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
Luxury, Loans & Life Lessons
What happens when the pursuit of financial freedom takes you on a rollercoaster ride of lavish purchases and crushing debt? Join us on this eye-opening episode of Raising Rich as we navigate the exhilarating highs and sobering lows of our financial journey. From the thrill of splurging on luxury items to the reality check of maxing out credit cards and taking on massive loans, Jo shares her personal stories and hard-earned lessons about balancing financial aspirations with responsible spending.
As we confront the challenges of the cost of living crisis, we delve into the impact it has on personal finances and housing. Discover the heartwarming yet financially draining experience of moving homes and the bureaucratic nightmares of home renovations.
Reflecting on childhood experiences and their influence on adult financial habits, we debate whether our financial destiny is really predetermined. Wrapping up with a commitment to transparency and honesty as we kick off 2024, we share our current status and hint at exciting developments ahead. Connect with us on social media, share your own stories, and let's build a community where we learn and grow together.
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 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.
Speaker 1:All right, all right, it's episode 16. Sorry that we left you on a bit of a cliffhanger in the last episode, but you know you're back, you're here're here, it's all good.
Speaker 2:That's how stories go always a cliffhanger, ready for the next series or next session. As I said in the last episode, my role has kind of changed. I've got the three centers and I've pretty much got a manager in each center. Yeah, okay, and I'm just overlooking everything. I'm enjoying having this new freedom, this money that I'm thinking is coming in, and you know it hasn't all dried up, it's. You know it's coming in, but it's just a little bit unusual because it's not the same as the year before. Yeah, okay, and I'm in this zone. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm in the zone of Like tunnel vision of I can afford that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know I'm kind of. If you can imagine, I've got my cash and I'm flicking it everywhere I'm having a great time.
Speaker 1:What's like the most expensive thing that you bought during that time that you're like really proud of.
Speaker 2:Well, firstly, you know that I paid for all of you guys to go to Bali and the accommodation and the flight, so I was very proud of that, yeah. But the most proudest thing I purchased and I don't regret it I went to Louis Vuitton and bought a handbag and a pair of earrings and I did not even look at the price, girl, I just went I think it's called the Kimora handbag and these big ass Louis Vuitton gold earrings got a bit of perfume, perfume, oh my goodness.
Speaker 2:Had a personal shopper Smell that wealth perfume, oh my goodness, had a personal shopper smell that wealth, oh my goodness I was in the era of I can afford that and I was feeling like remember how I said oh, mr b, you know I complained to him and said why do you work so much? And he said I don't ever want to say I can't afford that. That's the era that I was in. Yeah, I, I can say, you know, I could afford almost anything that I wanted. I did not look at pricing of anything. To be honest, I was having a great time. It wasn't like I could go and book myself first class tickets for around the world trips, but nor did I want that. Okay, I just wanted to be able to purchase things that you know that I wanted to and I didn't have to think about oh, do I have to shout my kids dinner or can I afford it? Do I have to look at my bank balance first? So that's kind of where I was at.
Speaker 1:Just going back to the, you know, flying first class. I love the idea of flying first class or business class who doesn't? I just feel like there needs to be something in between that and economy there is premium economy. Oh, is there, there is what a little bit of extra leg room.
Speaker 2:That's it, that's it.
Speaker 1:I need that in general. I'm six foot, all right, but like I love that idea of flying first class or business class, but I could not justify the cost, even if I was so wealthy. I mean, you know, one day I hope to have my own private jet and it's all good in the hood. No, not really, cause that's bad for the environment.
Speaker 2:But all right, miss, miss woke, miss woke, anyway, yes, but I like. But I like the idea of business class and I must admit, like I learnt, I earned a lot of frequent flyer points because I had got myself the American Express card and I absolutely loved putting stuff on that card?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you did. You gave us all an American Express card. I did, I gave you all a card here. Put everything on this.
Speaker 2:Quick, quick, quick. Never again. Let's get lots of points. Oh gosh, no, no, please, no. So, as we said in the last ep, you know I had organized the house to make it livable, done all the painting, the plastering, the heating, the insulation, the kitchen cabinets, you know, lined everybody up, bang, bang, bang, and then you know, have to pay the bills. And you know I'm thinking, oh, I don't quite have enough money, so I'll just pop it on the amex card. Yeah, and I had a limitless that black card, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:So that skyrocketed very quickly, okay, so much so that they did put a stop on it and say, no, this is all we're going to allow you to, which is fair enough, you know, and they have a duty of care and responsibility. And I accepted that. But I still had all of these bills coming in. So I actually took out a loan, a business loan, thinking that I could afford to pay it back within I think I took it over, uh, 75 weeks. I took a 75 000 loan over 75 weeks, so it meant I had to pay a thousand dollars a week back yeah, and at that point in time you're thinking, oh easy oh, absolutely easy, absolutely no drama whatsoever.
