The Personal Finance Show

Robert Brown wants you to not be afraid of a little hard work.

Robert grew up on a dairy farm. His father worked the farm while also working a full-time job at General Motors.

Robert learned about working for money early and also about patience and delayed gratification.

There are a lot of things that we buy today with borrowed money that we could easily put off until we have money in the bank, and we might even get a better deal if we wait.

Robert realized over time that many Canadians hadn’t learned what he did on the farm and as a result they were spending money before they earned it, and doing things like buying houses they actually couldn’t afford. They didn’t understand the concept of compound interest or how to save for the future while still being able to live a comfortable life today.

After over 25 years of working in the restaurant and food service industries, Robert decided to write a book about personal finance. He would write it in a way that Canadians would understand.

The book he wrote is called Wealthing Like Rabbits and it’s now a Canadian bestseller.

Robert joined me from Ajax, Ontario to share his personal finance story.

92 - Kelley Keehn

Click here to book a FREE 15-minute personal finance consultation with Beau Humphreys, Personal Finance Coach

Click here to become a patron of The Personal Finance Show via Patreon

To register for my next available personal finance webinar click here.

Sonya Smith-Valentine wants you to be Financially Fierce.

Sonya has an accounting degree and a law degree.

She is a CPA and a lawyer, and has worked professionally as both.

Sonya has worked for legal aid in New York and Maryland, and later started a law practice specializing in Consumer Debt and Bankruptcy, winning cases against credit bureaus, credit card companies, banks, and collection agencies for unlawful activity.

Today, Sonya is a Financial Confidence Expert and as President and CEO of Financially Fierce, LLC her mission is to improve the financial acumen of employees and managers to create financially savvy and highly productive workplaces.

Sonya joined me from the Maryland/DC area to share her personal finance story.

91 - Robert Brown

Click here to book a FREE 15-minute personal finance consultation with Beau Humphreys, Personal Finance Coach

Click here to become a patron of The Personal Finance Show via Patreon

To register for my next available personal finance webinar click here.

J. Money wants you to know that Budgets Are Sexy.

That’s the title of the personal finance blog that he started 11 years ago, and even though you may never think budgets are sexy, the point that J. is trying to get across is that personal finance doesn’t have to be boring.

In 2008 J. started posting monthly net worth updates in addition to his regular content. In 137 months, J. has grown his net worth from just under $59,000 to almost $920,000. And you don’t have to wonder how he did it. Just go to Budgets Are Sexy and click on the Net Worth link. You’ll see all 137 posts and can drill down on any one of them.

J. has always been about full disclosure, which is one of the main reasons he still remains anonymous. As we discuss in the interview, I have met him at FinCon, but I don’t know his last name or whether his first name is actually Jay or a name that starts with J and I don’t know where he lives.

Including Budgets Are Sexy, J.’s personal finance projects have reached over 30 million views, but most importantly, J. is just a great guy and we are lucky to have him in the personal finance community. If you like what you hear today, I recommend you sign up for J.’s daily emails. After 11 years, and now a father of 3, J. is still doing what he can to make personal finance fun and engaging.

J. Money joined me from an undisclosed location in the US to share his personal finance story.

90 - Sonya Smith-Valentine

Click here to book a FREE 15-minute personal finance consultation with Beau Humphreys, Personal Finance Coach

Click here to become a patron of The Personal Finance Show via Patreon

To register for my next available personal finance webinar click here.

Ericka Young wants you to be intentional and have a plan before you spend any money.

This applies to every single situation that involves money, which is pretty much everything.

As Paula Pant says at the beginning of her podcast, you can afford anything, but not everything.

Unfortunately because of loans and credit cards, we think we can afford everything.

This happens to too many people. They make good money, and can pay the bills, but the bank account doesn’t grow and the credit cards stay at the same level.

When you start out in debt, that’s what you know, and it becomes normal.

