Transcript
WEBVTT
00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:22.707
I think the hard, like I guess the good thing about all that was that now I know that, even if I have nothing in the end, like even if I were to lose everything that I've built over the last 30 years, uh, since we immigrated I would still be okay because, at the end of the day, money is important, but it is not the most important thing.
00:00:22.707 --> 00:00:27.350
Um, as long as we have our health, as long as we have each other, that's what really matters.
00:00:27.350 --> 00:00:31.510
You want to have good people in your life, people that you can rely on.
00:00:31.510 --> 00:00:36.813
You're like your spouse, your partner, your kids, your siblings.
00:00:36.813 --> 00:00:38.125
That's really what matters.
00:00:38.125 --> 00:00:47.426
So I think for me, the lesson in all that was like, we can always build it all up, we can always earn more money, but it's the people that matter the most.
00:00:58.281 --> 00:00:59.887
Hey babe, what are we talking about today?
00:01:00.680 --> 00:01:21.750
Today we are talking about one of our favorite topics, which is raising children that are financially responsible, financially aware and hopefully, really wealthy, because we always joke that we are trying to build trust fund babies without them being the stereotypical trust fund baby, but we want them to have the wealth of a trust fund baby.
00:01:21.920 --> 00:01:25.325
So this is going to be an exciting conversation the wealth and the wealth of knowledge as well.
00:01:25.599 --> 00:01:29.188
There you go, but we have an expert with us today.
00:01:29.188 --> 00:01:30.450
We have Maya Korbeck.
00:01:30.450 --> 00:01:40.368
She's all about raising wealthy children in the best way possible and really educating them in that process about money and finances and building wealth.
00:01:40.368 --> 00:01:43.760
So, maya, we are so excited to have you on the Sugar Daddy podcast with us today.
00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:45.262
Thank you so much for have you on the Sugar Daddy podcast with us today.
00:01:45.281 --> 00:01:46.822
Thank you so much for having me on.
00:01:46.822 --> 00:01:48.204
I'm really excited about today.
00:01:48.704 --> 00:01:50.326
Yes, it's going to be a great conversation.
00:01:50.326 --> 00:01:59.156
We met Maya at FinCon and if you follow us on socials, all you saw for several days was just FinCon, fincon, fincon, everything.
00:01:59.156 --> 00:02:11.043
We went to dinner I think it was the first night and just totally hit it off.
00:02:11.043 --> 00:02:11.944
We were like you have to be on the podcast.
00:02:11.944 --> 00:02:12.646
We love what you're doing.
00:02:12.646 --> 00:02:15.514
We were already following you because your information that you put out for parents is so fantastic and easy to understand.
00:02:15.514 --> 00:02:25.506
That's the point that I think is really important is that everything that you share with your audience is really easy to comprehend and implement.
00:02:25.506 --> 00:02:27.070
You were going to say something.
00:02:27.319 --> 00:02:33.487
I was just going to simply say, for those that don't know what FinCon is, it's a conference for finance content creators.
00:02:33.829 --> 00:02:34.371
Money nerds.
00:02:34.659 --> 00:02:35.421
Yeah, basically.
00:02:36.926 --> 00:02:38.572
Yes, money nerds unite.
00:02:38.572 --> 00:02:45.866
So let's get into Maya's bio so everybody understands the knowledge that she's going to bring to this conversation, because it's going to be a good one.
00:02:45.866 --> 00:02:57.984
Maya Korbik is a CPA by trade and is the author of the children's book From Piggy Banks to Stocks the Ultimate Guide for a Young Investor, and she's the founder of the Wealthy Kids Investment Club.
00:02:57.984 --> 00:03:07.481
Her popular Instagram account, teach Kids Money, has over 160,000 subscribers and inspires parents to raise financially independent kids.
00:03:07.481 --> 00:03:14.782
Her work has been featured in CBS News, nbc, abc, fox Girl you got all the acronyms.
00:03:14.782 --> 00:03:15.683
You've been doing a lot.
00:03:15.683 --> 00:03:20.805
Thank you for being with us today, because we know your time is very precious, thank you.
00:03:20.805 --> 00:03:29.467
Thank you for having me, of course, so we like to kick off all of our guest episodes with understanding your first money memory.
00:03:29.467 --> 00:03:30.951
Do you have one for us?
00:03:30.951 --> 00:03:32.681
I?
00:03:33.021 --> 00:03:33.943
do actually.
