# No Mortgage. New Investments. True Freedom | Georgia & Daniel | CHANGING LIVES | Season 3 Ep 31

An episode of [Money Mentor Podcast™](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1632604767), 14 Oct 2025, 50 min.

Audio: https://episode.flightcast.com/eyqqer6rf44ldm0g2kefm4uj.mp3

In this episode of the Money Mentor Podcast, we sit down with Georgia and Daniel, a couple from Canberra who turned years of financial struggle into a story of freedom. From surviving the GFC and running a failing business to finding Infinity and transforming their money mindset, they share how they went from mortgage stress to paying off their home, building investments, and even donating $10,000 to charity. Their journey is a raw and inspiring look at what’s possible when you commit to change, challenge old habits, and take back control of your finances.👉 Follow the link https://bit.ly/43V2jKN to watch the free webinar

## Transcript

[0:00] We knocked off 25 grand.
[0:02] In five months?
[0:02] And we didn't increase our income yet at that point.
[0:05] So you just changed what you were doing?
[0:07] Yep.
[0:08] We reshuffled things a little bit, so we had some savings accounts, we had a little bit in shares, and we just chucked all of that onto the mortgage.
[0:18] And then we just, because we're not trying to contribute to savings here and...
[0:22] Yes.
[0:22] There's a shotgun approach scattered everywhere, consolidate.
[0:26] Just throw it all at the mortgage.
[0:28] Yeah, and we had a certain other financial perspective that we were following.
[0:33] Wrong strategy.
[0:34] Yeah, I wasn't going to say it.
[0:36] Wrong footed in.
[0:36] I was following that.
[0:37] But yeah, we had bank accounts for this and bank accounts for that because... You had interest is calculated daily.
[0:42] No.
[0:42] Money scattered everywhere.
[0:44] When you just put it on your mortgage, you save all of that interest.
[0:47] And there you go, 25 grand.
[0:48] Yeah.
[0:49] Five months.
[0:50] Money is the root of all evil.
[0:51] The fucking lack of it is.
[0:53] Not money.
[0:54] The lack of understanding money.
[0:56] When I put that into emphasis, when I realized that psychological effect and how it hit our family, I have to be in the fucking way.
[1:02] You are now watching the money made to a podcast.
[1:05] With Graham Himes.
[1:06] Graham Himes.
[1:06] Graham Himes.
[1:12] Welcome back to The Money Mentor, another episode of Changing Lives Financially.
[1:17] And today we have two very special guests.
[1:19] So good morning or good afternoon now, Georgia and Daniel.
[1:22] How are we?
[1:22] Yeah, very good.
[1:23] Thank you.
[1:23] How are you?
[1:24] I can't complain.
[1:25] I like to say Beck doesn't listen to when I'm complaining, but I've got to remember this is on the recording.
[1:32] So...
[1:32] She'll find out.
[1:33] Yeah, she'll hear me.
[1:34] No, she listens to everything else, just not my whinging and whining.
[1:37] No, I'm good.
[1:38] I'm good.
[1:38] How are you guys?
[1:39] Good, thank you.
[1:40] It's lovely.
[1:41] The hotel's nice.
[1:42] Thank you very much.
[1:43] Lovely.
[1:43] Having a great time.
[1:44] Well, you guys have absolutely knocked it out of the park.
[1:51] Yeah, a little bit.
[1:52] So you actually cost me a little bit of money, but we'll talk about that later on.
[1:56] So for everyone that's not part of the Infinity family and community and cult and all this nonsense, give us a little bit of background on who you are, where you're from, all that sort of jazz.
[2:08] We're from Canberra.
[2:09] I run my own gardening business, self-employed, and George's...
[2:16] Yeah, I'm a former teacher.
[2:18] I work for the government now, but I used to be a teacher.
[2:22] Foreign languages.
[2:23] Oh, foreign languages.
[2:24] Very good.
[2:25] Very good.
[2:26] How many?
[2:27] Well, two that I teach, but several that I speak.
[2:30] Oh, very good.
[2:31] How many do you speak?
[2:32] About four.
[2:34] So when you're in trouble, she just changes dialect.
[2:37] She flips from language to language.
[2:39] Like you can think of a word in French, but can't think of it in English.
[2:43] Yeah.
[2:43] That happens a bit.
[2:44] Yeah.
[2:44] Okay.
[2:46] All right.
[2:46] I won't repeat them.
[2:47] There's certain words you know you're in trouble.
[2:48] You've got to watch out.
[2:49] Also all right.
[2:50] And family, pets, all that sort of jazz?
[2:52] Absolutely.
[2:53] We have one 16-year-old daughter and two little saucy sausage dogs.
[2:58] Okay.
[2:59] And they are currently at home in Canberra.
[3:01] Okay.
[3:02] Yeah.
[3:02] Very good.
[3:04] Now let's talk about then you guys as a family.
[3:07] So we've got family, mum and dad, 16-year-old daughter, and two sassy, saucy, saucy dogs.
[3:14] What are their names?
[3:15] Harry and Tiny.
[3:16] Harry and Tiny.
[3:18] So Tiny's smaller than Harry?
[3:19] Well, technically.
[3:20] Tiny started out smaller.
[3:22] She was really tiny when she was born and almost didn't make it.
[3:26] She's a great kahuna.
[3:27] She loves her food.
[3:29] Now we've got Harry and Heifer.
[3:31] Sighted Tiny got big.
[3:32] Heifer.
[3:32] We'll do that before.
[3:36] I love it.
[3:36] Well, let's talk about pre-infinity.
[3:39] So can you give everyone at home some like, hey, we bought a home and it was worth X and we did this.
[3:45] Give us some background on what you were doing on your own, like most people.
[3:48] I think the best place to start is probably before we even bought a house because we had such a rat race prior to that.
[3:54] Okay.
[3:54] Can you talk about that?
[3:56] Yeah, well, I used to work in the construction industry, so I was a designer.
[4:00] And, you know, the construction industry goes up, goes down.
[4:08] Working here, working there, you know, chasing the next job and moving all the time.
[4:19] Breaking leases.
[4:21] So you were following the work, so to speak.
[4:23] Yeah, yeah.
[4:24] And lived in the Gold Coast for a while out at Narang for two or three years.
[4:30] And then from here, we went to New Zealand.
[4:32] Wow.
[4:33] And lived there for two or three years.
[4:35] And then... Weeping the whole time.
[4:37] And then the global financial crisis and the construction industry just stopped overnight.
[4:43] And everyone, there was job losses everywhere.
[4:48] Yeah.
[4:48] And so we were in a bit of a crisis then and we moved back to Canberra and found a little bit of stability there.
[4:54] Okay.
[4:55] And we've pretty much been there ever since.
[4:57] When we moved back to Canberra, we had my daughter at that point there.
[5:01] She was an infant at that point.
[5:03] So we were like, okay, we have to stay somewhere for a while at least for some stability.
[5:07] So we made the choice to stay in Canberra and that's where we bought our home.
[5:11] And then we're talking 2010 at that point.
[5:14] Okay.
[5:14] So in the midst of the GFC.
[5:16] Yeah.
[5:17] Yes, absolutely.
[5:18] So when the work dried up in New Zealand, we packed all our stuff into shipping containers and it was on the docks ready to go.
[5:30] And I lost the job that I was going to move to in Queensland.
[5:36] Yeah.
[5:36] Yeah.
[5:37] And so we had to redirect all of our stuff back to Canberra and we just moved back in with George's mum and dad because we had nowhere else to go.
