Our Best and Worst Financial Decisions

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In marriage and life you make some good and some terrible financial decisions. Here are the best and worst financial decisions that we have made in our life.

Resources Related To this Episode

Barefoot Investor Bank Accounts Explained

Our Budgeting Fails

Transcription:

In life and in marriage, there are some good financial decisions that you make and there’s some bad financial decisions that you make. And so we thought that it would be fun to do an episode on our best and worst financial decisions over the last 10 years of marriage. So Hey, I’m Ryan from on-property Dotcom Day you, I hope people find property and achieve financial freedom. And today I’m joined by my wife. She’s Kelly. Say Hi, I’m Kelly. Okay. And so we want to talk through. This was kind of funny like going through this list and thinking what’s our best and worst financial decisions we like immediately filled out the worst color like we had. Like really we have no problem locking in this day and it took us a bit longer to work out what our best decisions were. But yeah, I think this is going to be a fun episode to talk about this of stuff.

So should we do like one best one where. So she would just like start with the worst because they’re the ones kind of alone with. Okay. So some of the worst decisions that we made financially, the first one was I bought a bunch of USB sticks from shine, so this was at the time were seven years ago, quick get rich quick scheme, but the idea was important things from China and then sell them on Ebay. And so I’d done some research into it and been on Alibaba and thought I thought I found an opportunity in the market and bought a bunch of USB sticks to sell on Ebay. And the other time we were living in your mom’s like granny flat and we had no money basically. And so I spent about a thousand dollars on these USB sticks and they ended up, they ended up being fake.

And so I sold a bunch of them on Ebay, found out they were fake because people started complaining. And so then I did the only thing that I thought was right, which was refund everyone. And so not only did I have to pay the thousand dollars, but then there’s all these like Ebay fees and everything as well. And that was basically our life savings at the time. Yeah. So that was a pretty big mistake for us at the time and while a thousand dollars might not sound a lot to people out there or it might be alive for us a lot for us, for us at the time it was a lot of money and I dug us into a pretty big hole. But yeah, noodles for awhile. And so another bad decision that we had made actually prior to that was we were going over to New Zealand for a holiday slash care was going to be working over there to do up a new freedom store that they were opening and we thought, you know what we’re going to be like on holidays for two weeks. One, why pay rent for those two ways? Story. It’s like, yeah, we’re out. And they come with the doorway. That

dumb.

It was so wet, we don’t want to pay two weeks it was about 300 bucks a week or three slash 20 a week. At the time this was like $600. So like yeah, we don’t want to do that. So let’s put our stuff in storage. And then when we come home, will I live with my mum for a bit until we find another place that was so stressful. It’s so stressful. And the apartment that we gave up was awesome. It was good. Hey, you could. That was like, Oh shit. It was like three. It was all white as well. So that was, that was a really dumb decision and I think we have probably a dumb financial decision, but one that I don’t really regret is that we have moved so many times. We’ve had moved more than we’ve holidayed yes.

Really?

So we’ll be married 10 years and I think this house is like our 13th or 14th place that we have lived in in 10 years. There was at one point we were on average staying in places less than six months. Like we had moved like eight, eight places in less than four street. That was like 11 months was the longest we’ve ever lived in one place. And so every time you move there’s extra costs with moving, with moving the Internet. Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All the utilities. And then the crossover, the rents as well. You would never lined it up perfectly and we will be breaking rules, breaking leases, so we’d be paying double rent as well as fees on top of that. So yeah. I don’t know why we do that so many times, but

wait, did they on. I really like it. Let’s move.

But now now we feel settled. I feel like this is the first house where we actually feel settled and we want to stay here, so fingers crossed we get to stay here for awhile so it will be like, okay, another dumb financial decision. Oh yeah.

That’s one of those things where you bought a range rover because we thought we just love range rovers. They liked such sexy car. Awesome. This one’s only like six grand. Awesome. Who will just buy it? I mean there’ll be that thing wrong with it and everything was wrong with it. It was just like.

