More Money Podcast - 153 Real Estate Investing & Becoming a Leader - Scott McGillivray, HGTV Star & Real Estate Investor

Episode Date: April 4, 2018

I chat with HGTV star & host of Buyers Bootcamp Scott McGillivray about how to become a real estate investor in Canada, and how to go against the grain, take risks and go after what you truly want in life. Long description: It’s not every day you get to talk someone you’ve binge-watched on TV before. And man have I binged (okay, now it sounds like I’m a stalker). It’s just that I’m such a huge HGTV fan and have 100% watched every single episode of Scott McGillivray’s Income Property. As I mentioned at the end of the episode, I loved that show so much I even bookmarked a webpage application to be on the show. But I never applied. Partially because I was way too much of a scaredy cat, and partially because I didn’t own a house to transform into an income property (that’s probably the main reason actually). Although that dream may have gone by the wayside, the dream of one day talking to the one and only host of Income Property, and now Buyers Bootcamp, Scott McGillivray certainly came true! And who better to talk to on the podcast about becoming a real estate investor in Canada. I know I’ve mentioned a few times on the podcast how I’ve always had dreams of owning a few properties to rent out so I could have some passive income to fall back on in retirement. Well, I’m on my way slowly with owning my first property (my townhouse). Though that’s not really an income property as I currently live in it. Still, it’s a step in the right direction. As for adding on actual income properties, or trying my hand at flipping properties, I unfortunately have to wait a few more years. Since I’ve only been self-employed a year, my mortgage broker informed me I would need at least 3 years of self-employment records on hand when applying for another mortgage. So, I’ve just got a few more years ahead of me, but I’m hoping that in the meantime I can grow my income so my husband and I won’t have as hard of a time getting a good mortgage rate. But enough about me, let’s talk about Scott, because he’s amazing! Not only did he buy his first income property in his 20s as a university student, he was able to grow his real estate portfolio exponentially in just a few years after that. And fast forward to now, he’s one of the most popular faces on HGTV. If you wondering how that all happened, it wasn’t luck. It was a ton of hard work and finding people to say “Yes” when everyone around him was saying “No.” That’s the message I think I love the most from this episode. The message that the only way to succeed is just not giving up. As Scott mentioned, we’re trained to be workers in university, not leaders. Which is a big reason I believe that so many of us have trouble fitting in because we’re meant to be leaders or entrepreneurs. That’s definitely my experience, so it was pretty cool hearing Scott’s take on that. Scott also mentioned three key steps for success that I wanted to reiterate here. They can be used for real estate investing specifically, or achieving any type of goal really. 3 Steps to Achieving Your Goals 1. Gather Information This means taking the time to gather information for yourself so you have the tools and information to move forward. It could mean reading books or articles about the subject, watching informational shows like those on HGTV, or going to events or conferences. 2. Education Once you’ve gathered the information you need, it’s time to educate yourself. You can do this by doing case studies, finding a mentor or instructor, or shadowing someone who is an expert in that field. 3. Implementation Last but not least, you need to take action. As Scott mentioned, this is the step that most people fail at because they expect instant results or don’t fully see it through. You need to try, then try again. And if it’s not working and you keep failing, you need to go back to the first two steps to see what you’re getting wrong, then pivot. For full episode show notes, visit https://jessicamoorhouse.com/153 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, and welcome to episode 153 of the MoMini podcast. I am your host, Jessica Morehouse, and I am so excited that you've joined me for another episode. But it's not just like any old episode. This is a mega episode. This is a fabulous episode because I get to totally talk to someone I'm a huge fan of. I'm still kind of in shock that this all came together and I was able to interview someone that I've watched on TV for years. And. I'm still kind of in shock that this all came together. And I was able to interview someone that I've watched on TV for years. And who I'm talking about is, of course, the one and only HGTV star, Scott McGillivray, who you may know from his hit show, Income Property. That's one of my favorites. But he actually has a new show coming out called Buyer's Boot Camp. And it airs Sundays at 9pm on HGTV Canada, as of now.

And I also got to, which is kind of exciting, see a sneak peek of the episode. And I'm totally going to be binging that show as all of his shows, because I don't know about you, but I've got a couple of guilty pleasures. Okay, I've got, I love anything like Real Housewives and Teen Mom. I can't help it. I don't know why. Once you start watching those shows and they've been going on for so many years, you need to see it through. I need to see how those stories end up. They may never end because they keep on airing new seasons. But anyway, I'm also a mega fan of anything on HGTV. I'm talking income, property, anything about renovations. I just love because it's all about just like, oh, this place is so ugly.