[5:44] Yeah.
[5:45] That was nice of them.
[5:46] Yeah.
[5:47] Lucky they had the space.
[5:49] Yeah.
[5:49] Okay.
[5:51] Because we were living with my mum, we were able to save the income that we were earning at that point.
[5:55] Right.
[5:56] So then we saved up a deposit to buy our house in Canberra.
[5:59] So it's almost a blessing in disguise.
[6:01] It was.
[6:01] In some weird, strange way to...
[6:03] It's one of those things, isn't it?
[6:04] It's one of... Yeah, you've got to roll with the flow.
[6:07] Yeah.
[6:08] Yeah.
[6:08] I mean, it's full of ups and downs in life.
[6:10] In that case, we get a lot of quality family time, but you also get to save a little bit thanks to the mum and dad.
[6:15] That's right.
[6:15] Yeah.
[6:16] That's awesome.
[6:16] That's right.
[6:17] And so bought the home in what year?
[6:19] 2010.
[6:20] 2010.
[6:20] Okay.
[6:21] And how much did you pay for it?
[6:23] $349,950.
[6:23] Jesus, don't you wish you could pay $349?
[6:27] It was an affordable housing project from the ACT.
[6:30] It was cheap at the time as well.
[6:32] Yeah.
[6:33] It was brand spanking new.
[6:34] Yeah.
[6:35] It was, you know.
[6:37] They were all cookie cutter though.
[6:38] Exactly the same house, just a different facade on the other side.
[6:41] Yeah, right.
[6:42] Okay.
[6:42] And nothing there.
[6:43] It was just dirt.
[6:44] Dirt.
[6:45] Yeah.
[6:46] And how much did we borrow?
[6:48] We borrowed, let me see, it was slightly shy of $300 because we saved up roughly $50 ourselves.
[6:58] Okay.
[6:58] Yeah.
[6:58] So you sort of had around 10% of the cost.
[7:00] Approximately.
[7:01] Yeah.
[7:02] Approximately.
[7:02] Okay.
[7:03] Yeah.
[7:03] It's a bit fuzzy now, but then.
[7:04] How are we operating financially from then until infinity?
[7:09] Yeah.
[7:09] Oh, God.
[7:10] Well, you know what?
[7:11] To get my loan, and this is one of the reasons why banks really suck, Daniel got, he was employed, but I was a stay-at-home mum, so they were using my parenting payment as part of my income.
[7:24] Income, yeah.
[7:24] And I'm like, that is ridiculous.
[7:27] I shouldn't have been given a loan, but I was given a loan, and we somehow managed to limp along from there, and our mortgage never went down, like,
[7:37] We'd just get a tiny bit ahead.
[7:39] And then because it was a brand new place, there was no grass, there was no nothing.
[7:43] So we'd put plants in or we would put in air conditioning.
[7:46] So you just had literally had the home.
[7:48] The home would hit the shell.
[7:49] So you had the landscape, the curtain.
[7:52] All our money was taken up with making the house livable.
[7:55] Okay.
[7:56] And that happened for many years.
[7:57] And you get into that sort of rut and mindset for ages.
[8:00] There's always something you want to do, right?
[8:01] Yeah, yeah.
[8:02] Well, there's the needs versus wants equation.
[8:04] I was like, we need a new washing machine.
[8:06] We need new curtains.
[8:07] We got stuck in that as well too.
[8:10] We actually went through the exercise of graphing it out, our mortgage repayments.
[8:14] So over time, over 10 years, we looked at what we'd paid back and we never, ever got ahead.
[8:22] And we sort of, the line just sort of went up and down a little bit, but basically just from...
[8:26] So how long did we stay in this cycle?
[8:28] Oh God, until we met you guys.
[8:30] Okay.
[8:31] Yeah.
[8:33] Okay.
[8:33] And so we're still in that home today?
[8:35] No.
[8:36] Okay.
[8:36] Did we use credit cards?
[8:38] Did we have car loans?
[8:40] Yeah.
[8:41] One of our big things is we've never had credit cards.
[8:43] Okay.
[8:44] Well, I might say never.
[8:45] We have when we were young, really young.
[8:48] But since we've owned a home, we've never had a credit card.
[8:50] Okay.
[8:51] Yeah.
[8:51] If I don't have the money, I don't buy whatever it is.
[8:54] And so when did you find Infinity?
[8:56] Infinity.
[8:58] How and when?
[8:59] Well, so when we finally did start getting ahead with our mortgage, we did probably a very silly thing and bought a business.
[9:09] And the business never did any good.
[9:13] And Georgia was generally spending the time trying to get it.
[9:19] Moving.
[9:19] Yeah.
[9:20] And she started going to things like Tony Robbins.
[9:24] And one of the Tony Robbins things that she went to, you were speaking at that.
[9:29] Right.
[9:30] I'll tell you how it happened.
[9:33] We, my mother passed away.
[9:35] And she, when she passed away, I got a small inheritance, which was almost enough to pay off the mortgage.
[9:40] Right.
[9:40] And then a little couple of months later, I managed to pay off the rest of what was left over on that mortgage.
[9:45] So we got down to zero, but I didn't discharge the mortgage.
[9:48] I just had it sitting there as a potential redraw.
[9:50] You used it again.
[9:52] And I used to find teaching to be very stressful for me.
[9:56] I know there's people out there that absolutely thrive in that environment, but I didn't.
[10:00] So I knew I needed to change.
[10:02] And when our favorite tea shop was up for sale, we knew that the quality was great.
[10:07] We're like, okay, we'll go and buy that business.
[10:09] So I redrew on my mortgage, of course, and spent close to $180,000 buying a business, which I now know is other people's problems because I've heard that come out of your mouth before.
[10:20] You can buy a good business, but usually when someone's selling and offloading a business, it's usually not at its peak or profit.
[10:26] Exactly.
[10:27] So that's where our money sort of, we got down to zero and then shazam, we're straight back up to 180 grand in the hole and the business went nowhere.
[10:36] And it was when the business was going nowhere, that's where I was doing research into how to be a better marketer.
[10:44] How to run a business, how to do all these things, mindset, personal development, coaching.
[10:49] I went to Tony Robbins and I did his four-day summit.
[10:52] And as a follow-up to that, Success Resources was offering something that you showed up.
[10:56] Power of momentum.
[10:58] Yeah.
[10:58] Yes.
[10:59] So I watched you and I'm like, oh.
[11:01] Yeah.
[11:02] okay, so this is what I've been doing wrong.
[11:05] Right.
[11:05] And that was just a free one hour that you did afterwards.
[11:09] And I'm like, Daniel wasn't there at that time because it was just something I was doing as a follow-up.
[11:13] Yes.
[11:13] And you made it really clear at the time, I'm not your broker, I'm not your financial advisor, but these are the things that you need to look at.
[11:21] Yep.
[11:22] And I'm like, hell, I need to look at this, I need to look at that.
[11:25] So I went away that night and I said to Dan, we need to change this, we need to change that.
[11:29] Right.
[11:29] Right.
[11:29] So you took that free information and turned it into.
[11:31] The first thing there, I'm like, where can I get more information on this guy?
[11:35] So that's when I started following you.
[11:36] Right.
[11:37] Okay.
[11:38] And what year was that?
[11:39] 22?
[11:40] 23?
[11:41] 23.
[11:41] 23.
[11:41] Yeah.
[11:42] Okay.
[11:43] And at what point then did you come to us and say, hey, we want your help?
