Welcome to a heart-to-heart journey, as if you're sitting down for coffee with us, mother (Jo) & daughter (Laine), delving into the tapestry of our family's financial saga.
Picture us flipping through an old photo album, with a wine in hand, starting with the story of my immigrant father who laid down our family roots in Australia.
As we turn the pages, I share glimpses of my childhood, which on the surface seemed wrapped in success. But between us, I always craved for something more meaningful than material wealth.
Strap in, because I'm going to tell you about the rollercoaster of emotions when I got monetary rewards for good grades & how buying my first car taught me lessons in value & determination that no classroom could.
We'll laugh about the days when shopping meant being at the mercy of store hours. Oh, and I have some confessions about my teenage years—landing my first job & wrestling with the idea of fairness at work.
Then, things get a bit more serious. We'll peel back the layers on the challenges of single motherhood, fighting for financial independence, and the unexpected paths that led me to where I am today. From bankruptcy to dating someone with a completely different financial reality, and finally stepping into entrepreneurship—each story is a piece of the puzzle.
This episode is especially close to our hearts. It's for single parents blazing their own trails, and really, anyone looking to understand how deeply our family's financial beginnings and our earliest memories about money can shape our pursuit for not just financial security, but true emotional fulfillment.
Join us, as we navigate this rollercoaster ride together, sharing stories and insights that we hope will resonate & inspire!
Follow our mother daughter journey towards financial freedom!
Welcome to a heart-to-heart journey, as if you're sitting down for coffee with us, mother (Jo) & daughter (Laine), delving into the tapestry of our family's financial saga.
Picture us flipping through an old photo album, with a wine in hand, starting with the story of my immigrant father who laid down our family roots in Australia.
As we turn the pages, I share glimpses of my childhood, which on the surface seemed wrapped in success. But between us, I always craved for something more meaningful than material wealth.
Strap in, because I'm going to tell you about the rollercoaster of emotions when I got monetary rewards for good grades & how buying my first car taught me lessons in value & determination that no classroom could.
We'll laugh about the days when shopping meant being at the mercy of store hours. Oh, and I have some confessions about my teenage years—landing my first job & wrestling with the idea of fairness at work.
Then, things get a bit more serious. We'll peel back the layers on the challenges of single motherhood, fighting for financial independence, and the unexpected paths that led me to where I am today. From bankruptcy to dating someone with a completely different financial reality, and finally stepping into entrepreneurship—each story is a piece of the puzzle.
This episode is especially close to our hearts. It's for single parents blazing their own trails, and really, anyone looking to understand how deeply our family's financial beginnings and our earliest memories about money can shape our pursuit for not just financial security, but true emotional fulfillment.
Join us, as we navigate this rollercoaster ride together, sharing stories and insights that we hope will resonate & inspire!
Follow our mother daughter journey towards financial freedom!
Hey Mamas, welcome to the Raising Rich Podcast with your favourite mother-daughter duo, Jo and Lane. Join us as we take you on the rollercoaster ride that has been my mum's life with money.
Speaker 2:
Yes, I'll be opening up about the taboo topic of money from bankruptcy to a six-figure income and all the heartache in between. So if you're a single mama out there trying to figure it all out, then this podcast is for you. Join us for all the ups and all the downs on Raising Rich. Welcome to the catch.
Speaker 1:
Thanks mum.
Speaker 2:
Episode one let's go on my roller coaster ride with money throughout my life, shall we?
Speaker 1:
that would be a fun place to start. I think it would be good to maybe have a chat about what it was like for you growing up, because I know that your dad, my opa, was an immigrant.
Speaker 2:
So he came out from the netherlands when he was 16 and he was a fitter and turner and he came out with his parents and his brother and sister. I know as an immigrant from talking to a lot of people. They talk about how Australia was just the lucky country and it gave them the opportunity to really be able to make a different life for themselves. They had come out or they'd gone. My grandparents had gone through the war, which was not a pleasant time, and my father, being the first born, nearly passed away because they had no food, no money to purchase food and they were really living off rations. So when the opportunity came up to move to Australia, obviously my grandparents took that and, yeah, my dad came out when he was all of 16. Fast forward a couple of years. He met my mum and my mum was actually working at the time, which is very interesting because back in the 1970s mums actually didn't work. They stayed at home and looked after the children.
