Speaker 1: My friend's investment portfolio just hit one million dollars. She's
Speaker 1: going to share with us exactly how she did it,
Speaker 1: the mindset, the practical strategies, and how she feels about
Speaker 1: her financial future. We're catching up with my friend Michelle
Speaker 1: for episode three. Good morning, everyone, and welcome back to
Speaker 1: Sugar Mama's Fireplay. I am your host financial planner, Canna Campbell,
Speaker 1: and as always, I'm here every Monday morning at five am, Rain,
Speaker 1: Hail or shine to help make sure that you start
Speaker 1: your week off on an inspired, informed, and most importantly
Speaker 1: educated note when it comes to achieving all of those
Speaker 1: very exciting financial goals and dreams.
Speaker 2: This morning were joined with Michelle.
Speaker 1: So this is actually our third catch up with Michelle.
Speaker 1: So in our first episode, Michelle shared the most insightful quote,
Speaker 1: and that is hopefully everyone remembers this. If you can
Speaker 1: afford an iPhone, you can afford to start investing in shares,
Speaker 1: and she was spot on. Then in this second episode
Speaker 1: we Talk, where we chatted with Michelle, she shared with
Speaker 1: us how she had doubled her portfolio in less than
Speaker 1: two and a half years. And in today's episode, she's
Speaker 1: gonna share with us how she's actually pretty much doubled
Speaker 1: her portfolio again. That's right, her portfolio has hit the.
Speaker 2: One million dollar mark.
Speaker 1: So she's going to allow me to pick her brain
Speaker 1: and give us all those insightful important bits of information
Speaker 1: so that we can apply at this in our own
Speaker 1: financial lives. Good morning, Michelle, How are you hi?
Speaker 3: How are you getting now?
Speaker 1: You were previously living in La when we first spoke,
Speaker 1: and then when we met in person, we were in La.
Speaker 2: Where are you living now?
Speaker 3: Phoenix? Aa? Zona?
Speaker 4: Wow?
Speaker 2: And what's the weather like there? Right now?
Speaker 3: It's one hundred and fifteen degrees?
Speaker 1: So how much is that in Celsius? I think it's
Speaker 1: like over forty I think Levy Google because.
Speaker 3: We don't do Celsius. But you know the rest of
Speaker 3: the world.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, in Sydney at the moment, it is winter
Speaker 1: and is wet, cold and miserable, and I have to
Speaker 1: say I'm feeling like I'm permanently soggy. But that's not
Speaker 1: too you know. The good thing about I guess winter
Speaker 1: is you get to hypernate it a little bit, and
Speaker 1: I tend to spend it a lot less because I'm
Speaker 1: just more happy filling my soul at home But enough
Speaker 1: about me, I want to ask you about you and
Speaker 1: your financial journey. Now, a massive, massive congratulations because your
Speaker 1: portfolio just hit the.
Speaker 2: One million dollar mark. Can you here with that? It's
Speaker 2: just crazy?
Speaker 1: Can you share with us how it feels to achieve
Speaker 1: this milestone at the age that you all like you're
Speaker 1: not even like halfway through life.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I hit it on Thursday, to be exact, So last
Speaker 4: a week ago from yesterday, I hit the mark and
Speaker 4: it was thanks to Broadcom and I was at work
Speaker 4: and I was looking at, you know, the shares for
Speaker 4: the day because I knew that they had big news
Speaker 4: and I was so close. And then I got home
Speaker 4: and then the aftermarket blew up on it. I mean
Speaker 4: it blew up and it went up like two hundred
Speaker 4: and twenty some dollars this year in the aftermarket, and
Speaker 4: it had already been going up all week, and I
Speaker 4: kept saying, let me take some off, let me take
Speaker 4: some off, like no, no, no, no, I know this guy.
Speaker 4: I've been with this one for a long time. Just
Speaker 4: just ride it out just a little bit longer. And
Speaker 4: when it got up to that amount, I took enough
Speaker 4: off the table. And when I did that, and I
Speaker 4: ran and the numbers I had reached, the one million,
Speaker 4: six thousand dollars and sixty cents something like that, and
Speaker 4: I was like screaming up like that screaming, and then
Speaker 4: I called a couple of friends who I could trust
Speaker 4: with it without them saying, oh, can I bar some money?
Speaker 3: So that.
Speaker 4: Was what it felt like, and it was It was
Speaker 4: the weirdest feeling, because it's like I've worked for this
Speaker 4: special number, and I think everybody works for this number.
Speaker 4: And then when it finally happened, it was like, Okay,
Speaker 4: I do feel kind of different. I really do, so
Speaker 4: you do feel different. But then you're like, okay, now
Speaker 4: I know I can't tell everybody, but I want to
Speaker 4: tell everybody. And you want to buy something, but I
Speaker 4: was like, no, no, no, no no, I'll wait to buy
Speaker 4: something when I'm at I don't know, a million and
Speaker 4: a half.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's quite special because the day where your investment
Speaker 1: portfolioer clapped the.
Speaker 2: One million dola mark, it was actually the.
Speaker 1: Anniversary of your mother's passing, and your mother is actually
Speaker 1: the woman that initially really inspired you to take control
Speaker 1: of your financial.
Speaker 2: Future and to step up. It's so special.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was, and you know, you saying that it
Speaker 3: did remind me. I was like, cause she was one
Speaker 3: of the people.