[11:48] As soon as we discovered, okay, so you did your free thing with the Tony Robbins Success Resources.
[11:56] Yeah.
[11:56] At the end of that, there was a sign up to do the full weekend mouse class and I signed up to do that.
[12:03] Right.
[12:03] Okay.
[12:03] So straight away.
[12:04] Pretty much.
[12:05] I think I had to wait three weeks until the next one that happened.
[12:07] Yeah.
[12:08] And that was 2023.
[12:09] Mm-hmm.
[12:12] And then, so did the weekend.
[12:14] And then how did that go?
[12:15] You applied to work with us and.
[12:17] Yeah.
[12:17] We jumped in straight away.
[12:18] We were buzzing.
[12:19] Yeah.
[12:20] Yeah.
[12:20] So, and you know, the usual story everyone else says, you know, you sit down, you think, oh, you know, this guy's going to be full of shit.
[12:27] Yeah.
[12:27] I had a two day job listening to this guy.
[12:31] 10, 20 minutes in, you're just like, right, I really have to pay attention to this.
[12:35] And you sit there the whole weekend and you're just like tipping them off.
[12:40] It's like, yeah, we do that, we do that and we can fix these problems.
[12:43] Yeah, I get thousands of messages from people and socials across all the platforms.
[12:47] Oh, my wife or my husband's ADHD.
[12:49] I'm like, I'm ADHD.
[12:50] It's like this or that.
[12:52] We can't sit here.
[12:53] I'm like...
[12:53] Believe me, if you just turn up with a money back guarantee, you will sit there all week.
[12:57] You'll not want it to end.
[12:59] You'll be upset that it's ended because you want to just tick and tick and tick.
[13:03] Yeah.
[13:04] So we got to the end of that two day weekend and we're like, shit, okay, how can we scratch together the money to join you guys?
[13:12] And we did.
[13:14] Because we don't have a credit card.
[13:15] We sort of have to try and.
[13:17] pull money from here and pull money from there, but we did.
[13:20] And then we joined and then we got some absolutely horrible news.
[13:24] He's on the fact.
[13:25] No, I'm an arsehole.
[13:27] But that sort of illustrates one of the other points is that, you know,
[13:32] People think Infinity is a scam.
[13:34] It's just too good to be true.
[13:35] And, you know, you hand over this money and you say, oh, take me on as a client.
[13:41] You know, I'm ready.
[13:42] And Infinity looks at your information and says, no, you're not ready, and they give you money back.
[13:47] So, you know.
[13:49] Really, really upfront, really honest.
[13:52] Yeah.
[13:52] I mean, if we can't help absolutely change your position, there's no point holding your money, right?
[13:57] That's right.
[13:58] It's not like, we're not a small business.
[13:59] We're a big organization.
[14:00] It's like, hey, we can't help right now because of ABC.
[14:03] So here's your money.
[14:04] But you need to just go and do ABC and D.
[14:07] But can I tell you, though, the fact that you did give me the money back, it just made me think, well, why the bloody hell wouldn't I do what he's told me to do?
[14:15] If he's prepared to say, nah, in your current situation, we can't help you.
[14:20] But if you do these things, we can.
[14:22] And why did we tell you we couldn't help you?
[14:24] Oh, serviceability.
[14:25] So income.
[14:26] Yeah.
[14:26] Okay.
[14:27] Income expenses.
[14:28] So part-time teacher, because obviously I'm not good enough to teach full-time, can't cope.
[14:34] Part-time teacher, minimum income.
[14:36] Yeah.
[14:37] Also, I was trying to do the business that wasn't making any money as well.
[14:41] Right.
[14:42] And Daniel.
[14:43] Yeah, so I was in that don't pay tax sort of thing.
[14:47] Self-employed, write it all off, earn it, spend it, net, net.
[14:51] Not just that, but the GST, we limited it.
[14:53] So, yeah, I didn't want to do the paperwork, you know.
[14:56] I was like, oh, I don't want to get involved.
[14:58] So you didn't like money?
[14:59] No.
[14:59] You were deliberately not earning money?
[15:01] Yeah.
[15:02] And then when you did earn, you were spending it?
[15:04] And I was telling myself I didn't need it.
[15:05] Yeah, I was like, well, I'm the Australian business owners.
[15:09] Yeah.
[15:09] I'm going to earn under GST because I don't want the complexity.
[15:13] And then whatever I do earn, I'm going to spend so I can claim it all.
[15:16] And I made no profit and didn't pay the tax money.
[15:18] That's everyone you talk to.
[15:20] So how much money can I save on tax?
[15:22] I'm going to laugh, but it's so true.
[15:24] I mean, it was me when I started.
[15:25] Yeah, it was me too.
[15:27] Completely different mindset now about all of that.
[15:29] Yeah.
[15:30] So Daniel raised his prices.
[15:32] We now charge GST.
[15:34] Georgia went back to work in a slightly higher capacity.
[15:37] Yep.
[15:38] And in the end, I found a full-time work that I can do now, which is fantastic.
[15:42] I'm enjoying it greatly.
[15:44] So we've just increased our income.
[15:46] So you build the business up.
[15:47] Yeah.
[15:48] And did you lose customers in that process?
[15:50] Not a one.
[15:51] Not a one.
[15:52] No.
[15:52] No.
[15:52] Interesting.
[15:53] In fact, they love him more now because he's...
[15:55] That's like Casey and Lenny, a podcast, we've done a couple of his personal trips.
[15:58] Same thing.
[15:59] I don't want to charge GST.
[16:01] So he deliberately worked to that amount each week and stopped and helped with the family.
[16:06] Now he's charging GST.
[16:07] He's charging more and he's got more clients, not less.
[16:10] Yeah, we've watched Casey and Lenny and they're great.
[16:12] And I think people look at you and see you as a legitimate business once you're starting to charge GST.
[16:18] Well, under that, you kind of know.
[16:19] It's a small one-man band.
[16:22] You're kind of doing a few things here and there, yeah.
[16:25] Yeah, and they don't think you're legitimate.
[16:26] Yeah.
[16:28] Once you've got GST on your invoices, they see you as a proper business.
[16:32] Yeah.
[16:33] We're just trying to come to terms with the fact that we have to pay tax now in a much higher amount.
[16:38] So Daniel had a 15 grand bill just yesterday and we're like, oh, sheesh.
[16:42] Yeah.
[16:43] And people watch this and go, as if you'd pay tax.
[16:45] I know.
[16:46] I'd pay fucking millions.
[16:47] I know, I know.
[16:49] Yeah, but you've got to look at the bigger picture, don't you?
[16:51] So that, you've got to pay that tax.
[16:53] You know, that's to pay the tax.
[16:54] I borrow hundreds of millions of dollars because I pay millions, then I can get millions of dollars of tax deductions from my investments and business interests.
[17:02] Yes.
[17:03] So it's a bit funny.
[17:03] I mean, people want to go through life paying no tax.
[17:05] Well, then whatever they've earned, they've spent, you pay no tax, but you're buying.
[17:09] Yeah.
[17:09] But that's what our parents did.
[17:10] You know, that's what we, we didn't even get taught financial literacy.
[17:13] You talk about that a lot and it's true.
[17:15] But if you don't get taught financial literacy at school in a way that's actually working.
[17:20] We learn to play the recorder.
[17:21] Yeah.
[17:22] You don't get that taught at school in the capacity that you actually need.
[17:26] Like you get various financial literacy at a school.
[17:28] I think we do teach some of it, but it's not relative to a 15, 16 year old young boy or girls to teach them compound interest.
