# Struggling Buyers to Strategic Investors | Brendan & Chantal | CHANGING LIVES | Season 3 Ep 87 Pt 1

An episode of [Money Mentor Podcast™](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1632604767), 22 Jan 2026, 45 min.

Audio: https://episode.flightcast.com/se2xonpusaor76ibouro8q5e.mp3

In this special two part episode of Changing Lives Financially, Brendan and Chantel share how they turned a series of financial setbacks into a structured, confident plan for their family’s future. After struggling to buy a home despite strong incomes, facing loan rejections, and being placed on an unsuitable interest rate product, they were pushed into a stressful financial position. Their breakthrough came from Infinity's free webinar that introduced them to a more strategic way of budgeting and debt management. Over the next two and a half years, they reduced their home loan from $200,000 to just $42,000 through disciplined planning while preparing to expand into investment properties. Their story also highlights the personal challenges that shaped their drive: Chantel’s spinal surgery, Brendan’s lifelong liver condition, and the weight of wanting stability for their daughter and extended family. With the support of a financial community and a clear strategy, they’ve transformed their outlook and are now focused on long term security, generational wealth, and even new opportunities abroad. 👉 Follow the link https://bit.ly/43V2jKN to watch the free webinar and start your Infinity journey now!

## Transcript

[0:00] So what else could you share with them?
[0:02] Anything else?
[0:04] Well, budget.
[0:05] Yep.
[0:08] Even if you think you have a budget, it's got to be reviewed and looked over.
[0:14] My number one thing is I don't like living comfortably.
[0:20] Um, if you sit in that comfort range and you just motor on through life, accepting that everything is the way it is, nothing's going to change.
[0:31] I like that.
[0:32] I really like it.
[0:33] Money isn't rude of all evil.
[0:34] The f***ing lack of it is.
[0:36] Money, the lack of understanding money.
[0:39] When I put that into emphasis, when I realised our psychological effect and how it hit our family, I have to be in a f***ing way.
[0:45] You are now watching the money man to a podcast.
[0:48] With Graham Holmes.
[0:49] Graham Holmes.
[0:49] Graham Holmes.
[0:50] Graham Holmes.
[0:55] Welcome back to another episode of The Money Mentor and this morning's guest on the Changing Lives Financially series, we have Brendan and Chantel.
[1:03] How are we?
[1:04] Yeah, doing well, thank you.
[1:05] Doing good.
[1:06] Why don't we start with a little bit of background?
[1:08] Tell us who we are, what we do, where we're from.
[1:11] Yeah, I'm Brendan and this is my wife Chantel.
[1:16] We're late 30s, I'm in my early 40s and we're both working for the Department of Education.
[1:24] Okay, you can teach me a thing or two then.
[1:26] Yeah.
[1:27] Very good.
[1:27] We try.
[1:28] We try?
[1:28] Very good.
[1:30] Any babies, any pets, any hobbies?
[1:33] Yeah, we have one daughter.
[1:34] She's five years old.
[1:36] Okay, good.
[1:36] She'll be going off to school next year.
[1:39] And we have one fur baby.
[1:40] So Ace, he's a Rottweiler.
[1:42] That's a big baby.
[1:43] It's a big fur baby.
[1:44] Yes, yes.
[1:44] A big fur.
[1:45] He's our forever big puppy baby.
[1:46] Is the size of the couch or half a couch?
[1:49] I think last time he weighed in, he was just over 53 kilos.
[1:52] 53 kilos?
[1:53] 53 kilos.
[1:56] He's on my diet.
[1:58] Jeez.
[1:58] If he jumps on you to give you a hug, you definitely feel it.
[2:01] Yeah.
[2:02] Okay.
[2:02] All right.
[2:03] Well, we won't pick on Ace at all in case he listens to this later on in the lounge room.
[2:08] Now, give us a little background, I guess, pre-Infinity financially.
[2:13] How were you tracking as a family?
[2:14] Did you have a home?
[2:15] Did you have investments, cards?
[2:17] How were you operating and tracking financially?
[2:20] Yeah, pre-Infinity, we thought we were doing as best as we could.
[2:27] I had some financial advice from my parents.
[2:32] They were both kind of in the financial industries.
[2:35] So we thought we were tracking really well.
[2:39] uh, we'd both built up from nothing basically.
[2:42] So, um, uh, we had to save up to purchase a block of land.
[2:48] Um, we were given 12 months to commence building, but we didn't have the funds saved to do a construction.
[2:55] Um,
[2:55] So you scraped into the land but didn't have the equity position for the build.
[3:01] We kept getting turned down left, right and centre.
[3:04] We're both earning good income.
[3:06] Why can't we move out and get a place of our own?
[3:10] Yeah.
[3:11] And they're like, you're just not there yet.
[3:12] You're just not there yet.
[3:14] Did you get given a plan of where you needed to be or just a no?
[3:17] No.
[3:18] It was a straight up no.
[3:19] You were applying and they were like, sorry, can't help you.
[3:22] Yeah.
[3:23] Not a, this is what you need to hit or be or when and it'll take this long.
[3:28] No strategy?
[3:29] No.
[3:29] So we ended up seeking it.
[3:31] Was this just the banks?
[3:32] That was just from the banks.
[3:33] We were doing it ourselves.
[3:35] So we did reach out and talk to a broker and they set us up on a plan and gave us some advice.
[3:42] You need to get to these points.
[3:43] Good.
[3:44] So we did and we got into our place of residence and we thought we were on the right track.
[3:54] We were putting extra in every month and paying it down and we just weren't getting anywhere really significant.
[4:04] We're like, what are we doing wrong in this journey?
[4:08] We've done everything that has been asked of us.
[4:12] um as far as we knew okay and i'm one of those people part of my education i guess is following a process yep so if someone tells me to do something i'm going to work my backside off to make sure that i achieve those goals yeah so we did everything that was asked of us and we just got nowhere
[4:30] And do you think that was because everything that was asked of you is that societal minimal?