00:03:33.943 --> 00:03:34.664
Yeah, so it's.
00:03:34.664 --> 00:03:44.828
It's a little bit of a weird one, but I was maybe seven or eight and I wanted to buy my mom a mother's day gift.
00:03:44.828 --> 00:03:49.134
So I come from Bosnia, which used to be part of former Yugoslavia.
00:03:49.134 --> 00:03:51.639
It was a communist country and we actually didn't have Mother's Day.
00:03:51.639 --> 00:03:56.290
We celebrated International Women's Day, which now everybody celebrates.
00:03:56.290 --> 00:03:57.012
It's March 8th.
00:03:57.500 --> 00:04:00.866
So for us that was Mother's Day and I wanted to get her a gift.
00:04:00.866 --> 00:04:10.507
But I had no money and I don't know where my dad was Maybe he was on a business trip or somewhere and I couldn't ask him.
00:04:10.507 --> 00:04:24.661
So I had to ask my mom for money, and I remember not liking the feeling of not having any money of my own, but wanting that money to spend on something that was important to me.
00:04:24.661 --> 00:04:34.793
And so I asked her for money and my mom didn't want to give me any, but I was begging her and begging her and in the end she kept on asking me she's like, what is it for?
00:04:34.793 --> 00:04:36.696
And I said I can't tell you, I can't tell you.
00:04:41.740 --> 00:04:43.947
And in the end, of course, I told her and she gave me money and I ended up buying this.
00:04:43.947 --> 00:04:47.456
It was just a little cute ceramic box in a shape of an apple.
00:04:47.456 --> 00:04:53.033
It was not a box like a container in a shape of an apple where she could store her jewelry or her rings.
00:04:53.033 --> 00:05:02.747
And I remember eyeing it before that for a couple of weeks in the store that was close to where we lived and I just thought it was so adorable and I thought she would really like it.
00:05:02.747 --> 00:05:07.689
And in the end she gave me the money and I got that for her and she had it for a very long time.
00:05:07.689 --> 00:05:25.031
But just the feeling of not having money of my own was very discouraging to me and very, I guess I just felt I really I think from that moment on I knew I wanted to have my own money.
00:05:25.031 --> 00:05:33.595
I wanted to not have to ask for someone's permission to buy something that I wanted or that was important to me.
00:05:35.702 --> 00:05:37.470
As a kid, was money talked about in your household?
00:05:39.281 --> 00:05:40.021
Not really.
00:05:40.021 --> 00:05:50.555
Um, you know, I think I kind of grew up with a poor mindset, not abundance mindset, when it comes to money.
00:05:50.555 --> 00:06:00.610
Um, my parents, before the war in Bosnia, before we immigrated, uh, and lost everything I think we were middle class and we lived okay.
00:06:00.610 --> 00:06:12.690
Um, my mom always used to say that money was very hard to come by, that you had to work extremely hard, and so they built those good work habits in me.
00:06:12.690 --> 00:06:30.728
But, you know, my mom was also very good at, like, budgeting the money, but my parents never invested, they didn't have credit cards and, you know, not to mention, they didn't talk about any sorts of passive streams of income or entrepreneurship.
00:06:30.728 --> 00:06:32.180
That wasn't even on their radar.
00:06:32.682 --> 00:06:42.607
So I learned a lot by observing, and I learned even more so by observing once we immigrated and we had to live in government shelters and government housing.
00:06:42.607 --> 00:06:54.492
My mom had to be very creative to stretch that dollar and make sure that it goes as far as it possibly could, because at one point we were in welfare and we had, like we had absolutely nothing.
00:06:54.492 --> 00:07:04.951
So I was very good, I think, at budgeting and stretching the dollar, which I think I still am, but I lacked all these other skills and the skills that I picked up.
00:07:04.951 --> 00:07:15.851
I picked up by by watching Um, but the rest of it I kind of had to learn on my own through the books, through podcasts like yours, um TV shows, youtube and stuff like that.
00:07:17.500 --> 00:07:24.168
Being an immigrant and coming from you know, maybe middle-class, to then coming to the United States.
00:07:24.168 --> 00:07:27.526
This was when you immigrated to the United States, not Canada, right?
00:07:27.526 --> 00:07:28.889
No, I was actually in Canada.
00:07:28.889 --> 00:07:35.372
In Canada, yeah, okay, so from Bosnia to Canada and then totally changing kind of economic classes.