Speaker 4: I was like, oh my god, I wish she was
Speaker 4: living because she would have been like, well, it was
Speaker 4: always good with money, because you know, I was I
Speaker 4: was her little calculator when we go to the grocery store.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: I would she put some in the car and like, well, okay,
Speaker 4: where am I at? And I would run it in
Speaker 4: my head. I'm like, oh, plus with tax, it will
Speaker 4: be this amount. So I would go to the grocery
Speaker 4: store with her and be the calculator. So she would
Speaker 4: have been very impressed, but she wouldn't have been surprised
Speaker 4: because she always said I was gonna be rich.
Speaker 1: So now, but to ask you a whole pot of
Speaker 1: like practical questions and you know about how you did this,
Speaker 1: and and you know.
Speaker 2: The resources that you use, so a quick you know,
Speaker 2: reminded ever one that all of my.
Speaker 1: Content, in particular my podcast episode is always general in nature,
Speaker 1: and nothing is that a product advice, investment and advice,
Speaker 1: strategic advice. What sort of place is purely obviously for
Speaker 1: everyone's educational purposes only. But I've got to ask you
Speaker 1: your mindset is phenomenal. You are like constantly motivated and driven,
Speaker 1: and you have this amazing like sense of focus. Can
Speaker 1: you share a little bit about your mindset but also
Speaker 1: like how it has maybe evolved over time and influence
Speaker 1: your investor decisions.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, it's funny you see that, But most
Speaker 4: of the time I'm focused on a goal. But I'm
Speaker 4: not so much focused all the time because I will
Speaker 4: get down a lot because I'm like, you know, I
Speaker 4: see people half my age, like in their twenties saying
Speaker 4: they did this and that. I'm like, Okay, I'm doing
Speaker 4: everything right. Why didn't I get there? So sometimes that
Speaker 4: motivates me when I see somebody much younger that you know,
Speaker 4: doesn't have like how do I want to put it?
Speaker 4: You know, like some of these kids are coming out
Speaker 4: of college right now, making, especially if they're in tech,
Speaker 4: making like six figures, you know, lots of money, and
Speaker 4: they're able to do a lot of things with that.
Speaker 4: For me, it's just changed over time that I've just
Speaker 4: become more comfortable in the fact that when I say
Speaker 4: I'm going to buy something and I research it, I
Speaker 4: trust my own judgment, whereas before I didn't trust my
Speaker 4: own judgment.
Speaker 3: I literally bought what other people bought.
Speaker 4: I bought what I knew, and I think I remember
Speaker 4: telling you everything I bought.
Speaker 3: I always bought what I knew, and I love dividends.
Speaker 4: But now I'm buying stuff I don't know because now
Speaker 4: I've become so seasoned that I'm really comfortable, you know,
Speaker 4: thinking outside the box.
Speaker 3: So that's how.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you're having those days where you feel flat thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, there's this you know guy or girl like
Speaker 1: half my age earning you know, one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year. You know, how do you like
Speaker 1: deal with that feeling? Because I don't have a believe
Speaker 1: in comparing yourself. But I think that's like a bottomless pit.
Speaker 1: But you know how for people who do that, like you,
Speaker 1: how do you get out of that hole?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 4: Good question. I get out of it by helping other people.
Speaker 4: Like I'm if I'm you know, on a bene and
Speaker 4: I'm watching these YouTube videos and they're telling this and that.
Speaker 4: I mean, you could get so down and so depressed
Speaker 4: you're like, you know what, I'm not gonna watch it,
Speaker 4: and then I'll look at my portfolio. I'll literally go
Speaker 4: online and look at it. I'm like, I've got a
Speaker 4: lot of money here, what is wrong with me? So
Speaker 4: then when I do, I'm like, if I'm feeling sorry
Speaker 4: for myself yet there's some people who would just love
Speaker 4: to have a thousand dollars during the day rams and
Speaker 4: you know, have a thousand dollars in your things account,
Speaker 4: whereas I have enough to I don't know, to feed
Speaker 4: a small village in Africa or something. So I'm like, okay,
Speaker 4: you gotta stop watching this stuff. So I'll stop watching
Speaker 4: it for a while and I'll go out and I'll
Speaker 4: help somebody. And I do that by just introducing people like,
Speaker 4: you know, like, hey, you know, have you ever thought
Speaker 4: about like retiring anytime soon?
Speaker 3: Or do you like your job?
Speaker 4: And you know, I did this with a neighbor two
Speaker 4: doors down for me who will become you know, good friends.
Speaker 3: And they started investing.
Speaker 4: And so we've been doing one hour classes twice a
Speaker 4: week where I'll go over there and we'll just sit
Speaker 4: there and I go over like, you know, how to
Speaker 4: look at this, how to look at read the numbers,
Speaker 4: decide what you want.
Speaker 3: And so they finally did.
Speaker 4: We did this for about two months and now they
Speaker 4: have got their their portfolio started.
Speaker 3: And they've got a few shares.
Speaker 4: And the first thing I told them, now, Okay, you
Speaker 4: can look at the market every day, but do not
Speaker 4: keep buying every day and don't sell every state. Just
Speaker 4: trust what you bought and ride out the storm. And
Speaker 4: so that's what I do. When I'm you know, comparing
Speaker 4: apples to oranges, I just go and find somebody who's
Speaker 4: has done as well as I have.