[17:37] Exactly.
[17:37] Unless you said to them, Hey, this is compound interest if you go and borrow money for a Ferrari or a Lamborghini.
[17:43] Like, I don't think what we teach is relative at that age.
[17:46] Exactly right.
[17:46] We do teach it.
[17:47] See the point of why would we need tax?
[17:50] No, no.
[17:50] We don't even have a job.
[17:51] Yeah.
[17:52] No relative at saying.
[17:53] It's interesting.
[17:54] Okay.
[17:54] So we followed our parents' roles and just continued on the cycle of, okay, we've got to save as much as we can and minimize our tax as much as we can.
[18:02] So 2023, you joined.
[18:04] We said no.
[18:05] We gave you money back.
[18:06] Told you what steps to take.
[18:07] And then you came back to us.
[18:09] Yes, we came back to you about five months later.
[18:11] Okay.
[18:12] Wow.
[18:13] Just with your free learning and the direction that you gave us, we knocked off 25 grand.
[18:18] Wow.
[18:19] In five months.
[18:20] And we didn't increase our income yet at that point.
[18:22] So you just changed what you were doing.
[18:24] Yep.
[18:25] We reshuffled things a little bit.
[18:27] So we had some savings accounts.
[18:29] We had a little bit in shares.
[18:31] And we just chucked all of that onto the mortgage.
[18:34] And, you know, and then we, because we're not trying to contribute to savings here.
[18:39] Yes.
[18:40] It's a shotgun approach scattered everywhere, consolidate.
[18:44] Just throw it all at the mortgage.
[18:45] Yeah.
[18:45] Well, we had a certain other financial perspective that we were following.
[18:50] Wrong.
[18:51] Yeah.
[18:52] I wasn't going to say it, but I was following that.
[18:55] But yeah, we had bank accounts for this and bank accounts for that because...
[18:58] Yeah, interest is calculated daily, money scattered everywhere.
[19:01] When you just put it on your mortgage, you save all of that interest.
[19:04] And there you go, 25 gram in five months.
[19:08] Yeah, it was less than, I think.
[19:09] Yeah.
[19:09] Probably even four parts.
[19:11] But by the time we contacted Infinity, then you wanted us to sit through another weekend.
[19:16] Oh, I'm an asshole.
[19:17] And I was like, okay, I'll sit through another weekend.
[19:19] I'm an asshole.
[19:20] I think it's really important to make sure that I'm still giving information that's valuable, relevant.
[19:26] Oh, no, I can do this myself.
[19:27] Well, then don't come to us.
[19:29] No, we learnt more from that second weekend because we knew what we were looking for at that point.
[19:34] And since then, we've even watched the recorded ones that you've provided to members.
[19:39] Yeah.
[19:39] You always pick up something new.
[19:41] That helped?
[19:41] Yeah.
[19:42] Because that's a new thing.
[19:43] Uh-huh.
[19:43] It's a new thing.
[19:44] So I thought that would be really valuable to everyone, to just go in and just to watch it.
[19:49] It's yeah, it's incredible.
[19:50] Good.
[19:50] Okay.
[19:52] So 2024, um, what did we owe then on the loan?
[19:57] What were all the numbers then?
[19:59] I forget.
[19:59] What did you, 2024 when we joined?
[20:02] When we joined, I think it was about- About 160, something, 170 on the home.
[20:08] Yeah.
[20:09] We did an equity release as well.
[20:11] We borrowed up to 180 for the business and we just gradually chipped away and we got 25 grand.
[20:17] It's about that much, about 165.
[20:19] 165.
[20:20] Yeah.
[20:20] Yep.
[20:22] And then, so we come on board, we've refinanced, restructured that business debt.
[20:28] We've then done an equity release as well.
[20:30] And what do we have today?
[20:32] What are we controlling today financially?
[20:35] We've got a self-managed super fund and we've got a property that we've purchased in that.
[20:43] Okay.
[20:44] And that process is going really, really well.
[20:46] Yeah.
[20:47] We've already got a property that we've purchased, an investment property that we've purchased for ourselves.
[20:53] Personal names, yeah.
[20:54] Yeah.
[20:55] And that's...
[20:57] That's down in Melbourne.
[20:58] Yeah.
[20:58] We've brought that up to plan.
[21:00] We've got the home.
[21:01] Mm-hmm.
[21:02] We've got Victoria.
[21:03] Yep.
[21:04] We've got self-managed super instead of share stocks.
[21:07] You've got real estate and your super fund now, the financial planner.
[21:09] Yep.
[21:10] And what's the, and then how much did you pay off the home loan in what period of time?
[21:15] So we got that down, got it down to about 90,000.
[21:20] Yeah.
[21:20] So when you gave us a challenge in November and we brought it down from- We're doing a live coaching on the monthly accountability.
[21:27] If we were to try and give people an idea of where we've gone from.
[21:30] So when we rejoined in May of last year, we went from $167,000.
[21:33] So May 2024, $167,000.
[21:34] So by November, when you gave us a challenge, we'd knocked that down to around about 90,000.
[21:47] Yeah.
[21:48] Um, I know it was wild, isn't it?
[21:49] We just couldn't believe that we're doing it.
[21:51] So you knocked off like 80 odd.
[21:52] Yeah.
[21:53] Just, just rearranging things.
[21:54] Like, I mean, I went and got myself, um, more hours.
[21:58] More work than what you do.
[21:59] Um, and then it was gradually working my way to my current full-time job, but I got more hours at work.
[22:04] And then you gave us that challenge.
[22:06] And I think by the time we made the decision to sell our house in Canberra, it was January when that happened.
[22:14] We'd knocked it back down to 80 at that point.
[22:17] So we had 80,000 left over and we're like, you know, we're going to kill this.
[22:19] We're going to do this by the time we get to December.
[22:22] And then...
[22:22] But something shitty happened in January.
[22:27] We had a January thunderstorm and the kitchen was inches deep in water.
[22:31] Inches deep.
[22:32] And ruined the floor.
[22:33] 50% of the house, the floor was flooded.
[22:36] And of course, insurance would only cover the flooded section, but we couldn't match up the floorboards from what there were.
[22:42] So we had to replace the entire house.
[22:45] 15 grand in the hole.
[22:47] And we're like, damn.
[22:47] Damn it.
[22:48] Damn it.
[22:49] How on earth this is the wrong direction.
[22:52] So we also had a neighbor that wasn't very cooperative and wouldn't let us go into her yard to put more drainage down to prevent it from happening again.
[23:00] Right.
[23:01] So we thought, look, I'll just use your terminology and we sold that dog.
[23:05] Okay.
[23:06] And I also took a leaf out of Tim Donahue, Tim O'Donohue's books.
[23:12] He and Tim.
[23:13] Yes, he and his family were just holding onto this unprofitable business and holding onto the house and all of these things.
[23:18] And you told them to up and sell it and get rid of all of the things that were holding them back.
[23:24] And I'm like, I need to do what Tim did.
[23:26] Okay.
[23:27] So I reached out to Tim.
[23:28] I asked him questions and he said, yeah, yeah, it was really hard to do, but he made the decision and he was happy to have done it.
[23:34] I'm like, right, that's what we're going to do.
[23:36] We're going to sell our house.
[23:38] We're going to downsize.
[23:39] We'll smack out that, that mortgage completely.
[23:42] And then we'll see what happens after that.
[23:44] And we started really thinking about what we needed.
[23:46] And we had a- We bought a new home?
[23:48] We bought an apartment.
