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The Konnection Hub
The Konnection Hub
Ep 5: Take an honest and empowered look at your finances with Janelle Lansdall
Our conversation uncovers Janelle's deep-rooted mission to empower individuals by breaking the chains of traditional banking practices and offering tailored, unbiased financial guidance. She opens up about her challenges and triumphs as an independent advisor, inspiring listeners with her commitment to financial education and entrepreneurship.
I hope you enjoy this episode.
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Hi and welcome to the Connection Hub podcast. My name is Cassandra and I'm so happy that you're here. This is a space where we are having real conversations with real entrepreneurs. We aren't here to sugarcoat the realities of being your own CEO. We are all about raw, uncensored conversations that dive into the triumphs, struggles and secrets of real life business owners I'm so happy you're here and secrets of real-life business owners. I'm so happy you're here and I hope you enjoy this episode. Hello everyone and welcome back to the Connection Hub podcast. I'm your host, cassandra, and today we have our special guest, janelle, joining us. She is an independent financial advisor up here in Canada, not too far from where I am, and so today we are talking all about money, and so welcome Janelle. Tell us more about you and what you do.
Speaker 2:So excited to be here and just like share some of the nitty gritty behind the scenes details about what being a financial advisor is like and know how to offer assistance and some education to everyone out there. There's lots we can do with our money as Canadians. So I'm an independent financial advisor. I have been doing what I do for the last eight years. It has not been an easy trek. It sometimes feels like it's all been uphill, but I sincerely love what I do. I get really nerdy on insurance and investments. I think they're really cool.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I am independent, which means I have a brokerage, kind of like a real estate agent or a mortgage broker if you're familiar with how either of those structures work where they have a brokerage that takes care of their licensing, their continuing education, all their regulation and compliance, someone to check up on them and someone to hold their license through. That's necessary. You can't just be a random financial advisor out there on the streets. You actually need a connection to an agency, so same as like a real estate agent. That's how it works for me. So they are called PPI Management. They're based out of Calgary, but they're all through Canada. I'm just out of their Calgary office, but I live in the middle of nowhere in Saskatchewan, which has presented some interesting challenges as an entrepreneur. So that's kind of a few little notes about me and I will share more as we go along.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Okay, so then, how did you get into finances and being a financial advisor? Did you always love money, or was this something that just kind of fell into your lap and you had to take it?
Speaker 2:So I was kind of a weird child, I guess. I ran a little store in my bedroom I had a old shelf that my mom like still has because she's sentimental and she keeps things, and I had, like the household Kleenex, toilet paper, like all your usable goods I collected from the natural stocking places where my mom would put it like the linen closet or something, and I would just stock that up in my little store and then sell it back to the family very odd but I've always loved entrepreneurship.
Speaker 2:It was like this little mini lemonade stand moment for me and I would even do like little pieces of art and stuff and and sell those for a dime. And, honestly, my papa was my biggest best customer ever. He would always buy three to five individual toilet squares that were decorated with marker and that's how I made money. So I don't know if I've always like loved, you know, dealing with money or I naturally thought growing up that like, oh, I want to be a financial advisor, but I've always loved entrepreneurship. I've always loved saving money. I also have always hated the banks, which is really really odd as well.
Speaker 2:When I was a kid, I, growing up in a household that was not financially robust. We were pretty freaking broke, like my entire childhood, as, no matter how hard my parents worked like they worked very hard, but we lived in the country, so it was like a little bit more expensive and things were just really tight having all of us kids. So when we went to CIBC mom and dad's bank you know how you used to get the deposit envelopes. I would take like a handful of envelopes every time mom took us to the bank and I would stash them in my closet, like in the corner, because I thought that if I kept taking those envelopes, cibc is gonna have to make more and that's gonna put them out of business.
Speaker 2:Because I didn't like CIBC because it kept taking mom and dad's money and that's why they were broke. So I've always had this little weird streak in me. I guess that like is very like independent, like make money for yourself by yourself, and I feel like that still motivates me and still creates a bit of the backbone of what I do and how I present the importance of financial education to other people. I'm like no, no, no, you need to know this. You need to be self-educated and self-motivated to keep your money all organized and to make sure it's growing.
