More Money Podcast - 114 Thoughts on Being a Solopreneur, Owning a Home & the Future

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello and welcome to episode 114 with myself, Jessica, the host of the Mo Money podcast. And this is the last episode of season four of the podcast, which is crazy. And so I thought I would do something a little bit special and that would be a solo episode so uh I love doing these I wanted to do more of these um throughout this season but I uh I'll be honest I just uh got busy and I had a lot of great guests to interview so that's kind of what uh you know filled up all of my time. But I am excited to kind of share what I've been up to these past several months since I did my last solo episode, which was at the beginning of the season back in January. I cannot even believe six months has passed since

Starting point is 00:00:58 that time because a lot has happened and it just went by so quickly. I did not expect that. I know that sounds dumb, but it's true. I didn't expect the time to fly by as it did because I don't know in the past, you know, I guess a few years, you know how sometimes years, there's times that just drag on and then there's times that fly by. That's kind of what the past couple of years were. There were times that were just flew by and I'm like, what happened to that month? And there's times that fly by. That's kind of what the past couple of years were. There were times that just flew by. And I'm like, what happened to that month? And there's times that just dragged on and wouldn't end. Well, the past six months have been just flying by pretty much, which is crazy.

Starting point is 00:01:36 But I would like to think that that's also a good sign because it would be a bad sign if they dragged on. Because, you know, and if you listen to that episode, which I will include in the show notes, but I believe it is episode 82. But basically, that episode was me letting y'all know that I did something crazy and totally unexpected and quit my job, my nine to five job so I can pursue my dream of working for myself. And well, that was back in January. We're June, the end of June now. So hit the six month mark and things are going way better than I expected. I mean, knock on, I'm going to knock on wood for now, knock on wood. Um, but you know, I honestly, um, before I made this decision to leave my job and when I was kind of

Starting point is 00:02:31 getting all of my ducks in a row and figuring out, okay, what's the worst case scenario. That's what I like to plan for the worst case scenario in my mind was if I, you know, made $30,000 and, uh, realized that I needed to get a real job after a year. I knew I could survive on that little based on my expenses. It just means I would live very frugally and basically only spend money on the bare essentials. But again, I wouldn't regret that decision, even if that were the case, because I am very much in the mind that, you know, if you feel like something in your gut, you need to do it. You know, there's no time like the present to actually do it. I hate living with the idea of regretting, you know, not doing something.

Starting point is 00:03:20 I just cannot stand that. I'd rather like take a huge risk and do something that scares me than not do something and regret not trying it out later. So anyway, so that was kind of my worst case scenario. And luckily I have. Well, that's not the case. Halfway through the year, I'm doing just fine. I am on track to match, if not exceed my salary that I had at my old job, which makes me feel really good that, okay, this wasn't such a bad idea. But like, you know, beside the financials, obviously, it's important. But aside from, you know, all that, the best part of, you know, me taking this leap of faith and doing this is, I just love my life a lot more. I didn't realize how overworked and stressed out

Starting point is 00:04:09 and unhappy and depressed I was until I made this change in my life. And it's really interesting to know that you can make a change and things will get better. Because I think, you know, and we probably all, you know, have experienced things like this where you're in a rut and it seems impossible to get out. And you're just like, well, maybe that's just how life is. Life is hard. Being an adult is hard. Um, but what I've discovered is yes, sometimes it is hard, but it doesn't have to always be like that in order to, you know, change things up. You have to change things up. You have to do something different. And sometimes that means doing something totally scary and outside of your comfort zone. So best decision so far that I've made, um, super, probably one

Starting point is 00:04:57 of the biggest risks I've taken in my life, aside from moving away from my hometown to move to Toronto. Um, but so far I am very happy with the decision. And the big reason really is, is now I get to put all of my time and energy and passion into something that I love. And it's insane that it almost took me this long to discover that this is what I should probably pursue as a career and as a, you know, calling, so to speak. I love personal finance. I love talking about money. I love learning about money. I love teaching others about money. So it's cool that the past six months, that is absolutely what I've been able to do. Besides, you know, all the other things that come into play when running your own business,

Starting point is 00:05:41 especially an online business. But that but that's okay. Cause, uh, luckily I have lots of varied skills from my bizarre background. Um, and you know, of being a film student and then studying digital marketing and working in sales and all these things have, uh, somehow it's kind of funny how those things, you know, you know, work into your life later on. You never think you're going to use those skills, but've all come into uh play and are very handy now that i'm my own business person um so another uh solo episode i did in season three which is almost a year ago uh was me talking about how me and my husband bought our first place. And now we're like a month or so away from our kind of one year anniversary of checking this place out and putting a bid on it