What are we going to do? Oh, well, Scott's here and he can fix it all. And then he does. And then it's just beautiful. And you're like, why can he not come to my house and do that? Because there are so many things that I would like to change. And I just kind of live with them because I don't actually know how to even screw a screw into the wall. But anyways, that's not what this episode is about. Actually, it is all about inspiring you

to not be like me, who's totally useless at handiwork, but actually get your hands dirty and figure out how to improve your own home. So that's kind of what Buyer's Bootcamp is about. It's a little different than income property. It's all about him deciding. There's people that apply to be on the show and to basically become investors with him in a property that they will rent out or actually flip, sorry. So they're going to sell it for a profit. So who wouldn't want that? And so that is kind of what the premise of the show is. But in this episode, we talk about all things, you know, his story, how he was able to become this huge HGTV star and kind of like the go-to person when you think of, you know, flipping houses and income properties and all that kind of stuff. But also how, like, what I actually didn't really realize is it's not like he had a background in this. He just figured it out on his own. So

that's kind of inspiring because it kind of shows like, oh, so anyone can actually learn these skills and do it themselves. So we talk about a lot of that and some other great stuff in this episode. But before I get to this amazing interview with Scott, here's just a few words about this episode's sponsor. This episode of the Mo Money Podcast is supported by Planswell. Tired of paying high fees just to get a financial plan for yourself? Well, now you don't have to. Enter Planswell, the first digital company to help you build a comprehensive financial plan for free in three minutes. And because they're independent, meaning they're not backed by any financial institution, they can find you the best

deal when it comes to insurance, borrowing, and investing without being biased towards any one company. And if you don't like one of the offers they get from one place, no problem. They'll go somewhere else to find you a better deal. Have a need to talk with a real human to help you craft your perfect financial plan? Then feel free to reach out to one of their plan pros who are available by phone and email seven days a week. These folks have a deep knowledge of best practices when it comes to all matters finance, and they're incentivized to do what's in your best interest always. PlanSpell is currently offering Mo Money podcast listeners not only a free financial plan, but also up to $20,000 worth of investments managed for free for the first

year. If you currently have $20,000 invested in mutual funds, you could switch and save somewhere around $500 in fees. To get started, visit planswell.com slash MoMoney. To learn more about Planswell and to see how it all works, check out my video review in the show notes or visit jessicamorehouse.com slash Planswellview. Hey, Scott. Thank you so much for joining me on the Mo Money Podcast. This is Dream Come True. Big fan over here. Excellent. Thanks for having me. You are so welcome. I would say you're probably one of my favorite HGTV stars and probably the, no, for sure the only person that I bought their home book. I have it in my living room right now about kind of a good DIY or things to consider when you're renovating your own home.

So I'm super excited. You're welcome. So I'm super excited that you have another show coming out called Buyer's Boot Camp. Before we kind of dive into that a little bit, for anyone, I mean, most people do know you, but for anyone who doesn't and will eventually become a big fan like myself, what can you kind of share about your background, how you got into this world of, you know, becoming the go-to contractor and HGTV star flipping places? Well, you know, I think a lot of people have at some point caught, you know, something that we've done on HGTV. We've been doing shows now

for 10 years. Income Property was almost 200 episodes. Yeah, it's a good one. And a few other things. And a lot of people obviously want to know sort of what's the behind the scenes story. And the truth is, I've been investing in real estate for almost 20 years. That's kind of where all ofelph. And as a struggling student, I recognized that, you know, in this country, most people like myself, we're actually spending more money on housing than the cost of tuition. And, you know, the cost of tuition is only so much you can do. But when it came to paying rent and living expenses, I knew that the landlords in town were definitely making some good money. And I wanted to get on the other side of that equation. And at the age of 2021, it's not easy, that's for sure. Especially when you're going to school on student loans and everyone's telling you, just focus on school and

pay your rent and then you get a job and then you get married and then one day you buy a house. I kind of decided to do it the other way around. I was like, well, shouldn't I buy the house first? Because that's the most expensive thing. It's the biggest opportunity to make money and it's the biggest opportunity to make money and it's the best way for me to save. It was actually cheaper for me to buy a house and cover housing expenses than it was to continue renting. So I did something a little unconventional. I used my student loan as a down payment on a property. Oh, wow. Yeah. I was wondering, I'm like, how on earth would you have been able to get a down payment at such a young age and then get a mortgage? Because I know lots today when real estate is where it is, or it's 20 years ago when I got started, it was still expensive. Buying a $150,000 home when I was 20 was more money than I could have ever imagined. I'm like, who has $150,000?