Speaker 2:I thought, you know that was perfectly fine. I'd earned nearly a million bucks the year before. Why wouldn't I be able to do it this year? Yeah, but then the crash hits. We have a cost of living crisis that begins in Melbourne, victoria, australia. I think it's being felt worldwide. Absolutely, you know this cost of living crisis. What actually happens is that people are scared of how the pandemic hit them. That people are scared of how the pandemic hit them. Yeah, there's still a lot of talk around that a new virus is on the move and that it's going to cause another pandemic. Yeah, so people are becoming, you know, like I. I reaped the benefits of that with purchasing the house. Yeah, because you know real estate had stagnated. I'd reaped the benefits of that because people realized that their kids missed out on two years of education. You know, so I'm getting the tutoring. But what's then happened? Is that because people are so worried about house prices, the cost of living crisis, the cost of fuel?
Speaker 1:Inflation on everything, the cost of heating.
Speaker 2:Extracurricular activities are the first thing to go. Yeah, Now of course, what's that?
Speaker 1:That's tutoring, tutoring Any kind of sport, musical instrument that your kid plays, yep, all of it.
Speaker 2:That all kind of stopped and it was only really truly a certain percentage of parents who A could afford a little bit of extracurricular activity. And then they had to choose tutoring over anything else and their child had to be happy with that. Because if you said to a child, well, is it soccer or tutoring? What do you think they're going to choose? So you know, I was starting to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars compared to the year before, yeah, and the year before. That, like it was just it was mind blowing.
Speaker 1:That's so hard too, because at the end of the day, like in in not the previous episode but the one before, we're actually talking about child development and the learning that needs to come along with that. During the pandemic, that just never happened. You would think that you know, hopefully, that there would be government subsidies for childhood education or just even any form of learning, considering the last two years or that period during the pandemic the unfortunate thing is, the government has their head up their ass.
Speaker 2:They think that what they are doing within schools is the absolute best, so therefore they don't offer subsidies for additional tutoring. And I I do see the problem with that, because a lot of people say, oh, I'm a tutor, but are you a teacher like? There's a very, very distinct difference here, and I understand that the government is not going to get involved in something like that. What they should have done is made every child just repeat the same year level. Uh, because no child attended school, no child really learned anything. I would say the percentage of children that learned would be about 5%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, like we said, they're probably the kids of essential workers where their children could still go to school.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. That living crisis that affected my income put a huge amount of financial strain on my businesses, of financial strain on my businesses. But the worst thing was like every week, when we had a meeting, when we had the managers meetings, we would discuss what's happening. Why are we losing all this money, why are we losing all these clients? And we continually put it down to the cost of living crisis.
Speaker 1:But that wasn't all that was happening right At the end of the day.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely not. No, we soon discovered. Well, actually, I discovered very quickly that one of my managers was overcharging me for hours, so that manager had been given a set amount of hours to work each week. These are how many hours you're managing. These are how many hours you're teaching week. These are how many hours you're managing. These are how many hours you're teaching, but consistently, I was being charged anywhere between 20 to 25 extra hours per week. Wow, so thinking of the wage, that's an extra thousand dollars a week. That's 4,000, four and a half thousand dollars a month. That's your rent. And I kept arguing, saying you weren't asked to do those extra hours. If you have additional work that you can't cope with, that's where I would step in. But I couldn't see where all this extra work was coming from, because I was doing the work prior to her and it certainly wasn't going over the 33 to 35 hours a week that I had employed her for. In fact, I'd given her a buffer.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know I was doing 30 hours so I'd given her a buffer of 33 until she's kind of got used to it and yeah that I was being taken advantage of, so slowly, slowly tried to put a stop on that. And every now and then there was just that kind of pushback yeah, okay. So eventually she stepped back from her role. It was a casual position, so we both had a mutual agreement that, um, the managerial role was no longer there. It was, she was just going to tutor, yeah. Then we found another issue and that issue was that if a client rang in sick, we were still getting charged for that client uh, that client's teaching, okay.
Speaker 2:And then when that client made another appointment, like a makeup session, we were being charged for that from the teacher as well yeah so on the invoice that she would send to us, you know, instead of it being one hour's worth of work where she's meant to be teaching three students, she's got all three of them coming in at different times, yeah, and charging us for the three hours. And then, to top it off, we get inquiries towards the end of a term from clients saying, oh, we have a makeup session, specifically with yeah but they're not even on the books.
Speaker 2:They're not even in the booking system. So we're not sure how that all came about. But yeah, there was a lot of little dodgy dodgy things happening On the side yeah. So that was a bit sad, but that I mean that also comes to. I'm not blaming anybody but myself. You know that's my managerial responsibility to have an understanding of what's happening.
