Latest / All Figured Out with Andrea Barr: Figuring Out Work, Life and Parenting / 120. How a teacher built wealth without leaving her day job with Sarah Coombes

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120. How a teacher built wealth without leaving her day job with Sarah Coombes · All Figured Out with Andrea Barr: Figuring Out Work, Life and Parenting

• 0:00
  What if your nine to five could actually fuel your freedom and
• 0:04
  wasn't actually creating those handcuffs or the proverbial
• 0:08
  handcuffs that sometimes we feel like we have on when we're in a
• 0:12
  nine to five job as parents? This week on All Figured Out,
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  I'm joined by Sarah Coombs, who is a multiple income strategist.
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  I have never met someone who has a title like that.
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  She does wear a lot of hats, but she is the host of the Richer
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  Podcast. She is in education.
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  She also helps women build beautiful wealthy lives without
• 0:33
  sacrificing what matters most. And on this podcast that is time
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  and presence with your family. Sarah Story really flips the
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  script on what financial freedom looks like and how you get
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  there. I was actually just blown away
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  by some of the stories and some of the mindset shifts that she
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  provided in this episode. I, I'm not just saying this, I
• 0:55
  will be listening back to this episode as a listener because
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  there is just so much in what she said that is so different
• 1:02
  from what we're taught or not taught about wealth, finances,
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  how to grow money. And she even says things like
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  you don't need a budget, which I love, love that.
• 1:13
  So some of the things we talk about why your day job can
• 1:16
  actually be your greatest asset and not it's not that it's
• 1:19
  preventing you from doing other things.
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  That was very interesting. Stocks.
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  We talked about how to start building multiple income streams
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  even with young kids. She herself has three kids under
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  7. The real difference between
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  consuming in producing money and how to create and support
• 1:34
  support system that actually supports you.
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  So this man, I was just blown away by this conversation.
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  I think you're going to love it. So whether you're feeling boxed
• 1:46
  in by your career or overwhelmed by the idea of starting
• 1:50
  something new, this episode is absolutely jam packed with very
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  practical mindset shifts and permission to do things a bit
• 1:57
  differently so that you can make more money and still have time
• 1:59
  with your kids. And those two things can
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  coexist. Sarah's approach is very honest,
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  it's very empowering, it's very positive, and I'm really excited
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  to hear what you think. So let's get into it.
• 2:17
  This is all figured out. I'm Andrea Barr.
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  I'm a career coach for parents, a mom of two, and I absolutely
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  believe that you can continue to grow personally and
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  professionally while protecting family time.
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  We're about to figure out this work, life and parenting stuff
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  out together. Sarah Coombs, thank you so much
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  for coming on the All Figurative podcast.
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  Thanks Andrea, it's lovely to be here.
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  There are so much we can talk about in your story and in the
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  work that you do currently as a multiple income strategist
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  supporting women who want to build beautiful, wealthy lives.
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  But I want to take it back. Let's just jump, bro.
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  We're jumping right into it. There's no small talk here.
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  Let's take it back. I want to take it back to I want
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  to hear about your childhood, but we don't have the time for
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  that today. So let's go into the first time.
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  Tell me about the first time in your career when you had
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  multiple streams of income, like you went from saying, having one
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  job or one stream of income to two plus.
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  What was that? What was that moment for you?
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  So in that moment I was 22 years old and I was living a full
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  life, but I had a lot of disposable income that I was
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  saving. And then I my first income
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  stream was property. It was from rental income and I
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  can remember thinking, well, I'm going to throw all my money into
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  this because what's the point? It's sitting there in the
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  savings and your savings. When you are a single 22 year
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  old, your responsibilities are whole lot less, so you're you're
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  safety net can be a whole lot smaller.
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  So yes, most 22 year olds at that time weren't thinking of
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  how I can turn my money into more money.
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  But I was fascinated with it and I had grown up seeing my parents
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  renovate houses. We would move every six months
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  and I knew that there was money to be made, but in rental income
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  I wasn't too sure. So that was my first type of Oh,
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  my second type of income that I. Started.
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  Yeah. Wow.
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  Fascinating. So you were an educator at the
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  beginning of your career, you were a teacher.
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  And so then you layered in this rental income piece to it and
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  tell me about your career trajectory.
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  So you're kind of you're juggling these two worlds, which
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  is probably quite, I mean, I'm thinking 22.
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  I was not doing anything like that at 22.
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  Was that unusual for the people around you?
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  Yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  It was unusual and at the time I had just moved from Australia to
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  New Zealand where place that I was at in a where I lived, my
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  hometown in Australia, we had a huge housing bubble.
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  So I saw first hand how quickly things can change when that
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  bubble pops. So I came over to New Zealand
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  and created that income, but the stakes were a whole lot lower.
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  To buy a house in New Zealand was a whole lot less.
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  We're talking $1,000,000 to 350,000 and so, yeah.
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  So Sarah, you were an educator, you were a teacher by trade.
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  I know throughout the course of your career as a teacher, you
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  got into administration and all of that.
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  Tell me, tell me about your career trajectory in being a
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  teacher. And then maybe those junction
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  points, like those points where you're like, OK, there's
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  multiple streams of income, where do I want to spend my
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  time? I imagine as a teacher, it's a
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  very demanding job. And so how did your career
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  progress from there? So I think, I don't want to say
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  that I stumbled into it because there were accidental actions.
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  There were, they were deliberate actions that I took to get
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  myself in the position that I was in.
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  But for me, I got into teaching wanting to make change.
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  I was in an education system that I was actually really bored
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  of, and I sat there the whole time thinking I can do this so
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  much better. There's so many more fun ways to
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  do this. So for me, leadership was a
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  natural progression in education because I wanted to be at the
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  tables that were making that change.
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  So that was an easy path for me. I felt that was where I was
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  always heading with education. And I think what surprises
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  people the most when they work with me is that some coaches and
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  advisors go, oh, you need to get rid of your 9 to 5 income and
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  all those things. Whereas my 9:00 to 5:00 income
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  gave me the freedom to build. These are the streams of income.
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  Without it, I wouldn't have had this ability to get loans.
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  I wouldn't have had stability to get the leverage that I got.
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  And I think that lots of that's where lots of people get it
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  wrong, is that your 9 to 5 income does play a role in
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  giving you a head start if it is used correctly.
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  Oht my gosh, I think that that is such an interesting point
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  that people don't talk about enough.
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  I've had this conversation a lot on the podcast recently with
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  people who are have that discussion around like, not
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  everybody should just up and quit and leave their nine to
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  five and become entrepreneurs because they've been sold this
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  very dangerous narrative that entrepreneurship is the only way
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  to have time and financial freedom.
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  Can you actually, can we get into that for a second about the
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  leverage and what you mean by that?
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  And and so by showing the bank or whoever you are that you're
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  borrowing money, that you are a stable person worthy of being
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  lent to talk to me though, that talked to me about their role
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  of, I guess taking on debt, leveraging yourself in a way to
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  make more money. Can we?
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  Can we go there? Yeah, yeah.
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  So for leverage, when you go to a bank and you go, this is my,
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  the difference between business income and a nine to five income
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  is that the bank, if someone else is employing you, they
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  believe that you are a stable person and you've got to stable
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  income. From a business perspective, you
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  need to have in New Zealand and in Australia, you need to have
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  two years of financials. And we know that as
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  entrepreneurs have two years of great financials is very hard in
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  this period of growth and establishing.
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  So you're looking at needing really five years of business
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  income before you have access to that money, whereas a nine to
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  five income, I could go and get a job tomorrow and then the next
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  day I could go and apply for a bank loan and I would be given
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  it. So the cost of crazy.
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  Yeah, Yeah. So the cost of you that five
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  years, what that five years is gonna cost you, you know, in
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  terms of property or in the share market or in business,
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  somebody's already come up with your business idea.
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  Somebody has already, the property market has boomed, the
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  stock market has taken off, you know, so that cost of not using
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  a nine to five income is also it's a great stepping block that
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  I think that lots of people downplay.
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  Oh my gosh. And is it necessary?
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  So I I want to debunk some things.
