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Money Minded
Mon and Ryan | The TRUE Value of Money Skills in the Moments That Matter
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Welcome back to the Money Minded podcast.
We’re at the end of our escape plan series, and we promised you’d hear some success stories.
So in this episode, you’re going to learn from Ryan and Mon just how powerful and valuable money skills really are.
They never really had money problems, but they also knew they weren’t managing it well either.
Ryan is a FIFO worker, and Mon handled the mental load that comes with money. They never really fought about it,
But it wasn’t something they were doing well together.
Mon would spend hours in bank statements and personal finance apps.
Ryan would make money and then want to buy new toys.
And it’s not like they couldn’t afford these toys. It was just the feeling of not making any real progress for how hard they were both working.
When they started learning the money mapping method they kicked some massive goals.
Mastering these money skills allowed them to:
- Pay off their consumer debt
- Build a comfortable cash cushion
- Pay down their mortgage faster
- Build a 6 figure investment portfolio
All while funding their wedding and honeymoon, and taking trips overseas and interstate for holidays.
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. About 12 months into their life threw them a curveball, and it was at this moment they realised just how valuable the skills they had acquired are.
In this episode, they very generously take us inside this moment, and talk about how they worked together to manage one of the most difficult moments of their life.
If you want to know the true value of being confident and capable with your money, this episode is for you.
I hope you enjoy.
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Welcome back to the Money Minded Podcast. This is Terry, and we're at the end of our escape plan series, and we promised you that you'd hear some success stories. So in this episode, you're going to learn from Ryan and Mon just how powerful and valuable money skills really are. They never really had money problems, but they also knew they weren't really managing it that well. See, Ryan's a FIFO worker, and Mon had handled all the mental load that comes with money up until this point. They never really thought about it, but it wasn't something they were doing really well together either. Mom would spend hours in bank statements and personal finance apps trying to be across everything, and then Ryan would come home from working really hard and then want to buy all these different toys. And it's not like they couldn't afford these toys. It was just that they didn't feel like they were making any real progress for how hard they were both working at this stage in their lives. And when they started learning the money mapping method, they kicked some massive goals. Mastering these money skills allowed them to pay off their consumer debt, comfortable cash cushion, pay down their mortgage a lot faster, build a six figure investment portfolio, and all whilst funding their wedding and honeymoon, traveling overseas and taking trips interstate for holidays, And getting back to date nights and little getaways on their boat exploring the Great Barrier Reef. But it wasn't all smooth sailing. About 12 months into their journey, life threw them a curveball. And it was at this moment that they realized just how valuable the skills that they had acquired really are. In this episode, they very generously take us inside this critical moment, and they talk about how they work together to manage one of the most difficult times of their life. If you want to understand the TRUE VALUE of being confident and capable with your money, then you need to listen to this episode. I hope you enjoy. Welcome to the show, Ryan and Mon. This might be about six months in the making, I reckon, this conversation. Would it be?
Monique Beh:Yes, I would say so too.
Tex:We've gone back and forth a couple of times and you guys have been through, a lot. You've done a lot in this period of time as well a conversation the mental load, the way you kind of
Monique Beh:Yeah. the time Arlington came
Tex:wanted to do a better job on money and how it working?