Speaker 1:
Do you know what her first job was?
Speaker 2:
She was a receptionist yeah yeah, actually she was a receptionist her entire life. So, but going through school, having both parents working and the opportunities that I was given, so we went on overseas holidays, um, which was, you know, we were very lucky to be able to do that. But the house that I lived in we had a swimming pool that had a slide. They had a bar room with a dance floor. Like get out, who has that in the 70s?
Speaker 2:
well, it was the 70s not in your house at the club, yeah, and they had a spa and you know, all the backyard was immaculately presented. We had we had this posh kitchen area and dining room where we had a step down into that area. So any of my friends that came to visit would always remark oh, you're so rich, you're so wealthy. But I guess I didn't.
Speaker 1:
Did you feel that you weren't at the time? No, no, you didn't. No.
Speaker 2:
I have to say I don't think I understood money because we never talked about it and it wasn't pushed in my face. I will say that I actually I never wanted for anything. Like you know, if the latest bicycle came out, I got it and you know, one time I left my bike at a soccer club that was just down the road where my dad was a player, and one day, you know, I just left it there by accident, walked home and went back to get it the next day and it had been stolen and my dad actually just took me down to the bike shop and bought a brand new bike. So it just, it was like oh yeah, sorry, I forgot to lock it up, it's gone and that was it. And I just, I just I copied. This is interesting because now obviously I look back on my life and my relationship with money and my relationship with my girlfriends, because I actually felt like I missed out because their mums were at home with them oh, okay, yeah, yeah, does that make sense yeah.
Speaker 2:
So, as much as we had wealth and could purchase anything, I was very jealous of my two best friends, sharon and Karen. Yeah, you know Shazza and Kazza, and if anyone knows a Kazza, yes, no, she was not like that. She was lovely, um, but they had these beautiful and I'll call them that. The brand was Malvern Star Bikes and they were a red-orange sort of fire colour, and that was the first thing that I wanted after my last bike was stolen. I just wanted to be like them. So I didn't think of us as wealthy. No, it was only that my friends would tell me that we must be wealthy because we were literally the only family in the area to have a swimming pool and a spa and a slide and, you know, an outdoor play area. But you know, moving forward on that in terms of you know, I became a teenager and I never had to have a part-time job. I got given pocket money, what?
Speaker 2:
was your first part-time job. My first part-time job was working at an Aussie disposal store.
Speaker 1:
Oh my God, Could you see me no?
Speaker 2:
I could not, not today. Can I cut some rope for you? Can I show you our latest tents or swags? Like I've never camped, I swag. Like I've never camped, I don't think I've ever camped in my life.
Speaker 1:
I don't know like when I talk about you camping.
Speaker 2:
There's no such thing.
Speaker 1:
It's an oxymoron. The only stars that my mum camps under are five stars. That's it, boom.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, no. So that was my first part-time job as a little 15, 16 year old and I remember getting my first pay packet and seeing the other girl get her pay packet. I worked a Friday night and a Saturday morning Now this is what early eighties, mid eighties and I got $28. And the other girl that was working there, she was 18, I think, and she might have got $63. And I was so miffed because I thought, well, I'll do just as good a job.
Speaker 2:
I probably did not, but you know, anyway, that was my first job working at Aussie Disposals, but I didn't actually have to get a job. My parents never told me. It was something that I just kind of felt like I wanted to do because I felt like they're $25 a week, mind you, like that's a lot in those days, considering I had to work Friday nights and Saturday mornings to earn 28.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, um, that was a lot of money. Um, it would go straight into a bank account and I literally really just saved because I got given everything.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, you didn't need to spend that $25 dues, I did not, but you know what I would do.
Speaker 2:
So this is my entrepreneur dad Save, save, save, save, save. So I would, and my spend, spend, spend, spend, spend. Mama bee. Hello, mom, rest in peace, love you, miss you. Every Saturday was our spend day at the shops, when the shops were only open nine to twelve thirty on a saturday morning, like could you live with that now?
