Raising Rich
Join single mother, Jo & daughter, Laine as they discuss love, wealth, bankruptcy and everything in between!
It's a podcast for single mama's out there who need that reassurance that they aren't alone trying to make ends meet, or waiting for their Prince Charming.
Jo shares her rollercoaster life story - all the highs and the low's as her eldest joins her for the ride, weighing in with her two cents.
Raising Rich
Surviving Through Lockdowns & Uncertainty
Ever wondered if a single decision could transform your entire entrepreneurial journey? Join us in this episode of Raising Rich as we explore the twists and turns of starting anew after a significant life change. Navigating expensive Amazon seller courses, we dive into the real challenges faced by entrepreneurs. Hear about Jo's relentless pursuit of that elusive standout product and the hard-learned lesson that effective marketing strategies are often the missing link in those glossy, high-price courses.
Inspired by Susan Jeffers' "Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway," Jo share her story of opening a tutoring center and achieving financial success. Discover how meticulous planning and strategic financial management turned this dream into a thriving business. We also touch on personal experiences, including relationships that taught us the critical importance of financial independence. Balancing a growing career with personal life, we find ourselves focusing on continued professional growth and stability, illustrating that sometimes, embracing fear is the first step to realising your dreams.
Finally, we recount surviving Melbourne's severe lockdowns and the emotional and financial struggles that came with it. From adapting a teaching business to an online format to the challenges of isolation, we discuss how these times tested resilience. We also highlight the pressures on parents to juggle work and homeschooling, emphasizing the inadequacies of online learning for young children.
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 mumma 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.
Speaker 1:Hello everyone, welcome to episode 14.
Speaker 2:Hi, hi hi, everyone, welcome back. So you heard all the juicy goss about the end of the relationship, finally paying everything out um moving house.
Speaker 1:You're living in ashburton at this stage and you finally got your payout that you deserved. Yes.
Speaker 2:So that's on its way, that money is on its way. So you know, I'm celebrating and at this point I have moved out of the house. In Ashburton we're living in a seaside suburb closer to the youngest one's school, and things are looking great. I decide, with my entrepreneurial brain your what brain? My on entrepreneurial, is that how you say entrepreneurial? Oh, my, my smart brain, my smart brain of how to, I guess, make some money, make some decent money. I mean, I, I love what I do. You know I'm a teacher, you know I do tutoring, but I'm always looking for something more okay so I purchase a course to become an amazon seller of a product.
Speaker 1:What was the reasoning behind that?
Speaker 2:well, because I got sucked in. You know all these things online you can all do. Do what I've done. I've created a product and now I'm a gazillion bajillionaire, right love?
Speaker 1:the idea of being a gazillion bajillionaire. I love the idea of being a gazillion bajillionaire.
Speaker 2:Me too. So I take this Amazon course Now. The course was like $2,500. And we're talking back in five years ago, maybe Six years ago.
Speaker 2:Something like that, yeah $2,500 to do this course Six years ago, something like that yeah, two and a half grand to do this course. So the course is all about how to create a product. Get someone to make the product from China, get a prototype made, get the prototype sent back to you, check it all out. Then you've got to get the products made sent from China to Amazon. Don't forget the shipping costs. Don't forget insurance for the shipping in case the shipping container sinks in the middle of the ocean. And there goes all your products.
Speaker 1:So what was the product?
Speaker 2:Oh, I didn't get to there. Okay, oh, I didn't get to there. Okay. Like, once you've got the product and you advertise it on Amazon. But that product has got to have like one teeny tiny standout thing compared to all the others. So it's a bit like a really fancy dish rack. Like what's your dish rack going to be like compared to everybody else's? Like how is it going to be better?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I do the course, and it's taking a couple of hours a day. I'm trying to work out what on earth I'm going to come up with. It's now 2024. I still don't have a product.
Speaker 1:You've been simmering, simmering for five years.
Speaker 2:So yeah, product you've been simmering, simmering for five years.
Speaker 1:oh so, yeah, any thoughts? Still no, oh, have you finished the course? I don't know what's your login detail. I don't know. Sorry, oh gosh, I even thought about you. Know how we did the Camino? No one can hear you. Why?
Speaker 2:Because she's just you know, when we were walking the Camino, I was thinking, oh, a really good backpack, but they've been invented. Or really good walking sticks, but they've been invented. So no, I'm just, I'm going to give up on that one, okay.
Speaker 1:Moving on.