Speaker 1: I think it's so important, you know, that sense of
Speaker 1: gratitude of just taking pressing pause and looking at actually
Speaker 1: how much we've got already, and we have everything we
Speaker 1: need to in the moment right now to exceed and
Speaker 1: progress ahead, and then that moment to actually stop and
Speaker 1: look at how far you've come. It's a great mindset switch,
Speaker 1: you know, if you're feeling you know, down in the dumps,
Speaker 1: to like, you know, stab yourself and pull yourself out
Speaker 1: of it. Now when it comes to like the balance
Speaker 1: in life, like a lot of people think, if you
Speaker 1: want to build wealth, you have to deprive yourself. There
Speaker 1: are huge sacrifices, you know. It's about you know, living
Speaker 1: a frugal life filled with deprivation. Like I totally disagree
Speaker 1: with that I'm all about balance. And I know from
Speaker 1: when we were caught up in La like we had
Speaker 1: a great laugh about our love of you know, beautiful handbags.
Speaker 2: For example, Like how do you find the balance?
Speaker 1: Like have you you found on that sweet spot where
Speaker 1: you balance in your financial goals and being responsible with money,
Speaker 1: but also are allowing yourselves to have a couple of
Speaker 1: spudgets here and there.
Speaker 4: You know what, you're right because I used to be frugal,
Speaker 4: Like when I was younger, I was very frugal. But
Speaker 4: my mother used to tell me all the time because
Speaker 4: her father used to tell her she doesn't wear well.
Speaker 4: So she would, you know, even lay five kids. She
Speaker 4: would never like buy like really cheat clothes. She would
Speaker 4: she loves I wouldn't say so much name brand, but
Speaker 4: they were always high quality clothes. So sometimes they would
Speaker 4: be but she always said quality last. And so when
Speaker 4: you see yourself doing really well and you're paying your
Speaker 4: bills all on time, you.
Speaker 3: Have that extra little cash.
Speaker 4: I've put money in my emergency fund, I've put money
Speaker 4: in the market, and then if I come into a
Speaker 4: couple of more hundred bucks, I'm like, you know what
Speaker 4: I've earned it, I'm going to enjoy it and it
Speaker 4: is a happy balance. And I found that the more
Speaker 4: I've enjoyed the money that I have, the more I get.
Speaker 2: I know it sounds right, I know it doesn't.
Speaker 1: It doesn't sound crazy at all, I think, but it's that,
Speaker 1: you know what that is is, it's gratitude and what
Speaker 1: we appreciate, appreciates and pressing pools to acknowledge how nice
Speaker 1: it feels to you know, come from a place of
Speaker 1: self love and self respect. By prioritizing our financial wellbeing,
Speaker 1: we can then reward ourselves in a very healthy way
Speaker 1: which is filled with self love and self respect, and
Speaker 1: do it so guilt free because we've got our priorities
Speaker 1: in the right order.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And I've started to donate more so, like I said,
Speaker 4: I've started to do stuff that I've wanted to do
Speaker 4: a long time, like tied to my church. Also give
Speaker 4: to charitable organizations. I've gotten two of them that I like.
Speaker 3: One is Project.
Speaker 4: Forty seven and another one I think you guys probably
Speaker 4: have heard of a lot is Wounded Warriors.
Speaker 3: So I don't get to that.
Speaker 4: And I gotta tell you, Hannah, I enjoy donating more
Speaker 4: than now I'm buying stuff. Something I never thought would
Speaker 4: come out of my mouth, but they say, when you're
Speaker 4: a happy giver, things come back to you tenfold.
Speaker 3: And it really does.
Speaker 4: You get the satisfaction point that your hard work and
Speaker 4: you're building your financial freedom is helping others pour down
Speaker 4: on their luck at the moment.
Speaker 2: And you know, it compacts me with good karma.
Speaker 1: Oh, I couldn't agree more. I run this group. It's
Speaker 1: called the Money Mindset Manifestation Program, and it's a special
Speaker 1: community that people can join and and I am available
Speaker 1: literally twenty four to seven. And the other day someone
Speaker 1: messaged me and said, hey, something's happened, Like I'm feeling
Speaker 1: a bit.
Speaker 2: Flat, a bit confused, you know.
Speaker 1: And I spent like, you know, I think forty minutes
Speaker 1: chatting with this person, working through the stuff that was
Speaker 1: going and helping them see what was the blessing behind.
Speaker 1: And it was the most fulfilling, like enjoyable experience, like
Speaker 1: connecting with someone, helping someone allow like peeling back the
Speaker 1: layers to the brainstorming together. It just I you know,
Speaker 1: before that morning, I was feeling a little bit tired
Speaker 1: and flat, and by the time I got off that call,
Speaker 1: I just felt like I was just buzzing with passion,
Speaker 1: with love, with happiness. You know, I think the key
Speaker 1: to happiness is being able to help other people and
Speaker 1: help other people unconditionally. So yeah, I completely agree with
Speaker 1: everything you're saying. For listeners who are really keen to
Speaker 1: get started, what advice could you give them to help
Speaker 1: make sure that they pushed through that feeling of analysis paralysis,
Speaker 1: or that feeling of overwhelmed or not even sure where
Speaker 1: to get started. What would be you know, the advice
Speaker 1: you'd be to me if I was your neighbor next
Speaker 1: door wanting to begin.
Speaker 4: Okay, So what I told them because they wanted to
Speaker 4: literally buy the same things I buy. And you know,
Speaker 4: recently I bought some of chipotlets and things like that,
Speaker 4: and those are in the dollar range.