Speaker 1:
I don't know it's so interesting because they bring it up all the time, like shops never used to be open on sundays, now they are. They were only open till midday on saturdays, now they're open all the time. Yes, public holidays they used to be closed, but now they're open up at a certain time so saturday morning was our spend morning?
Speaker 2:
yeah, and we would go to the shops every saturday morning. My mom and I, my dad, would be at the soccer club and we would spend, we would do our grocery shopping and then we would just buy things, buy clothes. Mom was a member of bevels jewels bevels jewelry. Look out, she was always dripping in she was she was people probably don't know this lady, genie little, but she was just the most gorgeous, loving, caring, hilarious personality who dripped in beautiful jewelry and wore fabulous makeup and mum, my mama was always like that and everybody loved mum for um, her presentation, her appearance and just her that when she entered a room, everyone knew you know, kez was there.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, nana cares, arnie cares keza. She was there, but she was always immaculate and she had this membership at bevels jewelers and they knew us by name, mom. What we would say is like a moth to light when it comes to jewelry stores. Um, and, yeah, we would just, she would just buy me things every week. Would you like this, do you want to wear that? It wasn't until I was about 13 or 14, when I was getting my own style, that I would actually say, oh, no, that's, that's not for me. I just took everything. I was just like, okay, yes, no, worries, that's fine. And actually, while we're talking about that, I'm just thinking one of my friends, their parents. She was my best friend. She was staying at my house that night. Her parents won tax lotto, you remember?
Speaker 1:
you telling me this story?
Speaker 2:
okay, so bring it down for us so we're at home, we get this phone call on the dial-up telephone because we don't have iphones. Bring, bring, uh, hello, uh, yes is so. And so there, yes, uh, we just won tats lotto. Well, we've never jumped in the car so fast because my parents were friends with her parents. We've gone over there and we've celebrated, obviously, the whole night.
Speaker 1:
Do you remember?
Speaker 2:
how much they were. Yes, I do, it was $194,000. Back then, back then was you know woo-woo, that was a big party, but the family, and now, looking back, I'm really pleased for them because they had tried to have their own disposal store.
Speaker 1:
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:
And I'd had given them financial hardship and I think that they did have to go into bankruptcy and they were still trying to pay that off. So it was such a beautiful gift for them. But I remember going out shopping with them and their mum bought me a pair of jeans, three-quarter length, pink, pastel with the zip up the side Remember it clearly, because my best friend got a blue pair. But I remember thinking, wow, like I wasn't ungrateful, but I thought if I won that much money, I would have spent so much more at the shops like so much. But I think that's because they had experienced hardship with money and they knew that being spendy as such or spending an exorbitant amount of money in one go was just not on, yeah, and I had never experienced that plus also, you weren't really their kid.
Speaker 1:
So no, well, no, I wasn't no.
Speaker 2:
But I was like their kid. You know, when you have like your children's best friends, you do treat them like your kid. And you know, I personally think, yeah, I'd probably spend money on my children's best friends, with the exception no, sorry. No, I love my children's friends anyway. I digress. So, aside from pocket money, I also got um money for good school reports. Now, this was bizarre. Not getting money for a good school report was bizarre, but the amount was bizarre.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, because you're a pretty good student, weren't you?
Speaker 2:
Very, and I was very happy to be a good student. It was kind of like rewarding someone for being good at something when they're already good at something. Like it doesn't make sense, does it in terms of like I was already a straight a student? So saying to me I'm going to give you 50 per a?
Speaker 2:
oh okay, that's money for jam you know, but yeah, my dad would always give me um 50 50 for an a, 25 for a b and nothing for a C, because C was not like back then, a, b and C. Then we had D, e, f. F meant you failed, so C actually meant you were a little bit above average and dad just kind of wasn't really into that Does that make sense.
Speaker 1:
Just put it nicely.
Speaker 2:
He wasn't really into you being above average, like you know academic, wise, but I think they also knew at school I was a smart cookie and so I should always try to achieve the higher goals, which has definitely served me purpose, you know, in later life going to university, so, um, you know, and achieving the high distinctions and getting the scholarship for uni when I was a broke mum but that's later down the track when we get into those episodes. But yeah, so I would get pocket money weekly and I would get money for school reports, not really having to save for anything, and let's just top that off with your very first car oh yeah, I know, for me my first car I had to pay for I don't, I can't remember.