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  So I'm just going to pepper you with questions as they come
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  because I feel like you're the right person to ask.
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  OK, so you hear about people like, I'm not even going to say
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  Donald Trump, other prolific business owners who I think of
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  him just because of the fact that he won't share his
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  financials. And I think there's obviously a
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  reason to. But anyways, I digress.
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  The world's wealthiest people, we hear that they are people who
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  never actually spend their own money to make money.
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  They're all about spending someone else's money in order.
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  And maybe that we're talking like really big businesses at
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  this point, but what does that mean when somebody says that
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  when they're talking about spending other money to make
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  money, How does that work? What does that mean?
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  So 1 misconception around the banking system is that banks
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  make money, yes they make money, but they make money off your
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  money. So they can only give out these
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  loans if people are holding money and savings accounts
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  because then otherwise they need to they're they're over
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  stretching themselves. So one of the ways that people
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  use other people's money is that they go to a bank and then the
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  bank loans them that money. So when a bank is first
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  establishing itself that it'll have things like high interest
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  savings accounts so that people are depositing their money and
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  they know that that is fixed in for the next two years.
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  So they know how much they can as an ethical lender of money,
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  how much they can pass on to other people.
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  I think that is where they talk about leveraging.
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  Also, when you get ultra wealthy, there are a lot of tax
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  benefits and loopholes that those people have access to that
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  the middle class can't get access to because we don't have
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  that net wealth. So things like a government
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  initiatives where they'll go, if you bring your building
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  development company to our country, we will give you a tax
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  rate of this or that or different states in in America
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  as states, every states, I'm not too sure how Canada works, but
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  they'll give tax breaks for these companies to come in and
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  they've got a housing shortage or they've got a healthcare
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  shortage. They will provide incentives for
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  those sorts of things. And I think that there's also
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  this conception around debt as being bad.
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  Debt is only bad when it can't make you money, so.
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  For example, say that again. Say that again.
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  Debt is only bad when it doesn't make you money.
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  So if you are going to go and get a $20,000 business loan with
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  no strategy, that is not a business.
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  That is gambling. And when you go and get a car
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  loan for a brand new car that isn't, there's no strategy.
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  It is a depreciating asset. You are losing money on it, yet
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  you've still got a $50,000 car loan and your car's only worth
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  42,000 as soon as you drive it out of the car yard.
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  So, and in New Zealand a huge problem is easy finance is these
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  two years interest free. But as soon as you come off the
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  two year period, you're hit with 13, fourteen, 30% interest
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  charges, which people get stung with because they think, oh,
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  it's interest free at this point, you know, it's fine,
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  fine, fine. But it also in, in accessing
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  those easy finance options, it then limits your financial plan
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  because the banks are going or investors are going or you've
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  already actually got this amount of debt going out and there's
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  nothing coming in more for it. So interesting.
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  OK, thank you for explaining that because in my head, yeah, I
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  like that you broke it down into the ultra wealthy and how that's
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  actually a very different game obviously that they're playing
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  in that they're they're no longer taking their own money.
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  Like they keep their money in their different, you know,
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  investment opportunities. So they're not taking their own
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  money out in order to like they're borrowing money to do
• 13:56
  anyways do all that stuff. So that's interesting.
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  But then what you're talking about is like at the, you know,
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  mere mortal level, even multi millionaires who are listening
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  or or anybody who's kind of in the like non ultra wealthy multi
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  billionaire world. I mean, if any of you are like,
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  please let me know and we'll just keep I'm keen.
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  I'm curious, but yeah, that's really interesting.
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  Like if you're not OK, if you're borrowing money, but it's not
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  making you money, that's bad investment.
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  So let's give it an tangible example on that, which was one
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  of the first like I went, I did go to school and study business.
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  However, it's until you hit the real life that you're like, oh,
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  now I understand. So I remember when be honest,
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  I'm coming across situation where I was buying a car, my
• 14:38
  first car that I purchased and I had some money, a bit of money
• 14:45
  in investments and the opportunity I had to buy this
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  car. There was at the time a 0.9%
• 14:54
  interest. And I remember thinking, but now
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  you have to tell me if I made the right choice or not, but I
• 15:00
  think I did. I said, OK, why pull the money
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  out? That is making X amount well
• 15:06
  above 0.9%. Why pull money out to pay for
• 15:09
  this car when I can keep my money in the market working at a
• 15:13
  way higher interest rate, growing.
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  It's making money. So I am going to take this loan,
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  which was scary because I was like, that's not what you do.
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  That's not what like smart people do.
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  They don't take on debt. But then I remember thinking,
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  well, no, because why would I take out that opportunity to
• 15:30
  make more money on that? However much that car was.
• 15:32
  I'm going to take this on now. What do you think about
• 15:34
  something like that? So my philosophy is you should
• 15:38
  not have a brand new car unless your investments can pay for it.
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  So. What do you mean by that?
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  So like if I'm gonna go and my extra income or my multiple
• 15:50
  income has got to be able to cover my car payments for me,
• 15:56
  that is when a car can be used because if I'm using it for
• 16:00
  business activity that is a tax write off, it is able to reduce
• 16:06
  my tax. I think that's another point of
• 16:09
  like not using your own money. I'm using money that I have
• 16:13
  created from multiple incomes to fund my brand new car, but it's
• 16:19
  actually not coming out of my bank account directly.
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  So they're using assets or or business income to then pay for
• 16:28
  their lifestyle rather than having the lifestyle and using
• 16:36
  income as an afterthought thought to pay for it.
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  Because I think that's where the middle income sort of lose out
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  is when you don't have a business or you don't have that
• 16:45
  leverage is that when you go and buy a car, it is depreciation is
• 16:51
  a depreciating asset. Whereas when you have a car as a
• 16:55
  business, you start coming into the tax strategy, you aren't
• 16:59
  using your own income for it. Yeah, OK, OK.
• 17:03
  It's so interesting. So it really, even though it's
• 17:05
  the same pot of money technically, you do have to
• 17:08
  understand like the hypothetical, it's so weird how
• 17:11
  money isn't actually tangible anymore.
• 17:13
  No, like you're just but it, but it does have to be like this
• 17:16
  concept that you can really wrap your head around and think like,
• 17:18
  OK, where is this coming from? How is this working for me?
• 17:21
  So that makes so much sense. I want to pivot back over to
• 17:24
  your story and what was the moment?
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  So at one point, did you have children versus when you left
• 17:30
  education and started more businesses Multiple, but like,
• 17:35
  tell me, tell me everything. How did this all unfold for you
• 17:38
  entering motherhood? So for me, with education, I
• 17:44
  realised that what kept me up at night was the thought that I
• 17:48
  couldn't replace the income. And so for me, creating that
• 17:52
  multiple incomes gave me Peace of Mind that if education didn't
• 17:57
  work out, why I was no longer enjoying it, that I could decide
• 18:01
  to leave without it totally derailing my life.
• 18:04
  So that was really the starting point of why I wanted the
• 18:08
  multiple income streams to come in.
• 18:10
  And then either came a mother and I went back to the workforce
• 18:17
  and I was going, well, how do you do it?
• 18:18
  Like how do you balance motherhood, your work life to
• 18:21
  match your work demands and being a good partner?
• 18:25
  And everyone I talked to was walking around and they're
• 18:29
  going, oh, I don't, I'm a miserable partner.
• 18:31
  And I'm thinking, ohhhhh, OK, this is my future.
• 18:34
  Like I, I resigned from that job and I moved on and then I went
• 18:39
  into leadership roles. And I think that is been, you
• 18:43
  know, in that moment of me being an educator and my whole
• 18:48
  identity and that workforce, I was, it was like being in a long
• 18:52
  term relationship where you're going, hang on, this
• 18:55
  relationship no longer fits for me.
• 18:57
  I've got a pivot here. And it's a huge identity shift
• 19:00
  when you've been somewhere so long to go through that
• 19:03
  transition, as you will know, being a career coach.