[4:35] Like it's like, okay, now that you've got the structure and you're in the home, finally we've got a yes, not a no.
[4:40] But you said you were paying a bit, so you weren't just doing minimum payments, you were paying a little bit extra.
[4:45] Yeah.
[4:46] Yeah.
[4:47] So we had it set up that we were paying at least double.
[4:52] Right.
[4:53] So whatever our monthly repayment was, we were going to double that because we knew that we could afford to do that.
[5:02] Okay.
[5:03] So you, and you still just weren't getting that traction?
[5:06] Yeah.
[5:06] So, um, I think the, the loan was about 425,000, um, for the land and construction when we, um, merged them together because I had to take out the loan separately.
[5:18] So we got the loan first, 12 months later, we got the construction loan.
[5:22] So we got that down to, uh, it was 200,000 left.
[5:28] Um, so we'd paid a significant amount off.
[5:31] Um, but that was over a longer period of time.
[5:34] Right.
[5:34] Okay.
[5:35] And how did you find when, and how did you find infinity and who was it?
[5:39] Joint one of you, how did you find us?
[5:42] It was Brendan.
[5:43] Brendan definitely found infinity.
[5:46] And I, as normal, there's one skeptic.
[5:48] I was the skeptic, but I'll let Brendan sort of explain where we were at.
[5:52] How did you find us?
[5:53] When did you find us?
[5:54] And then when did you be like, Hey, sweetheart?
[5:56] And she was like, please.
[5:57] Okay.
[5:59] Honestly, it was an absolute storm.
[6:02] Everything compounded all at the same time.
[6:06] So our broker had set us up on a special rate.
[6:13] An introductory rate, like a honeymoon rate?
[6:16] No, no, no.
[6:17] They had liaised their own special systems with the bank.
[6:23] Yep.
[6:24] And so this wasn't a product available to the public.
[6:27] Right.
[6:28] So it's a label product back off.
[6:30] Okay.
[6:30] Yeah.
[6:31] So we were below market interest and we thought, great.
[6:35] Yep.
[6:36] And the bank realized that we were doing so well at some point and they tried to change it on us.
[6:43] Right.
[6:44] I tried to contact the broker.
[6:46] Yep.
[6:46] And three months turned into six months and we weren't getting any responses.
[6:51] Really?
[6:52] Yeah.
[6:53] And we found out that he had left the business.
[6:56] Right.
[6:56] And no one else in the business returned the call?
[7:00] No one else picked up that we were a client and there was no contact.
[7:04] I was making calls to the bank saying, I know that you want to make these changes.
[7:09] No, we're contracted.
[7:11] you can't do this and they're like you can't actually make that adjustment only your broker can and the broker's gone and the broker's gone oh so we were about to revert back to your standard market rate through the bank it was a lot higher yeah significantly higher okay and to us back then we we cared a lot about the interest rate um that was i like that you said back then
[7:36] Yeah.
[7:38] Back then we cared a lot about the interest rate.
[7:39] Back then we cared a lot about it.
[7:41] Okay.
[7:42] So... That's pretty concerning.
[7:45] Okay.
[7:45] So I just started shopping around.
[7:48] I made phone calls to financial places.
[7:52] I didn't like any of them.
[7:55] Okay.
[7:56] And there was one that I'd heard of.
[8:00] Graham home, infinity.
[8:02] I couldn't find a phone call.
[8:04] I couldn't find a number to call you guys to learn more about.
[8:08] You can't call us.
[8:09] We won't talk to you.
[8:10] And it was actually, I was chatting with another guy here on the Gold Coast.
[8:17] Right.
[8:17] And he actually name-dropped you because he asked me what other services I'd engaged with.
[8:25] Right.
[8:26] And I said, I tried to get onto Infinity.
[8:29] Have you heard of him?
[8:30] Yeah.
[8:30] Because he's also on the Gold Coast.
[8:32] Right.
[8:32] And he goes, oh, I used to work with Graham.
[8:35] Fantastic guy.
[8:36] My product is very similar.
[8:37] Right.
[8:38] So he explained to me his processes and everything.
[8:42] Yep.
[8:43] And I'm like, before I sign up with this guy, he almost had me sold.
[8:48] Yep.
[8:48] I'm like, before I sign up with this guy.
[8:50] If he's trained by me and he's copying me and gone out and started for himself and he's probably in breach of contract, but I don't concern myself with that.
[8:59] Good luck to him.
[9:00] But hey, at least he didn't say bad things and said kind things because if you're going to copy what we've proven to be successful, you're going to have to validate that it works, right?
[9:08] Yeah.
[9:09] Okay.
[9:09] Interesting story.
[9:11] So then we found out about the webinar and I sat in on the webinar
[9:17] And I was without a word of a lie halfway through the webinar and I'm like, this is our guy.
[9:23] Right.
[9:24] But the numbers all made sense and the structure.
[9:26] Plus, you'd already had a conversation with somebody else who understood it.
[9:30] And we're in education.
[9:32] So for me, it's the understanding of the why.
[9:34] Why?
[9:37] I had brokers sit there and say, we will take care of everything for you.
[9:42] You don't have to worry about a thing.
[9:44] And I'm like, you haven't listened to a word I've said because I want to understand where my finances are going.
[9:51] I want to learn what mistakes we're making and how to fix it.
[9:54] I don't want to just give you my money and you take care of everything.
[9:57] You're not listening to what we want.
[9:59] Right.
[10:01] And as soon as we heard you in the webinar, and it's about front loading as the why, and I'm like, this is where we need to be.
[10:09] Yeah, I think it's on the opposite.
[10:10] I think instead of selling you the product or service, and you're not under, it's like driving a car and not knowing how to change a tire.
[10:18] And you get stuck on the side of the road.
[10:19] You're like, oh, where's the spare?