[23:50] Yeah, we bought an apartment because we had a three-bedroom home with not a big block, but a block.
[23:56] Yes.
[23:57] And it's nice to have a yard and it's nice to have those things.
[24:02] And especially me being a gardener, I've got tools and a van, you've got to partner things, you've got to store things.
[24:10] And it's like-
[24:12] had this mentality that I needed the space for the business.
[24:15] When you really get down to it, you don't need that much space.
[24:19] But not only that, being the gardener, though, it's just like being married to a tradie.
[24:23] If you're married to someone who paints, they don't paint their own house.
[24:26] Our own garden wasn't being gardeners.
[24:28] Had lots of ideas and they tried to do it.
[24:29] He'd come home exhausted.
[24:31] Yeah, okay.
[24:33] Yeah, so we stripped it back to what we really needed and we got a two-bedroom apartment in the down centre, right next to the buses.
[24:41] Great.
[24:42] Okay.
[24:43] So no, no mortgage.
[24:45] Yeah.
[24:45] Because I threw down the challenge to say, if you got the mortgage down by December this year, I'd give you five grand cash for a celebratory win and we'd donate 10 grand to your chosen charity.
[24:57] To a charity, yeah.
[24:58] How you do it doesn't matter.
[25:00] You did it.
[25:00] I'm up for 15 grand.
[25:03] To bring it back to infinity, we talked to Anthony and we said, what are the numbers that we need to hit to make this work for us?
[25:11] And he gave us a plan and we chose property that fit that plan.
[25:18] And for a hot minute there, we had a surplus in the mortgage and then stamp duty came along and...
[25:23] And paid us a visit, but nonetheless, for a hot minute, we're a small surplus on it.
[25:28] So you've moved house, you've downsized, you've been very practical.
[25:32] Yep.
[25:32] We've got no mortgage anymore.
[25:34] So who are we going to donate $10,000 to?
[25:38] I'd like to donate that to the RSPCA if you're okay with that.
[25:43] I love animals and especially, I'm a big, big, big animal lover.
[25:47] Yeah, it concerns me every year that you hear reports of people getting puppies and things for Christmas and then by April they're put into the shelters and, you know, they have to either be euthanized or rehomed and I just find that to be gut-wrenching.
[26:00] Okay, well, we'll put up...
[26:01] When we do the edit, we'll do a donation of $10,000 today and stick in here somewhere, a donation on behalf of your family of $10,000 to the RSPCA.
[26:10] And I'm going to stick five grand in your bank account and you can have a holiday or something because you've got no mortgage.
[26:16] Well, what?
[26:17] Well, yeah, but we've also got plans, so, you know.
[26:20] What are you going to do with the $5,000?
[26:22] Well, we've been talking to Anthony, and he's already restructured our mortgage so that we can now actually withdraw some more money.
[26:28] We're going to draw some equity.
[26:29] Yeah, more equity, and we're going to rent in another couple of weeks.
[26:33] Yep.
[26:33] So you're going to buy some more property.
[26:35] Yeah.
[26:37] Excuse fucking me.
[26:38] All right.
[26:38] No problem.
[26:39] All right.
[26:39] Well, then firstly, congratulations.
[26:42] Thank you.
[26:43] And very kind of you to pick the RSPCA and look after the animals.
[26:47] What's the big goal then now that we've got the apartment home?
[26:51] It's debt-free.
[26:52] Mm-hmm.
[26:53] Business is going well.
[26:54] Job's going well.
[26:55] Young family.
[26:57] What's the big goal then?
[26:59] What are we aiming for?
[27:01] Do you want me to answer that one or...
[27:03] Yeah, because I'm not just going to say financial freedom.
[27:05] Because I know you need to say financial freedom.
[27:08] Financial freedom.
[27:12] Okay.
[27:13] Besides the label of financial freedom, what does that mean to you?
[27:16] What does that mean to us?
[27:18] What it means to me personally, and I do hope that you share my thoughts, is that first of all, we don't have to worry about mortgages ever again.
[27:26] Secondly, I'd like my daughter to have a place for her own self when she leaves.
[27:30] So she's...
[27:31] nearly 17 now and she's been listening to us listening to you and we talk financial stuff now at the dining table and she's getting interested in buying property for herself so we'd like to be able to give her a leg up to get that happening and then later down the track maybe five to ten years time sufficient properties that we know that we don't have to work but we are working because we choose to
[27:56] Yeah, I don't have to work anymore.
[27:58] I could have stopped a lot.
[27:59] I love what I do, so I just keep doing it.
[28:01] Yes, yes.
[28:01] Well, I really enjoy what I do, so I don't plan to leave that.
[28:04] But I want to be able to say, okay, well, if I don't want to, I can perhaps be part-time or...
[28:11] You want to get into a situation where your work isn't your only income.
[28:16] You've got an income that comes from...
[28:18] So when the alarm goes off, you choose to go to work because you love it, you want to, you enjoy it.
[28:23] That's right.
[28:23] And you don't have that pressure all the time.
[28:25] I've got to go to work.
[28:27] If I don't, then we've got no money.
[28:29] Exactly.
[28:30] One of the reasons why our mortgage never went down very much over time was because I've had a few health issues over the years.
[28:36] And I've had spinal surgery and it's cost tens of thousands of dollars.
[28:41] Remortgaging the home to actually pay for those out-of-pocket expenses has been crazy.
[28:46] And when I went and got our self-managed super fund organized, we were recommended to get, you know, insurances and whatnot.
[28:54] And I got knocked back on one of my insurances.
[28:57] And I'm like, well, I'm going to have to have sufficient money behind me to pay for my own medical issues in the future.
[29:04] If you've got a existing injury.
[29:06] Yes.
[29:07] And so these are sorts of things that would take that stress off my mind.
[29:12] Yeah.
[29:13] Knowing now that I don't have TBD insurance and that's out of my hands.
[29:17] Yeah.
[29:19] You know, in two, three, four years time when I've got some property behind me, I could perhaps liquidate one and do whatever it is I need to do.
[29:26] So would you say that you were living pre-infinity, obviously, because you came to us and then you went away and then you came back.
[29:34] Would you say you were living well financially?
[29:38] Same as most people around you, you know, were you struggling?
[29:42] How would you label?
[29:42] That's a great question.
[29:43] Yeah.
[29:44] I don't think we were ever really struggling, but we were certainly not getting anywhere.
[29:50] We were, our dreams and goals stayed dreams and goals.
[29:55] We weren't getting any closer.
[29:56] Almost existing?
[29:58] Yeah.
[29:58] Yeah.
[29:58] Yes and no.
[29:59] It's funny because I've been reflecting on that recently.
[30:02] Why did we never have any money?
[30:04] And I think it has a lot to do with the mindset change that happened in the 90s and the 2000s where it was, you deserve it.
[30:11] You know, use the good china, wear the nice perfume, those sorts of things.
[30:15] And while I never had lots of handbags and fancy shoes.
[30:19] I would buy nice things for the house for our family to live comfortably.
[30:23] Or I would make sure that, you know, we had an air conditioner that worked.
[30:26] And all of the things that you put off when you've got no money, I would make sure that we had those things so that we were always comfortable.
[30:34] We never had, you know, additional money to play with.
[30:37] But we certainly didn't have to worry too much because I kept us comfortable.
[30:43] And that's why we never went anywhere.
[30:44] Yeah.
[30:45] How would you describe or label the family's financial position today?
[30:49] I mean, no mortgage on the apartment, couple of investment properties, about to draw more equity to get more investment properties, better income, happy job.