• 19:06
  But once you make that pivot and you realise what you will and
• 19:10
  you will not stand for and what doesn't fit all these
• 19:14
  opportunities open. And um, I think when you are in
• 19:20
  this cycle of self sabotage and staying in these workplace
• 19:24
  environments where you aren't going to thrive, there is a huge
• 19:30
  power and knowing exactly what you will stand for and what you
• 19:33
  won't stand for. And yeah, I think that has been
• 19:37
  the greatest part of my journey is knowing, getting really clear
• 19:41
  on the boundary set. And also my husband does have
• 19:46
  back issues. And for us, it was a lot of the
• 19:50
  reason that we got into creating income.
• 19:53
  He was a builder. He is a builder and he loves his
• 19:56
  job, loves it. He he loves building.
• 20:00
  But he was coming home and he was lying on the ground in so
• 20:03
  much agony and he would spend all of Saturday, half of Sunday
• 20:07
  on the floor in agony. And the man that I had married
• 20:10
  was somebody who would jump out of bed before me.
• 20:13
  I would have my cup of tea waiting for me to now this man
• 20:16
  that spent an hour every morning mentally preparing himself to
• 20:20
  get out of bed. So that wasn't a long game for
• 20:23
  us. And that was that was really a
• 20:25
  driving point of being like, we actually can't continue on this
• 20:28
  path. We've got to use some of this
• 20:30
  leverage that we've got to replace his income so that he no
• 20:34
  longer is in this position where he has to go through pain.
• 20:37
  I think it's such such a beautiful story that you've
• 20:40
  highlighted for both of you where you're saying that you
• 20:44
  felt like you lacked this choice by staying in education and let
• 20:48
  you were almost like handcuffed because you're like, OK, I, you
• 20:51
  know, people can't do it. People can have beautiful,
• 20:53
  fulfilling lives, raise their children and be super happy in
• 20:55
  education. We're not saying that.
• 20:56
  But for you, you were like, no, no, that's not for me.
• 21:01
  But if I didn't have that other stream of income, I would be
• 21:04
  handcuffed and I would lack a lot of choice because there
• 21:07
  would be way too much risk. And it sounds like for your
• 21:09
  husband, you're like, OK, building is way too hard on the
• 21:12
  body. And so because you have leverage
• 21:15
  and because you have that the smarts that you've met, that
• 21:18
  you're now passing on to all of our listeners, and we're going
• 21:20
  to get there. You're like, OK, let's figure
• 21:24
  out how to create choice here because we don't want to get to
• 21:27
  a situation where all of a sudden you're like, I actually
• 21:29
  cannot go to work tomorrow and then boom, his income is gone.
• 21:33
  Like that's scary. So I love this ability of like
• 21:36
  taking things back into your own hands.
• 21:39
  What would you tell someone who's sitting in a position
• 21:41
  right now where they just most of our listeners, Sarah, are
• 21:44
  people who are in nine to five jobs.
• 21:46
  And I hear from people all the time, whether it's coaching or
• 21:50
  someone who's listened to a podcast episode or through, I
• 21:52
  don't know, Instagram or whatever.
• 21:53
  And they're like, I don't know how to get out of this.
• 21:58
  I have an income at a nine to five job.
• 22:01
  My partner has an income at a nine to five job.
• 22:04
  There's no wiggle room, there's no flexibility.
• 22:08
  It's just jumping from one ship to another scary ship and taking
• 22:11
  a really big risk. But like, I don't even think I
• 22:13
  know. I don't even want to replace
• 22:15
  this job with another job. Like I want to do something else
• 22:17
  or whatever. People feel very, very fearful.
• 22:20
  What would you tell that person? I think that you need to stop
• 22:27
  only talking about money when there's a crisis.
• 22:30
  I think there is a lot of conversations that we have when
• 22:33
  we are working in nine to five. These conversations around money
• 22:36
  only come up when it has hit the fan and Oh yeah, I'm taking
• 22:43
  these conversations and looking at it.
• 22:46
  So when I was 21, I went to my my now mentor, the richest lady.
• 22:50
  I went and I took her my budgeting plan.
• 22:53
  Now I am not someone you come to for budgeting because of this
• 22:56
  reason. So I spent all these hours doing
• 22:59
  this beautiful spreadsheet budgeting plan and I showed it
• 23:03
  to her to be like, oh look, I've got my head screwed on.
• 23:06
  Look at me, 21 years old with a budget plan.
• 23:09
  And she laughed and I was like, oh, why?
• 23:13
  Like she said, I haven't, I've never, I haven't had a budget
• 23:16
  since 5th grade. And I was like, no.
• 23:19
  Sarah Yeah. And this is the unlock.
• 23:22
  This is the part of the episode that things are getting.
• 23:24
  Juicy so I was like, Oh my gosh. OK, so I thought that, you know,
• 23:30
  if I if I scaled down in this area and I scaled down in this
• 23:33
  area that, you know I'd have all this money to grow money yes
• 23:36
  true, but she was like people overcomplicate it.
• 23:40
  Your money is either consuming parts, producing and you need to
• 23:44
  get your money to a point where it is producing more money than
• 23:47
  you are consuming. So that was my starting point
• 23:50
  and that was where I went through this mindset shift of,
• 23:54
  OK, it's not my electricity bill, it's not my Netflix
• 23:57
  subscriptions, it's not those coffees or those lattes I'm
• 24:00
  going for. The Amazon packages.
• 24:02
  That's all in consuming. So we can start off in
• 24:07
  incremental steps of like, OK, I'm gonna aim for 5% of my
• 24:12
  income to be producing money for me.
• 24:15
  Whether that's a really easy way is stocks.
• 24:20
  When it's low, you can just use what you've got as long as you
• 24:24
  have a sound strategy to make more money.
• 24:27
  And we can get a little bit more into how that can make you
• 24:30
  money, but a bit later. But then you go to 10% and then
• 24:34
  you go, you know, you get to a point where now we're well over
• 24:38
  that, that 70%, you know, of your 70% of our income is
• 24:44
  producing more income for us. So I think what happens when
• 24:49
  you're stuck in a 9 to 5 is there is a lifestyle creep that
• 24:54
  comes up and you go, I've just got a new, I've got a $10,000
• 24:58
  pay rise. What are we gonna do with it?
• 25:00
  Ohhh, hang on. By the time I take out tax, it's
• 25:03
  actually only like 6 1/2 grand and then it's like, but now I've
• 25:08
  gone and spent $15,000 on a holiday and there's your pay
• 25:12
  rise gone. And I think we're that that
• 25:16
  producing versus consuming mindset.
• 25:19
  It's very clear, like I'm getting the six and a half,
• 25:22
  $1000 after tax and I'm going, if you're in the higher tax
• 25:26
  bracket and what am I going to use that to produce money rather
• 25:31
  than having the consuming part of your money plan going up and
• 25:36
  up, which is what lots of people do when their lifestyle starts
• 25:40
  to creep. They get a nicer car, they buy a
• 25:42
  flash couch, they buy the best home stereo system, those sorts
• 25:46
  of things that lifestyle creep doesn't come up.
• 25:48
  Then you use those pay rises to then start building this side up
• 25:53
  and this side up. Yeah.
• 25:56
  So there is still, OK. I got a little excited thinking
• 25:59
  that you'd have to throw away the budget, but there is merit
• 26:01
  in the budget because you have to manage the scope creep or the
• 26:05
  the like the lifestyle creep. Yeah.
• 26:08
  So you're saying you've got to wrangle that first.
• 26:11
  That's like baseline. Baseline.
• 26:12
  Get that baseline so that you're making more than you're
• 26:15
  spending. And then we can talk about like
• 26:18
  even just starting. I like that that though, like 5%
• 26:21
  are like 1%. But taking something to start to
• 26:25
  grow because compound interest is a thing.
• 26:27
  We know that that's a real thing.
• 26:29
  OK, What about the person who isn't there?
• 26:34
  He isn't actually making more than they're spending.
• 26:38
  And that's a lot of people listening.
• 26:40
  Even if they they on paper look like they're making a great
• 26:43
  income, they are not willing to maybe like move to a cheaper
• 26:48
  house or whatever. They're kind of like, OK, we're
• 26:49
  doing the best we can. So living beyond their means.