[10:21] I think it's critical before you go and take on that 30 year, 20 any year.
[10:25] You need to understand the basics.
[10:28] You need to put fuel in the car, maybe water or oil and change the tire.
[10:32] You don't have to fix the engine, but you need to understand how to keep moving.
[10:36] And I think that's been an education that makes sense to you guys.
[10:39] It probably resonates a lot more than the average person because most people are like, just give me the loan.
[10:44] How low is my rate?
[10:44] How low is my payment?
[10:45] Whereas you're obviously wired a bit different.
[10:47] Yeah.
[10:48] So we were budgeted to the wire, basically.
[10:52] We did have a credit card, $7,000 on the credit, and we never incurred interest on it.
[11:00] It was a 55-day interest-free.
[11:03] And we never made any payments on the credit card that we couldn't pay back before that period.
[11:09] So I had a spreadsheet.
[11:11] It was all budgeted for and planned.
[11:13] So I knew what was coming up and how we could...
[11:16] Make it work.
[11:17] Make it work.
[11:18] And we sat through the webinar and some of the things that you express to people, if you do A, B and C, by the end of the day, I'm happy.
[11:30] Yeah.
[11:30] And I'm like.
[11:33] okay, let's give this a go.
[11:35] Let's see if he's full of s*** or not.
[11:37] Okay.
[11:38] And honestly, at that point, I'm like, we're doing everything that we possibly can.
[11:43] I don't see how...
[11:45] There's no way this old guy's A, B and C is going to fix anything.
[11:48] Yeah.
[11:49] It's like an algebra.
[11:50] You're like equals D. There's no way we're getting any D, right?
[11:53] Like we're doing A, B, and C. That's it.
[11:55] I thought I had your number.
[11:57] I'm like, okay, I'm one of those people.
[11:59] I'm switched on.
[11:59] I know my finances.
[12:01] I've got this guy.
[12:02] I'm going to test it out.
[12:03] There's one little thing in education.
[12:04] None of us know what we don't know until we know it.
[12:09] I was wrong and I'm happy to admit that because what we've seen from then on was just unbelievable.
[12:16] So from that free webinar, did you go and have a crack first at the ABC?
[12:21] Did you go and make a few structural changes yourself or did you come straight to Masterclass?
[12:25] I rang, so we do everything jointly and always have.
[12:32] So I rang up the bank and checked on our...
[12:35] Account?
[12:35] Yep.
[12:36] Guess what?
[12:37] It wasn't offset.
[12:38] Wasn't linked.
[12:39] It wasn't linked.
[12:40] Yep.
[12:41] And I didn't know that was even a possibility.
[12:44] How long for?
[12:45] We were... We won't bank bash you, we won't name them either, but how long for?
[12:49] Seven years.
[12:50] What?
[12:51] What?
[12:52] Okay, I highly likely know who that bank is, but I won't say it.
[12:57] Yep.
[12:58] Is it one of the well-published ones in the media?
[13:00] Yeah, it's one of the big four.
[13:02] They did it for like over 20 years.
[13:04] Mm-hmm.
[13:05] Yeah, $200 million.
[13:06] Yep.
[13:07] So...
[13:07] I won't name them.
[13:08] You can find it all over my content for anyone that listens to this podcast.
[13:11] One of the big four banks overcharged fees and did not link offset accounts to families loans from the mid-1990s through to the mid-2021 or two, I think it was.
[13:22] It was a good 2023 years or something like that.
[13:25] So seven years for your household not linked.
[13:28] Yep.
[13:29] And we did receive a letter to be part of a class action.
[13:32] Right.
[13:32] Did they do a calculation yet and refund any of the interest charges?
[13:39] There was a payment made and we assumed that that's what it was for.
[13:44] And you assume that it's accurate too?
[13:46] Yeah, because I can teach maths but I'm not that good at going back.
[13:51] Seven years of daily balances of a loan offset account and a loan account.
[13:55] It's a lot of work that their computer couldn't get right the first time.
[13:59] They probably shouldn't get it right the second time, but let's move on.
[14:03] Okay.
[14:04] So that was, and it's interesting because you would see, you went and did your diligence, you've spoken to lots of brokerages.
[14:11] There's actually a lot of brokers out there that their whole pitch in financial advisors is use offset, use offset, because one day your home's an investment, all these silly things.
[14:19] and they do content on me saying I'm an idiot.
[14:22] Until about a month ago, when it was all over the news that ASIC's now investigating most of the banks for not linking them, and it is not one or two, it's thousands, thousands, hundreds of thousands of families are copying this.
[14:36] It's a gimmick.
[14:37] So it's been very quiet since then.
[14:39] I haven't heard anyone have a crack at me.
[14:41] I'm sure they will after this, but I'm not glad that that happened to you,
[14:46] but I'm really fulfilled that you heard my free information and were able to check it and get it fixed.
[14:53] That's great.
[14:54] That's awesome.
[14:55] We took on board the other things that you mentioned.
[14:59] We had nothing owing on the credit card, so that was gone straight away.
[15:03] Um, we had a high interest savings account.
[15:06] Yep.
[15:06] Um, and so we closed that and transferred all the funds.
[15:12] And do you remember how high the interest was?
[15:14] Was it three?
[15:15] 3.6.
[15:15] 3.6.
[15:16] Do you remember what your home loan was at that time?
[15:21] We were in the fours.
[15:23] Okay.
[15:24] So you had a higher rate on the home loan than you did on the high interest savings and you pay tax on the interest you earn in this.
[15:30] So you were losing money professionally.
[15:33] Yep.
[15:34] But no one had ever taught you that.
[15:35] No.
[15:36] So I really want to dig into this for people at home going, what's he talking about?
[15:39] We're smart too.