Speaker 1:Wow, what a story so so weird.
Speaker 1:No, it's so interesting to see how like we associate things as kids. Right, we're like, if I take all of these, they're never gonna recover, but they're like what are you doing? So I love that, um, when? So let's talk a little bit more about banks. So a lot of people, like you said, get stuck inside of well, what my parents did for 100 years is what I'm gonna do, and so they open up their checking account. When they're whatever 16 years old, they get their first job, and it's usually at their parents' bank, and then that kind of follows them throughout their life. Not often do we start changing banks and switching things unless you know there's something wrong or there's a roadblock, and so I would love to know, around the traditional banking style, has there been any banking advice that maybe either you've gotten or your clients have received that just doesn't make a whole lot of sense in the grand scheme of things, or that you disagreed with? Maybe?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. You are so right and this is what I find so very often when anyone reaches out and asks for help or advice or for me to just review their portfolio. Essentially, people are addicted to their bank. They are addicted. It is comfortable, they like it. They do not care. Well, they don't seem to care. They don't seem to care enough to move away or to make a choice as in like nope, this is not good enough for what I'm paying. They are so comfortable with the bank that they started with years ago, or where their parents have always been, that they will pay very high fees, account fees and MER fees. They will get zero service. They will not have an advisor at the bank because you don't get one unless you're in a very high net worth place, and they will not even be able to call the branch Like. You can't even contact just your local branch anymore. For many, many places, you are rerouted to this huge call center. So you're so correct.
Speaker 2:People love the banks and we've done like a lot of thought and research on this and, honestly, they're very well advertised. They've been around for quite a while, so they have established this comfort level with people and it's also just seems to be what everyone else does. Now you might be talking with your friend and be like, oh well, where, where are you with? Or um, you have to stop at the bank or something. And they're like, oh yeah, I'm with cibc or I'm with rbc or the bank or something. And they're like, oh yeah, I'm with CIBC or I'm with RBC or TD or whatever. And you don't know if that person just has a very slim operating account like a checking account and that's it, or you might assume they have everything with the bank and that's what they do. So then it feels comfortable because that's what all our friends are doing and our parents, right, right advice the bank has given me or other people.
Speaker 2:One thing specifically stands out which is just really bad advice is opening up an RRSP account too soon. So the RRSP account, registered retirement savings plan. I come across so many young individuals young being anywhere from like 20 to under 40, who they're making like maybe up to 60 grand in their income and they have an RSP account and they do not have a TFSA account, tax-free savings account, and it is so backwards and I kind of ask like, oh, oh, okay, um, why were you putting into that RSP or who told you to do that kind of thing? I'm like oh, the person at the bank did because there was this um campaign or it was RSP season and they said it would reduce my tax and I would get a tax credit. Yes, you do. But the reason it's really dangerous advice is because it's not a tax advantaged account or approach to handling your money, especially if you don't have your TSA full yet. So people who are making like 60 grand, even 80 grand, and they don't really need a tax credit, everyone is going to say like, oh, of course I need a tax credit, I pay way too much tax. But it's like you need a tax credit when you're making like a hundred grand or over. If you're making a little bit less than that, you do not need it and you should have filled up your TSA.
Speaker 2:But the bank will do anything they can to make someone open another account. The more accounts they have open with you, the better their quota is. I literally have sat in a bank office as I was opening up a business account years ago and the lady left. By the way, they also call them advisors, which is funny because they have like zero education, but they call them the same thing. The lady left and I'm like looking at the papers on her desk that like are supposed to just face her and they're literally like the bank's quota listings of what she needs to meet and what she needs to sell to meet those quotas. One of them was mortgage insurance. Oh my gosh, if you want to see me riled up like, let's talk about because it is awful, it is like the worst thing ever. So I just thought that was like kind of hilarious. Should have taken a picture and be like they just have so many quotas and they just want to open another account for you.
Speaker 1:Right, and it's interesting because a lot of people think that, in some degree, the bank is supposed to be educated, they're supposed to be trusted, they're supposed to be the person you can go to to have these conversations with.