Speaker 3: I told them, I.
Speaker 4: Said, you shouldn't start that high. I said, trust me,
Speaker 4: I've been doing this a long time. And I said,
Speaker 4: and when I first started, I didn't buy anything more
Speaker 4: than like twenty five thirty forty dollars.
Speaker 3: And I said that was too much for me.
Speaker 4: I said, so don't try to start at the same
Speaker 4: pace as somebody else, because then you'll get you'll get down,
Speaker 4: you'll get the scrunt on and you're like, oh, I
Speaker 4: can't do it. I said buy, I said pick a
Speaker 4: dollar amount, stick with that amount, find ways to cut
Speaker 4: your budget to just get that amount each month, and
Speaker 4: stay consistent.
Speaker 3: That will make you feel better.
Speaker 4: You won't see it growing too much for like a
Speaker 4: two or three months or something like that. But just
Speaker 4: stick with it. Trust me when I tell you the
Speaker 4: turtle that me here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's better to start with something that's actually achievable,
Speaker 1: and you've got to be so patient. And this is
Speaker 1: what I love about one thousand dollars project. You know,
Speaker 1: it's you're just focusing on one thousand dollars. Get about
Speaker 1: the million dollar dreams and goals. I mean, they're great
Speaker 1: to have, but just focus on what you can do
Speaker 1: today to get started. If it's one hundred dollars or
Speaker 1: five hundred dollars, that's still great, but you can once
Speaker 1: you get started, the only way is up from there,
Speaker 1: and you can. You know, if thousand dollars feels overwhelming,
Speaker 1: try and do the five hundred dollars project. And you know,
Speaker 1: my portfolio hasn't done as well as yours. Like I
Speaker 1: think I'm up to about two hundred and eighty five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars for the thousand dollars project, which I've built
Speaker 1: over eight years or eight and a half years, which
Speaker 1: is I'm really proud of it, and it makes about
Speaker 1: a passive income of over sixteen thousand dollars a year
Speaker 1: and dividends. But you know, I all I ever do
Speaker 1: is for me, like the thousand dollars projects about small
Speaker 1: baby steps.
Speaker 2: But you know, if you can do a.
Speaker 1: Little bit every day or every week or every month
Speaker 1: over the period of time, like, it's incredible what it
Speaker 1: can do. And I think people would sort of turn
Speaker 1: their nose up, thinking, well, why would I bother with
Speaker 1: something such a small amount of money, But they don't
Speaker 1: realize that's the birthplace of your journey and it's it's
Speaker 1: incredible how quickly.
Speaker 2: That adds up.
Speaker 4: You know, your thousand dollars project when I started now,
Speaker 4: granted I want people to remember too. My portfolio is
Speaker 4: also from when if I switched a job and I
Speaker 4: rolled over my retirement funds, like my irais and stuff
Speaker 4: that were like in mutual funds, and they you know,
Speaker 4: once you leave a company, you get the money and
Speaker 4: you have to roll it over. So when I roll
Speaker 4: it over. I roll it over and I buy stocks
Speaker 4: with it. So that's how it grew a lot faster.
Speaker 4: As well as for your thousand dollars projects, I love
Speaker 4: that book. I love the concept. I couldn't afford a
Speaker 4: thousand at a time because I can't hustle as hard
Speaker 4: to come up with a thousand, so.
Speaker 3: I would use working money.
Speaker 4: But I have told people about that, and I also
Speaker 4: let them borrow your your second book, The Money Mindset
Speaker 4: one so mindful, so I gave that.
Speaker 2: To the mindfuls.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna yeah, and I told him, I said, Okay,
Speaker 4: you got a couple more weeks and then I want
Speaker 4: it back.
Speaker 3: I may get them that.
Speaker 4: I may buy it for them for Christmas, because yeah,
Speaker 4: I just it's something that you can always go back
Speaker 4: and look at and read. But yeah, the thousand project
Speaker 4: is it's tougher than it sound.
Speaker 3: And I think one of your readers even.
Speaker 4: Like cut it in half or she did like one
Speaker 4: hundred dollars project, so they could do that.
Speaker 1: So it's yeah, you know, someone did the ten thousand
Speaker 1: dollars project. They messaged me they were working in passes
Speaker 1: of ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: I was like wow, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: But you know, the funny thing is that I've been
Speaker 1: doing it for eight years. But the truth is, over
Speaker 1: the last four years, I haven't really added anything to
Speaker 1: the portfolio. I've really just been like, I haven't added
Speaker 1: really much owing the last probably six months.
Speaker 2: I've been chipping away at the marginal and.
Speaker 1: There's a very small marginalone that's reducing and I've been
Speaker 1: sort of paying that off. But I haven't actually added
Speaker 1: anything really to the portfolio portfolio for the last four years.
Speaker 2: So you know, it actually could have been much much bigger.
Speaker 1: But the beautiful thing about the thousand dollar project is
Speaker 1: it rolls with you because you know, for me, the
Speaker 1: last four years, I've had two babies, and we've moved
Speaker 1: house like twice, we've moved out twice, so I've had,
Speaker 1: you know, additional distractions and expenses to deal with. So
Speaker 1: I haven't been able to put you know, my heart
Speaker 1: and soul like I had for the first four years
Speaker 1: of the thousand dollar project.
Speaker 2: So but I doesn't. That's the whole thing is it's fluid.