• 26:53
  A little bit living beyond their means or like pretty paycheck to
• 26:56
  paycheck, even though looks like they're doing super well, you
• 26:59
  know what I mean? Like what could they do if
• 27:01
  they're like, hey, we're we've stripped things down to the
• 27:04
  minimum of what we are willing to like how we're willing to
• 27:07
  live. And maybe that's mindset thing,
• 27:10
  but just for an example. And they're like, is there a way
• 27:13
  to make more money? Like, how could we be making
• 27:16
  more money given the fact that we're like at the bare minimum
• 27:20
  of. So what we could spend if you've
• 27:23
  got no disposable income, is that what you're saying you
• 27:26
  have? It doesn't matter whether you
• 27:27
  are high earning or not. You've got no disposable income.
• 27:30
  Yeah, but you're not willing to build badge on your lifestyle?
• 27:33
  Yes, OK. Is that just having your cake
• 27:36
  and eating it too? Or is there like something that
• 27:38
  you could do? Well, it depends on the
• 27:40
  individual situation, but it's also, well, what do you have to
• 27:43
  leverage then? If you're not willing to give up
• 27:47
  the lifestyle that you have, what do you have to leverage to
• 27:51
  make you more income? And I think that is a powerful
• 27:54
  piece in what are your strengths?
• 27:57
  You know, is it time that you've got to leverage?
• 27:59
  Is it your strengths that you've got to leverage?
• 28:01
  Is it your experience that you've got to leverage?
• 28:04
  And yeah, it really depends on the individual situation.
• 28:08
  But if you're not willing to budge in in the budgeting money
• 28:12
  plan sort of area, then that's where you really need to sit
• 28:16
  down and go. OK.
• 28:17
  What what assets do I have to leverage?
• 28:22
  Hmm, OK, that's cool. And that's where it comes into
• 28:25
  the topic of multiple streams of income.
• 28:27
  So say you're like, OK, yes, I'm time strapped.
• 28:29
  We have two young kids, three young kids.
• 28:33
  But I do like if this is really important to me and if, say,
• 28:36
  even if we're making, you know, three, $400,000 a year, but
• 28:40
  we're at the like, we just can't spend any less than what we're
• 28:44
  spending. Maybe that's when you have to
• 28:46
  say, OK, what could I leverage? Technically, I could spend an
• 28:49
  hour that I would be watching TV at night and maybe that's my
• 28:52
  hour that I could leverage to figure out a way to make money
• 28:55
  in that hour. Is that what you're saying?
• 28:57
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, but there's always something
• 29:00
  that that you always have to sacrifice something.
• 29:04
  It's just what are you willing to sacrifice?
• 29:06
  So if you're not willing to sacrifice your lifestyle, you
• 29:10
  need to be willing to sacrifice your time, whether that's
• 29:13
  educating yourself so you've got the skills, whether it's using
• 29:15
  the skills you've already got or the qualifications that you've
• 29:18
  already got. But there is always a cost of
• 29:22
  something and there's always a benefit of something.
• 29:25
  And you've gotta ask yourself, OK, well, if I'm sitting on my
• 29:28
  phone for two hours every night once the kids go to bed, that's
• 29:32
  an easy thing to replace making money with over.
• 29:37
  Yeah, I guess you have to really look at what you're willing to
• 29:40
  budge on and what you're willing to use as leverage as well,
• 29:43
  because you don't want to be. If you do it in a way that isn't
• 29:46
  aligned, you're not going to do well at it because it's going to
• 29:50
  be a drag. The thought of, Oh no, I've
• 29:53
  gotta start my like for some women, it's their third shift of
• 29:57
  the night. So I'm looking at those.
• 30:00
  Do you have networks that you can leverage from?
• 30:02
  That's another way you can leverage.
• 30:04
  So it really, that question is so broad and we could go down so
• 30:08
  many rabbit holes with, but it really depends on the individual
• 30:10
  circumstance of that person. And I know, I know lots of
• 30:17
  people that are on nearly half $1,000,000 that have got the
• 30:21
  same problems as people on $50,000 because they haven't got
• 30:26
  that base the basics right. And when you don't have a plan,
• 30:31
  the person with $500,000 still has the same issues as someone
• 30:34
  with $50,000, they're just on different.
• 30:37
  Scales. Yeah, because it's just a ratio.
• 30:40
  It's just, yeah, like it's, if you look at it in percentages,
• 30:43
  it's not, it doesn't actually matter how much you're making.
• 30:46
  If you're spending the same amount, there could be the
• 30:48
  person making 50,000 who could be actually further ahead have
• 30:52
  more money to make because they have.
• 30:54
  Yeah, so interesting. OK, so that's that's probably a
• 30:57
  big part of my story is that I went from $110,000 a year with
• 31:03
  all these lifestyle perks in Australia to moving to New
• 31:07
  Zealand on 53,000 a year and I made more money.
• 31:12
  I can remember having this conversation with my parents and
• 31:14
  this is a very good part about having the right accountability
• 31:17
  partners. But I can remember saying to my
• 31:19
  parents, oh, I could never do this.
• 31:22
  I could never afford to have a house.
• 31:24
  I could never afford all these things.
• 31:25
  I was at $110,000, which if you adjusted that for inflation now
• 31:30
  is probably closer to $180,000, you know, And that's just nuts.
• 31:35
  Like that is. Yeah, that is a mindset problem.
• 31:38
  Like I was. I had imposed all these limiting
• 31:41
  beliefs that I wasn't able to do it because I didn't earn enough
• 31:44
  money. Then I moved to New Zealand,
• 31:47
  half my income, and was like, right, we've gotta, we've gotta
• 31:53
  do some stuff here because I can't sustain the lifestyle that
• 31:56
  I want on this income. Wow.
• 31:59
  And So what did you do? How did you, how did you then
• 32:01
  start getting ahead and living a more?
• 32:03
  You know, you've talked to you on your podcast, you talked
• 32:06
  about how like creating a beautiful life.
• 32:07
  So how did you, how did you do that?
• 32:10
  So initially we so we started a property development company
• 32:15
  where we would build houses and then sell them.
• 32:18
  And at the start it was like, this looks like a good section,
• 32:23
  let's just do it. We built on it.
• 32:26
  And then at the end we are like, right, we want to go travelling
• 32:29
  now in that that first property gave us so much learn a mindset
• 32:35
  problem that we probably held at the time.
• 32:38
  But for us, we wanted to go travelling.
• 32:40
  We would just be lining on OK, we want to go travelling now, so
• 32:43
  let's just sell this and be done.
• 32:46
  But in the meantime, while we were selling it, another another
• 32:51
  section of land came up and we had no jobs.
• 32:55
  We had no way to get finance. We were self-employed like we
• 32:59
  had no jobs on paper. I wasn't currently teaching at
• 33:03
  that time. We had just finished building
• 33:05
  the house and we didn't have enough books on the business to
• 33:10
  be able to go for a loan. So as a result, and I think this
• 33:14
  is where the the mindset shift from the, the poor financial
• 33:18
  mindset to the the wealthy financial mindset changes is we,
• 33:23
  we still made a profit. We made less than the real
• 33:25
  estate agent did on that property, but that property to
• 33:28
  the section, we were able to double our income.
• 33:31
  But if we aren't able to use that leverage at that time and
• 33:36
  that section would have gone the gains that we got off this new
• 33:39
  property, this new section, it was worth taking the 30 grand
• 33:45
  less that we than we could have got to go and make the 700,000
• 33:50
  that you make over here. You know, so I think where I see
• 33:55
  people getting stuck with when they are selling a product or
• 33:59
  they are selling property in particular actually is that
• 34:02
  they've got $1,000,000 property and they're fixated on that
• 34:07
  $1,000,000 price and someone comes and offers them 970,000
• 34:14
  and they go, Oh no, it's $1,000,000.
• 34:16
  Meanwhile, they've then got a hold the property.
• 34:19
  I've got an example of somebody who held the property then for
• 34:23
  five years and the maintenance costs of holding that property.
• 34:28
  By the time he went to sell it again, he had to repaint it.
• 34:31
  He had to do the lawns come every two weeks.