But living on credit creates this mindless spending, which can easily get out of control. You make decisions without thinking and sometimes those decisions have consequences.

There are so many people like Ericka who could easily break free of the mountain of debt that they are trapped under, if only they would step back and have a closer look at their financial situation and whether their spending habits align with their financial goals.

One day Ericka looked at her low bank balance and her high credit balance and asked herself: What’s going on here?

The process she went through was so motivating that she knew she wanted to help others achieve the same thing.

Ericka launched Tailor Made Budgets in 2005 and has been helping people change their money habits ever since.

Ericka joined me from Indianapolis, Indiana to share her personal finance story.

89 - J. Money

Click here to book a FREE 15-minute personal finance consultation with Beau Humphreys, Personal Finance Coach

Click here to become a patron of The Personal Finance Show via Patreon

To register for my next available personal finance webinar click here.

Robert Farrington wants you to think before you click the button and accept your student loans.

Getting an education is an investment and you should spend some time thinking about what you’re investing in and what kind of return your investment will provide.

For example, you may not even need a degree at all to work somewhere you like and that pays well. You may need a degree to get promotions and more responsibility but that might not be until later and who knows, your employer might even help pay for your schooling.

We have been brainwashed over the years that to get a “good” job you have to spend a lot of money on school, and then eat ramen noodles while living in a tiny apartment and work 12 hour days to repay your loans.

After the interview with Robert I realized that some part of me is still brainwashed, and it actually scared me a little.

Robert worked at Target for over 16 years. He mentioned this right at the beginning of the interview and I totally didn’t hear him say that he only stopped working there 2 years ago.

So I kept asking him questions like “So what was your next job” not fully comprehending that he was always at Target until he decided he was making enough from his side hustles and he wanted to spend more time with his family.

I realized that there’s this part of me that still finds it hard to believe that someone would work in retail for that long and it’s scary to think that I have these notions in my brain somewhere, when I don’t actively believe this is true. But on auto-pilot, the notion that guided me to my next questions were that he must have got a better job. No one works at Target for 16 years. It really sucks but it seems I’ve been brainwashed to think that this is not a good job, without even knowing what it is that Robert even did for 16 years.

Of course there are people who spend their whole lives in retail and are very happy. Robert actually ended up with a lot of responsibility, managing several hundred employees and millions in sales. But he shouldn’t be any less valuable to me as a human being if he simply pushed carts and stocked shelves for 16 years instead. Especially when on the side he was building a web empire that now has millions of visitors per month.

Even more ironic is that I’ve been driving for Uber since last September. And I’m sure there are people that think it’s odd that someone with a university degree and 15 years working in accounting and finance would be an Uber driver. But I actually really like it and it fits with my flexible schedule.

I decided that even though it makes me seem like a classist jerk, I needed to talk about this. Maybe you do this too and you don’t even realize it. Talking about it openly is the only way to shake off these archaic notions about what is good or bad, what is the right path and all the other societal norms that seem to only cause us to spend money we don’t have and take jobs we don’t want.

So as Robert suggests, before we just press a button and fund our future with debt, we need to spend more time thinking about what it is we want. Are you going to be able to pay back this debt? What kind of job will you get after you graduate? If you’re going to take on tens of thousands in debt, shouldn’t you at least have a general answer to these questions? Why is the default: get the loan and figure it out later.

Personally I think we have it all backwards. We should try working in jobs in our areas of interest or curiosity, make some money, and then take whatever training or schooling is necessary to move forward in that area of work, if we enjoy it.

Why is a 4 year degree the thing that everyone cares about? Logically it doesn’t make sense.

Most people hire someone who works well with others and then train them how to do the job.

We’re focusing on the wrong things and it’s creating a society that is trapped by huge amounts of debt.

As Robert wrote in a recent post on his site The College Investor, student loans should be your last option. If you do decide that you want to go to school before you have enough money to pay for it, there are so many options to explore before going straight to student loans. If you or someone in your family is in the process of deciding how to pay for school, I fully recommend going to thecollegeinvestor.com and reading everything.