Speaker 1:But, like you said, they're salespeople at the end of the day, you know, that is what the bank is run off of is, the more money you invest, the more accounts that you open inside of their institution, quotas and meeting deadlines and people who aren't qualified. This is what ends up happening, right, and so people get sucked into this because they just don't know any better, or because it's what their parents did for a hundred years, or it's because what they've been taught in society to well, you just open a bank account, open a checking account, open, you know a TFSA, and they don't have enough financial knowledge behind what they're doing, and so you know. Even myself, I opened a TFSA when I was like my. My mom opened it for me under her name. I think I was like 16 years old, because I had a bunch of money that I had saved up for many years, and so here's this lump sum that went into a TFSA that did nothing for probably 10 years of my life, and so, yeah, my TFSA made maybe $600 over 10 years of my life.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God.
Speaker 1:Right, right, like embarrassing to see, but that's what my mom did.
Speaker 1:She trusted the person in front of her who's been doing her finances for how many years, and when she transferred it over, when I think I was like 20 years old, I was like, hey, can youfsa, like let's get all our money stuff in order. She was like, yeah, here you go, transferred it over and it was like what, what's going on? And so there's so many opportunities that are missed inside of trusting some and not to say that bankers can't be trusted, but trusting someone who just doesn't know and doesn't have the qualifications in what they're doing. You know, know, they may have been a teller for many years, and then they were like, hey, we have an opening, you want to move up? Sure, and so this is what ends up happening around this space. And so that comes down to now my next question around who do you trust when it comes to your money, and how do you know when it's time to get a financial advisor, or how you know when it's time to hire somebody within your own business to help you with the financial piece?
Speaker 2:totally, and that's the thing is, like when to know when it's time to hire somebody and who to hire. I would say, like it all comes down to education and experience and, like you say, the way the bank is structured, they need to run really thin on their inputs into their people, as in education, licensing costs. They need to run really thin on that because they have some big margins to hit. They are in business for their shareholders, not their account holders, not you and me who have a checkings account and maybe have some savings account that we probably are going to move. They are in business for their shareholders. So, super important to remember go Google what a bank makes every quarter. Now think how many big banks there are, right, bmo, scotia, td, cibc and then we know we've got some treasury unions ATB a little bit better, a little bit better service. But you still shouldn't be holding any of your accounts that you want to use as long-term savings or you could be using as an investment, because they're not built for that. So ATB, innovation, credit Union or a credit union people love credit unions here in Saskatchewan. They're just not built for investing. There is a ton of investment companies out there. That is what they're structured for. That is what they're built for. They would not be in business unless they're providing really, really good service and good results to their investors, as in they need to produce an effing dividend. They need to produce a really good rate of return to you, otherwise who would invest with them? That's why we're investing right. Um, they've been around like Canada, life has been around for like 177 years. Industrial Alliance is like 152. There's equitable life has been around for 135 years. Also, very old companies that are super stable and not going anywhere, same as the banks. It's just we don't really think of them because we're so comfortable and addicted to the banks, right? So hiring an advisor is very important to know just a little bit more detail on how the bank works.
Speaker 2:Talking about that mortgage insurance, there was a huge, huge political fight basically, where Alberta, especially, was trying to get the bank to educate their people. They were trying to get them to at least get them an insurance license because they were selling insurance. They're selling mortgage insurance, which is a form of creditor insurance, which means the bank is a beneficiary on the payout, which is hilarious. It's decreasing benefits. You're paying the same every month for a decreasing benefit and it's not underwritten until claim time. Underwriting is a process in which an insurance company decides whether or not to insure you. They're going to do that at claim time after you've gone through a bunch of life and had a few health issues come up With an independent company. We always do that before you even pay your first premium, which is interesting.
