there and you'd be like, it just feels a bit, I don't know, it just feels surreal in a way, like, we've actually done it.
[18:13] It's a really good, a lot of people
[18:15] wildly celebrated and popping bottles and having a bar.
[18:18] But a lot of people do too as well.
[18:20] I find that you get so ingrained in the process and so comfortable that it's just another milestone.
[18:27] You just tick it off and you keep going and you go, Hey hon, yeah, cool.
[18:31] You've got 240,000 odd redraw, I'm assuming because you paid it all off.
[18:35] You can go do whatever you want tomorrow.
[18:37] You can use that to invest or anything.
[18:39] I think a lot of people now, you get so ingrained in the process.
[18:42] You kind of like tick the box, move on.
[18:44] Yeah.
[18:45] It's not the end, right?
[18:46] No, that's right.
[18:47] From where we want to go, it's just a stepping stone.
[18:49] Yeah.
[18:50] Okay.
[18:50] So pre-July, May-July webinars, masterclass, November structure, 12 months, debt gone.
[18:58] Any investments before we started?
[19:01] No.
[19:01] No.
[19:02] No?
[19:02] No.
[19:02] I couldn't even get into by the first house.
[19:04] How am I going to get into?
[19:05] Oh, true.
[19:05] Yeah, sorry.
[19:05] Okay.
[19:06] And I wanted to.
[19:06] This is all fresh, right?
[19:07] We're only like eight years into the first house.
[19:09] Yeah, okay.
[19:10] Fair enough.
[19:11] Fair enough.
[19:12] And we wanted to do stuff.
[19:13] Like my mum was talking up her finance guy.
[19:16] And so we went and saw him.
[19:17] And he's like, I can't do anything for you.
[19:20] That was super.
[19:21] Yeah, within super.
[19:22] I asked you and sent a financial advisor about your super.
[19:24] Yeah.
[19:24] How much super did you have?
[19:26] I think it was 165 or 180, something like that.
[19:30] Yeah.
[19:30] I mean, he goes, to be honest, you just don't have enough for me to be able to do anything for you.
[19:35] Yeah.
[19:36] Okay.
[19:36] It's like that, you know, you think you can do something and then it's like, you can't.
[19:40] And we, you know.
[19:41] Do you think you didn't have enough or maybe he couldn't make enough?
[19:45] Yeah.
[19:45] Now maybe the more that I know, maybe that was the, yeah, I don't think we are a good enough client for him.
[19:51] He probably liked people that had a bit more.
[19:53] It's sad.
[19:54] Okay.
[19:55] Well, let's talk today.
[19:56] Any investments today?
[19:58] We've got four now.
[19:59] Four.
[20:00] Four investments in the last 12 months.
[20:02] Yeah.
[20:03] That's wild.
[20:05] So, does that make you a bit nervous?
[20:06] You didn't want the first one.
[20:08] I think everyone makes you nervous.
[20:09] This guy, he still gets shwinged a pucker.
[20:14] Big time.
[20:16] I do.
[20:16] So, it still feels uncomfortable, right?
[20:18] It does, yeah.
[20:19] But you've been reading book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, you've found the webinar.
[20:23] So, there's obviously a deep desire to grow and to do better.
[20:28] But there's a healthy level of fear.
[20:30] Yeah.
[20:31] Yeah, there is.
[20:31] Yeah.
[20:32] Yeah.
[20:32] I think we're lucky that he found you because if it was me, he probably wouldn't have been on board as much.
[20:37] Right.
[20:39] I think.
[20:39] Yeah.
[20:40] Yeah, that's fair to say.
[20:41] Every great idea I've ever had is actually my wife's.
[20:44] It's just I had to pretend it was mine.
[20:46] So I was sort of like, hey, babe, I was just thinking.
[20:49] She told me six months earlier.
[20:50] It took me six months to get hold of it.
[20:52] Isn't that right?
[20:53] Fait the seed.
[20:54] We feel like the big dog.
[20:55] Been saying this for months.
[20:58] Yeah.
[21:00] Okay.
[21:00] So healthy level of fear, which is good because where do you think the fear, does that come back to scarcity and all that sort of, because you're obviously trying, you're doing really well, not trying, you're doing really well to get ahead.
[21:11] In 12 months, you've paid your home off in full.
[21:14] You've acquired four investment properties.
[21:16] One of them's in your super fund, right?
[21:18] Yep.
[21:18] So you've got three fresh investment properties, paid your home off in full, 240 grand balance, got 240 grand limit to play with and debt recycle, and you've been able to add a property in super.
[21:31] So you've gotten to a residential property in super instead of all shares, funds, et cetera.
[21:36] Yep.
[21:36] And that's increased your balance as well, right?
[21:38] Because you said you had like 150, 160, and they said no.
[21:41] That's right.
[21:43] Yeah, they said no.
[21:44] And today you've paid a balance of like 65 nearly on a property for 600.
[21:48] So you've got a 650 grand property.
[21:51] Yeah.
[21:51] Plus you've got a good, what's the balance?
[21:53] 200 or?
[21:54] 200, I think.
[21:55] Yeah.
[21:55] Because we've been putting a bit more in, haven't you?
[21:57] Yeah.
[21:57] And once your final one rolls over, it'll be, yeah.
[21:59] So you've gone from 150, 160 a year or two ago to 850 in assets effectively today.
[22:06] I guess so.
[22:07] You've got some debt in there.
[22:08] Yeah, for sure.
[22:09] But you've also got a lot of equity.
[22:10] Yeah.
[22:13] You can see now that there's the potential.
[22:16] Like before, we had no idea what was going on.
[22:19] We were super.
[22:20] You know, we were just putting money in and now you can actually, you know, with the forecast of what, we're going to be in such a better position.
[22:27] What we were going to need and what we had was just not enough.
[22:31] Like me never really working full time.
[22:33] Anybody in our relationship?
[22:37] Maybe a year.
[22:39] I've managed to, you know.
[22:40] But, yeah, like that hasn't helped our super.
[22:44] Yeah, so we were not going to be in a very good position before this at all.
[22:49] Okay.
[22:49] Yeah.
[22:50] So home loan debt free, just keeping it open so we can invest and use it without applying.
[22:55] Again, keep using it like a credit card, really.