Starting point is 00:06:34 and getting it, which is also crazy that a year has passed and we've been in this place for about a year. But not that anything's really changed in terms of this home. I mean, we had a lot of plans to do, you know, painting all the walls and changing things up and renovations and all that stuff. And it's not even so much. I mean, obviously, the financials come into play, like, you know, when you really do starting the numbers on how much it costs to make things how you want them to look you realize they are way more expensive just little things are way more expensive than you would expect so we haven't done as much as we initially planned but we also don't really care it's kind of fine everything works in this house and that's the main thing obviously like uh you

Starting point is 00:07:25 know luckily we were smart enough to put away some money in a kind of how housing home emergency fund for uh you know the emergencies that always tend to happen when you're a homeowner so in that original uh episode which was also episode 54 in case you want to check that one out. Um, I, uh, talked about how once we moved into our place, we realized that there's a couple important things that were not working that should have been working, uh, including the washer and dryer did not work, could not clean our clothes, which is not good. And also, uh, the stove, stove i mean it did work but the original one that they had when we looked at the place uh they had swapped it out probably because it didn't work and they replaced it with basically the cheapest version uh of something that you know someone could use it was

Starting point is 00:08:20 just the ugliest piece of junk quite honestly and. And once we got in here, because it was brand new, so I knew that we could at least try to sell it and then upgrade to something a bit nicer. And so we did that to, you know, the annoyance of my husband who thought it was just like a waste of time, but whatever, I don't care. We did it. And now he's in love with our current stove. But anyways, you know, doing both of those costs money. And but luckily, again, we were smart enough to have an emergency fund because everyone tells you have some cash on hand. You don't want to have to rely on, you know, getting a line of credit or something to pay for these things, which I totally agree. So that really, you know, made us happy that we were prepared. But what we didn't expect was, you know, fast forward, like seven or eight

Starting point is 00:09:05 months into homeownership, some other things broke. Awesome. Again, like our place is 12 years old. And that is the age when things start to break. So just in case you are thinking of buying a home, keep that in the back of your mind. So definitely have an emergency fund. If you're the place that you're considering buying is 12 years old because if everything's original things are going to start breaking one thing after the other but anyway so we survived the winter but throughout the winter we kind of felt like maybe the heating wasn't really working like it was really cold but we're like I don't know maybe it's just cold um but eventually then we're like you know what let's get this checked out uh we waited kind of the winter was over so it was springtime and they're like you know what let's get this checked out uh we waited kind

Starting point is 00:09:45 of the winter was over so it was springtime and they're like oh yeah this isn't working properly and to replace this um it's called an air handler to replace that you also actually have to replace your uh air conditioner so that was fun that uh you know and we did do a bunch of research we wanted to get the best price, we, you know, want to make sure that if we did have to shell out 1000s of dollars, we were doing it the smart way. I talked to a bunch of different companies and sales reps and had them look it over. They all gave us very different quotes. And eventually we decided to go with one company. And I think in total, to replace this air handler handler and air conditioner cost us over eight thousand dollars oh gosh it was it was not fun to uh to write that check but again we felt also really

Starting point is 00:10:35 good because again we had the money saved up for these things to happen but uh when we were talking to the sales rep it was interesting because they kept on talking and kind of pushing their uh payment plan on us and like you know there's no interest and all this kind of stuff um which i don't believe and they really were being like you want you know you definitely want to do this payment plan and i just can't stand sales people that are basically giving kind of terrible financial advice. They should be like, you know, giving us a discount for paying it in one fell swoop. But no, they kept out. They literally just kind of talked about this payment plan, I guess, because most people

Starting point is 00:11:15 do not have, you know, those types of funds saved up for these instances. So it felt good to be able to tell them, no, we're good. We want to pay it outright. So we own the units and we have like no obligations and everything like that. So that felt really good. So homeownership wise, you know, getting up to almost a year being a homeowner, besides, you know, a couple expensive things breaking down and having to pay for them to replace them. I really like it. I'm really liking it. I don't want to be one of those people that's just like, oh, you need to, you know, buy a place, you know, renting sucks because I'll never say that. I'll always be an advocate for both because, you know, one isn't necessarily better than the other depending on what your situation is. We rented for years because it made financial sense for us. And I don't regret it a minute. You know, but it is nice owning your own place. I'll be honest. And

Starting point is 00:12:12 also, this place is just way bigger than our last rental. I mean, we lived in a very tiny one bedroom. So having two floors, two bedrooms and lots of space and my own office for once is quite the luxury, I must say. So I'd say those are, you know, becoming a homeowner and quitting my job to work for myself are kind of the two biggest things that have happened to me in the past year or even really the past few years. I mean, they're pretty significant things if you think about it, but, uh, so those are kind of things that have happened to me. Those are, you know, what I've been up to, uh, you know, when I haven't been doing solo episodes.

