# $86K Off Mortgage in 90 Days | Brad & Fiona | First 90 Days S1E5

An episode of [Money Mentor Podcast™](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1632604767), 26 Aug 2026, 20 min.

Audio: https://episode.flightcast.com/01M0VMSRYDNZCV2XX380QNRE8P.mp3

In their 50s, Brad and Fiona paid $45,000 to the bank in a year, but less than $10,000 came off their home loan. Their mortgage had kept creeping up, and they knew they needed a plan for retirement. After looking closer, they realised they had paid $45,000 to the bank in one year while reducing their loan by less than $10,000. After watching the free webinar and completing the masterclass, they saw a potential path to pay off their home loan in less than 5 years. Now, just 90 days in, the future feels very different. Want to improve your own financial future? Our free webinar is where to start: 👉 https://bit.ly/43V2jKN #ChangingLivesPodcast #MortgageFreeAustralia #RetirementPlanning

## Transcript

[0:00] Overnight you kind of realise we're in our 50s and our mortgage is higher than it was when we were in our 30s.
[0:06] We'd moved a couple of times and each time the mortgage got higher.
[0:10] Just kept creeping up and creeping up.
[0:11] You're attaching yourself to a 30-year recycle.
[0:14] You paid $45,000 to the bank in one year and all that came off was not even 10,000.
[0:19] It wasn't even 10,000.
[0:21] And that was embarrassing.
[0:24] You started out with a $575,000 home loan.
[0:25] What is it today?
[0:27] $489,000 or something like that.
[0:30] Braggy!
[0:31] You've done so much in 90 days.
[0:33] It gives me goosebumps just thinking about that.
[0:39] Today we are joined by Brad and Fiona.
[0:42] How are we guys?
[0:43] Good.
[0:43] Thank you.
[0:44] How are you feeling about being here?
[0:45] Yeah, great.
[0:45] Because you're still very fresh to the Infinity family, but this is our new 90 day series where we get to talk to you at the very beginning of your journey.
[0:54] So we will go into that, but I want to talk about before Infinity, where we're at, what financial challenges we're having, frustrations, any other advice we tried to get, and what ultimately led us to Infinity.
[1:05] It was probably last year that it bubbled to the surface for us.
[1:09] Our boys had just got out of school.
[1:11] Yeah.
[1:11] We got twin boys.
[1:13] So finished high school.
[1:13] Finished high school.
[1:15] And, you know, proud parents, you're sort of, you know, going over the time that's passed and it really hit home just how quickly that was flying.
[1:25] And overnight you kind of realise we're in our 50s and our mortgage is higher than it was when we were in our 30s when we met.
[1:34] Yeah, wow.
[1:35] We're in the same house?
[1:36] No.
[1:37] Different house.
[1:37] So we moved a couple of times and each time we moved the mortgage got higher.
[1:42] Just kept creeping up and creeping up.
[1:44] So it wasn't like we were redrawing and spending it on stuff that we didn't need but sell, upsize, sell, upsize.
[1:50] Yeah.
[1:51] And it wasn't until we'd sort of got involved with you guys that you're attaching yourself to a 30-year recycle every time.
[2:00] Every time, yeah.
[2:02] And, yeah, got to that stage and we thought, hang on, because we're on okay money, you know, we could pay the bills and give our boys the life that we wanted to give them.
[2:13] But, you know, 55, 30-year mortgage, mass doesn't add up.
[2:18] Yeah.
[2:18] So we knew we needed help and...
[2:21] Don't ask me where the rest of the money was going.
[2:23] It wasn't going where it should have been going.
[2:26] Yeah.
[2:26] So we knew at that stage with no direction, no guidance, and no plan to, I guess, end up where we wanted to, that we needed some help, yeah.
[2:36] Yeah, and how did you eventually find the webinar?
[2:40] It's funny because we were actually, without even knowing, it was popping up on our feeds all the time, whether it was Insta or Face.