Speaker 2:So Alberta actually took this to the Senate in 2005 and 2007, asking the bank to please provide more education and licensing to each and every advisor that was working with clients at the bank, because there's a whole lot of issues where people were not being paid out on their mortgage insurance when something happened, when they got a critical illness or disability or when they passed away. So, um, for anyone listening, you should definitely google. Um, well, youtube, it's called In Denial and it's a CBC marketplace video that does a deep dive on this In particular, you'll learn more about how the banks are structured and why they're not providing education to their people. So Alberta actually won and now they have to have like a really slim piece of insurance, education and licensing. Nowhere else in Canada has to have that. So if you're shopping around for mortgage insurance which you shouldn't be, but if you're gonna go take that in any other province. Just know, the person you're talking to has no idea what they're talking about, probably, and they're not even licensed and haven't done any education to know what they're dealing with. They don't know what products they're handling essentially. So something to keep in mind In denial part one.
Speaker 2:Part two Shopping for an advisor. I would say do some good comparisons. So there's different advisors out there. You can get a fee-based advisor that essentially cannot open any accounts for you. But if you just want a checkup or if you just want someone to talk to or review your finances or get a couple questions answered, you can totally grab a fee-based advisor. Make sure they've got good education, they've got designations, those letters behind their name. Cfp is the gold standard. Make sure they have their CFP. It is absolutely essential. In Ontario there's title protection, so you can't even call yourself an advisor unless you have your CFP, which is amazing and it'll probably spread to the rest of Canada as well.
Speaker 2:So you can get a fee-based advisor.
Speaker 2:They can't open any accounts, they can't hold your insurance policies or review stuff yearly with you. You literally book them like you book an accountant, except they don't really do anything else for you except give advice. But I think that's really worthy of whatever their hourly fee would be to just get that advice, and super unbiased. Then you can get a non-fee-based advisor who literally is like you choose them to work with for a longer period of time. So that's what I am is I'm non-fee-based advisor who literally is like you, choose them to work with for a longer period of time. So that's what I am is I'm non-fee-based and people can, um, kind of like date me for a while and we like have conversations, we look at their stuff, just like you would with a fee-based advisor, and you, um, don't pay for any of that.
Speaker 2:So I, I just give you advice, look at your things, do your reviews, look at your insurance and investments, look at your cash flow, do budgeting and stuff with you, and then if you want to open a TFSA or you want to move your TFSA from the bank to an actual investment company, I actually do all that work for you. I do the transfers, I hold all your accounts, hold all your insurance policies, and then I'm mandated by fiduciary duty to meet with you every single year, at least once a year. Oftentimes I'm talking to my clients way more, especially if there's any like exciting updates, like they've had a baby, they're moving, new job, decreased salary, increased salary. I'm on top of all that. I want to know all that about you, because that's just tweaking your financial plan as we go so you can do non-fee based or you can do fee based. I think they both have really good advantages because either or is likely to be an independent advisor. So that's one more little difference you should look at is is this person you are hiring on or looking at, are they independent or do they work for just one company?
Speaker 2:It's another little issue I have with the banks is they only work for the bank. So if they're putting you in a savings account and calling it a TFSA, like literally they will label it as a TFSA and it is a TFSA, like literally, they will label it as a TFSA and it is a TFSA, but they won't invest the money after that. It's just sitting with RBC in like a balanced fund or something that RBC has created like their own funds. They can't reach out to any other funds. Essentially Same thing if you were to sit with an advisor who works for just Sun Life thing.
Speaker 2:If you were to sit with an advisor who works for just Sun Life, then that advisor has to only work with Sun Life offerings to help you. So if you need an account open or if you need insurance or something like critical illness, disability, life insurance, they only have Sun Life to shop around for. They have nothing else to compare to because they don't have access to it. So I do like being independent where I have access to every single company on the planet and I can do all the comparisons. So that's a lot. But, like education, experience, make sure you know, like, how long they've been doing it. They've got some years under their belt, they've looked at different portfolios. Make sure they've got those designations and they have quite a bit of education and their insurance licenses and they're licensed in every province. They have to be licensed in the province you live in.