Starting point is 00:12:49 From the director of The Greatest Showman comes the most original musical ever. I want to prove I can make it. Prove to who? Everyone. So the story starts. Better Man, now playing in select theaters. But what have I been, what am I planning on doing in the future? I think that's always kind of a little bit more exciting. I've got a lot of things in the queue. Besides, you know, looking forward to taking a much needed break from the podcast to, you know, enjoy the summer. I have a couple vacations on the horizon, which much needed.

Starting point is 00:13:21 Oh my goodness. It's insane that I've been self-employed for six months and the uh only vacation we've been on is a weekend away in Coburg Coburg Ontario yeah not Germany Coburg Ontario which is nothing wrong with Coburg it was actually very lovely and relaxing but it was an hour away and it was just like we needed to get away from from the stresses of Toronto for a little bit. So it wasn't like, you know, going to, I don't know, Mexico or anything like that. Not that we're going to Mexico, but I do dream about it on a daily basis. No, we are going to go to the Maritimes, which I'm very excited. So we're going to go to Nova Scotia, PEI, New Brunswick for about 10 days or so, which I'm so looking forward to.

Starting point is 00:14:07 I've been before, absolutely loved it. So I'm excited to show Josh around and meet with, you know, we're going to a wedding. Then we're going to hang out with some of my family back in New Brunswick and some friends that we know in Nova Scotia. And then we're going to go to Vancouver, though that's, you know, kind of our, you know, annual and then we're gonna go to Vancouver though that's you know kind of our you know annual semi-annual trip to Vancouver but this time it's to celebrate my older sister's wedding which I'm very very excited about and uh I feel like there's another are we doing something else oh yeah um we're going to Montreal this week with some friends that are visiting us from Vancouver. And I'm also super excited because I, you know, we've been a couple years ago just for a weekend,

Starting point is 00:14:53 but it was very rushed. And we went to, you know, see a couple of those sites. And that was kind of it. But this week, it's a little bit more chillax. We don't really have that much of a plan. But I've got a list of places that I definitely want to, basically they're just food places, all the places I want to eat and drink. So that's kind of what that's going to be all about. Maybe I'll try to practice my French, but they don't generally like when I do that because my accent's awful. But I'm very much looking forward to that. Hopefully there will be a beach vacation in the, I don't know, in 2018. It's got to happen, guys. It really is.

Starting point is 00:15:29 It's got to happen. Please. It's got to happen. I've been worrying about being on the beach for so long. But anyways, aside from, you know, the upcoming vacations, holidays, travel, which is much needed because, man, does travel help you so much like it has impacted all the trips every single trip I've been on has impacted me in a positive way um even like the bad experiences during those trips um where you're like you know sick I mean that was Paris a year

Starting point is 00:15:57 ago I was awfully awfully sick for pretty much the whole trip but But you know, a year later now, I'm like, Oh, wasn't that such a great trip? I mean, it was but also violently ill. Anyways, aside from all of those things, I've got some exciting things that I've, you know, excited projects that I'm excited to get off the ground. Obviously, me and my pal Jacqueline Phillips have launched the first Rich and Fit Boot Camp back at the beginning of this month. And we're having a blast with our students. And so this runs until the end of July, July 30th. That's when the seven-week course will be finished. But we definitely have plans to do another launch so more students can join in the fun get rich and fit with us um hopefully in september so uh i'll probably do like a special little

Starting point is 00:16:53 podcast episode um before that to announce all those details so you can find out but of course it's always just you know the easiest way to get onto my mailing list. So you find out all these details right away. Just go to jessicamorose.com slash subscribe to do that. But so Rich and Fit, the Rich and Fit Bootcamp that is, uh, you know, on the horizon again, very excited. And I've been diligently doing, uh, all of the, uh, workouts in the course. So I can be, you know, proof that it does work and it does, it does, but it's hard. I will tell you guys, if you want something, you got to work hard, no matter what it is, including working out, but I'm really enjoying that. But besides that, another big, you know, goal I hope to achieve before September is to get, you know, this thing that I've been talking