So we bought this range rover for $5,000. That was obviously an older model and it was apparently when a range rover had changed companies to bmw or something. It was just like, it was like this one model that was like we found out later is like the worst model of Range Rover to buy and sell. Money was so tight at that time. We just had our second kid, I was a pharmaceutical rep but my commissions hadn’t come in yet and so we were so tight on money and this thing was just a gas guzzler and we lived on the central coast and everywhere was like 15, 20 minutes drive on the freeway and we couldn’t even afford put petrol in it.

Like be like never filled the tank ever. When we bought it it was 80 bucks and it was and my mom paid for that way. Like do we want to go out? If we want to go out we have to like that’s just petrol money. Like we can’t afford to go anywhere.

That’d be $20 to drive to the entrance so we could go to the beach that day. And it was just like,

it was so silly and everything was broken. Like the air conditioner didn’t work. It would just pump heat the whole time. So we ended up having to like duct tape over the bed so you didn’t burn yourself so on and then the passenger door, like the deal didn’t seal properly. So when you’re on the freeway it was so loud. So then we end up having to tape the door, shut the door and you’d be like, Oh yeah, sure mate, I’ll give you a ride. You just have to climb, climb over it.

So yeah, we had that car for about one or two months and then we went and got it service and then the association will like, yeah, you should get rid of this

Scott, how long have you had this? And we were like, we just get rid of it now. It’s like there’s nothing wrong with it now, but like the chance of solving happening, like really expensive events so you can get rid of it.

So that was bad. But that was a. We thought okay, we young, we wanted to buy this like aspirational car and we bought one sheet when we thought okay, people who are older than us, they would have already made this mistake, they wouldn’t do this. But then since then we’ve seen them,

people in their forties, fifties who just make way worse, like the same, like they’ll go and buy like a European car that’s got all these problems and, and you decide, oh, I mean I made that mistake when I was younger. I feel good now.

That mistake cost us a few thousand dollars and people buy them

brand new $10,000 of mistakes.

Oh yeah, this is, this is pretty long. And the other one that we had was we got into a lot of debt very early in our marriage. So when you were single you got a car loan, which I think was that bad because you needed that car for work because you’re traveling for work. But then we also both got credit cards because for some reason the banks gave us like these big credit cards with like five grand limits each. And then we also got a loan for our honeymoon as well.

We honeymooned on our credit card, which is never really. I would never advise anyone to do that now. Just go camping.

Yeah. And so we started our marriage about like 20 grand in the hole basically, and having those repayments and that was leaving. It was just that we just, we’re living beyond our means the entire time. Just unrealistic really. I think that was a, that was really bad and we had to deal with that and we were very fortunate that my mom kind of like helped us get out of that by taking on some of that debt, giving us a lower interest rate so that we could pay it off to her. So we’re very grateful to her for helping us to get out of debt. But yes, once we got out of that debt, then I made the decision that we’re not going to do that again. And so that was actually one of our best financial decisions that we’ve got in the best column was just that we’re not going to get into debt. And so I remember having fights with you multiple times because like we had a crap car, like after the Range Rover we had a nimbus which you,

which you never drive. One of those guys was like, I hate this guy

driving this car, let’s just get a car loan and buy another car. And I’m like, no. We’re like, we’re not getting anywhere,

but you will. Right. You were right. And it was a good decision to make. Just pay cash until save up until you have enough to buy what you really want.

Yeah. And so that’s what we did. So we had the Nimbus and then that died that we had an extra that was $4,000 and then that died. And then um, yeah, we bought the jazz which was like six or $7,000 and that’s going strong still. That’s been a great car. But yeah, just that not getting in debt because then I feel like that gave us the freedom to then be more flexible with our life. Like to move houses, to go in the van to move up to Noosa.

Well, and because that meant you could quit your job because we didn’t have all these loans to pay. We could like change things up in our way of life and find the best work life balance because we didn’t have all this pressure of like a home loan or a collar and from such a young age like we, we really were. We were really free. Yeah. So I think, yeah,

not having that pressure because you see people buy these cars and they’re like, oh, it’s only like 300 bucks a month that I have to pay off and then you know, you’ve got plans as well, so you’ve got your phones, Internet and like all of that sort of stuff. And it just really adds up.

And I feel like that traps a lot of people debits that you just don’t realize they’re coming every month.