[2:46] So we had a thought and it just popped up.
[2:48] Yeah.
[2:48] As it does.
[2:49] I think the algorithm picked it up somewhere.
[2:50] Yeah, as it does.
[2:51] And I think when Brad was, you know, as the boys had finished, Brad was sort of looking at our mortgage going, we're just bleeding money here somewhere and we really –
[3:03] We need to figure out a way.
[3:04] And so, yeah, Brad had said, I'm going to, you know, listen to the podcast.
[3:10] And he did that.
[3:13] And then we started talking about it a bit more and realised that it was something that we probably needed help with.
[3:21] Yeah.
[3:21] Yeah.
[3:22] You know, the outline of what you hear on the podcast and things was something that sort of resonated with us and thought, okay, I think this could work.
[3:30] So, yeah.
[3:31] Off to the races, yeah.
[3:33] We did it.
[3:33] Brad was probably more gung-ho than me.
[3:35] Yeah.
[3:36] I was like, okay, a little.
[3:38] Want to take your time a bit more.
[3:39] Want to take my time.
[3:40] Yeah, just, you know, we dabbled with one of our mortgages that we'd had through a bank.
[3:47] We'd got a financial aid.
[3:50] advisor through the bank through the bank um and we quickly realized that they weren't he wasn't there to help us because we never heard anything yeah so um yeah we i think within 18 months to two years we'd gotten rid of what he'd set up yeah so but it kind of soured us a little bit not soured but yeah it's
[4:12] It's not hard.
[4:13] We're not saying it's hard to trust, but you don't know where to turn to when you've tried and it didn't work.
[4:18] Well, because you went somewhere you thought you could trust, you know, a financial advisor at a bank.
[4:21] Yes.
[4:22] You would think that they'd be able to help set you up.
[4:24] And what did they end up advising for you guys to do?
[4:28] It was still your standard managed fund and so we borrowed money for that.
[4:32] And it did okay.
[4:33] It didn't cost us anything but there was no follow-up support.
[4:37] No regular check-ins.
[4:38] No, nothing like that.
[4:39] Yeah, but ongoing fees, yeah.
[4:40] And you're getting a bill every year and it's, what's this for?
[4:44] So, no, we quickly realised that wasn't and it wasn't helping us with what we thought we wanted long-term.
[4:51] So, yeah, we ditched that pretty quick.
[4:53] Yeah.
[4:54] But we're still open to obviously help.
[4:57] We just didn't know where to go.
[4:59] Yeah.
[5:00] Then you found Infinity on social media?
[5:02] Social media.
[5:03] Yeah?
[5:04] And when did we watch the webinar?
[5:06] I was late last year.
[5:08] Yeah.
[5:10] I was in Perth just in a hotel room with work, doom scrolling, and I remember that this was all, you know, coming to the fore and I'd seen G pop up on something and I thought, no, let's give this a crack.
[5:23] So I literally, you know, signed up from then and there.
[5:26] So you watched it straight away?
[5:27] Straight away.
[5:27] Yeah.
[5:29] And it was funny.
[5:31] Loved his style because Faye and I are a bit older, you know, we're,
[5:35] We appreciate the suffer no fools sort of mentality.
[5:39] And very direct and straight away I could say, yeah, we've been doing all the things that we probably shouldn't have been doing without knowing that we shouldn't have been doing them, you know.
[5:49] And so after that I got a monthly, I just got a monthly printout, well not a printout, a statement.
[5:57] Like a home loan statement, yeah.
[5:58] Of our home loan and our bank spending and I tallied up how much we'd paid
[6:03] to the bank and how much interest we paid and I nearly fell off.
[6:06] Do you remember those figures?
[6:07] It was like 45 grand for an $8,000 or $9,000 gain on the home loan.
[6:14] So you paid $45,000 to the bank in one year and all that came off was not even $10,000.
[6:19] It wasn't even $10,000 and that was...