And even coming up with a $15,000 down payment, I was like, $15,000. I'm like, I'm in the negatives. I owe money. I don't have money. But you know what? I talked to some great people. I had a great real estate agent. I had a phenomenal mortgage advisor who kind of, you know, they taught me one of the first

and probably one of the most important things about being financially well being and being an entrepreneur or leader. And that was that every time somebody tells you how you can't do something, find somebody who tells you how you can. And even though the first several times I tried, you know, I had realtors sort of blow me off like it was a joke. They didn't want to waste their time with a 20 year old who's probably not going to buy. But finally, I did find a real estate agent who was like, it was excited. Yeah, it was excited that I was trying to do this and said, yeah, yeah, there's lots of opportunities when, you know, the three or four agents before that said, you know, you know, it's not, you know, it's going to be hard, too hard for you. It's not even worth it. And then even trying to get

financing, the first couple of times it was like a quick analysis of the paperwork and it's like, sorry, you don't qualify. Sorry, you don't qualify. It wasn't until I met someone who said, it's going to be difficult, but let's figure it out. And that's kind of been my motto ever since is, you know, nothing easy is really worth doing anyway. So might as well figure out how to tackle the hard stuff. And then there's less competition when you get there. And, you know, buying real estate at the age of 21 years old, there weren't a lot of other folks my age trying to do it. And, you know, even though financing was a massive hurdle, I looked at the fact that I had a student loan and I was using most of it to pay rent anyway. And so I said, why would I throw another, you know, $6,000 a year away on rent when I can invest it as a

down payment on a property where if I rent out the other rooms, I'll actually get paid to live here. So it was about the math and using part of my student loan as a down payment to me was just like prepaying rent on a property where I would never pay rent again. And I rented out all the other rooms. And my roommate's rental income was enough to cover all the mortgage, insurance, and taxes, and even put some cash in my pocket. I realized, you know, you got to kind of figure these things out soon and you got to figure them out fast. And from there, I hit the ground running and focused on real estate,

even though that's not what I went to school for. And, you know, I didn't really have anyone, friends or family that were into real estate that could support me, but I just kept working at it. And by the age of 25, I owned 25 rental properties. And that became my full-time focus was doing student rentals at the time. So what did you go to school for? I got a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Marketing Management. Okay, that seems handy. It's definitely handy. People ask me about education all the time.

And believe me, education is important. I don't have to just say that because my wife is a teacher. I believe it. But it's important for some things, but not for everything. When I think about school now, I mean, you go to school pretty much your whole life until you're 21 years old. At least that's the standard these days. And all of that is designed to basically create workers as far as I'm concerned. It specializes you. It teaches you how to be a cog in the whole system. And that's fine. That's a great way to get into the real world is specializing at something, being good at something, being focused and learning.

But it's not necessarily the way to create wealth. It's definitely not the way you want to finish your career either. So starting off a career as a technician, as I like to call it, or a worker is fine. But I've realized as an entrepreneur that I didn't actually go to school to learn to be an entrepreneur. I didn't actually go to school to learn to be an entrepreneur. I didn't go to school to learn how to be successful. I learned from school how to be part of the economy and be part of the system and how to make other people money for the most part. Yeah, I am totally there with you now that I'm self-employed and run my own brand and business. And it's certainly not what I thought I was getting myself into when I was going to university. totally there with you now that I'm, you know, self-employed and run my own brand and business.

And it's certainly not what I thought I was getting myself into when I was going to university. But yeah, then you kind of realize, hey, you know, they don't teach you how to run a business. So one thing I'm curious about, because it does seem why I think I love your show is I always learn something new each episode, whether it's just like, hey, like just watched the episode of Fire Spook Camp where you just told the tip, hey, if you're going to be leaving a place or whatever, make sure to leave the fridge door open. And it's just like a simple tip. I'm like, oh, I've never heard of that before. I totally would have been the noob who didn't do that. How did you learn all of the stuff that from not having a background as a contractor, how did you learn all that the stuff from not having a background as a contractor? How did you learn all that stuff?