[22:57] Yep.
[22:58] Cheap money.
[22:59] Four investment properties, increased our super balance.
[23:02] That's pretty good.
[23:04] Yeah.
[23:04] We sort of, you know, we've got plans.
[23:07] We've...
[23:08] What are the plans?
[23:09] Well, I don't know.
[23:10] You have to help us get to our plans.
[23:12] I was just going to relax and listen to those plans.
[23:14] No, we're not done yet.
[23:15] We're not done.
[23:16] It's only just the beginning.
[23:19] So what's the big goal here?
[23:21] We need a bigger place.
[23:23] Okay.
[23:23] Yeah.
[23:24] Yeah.
[23:24] So time to upgrade the home?
[23:26] Yeah.
[23:27] Okay.
[23:27] Yeah.
[23:27] We run two businesses out of a single garage and five of us in a three-bedroom house.
[23:34] Yep.
[23:35] Yeah.
[23:35] We love living there and love the house, but we just want something.
[23:38] We want something as a kid to get older and something that's...
[23:41] When do you want to do that?
[23:43] tell us when g and can i make a really really quick red hot suggestion yeah yesterday well gold coast is running like water down the waterfall it is so expensive we have no land left yeah sydney melbourne international money money's coming in from everywhere
[24:03] Yeah.
[24:03] I look at a lot of the properties you've seen.
[24:05] I share the addresses I bought.
[24:07] And I've done disgustingly well out of those properties because we're landlocked.
[24:13] You've got all these man-made engineered canals.
[24:16] You've got the beach to bush.
[24:18] We're so landlocked here in this little patch that until they get up, you know, up near Norwell and the cane fields and that and Brisbane and the Gold Coast meet sort of thing when I say Logan and Ormo and that.
[24:29] um it's just going wild like the growth rate and this is everywhere in australia at the moment really um i would highly suggest we need to sit down and look at something right now for you guys okay because that next step from where you are to where you'd like to be or deserve to be it's a biggest step yeah yeah we've got stamped we've got sales commission on the current home yeah we've got stamp duty on the new home
[24:54] I think if we were to leave that and look at that in Feb after the holidays, you'll see a significant price increase.
[25:02] Yeah.
[25:03] On both what you sell and what you buy.
[25:05] We sell and buy in the same market with no capital gains tax.
[25:08] Yeah.
[25:09] But I would be driven to really have you like leaving here today and start shopping.
[25:14] Jeez.
[25:15] Well, because every time we have our meeting with Luke, I'm like, when can you get us out of this shithole?
[25:20] Like, we love our shithole, but, you know.
[25:22] It's not a shithole.
[25:23] It's not a shithole.
[25:24] It's too small.
[25:25] We love our community.
[25:26] There's five people in the three.
[25:27] There's five people and businesses, and it's getting cramped.
[25:31] Yeah.
[25:31] You know, so I'm always asking him.
[25:32] He's like, yeah.
[25:34] So, and here's the cool thing, because a couple of properties in there haven't yet settled.
[25:40] Yep.
[25:40] Here's the cool thing that we can do that most people can't.
[25:43] We might undo one of the investments to create more space for the home.
[25:49] Ooh.
[25:50] Now you're talking.
[25:51] That sounds weird, but I've done this for a couple of people.
[25:54] For example, Natasha and Ingrid, they'll be at Ram.
[25:56] You'll see them at Ram.
[25:57] Yeah.
[25:58] They were sadly both made redundant on the same day or same week.
[26:02] They worked at the same company.
[26:03] And they had two investments.
[26:05] They were waiting for them to be finished.
[26:06] They were contracted with deposits paid.
[26:08] You can't get out of it.
[26:09] Yeah.
[26:09] I was able to undo those unconditional contracts because they'd been made redundant and get their deposits back.
[26:16] Oh, wow.
[26:16] Because we've got such a large community.
[26:18] Yeah.
[26:19] We might say, well, you know what?
[26:20] We'll just undo that one of the four transactions.
[26:23] That frees up borrowing capacity of X.
[26:26] Get the home, settle the home, and then we'll look at the fourth investment again.
[26:31] Yeah.
[26:31] Okay.
[26:31] There's some weird stuff.
[26:32] Okay.
[26:32] I'm just...
[26:33] It's not ideal, but there's some weird stuff we could do depending on what we want to spend and where we want to be area-wise.
[26:41] Yep.
[26:41] But I think the goal will be after today, and I'll give Luke a poke at the end of this, and the rest of the team is to be like, hey, let's look at this now.
[26:49] Okay.
[26:50] Because it's not going to get any cheaper.
[26:51] No, and that's what I think too.
[26:54] see well it's it's it'll hurt his that fear like you know you look at doc wilson's data we've never had this big big crash that everyone carries on about we've had corrections you know four five percent five but we've never had two subsequent we've had a and then it's grown significantly and the growth always is two three a couple of times that little correction
[27:19] Yeah.
[27:19] It's only people that, it's like shares, if the, or cryptocurrencies and all that gobbledy shit, right?
[27:25] If it crashes tomorrow, you only lose if you sell.
[27:28] Yeah.
[27:28] So even property, like the GFC here on the Gold Coast, right?
[27:30] Yeah, that's right.
[27:32] People sold, they freaked out.
[27:33] If they waited a few years, they were fine.
[27:35] Fine, yeah.
[27:36] But if you sell from that fear, I mean, that's when I buy a lot, sadly, because people freak out.
[27:40] Warren Buffett says it, he says, you know, be fearful when people are greedy and be greedy when people are fearful.
[27:46] So it's like it's regulating our emotions and staying commercial.
[27:51] But, yeah, the Gold Coast is so choked out, right?
[27:58] Like we're restricted in supply.
[27:59] Yeah.
[28:00] We just don't have any more land.
[28:01] Like the last couple of big subdivisions, you know, you've got Sky Ridge out near the motorway at Highland Park and Narang there.
[28:07] Yeah.
[28:08] There's no more land.
[28:09] So the only way is up.
[28:11] and apartment living in australia is going to be the new thing because we all want to be near the beaches and the cities and the sports and the schools um so i would say we make that move now i think you'll also because we're going to upgrade our home style a little bit as well from what we're
[28:29] Get him a double garage, please.
[28:31] That's all he wants.