Robert joined me from his home in Southern California to share his personal finance story.

88 - Ericka Young

Click here to book a FREE 15-minute personal finance consultation with Beau Humphreys, Personal Finance Coach

Click here to become a patron of The Personal Finance Show via Patreon

To register for my next available personal finance webinar click here.

Stacy Yanchuk-Oleksy wants you to see a non-profit credit counsellor if you have credit problems.

Stacy is Director of Education and Community Awareness at the Credit Counselling Society.

If you’ve listened to episode 76 of the show, you know that I had credit problems 11 years ago. I filed a consumer proposal with a licenced insolvency trustee, under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act of Canada.

My case was severe so I skipped the first step that many take and that’s going to see a credit counsellor first to discuss options.

There are a lot of great people out there looking to actually help you get out of debt.

Whether you see a counsellor or a trustee, most will help you make the right move for your debt situation.

As Stacy and I discuss in the interview, just make sure that you don’t pay anything upfront for debt solutions and don’t just click on the first link in the online search.

There are websites and companies that appear to be offering debt settlement solutions, but they are just payday lenders in disguise.

Make sure you find out about the company that you’re dealing with. The legitimate trustees and non-profit credit counsellors have nothing to hide. They have names of staff and locations and they are active on social media.

Stacy is very proud of the free workshops and educational resources that the Credit Counselling Society provides in order to try to prevent Canadians from getting into unmanageable debt in the first place.

The most important thing to me is that you know what your options are when you’re in trouble. And I fully recommend you take advantage of free consultations with as many organizations as you can handle. Go meet them in person and talk to them about solutions. Everyone’s situation is different and the more information you have from multiple sources, the better you will be at determining which solution works for you and more importantly, the one you can live with.

Stacy joined me in the studio in Hamilton to tell her personal finance story.

87 - Robert Farrington

Click here to book a FREE 15-minute personal finance consultation with Beau Humphreys, Personal Finance Coach

Click here to become a patron of The Personal Finance Show via Patreon

To register for my next available personal finance webinar click here.

Shanah Bell wants you to lead a happy, unorthodox life.

You can be successful without following the traditional 9 to 5 career path option. It’s true.

But to get there, you have to be open to opportunity and change, and sometimes you have to be a bit of a PITA, which I recently learned is an acronym for Pain In The Ass.

In fact, Shanah’s new book is called The Art of Being a PITA. It guides new adults and recent college graduates through the ins-and-outs of living life the way they want to. The way that no one talks about.

As she tells it, most people believe you are a pain in the ass if you do things that are contrary to societal norms. For example, if you don’t follow this checklist: 9 to 5 job, marriage, house, kids, work until 65, retire and then finally do what you want, society is like, stop being a pain in the ass and just do what the rest of us are doing.

Shanah’s path is a bit different. She figured out how to do many, many different things for money, on her own terms.

Because this show is about her personal finance story, we didn’t spend a lot of time delving into the 56 jobs Shanah has had, but if you’re interested in the details, pick up a copy of the book, where she goes through each job and the lessons she learned from each one.

Since she wrote the book Shanah has added 4 more jobs: dog boarding, cooking classes, AirBNB, and, of course, author.

Shanah joined me from her home in Raleigh, North Carolina to share her personal finance story.

86 - Stacy Yanchuk-Oleksy

Click here to book a FREE 15-minute personal finance consultation with Beau Humphreys, Personal Finance Coach

Click here to become a patron of The Personal Finance Show via Patreon

To register for my next available personal finance webinar click here.

Sandy Yong wants everyone to learn about personal finance so that their future self can thank them for it.

Sandy figured out early on that if you give your money to the big banks, and don’t know what you want to invest in, they will choose the ones with the highest fees.