Speaker 1:Those are all our regulatory mandates that the bank people don't even have to follow wow, so interesting to see, even just like, how people in the industry and people across different provinces and spaces have different regulations or different things that they're mandated to do versus. Like you know, ontario has to have this but we don't yet. And interesting that Alberta fought that whole home insurance piece. So that is our mortgage insurance. Sorry, not home insurance. Get home insurance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:The mortgage insurance piece. That's really interesting to see how things change. So thank you so much for sharing all of that. I have one last question for you to chat about A lot of people. We have A lot of people run into debt at some point in their life, whether they had it from student loans or they bought a house or whatever it is, and so there's different, or you know, you just racked up your credit card. How do you have some tips on how to handle debt or the mindset around debt and how we can kind of shift that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, this one is probably the toughest. That, yeah, this one is probably the toughest. It's. It is hard to like climb out of debt, depending on what it is, too. I guess what I see the most of is a lot of people who are like 35, 40, just letting their student debt exist and hang around and they're not taking care of it. They're not tackling it. Basically it might sound harsh and not super helpful, but for any type of debt, get rid of it as soon as possible. Except for your house debt, your mortgage debt. That's one that kind of is a standalone that we consider a little bit differently.
Speaker 2:I was talking to a gal yesterday and her mortgage interest rate is 3.74%, which is not that bad. It's pretty freaking good, and she's put down a really healthy down payment, so her payments per month are really decent and she's wondering should I invest in my TFSA or should I put that money towards my mortgage? And we consider mortgage debt a little bit different. Yes, we want to pay it off. If you had quite a bit of money coming in, absolutely Would you throw some extra cash towards your mortgage. However, we don't want you to not invest while you're paying down your mortgage debt, specifically because it is such a massive amount of debt, usually it's going to like it could be like $350,000, could be $500,000. It's going to take you a very long time to pay that down and your interest rate typically is not going to be more than what you would be making with your investments. So her 3.47 is going to be a lot less as a negative against her as an interest rate. That is costing her money essentially to hold that debt. It's a lot less than what she could be making with an investment which is, I always say, like 5%, 6%. But to be honest, in 2023, my clients were making like 8, 9, 12, and 15%, because 2023 is the pop back year after COVID and everything is really boosted up. Anytime we have a little dip in our economy or a large international dip, like COVID, the year after, a couple of years after, is absolutely wild because the market's recovering right and that happens all the time Happened in 2008, 2014, 2015,. Little dips and then rises. We want our investment growth chart to look like the side of a mountain a dip and a rise and just steadily climbing up, like the value of real estate.
Speaker 2:Will Other debt, like credit card debt? That is the one I'm most concerned about. We need to wipe that off ASAP. If you have multiples, a lot of the time, like the snowball method is helpful, basically paying off the smallest first. As ironic as that might sound, it really motivates you and it's attainable, right. That's actually doable for us. If I had a credit card sitting at five grand, one at 10 grand and one and one 15 grand, I don't pay off the five grand first. Get that wiped out. I would feel really really good about that, instead of three times as long and slugging away on the 15 grand credit card. That one's going to be harder mentally for you to pay off. So that's a few like little mental tricks, I guess, to help yourself pay off the debt.
Speaker 2:The way that I really suggest too, is like we need to do anything to wipe out your debt Like ASAP, because when you are paying towards debt, be it a car payment, that's still debt. Like oh, I hate car payments. I don't want to see those Credit card things like that that's all money that could be going to your investments. Like you could have a car payment and a credit card and student loans, which would not be uncommon. A lot of people have like all three of those going on that they're paying for. That could be like two grand a month. Do you know how powerful two grand a month going straight to your investments would be Like? If you had that going to your TMSA and even like non-registered investments, that would be huge. You would be blowing up your retirement. So we don't want to be in that space very long for debt Plus. It just drags you down, it makes you feel bad, it doesn't. It's not very motivating, like no debt is going to motivate you.
Speaker 2:For me, if I'm feeling like soft and overweight, I don't want to go work out. I do not. If I feel strong and like light and energetic, I want to go work out. It's so backwards. So if I have debt, I just kind of want to ignore it and shove that paper under other papers but honestly wipe it out as fast as you can. Can, even if that means taking on extra work, picking up extra shifts, even like as stupid, like I don't know.