Yeah. And so to stay clear of them and then to be in a position where like when we moved into the van and we stopped paying rent, we just had to pay for storage which was like a couple of hundred bucks a month. Then we’ll kinda like free of our expenses. And so that was like a really good financial decision that we made to not get in debt and to go through that pain of having a crap car at the time, but then just always staying in that position where we don’t have those debts that we have to keep paying for. Yup. So we’re looking kind of on the best column now.

Yeah, let’s do it. So why don’t you choose one from there and then I’ll choose one. Which one? Well, I think the best thing was when you quit your job, I definitely think that that was the best. Like that was our probably our bravest choice. Those are brave as financial decision. Like it was that, that’s that longterm thing again, Mike, which are always really good at the long term goal and I’m like, but by now what I

want. So it’s always like a struggle to kind of meet somewhere in the middle. But that was definitely like arec. And then I think we’re good mix because I’m the dreamer on the longterm dreamer and the come up with these ideas and work towards them. But then you’re like the real and you’re like, yeah, but Ryan, there’s bills to be paid that kid’s hungry. So we kind of have the unit. But yeah, I think quitting the job was really good. It was a very good job. It was a great company with great people, good six figure income with a free car and pre petrol. That was sad to go out of that car. That was such a good car. But quitting that to move up to Queensland to start a business for myself has been such a good longterm decisions. Short term. It was a terrible financial decision because we went from earning six figures. So I think I was only like $500, thousand dollars per month on your end.

Yeah. So yeah, it was very bad short term decision and you had to go back to. Well it’s uncomfortable for a little while. It wasn’t like it was and it took us a few years to get to the point where we’re at now where we have like this financial freedom from our business. Um, but yeah, that was such a good decision to do that because I do feel like if it didn’t work out, if the business didn’t work out, I could have gone and got another job or were you always can kind of eat well? Yeah, I guess I still can. Yeah, there was even another pharmaceutical rep job that came up after we moved up, one for apotex instead of Alpha farm. And it was like, okay, well, like three or four minutes and it’s like, okay, not making much money yet, should I do this and go and go back into it. And we decided not to so bad. But that was a long time. You were just thinking longterm and we were willing to be uncomfortable when you were willing and I had to do it.

Um, so another one of our good financial decisions was becoming minimalist. Yes. I feel like that was one of our best and our worst decisions because it helped us stop spending money on acquiring things. But then at the same time, the reason we became minimalist was because we had bought the van and we spent so much money on the van. Yes, that’s true. That was kind of a question mark investment. That one didn’t realize how much. So the van was one of our worst decisions because we thought this is. We weren’t happy on the Gold Coast. We thought we want to move into the van and do about six months of traveling. You know what we should’ve done? Just hired a van and go and traveling for a month and just say this is like another New Zealand. Give up our house situation all over again. All in.

Yeah. And then just going okay, let’s just try it first. Like slowly. Yeah, because we’re all in people rather than pay what? Two hundred or $300 a night for like a truck or van that would be big enough to house like would have been even have like a bathroom and a shower lack. Rather than doing that. We decided to buy a van for about 12 and a half or $13,000. Reno, the van ourselves over the course of six months, which was like another 20 grand or something and then later on we had like engine issues with the van that cost heaps of money again and so

we’ve got to do what we do

and then we went traveling and we lost the two months and didn’t really like it because it rained the whole time. Yeah. Yeah. So that was like one of our worst financial decisions was the van because we just totally over committed and we do that in our life. Yeah. But it ended up being in one of our best life decisions even though as our worst financial decision because he puts so much money into it was one of our best life decisions because they led us to finding out about Montessori, which then led us up to Noosa, which is then another one about. It’s in our best column which is moving, moving out of Sydney, but then also moving to Noosa because, well why? Why isn’t there a good financial decision for us

cheaper up here to live. Everything is like a little bit cheaper and I think as well there’s just not that many shops. There’s no reason to go and buy his stuff. Everyone else is everyone else using like holiday mode. So you just say you’re enjoying being outside rather than like building up your house and your themes and what you have and. Yeah,

and the pace of life up here is a lot slower. Like we live in a little beach side town that’s surrounded by national park and there’s some coffee shops and cafes and a couple of boutique stores and that’s about it. And then how like major shopping center up here. So small scale, like a woolies and a big w and that’s fabulous.