• 34:34
  You know, all the holding costs of the rates, the insurance,
• 34:38
  it's like, yeah, that 30 grand. You can get fixated on that 30
• 34:42
  grand or you could go right. What can I move if you are
• 34:46
  staying in the same market? Am I chasing an opportunity
• 34:49
  that's going to make me more money?
• 34:50
  I think when you're exiting the market, whether it's real estate
• 34:54
  or stocks, when you are taking yourself out of the market, that
• 34:57
  is when you lose. And like you said with
• 34:59
  compounding interest is people. So somebody stopped me in the
• 35:04
  grocery store the other day and we're having this conversation
• 35:07
  and they were going, Oh yeah, I'm thinking about putting my
• 35:10
  money in stocks. And I know a little bit about
• 35:13
  this person, but we had had, um, I know they're quite impulsive.
• 35:18
  And if you're an impulsive person, I would not recommend
• 35:22
  stocks because it is very easy now with the apps to do
• 35:25
  transactions very quickly. So as soon as you have an
• 35:29
  impulsive thought, I want to buy a new car, I want to buy a new
• 35:31
  boat is very easy for you to access that money and take it
• 35:35
  out. But it is the long game that you
• 35:38
  win with stocks. If you're in it for the long
• 35:41
  game, the longer you're runway the lower the risk.
• 35:45
  So interesting. Wow.
• 35:48
  OK, OK, so there's so much, Oh my gosh, there's so much in
• 35:52
  that. So for you take me back to like
• 35:57
  what? What gave you that confidence to
• 36:00
  leave teaching to pursue even doing this?
• 36:03
  Like having the property development, Like tell me about
• 36:05
  the bridge and the gap there and how your children bringing your
• 36:10
  children to the world. Like how did that fit into this
• 36:12
  whole story? Because this is a fascinating
• 36:14
  story and when I have an uncovered yet.
• 36:16
  Yeah. So I'm still, I'm in an acting
• 36:19
  leadership role now, still in education.
• 36:22
  And that for, for me, education on a leadership level still
• 36:27
  gives me so much joy. Like for me it is I love
• 36:32
  educating people and that is that is a part of me that I
• 36:35
  still am trying to hold on to. And that's where I've moved in
• 36:39
  to now, helping educating women on how to do this.
• 36:44
  And I think I'm living proof of like, I've got a lot of hats to
• 36:50
  navigate, but there's, there's systems and there's, there's
• 36:53
  reasons behind why I haven't burnt myself out.
• 36:56
  And I think there is this narrative that you have to
• 37:00
  choose between motherhood or having a career.
• 37:05
  And I think that being a mother is the greatest motivation
• 37:11
  behind why you want more and why you want better for your kids.
• 37:16
  And there's often this thing of all my kids are too young for me
• 37:20
  to do this or my kids, I have to spend all this money on my kids
• 37:25
  and I can't get ahead. And, you know, spending money on
• 37:29
  your kids doesn't make you a good parent.
• 37:32
  And I've got lots of people that I know that are living proof
• 37:37
  that they will spend a lot on their children but have got no
• 37:44
  relationship with them, you know, And, um, every path that
• 37:50
  there's no right way to do motherhood or parenthood.
• 37:53
  And we only learn as we go along.
• 37:55
  We're all new to this. So yeah, I think the driving
• 38:00
  factor for me was like, right, I want to create a life where I am
• 38:06
  still a present mother, where I am still happy.
• 38:08
  Having my own identity and my kids are the greatest motivation
• 38:13
  behind my why. You know, the reason that I had
• 38:17
  these boundaries around my work and my career is because of my
• 38:21
  kids and the reason that and my kids know that things come in
• 38:25
  season. This work life balance is a lie.
• 38:29
  There's no work life balance. There's seasons of sometimes the
• 38:33
  priority is work and your children see that and what
• 38:38
  lessons do they see from that time is like my kids literally
• 38:42
  come to our strategy meetings, like our whole strategy team
• 38:45
  knows my kids. And if I can't trust them
• 38:49
  knowing my kids, can I trust them with my money?
• 38:53
  And they hear those conversations around money and
• 38:56
  it and it is our conversations are quite empowering around
• 39:01
  money so that they're not growing up with the mindset that
• 39:04
  money is only talked about when there's a crisis.
• 39:08
  So there it. Is again we went down in revolt
• 39:10
  again. But that is my biggest reason is
• 39:14
  like for I want to show my kids that you can have it all, but
• 39:19
  you don't have to do it all at the expense of your own mental
• 39:22
  health. And they see that my husband and
• 39:27
  I, when we have conversations around money, both of our
• 39:31
  opinions are valued and where showing them how to navigate
• 39:35
  those conversations so that when they have those conversations
• 39:39
  with their partners later in life, they can go or my mum and
• 39:42
  dad used to talk. You know, it wasn't mum handled
• 39:45
  the household, dad handled the finances.
• 39:48
  You know, it was because I've had stories of women messaging
• 39:53
  me going, I was that woman like I'm now a widow.
• 39:57
  I was that woman that was never invited to the table and now.
• 40:01
  I had to learn it all the hard way.
• 40:03
  I didn't even know who my husband went to for advisory.
• 40:05
  And you know, there's this huge gap when women become widows,
• 40:09
  this big financial gap. And that is part of the reason
• 40:11
  of that generation is that they were never Privy to being at
• 40:16
  that table. So.
• 40:17
  I love that you have that partnership.
• 40:19
  You talk about it with your kids.
• 40:21
  When you say my strategy team, who is that?
• 40:23
  What does that mean? So like we've got a business
• 40:26
  advisor and accountant, we've got a lawyer, we've got a
• 40:31
  finance guy that we have on our team as well.
• 40:35
  So that when we're going into these strategy meetings, we
• 40:39
  learned the hard way that not having a strategy team can cost
• 40:42
  you in the long run. Because when you don't have
• 40:44
  those strategy meetings, when you go into a meeting with one
• 40:48
  of them, you come out and go, you go and advise the lawyer,
• 40:52
  right? He said, we've got to do this.
• 40:54
  And then the lawyer goes, no, no, no, no, no.
• 40:56
  This is going to cost you way more, you know.
• 40:58
  So having them all present, they can all raise their concerns for
• 41:02
  whatever department they are part of.
• 41:06
  Yes, so that we can hash it out altogether.
• 41:09
  It was funny when I started the podcast and my accountant was
• 41:15
  like, right? This was a no, no, no.
• 41:19
  I know you're going with this. How are you going to monetize?
• 41:22
  It yeah, yeah, yeah. So we had those, those
• 41:25
  conversations because it's like down a totally different path.
• 41:28
  Like I've never done, you know, it, it definitely is aligned and
• 41:32
  it uses my strengths, but I don't know the business models.
• 41:36
  He doesn't either. So you know, that's where.
• 41:39
  And then I've got my mentor on the she is, she is there
• 41:43
  alongside, but she is like our relationship has grown.
• 41:47
  I know that I can talk to her in whenever I need and she will.
• 41:51
  When you're stuck and you've got these mindset blocks, she will
• 41:54
  come in and she'll go right. You're fixating on the wrong
• 41:58
  thing, and although this isn't her area of expertise, she is
• 42:02
  very good at reminding me of those those pillars that I had
• 42:07
  set that are important for me. That's so incredibly cool.
• 42:12
  I love that notion of like you creating your own board of
• 42:14
  directors, whether it is a proverbial board of directors,
• 42:17
  like just like people on that you go to for counsel, whether
• 42:21
  it's like a friend who's accountant, a friend who's a
• 42:23
  lawyer, an actual lawyer, whatever.
• 42:25
  Or if you're like yourself and your husband who have I'm sure a
• 42:28
  couple corporations or whatever it is, whatever the setup is,
• 42:31
  you've got these people. But I think that such sage
• 42:34
  advice to have these people talk to one another.
• 42:36
  And when you're putting up this, putting this team together,
• 42:39
  making sure that the team, because we have a few of these
• 42:41
  people who do now talk to 1 other, which is really nice
• 42:44
  because I don't want to be the bottleneck.