[15:41] If you have non-tax deductible debt, like a home loan or a car loan or personal loan,
[15:47] you do not have any savings you owe that money to the bank right but having savings thinking you're earning 3.6 while you're paying four or four but you are losing money and you pay tax on interest earned it's wild and i think that's not picking on educate but that's definitely something we're taught compound interest in school but there's no practical application yet in my opinion in the
[16:14] Hey, when you have a home loan or a car, like, I don't think the, like at 17, at 16, you're not like, how does compound interest apply over, you know, there's not that practical need to retain it maybe that young.
[16:25] And it's in isolation.
[16:27] You learn it in isolation.
[16:28] This is what your money will do in a savings account.
[16:31] And this is how a mortgage works.
[16:33] If you put this much money in a savings account at this age and this many years, what will your balance be?
[16:38] So we're giving, I guess, the mechanics of it.
[16:41] But there's no application of it.
[16:43] It's a bit hard, right?
[16:45] I think everyone just forgets they ever learned it.
[16:47] Because we're not silly people.
[16:49] No.
[16:49] We're all taught to have that nest egg in that high interest account.
[16:53] And for us, it was very much our rainy day fund.
[16:58] And it was our savings account.
[17:02] Chantal's American.
[17:04] So all of her family's overseas.
[17:06] So I recognise that she's sacrificed a lot to move to Australia, for a guy like me at least.
[17:14] Oh, what a good man.
[17:15] Yeah.
[17:18] batting outside my weight class.
[17:20] I always say I'm an absolute heavyweight.
[17:22] I'm punching above my weight.
[17:24] Yep.
[17:24] So, so yeah, that, that was our fun for internet to travel back home.
[17:31] Yeah, I needed to go back home for any reason.
[17:34] We had money there and so it was peace of mind.
[17:37] Yeah.
[17:37] Okay.
[17:37] Smart.
[17:38] Just in the wrong location.
[17:39] Yes.
[17:40] So did you then check about the features of your loan if you could overpay it or had redraw?
[17:47] You went down that rabbit hole?
[17:48] Yeah.
[17:49] Okay.
[17:51] That was actually exciting.
[17:54] I actually wanted to reach out to you and talk to you about it a little when we signed on for the masterclass.
[18:01] But there was just a thousand people in the chat bar and it was very hectic.
[18:06] um so yeah we reached out and we asked them all those questions yep um and they said yes you have unlimited redraw yes you can do direct ebbets yes yes yes and i'm like fantastic so i was back on track was with the mindset of did you get the person's details you spoke to or anything because i can see where this calls the oh
[18:28] I got a letter in the, an email, not a letter.
[18:32] I got an email a month later after we started using those features.
[18:36] Yep.
[18:37] They're shutting down that service.
[18:39] Yep.
[18:40] Scrapping it.
[18:41] We are no longer providing direct redraws and all that a month after we realized what we could start doing.
[18:51] One of their products is $50 fee for redraw and it has to be $500 or more.
[18:57] So it's like you can't direct debit your $79.95 for the Telstra bill.
[19:01] It's got to be $500.
[19:03] And if, say, for example, you go, okay, well, I'll move $500 to my offset account if it's linked or banked.
[19:10] Then I'll pay the bill.
[19:11] You're not going to put the $430, that $20 back.
[19:13] Do you know what I mean?
[19:15] So they've got these structures that, like, as people figure it out, they change the products.
[19:21] So what they did to you is what's called grandfathering a product.
[19:24] So you've started using it.
[19:25] Very funny, but just after you started using all the features, you got that email.
[19:29] Yeah, so we had it that whole time.
[19:31] We just didn't realize how to utilize it.
[19:33] Right.
[19:33] And as soon as we started down that track, they went and changed it on us.
[19:38] How much notice did they give you to say, hey, effective...
[19:42] Yeah, there was a couple of months.
[19:44] Okay.
[19:45] So you had time to then go, right, well, I'm not going to keep going with that.
[19:48] Did it tell you the new things or it just said, we're taking this away?
[19:51] Yeah, it was just no longer available.
[19:53] That's all it said.
[19:54] Okay.
[19:55] Yeah.
[19:55] And that's where I started to see that there's something here then.
[20:00] If the bank is getting rid of that, there must be something, you know, that additionally that we're not doing.
[20:07] So did you do the webinar together?
[20:09] I did the webinar on my own.
[20:11] Right, okay.
[20:12] We did the masterclass together.
[20:13] Okay, so you did the webinar on your own, started making these inquiries and changes, but talking about that together and sharing that.
[20:19] Yeah.
[20:20] And then you slowly started uncovering bits and pieces.
[20:23] Yes.
[20:23] Okay.
[20:24] And I'm not going to lie, you had your money back guarantee on your masterclass.
[20:27] Yeah.
[20:28] And I thought, I've already taken on so much.
[20:31] Yep.
[20:32] I'm going to see what else I can learn.
[20:33] For free.
[20:35] Yeah, for free.
[20:36] Yeah, well, I give pretty much all of it for free.
[20:38] I love the message.
[20:39] Like, hey, I took this much off my life.
[20:41] Oh, when did you do the masterclass?
[20:43] Oh, no, just I did your free webinar six months ago.
[20:47] Like in one way, I'm like, damn, I've got to tell people less.
[20:50] In the other way, I'm like, how good?
[20:52] What a contribution to society.
[20:55] Well, good on you.
[20:55] Milk it.
[20:56] I'm not going to lie though.
[20:58] We paid for it on the credit card just before we got rid of it.
[21:05] Okay.
[21:06] When you did do Masterclass.
[21:08] So I signed up on the credit card.
[21:11] And then a fortnight later, once pay came in, we paid off the credit card and got rid of it.
[21:16] So we'd already signed up for Masterclass.
[21:18] Gotcha.
[21:18] Okay.
[21:19] Okay.
[21:20] And where to from there?
[21:21] So what was our starting balance on the line?
[21:24] When did we start?
[21:25] It was October, September 2020?
[21:29] With Infinity?