[28:31] Well, I assume we're going to go from a three-bed, two-bath, one car to a four-bed, two-bath, two-car, maybe five-bed, two-bath, two-car.
[28:39] Yeah.
[28:41] So that's going to – everything is something to someone at some point in time.
[28:46] One-bedroom unit, five-bedroom house, right?
[28:48] But it does just open up a bigger family avatar of buyer and seller.
[28:52] You're going to enter into a new part of the market, a new segment.
[28:56] And that market, that segment is pretty strong.
[28:59] It's highly traded.
[29:00] It's highly desirable.
[29:02] So I think we need to look at that today.
[29:04] Okay, I'm happy with that.
[29:06] So that's your Christmas present is we want to be buying and we need to start looking at selling.
[29:13] So we need to look at who are the best agents for your home now and do we need to do anything around the house to tidy it up for sale?
[29:21] Jesus.
[29:22] This is a lot.
[29:24] I know.
[29:24] Look what happens in this fucking podcast, right?
[29:27] Damn.
[29:28] Wow, did not think this discussion was going to happen.
[29:30] No.
[29:31] When I couldn't sleep, I pretty much had our whole conversation at 2am.
[29:36] Oh yeah, I'm going to say this, he might say that.
[29:39] This is not what was happening.
[29:42] Yeah, I fuck it up all the time.
[29:43] Yeah.
[29:44] You didn't stick to my script.
[29:46] I'm sorry if I've broken it.
[29:47] They broke the mold with me.
[29:49] So, is that scary or good?
[29:52] Both.
[29:53] Both, but it's something we want.
[29:55] Yeah.
[29:55] Home is where the heart is.
[29:57] Yeah.
[29:57] Investments are great.
[29:59] And if we can maintain all the investments and upgrade, awesome.
[30:02] Yeah.
[30:02] Home is where the heart is, right?
[30:03] Yeah.
[30:04] And it's just not going to get any cheaper.
[30:05] No.
[30:06] You know, if you look at, you know, let's make up some numbers.
[30:08] Say you sold for a million today and you bought for 1.5 or 2.
[30:12] the 1.5 or 2 is going to be much higher later on yeah so will the sale might be 1.1 1.2 there's just different properties with different growth you know based on townhouses homes units etc then we need to knock this on the head
[30:26] now i'm already like missing our little community because i want it you haven't moved yet i know okay you're gonna have a big farewell party okay yeah so i think we need to and then we need to go through this process now we need to look at comparable sales in your area we need to look at who are the best agents delivering the best results with the strongest markers the typical family home needs to be marketed
[30:51] It needs to be good photography, good pitch, well-branded agency, hyperactive, responsive.
[30:59] We've got to pick the right brand to present that home in its best light to get you the best outcome.
[31:04] So there's a bit of homework there.
[31:07] Then we know what we think based on those comparables, what we'll get for your home.
[31:11] That'll tell us our cash position.
[31:14] Then we look at our borrowing capacity on top of that cash position.
[31:17] Yeah.
[31:17] And where we're comfortable.
[31:19] Yeah.
[31:19] Whilst keeping the investments.
[31:21] Or do we undo some investments?
[31:22] So we've got a bit of work to do strategy wise for you again.
[31:25] Yeah.
[31:25] And that's the joy of this relationship, right?
[31:27] It's like, you know, just get a loan.
[31:29] Like.
[31:29] Well, you've got a team behind you.
[31:31] Yeah.
[31:31] Well, there's some great brokers out there, right?
[31:33] Yeah.
[31:33] There's some awesome guys and girls in the industry.
[31:35] There's also some people that just fucking sell a loan and never talk to you again, which is a lot of the industry based on statistics.
[31:40] But having a team to go, okay, well, we're a year into this.
[31:43] We paid your home off.
[31:44] We don't get any trail commission anymore.
[31:46] Cool.
[31:47] But we want to be there to keep making sure you guys are growing and getting where you want to be.
[31:51] Because if you stop, you stop.
[31:53] Yeah.
[31:53] Which is a great feeling to have.
[31:55] Yeah.
[31:56] The market won't stop.
[31:57] No.
[31:57] Much to your prior incorrect belief.
[32:00] But anyway, take that knife out now.
[32:03] I haven't.
[32:04] I keep twisting it.
[32:05] He found us.
[32:06] All this is yours, mate.
[32:07] All of these wins are yours, mate.
[32:08] All the glory.
[32:09] Thanks, mate.
[32:09] I found them.
[32:11] Remember that, baby.
[32:14] So let's look at that after this because we're going to do a round two of this in, say, 12 months time.
[32:18] Okay.
[32:19] Okay.
[32:19] Did we keep all the investments?
[32:20] Did we sell even six months time?
[32:22] Are we in the new house?
[32:23] What did we sell for?
[32:24] What did we buy for?
[32:25] Okay.
[32:26] We're debt free, but we're going to move into some mortgage now because we're going to go and upgrade our home.
[32:32] Mm-hmm.
[32:32] But we know that we could upgrade our home by a couple of hundred grand and knock that on the head in the next 12 months anyway.
[32:37] Yeah.
[32:38] So if we were to go and upgrade our home and take on 400 grand of debt, it's still probably been the new home in debt for Ian in two years' time.
[32:46] Yeah, wow.
[32:46] Based on your recent performance.
[32:48] Oh, yeah.
[32:48] Which is less daunting or scary to think about.
[32:52] Yeah, you're not like, okay, I've got to borrow 400, 500 grand and it's 30 years and what are we doing and how old...
[32:58] shit i'll be retired by the time we pay it off yeah we want to pay it off in two to four years depending on what we spend yeah and i think i know now that you have this real world firsthand result and evidence you can confidently go and upgrade your home yeah and not freak out yeah because you know what you're capable of yeah and that's just such a different feeling to friends for neighbors chipping away going i've got no money yeah i'm like give me your statements
[33:25] Well, there it is.
[33:26] There it is.
[33:26] Like, yeah, you would have done that yourselves in the process.
[33:29] A hundred percent.
[33:29] Yeah.
[33:30] When we started, you guys predicted it'd be four years for us to pay it off.
[33:33] And we're like, sweet, that's amazing.
[33:35] Yeah.
[33:35] And then we've smashed in one.