Was it just like trial and error and just educating yourself by getting books from the library? Well, it was a balance. It was definitely a balance. I mean, trial and error was a big part of it. And I think one of the fortunate things for me is that I started in something like real estate when I was young. So I had the time to learn through trial and error. But for most people, I tell them, look, life is too short to learn through trial and error. Learn from someone else's mistakes. And that's when

I started to work with other more sophisticated real estate investors and seasoned landlords. And I started to learn from successful people on how to be successful how to be an entrepreneur how to be a leader those are things that I thought I knew from going to school but I realized I knew nothing I knew nothing about it and yeah you can read things in books and you can study them online and all of those things are helpful. But there's nothing better than getting involved and doing. Doing is the most important. And just like I was saying before about going to school, you learn to be a worker. The other thing, one of the biggest mistakes that I think happens when you go to school is that you're told that you got to get straight A's in everything. And I'm a big believer that if you're only worried

about being perfect at everything, then you actually don't know how to learn through trial and error because you're too scared to try things that you're not good at or you don't think is going to be perfect. And real life is not about being perfect every time. It's about how many things you try and how quickly you recover and learn from the things that you don't do well. So, you know, you know, you're probably not, if you go for that big career and leadership job, let's say you want to be a CEO or a manager of some sort, chances are when you get to a high level position in an organization where your role requires you to be someone important, they're not going to look at your

grade five report card and see if you got all straight A's. You know, they're going to say things to you like, tell me about one of the biggest mistakes you've ever made and how you've recovered. Tell me what you do when the balance sheet is out of whack. Like they want to know how a C student can solve problems, not how an A student is scared to even take up take on a challenge. So it's a it's really, you know, life is more about getting C's and figuring out how to recover than it is about focusing on getting straight A's all the time. Because chances are you're not getting out of your routine and you're not trying new things if you're only getting straight A's. Yeah. Damn. That was deep. I don't know. It's absolutely true because for me, I was always focused on getting straight A's because that's what I was told that was the smart thing to do. It would lead to success. And then you get out of school and you realize, actually, it's quite the opposite. It's really about taking risks and trying things and not being afraid. And

that took me a lot of years to overcome. So one thing, I mean, for me, I love the idea of real estate investing. I am a homeowner now, but we live in it, so it's not quite a real estate investment exactly. But what I did like about this new show is it's not so much that you like income property where they already have a space in their house that they want to rent out, but they've already purchased a place and you may go in on the deal with them. I guess what I'm curious about is, do these people actually know what they're doing? Or do they actually just find a place,

think it's a good investment, and hope for the best that you'll come on board? Well, that's a good question. And I mean, this show didn't happen by accident. This show happened on purpose because I wanted to make sure we removed any excuses that people have when it comes to making money. It's like you said, on income property, the viewer can sit there and people watch the show and they're like, okay, well, that's great. Those people already have a house

and they've already got a space for Scott to work on. This show is very different. Some people, yeah, they've just purchased a house. Some of the episodes, they haven't purchased it yet at all. So it really removes any kind of excuses that someone would have to say, well, I don't know how I can make money in real estate. This is the show that shows everybody that they can make money in real estate. And I'm just a conduit for these people. Like I come in, I don't take over the whole thing. I partner with them. So yeah, they're going to learn. And you know, if I were, if I were, you know, my age now, which I'm not going to disclose,

but if I, you know, if this was, if this was me now married with children and kind of in the middle of my professional career, and I wanted to get into real estate investing, this would be the show that I would kind of gravitate towards to say, okay, my best opportunity is to get involved with something like this. Get involved with someone who knows what they're doing, but make sure that I've got enough confidence to get into the game. Like it's a partnership. I don't, it's not like I'm handing people opportunities. They're earning it. Yeah. And I'm making sure that they learn from mistakes that I've made over the years and that they're not making expensive and unfortunate mistakes in real estate. You know, it is, I don't care what,'t care what part of this country you live in, at some point, you're going to want a roof over your head. And whether you're going to rent,

whether you're going to own, or whether you're going to be a real estate investor, it's probably going to be one of the largest financial impacts on your life. You better be good at it. You better be good at it because real estate is the make or break of most people's finances. Yeah, which I think is a big reason why so many people are afraid to kind of jump in. For me, it's always been like, oh, yeah, I would happily flip a house if I had Scott on my team. If we cannot get Scott on our team because you're busy doing all the things that you're doing, how do people find that, you know, skilled contractor that can, or whoever that can help them, you know, flip a house or turn, you know, part of their house into an income property or whatever?

