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From as young as I can remember I was interested in making money so that I could ‘buy nice things.’
I was totally one to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ (still do sometimes I’ll admit) in that I wanted to have the latest Rip Curl tracksuit, and to be able to have a little underage tipple with friends on the weekend. So - to do that I had to make my own money.
This was where my love for helping people started too, in all the part time jobs I had as a kid. On the paper round, it was Alma Connelly coming out every morning to chat to me because she didn’t get out much. It was greeting Sandra Coffey at the checkout every Friday night when she came to shop for her family at the local ‘RiteWay’ supermarket and carrying her 45 bags for her to her car. Then, it was feeding the elderly in our nursing home their evening meals and listening to the beautiful piano that Wally Watson would play whilst he sang. I also baby sat our friends' kids for a little extra on the weekends. I had all of these jobs at one time at one stage, and I LOVED it.
My personality profile will affirm this also - I am motivated by results, money & helping people - a very interesting combo to say the least. It also says I am a high ‘Dolphin’ - which means I love socialising and bright shiny things. None of this has changed in over 20 years
I learned early that the more you help people, the more money will flow to you. Some of you might believe that is not a ‘pure’ way to look at money making, but it is all about abundance. We are all exchanging our ‘skills’ to help somebody, in one way or another. But generally, if you help people first, the rewards come second. That is business and life. Something to be proud of. The more lives I impact, the more abundance that will come to my family and my team.
What I did NOT learn through making all this money as a kid though was how to SAVE it. How to do good with it. How to be smart with my money.
I was impulsive with money back then, and largely, I am still impulsive with money now.
I remember not being able to secure a home loan at one stage because I couldn’t save enough money to do so. But hey, I had a nice car, a stunning wardrobe & had done some ace traveling. But that ‘Aussie dream’ of home ownership was not within reach.
I have felt ashamed of this in the past, but I have now come up with ways to be financially responsible, but also to have the fun, social, and have a life with the ‘nice things’ that I love & enjoy.
See, too many people think that a life of deprivation is the key to financial ‘freedom’ and wealth. My view on that - it is a quick trip to stress, boredom and an early grave in which you didn’t enjoy a single morsel of your life.
So, I went about getting myself educated enough to know how far I could push the financial limit, but still put a reasonable wealth strategy in place at the same time.
Here’s how I’m doing this:
- I made a plan with our financial advisor: this was based on an average level of income per year for the rest of our lives. Sometimes we will make more than that money per year (bonus fun) and sometimes we will make less (because we are traveling/having fun). That plan involves Jays being retired at 50-55, and me being retired by 65. Knowing we only have to make a certain amount of money for the investment strategy to work is such a relief. It is not a huge number, but it is a number we know we have to hit.
- I make it ok to not be fully ‘flush’ in the bank account all the time: This is a balancing act. We are expensive people to run, but that is the choice we make. We live from what I make, and we stash what Jayson makes to buy toys, go on holidays or renovate or other stuff like that.
- We have never overcapitalised on our mortgages: we have a very quaint little house with a quaint little mortgage. This will change in the near future, when we will realign our financial plan to suit the build we are planning in the next couple of years. I am scared for people who have overcooked their mortgages, especially in this climate…..
- We have an investment strategy: back to point #1 - we know we must ‘stay the course’ for this outcome to be achieved. So, having a FORCED investment strategy helps us. We invest in shares, and superannuation. We know it’s a long game, so we don’t touch that strategy - we just keep paying into it. We know that if this wasn’t direct debited from our accounts every month, we would just spend that money. Like irresponsible dickheads. That ain't good.
- Which brings me to this next point - your personality will be directly reflected in how you use your money. Flashy people will do flashy shit. Conservative people will have a great plan and be diligent. Then there’s some in the middle. PLEASE - set yourself up to manage your personality. I’ve only really got a grip on this in the last few years, I wish I had been more disciplined before now and found the nice happy medium we have now. Fun, investment strategy, but still not missing out on too much.
- Just make a start: it would have been waaaaay easier for me to just say ‘fuck it, I don’t care I just wanna have fun, she’ll be right’. But I couldn’t bare the thought of not having security when we are older, especially as Jayson’s body continues to break down. So, I decided we needed to make change - and we have
Many people will hear themselves in our story - I hope you will do for yourselves what we have, and that is - create peace. We feel very peaceful most of the time about our future. Sure we get frustrated when we ‘want something RIGHT NOW’ and we can’t get it cos our cash gets sucked out by our investment strategies, but it settles us, keeps us from being the impulsive people we are, and sets us up for success without the undue deprivation that so many people put themselves through.
But that suits us. What will suit you? No matter what will suit you, you need to know how to manage your own personality. Because if it’s impulsive, it’s biting you on the arse, if it's conservative, it might also be biting you on the arse in lack of experiences and fun.
All I want is for you to be happy, it is as simple as that. And managing yourself with your money is the best place to start.
Manage you, then you will manage your money.
Not sure how?
Hit us up champs xxx Kate