• 42:46
  I'm trying to tell the accountant what the lawyer
• 42:48
  saying. And it's like, yes, I'm not
• 42:50
  describing it properly at all. I don't know, you know, it's not
• 42:54
  my area of expertise and like the policies or the, I don't
• 42:56
  know, God even know where I'm going with this, but you know
• 42:58
  what I mean? It's like, yeah, setting people
• 43:00
  up who are willing to willing to have a team approach to it.
• 43:03
  Because although sitting in that strategy meeting, you might be
• 43:07
  doing the math to be like, oh, wow, this is like a $2000
• 43:09
  meeting right now because you're paying everybody, but you're
• 43:13
  saving so much money by not doing all the back and forth.
• 43:16
  OK, Sarah, I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you to really go into
• 43:20
  what are your multiple income streams?
• 43:22
  So you have your position. Yeah.
• 43:25
  Education, which I totally I knew that you were still there,
• 43:29
  but I totally think, you know, just thinking of you.
• 43:30
  I'm like, oh, prolific computer, but no, you still have that.
• 43:34
  Yeah, yeah. And I think too as well, that
• 43:36
  gives me like I am somewhat in the trenches, you know, that is
• 43:41
  the I'm still just because you've got a nine to five
• 43:46
  doesn't mean that. Yeah, I don't know.
• 43:49
  I guess there's, there's a thing that you can't have a nine to
• 43:51
  five while you're building multiple income streams.
• 43:54
  And um, so I'll go back to what my income streams are.
• 43:59
  So I've got education, I've got an advisory company, I've got a
• 44:04
  property management company, I've got a holiday rental
• 44:07
  company, I've got the podcast. We've got my husbands income and
• 44:12
  then we've got dividends, dividend income and then we've
• 44:17
  got investment portfolios that give us.
• 44:20
  Returns. So how are you doing at all?
• 44:23
  How are you doing 9:00 to 5:00 with kids?
• 44:27
  Three kids ranging from 7 to 2, seven to two.
• 44:33
  How are you? How are you making that all
• 44:34
  work? And you said without burning
• 44:36
  out. My team, I've built A-Team.
• 44:39
  It started off with me writing down a list of all the things
• 44:44
  that I don't like doing and going right.
• 44:49
  How much is it gonna cost me to pay someone else to do it?
• 44:53
  So for example, when I was first starting off, it was the
• 44:56
  cleaning. It was like, that is a really
• 44:59
  simple step to create a whole lot of mental space for you
• 45:05
  because you're not thinking I've gotta clean upstairs toilet or
• 45:08
  I've gotta, you know, just like those mundane tasks, hand them
• 45:12
  off to somebody else, you know, And I was paying for a cleaner
• 45:16
  long before I could afford to pay for a cleaner and I couldn't
• 45:21
  have had that. That gave me that room to grow
• 45:24
  because it alleviated something. So if I'm going to go down this
• 45:27
  path, what supports do I need in place?
• 45:31
  That is that has been my biggest drive of like, OK, right, If I'm
• 45:34
  going down this path, what supports do I need to have to
• 45:38
  make room for this? And I think that is how I can do
• 45:43
  it all. You know, I think the seasons
• 45:47
  where you're like, whoa, I need to check in because this is
• 45:50
  overwhelming. And there are seasons like where
• 45:53
  one week it is all crumbling down.
• 45:55
  And that's it's just a case of prioritizing, right?
• 45:58
  I can't wear this hat and wear this hat.
• 46:01
  And I think the biggest thing for me that has helped me not
• 46:06
  feel like this big walking hot mess.
• 46:08
  And when I first became a mother, that was my, that was my
• 46:13
  thing was I was, I was writing emails, I was organising
• 46:16
  contractors, I was talking to the finance guy, I was making
• 46:19
  breakfast for the kids, I was brushing the kids hair.
• 46:22
  My husband was trying the conversation with me.
• 46:24
  I had all these tabs open whereas now I time block my days
• 46:29
  so I'm just wearing one hat and I've gotten really good around
• 46:34
  the boundaries of someone is coming at me with a question on
• 46:37
  when I'm wearing a different hat.
• 46:39
  It's like, OK, I'll get back to you at this time, but I'm not
• 46:44
  going to. Nothing is ever really as urgent
• 46:47
  as we think that it has to be dealt with then and there and
• 46:51
  then if it does, then it's just a priority unfortunately at that
• 46:55
  time. And then that what that's making
• 46:57
  me think of is then if you do have situations where there
• 47:00
  truly isn't enough time in the day and you're like, I have to
• 47:05
  be taking this phone call while I'm getting my kids ready for
• 47:08
  school, then that's an indication that that's where you
• 47:12
  need to either automate, delegate, outsource and some
• 47:15
  that that's an indication that's not working, it sounds like.
• 47:18
  And that's, that would give you the pause to be like, OK, how
• 47:22
  could I take this? How could I make more space,
• 47:24
  take this off my plate? And if I can't do that, if it
• 47:28
  doesn't financially make sense, then maybe it's that's an
• 47:31
  indication it's not working. So say you have a small business
• 47:33
  like an Etsy account or whatever, and you're constantly
• 47:35
  like, you just don't have enough time in the day, but it doesn't
• 47:38
  make sense to hire somebody to help you, then that's not maybe
• 47:40
  the right business model. Is that is my head going in the
• 47:44
  right direction with? This yeah, I think too as well.
• 47:46
  Like sometimes there's no, it's not that that might not be the
• 47:51
  right business model for you. It's what is taking up your time
• 47:56
  that's not giving you a return. So if you're feeling, if you're
• 48:02
  running an Etsy business and there's too much there that you
• 48:06
  feel you've got to really look at your tasks and write them
• 48:10
  down and go right, when I do this, this, this, the income
• 48:15
  goes up. When I'm doing this, this, this,
• 48:18
  I'm seeing no return. So they these this list of
• 48:22
  things that you are using to fill in all these blanks, this
• 48:25
  blank white space. And I think too as well like as
• 48:28
  a, when you first start off in a business, in a small business is
• 48:32
  that you think you've got all this time.
• 48:35
  So then you create tasks to fill in the blanks.
• 48:39
  And that is like a really good sign that you don't have a
• 48:42
  business strategy. And although I'm not into
• 48:46
  budgeting, I am into having a plan for your money.
• 48:49
  And if you don't know your numbers, then you're not running
• 48:54
  a business. Hmm, beautiful.
• 48:59
  OK, what about the person who is like, OK, I've got, I want to do
• 49:07
  this. I want to hire the cleaner, but
• 49:09
  it feels like I'm chasing my own tail.
• 49:13
  How do you change your mindset to be like, I can take this
• 49:17
  risk? Like you hired the cleaner
• 49:19
  before you felt like you could actually afford it.
• 49:21
  You know what I mean? It's like there has to be a
• 49:23
  step. There has to be a change that's
• 49:25
  made and a bit of a risk to start in order to free up the
• 49:29
  space, in order to grow and say make more money, make more time
• 49:33
  to make more money. Like how do you step into that
• 49:36
  if you're not there? Yet, yeah, I think it's it's a
• 49:38
  mindset issue there. You've got a mindset issue and I
• 49:42
  think that's, that's a shift from going from a poor mindset
• 49:45
  to a rich mindset is that you're willing to spend money to make
• 49:51
  money. And when you are in a deficit
• 49:53
  sort of thinking of going, OHI can't afford to spend this $80 a
• 49:59
  week on a cleaner, you're coming from a deficit mindset.
• 50:03
  Whereas when you're looking at OK, right, for me, that cleaner
• 50:08
  is part of my support team. I call my cleaners the support
• 50:12
  team, the daycare, the support team, all of those things.
• 50:15
  Because without them, there's a whole lot more on.
• 50:19
  And my husband and I was playing like so also saying if I'm going
• 50:26
  to go and invest this money in this cleaner, what does it get
• 50:29
  me? For me, it gives you my
• 50:30
  Saturdays back with my kids. I can be a fully present mum.
• 50:34
  My weekend. I do not do any um, particularly
• 50:38
  Sunday. I do not do any chores, chores.
• 50:41
  That is my time for my kids. You know, that is a total reset
• 50:45
  just to to switch the gears a little bit and that's how I fill
• 50:48
  up my cup for the week. But yeah, I think you really
• 50:52
  need to get clear on why. What is the real reason?