[33:37] So that's been pretty mind blowing for us.
[33:40] So talk to me about the kids in the journey.
[33:43] I mean, obviously a bit younger.
[33:45] Yeah.
[33:45] How much have you or have you not involved them in this journey?
[33:49] Because you've been pretty aggressive in the approach.
[33:52] Have you involved them in it?
[33:54] Yeah, we tell them about it and that we've, you know, oh, we've just bought another property.
[33:58] Like it's just become quite, I don't know, a normal thing now, isn't it?
[34:02] And they're like, oh, cool.
[34:04] Do we get to see that one?
[34:05] I'm like, oh, you know, eventually maybe.
[34:06] And, yeah, so it's all, and they are quite young, so it's not, they probably don't fully understand.
[34:13] What about the budgeting aspect?
[34:15] What do you guys use as your food, fuel and fun each week?
[34:18] 600.
[34:18] Okay.
[34:20] But that doesn't include fuel.
[34:21] The business covers fuel.
[34:23] Okay.
[34:23] So that helps.
[34:24] It could be probably 800 maybe.
[34:26] Yeah, because when we started, they suggested about 750 at least.
[34:30] And we were like, no, we think we can do 600.
[34:32] And we've kept it at that the whole time.
[34:34] Yeah.
[34:36] And it's been good.
[34:36] And I can...
[34:38] I like the challenge of it.
[34:40] There was one week I needed to do the groceries on the Saturday and our thing ticks over a different day.
[34:47] And I had a certain amount left and going through Aldi and I think I was $5 out or, you know, a few – and then I had the cash.
[34:56] So I could pay one part.
[34:58] They wouldn't let me do two things.
[35:00] You're treating it like a sport.
[35:01] Yeah.
[35:01] I was like so excited that I had cash on me and it was like a game.
[35:05] I was like, this is awesome.
[35:06] I even shared it on the infinity page and people are talking about their sweeps.
[35:09] Yeah.
[35:09] The mini sweeps.
[35:11] And yeah, it was just like, yeah, it's like a challenge for me now.
[35:14] I'm like, oh, sorry kids.
[35:16] We can't go out because we've only got this much.
[35:18] So starting to say no to children is a big fear for parents.
[35:24] I hear it every day.
[35:25] I'm good at it.
[35:26] I love it.
[35:28] I'm a teacher.
[35:29] I'm really good at saying no to kids.
[35:31] So when you start this journey, right, for people listening at home, you go, I don't want to budget, that sucks.
[35:37] You're treating it like a sport.
[35:38] You're debt free on your home.
[35:39] I didn't want to budget.
[35:40] I never thought we needed to budget because I thought we were always okay.
[35:45] And I was like, budgeting's kind of for like poor people that need to, you know, that don't have money.
[35:51] We have money.
[35:52] We're fine.
[35:52] We don't need to budget.
[35:54] But it's kind of changing the narrative around a budget.
[35:56] It's not like looked at as a negative thing.
[35:59] It's just being more aware of what you spend.
[36:01] Yeah.
[36:01] It's just a control measure.
[36:02] Yeah.
[36:03] Hey, this is what we agree to blow or spend.
[36:06] And you put more value on it.
[36:06] You put more value on your money because you have a smaller amount than what you had in the past.
[36:11] So you just kind of will do stuff.
[36:13] Less tappy-tappy, which he's happy-happy about.
[36:18] Well, I mean, it's got us to where we are now.
[36:21] Yeah, it's amazing.
[36:22] And are you still planning holidays each year or each quarter?
[36:26] We went to Japan earlier this year.
[36:28] Okay, so we did Maldives last year.
[36:32] Yeah.
[36:32] A year or two ago?
[36:34] What was that?
[36:34] Yeah, no, it would have been, no, it was last year because I'm only 41 now.
[36:38] So Maldives, read the book, podcast.
[36:41] And you did where this year?
[36:42] I also did New Zealand for a girl's trip and he's done New Zealand for a boy's trip.
[36:47] So Maldives, New Zealand, New Zealand, Japan.
[36:51] Japan, with the family for two weeks, we did the snow.
[36:54] Yep.
[36:55] Yep.
[36:55] We're going camping or cabining this weekend with our friends.
[36:59] So we've had five holidays in two and a bit years, but we've still paid our home off in full, but we live on a budget.
[37:04] Yep.
[37:05] So budget might be a good thing.
[37:06] I agree now.
[37:08] Yeah, I think so.
[37:10] I'm on my board.
[37:11] You said, oh, no, budgets if you're struggling, if you're poor, if you're financially in, like, it's actually not.
[37:16] A better word for a budget would maybe be like abundance or cash flow.
[37:21] Like, rename it because it's really controlling cash flow so you can live in abundance and have five holidays in two years.
[37:26] Yeah.
[37:27] Yeah, 100%.
[37:28] Yeah.
[37:29] Okay.
[37:29] And the kids haven't kicked off when you've said, I mean, obviously teachers, I'm good at it, but no, you can't have that or no, like it hasn't been much, much tantrum there.
[37:39] No, they might ask for something and we will say no.
[37:42] I think we'll say, you know, well, we want a bigger house, don't we?
[37:44] So, you know, that's a sacrifice.
[37:46] We're not going to do that because do you want a bigger house?
[37:49] They're like, yep.
[37:50] So you're teaching them a bit of delayed gratification?
[37:53] Yeah.
[37:53] Yeah, we're trying to.
[37:54] That's something we're trying to instill in them.
[37:56] Good.
[37:56] And we're saying even like it was our son's birthday and he needed a new bike so we got him a second-hand one off marketplace rather than spending, I think it was a $900 bike or something.
[38:08] Yeah.
[38:09] We spent a couple hundred instead, you know?
[38:12] And he's fine.
[38:13] He's fine with it.
[38:14] My kids, yeah.
[38:15] He loves it.
[38:16] Yeah.
[38:16] Doesn't really care.
[38:16] And then we don't care as much if it trashes it that way.
[38:19] It doesn't take long to get it damaged.
[38:22] No.
[38:23] So go back for a second.
[38:26] Bigger goals.
[38:26] Where to from here?
[38:27] Upgrade the home.
[38:28] That was the first answer I got.
[38:30] What else?
[38:31] More holidays.