Speaker 2:But I just wanted to let you know like I spent a good six months and five years and five years, six months and five years thinking about a product, no, going through that course. And it's interesting because I've done a couple of other courses and I can identify where all of them go wrong, but we'll talk about that a little bit later. I, I guess I want to highlight, um, some of the things that I have been doing along the way absolutely so.
Speaker 2:I did the amazon course and then I did a course by a female entrepreneur and again that course was another two and a half thousand dollars. That course was extremely disconnected. It was so dysfunctional. There was so much information in it, but where to start? Because there was all these different modules and it wasn't called like module one, like let's start on module one. Yeah right, it was just like 14 or 15 different modules.
Speaker 2:They sucked you in with oh, we're going to give you a free ipad, we give you a folder, and every month we send you a folder, sorry, an insert for the folder. It's, you know, another kind of bit of course or bit of knowledge, or just their updated information. So it it felt like there was really good value for money. Okay, and this chick she showed off her house that she purchased in the adelaide hills and she was showing all this money that she was making and how she was helping all these other females make money and you know, great to them. They and, and they were obviously doing really well. Again, it was about having a product and being able to sell that product as a course. Okay.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Now, the thing that I found and I have found along the way to be missing is how to actually market the course.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can have the best course, the best product, but it's not like the saying build the shop and they will come. Yeah, it doesn't work like that. I know I have an immense amount of knowledge about teaching, yes, and about the children's brain and teaching strategies and experience of what has worked for me. Absolutely, and I can share that, I can talk about that, but unless I know how to market that, how do people know that? That's what's in my brain, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So I did that course and, like I said, I found it extremely overwhelming. I didn't know where to start. So the first course that I did, you know I didn't have a product, or I didn't know where to start, so the first course that I did, you know I didn't have a product or I didn't think I had a product. The second course helped me identify yes, I do have a product, yeah, but neither of them showed me how to market it. So then I thought, oh, I'll do Etsy or Pinterest. Okay, I'll start putting my stuff out there. But again, if you don't know how to market your product, the people do not come. Yeah, so I kind of decided that, being an older woman, I labeled myself as a digital dinosaur. Right, all I knew was Facebook, facebook. I didn't know instagram, I didn't understand. You know twitter or linkedin, and I used to. I was like 52 years old before I realized it wasn't linkedin or linkedin, linkedin. And yet I'm a teacher. I used to think what is this linkedin it?
Speaker 1:doesn't make sense. My dad always refers to uh facebook marketplace as facebay, because it's like ebay.
Speaker 2:I don't think he realizes, I think it's like that saying I was this many years old when I realized that man's laughter In fact it's manslaughter. So, yeah, I failed abysmally at those courses.
Speaker 1:You felt out of touch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I have labeled myself as a digital dinosaur and that's how I viewed myself, and you know it's interesting. I always tell children, you know, not to say negative things about themselves. Don't say that I'm a bad speller, you know, view yourself as a great learner. We're just going to find how you learn. So I think I needed to change my perspective on myself in those respects. I stopped doing those courses and the money came through from you know, mr B and I then purchased a house Out in, out in the western suburbs. Yeah, because I had, as I had said to you, I was, I had begun tutoring students. Yeah, at a local library. Yes, and that local library was out west.
Speaker 2:Yeah library, yes, and that local library was out west, yeah, and I thought you know what. I'm going to buy a house and start building up my clientele yeah, in the west, and I made a very savvy decision to buy a home that had a fully self-contained unit above the garage separate to the actual house, separate to the house, so it had the. It didn't have a front of the house, it didn't have a street entrance because it had a walkway entrance the street entrance was the garage from the back of the house.
Speaker 2:Yes, you drove into the garage. You had to walk from the garage to the house or you could have your own separate entrance to this, fully self-contained unit yeah so I'm living in the front of the house and I rent out the unit above the garage.
Speaker 2:Yep, and when I had purchased the house, the bank had made a little bit of a boo-boo, oh, and they had given me extra amount of money, and so, therefore, once the house settled, I had a little bit of money left over. I decided to write I'm going to and I love this book feel the fear and do it anyway. Bye, don't know cool love it. Love the book, but Listen to the audio book. Loved it. It's probably by you know, sharma Robbins' wife, or you know somebody like that Sharma Robbins.
Speaker 1:Who's that? Do you mean Tony Robbins? Tony Robbins, tony Robbins' wife.