Well, I mean, that's a great question. And part of it is, like you said, watching the show, you got some tips. You're like, I didn't know that you could do this, that, or the other thing. So you'll get some things from the show. You won't get everything though. All right. You know, like I'll, I'll be honest. You, you know, I hate to, I hate to kind of, you know, pop the bubble for people. But when you're watching these shows,

you can't actually renovate a kitchen between commercial breaks. It's a little fun. So there's things you're not going to see. these shows, you can't actually renovate a kitchen between commercial breaks. So there's things you're not going to see. But the more you get involved, and you know what, you would understand this. So I'm going to basically give you my cheat sheet to success. This is like the quick roadmap. If you're going to do three things, or if you want to achieve any goals, there are three things that you should do. Three of the most basic steps. Number one is gather information. And watching a show like Buyer's Bootcamp is a way of gathering information. Going online and looking up local real estate events or reading articles. That's all information. You know you are gathering information if it's something that's basically almost free or has no cost.

So you can take out a book, you can watch a TV show, you can go to free events. That type of stuff is all what I call information. And that's the step first step in achieving a goal is gathering enough information to be able to identify opportunities. Step number two is education. And education comes in many shapes and sizes. Education isn't just reading. It is applying. And that might be doing case studies.

That might be going to open houses. That might be getting a mentor or a teacher or an instructor, working with somebody so you actually are applying and solving for the information that you've found. So education isn't just going to school. An education could be going to an open house. An education is being home when you have or being with a property inspector when you have an inspection done, like you're learning. For me, education should be hands on. Practice really is what it is. And then the third step, if you actually want to achieve these things is implementation. And that

is where most people fail. You know, people get to that, the line, they're like, they've invested in themselves, they've practiced, but then they get paralyzed. Some people, the worst thing that can happen is you get paralysis by analysis. You overthink things. And this is true in real estate, but it's really true. These three steps, information, education, implementation, it works no matter what your goals are. You know, I tell people, if you want to succeed in real estate, you can get information, you can learn, but if you don't buy anything, nothing's going to happen. You ain't going to make money. And it's the same thing if you want to get in shape, you know. You can read every fitness book on the

planet and you're still probably going to be an out of shape, lazy person sitting on a couch until you actually go to the gym. So don't be paralyzed by how much of any of these three steps you need to do. You don't want to get stuck with too much information because that doesn't win you anything. You know, if access to information was the key to success, librarians would all be billionaires. But that ain't true. And education is good. But again, people get, they overanalyze and they think, I need to know every last detail. I meet these people all the time. They believe an opportunity exists. They've got the information. They're getting the education.

But then they're looking for all the excuses why things won't work. And you'll never find a way to remove absolutely every obligation or excuse, I should say. What you should do in the education process is don't look for ways that things aren't going to happen. Find the ways that things are going to happen and focus on those. And then implementation is getting out of your own way. It's passing the fear factor. And in real estate, it's making the purchase of the property or buying it or investing. And that's the way life really works. Achieving goals means you've got

to balance those three steps and you definitely have to follow through. Absolutely. I guess the one thing that does hold people back from implementing is making a bad purchase. I know lots of the shows out there and kind of examples are people that have made successful purchases and flips and all that kind of stuff. But we all know that there are people that are, you know, getting to the news because they made a bad purchase. What are some things that people can do to kind of prevent some of those, you know, fails? Chances are if you are making, you know, more bad decisions than good ones, you need to go back to the information and education phase. It's like I tell people, if you want to get in shape,

don't just go take a three-hour fitness bootcamp course tomorrow because you're probably going to be limping, you're going to be sore, you're going to pull a muscle, and you're never going to want to go back again. And the same thing in real estate. Don't just be like, I want to be a real estate investor and go buy a million dollar house tomorrow because there's just too much risk involved. You've got to do, you've got to follow the steps and you've got to practice.