[21:30] Yeah.
[21:30] September 2023.
[21:31] September 2023.
[21:32] Okay.
[21:32] Yeah.
[21:33] And what was our home loan balance back then, Ballpark?
[21:37] $200,000.
[21:38] $200,000.
[21:39] Okay.
[21:39] September 20...
[21:40] So we've just ticked over two years, two and a bit years.
[21:44] What's the balance from that $200,000?
[21:45] What is it today?
[21:46] $42,000.
[21:50] 42,000.
[21:52] So in two years, call it two teachers, work in the education system.
[21:58] So people go, because a big problem here is people listen to these.
[22:02] We've got thousands of clients who are like, oh, they must be earning $500,000 a year or a gazillion dollars a year, right?
[22:08] Teachers, I think, and by the way, I want to give some input here.
[22:11] You know how I reckon we could fix the entire education system?
[22:15] The minimum pay for a teacher should be like 250, 300 grand.
[22:18] You know why?
[22:20] Yeah.
[22:21] Make the entry, the barrier, like the barrier to entry higher, truly passionate people, but pay them to be these deeply passionate, committed, higher calibre, not just because there's good and bad in every industry.
[22:37] Imagine if we actually paid these people higher.
[22:40] to be able to put impression and passion into young people and get them excited about life and school.
[22:46] It would revolutionise the industry.
[22:49] That's what I reckon.
[22:50] Yeah.
[22:51] Seriously.
[22:52] Because you wouldn't have people go, oh, I kind of like kids or, you know, I like the amount of school holidays that I could get even though I'm grading papers and still working a lot.
[23:01] It's kind of a good work-life balance.
[23:02] Work sort of semi-school hours.
[23:04] When the kids are off, I'm kind of off.
[23:06] Like some people think, oh, that's a good gig.
[23:09] So I'll go to uni, I'll get my ticket and I'll do that.
[23:12] That's a secure job.
[23:13] Imagine if we change that barrier to entry and paid them as an expert.
[23:20] They're guiding the future of nations.
[23:23] Oh, 100%.
[23:26] You'd retain all your knowledgeable staff.
[23:28] Yeah.
[23:28] Turnover would be reduced.
[23:31] That workload and the balance would all shift back towards the teacher.
[23:35] Yep.
[23:36] And people would feel like they're being rewarded for the hard work.
[23:40] They feel valued.
[23:41] Yes.
[23:41] They deeply care and be passionate.
[23:43] They'd be committed.
[23:44] And hey, the barrier to entry would be so high to be remunerated at these levels.
[23:49] And they should scale it up.
[23:50] But at least you would fight to get into those roles, to get into those degrees.
[23:56] And you would do anything to maintain that job and have all of your kids succeed.
[24:01] I might pick society a bit too.
[24:02] Imagine that.
[24:04] Anyway, we won't get into the politics of it.
[24:06] That's my little input for the day, fun fact.
[24:08] Okay, where were we?
[24:10] I got on a segue there about that.
[24:12] What were we talking about?
[24:13] We were $200,000 down to $42,000.
[24:16] $42,000.
[24:17] Yeah.
[24:17] Education system income.
[24:18] So we're not expecting it.
[24:19] You're not running your own businesses.
[24:21] You're not drop shit.
[24:23] Like you're doing day-to-day normal valued jobs, public service.
[24:28] And...
[24:28] I moved to Australia with student loan debt.
[24:32] Really?
[24:33] When I moved here, just pre-scratch, like starting from less than nothing.
[24:39] Upside down debt, student debt.
[24:41] Yeah.
[24:42] What year was that?
[24:43] So I moved here in 2012.
[24:44] So June, yeah, end of June 2012.
[24:47] Okay.
[24:47] Yeah.
[24:47] So 200,000 student debt.
[24:53] 31,000 US dollars.
[24:55] Oh!
[24:55] A student loan debt.
[24:57] Damn.
[24:58] Okay.
[24:59] Yeah.
[25:00] At US interest rates.
[25:01] Yeah, yeah.
[25:02] And at that time, the US dollar and the Australian dollar were- More similar, yeah.
[25:07] Yeah, were level, so it was the one time-
[25:10] I could have paid it off a little bit better.
[25:13] Not so much now.
[25:13] It hurts a bit.
[25:15] Okay.
[25:16] Yeah.
[25:16] Okay.
[25:16] So 2020, September, 2023, 200 grand.
[25:18] Today, end of 2025, about to go into 2026, 42,000.
[25:21] So $158,000 in debt, gone in two years.
[25:23] Yep.
[25:23] Did you sell...
[25:34] trains planes and automobiles did you we i was living out of my mom's house right we were paying board for the first few years like i said we were living paycheck to paycheck yeah and kept getting said no to we had no toys no additional funds coming in nothing just so home loan came to
[25:59] hundred and fifty eight grand gone just using your current incomes and cash flows but you obviously had some savings you mentioned so you moved that over it was only a couple of thousand dollars okay all right yeah um we'd made a couple of trips to the u.s um for family reasons so um so you guys really knuckled down buckled down
[26:21] What was your food, fuel and fun that you started with?
[26:25] 800.
[26:26] Okay, so 800 a week, family of three, and Ace Eats probably for three.
[26:29] It was a family of five at that time.
[26:31] Yeah, we lost.
[26:32] We just recently lost one of our Roddies.
[26:34] Yeah.
[26:36] Yeah.
[26:38] She was 11 and a half, so she lived a good life.
[26:41] We lost one of our Frenchies a while ago, a poor little thing.
[26:45] Anyway, we don't deserve dogs.
[26:49] Or cats.
[26:50] Their budget was definitely equal to that of ours.
[26:53] Oh, yeah.
[26:54] They eat well.
[26:55] Okay, so $800 a week when you started two years ago.
[27:00] Is it still at $800 today with all the costs?
[27:03] No, no.
[27:04] Higher?