Speaker 1:
I'm pretty sure dad matched whatever I saved. I was working at beggars delight. It was eight dollars an hour, um, so I didn't really have a lot of savings going on back then, so, but I know that I basically purchased my first car for like maybe 2000 Australian dollars, which, compared to all of my friends a lot of my friends had their first car bought for them. Did you buy your first car or no? You didn't buy your first car.
Speaker 2:
I did not. No, my dad bought the first car and back then and can be honest, I bought it because it had the best stereo system in it. It was a bright orange, datzen, 180b or with a white roof. Get out and I would. I was the only kid at school that could drive to school because I was an early, yeah, 18 year old and I would drive to school with carly minogue's. Come on, come on and do the locomotion with me.
Speaker 2:
As loud as I possibly could and I just thought I was the bee's niece. But no, I didn't have to pay for that car. And not long after that the car kind of broke down and I had my eye on yet another car. So the first car was $3,500. Oh, back then, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Two years later, I wanted a Ford Meteor, so I bought the deal was. So here was the deal we will purchase the car for you, you pay us back, mm-hmm, okay. So the car was $7,500. Oh my God, yes, you pay us back. Okay. So the car was seven and a half thousand dollars. Oh my god, yes.
Speaker 2:
Back then, a brand new car, the ford meteors were just under ten thousand. So this was um, second hand, um, but once again, you know, I didn't have to pay for it and and, and you know having, well, my parents said, pay me back. Um, you know, you can pay us back a hundred dollars a week or whatever, because at that time I was working realistically, I probably paid back maybe two thousand dollars of that car and, yeah, no more than that. And dad occasionally had a couple of digs, you know, oh, you still got that car that I paid for. You know, bless him um, but yeah, there was never really any pressure to to save money.
Speaker 2:
It was kind of like no, you're, you're our child and we want to provide for you. And you know I took that on board. But I did always have this mentality and I'm not saying it's from my parents, I'm I'm actually wondering whether it is from primary school and the stories that were told to us about, and I always remember Cinderella and Prince Charming coming along with the glass slipper. To me the glass slipper signified money and wealth and I just kind of envisaged that I would get married, I would be a stay at home mom bringing up beautiful children. I did well with, you know, a couple of those things.
Speaker 2:
I might have tried to find Prince Charming a couple of times, but I just had that vision that that's where my life would go, that I would be happily married, I might work a little part-time job, I'd look after beautiful children and my life would be set. I'd never have to want for anything because my husband would be a good provider and I just yeah, I actually don't know where that Cinderella syndrome came from Because, as I said to you at the start, both my parents work. When I talked about being jealous of my friends who had mums that stayed at home. That was something that I always had in the back of my friends who had mums that stayed at home.
Speaker 2:
That was something that I always had in the back of my mind and you know, the funny thing is now, when I look back, my two best best friends, sharon and Karen well, actually their mum, sharon's mum worked night shift so she was home during the day for Sharon.
Speaker 2:
But what? What presented to me was that she had a beautiful pink lunchbox with a beautiful pink matching drink bottle and she had a stunning lunch in her lunchbox every day. And my friend Karen, her mum was a single mum, so back in that day that was really strange, very unheard of, very, very. And yet Karen always had a beautiful lunchbox as well. I didn't. I had to make my own lunch every day. So love and money don't necessarily they're not reflected in the same sentence for me. Does that make sense To me? Parents loved you if you had this amazing time spent on making a lunchbox.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, well, I guess, like through the lens of a child. That's how you relate that.
Speaker 2:
And so having this Cinderella syndrome just stems from people who you are around, surrounded, surrounded with, and what you view as valuable.
Speaker 2:
Cinderella syndrome hasn't worked for me, but I'm here to tell you.