00:07:35.372 --> 00:07:36.422
What is what?
00:07:36.422 --> 00:07:39.928
What do you remember that being like as a child?
00:07:39.928 --> 00:07:50.074
So you have these vivid memories of seeing your parents stretch the dollar and obviously being motivated yourself to sounds like not want to have to do that.
00:07:50.074 --> 00:07:51.562
Right, and your adult life.
00:07:51.562 --> 00:07:52.785
But what else do you remember?
00:07:52.785 --> 00:07:57.173
Being an immigrant, being in a new country and kind of losing it all?
00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:07.721
Yeah, losing it all was very challenging, very challenging.
00:08:07.721 --> 00:08:08.461
And, um, I don't, I know my parents.
00:08:08.461 --> 00:08:19.021
Before the war, they had an opportunity to come to Canada and they chose not to because, as strange as it may sound, and even though the standard of living is better in North America, canada and America, united States included, some people don't want to leave.
00:08:19.021 --> 00:08:21.447
They're just happy living where they live right.
00:08:21.447 --> 00:08:35.841
And so when my parents came, it was terrifying, because I was almost 15 and I have a younger brother he's five years younger and my parents, they had to start from scratch.
00:08:35.841 --> 00:08:43.927
My mom is a chemical engineer and a computer programmer and my dad had a bachelor of economics and they didn't speak English.
00:08:43.927 --> 00:08:45.071
None of us spoke English.
00:08:45.071 --> 00:08:48.006
So, not only that, it was a culture shock.
00:08:48.006 --> 00:08:51.745
We had to learn English, we had no connections, we didn't know anyone.
00:08:51.745 --> 00:08:53.398
We had to be on welfare.
00:08:54.062 --> 00:09:10.570
On top of that, my dad much, much later on was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder because of the war and what we experienced, or what, mostly what he experienced, but we've all experienced things, so, but it's just affected him the hardest.
00:09:10.971 --> 00:09:23.966
Um, so it was very hard to start all of a sudden living normal life when you have these mental health issues, uh, and that caused my parents to split up and my mom and my brother and I ended up in a shelter for women and children.
00:09:24.005 --> 00:09:51.208
It was just really bad, but it was, um, I think the hard, like, I guess the good thing about all that was that now I know that, even if I have nothing in the end, like even if I were to lose everything that I've built over the last 30 years, uh, since we immigrated I would still be okay because, at the end of the day, money is important, but it is not the most important thing.
00:09:51.208 --> 00:09:55.886
Um, as long as we have our health, as long as we have each other, that's what really matters.
00:09:55.886 --> 00:10:00.043
You want to have good people in your life, people that you can rely on.
00:10:00.043 --> 00:10:05.323
You're like your spouse, your partner, your kids, your siblings.
00:10:05.323 --> 00:10:06.648
That's really what matters.
00:10:06.648 --> 00:10:17.769
So I think, for me, the lesson and all that was like we can always build it all up, we can always earn more money, but it's the people that matter the most I always.
00:10:19.010 --> 00:10:38.614
I always appreciate that perspective because I'm fortunate enough that I didn't have I didn't have a tough upbringing by any means grew up, you know, in the United States middle-class, upper middle-class never had to worry about going without and so I don't have, I didn't have to have that mindset of I've had nothing.
00:10:38.614 --> 00:10:43.541
So going back to nothing doesn't scare me because, in all honesty, I've always had a pretty good life.
00:10:43.541 --> 00:11:03.625
So, like certain aspects of losing it all is scary to me because I haven't had to experience that and that is one thing that I've noticed through some people that I know that have experienced similar aspects of life growing up that you've experienced, where you've had it rough and you had to pull yourself up by I'm not going to say bootstraps, because you didn't even have bootstraps.
00:11:04.466 --> 00:11:04.888
I didn't.
00:11:05.788 --> 00:11:13.946
Yeah, you had to do it all yourselves and I'm just as somebody that sees that like I'm just saying I don't even have words for it.
00:11:13.946 --> 00:11:18.381
Really, I admire it and admire is not a good word.
00:11:18.381 --> 00:11:31.347
Yeah, I admire like that, that ability, because I think when you've, like I said, when you've been through what you've been through, the sky's the limit, because you don't have the same fear that I have, because you've already done things that I've never had to do.
00:11:35.061 --> 00:11:39.211
Have you been listening to our podcast and wondering how am I really doing with my money?