Speaker 2:Tell me your opinion on this, but if I had credit card debt, I'd be freaking like working at Starbucks on the weekend. I'd be like helping with catering gigs. I'd be walking dogs. I'd be ride sharing. I'd be cleaning people's houses, I would be doing anything to get rid of that debt. A lot of people are probably going to have issues hearing that, or probably not going to want to hear that because it's demeaning or it's going to look a certain way to people around them. But to me I'm like I want that 2000 going to my retirement and to my, to my wealth, because I don't want to retire at 75. I want to retire at like 50. What do you think about that? Would you take on extra work?
Speaker 1:Sounds great to me. I think what ends up happening, too, is a lot of people OK, so we pay off the credit. Let's say we have credit card debt or we have a car loan or whatever it is, and we pay it off. And then it's kind of snowballs, right. You kind of just like, oh, put on the visa, put on the visa. And then all of a sudden, at the next month, you're like there's two grand on my visa. And then you're back in debt and you're like, okay, well, okay, I'm going to pay it off. And it takes you maybe two months to pay it off.
Speaker 1:And then you do like you continually do the same thing over and over again. And so there's this mindset around like you said, there's going to be bigger debts around, like student loans, car payments, mortgages, those pieces that are like those are significant. Those are tend to be a lot, you know, tens, hundreds of thousands of dollars when it comes to our basic credit card that we get so easily. Just tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. And what ends up happening is that we get in this cycle of well, put on the visa. And then the next month it's like, oh shit, I gotta pay off the visa.
Speaker 1:Okay, put on the visa and so we get, or we put on the line of credit because it's a lower interest rate and we're like, let's put on the line of credit to pay off the visa card, but then you rack up the visa card next month again, and now there's five grand on the line of credit and nothing's getting paid off. And so I think it's really important, like you said, to focus in on your um, to focus in on your priorities and figure out a plan long term right and something that helped me was I was like when I was in university I had like five different credit cards and you know how it goes when you're young.
Speaker 1:And so I was like I'm just gonna get rid of these, like I only ever use this one and when I don't I'm getting caught up inside of this credit card mess. And so I was like I'm just gonna get rid of the ones that I don't use at all and frequently. And I kept my MasterCard and my Visa. I have one of each, because at Costco you can only use a MasterCard. And then it was like I'm going to use my. You know, I'm going to look at my debit card more often, like a lot of people say, ok, okay, use the credit card to gain the gain, the credit and all of these types of things, absolutely but right. But then what ends up happening is you tap, tap, tap, tap, tap and now you're like five grand at the end of the month and you're like I don't have five grand to pay off a visa card, whereas when the debit balance starts to go down, you're like, oh shit, maybe I don't need that extra, you chocolate bar when I go to the grocery store or when I go to 7-Eleven to fill up on gas. Maybe I don't need to spend five dollars on a chocolate bar when I could go to the dollar store for 80 cents and get the same thing. And so you start to just kind of pay attention to where you're spending money. I don't want to say that's not even a word, but like foolishly, where you're, like, well, I could just, you know, adjust the way that I'm spending a little bit. And so I agree with you in the right and I agree with you in the essence of like OK, you want to get the debt down.
Speaker 1:You're going to have to find ways to do that, because if you think about your nine to five job, it may only pay you X, y and Z, which is often what happens if you're not an entrepreneur. You're getting paid maybe $500 a week or, you know, $1,000 every two weeks. There's bills, there's other pieces that come to play, so maybe you only have $200 to put towards that debt. It never seems to go away. And so, like you said, being able to get another job or babysit or spend time doing something that's going to give you that extra income, to be able to just pay that off as fast as you can is an important piece to this. If you have to do that for six months, guess what? Winter is long. Get out there.
Speaker 2:Like is it? I don't know, sometimes I have these like massive bad cop moments, but that's also my job as a financial advisor is to like help you do the right thing. So when you said like well, I don't have five grand to pay off the card, I think in my head, and this is so bad. I honestly like I do tailor what I say to clients because I don't want to break their heart, but I also need to build them wealth. That's my job. So I need to have this bad cop moment where, like another you know, another point in choosing an advisor is the advisor just like agreeing and be like oh yeah, that's okay, we'll do that.