Speaker 2: It works with you, it volves with you, and you.
Speaker 1: Know, this year I'm looking at paying off the thousand
Speaker 1: dollar project margin loan, which is down to about thirty
Speaker 1: nine thousand, and I'm going to look at switching it
Speaker 1: into a debt recycling strategy. And my goal is now
Speaker 1: to turn it into a million dollar share portfolio like
Speaker 1: you've done. So you know, it's you don't have to
Speaker 1: be constantly committed to it.
Speaker 2: You can.
Speaker 1: You know, investing can evolve with you depending on what's
Speaker 1: going on in your life. Now I need to ask
Speaker 1: you an important question. What would you say is the
Speaker 1: biggest lesson that you've learned along the way of building
Speaker 1: up this million dollar investment portfolio that you wish you
Speaker 1: had known before you got had gotten started?
Speaker 4: What I learned? I took too long to do it.
Speaker 4: That's the one thing I learned. You said you didn't
Speaker 4: put more money in. I haven't added more money to
Speaker 4: this account since last year. What I put two thousand
Speaker 4: dollars in?
Speaker 2: Wow?
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the power of compounding interest. Because you've
Speaker 1: been in you know, And this is why it's so
Speaker 1: important as an investor. If you're investing in in stocks,
Speaker 1: you know it's a long term real investment horizon. And
Speaker 1: when I say long term, it's ten, fifteen, twenty years
Speaker 1: and I know for me, it's indefinite because I never
Speaker 1: intended selling my stocks.
Speaker 2: They'll be cutting off my passive income stream.
Speaker 1: But you know, people will get they want to be
Speaker 1: they want to get rich overnight, and that look, it
Speaker 1: can happen, but at huge risk and at humorge risk
Speaker 1: of things potentially backfiring, going wrong, and filling a life
Speaker 1: with regret. I'd rather plays you said that it's the
Speaker 1: head and the you know, I would rather something allows
Speaker 1: balance in my life and allow me to build wise, intelligent,
Speaker 1: tax effective, you know, passive income than some sort of
Speaker 1: form of gambling.
Speaker 2: Really yeah, And a lot.
Speaker 4: Of people think this is gambling, but I'm like, it's
Speaker 4: not because you see the stores you go into, you
Speaker 4: know whether they're doing bad or they're doing good. You
Speaker 4: can see the foot traffic and you can see when
Speaker 4: it's probably time to get out if you bought something
Speaker 4: like in one of these retail stores or something like that.
Speaker 4: So I said, that's not gambling, that's just you know,
Speaker 4: you see it and you're just taking advantage of it.
Speaker 4: I've also learned that I have literally made more money,
Speaker 4: like right now this moment, I've made well, today was
Speaker 4: not a great day and yesterday was a great day.
Speaker 4: But if I took those two days off the table,
Speaker 4: I still may double what my salary will be at
Speaker 4: the end of the year.
Speaker 3: And it's only six months.
Speaker 4: And if I would have known that so many years ago,
Speaker 4: that you know, your soldiers out there working for you
Speaker 4: would do it because you I feel like I'm a
Speaker 4: CEO of my portfolio and all of my worker bees
Speaker 4: are sitting here working for me.
Speaker 3: I'm not doing.
Speaker 4: Anything contributing to making it happen except for moving money
Speaker 4: from here to there. If I sell something that's gone
Speaker 4: up really high, you know, such as in a video
Speaker 4: or something when that split happened, you know, and you
Speaker 4: have you know, I had one hundred chairs, now I
Speaker 4: have a thousand. I knew I didn't want that many
Speaker 4: of that stock, so.
Speaker 3: I took some off the table. But when I take
Speaker 3: something off the table.
Speaker 4: I buy stocks like I bought more of you know,
Speaker 4: I don't mind saying I bought more of PEPSI. It
Speaker 4: hasn't been doing great, but it does. It is a
Speaker 4: great company as well, and it has a great dividend,
Speaker 4: and it's flow and steady, which is what I like.
Speaker 4: So you know, you could be here own boss. Part
Speaker 4: time is what I'm doing. But it's you know, it's
Speaker 4: rewarded me ten times.
Speaker 1: How important is that passive income to you in being
Speaker 1: able to one day allow you to quit and you know,
Speaker 1: enjoy an early retirement to quit now.
Speaker 3: I when I Thursday, okay.
Speaker 4: How I ran the numbers the numbers on Thursday, I said,
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, I could pay the ballance of the
Speaker 4: house I'm living in out off because it's my only
Speaker 4: dat I don't have. I paid off my car in
Speaker 4: two years, so I have no debt. And I was like,
Speaker 4: oh my goodness, I said I could. I even ran
Speaker 4: the numbers on how much I would have to pay
Speaker 4: an insurance, you know, health insurance until I can I'm
Speaker 4: able to get Medicare in a couple of decades, and
Speaker 4: I could retire now. But I was like, oh no,
Speaker 4: I have too much things I still need to do.
Speaker 4: I want to buy another property. I know that if
Speaker 4: I don't have a job that I would have to
Speaker 4: put such a big chunk down that that would kind
Speaker 4: of hurt and I wouldn't feel comfortable. But yeah, if
Speaker 4: I didn't want to buy another two properties and I
Speaker 4: was just content with living here, I could retire as
Speaker 4: of Thursday last week and you know, get out of
Speaker 4: the game, but I haven't. My original goal I spoke
Speaker 4: with you at LA was one point three.