[6:22] embarrassing and angriving at the same time.
[6:25] Yeah.
[6:26] Come on, this is ridiculous.
[6:27] Especially because you never looked into it before.
[6:30] You don't.
[6:30] Until you do watch the webinar and you go, oh, hang on a second, let's look it out.
[6:34] No.
[6:35] If this story has inspired you to take control of your financial future, your journey starts with our free educational webinar.
[6:42] Click the link below this video to get started today.
[6:45] You're brought up with that.
[6:46] It's like everybody says.
[6:47] Exactly.
[6:47] You're brought up with, you go, you get your loan.
[6:49] It's a 25, 30-year loan and you don't.
[6:52] Yeah.
[6:52] You just pay it off.
[6:53] As long as you can make the payments.
[6:54] Yeah.
[6:54] You're thinking, okay, we're doing all right.
[6:56] Well, think about it.
[6:56] Your boys just finished high school.
[6:57] They would not have gone through a single bit of that type of education.
[7:01] No.
[7:01] In their whole high school.
[7:03] No.
[7:04] Education, which is crazy to me.
[7:05] That's something I'm very passionate about is the lack of education, relatable education for everyone.
[7:12] There's obviously...
[7:13] a place for English and maths and all that.
[7:15] I get that.
[7:16] But there is also that style of education I think every single person needs and we should be put through it.
[7:22] Yeah, for sure.
[7:22] This has been good because our boys have watched what we've been doing over the last few months and, you know, one of them was like, well, so how much money do I need, you know, to be able to go on board, get on board?
[7:34] Oh, already talking about coming on board.
[7:37] We actually need a full-time job first.
[7:38] So let's see.
[7:40] But it's got them thinking, so it's good.
[7:42] Yeah.
[7:42] Which is good, yeah.
[7:43] Okay, so we've done late last year the free webinar.
[7:46] Yep.
[7:46] Then when do we ultimately do the masterclass?
[7:48] That was March.
[7:49] Yep.
[7:50] This year.
[7:51] I tried to sign up, but you went through the Christmas break.
[7:54] Yeah.
[7:55] And I work weekends, so it's really – it was hard for me to lock in.
[7:58] It was harder, yeah.
[7:59] So I missed the, there was one in January, February, couldn't do that.
[8:03] Had holidays in March.
[8:06] We just got back, we had a holiday for our 20th anniversary and it was on literally two days after that.
[8:12] Yeah.
[8:12] So that was March this year that we did that.
[8:16] Yeah.
[8:16] And do you wish you'd have done it sooner?
[8:18] Yeah, of course.
[8:20] Yeah.
[8:21] But we're all where we're at for a reason and regret's not the right – I certainly wish that we'd come across it because, you know, we're getting on a bit now.
[8:30] We're in our mid-50s and time's not running out, but we don't have as much time available to us.
[8:36] Had we joined when we were doing scrolling all those years ago, you know.
[8:40] So, yeah, March was the date and we were very quick to commit.
[8:48] From that weekend.
[8:48] Once that happened.
[8:49] Yeah.
[8:50] Talk to me about light bulb moments during that weekend though.
[8:52] What were your biggest takeaways from the masterclass?
[8:57] For me, it was, G was doing a bit of coaching for someone that was one of the clients and they were in exactly the same spot that we had.
[9:07] And he's, you know, he's drawing me.
[9:08] Oh, so it was a relatable story for you.
[9:09] Yeah, same house, little bit of equity.
[9:12] Yep.
[9:13] Unused equity.
[9:14] but still had, you know, over half a million owing on it.
[9:17] And he's drawing on his thing with, you know, investment properties and waterfall this and waterfall that.
[9:23] And I'd said to Fee, I said, that's what we've been looking for.
[9:27] We didn't know that that was a way.
[9:29] We just tuned in to maybe see if we could pay off the home sooner, not knowing there was, you know.
[9:34] The investing side as well, yeah.
