Why Money Stories Matter

SPEAKER_01 0:10

I am looking to launch a new series of this podcast, a little bit of a branch off where we're gonna dive into people's money stories. Where do their relationship with money sit? Where did it come from? And what are they doing to either keep that relationship or change that relationship and so on? So I've got George with me today on the back of the previous episode. We talked about habits. Hello, George. Okay. And I really want to dive a little bit further. And we're gonna start right at the roots, right? When George was little and he was born into a family, and what was his relationship with money and what did he learn?

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Okay, yeah. I think that tells a lot about people. Like I think a lot of people's money habits and ways of life do come a lot from their early days and what they they watch and learn. And I think I sort of grew up mainly with my grandparents in Scotland that weren't wealthy people. They did all right, but they weren't wealthy people and watch

Growing Up Saving For Everything

SPEAKER_00 1:09

what they did. And they were of that era where anything that you wanted, you saved up for. You saved up the money and then you bought it. You know, you didn't go into any debt or any anything like that. So I think having having that that motto, and I think right from a young age, I always worked, right from a little kid, you know. I used to do things like catch rabbits, wild rabbits, and sell them to the butchers. I used to have three paper rounds, I used to help the milkmen. I was I was probably an entrepreneur when I was like 10 years old, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

I was about to say, sounds like you had that streak in you from the beginning.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Right from a kid. I always had money in my pocket, money that I earned myself.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

How did it make you feel having money? What did it feel like?

SPEAKER_00 1:55

It gave me freedom, you know. I mean, I wasn't I was saving the money for whatever I wanted to buy, but I could go to the pictures, I could go to the amusement arcades, and I never had to go to my parents and ask them for money because I always had my own money. I was probably one of the few back then. I know my friends back then were getting five, ten pounds a week. I was getting 50 pence in New Zealand money, that's a dollar a week, and I had to wash the dishes for that every single week and tidy my room for 50 pence a week, and I knew that 50 pence wasn't getting me much, but you know, that's what I got, and that's where I saw the value of money, and I went out and did my own thing. I had a bank account from a very young age, and yeah, I left home pretty young. So I was 16 when I left home. I had some money in the bank and went off and started my journey in in life, you know. So I think that's what sets you up. It's I've gone through life. I'm now, I won't say how old I am, but you know, I'm over half a century now, and I've never had to borrow money from anyone, you know. I think my it's not to say I haven't needed to, but I think I have uh I'm one of these people who have a sense of pride, you know. And if I can't afford things, I just don't buy them. If I can't do things, I just don't do them. And I'm trying to bring my kids up the same way. It's it's harder in this day and age.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

I was about to ask you, this was going to be my next question. How do you instill this into your children?

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Yeah, it's definitely harder in this day and age, but you know, we we involve the children as much as we possibly can in our business. Now, my kids are still pretty young

Teaching Kids Work And Value

SPEAKER_00 3:39

at the moment, this seven and and ten, but right from a young age, when we first got into real estate and it was selling houses, and you know, and you'd we'd go to the kids, we'd be happy we sold this house, and we just told the kids, and they were like, Oh yeah, it didn't seem to bother them. And we're like, How can we get these kids on this journey a bit more? So we started bringing them into the business more, just little things, helping us deliver like leaflets throughout the neighborhood and and doing that and taking them out with us. The big thing was every time when we sell a house now, we reward them. So every time we sell a house, they get an ice cream. Wow. So when we tell them we've sold a house, they're all like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where do we get an ice cream, Dad?

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Man, they'll be eating a lot of ice creams in this.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

That's right. When we started having to look at that now, the dental the dental bill might go up now. But hey, it's giving them something where they're excited as well because they're getting it, but it just brings them into that whole journey with with it as well. Now we we we've got little things for them. We we set them chores every day, you know, where to tidy up, clean up, clear the table, set the table, take their dishes into the kitchen, and just little habits like that just help set them up. And it's like now, you know, they'll finish dinner and I get surprised when they're actually clearing the table for me. And I'm like, oh wow, I didn't even have to ask them that. And and yes, they are doing it for money, but with our kids, I think they they don't totally realise yet that the value of money. We're trying to teach them that, and every now and then we'll give them money, you know. It's not a case of we give them it every week, we'll give them some money to go and put in their piggy banks so that when there is something on a fair or things like that, they like to go and get their money and go off and spend their money at whatever fairs and whatever's going on.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

So you're teaching them hard work, you're teaching them savings, yeah, and you're teaching them the power of having your own money and freedom, like you did.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

How was your relationship with Megan and money? How similar are you or different are you when it comes to money beliefs?

SPEAKER_00 5:48

I mean, Megan and I, we've been together

Building A Shared Money Plan

SPEAKER_00 5:51

a long time now. We've been together about over 20 years. We've been together. So back back in the early days, you know, it was, you know, I'm living in the city in a cool apartment, and Megan was living in the city, sharing a house with some other friends, and it was it was all a little bit different life then, and your your money's your own, and you you feel quite rich, you know, because you you don't have kids and and all that then. And I think when it started changing a lot was when we made the choice that we wanted to buy a house, and we looked and I said, Well, what do we have to do to buy that house?

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Whose idea was it to buy a house?