Speaker 3: So if I.
Speaker 1: Now that I remember this, yeah, at one point and
Speaker 1: I feels like the other day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'm at one point two five two.
Speaker 4: That's including the house, licked, equity and everything, and I'm like,
Speaker 4: you know, I don't even want to count the house.
Speaker 4: I wanted to just be so now I'm working to
Speaker 4: one just to get the other two real estate properties
Speaker 4: that I want to get to rent out and to
Speaker 4: just you know, be able to take care of those
Speaker 4: were a couple of years.
Speaker 3: I'm looking at three years now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, okay, can you tell everyone how old you are?
Speaker 4: Forty seven and a half.
Speaker 1: You are amazing like retiring, you know, if you wanted to,
Speaker 1: And this is the thing is you've got choice.
Speaker 2: You know, I know you don't want to, and I
Speaker 2: love that that you don't want to, and I don't.
Speaker 1: To be honest, I don't think you'll ever stop because
Speaker 1: you're just so driven and so passionate about life. But
Speaker 1: if you wanted to, you could retire today at forty seven.
Speaker 2: And a half.
Speaker 1: Do you know how like many people in the world
Speaker 1: could say that, not that many, Like you're in the minority.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, you know, especially being a minority, that's huge.
Speaker 4: But again, when I looked at others online who were
Speaker 4: even like forty and thirty time, I'm like, okay, but
Speaker 4: some of the things they did I didn't do. So
Speaker 4: they did live in lower costs of living cities.
Speaker 3: I of course did not living in LA for so long.
Speaker 4: But I enjoyed myself and would love to go back there,
Speaker 4: and but go back there comfortable, struggling, But yeah, it's
Speaker 4: it's weird, and it doesn't feel like, oh I'm so young.
Speaker 3: No, it feels like I'm creeping along.
Speaker 1: Or for anyone who's listening right now, and they're like,
Speaker 1: I want to be like a show. I want to
Speaker 1: be able to have that choice where I can retire
Speaker 1: if I want to know, what would be your advice
Speaker 1: to them? To tell them to stop thinking about it
Speaker 1: and talking about it or start doing it.
Speaker 4: You just said it, Just do it like the friends,
Speaker 4: like I said, a couple of doors down they were
Speaker 4: when I told them and everything, and they were feeling comfortable.
Speaker 4: The first thing they did was open up one of
Speaker 4: those I don't know what app it is, but it
Speaker 4: lets you pretend to trade and everything.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, go paper trading. Yeah, it's brilliant.
Speaker 4: I want to do that like a month or so
Speaker 4: and I'm like, stop it. Just just take the money
Speaker 4: and put it. Even if you just open up the
Speaker 4: broker's account and put the money and let it just
Speaker 4: sit there, just do it. You trust And when they
Speaker 4: finally pull the trigger, they're like, okay, fine, and they
Speaker 4: did it because I think those apps. I think they
Speaker 4: were good back in the day, but I think now
Speaker 4: because the market is constantly moving one way or the other,
Speaker 4: you can't time it. So stop trying to time it.
Speaker 4: Just get in it and just pick something. Like I
Speaker 4: said that you know first, if you know it, you
Speaker 4: use it all the time, and it's doing well by that,
Speaker 4: even if it's only one year.
Speaker 3: Just get in it. Don't sit on the sideline. Stop it.
Speaker 1: And that's why, you know, I say to people, you
Speaker 1: know that if someone you know comes up between the
Speaker 1: street and says, look, I really want to start investing
Speaker 1: in shaz you know.
Speaker 2: What should I buy?
Speaker 1: Obviously I'm never gonna say, hey, buy this stock, because
Speaker 1: that's product advice and personal advice and will get me
Speaker 1: into whold lot of trouble. But you know, if anyone
Speaker 1: that wants to build up a diversified portfolio is overwhelmed
Speaker 1: by you know, the analysis paralysis of what to invest in,
Speaker 1: what company, what industry, what sector, blah blah blah, learn
Speaker 1: about ETFs and listed investment companies because you could essentially
Speaker 1: take your one thousand dollars And this is assuming that
Speaker 1: you understand what you're doing. You understand it's a long
Speaker 1: term investment, and you know that you want a diversified
Speaker 1: share portfolio, whether it be Australian or international. Using a
Speaker 1: vehicle like an exchange traded fund or a list investment
Speaker 1: company means that one thousand dollars is immediately invested across
Speaker 1: eighty one hundred, one hundred and fifty different companies. It
Speaker 1: is done for you and it is just a great
Speaker 1: way to start and you you've got your foot in
Speaker 1: the door. You're technically a shareholder. You know, you're earning
Speaker 1: dividends now and you can build on from there. It's
Speaker 1: just it's, you know, it's just such a great place.
Speaker 1: Obviously under those assumptions and not giving anyone product advice here.
Speaker 2: But you know it is it is so easy. And
Speaker 2: I know a large amount.
Speaker 1: Of my portfolio, for both my personal share portfolio that's
Speaker 1: separate to the thousand dollars project portfolio, a large percentage
Speaker 1: of it I've been you know, accumulating you know, more
Speaker 1: listed investment companies because I don't have to sit there
Speaker 1: and watch stocks and research reports and you know, you know,
Speaker 1: sit in front of like Bloomberg or you know, Sky Business.
Speaker 2: I can. It's I can.
Speaker 1: I've got It gives me my time back from other
Speaker 1: enjoyable things in life.