Makes sense, doesn’t it? If you went to a car dealership, and said here’s some money, I want a car, and didn’t give them any parameters like fuel efficiency, or speed, or size or anything, they would sell you the car that makes them the most money. In fact, if they didn’t do that, I would question if they are in the right business.

Sandy figured out that if she learned the basics of personal finance, she could invest her own money, have more control over her risk, and save a ton on fees.

She learned so much about personal finance that when the opportunity came up to publish a book, personal finance was the clear subject.

Sandy’s book, The Money Master, will be published in the summer of 2019.

It’s always great to have another voice in the personal finance community to help increase financial literacy and democratize personal finance.

Financial wellness is nearly impossible to achieve if you are having mental health issues. Recognizing this, Sandy has decided to donate $2 from every sale of her book to CAMH, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. If you’ve heard my story of addiction and recovery, you know that this has a special meaning for me, so thank you Sandy for making this commitment.

Sandy joined me in the studio in Hamilton to tell her personal finance story.

85 - Shanah Bell

Click here to book a FREE 15-minute personal finance consultation with Beau Humphreys, Personal Finance Coach

Click here to become a patron of The Personal Finance Show via Patreon

To register for my next available personal finance webinar click here.

Ed Rempel wants you to know that the conventional personal finance wisdom most people follow, might not be the best for your financial situation. Unconventional wisdom, as he calls it, might be your path to financial success.

Ed has been a financial planner for over 25 years and a tax accountant for over 35 years.

He is a Certified Financial Planner, Chartered Professional Accountant, and Certified Hedge Fund Specialist.

Ed has spent the majority of his life actually creating comprehensive financial plans for Canadians and continuously building his knowledge base to help his clients reach financial freedom in the most optimal and efficient way.

Ed has so much unconventional wisdom to share that one podcast episode wasn’t enough. We didn’t even get to talk about all of the really interesting investing and tax strategies that he has become an expert in over the years. So stay tuned for Part 2 of this interview in the coming months.

Ed joined me in the studio in Hamilton to share part 1 of his personal finance story.

84 - Sandy Yong

Click here to book a FREE 15-minute personal finance consultation with Beau Humphreys, Personal Finance Coach

Click here to become a patron of The Personal Finance Show via Patreon

To register for my next available personal finance webinar click here.

Sandi Martin wants someone giving financial advice to be paid by the person who’s receiving financial advice. And the someone giving financial advice should be paid a fee for the financial services they provide.

Sandi worked at a bank for years and her job was to sell the bank’s products.

When people came to her office to ask for financial advice, they didn’t have to pay her anything. The bank paid her. She worked for the bank and not for the people asking for advice. The bank would be happy if the people who came into Sandi’s office purchased one of the bank’s products before they left, and Sandi would be considered a success if she sold as many bank products as she could.

A lot of the time, the products at the bank were not the best products for the people who walked into her office. They weren’t terrible products, but they weren’t the right fit for some of the people. But she couldn’t recommend anything else because she would have lost her job at the bank.

The more she found out about the variety of financial products that existed, she realized that a lot of the best ones for the people who walked into her office at the bank existed outside of the bank.

So she left and created her own financial planning company, which is now called Spring Financial Planning.

She decided she wasn’t going to sell financial products at all.

She would talk to people and find out what they need to achieve their financial goals.

They would pay her a fee to help them make a financial plan that wasn’t tied to any financial products.

When the plan was done and they asked her how they should invest their money in a way that aligned with the goals in their plan, she could point them to a variety of suitable products that they could get from a variety of places. And they would be suitable for her clients because they would help them achieve their financial goals, not because she was getting paid to sell them.

Sandi Martin joined me from somewhere in the middle of the province of Ontario to tell her personal finance story.

83 - Ed Rempel

Click here to book a FREE 15-minute personal finance consultation with Beau Humphreys, Personal Finance Coach

Click here to become a patron of The Personal Finance Show via Patreon

To register for my next available personal finance webinar click here.