And you also have to recognize that not every single opportunity is going to be a winner. That's where getting C's are okay sometimes. But as long as the majority of them are winners, you're going to come out on top. Just like in this show, we got 11 episodes. Did I make money on every single investment? No. And I'm not shy to be honest about that. Because if there's anything that I stand behind with my shows is that I want to be authentic. It's not just entertainment. It should be edutainment. And be interested at the same time. So as long as I make money, you know, nine or 10 times out of every 11 opportunities,

I'm going to be able to cover myself fine. And I'm going to learn something from that one that didn't make me money. I'm going to make sure I don't do that ever again. Yeah, no, and I think that's the one reason people gravitate towards you is because you are very genuine and just seem like a regular old Canadian guy. It's just flipping houses, no big deal. You know what? It is, you know, I love the fact that, you know, Canada is the best country in the world. We are fortunate to live here.

We live in one of the most opportunistic times in history. And it still baffles me when people say, but are there any opportunities out there? I just want to pass out when people say that. I'm like, I just can't even stand up to hear that because there's people everywhere doing tremendously well. And it's happening all around you. And if you don't believe that it's possible, then it's unfortunate because it won't be possible for you. You got to believe it. Got to be watching for it. and you got to go for it.

Absolutely. Well, you know, just it kind of goes for anything in life. I feel like so many people 10 years ago, five years ago said, oh yeah, no, everything's been done or I'm not even going to try to do, you know, this project because too many people are already doing it. And then 10, five years go by and so many more people are doing. I mean, for me, then I, if that were true, I would have never started blogging and it wouldn't end up where I am today. So just like you said, you just have to kind of do those steps and just kind of take a chance, an educated, you know, an educated chance, but still you have to, you have to do something about it instead of just talk about it and think about it. Yeah. You can't just talk about opportunities. You have to make them happen. And just like you said, Jessica, I mean,

I'm sure when you got into what you're doing, people were saying it's too late or, you know, you don't have a competitive advantage over anyone else. But as far as I'm concerned, now is the best time to do everything because nobody knows whether we're at the peak or the pit or the beginning or the end of any cycles. You know, is real estate going to go up? Yes. Is it going to go down? Yes. It's going to do all of those things.

But if you figure out how to start taking advantage of that opportunity now, don't hesitate, not for one second. Yeah, 100%. Well, thanks, Scott, for taking the time to chat with me. Where can people find out more about your new show, Buyer's Boot Camp? So Buyer's Boot Camp, you can, I mean, there's more information online at hgtv.ca. But just check us out Sunday nights, 9 p.m. Awesome. Well, I'll be tuning in. Thank you so much for chatting with me. It was a pleasure.

Thank you very much. And that was episode 153 with Scott McGillivray. Make sure to check out his new show, Buyer's Boot Camp. It airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m. on HGTV Canada. For more information, just go to hgtv.ca. Um, I know you'll definitely want to check it out. Um, and one actually funny thing that I totally forgot to mention to Scott, maybe this is for the best. It's sort of an embarrassing thing, but, um, not only do I obviously have his book though, I have not actually done anything with it. I just kind of like opening it and like fantasizing about, wow,

this would be nice if I could actually like reno my kitchen. But anyways, another thing that I forgot, I just remembered was years ago when, you know, I guess it has been almost five years ago when me and my husband Josh moved to Toronto from Vancouver. One of my kind of dreams was like, wouldn't it be so cool to get on a reality show? And not like, not like kind of like a Jersey Shore type show. I'm like, let's do something like, you know, an HGTV show or something where we're those people and we're like, we need some help. And then Scott comes out. I legit for like three years had a bookmark of like the application to get onto income property. I just like kept it there for years knowing like maybe one day me and Josh will buy

a house. And then when we buy that house, maybe we can get on that show. And well, that never happened. We never bought a house. We bought a townhouse. There's no way to make this. We don't have a basement or anything to make it into an income property or whatever. But I just remembered that. And that is how big of a nerd and a big fan girl I am of him. Anyways, so that's just me. That's just me. Anywho, make sure to check out the show notes for a bunch of the stuff that we talked about, including some links and other resources you may want to look at. JessicaMoorhouse.com slash 153 is where you can do all of that. I've got a couple of things I want to bring to your attention and share with you that you will not want to miss. So just hang tight for two seconds. I just got a few words about