Monique Beh:So at the beginning, we've never been a couple argued about money or like that, but at the beginning, I carrying all the mental load. Ryan would go off to the mine sort of do his thing out there. I was working full time then, but by along, I was part time. But, yeah, I was you know, one worrying about was this bill due, managing all the money and Ryan would sort of just go off and earn it. I mean, I was earning as well, but, you know, that was sort of more his job. And so we weren't on the same page as far as decision making and things like that. we had. In the pantry, I had a little printed out, calendar of the year with these bills, with big bills would do certain months. And that was sort of the main way we worked out what months we're going to have more money going out and which ones we might have a bit of spare money. And it was those months that we you know, that Ryan was waiting for to ask for very big things like, like, you know, I'd like a new solar system and a battery system for the big boat so we could go off grid, you know, when we went away. And I'd sort of be saying, oh, maybe not this month because we've got this big bill and that big bill. And he'd say, okay, so next month then. So we weren't really planning long term for these objectives. We were just, he was saying, oh, Right. Well, I work really want that next month then. yeah. I think you get caught up, especially in the FIFO role and that with the, you kind of make half decent money and when you want something, you just tend to go and purchase it. You think, Oh, I've got fair bit of money there. I'll buy that. And then I'll buy that. And then all of a sudden you've made your house payments and you're like, Oh, I've only got. There's much left. And before you know, it's been three, five years and you've got, you know, you're still making minimum payments on your home cause you've got this expense problem, cause you're not seeing what's actually coming ahead. You know, like then the week you do, or month you do put more into the home loan, then all of a sudden a bill comes in. Maybe you're having to pull back in, back out. Yeah, I mean, we didn't have major debts. We didn't have any credit cards or anything. So we thought we were doing. fairly well, but, we just sort of had, we were trying to get further ahead, but just nothing seemed to be moving the needle that much, and it was because we weren't on the same page and didn't have like this, we talking the same language we, had different understanding as well of, you know, how to explain things to each other about money or what we wanted. We didn't even really both know what we wanted. We also were a bit worried about, Oh, like we met when we were already older, in our forties. So, we were well, retirement is not that far away. We're only just having our first, and only child. But, if we're getting already this close to retirement, what do we need when we get there? And, What's that going to look like? we just had no idea. And I kept thinking of tax time was another horrible one for us. Like that was a real pain point because like Ryan said, you know, when you are FIFO, you don't earn too bad money, but the tax man takes a shit ton of it. And it is quite painful because the conditions FIFO people work in and not good. It's dangerous. It's, to ensure yourself is really high. So. it's not a glamorous job and the tax man takes, so much of it that you don't really feel like you're getting that far ahead anyway. And so I thought there's got to be a better way. I thought, do I need to go to uni? Is there a TAFE course I can do? Should we see a financial planner? did end up seeing a financial planner. and the reason I was attracted to this particular planner was because we thought he was going to educate us because the way he marketed himself, And I thought, this guy's gonna educate us but it, he turned out to be like just your generic financial planner that gave us a 30 something page document that he, which was a snapshot in time of where our finances were and what we could have done with them. But as it turned out, within two months, a lot in our life had changed and that prescription wouldn't have been. it wouldn't have suited us anymore anyway, so we didn't end up going down that path and I stumbled across you guys, I think through Spotify, listening to your podcast. yeah, And then when we realized you guys had the mentorship, that's when I said, Ryan, you've got to start listening to these guys.
Tex:cause you were actually quite, I remember when we
Monique Beh:sounded
Tex:was, your initial reaction to that
Monique Beh:the same as anything, Well, we already been to a financial plan and that kind of didn't really go to plan. So then, um, yeah, oh, here go again. Like, when I started listening and I got more involved and it that was a this this And I What do we get out of it? And it's a, is this another thing? Yeah. So it's, it is kind of a bit of a scary thing. You're like, oh, are we gonna, you know, what are we gonna get out of it? Is it gonna be worth it? Which is. Yep and it's probably the best thing, well, it is one of the best things we've done financially, like really giving us direction now. I think at that mentorship, Rhyme was like, okay, Monso, you're telling me that we're, we could be doing better with our finances and we were trying to build a cash cushion and things, but yet you want us to go and spend this money right now. And I could see he wasn't that keen on it, but he went along with it anyway, and I'm glad that he did,
Tex:you actually did, a good job acting mate, because I was like, oh,
Monique Beh:he knows who his boss is now.
Tex:Yeah, but look I away work working really hard. for your money. You both do
Monique Beh:a lot No, I just, Ryan is my foe. I work, I'm like a public Public servant in the health Yeah, so I'm part time and when Ryan is quite a lot. So he's away working I'm at home working and managing Arlington by myself. And when he comes home, so we both work really hard at the same time. Some fibo couples do the opposite and partner works more when the comes home. But Ryan and I basically work more at the same time so that when he comes home, we have all that time off. So I have five days off when he comes home from work. And I get six days off so I got one day there where I
Tex:It's a big sacrifice too, though, when you're a FIFO, particularly with a young child too, so I can totally understand, that sort of stage of life as well. you do feel like that point. You're working a lot harder, so you you don't want to How did you guys think through that part of the discussion? Because I think you might have put a comment on one of our episodes, Mon, and actually said that like, Ryan said, Why are we going to be we're trying to get through better with money? How did you guys think through that part of it?