[9:36] Yeah, didn't know that at all.
[9:37] So that was for us.
[9:37] Yeah.
[9:39] the biggest thing and, you know, the out-of-debt calculator and just seeing all that red and all that blue and it's, yeah.
[9:45] Yeah.
[9:45] Just the idea as well that if you could use that equity by your investment properties, like it was being, it's all managed together.
[9:54] In one place, yeah.
[9:55] And it's something that we can build to have for the boys when they, you know, when they're.
[10:03] we eventually, you know, stop working and give them some security for their future, yeah.
[10:08] Because you don't know what's going to happen.
[10:10] Yeah.
[10:11] And how did it feel crunching your own numbers?
[10:12] Yeah.
[10:14] to see how quickly you could pay your home loan off in.
[10:17] Actually, yeah, well, is that right?
[10:19] I don't know if that's right, really.
[10:22] I think that's probably the most common text message that every finance strategist gets during that weekend where you screenshot your numbers and you go, can you tell me if I've done this right?
[10:31] Yes.
[10:32] I'm not sure, yeah.
[10:34] It's been five years.
[10:35] Yeah, and considering how long we've been paying houses off for.
[10:39] Yeah.
[10:40] Five years.
[10:42] And it was considerable, the time saving, not to mention the interest saving.
[10:48] Yeah.
[10:49] You know, 25 years and there were 30-year mortgage at 55 and all of a sudden you've gone from 25 to 4 and a bit potentially.
[10:57] Yeah.
[10:58] So that was like, no, we're on.
[11:00] We're on to you.
[11:01] Was that quite an exciting moment to see that?
[11:03] Yeah, very much.
[11:04] Yeah, scary because they're big numbers and you're like, oh, can we do it?
[11:09] Yeah.
[11:10] And it's all based on the information that we gave you in terms of, look, this is what we earn and this is what we spend.
[11:17] Numbers don't lie.
[11:18] So, yeah, we're hoping they don't because we're looking forward to getting that.
[11:23] To actually achieving that.
[11:24] Yeah.
[11:25] So you've signed up from the weekend.
[11:27] You've come on board, gone through the application process and had a strategy.
[11:31] Talk me through what your 90 days has looked like.
[11:34] Busy.
[11:35] Very busy.
[11:38] Well, we went, so the May REM.
[11:41] Yep.
[11:42] So within.
[11:43] It was probably signed up in March, got on boarded in April.
[11:49] Yep.
[11:49] Met our RM and Wellstrat.
[11:53] And surprised when we're in the car and the phone rings, it's, oh, it's infinity here and there's a May REM, do you think you can attend?
[12:00] And we weren't expecting that.
[12:02] We thought that was going to be a little bit down the track.
[12:04] It was very quick.
[12:05] Yeah, so, yeah, yeah, we'll go, we'll go.
[12:07] Went there, crazy.
[12:10] So it's just been.
[12:11] I think it's just been constant.
[12:13] Yeah.
[12:14] Yeah, so, you know, from meeting Jay.
[12:18] Chad, we were just getting emails all the time and everything that was being sent to us was set out in a way that we knew what the next steps were.
[12:27] So that was probably a good thing.
[12:29] So communication was very clear.
[12:30] It was great, yeah.
[12:32] And, you know, we laugh because we feel like every day there's been a document that we've had to sign.
[12:37] We're just like, okay.
[12:40] There's a lot of paperwork in our industry.
[12:42] Yeah, we're trusting the process here.
[12:44] Yeah, so but it's been...
[12:48] Every person that we've dealt with have been great.
[12:51] You know, they've responded straight away if we've had questions.
[12:56] Yeah, we haven't really...
[12:59] Hadn't wanted for much at all.
[13:00] No.
[13:00] And the bonehead questions that I've asked have...
[13:03] Have been answered really quickly.
[13:05] So, no, the information's been top shelf and to the point where it's only if you're choosing to dig a bit deeper and you come up with some questions that we've had to ask them.