[27:05] Definitely lower.
[27:06] Lower?
[27:07] So we've lowered it down to 600.
[27:09] Okay.
[27:11] And we also participated in a monthly challenge and that was to reduce it by a further 100.
[27:18] Okay.
[27:19] And we found that we smashed that out of the ballpark.
[27:22] Really?
[27:23] So cost of living pressures, inflation, all these things that people are worried about and struggling with at the moment, you've gone the other way.
[27:30] You've pulled it down and you're living comfortably.
[27:32] Yeah.
[27:32] So we dropped to 600.
[27:34] We easily dropped to 500 and still had money to spend at the end of the week.
[27:40] Are you surprised at what you've been doing with your money prior to the last two years?
[27:45] It made us think what on earth were we spending it on?
[27:49] You can't think of it immediately, but you were spending it.
[27:51] Yeah, you're spending it.
[27:52] So I think
[27:54] Going grocery shopping now, you're just a lot more, you know, present and structured of what you're spending your money on and not just sort of grabbing that, oh, that looks good.
[28:03] And then by the end of the week, throwing things out in the bin because you didn't plan a meal around it and it went off.
[28:11] Also just going to the shops and with our daughter and you know, oh, okay.
[28:16] Let's just pick this up.
[28:17] She needs some new clothes.
[28:18] Let's get all of these clothes, but really not thinking of maybe what we already had and how much she actually needed.
[28:25] So were you guys, do you like meal prep now or were you meal prepping?
[28:30] Like what's like a normal shop consist of?
[28:33] Is it just a whatever and a bit of Uber Eats if we're tired or pretty structured or...
[28:38] At the moment, we're doing some meal preps as part of the 60 Strong Challenge.
[28:44] How are you finding that?
[28:45] I am loving it.
[28:46] Okay.
[28:47] I thrive under pressure and structure.
[28:51] Structure.
[28:52] Yeah.
[28:52] And I actually... You've been in the army, not in education.
[28:56] So I'm LinkedIn with Casey, who's helping me through it, and she's probably over all my emails.
[29:02] I'm that guy I'd love to have a PT on my back 24-7 pushing me higher.
[29:07] It's like I want to know how far I can be pushed.
[29:11] Okay.
[29:11] So we take that approach financially as well.
[29:14] Yep.
[29:14] So what can we be doing?
[29:16] And I sat down with the spreadsheet and mapped out our incidentals, our discretionary spending.
[29:22] Yep.
[29:23] And we are not by any means stuck at home on a strict budget and we can't go out and do things.
[29:31] We have our memberships to the Melbourne Storm and the Western Bulldogs.
[29:34] Yep.
[29:35] And so they're big family events.
[29:38] Yep.
[29:38] And we will go out and have lunch or dinner before a game.
[29:41] So we're in the city, we're spending... Commuting in, meals, entertainment.
[29:46] Paying for parking, all those sorts of things.
[29:49] And it adds up.
[29:50] Yeah.
[29:50] Every home game.
[29:51] Oh, your parking's bloody wild.
[29:54] Yep.
[29:55] Okay.
[29:55] So it was all adding up really quick.
[29:57] So you guys are being pretty structured in the day-to-day.
[30:01] I call it existence, boring life, right?
[30:03] Like a Monday to Sunday.
[30:04] Let's say it rains all week and it's winter.
[30:07] What do you do?
[30:08] You go to work, you eat, you go to work, you sleep, you exercise, there's not that much, right?
[30:15] And then, oh, okay, well, there's an event on, cool.
[30:17] Every couple of weeks, there's a home game on.
[30:20] Okay, you go out and enjoy.
[30:22] I think society's been caught up a little bit in like social media and everything's in our hand.
[30:28] I see, I want, I get right now, I have to pay, I just spend, I just tap.
[30:32] We've just become so consumable.
[30:34] It's like constant dopamine as opposed to the most successful people do very boring things for very lengthy periods of time very consistently.
[30:46] And those little bits of one percenters add up to astronomical results.
[30:52] And before infinity, we would have moments, different spurts of being really good.
[30:57] Right.
[30:58] And, you know, not splurging on anything.
[31:00] And then it would just go to something would happen.
[31:03] We'd have a, you know, long week at work or, you know, our daughter is not sleeping well.
[31:09] Let's just make life easier.
[31:11] We deserve it.
[31:12] Let's go out, order takeaway, go shopping, new TV, whatever.
[31:16] Yeah.
[31:16] Yeah.
[31:17] And just going up and down.
[31:19] Yep.
[31:20] I draw that in the masterclass.
[31:22] I'm like, here's an example of manic budgeting versus we want to be here and we're here.
[31:28] Here's the straight path.
[31:29] Here's the straight line.
[31:31] Here's the bumper bowling as opposed to the manic.
[31:34] But if we can just stay here, we'll get there really, really still reward yourself.
[31:38] Still have a bad week, a good week.
[31:39] But if we can stay on that line in those bumpers, we'll get there in X years.
[31:44] See, one of the things, I'm not okay with that steady line.
[31:51] if I know I can be pushed, I will find a way to change it.
[31:56] Okay.
[31:56] And I will find workarounds.
[31:59] And I feel like that monthly challenge to reduce our FFF... A good workarounder.
[32:06] it made us think of other ways and other places we're spending those funds.
[32:11] So I sat down with a fine tooth comb with my spreadsheets and said, is there a better way?
[32:17] So even though we've been with infinity now just over two years, it's,
[32:22] We're still learning.
[32:23] We found a better way.
[32:25] I developed what I call my monthly plan now.
[32:28] So we schedule certain things in certain weeks.
[32:33] So we looked at our spending and I looked for patterns.
[32:37] So one of the things that I love most about Infinity is the portal.
[32:41] So I spreadsheet the portal.
[32:45] So I use the portal to track our spending and categorize it.
[32:49] And then I spreadsheet the portal data to see where our peaks and troughs are.