[38:32] More holidays.
[38:34] We do like to travel, G. Okay.
[38:36] I mean, we probably want to be a financial place.
[38:41] for the kids really that's you know we want to set up a bit of a nest for them to well it's not going to get any easier by the time they're 18 20 25 it's a hate to think what property prices are going to be versus incomes anyway yeah yeah it's uh and we want we want to get in a position while we're relatively young to be able to maybe not work as much or you know kind of enjoy the back end of our life instead of be struggling to pay off a mortgage okay
[39:12] Talk to me about friends and family.
[39:15] Have friends and family come on the journey, know of the journey, think you've joined a cult?
[39:22] Yeah, a little bit.
[39:24] Talk to me about that.
[39:25] It's weird.
[39:26] Different people react different ways.
[39:28] Yeah.
[39:28] But then I know some people are like, oh, we don't talk about it, but they start asking you and they're like, how did you do this?
[39:34] How did you get – you know, they see this podcast, all of a sudden they're like, I didn't know you did that.
[39:38] Or, oh, is that what you were doing?
[39:40] Yeah.
[39:40] Has that had any...
[39:43] Some are, you know, really excited and supportive and ask questions.
[39:47] Others don't really ask questions.
[39:49] So you kind of like... Just leave it alone.
[39:50] Yeah.
[39:51] Like a friend...
[39:53] I told a friend yesterday that we've paid off the mortgage and she was like...
[39:55] oh my God, I've got goosebumps and was asking about it.
[39:58] She's excited for you, happy for you.
[40:00] Yeah, she was, yeah, so excited.
[40:02] And then, yeah, even telling people we're going on the podcasts, you know, some people are like, oh, tell me more.
[40:07] Yeah.
[40:09] Yeah.
[40:09] It's that unknown.
[40:10] People don't know it, so they don't.
[40:12] kind of want to stay away or they think that's that fear right that's too good to be true something we don't understand is too good to be true we're scared of it we're fearful of it we're just going to keep pumping out thousands of these podcasts so people know it's really i know that person yeah and i think we're average people we're just average people average jobs well you've done extremely above average results i think
[40:34] That's if you give us a goal or you put something in front of us, we're really good at getting at it.
[40:41] And we've been on the same page.
[40:44] It's been great for our relationship.
[40:46] It's been easy to go without because you've got a combined goal, you know.
[40:50] Did you used to talk about money openly?
[40:53] Not really, no.
[40:54] It was just – Remember I had my secret accounts for you?
[40:57] Yeah, no, but when I hear it's been great for our relationship and we're both goal-driven, that's really cool.
[41:02] Like when I hear that, it's like we're not just helping with the money.
[41:05] Like the family's coming together.
[41:06] That's cool.
[41:07] Yeah.
[41:07] It's changed our – the trajectory of our life has been changed massively.
[41:13] That's cool, massively.
[41:15] Yeah.
[41:15] That's cool.
[41:16] Okay.
[41:16] So thank you for that.
[41:17] Yeah, thank you.
[41:18] You guys do the wall.
[41:19] All we do is write the structure.
[41:20] Here, do this or don't do it.
[41:21] I don't fucking care.
[41:22] We wouldn't have done anything without you guys.
[41:26] And I think part of, you know, you tell us what to buy and stuff, it's great.
[41:30] We don't have to think about it because if we had to think about it, we wouldn't do anything.
[41:34] We'd be trawling real estate.
[41:36] I wouldn't be able to talk him into anything.
[41:38] So it makes us pull the trigger and do something because we wanted to do something but we didn't know what to do.
[41:44] So thank you for bossing us around.
[41:47] With pleasure.
[41:48] Hey, tell me.
[41:50] We're going to focus on the new home after this and obviously we'll, you know, three months, six months, we'll sit down and do a part two.
[41:57] Yeah.
[41:58] But what are some tips and some learnings you can share with people tuning into this?
[42:04] You know, what's your, like, is there a couple of things that you've learned along the way about, oh, yeah, what do you reckon?
[42:10] Nah, bullshit.
[42:11] Oh, fuck, let's give it a go.
[42:12] Your budgets or, I don't know, what have you learned specifically as a couple and a family on this journey?
[42:19] Like if someone was listening and you say, oh, I know you're thinking this, I know you did that.
[42:23] Like what are some tips you could give them for free?
[42:25] Well, I think budget isn't a dirty word.
[42:28] It's a good goal to have because you've got those parameters to keep between and then you'll see the growth.
[42:34] Yep.
[42:35] And it's not as hard as you think.
[42:36] As you can see, we've had holidays.
[42:38] We, you know, we still go out for dinner and like life hasn't really changed at all, but we're just more conscious of what we spend now.
[42:48] Well, just to be clear, I didn't create your budget.
[42:50] No, we chose it.
[42:52] We created – we suggested a higher budget.
[42:54] Yeah, we did.
[42:55] So I think that's really important for anyone listening in at home that wants – like, just do the free webinar, you know what I mean?
[42:59] Do that.
[43:00] Listen to these people's success because you're killing it.
[43:03] I think it's really important to understand a budget is your budget.
[43:06] It's your plan for what you're prepared to spend on certain things, right?
[43:10] And I think that's what we say.
[43:11] Yeah, and it was gamified.
[43:13] Budget means poor or scarcity or diet.
[43:16] It doesn't mean – you can –
[43:17] go fucking wild you're gonna have thousands of dollars a week if you got it on a budget it's your plan yeah that's right and so i think that's really important yeah like you said the gamify it yeah because because they were like you could do 750 and we're like nah i reckon we could do 600 you know because you because you have that goal and you want to pay it down so if you make a bit of a sacrifice in that budget amount you'll get to where you want to be a little bit quicker yep you know like it
[43:45] If I could say anything to anyone, just do it.
[43:48] Just go and experience it.
[43:51] You know, like it's...
[43:53] It makes me a bit emotional because... And that's okay.
[43:56] Like, because it's... You've done so bloody well.
[43:59] Yeah.
[44:00] To think that you should be proud of that, right?
[44:02] Because...
[44:03] I know how I feel because I went through the exact same process when Becca and I first met and I was loaded with debt.
[44:08] She took me at my worst, right?