[30:58] I think there's been quite a shift in what we see as being successful.
[31:03] And what's necessary.
[31:04] Before we used to think we're successful, we've done a lot of stuff with what we've got.
[31:09] now we sort of think of ourselves as successful if we've put some stuff away before we even started thinking about spending it on ourselves.
[31:19] So it's about that investing in our future before you start looking after your present.
[31:26] But we've got a great team behind us too, though.
[31:28] And since we started, we had a few goals when we first started, but now we've also had some reassessments of our goals and there we're going.
[31:36] And we've got a fantastic relationship manager.
[31:38] His name's Corey.
[31:39] Yes.
[31:40] And just chatting with him the other day, because we do a monthly catch up on the phone.
[31:44] Yep.
[31:44] And he said, oh, I want you to change your buffer in your salary and bills.
[31:49] I want you to bring that up to whatever it was compared to what it was.
[31:53] Yep.
[31:53] I'm like, okay, didn't really explain why, but I understand now just when I'm thinking about it.
[31:59] But these are people that are helping to steer us to have those sorts of freedoms.
[32:04] So that's the first time in your lives you've had a financial coach or someone that gives a shit.
[32:10] We've had to make our own goals and we've got to try and evaluate whether we're doing well enough or not.
[32:15] Don't disappoint him.
[32:16] He'll get a bit cranky.
[32:17] Oh, he does.
[32:19] Who wants to give themselves a failing grade report guard?
[32:21] Nobody.
[32:22] So therefore you adjust your own goals so it looks like you're not failing.
[32:27] And also, like, you know, a lot of our financial advice previously has come from, you know, watching something on YouTube or reading a book.
[32:35] Yeah.
[32:36] And it's really general sort of advice.
[32:38] You know, this is the sort of thing you should think about doing.
[32:41] Yeah.
[32:42] Whereas now we've got a team that knows our finances inside out and they give us really specific, tailored advice.
[32:49] Yeah.
[32:50] This is what you need to do.
[32:52] This is how you want to structure it.
[32:53] And this is how you're going to start paying it off.
[32:55] Right.
[32:56] And in another five years, it's going to grow and this is the situation that you'll be in.
[33:03] And on that generic advice, for instance, my uncle has given me advice on, you know, where I should put money in shares and things like that.
[33:10] And we've never had a lot of money.
[33:12] I think the biggest amount of shares we ever had was $10,000.
[33:15] And it's not a lot, is it?
[33:16] But he said, okay, you should put it in shares.
[33:19] But we don't know which shares to put them into.
[33:21] So we just did this and did that and did a few other things.
[33:24] And they never went anywhere.
[33:26] But we had no one to direct us.
[33:28] And eventually they said, no, no, I cashed them in.
[33:31] Put them on your mortgage.
[33:32] Yeah, get rid of the mortgage.
[33:33] Yeah.
[33:33] Okay.
[33:34] What would you say to someone listening in and there's millions of people in Australia like, oh, we think we're about the same age as these people.
[33:41] We've got one child and some sausage dogs as well.
[33:48] What would you say are some really, really important things that they know?
[33:53] What have you learned on this journey that you could share with them?
[33:56] Like,
[33:56] Um, I mean, obviously from what you were doing financially yourselves prior to what you're doing now is slightly different and we've had much better results.
[34:04] So I'd be really interested if you could help everyone at home to be like, well, guys, you should focus on this.
[34:09] And these are two or three things we did.
[34:10] And we did that.
[34:11] And we did this.
[34:12] Share with everyone at home what they can do for free.
[34:16] Um, well, you know, start listening to advice, um, definitely.
[34:23] Get some people on your team that you can trust and that you can listen to.
[34:29] Also, structure your business in a way that it's legitimate, it's successful.
[34:36] It makes money.
[34:38] Yeah, it makes money.
[34:39] Tax is a success.
[34:40] Yeah, that's right.
[34:41] And look at it as such.
[34:43] Just don't try to, oh, I'm winning if I'm not paying tax and that sort of thing.
[34:47] Yeah.
[34:48] Yeah.
[34:48] I just wrote some notes down over this one because I knew I'd forget to say.
[34:51] Oh, no, very structured.
[34:53] I like it.
[34:53] Daniel's wanted to talk about that and, you know, get some structure and make sure you've had some advice I've got.
[34:59] Yeah.
[34:59] Personally, I'm the sort of person that just says, just get out of your own way.
[35:03] Yeah.
[35:03] You know, what are the excuses that you're making to say you can't?
[35:08] I'm not interested in taking no for an answer if there is light at the end of the tunnel.
[35:12] Clearly, you came to us.
[35:12] You said no and you still can't.
[35:14] I know.
[35:14] I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
[35:16] Gee, you don't.
[35:16] You don't say no to me.
[35:17] You don't know me.
[35:19] No, you didn't.
[35:21] I'm a perpetual learner and some of my colleagues probably think I'm a little bit extra as a result of that.
[35:27] But I find it fascinating to learn new things and try new things.
[35:33] And so when I'm looking at the strategies that you gave us, first of all, but the free things that we got, and I could see how we can just change this, tweak that, and make a huge difference without even giving you guys any money to join.
[35:47] And I'm like, why the hell wouldn't I want to join?
[35:49] So, you know, I'm not going to take no for an answer.
[35:52] I'm going to get out of my own way.
[35:54] I'm just going to stop making excuses.
[35:55] And that sort of relates to the business too.
[35:56] It's like, oh, I'm going to save, you're going to get in your own way of make sure we don't pay any tax.
[36:01] Make sure we don't do it.
[36:03] Instead of learning and growing and evolving, they actually correlate, which is probably why you've done so well.
[36:08] Yeah.
[36:09] Yeah, I'd agree with that.
[36:10] Yeah.
[36:11] Okay.
[36:12] And what do you think is the biggest change you've had to undergo financially as a family?
[36:18] It's actually something that I battle with a lot every day and the old mindset that I had of, well, I do need a new business jacket or I do need to look sharp for this interview or whatever it is that I happen to be doing at the time.
[36:34] Um, just that, that mentality that I had for decades, it creeps back in every now and then.
[36:39] And I have to check myself and say, no, Georgia, you've got a food, fuel and fun bucket.
[36:45] If you exhaust that food, fuel and fun bucket, there ain't no more fun.
[36:48] Okay.
[36:49] And so sometimes there are things that I decided...
[36:53] are probably more fun than they are actually a necessity where it should come out of the bills account.
[36:59] And so, you know, coloring my hair, for instance, I'll do that myself now instead of going to the hairdressers or, I mean, you can probably tell it's a crappy job, but, you know.
[37:10] I'm just curious, do you do Daniel's as well?
[37:12] I used to cut his hair.
[37:14] Yeah.
[37:14] But now he doesn't have enough to cut.
[37:17] And when you don't want to get in, do you, when people invite you somewhere and you're busy, just say, sorry, I'm washing my hair that day.
[37:22] Yeah.
[37:22] Yeah.
[37:23] When we moved into the hotel the other day, there was a hair extensions place downstairs.
[37:27] Oh, there's my chest.
[37:29] My mate's got all his head shaved off at the moment.
[37:32] And every time he doesn't want to do something, he's like, I'm sorry, I'm washing my hair that day.
[37:36] Yeah.
[37:36] Yeah.
[37:36] Yeah.
[37:37] Absolutely.
[37:38] Yeah.
[37:38] So, you know, we've got a battle with these old demons that have come along.