Speaker 4: I like read, I like listening to the quarterly reports,
Speaker 4: and that's about it. All the rest of it I
Speaker 4: can't because you literally, like you said, you just started
Speaker 4: to get a headache. But you know when people say
Speaker 4: they feel overwhelmed, because I'll say that, oh, I just
Speaker 4: don't know what to buy, I just know what to buy.
Speaker 3: I'm like, go to the mall, sit at the full court.
Speaker 3: Then you'll know what to buy.
Speaker 4: Because it always walks me that people can take their
Speaker 4: tax return and it'll be a couple of thousand dollars
Speaker 4: and they can go to the mall and they could
Speaker 4: go and buy all these things and have two hands
Speaker 4: filled with bags and they're so happy walk into their car.
Speaker 4: And we know that feeling because I know, I remember
Speaker 4: those days.
Speaker 3: I still get a kick when I have that bag
Speaker 3: in my hand.
Speaker 4: You know, you know these bags we're talking about, how
Speaker 4: they wrap it in a bowl and everything and give
Speaker 4: you extra little free samples. I'm like, okay, so you
Speaker 4: just did you feel overwhelmed when you went on that
Speaker 4: shopping spree And they're like, no, I said, it's the
Speaker 4: same thing with stock. The difference is you can't buy
Speaker 4: as much as you would on that little spree, but
Speaker 4: if you still have your tax refund of one thousand dollars,
Speaker 4: you still can go shopping in the market. Just instead
Speaker 4: of buying the product by the stock.
Speaker 3: Be the owners.
Speaker 1: I love exactly, And you know I you know, not
Speaker 1: product device, but I owned shares and Woolworsts, which is
Speaker 1: our major supermarket here, and it's so satisfying walking through
Speaker 1: going I'm supporting a business by shopping here, and you know,
Speaker 1: a bull West every rewards. You know, I click my
Speaker 1: points every time and use my pet insurance discount. But
Speaker 1: it's so satisfying walking through and going. I own a
Speaker 1: tiny a tiny percentage of this supermarket. Like it's it's
Speaker 1: so satisfying and for people think I don't know what
Speaker 1: to be buying.
Speaker 2: Also, think about what do we need every day to live?
Speaker 1: Well, we need electricity, we need to put petrol in
Speaker 1: our car.
Speaker 2: We need food, We need to buy bread, we need
Speaker 2: to buy milk.
Speaker 1: There are the essentials. If you're wanting to pick your
Speaker 1: individual stocks, start with what we need to be able
Speaker 1: to survive and to live, you know, and start building
Speaker 1: a portfolio. You know, look around you look at the trends,
Speaker 1: look at what's you know, where people are spending money,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's like when you start actually you know,
Speaker 1: opening your eyes and looking at what are people doing,
Speaker 1: like where are they spending their money, it's really insightful.
Speaker 1: As well as you become a more experienced, more confident investor,
Speaker 1: and you can start you know, maybe once you've got
Speaker 1: a really solid base put of ETFs listed investment companies,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: You can start going.
Speaker 1: You know what, I know, I've probably got that particular
Speaker 1: company and my portfolio already through the ACF for the
Speaker 1: listed investment company. I'm actually gonna up the stakes a
Speaker 1: little bit here and buy some individual stocks in that company,
Speaker 1: so I have a little bit more skin in the
Speaker 1: game with that industry or that company. It's amazing how
Speaker 1: creative you can actually really be in building up your wealth.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean I started in mutual funds. I started with
Speaker 4: Vanguard Funds and Janis Funds, and you know, they did great,
Speaker 4: but they didn't do fabulous like I'm doing now. And
Speaker 4: I knew I'd always wanted to buy individual stocks. And
Speaker 4: like you said, it's fun when you go into a
Speaker 4: store or something, you're like, you know, I had to
Speaker 4: go and get another phone upgrade, and I walked into
Speaker 4: you know, a Verizon store, and it was just great
Speaker 4: to know that, Okay, I own some of this.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: That felt great. And of course I was buying another Apple.
Speaker 4: And I'm not saying if Samsung Apple and ones better
Speaker 4: than the other, I just I buy because it all
Speaker 4: talks to everything. It talks to my watch, to my
Speaker 4: AirPods all that, so you know, and it's like, okay, yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna get another one because I own stock in that.
Speaker 4: You know, you get in your car, you're going driving
Speaker 4: to McDonald's. You're like, I own stocking that. While I'm
Speaker 4: drinking a coke own stocking that it's just like, yeah,
Speaker 4: I may work for somebody else and get a paycheck,
Speaker 4: but I'm also an owner.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's the feeling.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a good feeling. And it cracks people up.
Speaker 4: When I'm in the car with them, I'm like, you know, yeah,
Speaker 4: get that, and I'm like, thank you for your contribution
Speaker 4: to my retirement when they buy something that I I.
Speaker 3: Did that. Literally, I did that. I think it was
Speaker 3: what was it Tuesday Wednesday?
Speaker 4: At work, they had pizza or something and they didn't
Speaker 4: have coke, but they had PEPSI and I have shares
Speaker 4: in both, and I was like, I said, thank you
Speaker 4: for contributing.
Speaker 3: What, Oh my god, really I don't know that.
Speaker 4: And it's like, oh, you know, you never asked, but yeah,
Speaker 4: so you know, it's not an at the little cocktail parties.