Speaker 1:And a sense of radical self-responsibility. At the end of the day, Like as you said, you're a business owner. It's your responsibility to look further and deeper into these things and essentially you have. This is the kind of like I guess, the first experience that you've had with someone acting out in this way in your business that you've had for what? How many years?
Speaker 1:at this point, five or six years yeah, to be running as well as you had for that period and survive the pandemic. You know you did start to question well, where is your money going up? Lo and behold, it's shown to you and now you can know better and do better in the future.
Speaker 2:Yep so that was kind of disappointing and, like I said you know we were so we were right on that million dollar mark and all of a sudden we're hundreds of thousands of dollars behind and I, more for me, had not reduced my spending right on.
Speaker 1:We interrupt this podcast episode for a little self-promotion. Mum and I have been working hard on our first ever ebook, four Ways to Make Money Online, which includes how to find your niche. So if you're in need of some inspiration on how to get your business into the online space with some digital products, or thinking about a side hustle, or maybe you just want a starting point, this free yes, totally free download is for you. If you head to joannlanecom, you can check it out today. Okay, back to the episode.
Speaker 2:So the crisis obviously was affecting myself the cost of living. At this point in time. My youngest daughter had moved back home because she was still studying. She'd broken up with her boyfriend, so she's moved back in and bless her cotton socks. She loves to clean and do the washing and put the washing into the dryer she loves to. She's just got an obsession with cleaning, which is kind of a good thing. But when you're trying put it this way, my water bill in my last house when I lived on my own was for one person. Yeah, it's now for five. And there's me and her.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but at least your house is nice and clean all the time and she changes her bed sheets every three days. But you also felt the cost of living crisis. Tell us about what happened with you?
Speaker 1:Well, absolutely. As you know, mum, I felt very proud of the fact that I had two investment properties.
Speaker 1:you know one that my brother and I purchased and one that my partner and I purchased as well, out in regional Victoria and we were renting in Melbourne still at the time and I purchased and one that my partner and I purchased as well, out in regional Victoria and we were renting in Melbourne still at the time and it just got to a point for us where we could no longer afford to keep doing what we were doing To pay two mortgages and rent on top of that.
Speaker 1:It was such a struggle and at the end of the day day we had to make that decision to move into one of our investment properties, and my brother lived in one of them and still does. Uh, so the only other option that we really felt like we had in order to get ahead was to move out regionally where we had purchased a house a few years ago, and that's where we are today. That's where we're recording today. Mum got the the train up a lovely three and a half hour v-line to come and hang out with me and record this episode today, and, yeah, it's been a challenge so let me tell you what's uh happening now with my house in terms of money wise.
Speaker 2:So I've got this, you know, fantastic house in an affluent area. It's half renovated. But the council so remember when I said to you I had to make an application to the council for a planning permit. They've said yes to everything except for a front door and a window. Yeah, okay, which is just absolutely ridiculous. I got the design of the front door and the window off other houses in my street, yeah, but we've got a stickler at the council who's like no it doesn't fit with that, minus cottage, blah, blah blah.
Speaker 2:So what I have had to do? I've had to employ a town planner and a heritage specialist. Okay, $7,000. Holy dole. I now have to make an application to the Victorian Civil Administration Tribunal to have a look at the planning permit and try to overturn it. To overturn it now, aside from the 70 000 that I spent originally on the house for the basic reno, then I had to, as I said, do the plastering, the painting, etc, etc. You know that's another 40, 50 000.
Speaker 2:I now have to spend another 15 000 just to get the window and the the door approved, approved, approved to put, and and, mind you, the door on the window has cost me fifteen thousand dollars. It is sitting in a factory just waiting, just waiting. I mean, I'm very grateful to these people. They usually charge a hundred dollars a week for holding um items and it's been sitting there for a year and a bit because I bought it. Well before, like as soon as I bought the house, I went to the home show and saw it and bought it and was like yep, that's fine you know, it'll, it'll be no drama, but the front door and window is now going to end up costing me thirty thousand dollars, like.
Speaker 2:And I even reached out to them the other day and I said can you just sell it to somebody else? Because, yeah, I don't. I like this is ridiculous. And they said, unfortunately, because it's been custom made to fit my door and window.
Speaker 1:It's kind of bad luck can you just put it out the front of your front door?
Speaker 2:I even thought about just putting it on, but the fact is, because I've already made an application with the council, they are allowed to drive past at any time and fine you, and the fines are up to forty thousand dollars. Now I wanted to share with you something that has been playing on my mind, um, that I read the other day, and well, actually it was a.