[37:42] I mean, they don't- They creep up every now and then.
[37:44] They creep up every now and then.
[37:45] You can't shoot them down and have them eliminate.
[37:48] If they've been part of your life for a really long time, you've got to keep checking yourself and make sure that you're on track.
[37:53] And that's where the RMs come in and they're absolutely brilliant.
[37:57] That's where Corey comes in.
[37:58] Yeah.
[37:58] I mean, I happen to be studying at TAFE as well too.
[38:01] So I don't need a laptop anymore.
[38:05] I took it in to get a trade in and I bought myself an iPad.
[38:08] Right.
[38:08] And lo and behold, Corey goes, you bought yourself an iPad the other day?
[38:13] And I'm like, I do need it.
[38:16] And I did get a teacher discount for it by the way.
[38:18] He's all over it.
[38:19] He's all over it.
[38:20] He's like, why did you spend this money?
[38:22] You really need to spend this money.
[38:24] And I'm like, okay.
[38:25] And I had to think back, okay, I justified it.
[38:28] But did I really need to spend it?
[38:30] Perhaps I probably didn't need to spend it.
[38:33] At the same time, though, I can't put, you know, my own private stuff onto my work computer.
[38:38] So it's sort of, it did work out in the end.
[38:40] But these are the things where my relationship manager is checking me and keeping me accountable.
[38:45] I love it.
[38:46] It's hard to do if you're just doing it alone.
[38:49] Very easy to enable each other.
[38:50] We deserve it.
[38:51] Oh, hell yeah.
[38:52] Without that third party on the shoulder to... Yeah, and you start to lose focus on your goals as well.
[38:57] Yeah.
[38:58] Whereas your relationship manager, they keep bringing you back to, yeah, this is what you're doing and this is where you're going and why.
[39:07] And sometimes you sort of get too caught up in your own life and you start to lose track of...
[39:14] Where you want to be because of where you are now.
[39:16] So delayed gratification versus the instant gratification.
[39:19] That's right.
[39:20] Yeah.
[39:20] Okay.
[39:21] So big picture.
[39:22] We're coming to do REM, you said?
[39:24] September.
[39:25] September.
[39:25] September.
[39:25] Yeah.
[39:26] A couple of weeks time.
[39:27] We're going to do another REM and we're going to keep building by the sounds of it.
[39:30] Oh, hell yeah.
[39:31] Yep.
[39:31] Okay.
[39:32] The bigger, bigger.
[39:32] Yep.
[39:33] I don't want to put a number on the number of properties that we've got because it's more of a lifestyle that I'm looking for as opposed to I want this many properties because I want to be able to say I've got that many properties.
[39:43] It's a lifestyle I'm looking for.
[39:44] Well, I really appreciate you guys sharing.
[39:49] You should be very open and honest and vulnerable and came for help and we said no.
[39:53] You went away and did everything we said to us.
[39:55] Oh no, you don't say no to me.
[39:57] And you came back months later, absolutely knocked it out of the park and smashed it.
[40:01] Then we put you a challenge in a coaching.
[40:03] You've absolutely smashed that.
[40:04] Now you've got the home loan paid off, got the new property, got some investments and now we're going to do some more investing.
[40:10] We've donated to a chosen charity for you, which will pop in the images that we did earlier in the edit.
[40:18] You should be really bloody proud of what you've achieved in such a short amount of time.
[40:22] Really humbled, I think, is a better way of putting it.
[40:24] Have you taken a moment to have a weekend away or really think about, like actually be like, wow, we own our home.
[40:31] No, I don't think we have.
[40:32] I'm probably sure.
[40:34] Yeah, it's important to celebrate the wins.
[40:37] I agree.
[40:37] We do have to celebrate the wins.
[40:39] But part of the strategy for paying off the home loan with your challenge was, right, this year we're not going on any holidays.
[40:44] Right.
[40:45] We're just going to do this.
[40:46] We're going to smash it in.
[40:46] Yeah, you can holiday for the rest of your life.
[40:48] Yeah, we can.
[40:50] But we've found other ways to holiday.
[40:52] By moving into the apartment that we're in, we're closer to town.
[40:55] We're closer to all the facilities of the middle of town.
[40:59] Right.
[40:59] So having a trip into town, you're in town.
[41:01] We're in town.
[41:02] So we don't have to do any of those fancy.
[41:04] We've got a swimming pool that someone else will look after.
[41:06] Of course.
[41:07] We've got a gym.
[41:08] We've got everything we need.
[41:09] So we're not spending money on those things, which has been great.
[41:12] And that sort of mentality change has been eye-opening for us.
[41:16] Yeah.
[41:16] Well done.
[41:17] She's really proud.
[41:17] We're going to have to do a part two of this in a couple of months' time so people can see how the journey ended up.
[41:24] The progression.
[41:25] Which I'd love to get you back to do.
[41:27] But before we end...
[41:29] Have you got any other questions for me to pick my brain on anything at all?
[41:33] Yep.
[41:34] We came prepared.
[41:35] Oh, I love it.
[41:37] Let's go.
[41:38] Um, allow me to open up my little trusty phone here.
[41:41] One of them is a little bit silly, so I'll ask that one last.
[41:44] Okay.
[41:44] Um, but so coming from Canberra, so we frequently hear that Canberra is not the greatest market to be investing in.
[41:51] That's not bad.
[41:52] It's not the greatest.
[41:53] Yeah, well, it's a small market.
[41:55] But what I see from my peers and my colleagues and just the population of Canberra in general is that there are such a large number of people that come in for, say, five years at a time and then they leave, or they'll come in and maybe they'll start a family and they end up staying here.
[42:11] Yeah.
[42:11] But those houses that you've done in the past where you've had multiple people...
[42:16] renting the same house.
[42:17] They've all got their own room.
[42:19] They've all got Wi-Fi provided and things like that.
[42:21] You're doing that sort of thing in Canberra?
[42:23] No, not at all.
[42:24] I wonder if it might be a good thing.
[42:25] There's such a supply of apartments in Canberra that are within distance of stuff.
[42:29] Yeah, right.
[42:30] To do those sorts of dwellings like dual occupancy, co-living, those share accommodation, they've got to be custom built or by bespoke design and approve and be compliant and that.
[42:41] which means you're in new land areas, which means you're on a fringe or an outskirt, unless you can find a block that someone's been sitting on for a gazillion years that they decide to sell.
[42:50] So it means you end up in a fringe area away from that.
[42:54] Look, I've got apartments in Canberra, so I have a lot of clients and that's suitable because it is that apartment living.
[42:59] People come in, they rent or they buy.
[43:02] They do their contract.
[43:03] They stay for four, five, eight years.
[43:04] I mean, I've got cousins and auntie down there, hospital and tech and stuff.
[43:09] So they sort of, people do come and go or stay forever.
[43:11] It's sort of very interesting.
[43:14] But apartments are probably more prevalent there in the hubs, like you're in yourself and all those facilities and features.
[43:21] But yeah, we don't do any of the bespokey, landy design stuff down there.
[43:26] Mm-hmm.
[43:27] And again, just because, um, the market's always done very well there, you kind of see the ripple effect, throw a rock in a pond, Sydney, and then out Wollongong, you go down to Wollongong up to the central coast, right?
[43:39] Then you go Newcastle, Canberra.
[43:41] So you sort of, as it ripples, it starts with a big incomes, the hustle and bustle, everything there in the big market, gazillions of millions of people, and it sort of flows out.
[43:57] Shortly thereafter, Wollongong Central Coast, Newcastle, it flows.
