# BONUS EP – RM & Client | Emily with Craig & Megan | CHANGING LIVES | Season 3 Ep 69

An episode of [Money Mentor Podcast™](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1632604767), 31 Dec 2025, 9:25.

Audio: https://episode.flightcast.com/b6meaxjd8zs12oyw4uleio7v.mp3

In this episode of Changing Lives Financially, we sit down with Craig & Megan to unpack their journey from living pay-to-pay with no financial guidance to building clarity, confidence, and a long-term plan with Infinity. Before joining Infinity, money was a taboo topic for Craig & Megan. With no budget, credit card debt, and spending driven by instant gratification, they were navigating major emotional and financial strain — including multiple IVF challenges , without a clear strategy. After joining Infinity in February 2021, everything began to change. They learned how to budget with intention, restructure their finances, and align their spending with what truly mattered to their family. Today, Craig & Megan are bad-debt free, rent - vesting to maximise Defence benefits, managing a clear FFF budget, and building a growing investment portfolio. They’ve also created space for lifestyle goals, including extended family travel, while keeping a strong investment mindset for the future. 👉 Watch the free webinar to start your journey: https://bit.ly/43V2jKN

## Transcript

[0:00] It absolutely has set us up.
[0:02] There's no way I think we could even consider doing this trip.
[0:06] Like it wasn't in our goals when we first joined to be able to achieve this.
[0:11] And now that we're looking at it and we're doing it, we're not even stressed about it.
[0:15] We're like, we know we can achieve it and we can do it and we're not gonna be put down like under to do it.
[0:22] Like we're gonna still be out, have our investment properties, have a home to come to, have jobs to come home to.
[0:27] Money isn't rude of all evil, the fucking lack of it is.
[0:30] Not money, the lack of understanding money.
[0:33] When I put that into emphasis, when I realised our psychological effect and how it hit our family, I have to be in the fucking way.
[0:39] You are now watching the Money Man Talk podcast with Graham Hines.
[0:43] Graham Hines.
[0:43] Graham Hines.
[0:44] Graham Hines.
[0:47] You're fucking gone, see ya.
[0:49] So what was life like before Infinity?
[0:51] Infinity.
[0:53] I think it was just unstructured, really.
[0:56] Sort of just ticking along.
[0:59] So, like, we did the Australian Dream, bought a house to live in.
[1:03] So we thought we were doing, like, okay, thought we were doing good.
[1:07] But I guess you don't know what you don't know.
[1:09] And then once we found Infinity, saw that we could be doing a lot better.
[1:14] Okay.
[1:15] What was it about Infinity where you're like, oh, maybe we should have been doing that a little bit better?
[1:19] Was there one thing that stood out more than something else or was it all combined?
[1:24] In the masterclass, obviously you get your pack, you go through all your bank statements, your finances, your loans, any debts that you have.
[1:33] And I think we've never really pulled all of that out together and seen it in front of our faces.
[1:39] So I think that was obviously an eye-opener.
[1:42] And like when G was talking about things that we could be implementing, it was just kind of like a...
[1:49] why aren't we implementing any of this?
[1:51] Why hadn't we done any of that?
[1:53] Yeah.
[1:54] I think the big eye opener was the mortgage tool, seeing if you just pay minimum payments like we were doing against rapid repay, like it was going to save us like $300,000 in interest.
[2:09] So it was like, why wouldn't we?
[2:10] Pretty crazy.
[2:11] Yeah.
[2:12] Pretty crazy.
[2:13] Okay.
[2:13] And a big part of infinity is having a budget.
[2:16] So tell me a little bit about what it used to look like.
[2:19] Did you have a budget versus what it looks like now?
[2:22] It didn't have a budget before we were with Infinity.
[2:26] We were just living day to day with our pay and paying our bills.
[2:31] And like if we wanted to do something, we just go and do it.
[2:34] And there was no real budget at all.
[2:37] And I think now with Infinity, our budget has changed quite a bit throughout our time with Infinity and that's because we've had just the two of us when we started, then having newborns and then obviously having toddlers now having four-year-old girls.
[2:53] It's like they're growing and our budget's forever changing with them and whilst they're growing.
[2:58] So now we're really frugal with that.
[3:01] We are doing better with our budget and with time we still get better with it.
[3:05] Okay.
[3:06] And what's one piece of advice?
[3:08] You mentioned that your budget's been growing and changing.
[3:11] So what's one bit of advice that you would give someone to maybe with a new family?
[3:17] Oh, the advice...
[3:20] I think you sort of feel obligated to buy them everything.
[3:26] Yeah.
[3:27] Like you see, like Instagram's bad for this.
[3:29] You see like parents buying all the brand name stuff, all the clothes, all the toys, everything like that.
[3:35] Like they're babies.
[3:37] They don't care for that brand name stuff.
[3:40] Yeah.
[3:40] Like obviously they want toys, but you don't have to go overboard.
[3:44] Yeah.
[3:45] And you do get suckered into that and I was at that stage because when you're