[13:17] No, it's been amazing.
[13:18] But, yes, super busy, super busy.
[13:20] And it's still busy.
[13:21] Yeah.
[13:21] Yeah.
[13:22] Yeah, well, it doesn't stop right on the journey because we want to make sure we're always checking in with you, make sure that less than five-year goal you're actually sticking to it and if you're not, why not?
[13:31] How can we help you?
[13:32] So, yes, I'm going to stop.
[13:34] No.
[13:34] The paperwork will but, yeah.
[13:36] Yeah.
[13:37] No, it's been, yeah, just really busy I think.
[13:40] And we've spoken, we met a couple at the REM as well that we've kept in touch with and, you know, we would text occasionally and they'd be like, have you got as much paperwork as we have?
[13:52] yeah yeah they'd be saying we can relate yeah yeah yeah so it's um yeah it's just nice to be able to touch base with like-minded people as well yeah that um are on the same journey and yeah hopefully we'll we'll get there and at the same time we'll around that time yeah and celebrate together yeah that would be uh that would be really good has your first 90 days been what you expected it was going to be
[14:16] I don't know what we're expecting to be honest.
[14:18] You know what?
[14:18] It's I think and we were just talking to some people in the room downstairs about the thought of budgeting and this and that being worse than the actual doing it.
[14:28] That's what everyone's scared of the most.
[14:30] Yes.
[14:30] It's so crazy.
[14:31] I know.
[14:32] And that's probably why no one does it beforehand, you know, because you put all these barriers in front of yourself because you think it's going to be one thing and it's not.
[14:40] So, yeah, it's great.
[14:45] It's been surprising in that the levels of discovery as we've moved on have been more than I was expecting.
[14:54] Yeah.
[14:55] The level of support and, you know, the way that you guys –
[15:00] you know, got on board helping everyone with, you know, the goalpost shifting with, you know, Budget Night and the SMSF.
[15:08] And we'd signed up for an SMSF when it was offered.
[15:11] So we went straight in.
[15:13] But even then, even though we got in a little bit earlier,
[15:15] Because you signed up April and then the next month we've had this huge budget announcement.
[15:21] Yes.
[15:21] Which is one of the biggest ones we've had in quite a few years.
[15:23] Yeah, ridiculous.
[15:25] And then the SMASF as well.
[15:26] The level of info that you guys came out with straight away, it was like, okay, they know what's going on, but we're in good hands.
[15:36] So that was surprising just to see that level of support being offered without asking for it.
[15:42] Yeah.
[15:43] And they were really, you know, big topics.
[15:45] So that was really impressive from our point of view.
[15:48] Yeah.
[15:49] I think the REM, I suppose...
[15:52] I was just about to ask about REM.
[15:53] Yeah, we weren't.
[15:54] I don't think we really knew what to expect at the REM.
[15:57] Yeah.
[15:57] We kind of felt like we were imposters because we only just started, you know.
[16:01] Like you see all these people and, you know, they talk about what they've got and what their mortgage was and, you know, how their journey has been and we sort of were like, oh, we've only just signed up.
[16:10] And come Saturday night.
[16:13] We walked back into the room and we're like, okay, we've just got two investment properties and a property in our SMSF and we woke up the next morning going, did that really happen?
[16:24] Is that real?
[16:25] Is this a dream?
[16:26] Yeah.
[16:27] But then you look at the potential and go, yeah, that was the intention of what we signed up for.
[16:33] Yeah.
[16:34] Yeah.
[16:34] So it was like a nice surprise.
[16:36] Yes.
[16:37] To get that within the 90 days.
[16:38] Yes.
[16:39] Yeah.
[16:39] Amazing.
[16:40] Yeah.
[16:40] You weren't expecting that.
[16:41] Yeah.
[16:41] So what does the future look like now?
[16:45] What are we working towards now?
[16:46] I don't know.
[16:46] Don't want to put a ceiling on it really.