[44:02] So when you watch the Sydney market, it's very easy to model the ACT market off the back of that.
[44:08] Not the same growth rate because you don't have the population density, the desire for the cold weather, etc.
[44:14] Those things.
[44:15] Desire for cold weather.
[44:17] It's always cold.
[44:18] Yeah.
[44:20] But yeah, so no, we don't do anything bespoke so much down there just based on population and all that sort of stuff.
[44:26] We do that and we look for that more in infill areas, so southeast Queensland, Melbourne, other parts of New South Wales outside of Sydney, but not so much camp.
[44:36] Yeah.
[44:37] Where do you think the big opportunities are in the Australian market at the moment?
[44:41] Look, right now, Southeast Queensland, without a doubt still.
[44:44] South Australia, without a doubt.
[44:47] I've been calling Perth for years, that I've always called Perth a cyclical market.
[44:51] So it's boom and bust.
[44:53] When I say boom and bust, it's up, it's down.
[44:55] It's heavily down and stimulated by LNG gas mining this, that.
[44:59] Perth WA specifically with the lockdown, they kind of created, they finally created their own economy because prices were so low and they'd hurt for so long and they were like, oh, back to 1960s prices.
[45:11] They've had a huge growth spurt because they've come from a very low base.
[45:15] I kept stating, and I was correct, and you see it in Doc Wilson's data, that Perth will hit a ceiling, correct a bit, because there'll probably be some more.
[45:24] And there's so much investment stock flooding the market in Perth now.
[45:28] Who's going to rent it?
[45:29] Who's going to live in it?
[45:30] We're seeing it subside a little bit.
[45:32] And the data, not people's personal opinion, they don't have a clue, see it on social media comments, Perth settled a little bit.
[45:39] South Australia, Adelaide's still running.
[45:41] Southeast Queensland is wild.
[45:43] Parts of regional New South Wales.
[45:45] And Melbourne.
[45:46] Melbourne is, even though the people are whinging about the government, they're whinging about this, it's very simple.
[45:53] Is a $5 million home likely to be a $10 million home in the next 10 years?
[45:58] You go, maybe.
[46:00] Is a $500,000 home likely to be a $1 million home in 10 years?
[46:07] I see.
[46:07] The answer is yes.
[46:08] Yeah.
[46:10] Yeah.
[46:10] Highly more likely.
[46:12] So when you look at the areas of the market and the values that are highly or more frequently traded than thinly traded, that's your entry level and middle level family homes and apartments, right?
[46:23] Yep.
[46:24] Um, Melbourne is still very affordable.
[46:27] When I say Melbourne, Victoria as a whole and South Australia are still extremely affordable with very strong rental yields.
[46:35] Queensland.
[46:36] So Sydney sort of settled now, uh, Queensland, you know, Gold Coast, Central, uh, North Queensland out to Ipswich, up to North Brisbane, out to Toowoomba, up to Sunshine Coast, still a lot of opportunity and affordability pockets that are growing really well.
[46:52] Uh, and the yields are still very strong.
[46:54] Um, Sydney, I don't do anything in Sydney at all, really hardly ever, ever, ever, ever because the yields are disgusting.
[47:01] So I have to lose money and wait for the value to grow.
[47:04] And, and look, Sydney's great against people like Canberra.
[47:07] People, if they're not right, they go there for work.
[47:09] They earn the big bucks and they go stuff this.
[47:12] If I want to go see family and friends, it takes four hours on a sad day to get from one side of Sydney to the other.
[47:18] Got to pay $86 in tolls and then turn around and come back.
[47:22] So what we have always seen and we're seeing again right now is the affordable areas are the areas where the growth comes.
[47:31] They're not typically areas you would want to live in.
[47:35] but they're areas where they're affordable.
[47:37] So an investor who has a little bit of a clue will go, oh, I can buy a four-bedroom home outside of Brisbane, 30 minutes outside to the west of Brisbane for $600,000, $700,000, and it rents for $800 a week.
[47:53] Pretty smart.
[47:54] South Australia, parts of Western Australia.
[47:56] So you've got to look at that math and go, when rents are as high as values, i.e.
[48:03] 5% or higher, that means that the values are not where they should be.
[48:07] Like Sydney, you know, you've got a million dollar home in Sydney.
[48:11] It's not renting for a thousand a week.
[48:12] It's, you know, a couple of hundred lower.
[48:14] So I think all up the eastern seaboard is my preference because that's where most of Australia live, reside, work and play.
[48:21] Um, WA has huge incomes per capita, all these sorts of things, but it has always been cyclical.
[48:27] It's a bit more stable now.
[48:29] There's a lot of product in the market there to be consumed.
[48:32] Sure.
[48:33] Um, but yeah.
[48:34] And last question for you, it's a bit of a silly one.
[48:37] Yeah.
[48:37] What happened to the black glasses?
[48:39] Yeah.
[48:40] Black glasses.
[48:41] Your glasses.
[48:42] Oh, so yeah, you see them in my books and all that.
[48:44] I'm absolutely blonde.
[48:45] I don't know how they call it.
[48:46] Copacorn or something.
[48:48] I have a distortion in my right eye.
[48:50] So if I go like that, I have 20-20 vision.
[48:52] If I squash it, 20-20 vision.
[48:55] If I look at you right now and close this eye, you're both, there's three off, like it's extremely blurry.
[49:00] Um, so I only typically rub my eyes a lot.
[49:03] I typically only wear them for reading or computer work and I just got sick of them.
[49:08] Yeah.
[49:08] And I got sick of doing my hair and putting hair product in my troll doll hair every day.
[49:13] And I said, you know, I don't need it.
[49:15] I'm great at what I do.
[49:16] People love me, hate me, don't give a shit.
[49:18] I'm just going to wear a hat every day because I'm sick of putting shit in my hair.
[49:21] Yeah.
[49:21] And I've got a really thick, big, bushy head of hair.
[49:23] I don't think I'll ever go bald or any touch wood, whatever.
[49:25] Who cares?
[49:27] If it is, it'll make me look sexy.
[49:29] I look like Vin Diesel, a chubby one.
[49:32] But no, I just, I just, they're in my drawer and I've got them at home, but I just stopped wearing them.
[49:36] Uh, if I'm like when I was in America just recently, when I'm traveling, I take them with me.
[49:41] So like to read on the plane, I'll use them.
[49:44] So more so for like computer work and reading for several hours, depending what it is.
[49:48] Yeah.
[49:49] I just got sick of them.
[49:50] I was wondering if you might've had like laser eye or something like that.
[49:53] No, I wish.
[49:54] I need to.
[49:55] Um, but yeah, I just don't have a chance, so.
[49:58] Yeah, I just got rid of it.
[50:00] I use them when I need to.
[50:01] Or like now this afternoon, my eyes, I start rubbing them.
[50:04] They get a bit watery throughout the day.
[50:06] And I'm like, oh, I should put them on.
[50:09] But yeah, I hate wearing them.
[50:10] Those are our questions.
[50:11] Thank you for letting us ask them.
[50:12] Pleasure.
[50:13] Sweet.
[50:14] Absolute pleasure, guys.
[50:15] Well, thank you for being so open, honest, and raw.
[50:17] And we look forward to getting you back in a couple of months and seeing where the journey goes.
[50:21] Well done.
[50:22] My pleasure.
[50:22] Thank you.
[50:23] Thanks, guys.
[50:23] Thank you.
[50:24] You're fucking gone.
[50:25] See ya.

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