Starting point is 00:17:41 about forever is my, you know, financial counselor accreditation. So I've been spending several months studying, I hope to do the first exam, there's two exams, the first exam in July, and then I'm going to hustle like crazy to study and hopefully do the second and last exam end of August. So we'll see if that's possible. But I mean, so far, I absolutely love it is exactly what I wanted to do. You know, I have talked so much about, you know, I want to help educate people more and do some money coaching down the road. And this is exactly the perfect program for that. So I'm stoked. And I'm just absolutely loving it. But beyond that, I've got lots of other, you know, ways to kind of,

Starting point is 00:18:31 you know, help people, which includes public speaking, I've been doing a little bit more of that this year. And it's been awesome. And also, again, talk about pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. The first public speaking thing I did was, I mean, I think in my adult life, quite honestly, was last September when I did, there's this thing called Ignite at FinCon, that big personal finance conference I talk about a lot with lots of my guests because I meet them there. And I had five minutes to do a presentation about whatever I wanted. And I chose to do one about how to get over being, you know, awkward and shy with, you know, strangers when you're an introvert, because I felt like that was always a big roadblock. In my life, I was terrified to talk to people because I'm a super introverted. And I just talked about how I kind of got over that. And a big reason is this podcast.

Starting point is 00:19:38 Who knew? Anyway, so that was kind of my, you know, big, you know, first, you know, trial of, you know, if I could actually public speak and not like run off the stage crying. And luckily, I, it was all fine. And since then, I've done several other things. So I'm excited to do more, I'm going to be participating in the money summit, which is, you know, an online summit, I'll be doing a presentation for that. So I'll include some more details in the show notes about that. That'll happen July 20th, I believe. And then I will also be speaking at the Canadian Personal Finance Conference in the fall, which will be awesome because there's a ton of awesome speakers, all female, which is awesome, represent. So that will be really cool. And there's a couple other things that'll probably be happening too. So, you know, I'm And there's a couple other things that'll probably be happening too. So, you know, I'm getting there. You just kind of have to push yourself, do things that

Starting point is 00:20:31 make you uncomfortable. And the more you do them, the, you know, easier they become is what I've realized in life. Okay. What else? But, oh yeah. So one thing actually I was also kind of thinking of doing for I'm you know thinking in the future in the season five of the podcast which will be likely end of September uh starting um you know how I well I've had this podcast obviously you're listening to it and you know usually I you know interview kind of expert guests on the Wednesdays and then I usually have you know you know, the listener series on the Thursdays, where if you're a listener of the podcast, you have a personal finance story, journey, whatever that you would like to share to other listeners of the show, I would interview you and share it.

Starting point is 00:21:16 And it's awesome. I've loved it. But I was thinking of not only just like continuing that, but maybe doing something a little bit different. And I would love to get your feedback. Um, but one element, you know, I think it's so key to obviously talk to people about, you know, budgeting and saving and investing and, and debt repayment. But one thing that I feel like is very, I don't know, topical or it's really like, you know, it really resonates with people, especially me, especially millennials. It's just like the the extra thing of making more money. So I was thinking of maybe doing another a special series or something, you know, that really focuses on, you know, side hustles and entrepreneurship and making more money. Cause I always, I found,

Starting point is 00:22:05 at least in my life that, um, you know, side hustles and entrepreneurship really did take me to the next level. I'm not one of those people that preaches, Oh, you can make anyone can make money online. Cause it, no, not everyone can do that. And it is very difficult. And, uh, but, uh, there are so many different ways to make, uh make additional money on top of your salary. I've always had some sort of side hustle going on while working my, you know, a nine to five. And it really has helped me afford lots of things that otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford or would have made me delay lots of things, you know, by years. So I don't know. Just putting that out there.

Starting point is 00:22:43 If you think that's a good idea I'd love to get your feedback in like you know an iTunes review or tweet or email or whatever just I think that might be kind of a cool idea and plus there's just like so many cool inspiring stories of people doing really you know innovative things to make extra money that aren't you know just like you know starting a blog so just something I've been thinking about. So to sort of wrap up this lengthy, rambly solo episode, there's a couple things that I want to let you know about in case you don't know. You know, one of my favorite things, I guess, about, you know, having kind of my own business and being able to try new things, do different projects, the, you know, a couple things that own business and being able to try new things, do different projects.