Speaker 2:Oh, you wanted to buy, you know, the home decor and another house code and a nice throw and everything like oh, yeah, well, it makes you happy. Do you want someone who's going to agree with you all the time? Is that going to give you good advice? Are you going to learn from that person? Is that going to give you good advice? Are you going to learn from that person? It's like having a friend who you know and sometimes you're afraid to tell them stuff, but they are the ones who's going to straight up and sometimes their comments just like slap you in the face but they're going to tell you exactly what you need to hear and cause that really healthy tension that you can think like, oh, I shouldn't do that. Oh, I shouldn't book another vacation this year because I don't have the money and I'm putting it directly on my credit card.
Speaker 2:I try very hard to be like super kind but also say and help people, if you don't have the five grand to pay off your credit card, like why did you spend it? If you don't have that money, why did you spend it? It's a deeper spending is probably the hardest thing to deal with. Essentially, it's very emotional. It's kind of like emotional eating in a sense, too. That's spending the online purchases, shopping on the weekend Like you have a bad day, you have a fight with your spouse, a fight with your mom, work isn't treating you well, or someone you know put you down, or you don't feel good enough around your friends, or you don't feel like you have the nicest stuff. Then we go spend it and we get it to make ourselves happy. Remember, it's a quick fix. It is not a long-term strategy and I keep relaying this to like nutrition and health and everything, but to me it's like, so it's very like across the board. And they attach so well, because just eating the cookie and getting the really nice heavy, thick latte is going to make you feel so good in the moment. But is it working towards your long-term goals? Like, if I want to lose 10 pounds, sitting on the couch and like curling up under a blanket on a rough day is going to feel so good. But is that really working towards my long-term goals of moving more and losing 10 pounds? Absolutely not. So. Do I need a partner, an accountability person or an advisor to tell me like, hey, janelle, being on the couch is not going to help you and spending that money is not going to really help you work towards your long-term goals. Let's try and pull you out of that and, you know, let's talk about why you did it, what you were feeling, but then like kind of crack the whip on me and say like no, no, no more. You cannot afford to spend this every month. We need to clean up your spending.
Speaker 2:Budgeting is like such a old school thing that a lot of people think like doesn't work. What it does does, though, if you do do a budget for yourself, is it really helps with your awareness? Like you were saying before, you're looking at what you're spending. You're more aware.
Speaker 2:If I was someone who was trying to pay off a credit card, student loan or even tackle a car payment and like make sure I'm paying it off as quick as I can, depending on the interest rate, if you have like 0% or 1% financing for the car loan, just do your normal payments.
Speaker 2:Such an aside, sorry, but if I was really trying to build my wealth, I would be reviewing my finances. If not every second day, I'd be reviewing every single week, and that's what a budget will help you do is you're reviewing. You're constantly adjusting those numbers, punching in those numbers and you have a solid reference for literally what you can afford to spend. My paycheck is this and it breaks down like this for my house costs, my utilities, my gas, my groceries, all your necessities meaning I only have a hundred dollars a month as my treat. You put all your numbers in on the side and you actually are very aware that, like you might be halfway through the month and you spent $90 of your treat money, you have 10 bucks left. If you weren't doing that and like being aware, you would have no idea where you're at. We just have no idea where we're at when we're spending with a credit card doing the tapping right.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and that's such a good point is like getting comfortable with your money and just looking at it for what it is right, like, yeah, the debt's there, look at it, the the money coming in is there. Look at it and be aware of just like in my 10k challenge that was what we talked about I'm like when's the last time you opened your bank account and just kind of like went through what was going on in there? They were like, ah, never, and it's because you know there's like this, this shame around it, or there's this like internal block around it or this like never-ending feeling of doom. And so I think, just like you said, budgeting, getting really clear on your spending habits and getting really just clear on your money, like what's going on. Take a look and are you proud? No, okay, then we need to make some shifts and we need to change things. Or are you proud of it? Yeah, great, let's keep doing it, let's make it better.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, such an important conversation and when you see those numbers adjust over the months, that you're doing this, like this work is not going to feel great for the first little while, but like, get past the three month mark and you're going to be loving it. I promise you like, if you are looking at your numbers and you're spending and everything, you're going to be loving it after a while because you'll see you're really healthy, positive progress and beating down the thing that we've been struggling against for a long time is honestly like one of the best, most powerful feelings. It will, uh, it'll kick that short-term gratification and short-term joy from an online purchase to the curb. You will feel on fire in such a good way if you actually get your finances straight.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love that we're not chasing the dopamine from spending money. We're going to chase it from saving and investing and just being better at our money.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because if you put something towards your savings and if you invest it properly like if we put it in a TFSA and we put it with, say, industrial lines, and you got 7%, 8% return on average for the next 10 years, do you know what kind of quality of life that would buy you? Now we're not using 50 bucks to buy a really nice throw. We're using 5,000 to send you on a really nice hot vacation for two weeks you can go lay on a throw in.