00:11:39.211 --> 00:11:41.946
Am I doing the right things with my investments?
00:11:41.946 --> 00:11:44.633
Am I on track to reach my financial goals?
00:11:44.633 --> 00:11:46.405
What could I be doing better?
00:11:46.405 --> 00:12:01.649
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then it's time for you to reach out to Brandon to schedule your free yes, I said free 30-minute introduction conversation to see how his services could help make you the more confident moneymaker we know you could be.
00:12:01.649 --> 00:12:03.346
What are you waiting for?
00:12:03.346 --> 00:12:10.900
It's literally free and at the very least, you'll walk away feeling more empowered and confident about your financial future.
00:12:10.900 --> 00:12:12.543
Link is in our show notes.
00:12:12.543 --> 00:12:14.147
Go schedule your call today.
00:12:16.831 --> 00:12:17.953
If that makes any sense, I'm not.
00:12:17.953 --> 00:12:20.042
I'm not as good with words as Jess is.
00:12:20.042 --> 00:12:20.222
Yeah.
00:12:21.784 --> 00:12:26.149
I was just going to say I'm like it's, it totally makes sense.
00:12:26.149 --> 00:12:30.254
But I think the fear that you have is the fear of the unknown.
00:12:30.254 --> 00:12:36.969
But the unknown is it's bad in a way, but not really Like.
00:12:36.969 --> 00:12:45.740
I felt that, you know, the bad things were like I was actually just thinking about that and, um, I was kind of going through some things and I was writing in my journal.
00:12:45.740 --> 00:12:55.991
Sometimes I just use my journal to kind of like, you know, just get stuff out of my head, and I remember being embarrassed to bring people into our house, or not even a house.
00:12:56.052 --> 00:13:11.769
We had an apartment, um, when we first moved here and I remember one time one of my friends came over and I just saw the look on her face and she looked around and she's like, oh, this is, this is cute, and I knew what that meant.
00:13:11.769 --> 00:13:18.250
She was like I think she was just shocked like where I lived and how I lived and cause, outside of the home you couldn't tell.
00:13:18.250 --> 00:13:22.557
Like I had two part-time jobs, I dressed nice and actually my room was really nice.
00:13:22.557 --> 00:13:27.769
I bought my own furniture, I bought myself a computer, I bought like all these things.
00:13:27.769 --> 00:14:00.813
I decorated my room, I painted it, I you know, uh, but I couldn't control the rest of the household, right, so she only saw what she knew, and then, when she actually saw the rest of the house or the apartment, she was kind of like, oh, but anyways, I think I guess what I want to say is, like it seems daunting and I think there would be like a big bruise to the pride If, for example, for me, if I lost everything that I've built, but at the same time, there is some freedom in it, because it's kind of like, well, I've got nothing.
00:14:00.813 --> 00:14:05.812
So, um, I'm free to explore and, okay, what's the next step?
00:14:05.812 --> 00:14:07.010
Like, how are we going to do this?
00:14:07.010 --> 00:14:07.879
It could be exciting.
00:14:08.200 --> 00:14:17.575
And also, um, I find that I was a lot more creative, uh, when I had less, because now it's just easier.
00:14:17.575 --> 00:14:18.919
Oh, I can just spend money.
00:14:18.919 --> 00:14:30.076
Like I'm doing this challenge, I'm going to be doing this challenge with my daughter to teach her about budgeting and I'm going to use our front porch as a you know a way to do that.
00:14:30.076 --> 00:14:34.244
So I, you know we've I've asked my Instagram community to give us a budget and they're going to give.
00:14:34.244 --> 00:15:04.993
They give us like $50 to decorate the front porch, and so $50 is it's not a lot, but you know, I know I can do it even on a cheaper and it just kind of requires me to be more creative and to when I have less money, it really forces me to I don't know have more fun with it and really find ways to like tackle this and like make this look like I don't know $200 decoration versus you know, something that you spend 50 bucks on.
00:15:07.142 --> 00:15:08.147
I think, for me.
00:15:08.147 --> 00:15:20.530
I think one of the things that, like I've thought about through my entire life is that, like I said, I was fortunate enough in my upbringing that I should be successful in life because of what I've had afforded to me growing up.
00:15:20.530 --> 00:15:34.144
And the fear of not being successful is more or less that, because there's no reason for me not to be, because you have individuals that have had significantly harder lives than I have and they've become successful.