• 50:56
  Because it's not just the money, you're looking at a very narrow
• 51:02
  costs, you're looking at the financial value of that higher
• 51:07
  rather than the benefits of that hire.
• 51:11
  That's so good. And for the person who's in the
• 51:13
  corporate job who is feeling like I need to leave this job, I
• 51:18
  need to get out of corporate because it's clearly not working
• 51:21
  because I have no time. I'm spending my whole weekend
• 51:23
  cleaning. I have no time with my kids,
• 51:25
  whatever. I actually think that investing
• 51:29
  that say hundred $150 on that cleaner and keeping the
• 51:33
  corporate job, like spending a bit of money to buy back your
• 51:37
  time in order to keep the job that wasn't working in order to
• 51:41
  spend more time with your kids. Like that feels like a
• 51:44
  worthwhile investment. Because as you say, you're
• 51:46
  getting up and you're climbing the ranks at work and you're
• 51:48
  able to perform better because you're able to be president,
• 51:51
  show up at work, you're getting raises like if it's the right
• 51:54
  job. So this is actually such an,
• 51:57
  this is such an interesting conversation that I've never
• 52:00
  really thought about it from that perspective.
• 52:02
  And, and this is a conversation, Sarah, that I have so often when
• 52:05
  I'm coaching clients where, and I've said this on the podcast
• 52:09
  before, people come in and they're like, I need to leave
• 52:12
  this job, I want you to help me find another job.
• 52:15
  I'm not kidding. 8 times out of 10/9, times out of 10, that
• 52:18
  person is either in that same job or a similar job, but the
• 52:22
  whole system is just working better because of things like
• 52:26
  that. They're reprioritizing where
• 52:28
  they're spending their money, how they're spending their time,
• 52:30
  their relationship with work, their relationship with their
• 52:33
  boss. And that in and of itself is
• 52:36
  affording them that, you know, stable income.
• 52:38
  Yes. And now with this conversation,
• 52:41
  they're like, OK, I'm going to take 510.
• 52:43
  Fifteen, 20% of that invested in creating more streams of income
• 52:49
  to make more money. Yeah, And I think that the
• 52:52
  biggest piece is also that piece of mind is that, you know, if
• 52:56
  corporate doesn't work out, then fine, that's fine.
• 52:59
  I've got, I've got my safety net and then I've got income coming
• 53:03
  in after that so I don't have to.
• 53:05
  If it doesn't work out and I'm completely miserable at it, I
• 53:09
  don't need to go and scramble for another job.
• 53:12
  And like you said earlier, click on Indeed, apply, apply, apply,
• 53:15
  apply. For the sake of it.
• 53:17
  I can actually sit back and go, right?
• 53:20
  What is going to be a good fit for me?
• 53:21
  Where am I going moving forward? What supports do I need in
• 53:26
  place? Because I feel like when you're
• 53:28
  in a cycle of burnout, the easiest way to interpret the
• 53:34
  story is it's a workplace's fault this is going on.
• 53:38
  This isn't going on. Instead of you going, hang on.
• 53:41
  I didn't actually build the supports that I needed to hold
• 53:45
  that position or hold those responsibilities.
• 53:48
  So I think it's like this balancing act of you also being
• 53:52
  like, right, if I'm going to step into this area, what
• 53:55
  supports do I need to have in place so that I can do it so
• 53:58
  that I'm not ending up burnt out, bitter, resentful, those
• 54:02
  sorts of things. So this is such a cool
• 54:05
  conversation. Sarah, I have to ask you, if
• 54:09
  someone wanted to spend a little bit of time, say that they're
• 54:13
  commodity, the resource that they have to leverage is time.
• 54:16
  Maybe they've got 1020 hours a week maybe back so they could
• 54:19
  spare in 2026. They wanted to create a small
• 54:23
  but mighty second stream of income.
• 54:27
  What are some ideas that you have?
• 54:28
  What are you seeing as I don't know trends or ideas or and I
• 54:32
  know this is like you have 0 context but off the top of your.
• 54:35
  Head well, so I've asked my client if I can share this story
• 54:40
  and she actually came to me and she was like, look, we live out
• 54:45
  on a farm. My husband doesn't make that
• 54:48
  much money. We are in a quite a remote
• 54:52
  location there, in a really remote location in New South in
• 54:55
  Australia. And she had said how do I, how
• 55:00
  do I make a second income because I've got no money to
• 55:03
  make money and I'm like, OK, So what?
• 55:06
  Do what you are living the life you know, the sourdough, making
• 55:12
  the romanticised version of the homestead.
• 55:15
  You are living that right now. And I know for a fact her
• 55:18
  cooking is amazing, like her relishes.
• 55:20
  I've heard people in our networks talk about them.
• 55:26
  So I'm like, she doesn't really like she, you know, and she's
• 55:30
  going OHS should I, should I do this?
• 55:31
  And should I do that? And I'm like, you don't really
• 55:35
  like people, so don't start a business.
• 55:37
  Whoops. Where you're like, you have to
• 55:41
  be, she's an introvert, you know, don't go and choose a role
• 55:45
  where you have to go against those things.
• 55:48
  So anyway, she has started. So something that she does
• 55:51
  already is she already batches the relishes and the stuff like
• 55:55
  that. So I said right, well to give
• 55:57
  you some extra money, go and ask all these cafes in Melbourne
• 56:03
  that have got quite boutique sort of clientele, go and
• 56:09
  approach them and ask them if they can stock, send them a
• 56:12
  sample. You know, she messaged me, we've
• 56:15
  only been working together for a month and she messaged me and
• 56:18
  said that she's got 5 cafes on board, you know, so that is huge
• 56:22
  like and that for her is she's already doing it anyway.
• 56:25
  She's already batching these. This doesn't cost her any extra
• 56:28
  money. It's creating extra money for
• 56:31
  her. She's leveraging what she
• 56:32
  already knows. I would love to know how to make
• 56:34
  relishes and I said to her but I'm scared or like fermented
• 56:38
  things but I'm scared I'm going to poison whole family and end
• 56:41
  up in a news article. Yeah, I'm.
• 56:43
  Like, why don't you know that is an avenue of income that she
• 56:47
  could go down later, But at this point in time, she is just
• 56:50
  creating a brand. And I said the story behind her
• 56:55
  brand that then she's gone and marketed to these cafes and
• 56:59
  they've gone, yeah, sure, yeah, we'll take you on.
• 57:01
  And it's not like she's going to make millions, but but for for
• 57:05
  her, she is, she is doing something that she already loves
• 57:08
  doing something that comes naturally that she's got all
• 57:10
  this knowledge of and she can talk for days and days about.
• 57:14
  But she's also feeling like she's contributing to the
• 57:18
  family. And it's giving her root like
• 57:21
  breathing space as she goes into the holiday period to know I
• 57:24
  actually can afford to take my husband.
• 57:26
  I can pay for the holiday to take my husband away from the
• 57:30
  farm you know And that is that is a big thing for when for her
• 57:35
  is that I feel like I can say that my husband is bombing is
• 57:39
  very hard profession. They're constantly working.
• 57:43
  My uncle told me never to marry a farmer because they always.
• 57:47
  Wanted never, my mom said. Never opened a restaurant.
• 57:49
  Yeah. So, yeah.
• 57:53
  So that has been like, and just her, her feeling like me, I
• 57:59
  don't have, I've got nothing, you know, And it's like
• 58:02
  everyone's got something. And I think as well, women
• 58:07
  sometimes focus on what they what strengths they don't have
• 58:12
  and they try to strengthen those.
• 58:14
  But there are things that come easily to us, but because they
• 58:17
  come easy to us, we don't realise that they don't come
• 58:20
  easy to everyone. Unless you have someone on the
• 58:23
  outside going, hang on. Yes, and that's where like
• 58:26
  having good counsel around you is really important.
• 58:28
  And on your podcast that we just recorded as well on the Richer
• 58:32
  podcast, we talked about that and how it's just it's really
• 58:34
  important to have the right counsel.