Speaker 2:Bali. Yes, like we are expanding your dream life and that has, but you right now needs to put that $50 towards your dream life, but get it invested, don't leave it at the bank. I'm happy to like show anybody what a fun fact sheet looks like, what a fun portfolio is, just to like learn about that. Put it towards like super, super safe, diversified, fun portfolio and make it grow so you can get to your hot vacation.
Speaker 1:I love it. Okay, well, janelle, I have a few fast action questions for you, if you're open for it.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:Okay, number one what is your favorite book or podcast, or what's one that's made an influence in your life?
Speaker 2:Oh okay, I love podcasts. I love afford anything by Paula pant. She's like super freaking, educated, super well-spoken and, honestly, I want to be Paula pant one day. I want to speak that well and I want to be that educated. She talks about all sorts of different money things, um, us-based, and then she also kind of connects with these guys that. So if you're a guy listening to this, um, check out stacking Benjamin's super hilarious podcast, but you'll learn some really good things about, like the top tier money industry. Like not, they handle big topics, that kind of thing, so does Paula. I love them.
Speaker 1:Interesting. Okay, We'll have to check those out. What is your midnight snack? Okay?
Speaker 2:I'm not really a snacker. I would rather like full hands down. If I do snack, it'd be like popcorn, boom, chicka pop. But I would rather have like more. I'm a volume eater. I'd rather have more on my plate at summertime.
Speaker 1:Like I'm ready to eat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wouldn't eat anything for the rest of the night.
Speaker 2:Good for you? And then, what is your bucket list travel location? If I'm being honest with myself, like I'll say it's like, oh, I want to go to Scotland with my sisters because my main name is Mackenzie's, like we're quite Scottish really, which is hilarious because apparently the Scots are like known for saving and they're super frugal and everything. I'm like, oh, it's in my blood. But if I'm honest with myself, I really really want to go on like an African safari. I want to go to Africa, whether it's on like a mission trip and I can do some work there, or like I want to take my husband and go do something. But I'm also like super scared to go. I'm really nervous because it sometimes can be like a really volatile place. Um, but yeah, that would be my dream trip, I guess that's amazing.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that. All right, thank you so much for sharing all of your wisdom and financial knowledge and advice. We so so appreciate it. It's a conversation I think we all need to have. Tell us a little bit more about how to find you, how to work with you, and I will obviously leave all your links in the show notes as well, for everyone to click over.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Well, I love, like I love connecting with people my age and people older like. I help a lot of people with their retirement, estate planning, things like that. So you can find me on instagram at growth x, like the letter x and then spurt kind of expert spelt, funny um. You can find my website, which is wwwflowingwellfinancialcom. Find me on linkedin, which is my name, janelle lansdall. That's about it. But honestly, yeah, check out some of the articles I put out. I have a really good article site which is called the link between dash janelle mckenzie, still under my maiden name. So, yeah, even if, like, never hesitate to ask any question you want, if you want to just like, set up a chat or a coffee and ask some silly questions that you have, I love, love that. I would love to answer your silly questions anytime.
Speaker 1:Yay, Thank you so much as always for hanging out and showing up. I can't wait to um, yeah, share this knowledge with everyone. It's going to be such a good episode. I will drop all the links in the show notes and we will see you on the next one. Sounds good. Bye.