00:15:34.144 --> 00:15:36.768
So with the tools that I have, I should be.
00:15:36.768 --> 00:15:40.195
So I think that's kind of like what I think through in my own personal life, my head.
00:15:41.880 --> 00:15:57.534
Yeah, I feel I totally understand what you're saying and I sometimes feel that I have put some sort of expectation like that onto my own children because I feel that they are growing up privileged.
00:15:57.534 --> 00:16:34.905
Because I feel that they are growing up privileged, they have had experiences and possessions that I could have only dreamed of when I was their age and sometimes I feel guilty as a parent that I've put that sort of expectation on them, because I always tell them you know, when I was an immigrant, I was hungry, I was hungry for success, I was hungry for better life and that hunger just keeps you going, like it makes you really try harder and they don't have to try as hard and I, in some ways, I just think that maybe it's okay to let our kids be content.
00:16:34.905 --> 00:16:37.730
And you know what's success Like?
00:16:37.730 --> 00:16:41.946
Success is just the definition of everybody has a different definition of it, right?
00:16:41.946 --> 00:16:46.681
So my definition can be very different from my kids definition.
00:16:47.663 --> 00:16:52.533
Um, maybe someone's definition is to just be who they are Like.
00:16:52.533 --> 00:16:56.408
Why do they have to reach for more If what they, what they do right now, makes them happy?
00:16:56.408 --> 00:17:03.974
If they reach for more and they're constantly stressed out, burnt out, they don't have time for family and friends, then like what's the point of that?
00:17:03.974 --> 00:17:06.368
Just so the society can approve of us?
00:17:06.368 --> 00:17:07.864
Like that?
00:17:07.884 --> 00:17:09.308
may not necessarily be the right thing.
00:17:09.759 --> 00:17:27.134
That's probably a hard thing too in regards to, like, first-generation immigrants, because you know the few friends that we have that are first-generation, you know you kind of do have that back and forth between the their parents, you know that came over here and didn't have anything and then them growing up with a lot more than their parents ever had.
00:17:27.134 --> 00:17:28.916
So I think that's just a common theme.
00:17:29.679 --> 00:17:37.722
But then when you have abundance, doing what you're trying to do, maya, and we're going to get into that is like teaching your children the financial responsibility.
00:17:37.722 --> 00:17:46.128
But then also to be grateful, right, because we always joke, we're like we don't want to raise spoiled brats, but they're spoiled, we just don't want them to be brats.
00:17:46.128 --> 00:17:50.963
You know, like how do you make sure that they're appreciative and grateful?
00:17:50.963 --> 00:17:58.229
But then also, to your point, find that contentment because constantly you know that hustle culture that grinded out.
00:17:58.229 --> 00:18:04.530
I mean when you have to, because you're on welfare and you're in the shelter and you're like this cannot be our life.
00:18:04.530 --> 00:18:05.481
That's one thing.
00:18:06.104 --> 00:18:14.671
But if you have a good life and you've been given, you know the tools and resources, you also have to find contentment in just being right.
00:18:14.671 --> 00:18:21.921
And I think, especially for us in that millennial space, you know you're constantly go, go, go, do, do.
00:18:21.921 --> 00:18:23.625
Do you have these big aspirations?
00:18:23.625 --> 00:18:31.051
And then you know I always I feel guilty if I watch a movie and I'm not folding laundry at the same time or I'm not checking emails at the same time.
00:18:31.051 --> 00:18:43.523
It's like you also have to learn how to rest and just to be and be content and be grateful and kind of pause and sit in that as well, without the hustle and bustle and grinding it out constantly.
00:18:45.248 --> 00:18:47.992
Yeah, I couldn't agree more and I'm with you.
00:18:47.992 --> 00:18:56.522
I feel guilty every time I am, as you said, like if I'm just watching a movie without doing laundry or cooking or something.
00:18:56.522 --> 00:19:00.992
I feel guilty and I don't really want that for my kids.
00:19:00.992 --> 00:19:18.868
I want them to understand and know that rest is important and I think you know this is going to sound really weird, but I think only a couple of years ago I actually learned that I should be resting like other than sleeping, and that resting is okay.
00:19:18.868 --> 00:19:20.592
I mean, you don't have to earn it.
00:19:21.452 --> 00:19:24.047
Yes, yes, you don't have to earn rest.