Starting point is 00:23:28 The, you know, a couple of things that I've been doing lately that I've found just really, I don't know, impactful and helpful and awesome are, you know, the community building things that I've been doing. So, um, you know, I've talked a little bit about how I've done a couple of live events here in my hometown, my new hometown of Toronto, uh, called the millennial money meetup. So I've done two of those. I'm hoping to do one more in 2017. Off that, I was even thinking of maybe doing some kind of little mini meetups where it's a bit smaller, just with like maybe a handful of people where we kind of, you know, go into some, have a private room or share a long table or something. And we can just kind of help each other and talk about what's going on in our personal finance table or something. And we can just kind of help each other and talk about what's going on in our personal finance lives or something like that. This is an idea I've been

Starting point is 00:24:09 fiddling around with. So again, if you have some feedback or thoughts, let me know if you think that'd be cool. Again, that's all that would only be something I could do in Toronto. But, you know, again, what I like to also do is have these communities online, which is a big reason why I started my own Facebook group last September, I believe I started it, called Money, Life, Balance. That's all about money, life, and balance. And it's great because there was like nobody in the group when I first started. Maybe it was 20 people and I was just like the only one talking in there and like, oh goodness, this isn't good. And, uh, but what, with those, you know, types of things, you just have to kind of be patient and, you know, let it

Starting point is 00:24:49 grow organically. And now we're almost at a thousand people, which is awesome. And it's not just me putting all the questions and thoughts and whatever out there, people are being active and asking each other questions and they're talking to each other. And it's like, Oh my God, like everyone's happy. And they're just hanging out with each other and chatting. Oh, it's like the coolest thing in the world. So on that, if you're not part of the group, make sure to check it out. I think facebook.com slash group slash money life balance, or I'll put the info in the show notes. But I think it's so cool to really kind of curate this community that really is focused on just personal finances. You know, there's a lot of other kind of money groups, but they usually have different focuses.

Starting point is 00:25:32 Either it's just like just debt or making money online or whatever. So this one's, you know, for anybody, you don't have to be Canadian. It's anybody. There's Australians in the group. There's people from, you know, everywhere in the world in the group. And it's really just about building each other up, educating each other, helping each other. When, you know, someone has a question, I think, you know, recently someone had a question about like, how much should I tip, you know, moving, you know, people like, are we supposed to tip and how much? It's like, that is a good question to ask. What are your thoughts, people? So again, if you want to join it, just go to facebook.com slash groups slash money life balance. Hope you can join us because it's a lot of fun. But I was thinking of doing some other things within that group. club where we can all read the same personal finance book and somehow, somehow meet up. I'm not like 100% sure how we would all like, you know, get together online in the group to chat

Starting point is 00:26:32 about it. But I'm sure I can figure out, you know, what other people are doing. But that's kind of an idea. But I'm always open to ideas. So if you have some ideas, I'm like, hey, this would be cool. And you don't necessarily want to build it or do it yourself let me know and maybe we can i can do it and we can enjoy it together that would be kind of cool um but anyways so this is the end of season four of the momany podcast with myself jessica um yeah thanks for listening to my rambly rambly times. It was it was definitely needed. I think I always like these because it's just me talking in my house when I'm alone. And it's just kind of therapeutic because I can just talk about all the things that I

Starting point is 00:27:19 haven't really well, I usually bored Josh to death about it. So it's nice to kind of talk to you about it and you get to listen to me or not. But thanks for listening. And I'm excited to see you back here in just a few short months. But on that note, I really want you to enjoy the summer. You know, continue listening to, you know, my back catalog of over 100 episodes leave me an iTunes review if you don't mind because then I can give you a shout out in a future episode uh in season five which I think would be kind of cool but uh I definitely want to uh stay in touch you know don't go anywhere I I don't want to come back and you not be here so uh make sure to join my mailing list it's one important way to stay in touch with me. All the things I'm doing, JessicaMorales.com slash subscribe or join that

Starting point is 00:28:10 Facebook group that I mentioned a few times. I think that would be really cool. But again, I'm on social, I'm on the Instagram, I'm on the Twitter. So if you want to stay in touch and want to chat, that's where I'm at. Anytime I look at my apps and my phone way too much so uh anyways I'm gonna wrap up here I've got to uh clean my house because our friends are coming over in a few hours and it is a disaster and I don't want them to know how we live so thanks for listening one last time have a fabulous fabulous summer and I'll see you back here on the podcast in a few short months. Cheers. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.

More Money Podcast - 114 Thoughts on Being a Solopreneur, Owning a Home & the Future

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