Speaker 2:
You know, as we go through these episodes, um, I'm hoping to connect with some single mamas out there who have been on this roller coaster ride of and, let me tell you, I've actually filed for bankruptcy, I've had to go through financial hardship, I've dated a multimillionaire and I've grown my own business. So I've experienced all of this, like all of this ups and downs of money, and I want to say to the single mums out there, like, you're not alone, you're not the only person that's gone through this and, yes, it's hard, and I'm hoping that you know we can walk through this next part of our journey together, as we, you know, develop our online business, as we develop a life of financial freedom, but also time freedom. And you know, I've got I've been a single mum almost my entire life in terms of being a mum, from you know, the time that you were three, I think and now I get to spend all this joyous time with my children as adults. So, yeah, folks, hang around and enjoy the rollercoaster ride.
Speaker 1:
I want to kind of backtrack a little bit because I wanted to talk about you know you were saying that I don't really know where this like ideology with money kind of stemmed from. But now that you're older, obviously you have brothers and sisters, but back then and this is obviously a story for another day but you were an only child for a long period of time. Yes, you were an only child for a long period of time.
Speaker 2:
Yes, like your parents didn't really have money to, I guess, spend on anyone else other than themselves and you yeah, and I get what you're saying there and I guess too, back in that day, having two incomes was just huge. So just a little tidbit. So my mum was married before meeting my dad and she chose to leave the children with their dad and decided to start a life with my dad. And you know I I did have a very different upbringing uh upbringing to my brothers and sister, and you know they have said to me that they were jealous of my lifestyle and that, but they know that it wasn't, that's not my fault, yeah, so I I get where they're coming from as well. Where did this ideology come from? I guess, as I started to grow up, I did start to see that we had money compared to everybody else, and I liked it why not?
Speaker 2:
um, I just, I guess I just wanted that marriage. I wanted the big family, I wanted the normal family with the 3.5 children, the dogs, the car, the house, and so maybe it was an ideology that I'd made up in my own head.
Speaker 1:
I guess you didn't really get that as a child growing up. Get what? Yes, you had parents that were together, but you didn't really get that as a child growing up. Get what? Like, yes, you had parents that were together but you didn't have siblings. Eventually they separated. Your mum had a relationship before and had children before, so you were from like this household that was a little bit kind of all over the place.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, and I guess, to being an only child, like you say. My parents really had just money to spend on me, didn't?
Speaker 1:
they.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and you know, the sad thing is as comfortable as they were.
Speaker 2:
I'm not going to say wealthy because, yeah, I would probably class them as comfortable. It was really sad when my parents divorced. You know they did have the opportunity to move forward and still live a comfortable lifestyle and neither of them have. You know, it's really interesting. I guess also there weren't opportunities like there are now in terms of making money and making wealth. But my dad was always very good at making money, being that entrepreneur, being the business owner. But my dad was always very good at making money being that entrepreneur, being the business owner.
Speaker 2:
Mum unfortunately divorcing and having mental health issues, she was no longer able to work. So her back then there was no superannuation or 401ks or whatever they call them now. There was nothing like that for women. So my mum retired like I cannot believe this, but she had $8,000 in her bank account or in her superannuation. She just had enough money to purchase a house.
Speaker 2:
But realistically, to pay that house off was going to really be a struggle. But then, with her mental health issues, you know she ended up in a nursing home with early onset dementia and you know all her money from her house that she had went into looking after her in her later years and you know that's one thing now that I look at, I do not want to be renting, I want to be owning my own home. I don't want a landlord to be able to take a house off me. My father has since remarried and you know they live in a, in a small humble unit, you know, and I guess, uh, dad, you know he can, he can pay for holidays and he does go when, when he wants, but his lifestyle is actually quite different to what it was like yeah, he didn't grow past that divorce.
Speaker 2:
But yeah, they had just the money to spend on me. So I guess, yeah, I was lucky in that sense.
Speaker 1:
For next episode. I'm looking forward to having a little bit more of a deep dive. All right, stay tuned everyone.
Speaker 2:
Hopefully. Yeah, we've connected with someone and, yeah, we'd love for you to join us again on our next episode of Raising Rich.
Speaker 1:
Thanks, thank you.
Speaker 2:
Thanks for listening to this episode of Raising Rich. If any of today's episode has resonated with you, we'd love for you to share it with another mama. It really helps us to connect with the right women.
Speaker 1:
And if you would like to share your story, you can connect with us on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok Just search for richrippleeffect.