Speaker 2:Tony Robbins' wife. She's amazing, mel Robbins. Mel Robbins, did she write? Feel the Fear and Do it? Anyway, we're madly googling by susan jeffers. Oh, there you go. I've listened to some of her books too. She I think she did the countdown, one as well. You know, say to yourself one, two, three and that's it, you're doing it okay don't give yourself a chance to change your mind. That didn't work for me, because they tried to tell me to say one, two, three and you get out of bed. No, no no, the alarm goes.
Speaker 2:27 times yes I'm gonna'm going to press the alarm 27 times, then I'll get out of bed, anyway. So I buy this house, I'm going to feel the fear and do it anyway and sign a lease for a tutoring center. Whoop, whoop, yeah, I had enough clientele that was going to cover a little bit of the rent, etc. And I had enough money left over from the house that it would give me a bit of a backing to have enough rent for a year. Amazing, okay. And if I can give that little bit of advice, I'm not a financial planner- Advisor.
Speaker 1:I'm not a financial planner Advisor.
Speaker 2:I'm not a financial advisor, but I am saying, if you are looking at taking a lease on a commercial space, just make sure you have enough rent for 12 months, because you don't know how much money you are going to be making in that period of time. Yeah, so I tucked away a little bit of money for that and the business was sustainable. I had my students from the library come over to the centre and because the centre was in a little set of shops, I was getting lots of passing traffic and things were humming along, and so was it just you in the centre at this stage, or had you already thought about employing some other tutors?
Speaker 2:I had two staff that were helping me with some of the sessions, but essentially I was doing one-to-one tutoring, trying to build out the business and build them into groups. So I had money coming in from the tutoring center. I was working as a casual relief teacher in the area, so I had money coming in from there and I also had money coming in from the studio apartment.
Speaker 1:So things were humming along nicely and in terms of like your personal life. Are we? We we've moved on from Mr B. Are we still single? What's happening there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm still, I'm happily single, I'm just making my way through this career and I happened to meet somebody that I dated for all of five weeks Now this person, would you believe. So I've gone from dating a multimillionaire to then dating a man who tells me he's in IT. So I'm thinking, oh okay, you know that's not a bad thing. Prior to that he was a tradie, but he decided to change his career and you know I'm all for that, no worries. And within a couple of weeks I think within like 10 days, he admitted to me that he was living with his parents. This is a 51 year old man living with his parents and I'm like, oh okay, you know that's interesting, but I guess you know we like I'd moved back in with you.
Speaker 1:um, he, for some reason was circumstances happen, yeah, but in fact I found out very quickly that he actually was not in IT.
Speaker 2:He'd done an IT course four years ago and he'd been unemployed for four years red flag. So I'm like, oh okay, well, that's interesting. I helped do a resume for him because I, you know, he said he genuinely was looking for a job. But I just find that, like I, I really liked him. I thought he was, you know, he was super handsome, he wore great shoes I know I can tell um.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I realized very quickly he was unemployed and I just find it interesting sorry, does this now debunk your shoe method, because you've just said he's got great shoes, yet he's unemployed I know he obviously spent all his unemployment benefits on some great shoes, or they were at least four years old from when he had a job, who knows?
Speaker 2:I just I found it. I find it interesting. You know, I can date a multimillionaire and I can date an unemployed person. It didn't, that just didn't bother me, I just liked him for who he was.
Speaker 1:So you didn't break up after the five weeks purely because he didn't have a job.
Speaker 2:No, no I broke up with him because there's a little bit cuckoo a little bit anyway moving on from him. So he's actually the only person I've dated in the last seven years, like more than going on a dinner date put it that way, so I dated him for all of five weeks.
Speaker 2:As I said, life, though, is good and I am working a lot. However, the money's coming in, like I'm starting to rake it in, and I'm starting to see why mr b works so much, because that was one of my gripes you work too much. You're always leaving me at six in the morning or four in the morning to go to the gym and then go to work. You never want to go on holidays because you don't want to leave your business, and I remember he said to me one time I don't ever want to have to ask myself can I afford that? It's a good little metaphor to have, and, yeah, I realized that that was probably something that I would like to live by. I don't want to have to think ever again can I afford that? Yeah, so I'm happily working a lot, and this, this guy that I dated for the five weeks, he was always complaining why do you have to work so much?
Speaker 1:but then you know you're him, sorry, did you pull the line on him?
Speaker 2:no, I just I. I thought you know what. He's got so much time on his hands because he is single and he's sorry he's not single, he's not working, yeah, so you know he's thinking, well, why am I working so much? Um, but I kind of started to live by that motto. I really enjoyed being able to purchase things at my own will, yeah, and to spoil my family.
Speaker 1:So and spoil us. You did.