• 58:36
  And we've talked about that in this discussion where you're not
• 58:39
  being coached by your partner, by your parents, by your
• 58:42
  siblings. Let those people maintain those
• 58:44
  roles that they are in. Let your parents be your
• 58:47
  parents, not your business advisors.
• 58:50
  Let your partner be your partner and create make decisions
• 58:53
  together. But don't you know, you do need
• 58:55
  outside creative thinking? You need some fresh blood in
• 58:58
  there. Like if she didn't have you to
• 59:00
  be like, what about your relishes?
• 59:02
  Chances are there other people in her life who probably
• 59:04
  wouldn't see that they're too close to it.
• 59:05
  They'd be like, well, that seems like you can't make money.
• 59:07
  But now based on this conversation I'm seeing, that
• 59:09
  relish story is like incredible because not only is she making
• 59:15
  profit, I'm sure on every jam or every, you know, relish jar she
• 59:20
  makes, but then she's also building a brand into your
• 59:23
  point. She could be doing like a little
• 59:25
  bit of coaching or she could go on Instagram and like, I guess
• 59:28
  she's an introvert, but you know what I mean?
• 59:29
  Like she can be turning that business into money as well.
• 59:33
  And if her leverage point was time because she's got like the
• 59:35
  homestead life set up, then she's just that's just like such
• 59:40
  a good example because you weren't even just saying, oh, go
• 59:42
  start an Internet Internet business.
• 59:43
  Go like, you know, be frivolous like that is.
• 59:47
  That's so smart. This is such a good
• 59:50
  conversation. Thank you so much for coming on,
• 59:53
  Sarah. I so appreciate your wisdom.
• 59:56
  Now I ask this to all my guests, what is something that you are
• 1:00:00
  currently still trying to figure out?
• 1:00:03
  Sunday, I am still currently trying to figure out podcast.
• 1:00:08
  I'm so trying to figure out podcasting that is like that is
• 1:00:12
  something that I pride myself on in terms of the way that I have
• 1:00:17
  created my life is that I feel like as a mother, all the parts
• 1:00:23
  of me have come together to complement the whole me.
• 1:00:28
  And I feel like that is something.
• 1:00:29
  Yeah, there are times where I'm going, Oh my goodness, Like when
• 1:00:33
  I transitioned back to work. And this is something that other
• 1:00:36
  people might want to use to as I had this, I would come in from
• 1:00:42
  work, I'd walk in the door and I'd put right, I've gotta get
• 1:00:46
  dinner done. I've gotta do this, this, this,
• 1:00:48
  this. And I would just be in this
• 1:00:50
  survival mode. Whereas now I walk in the door,
• 1:00:53
  I sit down, I have a cup of tea, I have a debrief, I talk to the
• 1:00:57
  kids, I check in and I just, it takes away that rush for me.
• 1:01:02
  That is a huge transition period for me.
• 1:01:07
  Is transitioning between those hats, having certain systems or
• 1:01:11
  strategies that I use to to get my, not hiding the game, but
• 1:01:18
  those sorts of things. So that that is something for me
• 1:01:21
  that has been a huge saviour of like not rushing from one hat to
• 1:01:25
  the next and taking a breath and being like, right, OK.
• 1:01:30
  Intentional transitions I love that I could really use and even
• 1:01:35
  if it's like if someone like, yes, but my kids have to eat,
• 1:01:37
  like could it be 10 minutes? Like, that's making me think
• 1:01:39
  about rocking up in the house. I turn the TV on while I cook
• 1:01:42
  dinner because they got their little decompression time.
• 1:01:45
  That's their TV time. But why not just like, spend 10
• 1:01:48
  minutes on the floor playing magnet blocks for like, yeah,
• 1:01:51
  5-10 minutes, Chat for a minute. Yeah, I like this.
• 1:01:56
  Yeah, I like. This yeah, I definitely find
• 1:01:58
  that it's been a shift because as soon as I would walk in the
• 1:02:00
  door and I'd go straight into the chores or making the dinner,
• 1:02:02
  cause I'm going, they're going to ask for a snack soon and then
• 1:02:06
  they won't want to eat their dinner, you know, So it's like
• 1:02:08
  having that, that, that pause period to go, right.
• 1:02:14
  And you know, also too, as well, I think my kids were picking up.
• 1:02:18
  When I walk in the door, my kids are rushing to give me a hug and
• 1:02:22
  they're rushing to tell me about their day.
• 1:02:25
  Whereas when I'd walk in before I had my transition period, it
• 1:02:28
  was like, oh, mom's home, she's cooking dinner now.
• 1:02:33
  You know, as a as a totally different message that I was
• 1:02:36
  sending. I wasn't trying to send that
• 1:02:38
  because I'm coming from a place of love.
• 1:02:40
  I've got to get the dinner done or I've got to do this stuff.
• 1:02:43
  But it's amazing when you step back and you go hang on.
• 1:02:46
  I just need to take this time, yeah?
• 1:02:51
  That is so inspiring. Can I tell you a hack that I
• 1:02:53
  just recently came up with? Yeah, OK.
• 1:02:57
  My kids are so into cucumber right now it's insane.
• 1:03:00
  Like it's actually scary how many cucumbers I've been buying.
• 1:03:04
  I will take it though, right? Yeah.
• 1:03:05
  And they both like it. So like one of them likes
• 1:03:07
  Peppers, bell Peppers, one of them doesn't.
• 1:03:09
  But it's like this is where they meet in the middle.
• 1:03:11
  They both love cucumber. So I've been buying those like 2
• 1:03:13
  packs of cucumbers and I'm like the English cucumber some
• 1:03:15
  chopping them up and my little guy always looks over the couch
• 1:03:19
  goes mommy snacky, snacky. And I was like God I can't do a
• 1:03:22
  snack but dinner is going to be 20 more minutes.
• 1:03:24
  So I'm cutting the cucumbers one day I was like you know, let's
• 1:03:27
  see what happens. So I give them this pile of
• 1:03:29
  cucumbers and they demolished it because they're watching TV and
• 1:03:33
  it's mindless. So now whatever vegetable
• 1:03:36
  usually like some sort of crudity, I'm like chopping up
• 1:03:39
  for their dinner cause they won't eat like a cooked
• 1:03:40
  vegetable. Like I wouldn't when I was a
• 1:03:42
  child. I throw them crudites on the
• 1:03:45
  couch, each in their own little bowl or little plate or whatever
• 1:03:47
  and they're just sitting there. They eat more vegetables than
• 1:03:51
  I've ever seen a child eat in my life because they're just not
• 1:03:54
  even noticing. And then honestly, like, if
• 1:03:56
  there's any vegetables leftover, like, they'll eat it with their
• 1:03:59
  dinner, but then they're just acting like their carbs and
• 1:04:01
  their protein calling it a day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:04:04
  Totally to that. Like, did I make this up?
• 1:04:07
  Did I see it somewhere? I don't know.
• 1:04:08
  But I'm rolling with it. And I hope someone else will try
• 1:04:11
  this, too. Dara, you're amazing.
• 1:04:13
  This has been such a wholesome conversation.
• 1:04:16
  Like I just love your parenting vibe and ethos.
• 1:04:20
  I love your mindset around money.
• 1:04:21
  I love that you've not. You're actually proof and you
• 1:04:24
  are showing that you can be a very present, intentional parent
• 1:04:29
  while creating wealth for your family, which as we know,
• 1:04:33
  unlocks experiences and everything.
• 1:04:35
  And you just seem so grounded with it.
• 1:04:37
  And I think we need more examples of people like you.
• 1:04:39
  So I just want to thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
• 1:04:42
  Well, thanks for having me, Andrea.
• 1:04:43
  It's been a pleasure. And if someone wants to reach
• 1:04:46
  out and work with you, how might they do that and listen to your
• 1:04:50
  podcast? So the Richer podcast on Spotify
• 1:04:54
  and Apple is the best way to listen and to contact me.
• 1:04:58
  Just Instagram is the best at Rich.
• 1:05:01
  Her under score is just DM me and we'll see where you're at
• 1:05:06
  and have a conversation. I love that.
• 1:05:09
  Thank you, Sarah.