Speaker 2:It was a therapist, and you know we all love TikTok and we all love googling, and this TikTok therapist said your, there will be one experience with money that you had in your childhood that will determine your money experience for the rest of your life, absolutely no, and I'm gonna say no no, I am, I look, I I'm gonna say no, I'm not putting that out there into the universe because, if you know, if our listeners have listened to the very first episode about my mom and my dad, my dad, uh, made a lot of money but he was very savvy with his money he was. He was smart one, if I'd like to say that, whereas mum was, like you know, the spender, the butterfly to the lights.
Speaker 2:Like oh, look at those pretty diamonds, I'll just buy all of them. Yeah, and I. Obviously I was drawn to her more so.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I love spending. Who doesn't? She died a very broke woman and I refuse, I flatly refuse that that is going to be my path. And I just want to say to the you know the TikTok lady. I know that she's a well-respected therapist. I've seen her in a lot of different things and I want to say to the other people out there who are listening it doesn't have to be your story like no, I don't think that that's what you know that people are getting at.
Speaker 1:I think that people have core beliefs around money, um, but that's not to say that they can't be changed.
Speaker 1:Right like you, you grow up with life experiences yes, yep, life experiences that definitely shape who you are and the the actions that you take. But there's been so much research about how the neurons in your brain can be rewired after the age of seven, like it doesn't just stop when you're seven years old. We can form new neural pathways in the brain, which means that we have the ability to learn new skills, change our stories, change our limiting beliefs, and that definitely revolves around changing your limiting beliefs or your stories about money, and that's my opinion.
Speaker 2:I just, I think it just hit me because I thought, am I always going to be in this back and forward mode? Because my mum was like she's a, my dad's b and I, I have bounced between a and b my whole life, you know, I've been that broke ass single mum who's worked, you know, 60, 70 hours a week. I've then, you know, owned these tutoring centers. I'm earning a million dollars, I've got two rental properties, you know, and I'm I'm going backwards again, you know, and I've been bankrupt. And then, you know, I've dated the multimillionaire and is my life story bouncing between A and B.
Speaker 1:I think, even though it feels that way, and certainly you know, listening to these episodes it definitely sounds that way as well, but, as you said, you're not going to let that be your story and I don't think that it necessarily defines who you are. I think, again, you have the ability to change the trajectory of your life.
Speaker 2:I think it has defined who I am in terms of being an entrepreneur, like chasing that money all the time, chasing that dream, never, never accepting Like I went to uni to get that good government job, stable, be a school teacher, be settled, and I achieved that but I still wanted more, like I thought that that was going to be enough. So I think this bouncing between A and B has determined and you know my life with my dad, him being an entrepreneur. That has determined that fire in my belly Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And again, you can choose to turn that on or turn that off at any point if you so choose, I think, from my perspective, as great as I did in school to some degree, in terms of arts and creative avenues. I was always told that they're not going to bring you any money. You know art doesn't provide you with a good income.
Speaker 1:So I never pursued that career avenue or passion and I opted for a very corporate lifestyle that paid very well but it didn't bring me joy, it didn't make me happy and I am in a position now where I am doing more creative things, but I've given up a lot of that financial freedom that I did have from having a corporate job, but we are.
Speaker 2:we are on a different path, a different trajectory, and that's, you know, that's the reason for this entire podcast is because you and I have found that and that's something that we talk about in the next couple of episodes as to why we're on here and what we're doing and one of the things that we really want to emphasize is that if you're a broke ass single mom, hang in there, hang into listening to these podcasts, because we so 100% want to support you and help you out of, perhaps, that shithole that you're sitting in, because I've been there and as much as my children are all grown, you might have a baby on your knee and you might be a single mom or looking down the barrel of being a single mom.
Speaker 2:My passion, my goal, is to not allow what happened to me happen to somebody else. If, if, if, they want to get out of it. You know that's and that's the whole purpose of all of this. This is the whole basis of this podcast, so it's about being a possibility agent for you right At the end of the day.
Speaker 1:We want to show you what's possible and we want to show you, because we're in the process of doing it ourselves, because we don't want to keep trading time for money?
Speaker 2:No, no, absolutely. So we're going to leave the episode here, and I'm just going to remind you where I'm at at the moment. I've been thrown into a loan. I've had to take a business loan. I've got an amex card that's skyrocketed. The cost of living crisis, um, and, you know, being ripped off by a manager, you know, that's kind of where I found myself.
Speaker 1:And this is where we're at, at the beginning of 2024.
Speaker 2:So you know seven months ago.
Speaker 1:We're being honest and sharing that with you. We want to be transparent. We don't want to be the types of women that are sitting here going oh my gosh, we're making so much money through doing all these different things and avenues and whatnot, and that's where we're at at the start of the year.
Speaker 2:Um, the next six months is just mind-blowing, and we're going to share that with you in our next episode, and we'll see you then ciao, ciao 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.
Speaker 1:It really helps us to connect with the right women, 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.