SPEAKER_00 6:35

I think it was Megan's, because that has always been her dream is to be a property owner. She's always wanted that. Me, you know, it's like I think because I was always a bit of a lived out of a bag and traveled round the world before. I used to just travel a lot, so I was never really settled anywhere as such until I came to New Zealand. So this has probably been the most settled I've ever been in my whole life, like 22 years in one place. So it's um it was definitely, I think, Megan there. But so then we came up with a plan how we were going to do that, because I started my first business, and I remember we went for a mortgage and I got refused because I hadn't been in business long enough, so that was a bit of a shock. I thought, oh, if I'm in business and learn all these things that I needed to be in business longer, and Megan was working at the bank as well then, so that was a bit of a surprise. So then we had to go away another year, but that was fine. I what we looked at, okay. Well, that year, let's knuckle down and save even more and get an even higher deposit. And we did get the loan the second time round, so it's two years into business, and I think having that motivation of knowing what I needed to do to turn that around really helped. There was also KiwiSaver, you know. So Megan had been in that a lot longer than me, so she was able to use KiwiSaver. I wasn't, I hadn't been in it long enough. I did have it, and I think I missed it by a couple of months. But Megan says it's probably just as well because I'm a lot older and I'm probably gonna need my Kiwi Saver.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Okay, what did you learn from any money mistakes in your life so far?

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Money

Buffers For Commission Income

SPEAKER_00 8:28

mistakes, I think, is always have a buffer. I think that's the biggest thing is always have a buffer, and if you're needing to go into that buffer, then you need to start doing things to change your financial side.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

Yeah, and I guess both of you working in real estate, that's right, you only get paid one big amount, and then you have to pay your taxes and you have to pay all your officses.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

It's commission based, it's 100% commission-based, and that's where a lot of people there's not a lot of people like us where your whole family's in it. There's usually someone that's got a real job, a solid job, a real job. Got a real job, I like to call it, you know, with all the benefits and parks with holiday pay and sick pay and but you both are all in.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

We are both all in here, and it's the kids, you just have to make the kids work a real job.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

And that's where it is a little bit easier for us because we're both in the same same job and we're both self-employed, it's easier with the kids because one of us can always be here for the the job, and one of us for the kids. Like right now, it's school holidays, you know. So yesterday I was with the kids most of the day, where today it's Megan who's with the kids most of the day, and one of us is there for real estate. So that way it's quite helpful. Where if you're a solo person in in the job and you've got kids, that's a lot harder to juggle as well.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

How often do you review your goals with Megan?

SPEAKER_00 9:59

We probably review our goals every every year. We look at we look at the past year, what we've been doing, what we've

Yearly Goals And Changing Careers

SPEAKER_00 10:07

done, and then what we'd like to achieve for the next year. So we're always looking at that. That's one thing I've learned with Megan. I think back in the olden days, my grandparents' days, everyone was given a job and a thing to do, and that was it. You that is your responsibility for the rest of your life, and there's no changing it. Where I think now in the modern age, we change them all the time. You're not fixed into something. It's okay to promise something for this long and then look at it and say, Hey, that's not working for me anymore. Let's relook at that and change it. And I think people can do that now a lot easier. But back then, I think it was a lot more things were set in stone, and yeah, people didn't like change. This is what we've agreed on, and this is what we'll do for the rest of our life.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

It's the show of time, isn't it? I mean, back in the day, I believe the average career change was, you know, one maximum two times in your lifetime, you'll change your career. That's right. But usually, you as you say, you know, if you become a teacher, you're a teacher for the rest of your life. If you become a factory worker, you're in the factory for the rest of your life. Versus now, people change their career six to seven to eight times throughout their lifetime. I mean, you were a hairdresser.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Now you're a real estate agent, and before that you were selling rabbits.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know, a few different jobs. Yeah, look at my my my granddad, he he only had three different jobs in his whole life. And the main one that he had, he was there for 30 odd years, you know, work working there. And uh, he would have probably been there longer, but the company shut down, and then he decided he still didn't want to retire. And so he got another job and he was there for another 10 years and then retired. Um, same with my mum, she was in the the same career for yeah, 30 odd years then. So they were the days of jobs where you you worked hard, you paid into a pension, your company paid the half of what you were paying in as well. And then your pension, so you ended up with a great company pension as well as your state pension and stuff like that. And but their jobs now are yeah, I don't even know if there is jobs like that anymore.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

How prepared are you for the future in terms of your retirement? And do you have your thought about it at all?

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Yeah, we've obviously got our thoughts. Am I prepared? I don't know if anyone ever is fully

Retirement With Kids Still At School

SPEAKER_00 12:24

re prepared. You know, I think for me, I'm probably a little bit unique in terms of I started a family much later in life. So, well, me, I'm in my 50s and still got kids at school and putting them through that. So I suppose my plan's a bit different because I've still got to think about all that. Well, most people at my age, the half of them are grandparents now at my age, you know, isn't there? So it's it's a totally different plan. And I think that's one of the beauties now of the career that I've chosen in real estate. You know, it's it's it's a career that we can carry on for quite a long time, you know. There's people working at Harcourts that are in their 70s. I'm sorry if you're listening to this and I've maybe exposed maybe some of your ages, but they're great and they've got really good work-life balances where they are. They might not be driving as much as the younger ones, but they've got a good balance there and they still come to work most of the time. And they play golf, probably. And they play golf. Yeah, go fishing, too. Yeah, that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Thank you, George, so much. And if you had one message for those that are listening today and they're worried about money, they don't know what to do, they don't know how to save, what would be one simple thing that that made a difference to your life that you could potentially pass on the message today to them?

SPEAKER_00 13:39

I think it's keep your life simple. You know, keep your life as simple as as you can. If you're worried about things, then you've got to simplify your life

Keep Life Simple To Save

SPEAKER_00 13:50

more if you're worried about money. And it's just cutting down unnecessary costs. So just simplifying your life more.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Yeah, don't keep up with the Joneses, I usually call it.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

That's the perfect way to example. Too many people do try and keep up with the Joneses, you know. And it's like you've got to do do you.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Beautiful. Thank you so much, George. And I can't wait to have you here again.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, everybody. So bye.