00:19:24.047 --> 00:19:24.548
Yes.
00:19:24.829 --> 00:19:25.070
Yes.
00:19:25.221 --> 00:19:26.164
I'm still learning that.
00:19:26.380 --> 00:19:29.387
I think that's also probably very hard for a working mom.
00:19:29.387 --> 00:19:42.997
Yes, I think so too I think men maybe have a little I don't say maybe we do have a little bit easier when it comes to that aspect, but I feel most moms, especially working moms, feel guilty because, like there's something there's always something to do.
00:19:43.176 --> 00:19:45.828
Yeah, there's always something to get done, because I have to tell jess numerous.
00:19:45.848 --> 00:19:48.701
I'm like jess, just stop I know it'll get done later.
00:19:48.902 --> 00:19:56.885
You need to rest it's hard right, because otherwise you can just keep going right yeah, maya, let's switch into you.
00:19:56.925 --> 00:19:57.567
Know you?
00:19:57.567 --> 00:19:59.190
You immigrated.
00:19:59.190 --> 00:20:01.761
You ended up living with your mom and your brother.
00:20:01.761 --> 00:20:04.407
You were on welfare in the shelters.
00:20:04.407 --> 00:20:09.688
How did you go from that to being a CPA?
00:20:09.688 --> 00:20:11.172
What's that?
00:20:12.961 --> 00:20:22.375
Yeah, so, um, I think for me personally, the traditional schooling was the way out of poverty.
00:20:22.375 --> 00:20:51.310
And, um, you know being on social media and I know both of you are, and you have your Instagram account and there are a lot of people out there that you know they talk badly about nine to five and you know, going to school, getting good education, getting good grades, getting a great job and I think there's a time and place for everything, and for me, that was my salvation, that was my way of getting out, because I didn't have the education.
00:20:51.310 --> 00:20:57.692
I did not know much about entrepreneurship, I didn't know much about passive income streams or anything like that.
00:20:57.692 --> 00:21:16.684
Maybe I could have done stuff like that, but to me, all I knew was that if I go to school and I get good grades, uh, I can get into one of the top universities and then from there, I can hopefully continue my education and then get a job at a really good company.
00:21:16.684 --> 00:21:30.453
And that's what I did, um, and that really helped me, you know, increase my earning power and become a CPA, and, uh, it wasn't a straight journey.
00:21:30.513 --> 00:21:32.301
I was really all over the place.
00:21:32.301 --> 00:21:42.296
I thought I was going to end up in sciences, um, my choice of, or my career pursuit was strictly based on my financial need.
00:21:42.296 --> 00:21:53.854
I did consider what I like, but that was second to kind of thinking like, okay, what's going to make me the most money, that's going to help me get out of where I am.
00:21:53.854 --> 00:21:58.428
And so I did consider becoming a dentist and I did a dental co-op.
00:21:58.428 --> 00:21:59.692
I didn't like that.
00:21:59.692 --> 00:22:06.007
I thought about becoming a doctor and we dissected a rat in biology class and I was like, absolutely not.
00:22:07.102 --> 00:22:11.846
And then, I think, at one point I was like, oh, maybe I'll be an engineer electrical engineer and I went into an open house.
00:22:11.846 --> 00:22:15.599
It was all men and machines and I was like, okay, this is not me either.
00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:18.326
And my friend was going into business, so I just ended up there.
00:22:18.326 --> 00:22:31.785
And then I learned that becoming a CPA like a lot of times, like a lot of the accounting companies, they'll pay for your further education to get your CPA designation and I was like this is awesome, I want them to do that for me.
00:22:31.785 --> 00:22:35.180
And when they pay for it you have to sign on that.
00:22:35.180 --> 00:22:37.003
You're going to be with them for a couple of years.
00:22:37.003 --> 00:22:40.050
And I'm like this is awesome, that just means I'm going to have a job for the next two years.
00:22:40.912 --> 00:22:42.463
So I was like, why wouldn't I do this?
00:22:42.463 --> 00:22:44.773
So they, you know, they paid for my education.
00:22:44.773 --> 00:22:54.266
I had a job and my salary kept on increasing, Um, and I was actually able to use the money that we that I earned.
00:22:54.266 --> 00:23:07.955
So my, my husband and I, we paid off our mortgage and all of our debts like student loans and such, by the time I was 32, so we were debt free and then I was able to quit corporate world and start my own thing.