this episode's sponsor. Support for this episode comes from Planswell. Have no idea what you're doing with your money? It sounds like you would need a financial plan to get your money organized. And lucky for you, you can do it yourself online with a super smart technology company called Planswell, currently available only in Canada. But what is a financial plan in the first place? At a high level, a financial plan shows you the absolute best thing to do with your money every month so you can enjoy the highest possible standard of living for the rest of your life. Planswell is the first company in the world to help Canadians build free, top-quality financial plans completely digitally and in only minutes. It takes into consideration

the three main pillars of a financial plan. Smart wealth accumulation, the right insurance coverage, and efficient borrowing. Getting a handle of your financial future has never been more accessible. And Planswell is currently offering Mo Money podcast listeners not only a free financial plan, but also up to $20,000 worth of investments managed for free for the first year. If you currently have $20,000 invested in mutual funds, you could switch and save somewhere around $500 in fees. To get started, visit planswell.com slash mo money. Again, that's planswell.com slash mo money. And to learn more about Planswell, make sure to check out my video review either in the show notes or at jessicamorehouse.com slash planswell review. Okay, important things. So last week,

I mentioned that me and Lisa Zamparo, she's a CPA, financial strategist, awesome lady who knows everything there is to know about taxes. We did a webinar last week, which was so fun, so, so fun. And if you missed it, yeah, sucks for you. No, it doesn't suck for you. We've got you covered. Basically, if you just go to, well, A, the show notes, I'll include a link there, but also just go to jessicamorehouse.com slash tax webinar. Tax webinar. Did I even pronounce that properly? Tax webinar. I'm talking too fast.

I have, you can sign up to watch the replay and also download the PDF of the slides. Just because we went through the webinar, We got so many amazing questions at the end from lots of people that I think are pretty common questions or questions that you're like, oh, actually, I have that question too. So I wanted to make it available for anyone who wasn't able to attend live on the webinar. And also it's like, well, it's April. It is full blown tax season. This is where people kind of start to panic about their taxes. So I bet a lot of you listening will probably get a lot out of this webinar. And of course, there's details on how to contact both of us if you do have questions or if you want to hire Lisa to do your taxes

and all that kind of stuff. So again, if you're panicking right now, if you're self-employed or you have a side hustle and you have no idea what the heck you're doing, highly recommend you watch our free webinar, jessicamorehouse.com slash tax webinar. And hopefully that will make things a little bit easier for me, honestly, at the end of the webinar. And yes, I know I put it together, so I knew a lot of this stuff, but I felt so much better about me and my taxes. And of course, I moved all that energy to my husband, who is not like me, who likes to get my taxes done early. He has boxes of receipts everywhere. And I basically told him a lot of the stuff that we talked about in the webinar remind you, if you are not aware, I have a Facebook group. It is called the Money Life Balance Community. You can find it at facebook.com slash groups slash Money Life Balance. I think we're close to 1,400 members now, which is pretty cool.

And basically, it is just a free support group community. So it's a space where people can feel comfortable asking their any kind of question. And there's no dumb question. The whole point of the group is to get people talking about money, any aspect of money. It could be budgeting, it could be saving, it could be investing, it could be taxes, insurance, credit cards, whatever, and not feel judged because it is a no judgment, no mean people zone. If there's anyone that's in there that says anything remotely offensive or, you know, kind of the tone is, you know, oh, you should have known that. Bye. You're blocked. Goodbye. I got no time for that. And I think the really big issue with money is people are afraid.

They don't like being judged. They don't want someone to tell them, oh, you're an idiot. Because believe me, I used to feel like that for years, still do kind of. So I wanted to make a safe space for people to feel comfortable talking to each other and helping each other. The best part of it is grown into a community where you can ask a question. You'll get five people giving their opinions or suggestions. And it's all super nice and supportive. So anyways, go check out, get into my free Facebook

group. It's really a good time. Facebook.com slash group slash money life balance. Okay, that's it for me this week. But I'll be back here next week, as always, with a fresh new episode of the Mo Money Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And if you get a chance right after this episode, I would really super appreciate it if you want to give me an iTunes review. I will be taking a look at who's giving me reviews lately and start doing some more shout outs in the next couple episodes. So if you want to get a shout out for me on a future episode, make sure right after this to give me a review. All right, that's it for me. Have a good rest of your day. I'll see you next Wednesday.

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