[32:55] Why did our spending in this area go up?
[32:58] Why did our spending in this area go down?
[33:01] So now our weekly shopping and expenses goes, okay, so week one, we will bulk buy meat.
[33:09] In week two, we use that additional money that we're now spending on meat for dog food or for fuel.
[33:18] So you're not analytical at all.
[33:20] No.
[33:21] Not at all.
[33:22] Not at all.
[33:23] Just a touch.
[33:24] So spreadsheets are a bit kinky for you.
[33:27] It's something I enjoy.
[33:28] I just love numbers.
[33:30] Okay.
[33:31] And you enjoy pulling it apart or you enjoy the outcome or both?
[33:36] Both.
[33:37] Yeah.
[33:37] Okay.
[33:38] Getting like pulling it and getting a bit like me pulling it apart and getting, oh, look at this.
[33:43] You get to the outcome and it's, you know, euphoric.
[33:45] It's like, I can, I can make these changes and that's going to be better.
[33:50] Okay.
[33:51] And you guys are obviously a really solid team.
[33:55] Like, you're on the same boat.
[33:56] Like, you're obviously very much in agreeance on this.
[33:59] What are some of the things you've learned in the last couple years?
[34:02] Because you said, oh, we know ABC.
[34:04] We're pretty smart people.
[34:06] We've got our degrees.
[34:07] We're the...
[34:08] and and that's great too i can't do any of you can do but we're all good at something and it's these things that you say a couple years in we're still learning we're still finding improvement that's life there's constant improvement and constant learning what are some things you can share someone sitting at home go oh we're about the same age as these guys you know we're we're in a similar area why can't we do this what we think we're nailing it too
[34:32] until you realize you're not what are some of the learnings you could share for them because this is free for them right what's some things you've learned over the last couple of years you could share with them to hey you need to do this you need to do that like not everyone's going to sit down and do the spreadsheet they're not weirdos like us not all of them right but they can at least get out a statement and highlight it like what could you share with people to have a look at
[34:54] I think being aware of where you're spending.
[34:57] So like you said, you can get a highlighter, but even just being aware of how much you're spending, maybe not each week, but over the month, just seeing where all of that is adding up.
[35:06] A bit of a review for the month or something.
[35:08] And then it comes down to having a plan.
[35:11] So always having a plan.
[35:12] So just looking at what's coming up, being aware and not just sort of living in the moment.
[35:18] Because I think when you're not really aware of what's coming up and you're, you know, it's acceptable.
[35:26] You go to work the next day.
[35:27] Oh, yeah, I had to get takeaway too.
[35:29] I just, I was too tired.
[35:31] It just becomes the norm.
[35:32] So I think having a plan.
[35:33] So many friends and family, they just live in the moment.
[35:35] They wonder why they're struggling.
[35:37] I've kind of told you a hundred times.
[35:39] And people might think they're doing really well and they might be, but it's that consistency, as you said.
[35:44] You have to be consistent.
[35:45] You have to be prepared to stick it out to actually see the long-term achievements and the gains.
[35:54] So what else could you share with them?
[35:57] Anything else?
[35:58] Well, budget.
[36:00] Yep.
[36:03] Even if you think you have a budget, it's got to be reviewed and looked over.
[36:09] My number one thing is I don't like living comfortably.
[36:16] If you sit in that comfort range and you just motor on through life, accepting that everything is the way it is, nothing's going to change.
[36:26] Okay, I like that.
[36:27] I really like it.
[36:28] You were told no by multiple banks when you were trying to build the home.
[36:32] You had a block of land and no one will qualify you to actually build the home.
[36:36] Okay?
[36:38] We went from that position to trying to pay double repayments to get ahead to two years ago, starting with a $200,000 loan that today is only $42,000.
[36:45] It's come down $158,000 in two years and a month or two.
[36:53] that's going to be gone, I assume, in a matter of months.
[36:56] April.
[36:57] April.
[36:57] Okay.
[36:58] He knows his numbers.
[36:59] They know the numbers.
[37:00] So six months or so, five, six months, that will be gone as well.
[37:03] And they're debt-free on the home in two and a half years.
[37:07] And today as it stands, we have three or four investment properties?
[37:13] Three.
[37:13] Three.
[37:14] And we've just gone and done the numbers and we can add another one.
[37:17] Yep.
[37:18] So it's highly likely we're about to have $158,000 paid off our home in two years and four investment properties in two years.
[37:29] Correct.
[37:29] But you were told by every other bank or broker or expert that you couldn't have the money to build your home.
[37:36] That's sad, isn't it?
[37:38] Well, I'd say all of those things are really exciting.
[37:41] I'm probably financially aroused for you guys at the moment.
[37:43] But it is sad because I hear this time and time again.
[37:47] So I'm gonna put that summary right at the beginning so people go, I need to listen to this.
[37:53] Because so many people are told no, or they're structured in a way that it looks like no, because how it's presented to the lender or the bank is a no, right?
[38:04] But you guys have done phenomenally well.
[38:07] Thank you.
[38:08] Thank you.
[38:08] You should be so bloody proud.
[38:10] It's surreal.
[38:11] I was going to say, does it feel you're like pinch pinch?
[38:12] Does it feel real?
[38:15] It doesn't feel real when you look at the ballpark numbers.
[38:19] Those numbers are not something that was ever on our mindset.
[38:24] Okay.
[38:25] Just because of our upbringing and where we've come from, which has a lot to do with our why we're with infinity.
[38:32] Yep.
[38:34] And...
[38:37] I don't want to get emotional because this is part of Chantal's story to tell.
[38:41] But, yeah, the why we're doing this and why we put in the effort and why we signed up with Infinity is family.
[38:49] Yeah.
[38:51] And...
[38:53] We've come from difficult upbringings.
[38:57] And we feel like we need to be doing more to support our family.
[39:04] Okay.