[44:10] To actually make those decisions and take the risk, especially if you think, shit, I'm coming from a position where I'm scared of this and it doesn't make sense.
[44:18] To actually invest in yourself to overcome that fear, to learn it, to apply the learnings
[44:25] and see it through to where you are today.
[44:27] Mate, I want to fucking cry for you.
[44:29] Like, I want to run around naked doing ootie.
[44:32] I mean, no one wants to see that.
[44:33] But, you know, like I could get fined for streaking today.
[44:35] Like, it's fun.
[44:37] Like, it is emotional.
[44:39] It is overwhelming.
[44:40] There'll be times where you sit down on holidays and you sit down and have a drink or whatever.
[44:44] You watch the sun come and you think,
[44:46] Like, how did we get here?
[44:47] Yeah, it's wild.
[44:47] Because you blink and you miss it.
[44:49] It's wild, right?
[44:50] But you should be proud.
[44:51] You should be – let it be emotional.
[44:53] Let it be – be bloody proud of it.
[44:55] Yeah.
[44:56] And someone will see this and listen to that and go, shit, I want to feel that emotion of not having any debt on the home.
[45:03] I want to go get three, four properties.
[45:05] If you want to change the trajectory of your life, then I'd say, yeah, give it a crack because it's –
[45:12] And I think just, you know, like listen to the people that know more than you.
[45:16] Because you don't know what you don't know and you just don't move without.
[45:20] That's a bit hard too because you did that.
[45:22] You went and seen someone and they said, you don't have enough, I can't help you.
[45:26] Yeah.
[45:26] I mean, you could have, let's be really clear, you could have stopped there.
[45:29] Yeah.
[45:29] That could have been your roadblock to go, okay, an advisor can't help us.
[45:33] Yeah.
[45:34] Yeah.
[45:34] And you could have done another five, ten years of nothing.
[45:38] And then, oh, you know what?
[45:38] We'll try again.
[45:39] Maybe we've got a bit more money now.
[45:41] Yeah.
[45:42] Imagine if you did nothing.
[45:43] Yeah.
[45:44] Oh, yeah.
[45:45] We would have been...
[45:46] We'd still be doing the same thing, not getting ahead.
[45:49] Very little super.
[45:50] Yeah, our life path would have been very different if we did nothing.
[45:54] Yeah.
[45:56] But now we're excited.
[45:57] We're super excited for the future.
[45:58] In a year and a half of making a – it seems like a drastic change, but it really isn't.
[46:04] It hasn't felt like it.
[46:06] So day to day you live pretty comfortably?
[46:08] Yeah.
[46:09] Groceries are good, life's good.
[46:11] Yep.
[46:11] But you're just pretty strict and gamified on what you're prepared to spend each week.
[46:15] Like I think even... We don't really spend much money on ourselves.
[46:18] No, but the kids, you know, I've probably put them in more extracurricular stuff this year.
[46:24] And I don't know, I think maybe because I'm not paying the car loan anymore.
[46:27] Yeah, or the home loan.
[46:28] You know, well now not the home loan.
[46:30] But yeah, we've been able to...
[46:31] So the kids haven't missed out at all.
[46:32] They've been doing different lessons and yeah, so it hasn't been hard at all.
[46:38] Okay.
[46:39] Okay.
[46:40] I love it.
[46:41] Yeah.
[46:41] It's been amazing.
[46:42] It's been really good.
[46:43] Absolutely life-changing.
[46:45] So it's not that hard.
[46:48] No.
[46:48] You can still have four or five holidays.
[46:50] Yep.
[46:51] Your kids aren't missing out on anything.
[46:53] No.
[46:53] Your relationship's stronger.
[46:56] You're creating wealth.
[46:57] Your super balance has gone up a gazillion dollars.
[47:00] Yes.
[47:02] I must be missing the bad bit here.
[47:04] That's good.
[47:04] You've had to go without nothing by the sounds of it.
[47:07] You're just being structured with what you have.
[47:10] Pretty much.
[47:10] Small sacrifices.
[47:11] Small structure.
[47:12] Yeah.
[47:12] And just, yeah, people telling us how to do it.
[47:16] Yeah.
[47:16] How important's that?
[47:18] How important is it having your relationship manager and your accountant and your finance strategist and your property, putting all those people together for a change on the same page?
[47:29] How important's that?
[47:31] Oh, it's so important because if you – how stressful it was for us just to get a loan for one place.
[47:37] If we had to do that for four more, it would be too hard.
[47:40] It's been so seamless though.
[47:42] Like we just kind of submitted our information and then next minute you're like, buy the properties.
[47:47] And here's that.
[47:48] And there's your house.
[47:49] We're just like, what do you mean you're getting us two properties at one time?
[47:53] Like couldn't really comprehend it and it was not stressful in the slightest.
[47:57] It was –
[47:58] So easy to sign these documents and away you go.
[48:01] That's a lot of paperwork.
[48:02] You're going to shit yourself.
[48:04] You're like, it's not stressful at all.
[48:05] I'm watching him go.
[48:08] Luke's like, oh, no, not stressful at all.
[48:10] And we would have got emotionally in touch to any investment we'd
[48:14] We don't because other people do it.
[48:16] We just... Well, the natural thing is to just, oh, well, we go up the road.
[48:20] That's a pretty cool suburb.
[48:21] I'd live there and we'll buy that and that's an investment, right?
[48:24] Yeah.
[48:24] It's usually owner-occupied, pretty expensive, bad yield, all sorts of different things.
[48:30] And all your eggs are in that one basket.
[48:31] But, hey, you know the area.
[48:33] Yeah.
[48:34] And I was definitely never going to sell our place.
[48:37] Like we wanted to move out of it, but I was going to keep it for an investment.
[48:40] Keep it as an investment, yeah.
[48:41] Because I'm like, we'd never get a place this cheap again.
[48:43] Yeah.
[48:44] The rent is so much more like, duh.
[48:47] And I think we'd been to an advisor before who said, sell the place to get a bigger place.
[48:52] And I was like... What advice?
[48:54] No, I didn't think so.
[48:55] Yeah, okay.
[48:56] What would I know?
[48:57] Not a lot, apparently.
[48:58] Yeah.
[48:58] Well, you've got all that cash in it.
[49:00] And there's no capital gains tax on selling that home.