Speaker 1: Look, Michelle, you are so incredibly inspiring, and you know
Speaker 1: it's I'm so motivated as well to go and like
Speaker 1: jump into my share portfolio, look at my account, Look
Speaker 1: at what extra money I can kind of hustle up
Speaker 1: for this week to be able to you know, to
Speaker 1: add more to my portfolio because I just have this
Speaker 1: massive rush and I'm sure our listeners do right now.
Speaker 1: So you know, I can't thank you enough for you
Speaker 1: like being so generous with your time in updating us
Speaker 1: with your story, and for the listeners right now listening
Speaker 1: to this episode, please make sure you go and listen
Speaker 1: to Michelle's previous episodes, which I will link in the
Speaker 1: podcast notes, because you will hear her story from when
Speaker 1: a portfolio is worth about two hundred to fifty and
Speaker 1: then she jumps up to just under half a million,
Speaker 1: and now she's just clicked cracked the one million dollar mark,
Speaker 1: which is for no phenomenal and just like and the
Speaker 1: fact that you want to keep going.
Speaker 2: It's just, you know, it's just gold, Like.
Speaker 1: Like everything I have so much, you know, like respect
Speaker 1: and appreciation towards you and what you've achieved and how
Speaker 1: generous you are with you sharing your insights and experience
Speaker 1: and knowledge.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I wanted to add one more thing, Okay.
Speaker 3: Bridy was also a big day for me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm a perfect credit score of a fifty. I'm
Speaker 4: the only person I know that's done that, and everybody
Speaker 4: I told to they don't know anybody else either. That
Speaker 4: is also very important to me that I wanted to
Speaker 4: get out there on this podcast.
Speaker 1: You know, credit scores is massive in America, and it is.
Speaker 1: It is a little bit here, but no one talks.
Speaker 1: It's a bit of a behind closed doors because only
Speaker 1: really people check their credit scores here maybe when they're
Speaker 1: going to apply for a loan with a bank or
Speaker 1: if they're in trouble. So you know, it's funny, like
Speaker 1: I think people almost have in America their credit score
Speaker 1: is part of their like dating profile, but here it's not.
Speaker 1: But it is very important because it helps you. If
Speaker 1: you know you're credit for you can negotiate sometimes a
Speaker 1: much better rate with your bank as well, so you
Speaker 1: can actually save yourself a huge amount of money. So
Speaker 1: you know, again not only congratulations on cracking one million dollars,
Speaker 1: but also on your Fico store store, because that's I
Speaker 1: know how important that is for you in America.
Speaker 2: Yes, just look now, Michelle. My next final question is is,
Speaker 2: and we'll take this offline, but when you come.
Speaker 1: Into Australia and insist that you come and stay with
Speaker 1: me in Sydney, so you need to like you need to.
Speaker 2: Hurry up and retire and book that flight to Sydney.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to come so bad.
Speaker 4: And when I started with this client because I'm a
Speaker 4: consultant and that I have this client and it was
Speaker 4: supposed to be just a few a couple of months,
Speaker 4: but now it's got extended. So it's like, okay, great.
Speaker 4: And anytime my current employer, when we have a project
Speaker 4: with a client, you know, it's never a good time.
Speaker 4: And I'm like, I need to sit time off because
Speaker 4: I'm not going to lose my vacation time because you know,
Speaker 4: I'm working with somebody.
Speaker 3: But I definitely want to come. But every time I.
Speaker 4: See your kids, the two cute little girls, I'm like,
Speaker 4: oh my god, I be ready for this because Rocco,
Speaker 4: I'm ready for and you know, you know, I want
Speaker 4: to see just Giseppie so bad.
Speaker 3: I love that. I know, Oh my gosh, I wanted
Speaker 3: on screen today because I was like, I never ask you, Giseeppe.
Speaker 2: Oh I'm so sorry.
Speaker 3: I will.
Speaker 1: I promise you'll send you some photographs. Giuseppe is the
Speaker 1: only SAE member of our household. We have a pretty
Speaker 1: wild neurodivergent mix going on here, and he's the only
Speaker 1: sane one, probably followed by Rocco, probably.
Speaker 2: Definitely the other end of the Spectrum. Yeah card today.
Speaker 4: I was glad you did another Tom's car today because
Speaker 4: I was watching it.
Speaker 3: I just thought, he needs a little caddy. We can
Speaker 3: put all these.
Speaker 4: Little things in like a little you know, one of
Speaker 4: the little caddies that you could put in there and
Speaker 4: he could sit it on the floor and he could
Speaker 4: just everything in that little spot.
Speaker 2: I think his whole car is a caddy. But yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 1: People love my updates of what's inside Tom's car this week,
Speaker 1: but that's over my Instagram account.
Speaker 2: Look, Michelle, I will let you get back on with
Speaker 2: your day.
Speaker 1: I can't thank you enough for coming on Sugar Mama's
Speaker 1: Fireplay and to all the listeners right now, you know,
Speaker 1: please make sure you go and listen to the previous
Speaker 1: episodes like it really is phenomenal what Michelle has achieved.
Speaker 1: And if you could take a moment to leave a
Speaker 1: rating and a review, I would greatly appreciate it because
Speaker 1: for me, every review and rating counts just like every
Speaker 1: dollarcounts for yours and my financial journey too. So everyone,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for listening to Sugar Mama's Fireplate.
Speaker 1: And again, thank you so much to Michelle chare for now.