[39:04] That beautiful gesture.
[39:06] I support a lot of family and that's my why.
[39:09] I love it.
[39:10] There's no better feeling, you know, to have aunties and nieces and cousins and get random messages of, wow, I'm just watching the sun come up on the river today, my little unit, like,
[39:21] I love that stuff.
[39:22] It's the best.
[39:23] My mum's got to get her teeth redone right now.
[39:25] And I didn't realise how bad it was because I think she had a hockey ball hit her in the mouth when she was younger.
[39:30] So she has to have implants in every...
[39:33] I think they actually go in and put them in the gut.
[39:35] Into the jaw.
[39:37] And then they put the posts or the fake to all that.
[39:39] And she got a quote the other day, it was like 60, the basic one was 60 and the good one was $80,000.
[39:45] She was freaking out.
[39:48] And I was like, hey, go see my guy that fixed my teeth, just book it in.
[39:51] And she's like, oh, I'll get a quote.
[39:52] And I'm like, just book it in.
[39:54] And that's, you know, that financial literacy and the structure and the, hey, we can improve and we can improve and we can improve.
[40:03] Still have overseas holidays, still enjoy life, still do, go to the footy, go to the, like,
[40:08] But they're the moments that it counts.
[40:11] Because I can tell you right now, 80, 95% of Australian families, if they're children or parents or they needed $60,000, $80,000 of dental work, they're not in a position to pay it.
[40:23] Yep.
[40:24] Yep.
[40:24] And for us, we want this to have a generational impact.
[40:29] I love that.
[40:29] Yep.
[40:30] I love that.
[40:31] Yeah.
[40:32] And you know the one thing you can't take away from people in their life?
[40:36] People can get married, divorced, they can get sick, they can get better.
[40:39] You can't take away knowledge.
[40:42] What you impart now will see them through.
[40:46] No matter what happens in life, they'll always have those learnings.
[40:49] Yeah.
[40:50] And we've started those processes with our daughter already.
[40:53] Good.
[40:53] Yeah.
[40:54] just talking about money she's young but yeah she can comprehend you know yeah going to the store and you know all we need to think about what we're spending on maybe you know let's take a picture of this and remember that you know you wanted it okay let's come back to it later yeah and then you're teaching delayed gratification already yeah and and are you finding it like okay we'll take a picture we want it and then when you are going back is she still wanting it or she moved on
[41:20] She's moved on.
[41:21] And then also with rewarding her with.
[41:24] Just remind everyone how old?
[41:25] She's five.
[41:26] Five.
[41:26] And she's already understanding delayed gratification.
[41:29] Yeah.
[41:30] That's a cool parenting.
[41:31] And we've introduced the idea of, you know, when you might get birthday money or we do a bit of a sticker chart.
[41:38] We've started this recently at home and she can have a choice.
[41:42] Does she want to use it for spending money?
[41:44] Does she want to save or does she want to give?
[41:46] She's got three boxes that she can choose where she puts her tokens into.
[41:50] Right.
[41:51] And so she's got her three options that she can choose from.
[41:55] So the instant gratification, the savings or the gifting.
[42:00] Right.
[42:00] Yeah.
[42:01] And she's drawn to saving.
[42:04] Okay.
[42:04] And then she also said that for giving, she already picked out that she wants to help three boys and four girls, she said.
[42:11] So that was just from her.
[42:13] And that's for in general, ongoing or Christmas or?
[42:16] I explained around Christmas.
[42:18] It inspired me with the Kmart wishing tree.
[42:22] And I sort of explained that Christmas is coming up.
[42:25] She keeps talking about maybe a few things that she's wanting.
[42:29] And I said it's also important that we think about some kids who might not get a lot of Christmas presents.
[42:35] And what could we do to help give them so they have a great Christmas too?
[42:39] And so she already decided that she wants to help.
[42:41] Yeah, she picked the numbers.
[42:43] She told us, I'm going to help three boys and four girls.
[42:46] Yeah.
[42:48] Oh, I love it.
[42:49] At five years old.
[42:50] So when she does her cleanups and earns those tokens, some of it's around eating habits.
[42:59] So if she tries a new food, she earns a token.
[43:02] Right.
[43:02] And then she can go and choose which container that token goes into.
[43:05] Yeah.
[43:07] This is the second time I've had amazing parents.
[43:10] All parents are amazing, but this is the second time I've heard parents operate a token choice system, reward system.
[43:18] And I f***ing love it.
[43:20] I love it because you're allowing them to make their own decisions.
[43:22] You can only inform them.
[43:24] You can only let them make up their mind, guide them.
[43:26] But I absolutely love the concept because too often today parents think an iPad screen is parenting or a phone or a video game or something.
[43:35] So I absolutely live for this.
[43:38] I absolutely love it.
[43:39] I wanted to dig a little bit deeper because you mentioned your why and family and story there.
[43:47] Tell us a little bit more about the why because you're starting to talk around family,
[43:51] generational wealth and you're also touching on you know with the parenting style here of actually really deeply parenting so you're obviously amazing human beings but what's the deeper why there obviously you said come from tough backgrounds like much like myself what's the big picture goal here
[44:11] Do you want to go first or do you want me to say my half?
[44:15] We don't need tissues for this, do we?
[44:18] I'm sorry, I'm almost... Ready, ready, ready, catch.
[44:21] It's all right, it's real.
[44:21] Real men cry.
[44:22] We've had a couple of cries this week, it's fine.
[44:25] I cry in front of my kids if I read them a sad story.
[44:28] I cry on the... You know that TV show when I used to be home?
[44:31] Bec's like, oh, here we go, that Australian idol and the voice.
[44:34] People come out and share their story and start singing and I'm in tears and she's like, turn the idiot box off.
[44:39] Riding Robocop as a kid, I'm hopeless.
[44:42] Go on.
[44:43] You're f***ing gone.
[44:44] See ya.

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