00:23:07.955 --> 00:23:09.237
So it really worked out.
00:23:09.977 --> 00:23:10.617
That's amazing.
00:23:14.263 --> 00:23:15.890
So where's your husband?
00:23:15.910 --> 00:23:16.009
from.
00:23:16.029 --> 00:23:16.692
He is from Serbia.
00:23:16.692 --> 00:23:18.181
Okay, yeah, from former.
00:23:18.201 --> 00:23:18.561
Yugoslavia as well.
00:23:18.561 --> 00:23:32.993
Because I always wonder, you know, like when you have those dynamics, you know, especially like you were to marry someone that had lived their entire life in Canada, like how that difference of growing up, you know, can interact in a relationship.
00:23:34.180 --> 00:23:41.809
Yeah, well, there is a difference, because his family immigrated before the war and his family immigrated with money.
00:23:41.809 --> 00:23:42.672
They had more money.
00:23:42.672 --> 00:23:48.429
They didn't immigrate directly Like they were actually living in other parts of the world.
00:23:48.429 --> 00:23:52.058
His parents are in medical field and so they came with money.
00:23:52.058 --> 00:23:55.730
He had a much better life than I did.
00:23:57.579 --> 00:24:00.596
You know his mom, his parents, paid for his school.
00:24:00.596 --> 00:24:01.961
I had to take student loans, like.
00:24:01.961 --> 00:24:16.741
So it was very different and it took a few years for him to understand what I was trying to do for us to put us on a budget to pay off all of our loans, to streamline our personal finances.
00:24:16.741 --> 00:24:21.112
And once he came on board, we became unstoppable.
00:24:21.112 --> 00:24:49.413
I think that dynamic of you know like a couple that like has goals and they're on the same page, and it just really really worked well for us, um, and so I think that's when we realized like we can accomplish so much more when we're working together and we're on, when we're on the same page, and he really started learning more about personal finance and investing and getting more interested in, like what I was, I guess, what I even promote now to my students.
00:24:50.375 --> 00:24:51.016
That's amazing.
00:24:51.016 --> 00:24:56.707
Yeah, we always talk about if you're pushing and pulling in different directions in your partnership.
00:24:56.707 --> 00:25:01.334
It's going to take you so long to go in the same direction.
00:25:01.354 --> 00:25:02.996
If you even make it at all, if you make it.
00:25:03.200 --> 00:25:20.883
So what you said about being on the same page, because something as big as let's pay off our house and let's be debt free and have no mortgage, I mean you have to be on the same page to do that, because otherwise, unless you're a bajillionaire, I mean it's, it's not going to happen.
00:25:20.883 --> 00:25:26.422
You have to be aligned in your goals, and so are you two technically part of the fire movement.
00:25:27.805 --> 00:25:30.009
I wouldn't say exactly like we're.
00:25:30.009 --> 00:25:37.026
I didn't even know what fire was until I would say, until maybe six, seven years ago.
00:25:37.026 --> 00:25:43.282
Um, I wish I did, because maybe I would have jumped on it and be even more serious.
00:25:43.282 --> 00:25:49.121
Uh, but we've along the, you know, like we were going to be married for 20 years.
00:25:49.121 --> 00:26:10.896
It's going to be our 20, 20 year anniversary next summer and uh, and we just use common sense, I think, and our common sense was like let's pay off our debt, our mortgage, and let's just kind of keep growing our wealth, but at the same time let's try to have fun like we have right now.
00:26:11.017 --> 00:26:35.229
Our vacations were mostly like camping in Canadian North or we would go to Cuba, and for Canadians Cuba is really, really cheap Maybe not so much now, but back then that those were our vacations and uh, but now you know that we're in a better financial place, those vacations are completely different.
00:26:35.229 --> 00:26:43.445
So we just kind of did what we could afford and we really didn't overextend ourselves.
00:26:43.445 --> 00:26:59.653
We were really the underdog and I think, like when we paid over our house and when we did started doing certain things that were like outside of our norm but it took so many years to get there People were kind of like they started paying attention, were like, oh, like, where, where did that come from?
00:26:59.653 --> 00:27:03.578
Like we thought you guys were like you know they.
00:27:03.578 --> 00:27:04.779
Just they had no idea.
00:27:04.779 --> 00:27:12.934
And that's why, like you know, sometimes the personal finance, like you look at people and you have no idea who has got how much money, just because they drive a certain car or live in a certain house.