The other end, it can stand at one side and you can see the other side.

Yes. I think being up here and just enjoying the weather up here is really good. So you always want to be outside and just enjoying that. And the slow pace of life has just when we’re in Sydney, I felt like we were in like a rat race on a hamster wheel and that it was just, the culture of Sydney just sucked you dry of all your money and just, I don’t know, like I didn’t know what it was about Sydney that felt like that for us, but everyone was spending so much money and you felt pressure to like look good to wear, like super expensive clothes to put to put on really big expensive parties for you. One year old who won’t even remember it, you know, which we did. But then and then moving out of the city and moving up here, I just feel like yeah, well now

on the pace of life helped us to decide whether or not those things were important to us anymore rather like. Whereas before we would just, you know, you just running so quickly and everything’s rushed in hurry and you just go, okay, okay, okay. You just spend, spend, spend and so high some haven’t again. Okay.

Okay. So Kelly has gone to locks out and he’s got to fix his show or something like that. Uh, we’re coming near to the end of this. We’ve got a couple of, more of our best decisions. One of them we made really recently, and that’s changing our bank accounts, using the barefoot investor, the way that he recommends the bank accounts. And so I’ve done a video on that and how exactly we set that out, which I will link down below. But separating out bank accounts has just really helped our finances and really helped out budgeting as so simple as well. And you feel like you’re not poor, like you’ve got this, these men money to work with and you can see what you have to do with it. And it’s just, yeah, it’s really easy. And even today where the beach and kills, like we’ve got so much money left for the week, like way more than we ever usually would and we haven’t even really thought about it.

But even the fact that we used to struggle to track our finances and struggle to track how much we spent. And now with a, you have to track it at all, he just be mindful, mindful, but like, because we had that one spending account for our discretionary spending and because I’ve set it up so automatically money goes into there each week we have a set amount and then if you open your ing up, it preloads like without even logging in how much money you have left so we can just look at that and say we know how much was spent for the week and how much we have left because it just says it right there in that one account that we use to spend money. So because we took the time to set it up and there’s multiple accounts and multiple steps to do that, but now that it’s set up we just don’t have to think about it anymore.

We know how much we had to spend and then we live within that and we did a video on like our budgeting mistakes in the past that you guys should check out, which again will link down below. Um, but yeah, we had lots of problems with it. And when we first started doing it, we were going over massively and now we’re kind of staying in within budget most of the time. Yeah. Yeah. So that’s been a really good one. And then I think the last one that we have on there is buying a coffee machine, cheap way to do the dean that you spend most of your money on. So we love coffee and like everyone has their thing that they love. And for us coffee is a big one. The morning coffee, the mid morning coffee and because we drink almond milk as well.

And then you go to a coffee shop, buying to like almond pillows. Oh my gosh. It’s like $99. I think at scale down the road it’s like two coffees and $9. And so now we buy beans, we hand grind them ourselves. We, the coffee machine we have, we actually bought for the van, so it’s a hand powered espresso machine. So it’s not even one that you plug very green. Yes. Um, but we love it and it makes awesome coffee and it saves us so much money like buying beans out and making our own instead of going out for coffee and it just means that we can have coffee multiple times a day, which we love and get enjoyment out of. Like it’s a little thing in our life that we really enjoy. It’s a ritual that we enjoy together. Like in the mornings we’ll get up, we’ll make coffee and then we’ll come and sit out here on the couch during coffee while the kids watch TV or play.

And so we’ll have time together and that’s created a time together for us. But like we’re not spending heaps of money on it. So yeah. So there you have some of our best and worst financial decisions as you can see. We definitely don’t have it all together, but we’re working there and we’ve made some good ones and some bad ones and we can laugh it out. Mistakes and we can learn from them and not buy a range rover again in the future or not get another car loan and yeah, work towards now we’re working towards really growing our wealth and you know, living happily and living within our means. Yeah. So that’s it from us today guys. Don’t forget to subscribe to the channel because we’ve got new videos coming out almost daily. And until next time, peace.