Speaker 2:Yes, indeed. So I had a little surprise organized for my family. It was mother's day and, although the kids were taking me out for breakfast, they gave me gifts, which was lovely, and then I handed all of them a little envelope, and inside that envelope was an invitation to my 50th birthday which was in Bali Bali.
Speaker 2:And simply the invitation said please just pack a bag and grab a visa, because you are coming to Bali, all expenses paid. You are coming to Bali, all expenses paid. And it also included my children's partners to join us as well. So I got to a point where I was loving life.
Speaker 1:I had my own house, making lots of cash, and life was really super comfortable and this is also at a time where, you know, myself and my brother are at that age where we're wanting to be able to purchase our own property as well. Even though we were both in relationships, they weren't as long term as what they are now and you know, we decided that my brother and I would go in for a house and the first homebuyers were at together but we simply just couldn't fully afford the deposit, and that is also when mum graciously stepped in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I paid the deposit, which was around 20%, and the kids just had the opportunity to pay me back over a period of time. So you know that was a big lump sum of cash as well. But, as I said, you know, everything was ticking along. I no longer felt like a single mum. For the second time in my life, a single broke ass mum. I felt like, wow, this was. You know, this is my life purpose.
Speaker 2:I know that I've always wanted to be a teacher. I knew that I was passionate about it. This was coming across in my tutoring centers and in my teaching role in the schools. So I just felt like everything was finally falling into place. So I've lent the children the money, we've got the house being built. That's all underway and the kids are slowly paying me back for that deposit. I'm feeling like finally I'm able to show my children exactly what hard work and trading time for money can do for you. You know I mean at this point in time I'm still working five days a week in a school. You know, nine till three thirty going off to the tutoring center, working there until about eight o'clock at night and then all day saturday. But because I love my career so much and what I do, and you know, reaping the benefits of that monetarily.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely you know that's and I didn't mind that at all like that was my calling and I felt like I feel like, still, you know it's my calling to be on earth, to be a teacher, to pump kids up, to give them that sense of joy and that sense of I am a good learner, I can achieve whatever I want to achieve and I don't yeah, I just don't want children to ever feel like a failure at anything. I believe that that all children are good at something and we just need to find that. So I feel like you know, I've been given this gift as an amazing teacher and and therefore I'm being rewarded for it um, and then?
Speaker 1:guess what happens. It is time for the pandemic Yep.
Speaker 2:So the pandemic hits and I have to close my doors of my tutoring center.
Speaker 2:However, because education is classed as a necessity, I can still work at the school, yeah, okay, there's obviously restrictions in place and you know you have to wear a mask and you've got to sign paperwork, etc. So the pandemic hits and I have to close the doors to the tutoring center, but I still have to pay my rent, and my rent is $4,000 a month. Yeah, so where am I going to get this money from? Thankfully, the money that I had put aside for, you know, 12 months worth of rent if anything went wrong or I couldn't afford the business that had still sort of been sitting there, because I was, you know, slowly, I was, you know, breaking, even making a little bit of a profit, you know, humming along, as I said. So that ate into my savings and the first round of the pandemic. If, for people who don't know, in melbourne we had four major lockdowns, not just one, like a lot of places. We had four, with each lockdown becoming more serious than the one before with harsher restrictions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, people couldn't travel.
Speaker 2:You know, we, we were, uh, we weren't allowed to visit people that were outside five kilometers of range. And, on a side note of that, my youngest daughter had moved out of home at that time. She'd moved in with her boyfriend. So I was living by myself and the government told me I was not allowed to see my children because my children lived more than five kilometres away. So not only did we have restrictions on making money, we had restrictions on seeing our family, we had restrictions. We couldn't go to a gym, we could only go to the shops within five kilometres. It was just.
Speaker 2:We had curfews as well we had to be at home by 9 pm. Like you could get pulled over by the police if you were driving and you had to prove where you lived. Like it was just insane.
Speaker 1:It was so intense and I really do feel for people like yourself who were living alone. It would have been an extremely isolating period it was just like.
Speaker 2:All I can say is, thank goodness the bottle shop was within five kilometers, because that's where my money went. Honestly, it was devastating. So not only did I have to work at a school, I I ended up putting my business online. So the first round of lockdowns because we didn't really know what was happening, I moved all of my current clients to online and desperately tried to be a tech head and try to work that out being a digital dinosaur, and try to work that out being a digital dinosaur, and it actually became so much more work that I ever possibly imagined. Because I'm a full believer and there is clear research to show that children when I'm talking children 12 years and under they learn best with face-to-face teaching. Yeah, because they need that 4d experience, they need the facial expressions, they need that feeling, that emotion that you cannot get through a screen. Yeah, right.