[3:49] a new mum you're up late night doing your breastfeeding and feeding the baby and you're on scrolling through your Instagram and you are seeing that and you get suckered in you're like oh I should get that too that's such a fantastic idea and it's like I'm actually delusional I didn't need any of that I didn't need to buy that thing I didn't need they actually never probably even used it so it's just like
[4:14] obviously turn your phone off if you're doing midnight feeds with newborn don't scroll don't scroll read a book i've had a bad feng shui to have your your phone in your room too so oh there you go improving all aspects of your life there fantastic we still use it as a baby monitor so okay well okay yeah you probably once we get rid of that then we can try that but yeah it's like you said yeah
[4:39] they don't need everything and you can be still getting them things that they're needing and they still think it's fantastic and they don't they don't know any different okay and you've got something pretty special coming up actually does g know that you have did he find out just before we had a good chat about okay what was his reaction
[5:02] I think I was bad as I thought.
[5:04] Because we said we'd sell.
[5:05] So we're talking about we're going on a six to seven month caravan trip around Australia.
[5:09] Yes.
[5:11] But we did say we're going to sell the car and the van once we get back.
[5:15] Which I think is fair.
[5:17] Yeah.
[5:18] Very fair.
[5:19] Yeah.
[5:20] Very fair.
[5:21] And yeah, that's definitely, I think, sold it.
[5:26] But like our daughter had an accident and those memories to have as a family is quite key for us.
[5:33] We want to make these memories.
[5:35] So, yeah, we're very excited for our trip.
[5:40] Absolutely.
[5:41] And Infinity, I think we are all about bettering, you know, health, wealth, your life.
[5:47] And that plays a really big part in it.
[5:49] So it's not that we ever want you to not go and do those things.
[5:52] It's just you still do it, but how can you do it better?
[5:55] Yeah.
[5:56] So what's your plans with how you're going to do it financially with your budget?
[6:00] So before we go, like from now until we actually go, we are saving some money for that because we do need to offset, I guess, lack of earning because we will be away on the road.
[6:15] But also selling the car and the caravan after will help offset and get us back on the track to using that money for investing.
[6:25] Okay.
[6:26] And your FFF?
[6:28] We're interested to see what that's going to look like while we're traveling because we did a bit of a quick dummy trip to WA at Christmas last year.
[6:37] And when we came back, we still had a whole heap of money sitting within our food fuel fund because there's some days where we're just buying what we kind of needed.
[6:43] because we've only got a little fridge in the caravan so we weren't we weren't really buying a lot of groceries to like for the kids to go help themselves and it's just we're being frugal with fruit cups instead of real fruit because we didn't have the storage in the fridge for half the fruit um so it's things like that that we're bringing down our budget for our camping so i reckon we would be able to be quite
[7:04] I think the FFF, it won't change too much like food wise.
[7:09] The big issue is fuel.
[7:10] Like obviously that's going to be a big issue.
[7:14] But like fuel, correction, food and fun won't change drastically.
[7:20] Okay.
[7:20] Yeah.
[7:21] And I'll be watching.
[7:23] Okay, that's exciting.
[7:26] I guess to finish this off, what is one thing that you would say to someone who's considering joining Infinity?
[7:35] To do it.
[7:36] To absolutely go ahead and do it.
[7:39] Like unless you're going to give it a go, you don't know what you're missing out on because it absolutely has set us up.
[7:46] There's no way I think we could even consider doing this trip.
[7:50] Like it wasn't in our goals when we first joined to be able to achieve this.
[7:56] And now that we're looking at it and we're doing it, we're not even stressed about it.
[7:59] We're like we know we can achieve it and we can do it and we're not going to be.
[8:04] put done like under to do it like we're going to still be out have our investment properties have a home to come to have jobs to come home to so it's just like it's we wouldn't be where we were today without infinity
[8:16] I think the first step is the hardest step.
[8:19] So once you actually take that leap, you'll sort of understand and your financial literacy will increase and you'll realise how you're doing things could be done a lot better.
[8:32] Like you may think that you're killing it like –
[8:35] doing all things right like yeah but it could be so much it could be done so much better with just a little bit of structure like we're not going without um like yes we're on a budget but we're not going without it's just thinking about how we're spending our money it's not two minute noodles packed in the suitcase no definitely not and the support from all the team like there's times where like
[8:58] Like you guys at Infinity take the load off for us half the time as well.
[9:02] Like the team, all you guys and all the effort that you put in to help support us as a client here at Infinity, it shows.
[9:10] So, yeah.
[9:12] Working.
[9:13] We're quite thankful that we joined and we're quite thankful to be a part of this little family.
[9:17] I'm so glad you're both here with us as well.
[9:19] You're fucking gone.
[9:22] See ya.

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