[16:47] Yeah.
[16:49] You know, we signed up to knock the home loan over.
[16:52] Yeah.
[16:53] And help us prepare for life after work, which, you know, is probably 10 or 12 years away for the both of us.
[16:59] So, yeah, we just want to get it to a position where I know, you know, things are sort of easing off now in terms of sentiment and that sort of thing in the market.
[17:09] Yeah.
[17:09] But we honestly feel like,
[17:12] Regardless of what happens, we've got the structure and the system in place that when things do turn around eventually, bang, we're ready to go.
[17:21] And, yeah, we want to go as far as we can in whatever time we've got available to us.
[17:27] Yeah, I mean because you could potentially retire a bit earlier now that we know we could pay the home loan off in less than five years.
[17:33] Yeah, that's right.
[17:34] But you guys have already set a goal that you'll go a little bit longer and you've made that decision because you want to do more?
[17:40] Yeah, we want to be able to go and still have nice holidays.
[17:43] And, you know, once you retire, that's always the plan.
[17:46] Once you retire, you want to be able to do it all.
[17:48] So, yeah, I think – look, we're lucky in –
[17:54] the figures that they used were for Brad alone because I had stopped working.
[17:58] So I've just started working again part-time.
[18:01] Oh, so we're going to have an even better result.
[18:04] So that might, yeah.
[18:05] It might accelerate things, hopefully.
[18:06] It might accelerate it just a little bit more as well.
[18:08] So, yeah, we just –
[18:11] I think, yeah, as long as we can set ourselves up and still be able to live a good life and be able to do, you know, support the boys if they ever need it as well.
[18:22] Be present grandparents one day.
[18:24] Yeah.
[18:25] Stay young.
[18:26] I know.
[18:26] Yeah, I know.
[18:27] They're still young.
[18:28] They're still young.
[18:28] But one day.
[18:30] Yeah.
[18:31] I think it's good too that, and I'm sure there's people in Infinity that are older than us, but the people that were at our stage of life that thought they probably couldn't do anything to take that step and you really can.
[18:44] And 10 years is oodles.
[18:46] That's heaps of time to really establish something for yourself.
[18:49] Oh, absolutely.
[18:49] Yeah.
[18:51] I mean, as you said, what we've been able to set up just in less than three months.
[18:56] Yeah.
[18:57] Can't wait to see three years and what it looks like.
[19:01] Because you started out with a $575,000 home loan.
[19:02] What is it today?
[19:07] 489 or something.
[19:09] Crikey.
[19:09] Yeah.
[19:10] Yeah.
[19:11] You've done so much in 90 days.
[19:14] Yeah, that gives me goosebumps just thinking about that.
[19:17] Crazy.
[19:18] And a lot of that is just structure and advice and –
[19:23] behavioral shifts really we didn't have any toys to sell or you know no investment properties or anything like that yeah so that was purely just getting our shit in a pile and and and refining what we had and making it start to work for us so yeah when you put it that way it sounds pretty crazy yeah it's definitely a pinch me moment yeah that's amazing are you excited for the future yeah very yeah yeah
[19:46] We keep looking at houses on the water.
[19:49] It's raining.
[19:50] We'll get there.
[19:51] Long term.
[19:51] Well, like you said, you didn't want to put a ceiling on it.
[19:53] No, that's it.
[19:54] So we've got to dream big.
[19:55] We did send a picture to chat.
[19:56] Have our goals.
[19:56] Yeah.
[19:58] Maybe.
[19:58] Do you think one day we could have something like that, walk straight out onto the beach?
[20:03] Absolutely.
[20:05] Never know.
[20:05] No, it's been good.
[20:06] Amazing.
[20:07] Well, guys, thank you so much for being part of our new series.
[20:11] We will definitely be having you back because we want to look back at what you have been able to achieve.
[20:15] So knuckle down, keep at it, stick to the strategy and keep working really closely with your team.

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