Speaker 1:I remember watching this documentary on netflix about that. They basically didn't experiment with children that they were trying to make bilingual and there were students that were having in-person french lessons versus other children that were just having lessons from an ipad, and there was a major difference in in terms of what the in-person students were learning versus the online.
Speaker 2:Absolutely and there's a huge correlation. But I'm trying to save my business. Yeah, absolutely so. I've moved everybody to online. All the families are cool with it. They're like, yep, no worries, because at this stage parents don't know yeah, well, neither do we like it really hadn't been fully researched. I don't believe like there was a little bit, but not a lot.
Speaker 1:I think you just kind of had to you. That was the only option at the end of the day.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely so. We move everybody online, and I also do a lot of classes online for free if I'm not working in a school. I'm just doing stuff online for free. Yeah, because I'm thinking well. A children need it and b there are parents who are trying to work from home. They can't homeschool their children, they're working from home yeah, how like I don't understand.
Speaker 2:So this is another issue that I still will not get my head around. But the government demanded the people stay home and work from home. But they also demanded to homeschool parents to homeschool their children. Now, firstly, that's not going to work, but secondly, parents are not trained as teachers. Yes, they know their children. They don't know the science behind teaching, yes, so why do we go to university for four years in my case seven because I've done my master's and then have the government say, oh, the parents can just do the job of the teachers like no, they can't.
Speaker 2:So that then caused a whole you know set of other issues. But I'm trying to teach online for free. Teach my clients who have paid and give them over and above, yeah, and try and make some money and try and learn the tech, and try and learn the tech and try and ensure that my reputation holds, because I know that teaching face-to-face is best. Yeah, so that's round one. I am working my backside off trying to turn all of my products to an online product.
Speaker 2:You know, if you read with a child and you've got a set of readers because you've got a plan in place of learning particular sounds in an order, then you've got to. Then, you know, scan the book that you wanted to read, scan the literacy lesson that you want to teach, get it all sent out to the families. Like it was an immense amount of work and yet we had people sitting at home who couldn't go to work, but they could claim a ten thousand dollar grant, if they were a business owner from the government because they weren't able to work yeah so they could sit at home and do nothing and get paid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there was also a few teacher friends of mine who didn't want to go in face to face and they didn't have to. Yeah, and they still got paid. So I'm working my backside off to make a little bit of money to survive. Yeah, after I've, you know, enjoyed these last 12 months of like rolling in cash on the bed sort of throwing money in the air, if you can imagine it to desperately trying to make my way, you know, through being able to just pay rent yeah now that's the first shutdown.
Speaker 2:In comes the second shutdown. People, clients start saying we can't do online because we've realized we don't have the time, because we're still working from home, or we've realized it doesn't work for my child, particularly children that have concentration issues, um, have special needs. They don't cope. Then they're not coping. The parents are telling me they're not coping with online. Yeah, so I lose virtually half my clientele.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what happens next?
Speaker 2:You know that's round two. We get to round three and they say that we can open up, but we can only have, you know X amount of people in the center, but they have to be one and a half. I was going to say one and a half kilometers, one and a half meters away from you, and, as a teacher, you have to wear a mask or a face shield.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But the face shield was really intrusive so even though it was see-through, it kept your voice like within 10 centimeters of the front of your face and it rings. I've got a hearing issue where when things are really loud it bounces in my eardrums. So having that face mask on absolutely killed me. It gave me headaches, you know, but I couldn't wear a mask because when you're teaching a three or four year old and you're teaching them sounds and you're teaching them cued articulations, so where the sounds come from in the mouth and you're using hand gestures.
Speaker 2:They need to see it. It's yeah, of course it's impossible to teach children, even up to the age of, say, seven or eight, where their tongue is still developing. You need to show them how to form these sounds. You can't do that with a mask on. So that was the the troubles of round three.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then we get to round four of the lockdown and this was probably the worst round ever for business owners, people in general just, I think mainly business owners, because we were still shut down and even though the government demanded that landlords give their tenants relief fee relief, rent relief you had to prove what was happening and that was okay, because I could easily prove that I'd lost more than 55 percent of my business so that was. That was no drama.