[49:02] And now we know better.
[49:03] We've got to sell that dog.
[49:05] Sell that dog.
[49:06] Now, it's a beautiful community, but we've got to sell that dog.
[49:08] I know, I've got to sell that dog.
[49:09] I'm on board now.
[49:10] Shit, we might sell that dog this year.
[49:14] oh more christmas there yeah well you i think people get caught up in this like i've just bought a new home at the moment for beck and i because we were going to rent our knockdown rent it got wildly expensive like no we'll sell those or we'll keep them whatever and we'll buy the new home that we want yeah but we're not settling until next year yeah right because the family wanted one more christmas in the home and we're like shit we wanted our first christmas in home
[49:41] And so the negotiations begin.
[49:42] It's like, ah.
[49:44] But it's really the seller's discretion.
[49:46] Yeah.
[49:46] Hey, we sell the home.
[49:48] This is the price we'll accept.
[49:49] And these are the terms we'll accept.
[49:51] Yeah.
[49:51] So you're in the box seat there.
[49:53] So, yep, we're happy to sell.
[49:55] And whoever's buying, but we're not moving until X date.
[49:58] Yeah.
[49:58] So you might have a, you say, look, we're happy to sell right now.
[50:01] And I'd usually say we'd get yours up for sale before we buy.
[50:05] Yeah.
[50:05] Because it's neater and you sort of want them same time.
[50:08] Yeah.
[50:08] It's neater to have yours up marketed people making offers whilst you're shopping.
[50:13] Yeah.
[50:13] You know, you're shopping right now, but whilst you're shopping.
[50:15] Yeah.
[50:16] Because if you can get yours up and start getting offers and sale and contract, and then you find the right home to act, we can almost have, you know, what's called a simultaneous settlement.
[50:24] Yeah.
[50:25] Because that's what Luke was talking about.
[50:28] He's like, well, maybe you rent vest and you've got somewhere to leave in between because the whole buying and swap over.
[50:35] That's a me problem.
[50:36] I'll chronologically figure out what needs to happen.
[50:39] I love farming jobs up to you guys.
[50:40] Yeah, just flick it to us, right?
[50:43] And we'll figure that out.
[50:44] And we'll say, okay, well, this is happening at this date, this date, and this date, and we'll figure out the chronological order for you.
[50:50] Yeah, well.
[50:51] That's our problem.
[50:51] Sweet.
[50:52] We like that.
[50:53] Palm it off.
[50:54] Yeah.
[50:56] guys you should be really bloody proud of yourselves i don't thank you i don't know talking to you if it's truly sunk in yet there you are i don't think it i can see it's starting to that bit of a yeah you're starting to actually and being here today and share the stories a big step so thank you because someone at home's gonna be like well shit that's how we felt we've got a couple of kids and i'll be like so you will absolutely really help somebody listening to this so thank you but
[51:21] It'll be interesting as this starts to evolve.
[51:24] And I think it will be the sadness of selling the old home, the excitement of the new home.
[51:30] I think once you get in and packing moving nightmare, but once you've moved, I think then sitting down, having those first couple of meals and moments as a family, that's when the emotional really kick in and you realize what you've achieved.
[51:42] Yes, you'll go into more debt, but it's that pride of that.
[51:45] that new home.
[51:46] Yeah.
[51:47] Kids picking rooms and all that sort of, you know, all that fun.
[51:50] To be honest, we didn't think we could do it.
[51:53] No.
[51:54] We'd just, we would look at the process of other houses in our area and be like, we're going to do that.
[51:58] Yeah.
[51:59] Well, we can help with that.
[52:01] We've got,
[52:01] a few people here that are pretty good at what they do sweet and get to work yes we can and we can help through that process too with all the agents and all that sort of stuff you know we can yeah check what they're doing and saying and help you negotiate and work through that as well so that's such a nice feeling to have that yeah that someone's got your back because yeah
[52:20] It's a daunting process, you know, like that.
[52:21] It is.
[52:23] It is.
[52:23] And we're going to do all those weird things.
[52:25] We get a pest and building inspection on your place now because a buyer is going to do it anyway.
[52:29] So let's make sure everything's in great condition.
[52:32] If it's not, let's fix it up because calm is a real thing.
[52:35] So let's make sure your home's spick and span and it's all good.
[52:37] And when they get their inspection, they go, yeah, this home's pretty good.
[52:41] I can see they just fixed this, but it's fixed.
[52:43] all those little things that you hand that home over to a new family that love it and all that sort of stuff and you sleep well at night so there's some expense but you sleep well, you get top dollar off we go next
[52:58] You should be bloody proud of yourselves.
[53:00] Yeah, no, it's amazing.
[53:02] We're very...
[53:03] I think the more we've been talking about it today, obviously you start to realise like, oh shit, we actually... Yeah, we did it.
[53:09] We set a goal, but we didn't, I don't know, you know, give yourself the credit because it's just something that's sort of recently happened.
[53:15] Yeah, I say to people, like everyone thinks, oh, it's budget life and there's no fun.
[53:18] I mean, five holidays is pretty fun, you know.
[53:21] Maldives, Japan, New Zealand, New Zealand, camping, you know.
[53:26] But in the same token, it's really important to stop and smell the roses.
[53:30] Whether that's once a month and it's a date night or whether it's a camping weekend or it's a stay camp, like whatever it is, once a month or once a quarter, whatever you're comfortable with.
[53:39] You get to go away for REMS and that's a nice little treat.
[53:41] Yeah, REMS is nice too and this one's local for you guys.
[53:44] It'd be boring, right?
[53:46] It's a night away from the kids.
[53:46] Yeah, true.
[53:48] It's a bit of fun, right?
[53:49] Open bathtub.
[53:49] Totally.
[53:50] But no, I think it is really important.
[53:54] And even though, like, to go and get to celebrate that at REM next weekend with everybody, that's pretty cool.
[53:59] I think it's really going to sink in for you next weekend.
[54:02] Yeah.
[54:03] Yeah, especially when you speak to people that are starting.
[54:05] Yeah, when you're just sharing your stories.
[54:07] You'll be speaking to the people.
[54:10] You've done what you've done.
[54:10] There's 700, 800 people at that event.