Speaker 2:What the drama was was getting the landlords to agree to that and would you believe that you had to actually take the landlords to the tribunal to get them to agree. Otherwise, like there were people in my area where, you know, as I said, I was in a little shop front. Uh, one of them was kicked out because he didn't he well, he didn't pay any of his rent, but because my landlord was a consortium. So the consortium owned, they ran all of the shops. They were only offering 20 relief, regardless of the government demanding that. You had the opportunity to claim. I think it was up to 50 I can't remember exactly, or maybe 60. Everybody in the complex. We, you know, we got together and we formed a group and it was going to be taken further, but the consortium ended up offering everybody 20 rent rebate, and I just dug my heels in and said, no, fuck, yeah, no way I've lost, you know, my 55. That's what I'm claiming. I'm claiming the maximum rent relief.
Speaker 2:Now I understand, you know there's both sides of the fence, because I'm a landlord myself. Okay, and I understand. As a landlord, you have bills to pay and you have mortgages to pay. What stunned me, though, was that the consortium was a group of investors, so I'm not entirely sure how much of a mortgage they actually had on the properties. Not that that's my business. At the end of the day, I was only claiming what I was entitled to, yeah, okay. So you know, I did that, I claimed and I went to VCAT and I won because they refused to to give me what I was entitled to and they tried to say pay your full rent and we'll give you a refund when the tribunal hearing gives us the amount that you're entitled to. And I was like, hang on a minute, I'm claiming loss of income because I don't have it. Yeah, how am I meant?
Speaker 1:to pay.
Speaker 2:Where am I coming up with this $48,000, $50,000 for the year, when I'm claiming that I don't have it, but you're still asking me to pay it?
Speaker 1:I'm not making an income, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it was really sad because I saw how many people took advantage of the situation in terms of getting government grants, yeah, and I saw people lose their businesses over it, yeah, and I also know what I experienced out of that whole pandemic financially you know, it.
Speaker 1:It was uh an incredibly devastating time yeah, and it's still ongoing in in the sense like businesses haven't fully recovered, people's mental health hasn't fully recovered. There are children that have definitely suffered at the hands of their learning development oh, I'll tell you now you mark my words.
Speaker 2:In 15 years time, when these children who went through the pandemic, who have not developed those strong foundational literacy, numeracy, concentration, social skills, you watch, in 15 years time we are going to have an epidemic of children in society who cannot function in society.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we already see it. Now in our schools we see the cohort of those children who went through the pandemic, those two years of missed education, missed education. Like I, I worked at a school in the final lockdown, uh, with children of essential workers. So children of essential workers were allowed to go to school everybody else had to be online, like in stage three.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm working at a school of children who are essential workers, and those children are faring much better than those who have had to stay at home for the two years. Yeah, they are so significantly behind. Do you know what the government should have done? They should have. Because they locked down the schools, children lost at least a year or two of education. They should have made every single child repeat yeah, regardless, because that's how much they've missed out anyway.
Speaker 2:That's my rant for the day in terms of the pandemic and and what's going to happen in 15 years time, we will have children who, who are unable to function in society. Yeah, because of like they will, they will continue to see themselves as poor learners. Now, okay, because they're behind. Okay, and unless we can catch them up, which?
Speaker 2:you know, some of us teachers are fantastic. Some are still learning. You know we can't always say it's up to us as teachers, it's up to the parents, it's up to all of us, the village that raise children and the government itself absolutely so I I really do feel you know we're we're going to have ongoing issues from this however, let's, let's reel it back in.
Speaker 1:There's my rant um.
Speaker 2:the fact is, the situation that we were in was devastating for a lot of people and for others. You know, I watched people's marriage break down. Yeah, absolutely Over. You're getting vaccinated and I'm not. I don't want to spend any time with you. See you later out the door, you know, but in terms of finances, I was tracking along. I was hitting the peak of Mount everest yeah, and then all of a sudden there was an avalanche, yeah, and I've had to deal with that avalanche ever since.
Speaker 1:Still, even now, yeah, still trying to recuperate, yep, and I guess, as we said, that's happening for a lot of businesses right now.
Speaker 2:Uh, still I mean well, look, I probably I'm not sure that I said this, but in the stage four in terms of my tutoring centers, because the parents have worked out that online doesn't work. Yeah, I literally lost 80 of my clients by that stage by that stage, yeah so you know that that was the end of the pandemic, and that's the end of this episode.
Speaker 1:Thank you, yes it is.
Speaker 2:Our next episode is how essentially how I've had to try and rebuild back from there. We'll see you in the next one, guys, thank you. 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.
Speaker 2:Is it time for a wine yet? Oh mum, oh what.