[54:13] You'll be speaking to people that are where you were 12, 18 months ago that have got a skeptic hat on or haven't processed or aren't prepared to sell the car.
[54:22] So you'll actually be...
[54:24] almost the you'll be able to say well i did this and i did that and i think you search for that like i would have been searching when i went for someone to go yeah i did it i had a loan i paid it off or we did this you know it's because you go thinking it can't be real you know there's got to be something behind it but actually i love it i love i love people watching people walk in and it's like
[54:45] Thursday, Friday, it's like this.
[54:48] And by Saturday, Sunday, people are like, yeah.
[54:50] Because they've spoken to 400, 500 people that are at a certain part of the journey.
[54:55] And it is.
[54:56] It's cool when you're meeting people that are further ahead and you're like, oh, you know, you can't dream that that would be you.
[55:03] And next minute, here we are.
[55:06] He's doing the Christmas party, right?
[55:08] Absolutely.
[55:08] Oh, good.
[55:09] All right.
[55:09] We booked in for the local thing too the next month.
[55:13] Yeah, the community day.
[55:13] Yeah, we're doing that.
[55:14] Thursday maybe.
[55:15] Yeah, it's Thursday.
[55:16] Yeah.
[55:16] Good.
[55:17] It's down the road from us.
[55:17] Done your Kmart salvos?
[55:19] Yep.
[55:19] Yep.
[55:19] Good.
[55:20] Yep.
[55:20] Have you seen the numbers?
[55:22] When I did it, I think it was close to five.
[55:24] $718,000 yesterday.
[55:25] Wow.
[55:28] That's wild.
[55:30] So we set the task because last year was 200.
[55:32] Yeah.
[55:33] And all the presidents and the lay-bys.
[55:35] We set the goal of 500 this year.
[55:37] I was still overseas.
[55:38] Yeah.
[55:39] We got the link finally.
[55:40] Yeah.
[55:41] And the link came out and we sent it out to all of our business associates, people we know, clients, did on the MAM that.
[55:47] It cleared the $500,000 in five days.
[55:48] That's wild.
[55:49] Wow.
[55:52] So we moved it to six.
[55:53] We cleared the six.
[55:54] We moved it to seven.
[55:56] We cleared the seven.
[55:57] Wow.
[55:57] So I don't know what it's today.
[55:58] It may be $750.
[55:59] It was $718,000 from our beautiful community within two weeks.
[56:06] Wow.
[56:07] That's nuts.
[56:08] That to me is just – Yeah, you should be very proud.
[56:10] You're going to get it real.
[56:10] Like that's – it's so cool.
[56:13] And, you know, all these people have the capacity to donate –
[56:17] Well, that's the rule, remember?
[56:18] Do you know what I mean?
[56:20] And that's the thing.
[56:21] I mean, it's something Beck and I care about because I obviously received that as a kid for a couple of years when mum was struggling.
[56:27] And I don't think people put justice to it.
[56:29] It's not just the child that gets that kindness.
[56:33] It's the parent who has the joy that their child got presents.
[56:37] You know what I mean?
[56:38] Like that means that that stressed out single parent, for example, isn't freaking out on Christmas Day and miserable that they failed their children.
[56:45] It helps the parent and the child.
[56:46] Let's be clear.
[56:48] But that sense of community that we help people get in a position to be able to give so willingly, that's fucking cool.
[56:56] It's pretty cool.
[56:56] It's really cool.
[56:57] It's so cool.
[56:57] And now we're aiming for- You should feel very proud of yourself.
[56:59] Oh, I'm not going to talk about it too much.
[57:01] You can imagine too.
[57:02] I know on stage this year with Salvos and Kmart, that will be, I'll be blubbering mess.
[57:06] I better not drink that night.
[57:09] But that's going to be pretty cool.
[57:10] We've got the big shop, obviously, the day before at Kmart.
[57:13] Yeah.
[57:14] And yeah, the goal will now be try to get 5,000 presents.
[57:17] And everyone's been starting and sending their receipts.
[57:20] And it's pretty cool.
[57:22] It is amazing.
[57:23] I don't know how to put words to it yet.
[57:25] I mean, who knows where it'll end up.
[57:27] It's amazing what a community can do when they all kind of...
[57:30] it really does show small things can make a big difference and that flow on effect from the budgeting and that and that like to then be able to give it's pretty cool yeah it's pretty change you've changed a lot of people's lives which they want to then pay it forward you know that's that whole concept of you know doing which is cool it's yeah I'm not gonna talk about it too emotional
[57:55] Yeah, we're just going to go sit in the corner.
[57:58] Get him some tissues.
[57:59] Yeah, get the tissues out.
[58:01] But hey, I really want to thank you guys.
[58:03] Thank you for sharing and look forward to having you guys at REM.
[58:07] I think we're going to pop you on stage at REM maybe, aren't we?
[58:09] Oh, well.
[58:10] Well, I think after our first REM, I was like, I want to be up there.
[58:13] That's my goal now.
[58:15] Well, we can do that, this REM.
[58:17] Two extra seats on stage.
[58:18] He's already been on stage dancing, so what's different when you're – Well, it'd be less embarrassing.
[58:24] It could be boring, but it depends if we both cry.
[58:28] I'll see you next to David Cherry, and between you, me, and Dave, we'll have a box of tissues each, and we'll all be in tears, us big teddy bears.
[58:36] But you should be really bloody proud of yourselves, and I think I really look forward for you guys to experience Rem now from sharing your story.
[58:44] I think it'll be really fun, and you'll really help and empower some other families, and hopefully anyone listening to this.
[58:50] I want to say thank you for sharing and being so honest.
[58:53] And, uh, but more importantly, round two is episode two of this is going to be super cool.
[58:59] And I've got a feeling it could be very early in the new year.
[59:03] Yeah.
[59:04] Once you finish packing and unpacking, a little bit stressful, um, but we'll have to talk about some areas and things like that.
[59:11] But yeah, so you should be really proud of yourselves.
[59:13] I want to thank you and, uh, look forward to episode two.
[59:16] Yeah.
[59:17] Well done guys.
[59:17] Thank you very much.
[59:18] And thank you,
[59:18] Thanks for having us.
[59:19] Thank you.
[59:20] Pleasure.
[59:20] You're fucking gone.
[59:22] See ya.

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