Monique Beh:basically, I just took mine's word for it really like on this. Yeah, willing give anything a go. we obviously had been trying for a long time and hadn't succeeded successfully the way we've been doing things. So, yeah, I just thought, money is replaceable, so we'll try it and give it a go and there's nothing really to lose, like we're back to where we were, if worse come to worse, but obviously it's all been a plus, that's been awesome. There was something different, I think, listening to the, to your podcast, you start, you just feel very genuine, like we kind of felt like we knew you, even though you didn't know us yet. yeah, but, yeah, it just didn't, I just, nothing felt dodgy, it all just felt very genuine and what you were saying in the podcast was, is making things that, Otherwise can seem really complicated, really easy to understand. And we just thought these are the people we want to be learning from to look at our finances and also the way we, our mindset as well, because obviously that was such an important part of it. I think that's a huge thing for me too. Like the, the way it's worded and the way it's brought across, like if you did talk to an accountant or whatever, and they'd just come to you and just blend in all these, You don't know all the big words and dividends and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, And then so you don't understand and you walk away like, what the hell did he talk about? He wants my. Money to invest in this and you're like, well, what am I investing in? But the way you break it down and explain things is very basic and simple so I hope people would understand.
Tex:that's our secret, mate, is you probably remember if you went to that first season, but the secret I know what it's like to sit in that. And I'm like, you got to explain it to me if it, if I don't get it, nobody's going to get it. So we can't break it down to make it simple enough for that. So I'm like, I'm not the expert here. I'm going to be the person who figures out how to break it down so far that you can build it back up to make sense. And to be honest, more time I spend in this finance space, the more I realize half the people that are using the big words don't really
Monique Beh:Yeah.
Tex:they're using the big words to make you not like think that they do get it.
Monique Beh:Yeah.
Tex:Good to know was the case, but that was your concern. And Mon. a bit concerned about in the survey, you had a concern the get it either right? they're using
Monique Beh:I bit like, Oh, how much time is this going to take? you know, how is ryan to it's enough when he comes home or, you while at mine
Tex:it's that
Monique Beh:do? I didn't know how much work was involved, but something I was too is like, That we would there and you could see every cent we were spending and you could criticize What have know, what buy another paddleboard for? Or how much do you spend on? I don't know anything Groceries or whatever and we realized as we went through that we were the only ones seeing any of that but somehow Yeah, we were the ones in control and no, you weren't in there looking at every cent we were
Tex:Can you imagine
Monique Beh:or anything Like, that Yeah. yeah. And actually that was the other thing too, is that I didn't know about, is it CDR? the way that, we can pull that data out of our bank accounts and, that's a safe thing to be able track your expenses. I had no idea that possible. So here I was the beginning thinking, am I going to have to put every spend spreadsheet and work out, I just didn't understand how it was going to work. And it was so, so much less work than I thought it was going to be.
Tex:Yeah I think that's the thing, hey. That's the other secret weapon is I hate spreadsheets.
Monique Beh:I didn't really like spreadsheets until we did the mentorship and then I fell in love with one. Yeah.
Tex:Yeah. I think that's actually, if you use them really well, you actually use really powerful tools. But the way a lot of people are using this, they're more weaponized than anything. It's a bunch of specialized information. Created by one person in a way that makes sense for them and shuts everybody else out. And I think that's why a lot of people have aversion to spreadsheets. And you've got people that sit
Monique Beh:Yes. much of work is
Tex:it's a lot easier than we thought?
Monique Beh:probably the beginning, because when we did last year, that's when we're using Frollo, to pull up all the data in. So, once we realized we could train to actually, track our spending and stuff, we were like, oh, my God, already done. Probably at the beginning we overthought that a bit too much and it was so important that every single cent was categorized correctly and we realized with time, just as good enough. and then when we actually started to see, map our money and just start seeing, once a month, I'd go back mid month and just go, how are we tracking? and it just you had this great feeling of accomplishment to go, wow, we had a plan, we pretty much did it, or if we didn't do it, we made a trade off that we were really happy with. That was in that part of things, but just even the other things that we learned in the mentorship about learning, understanding our own tolerance to risk, and understanding how we could use debt to our advantage and things like that to try and accelerate because we did meet so much later in life getting closer to that age where we do want to not work as much. We wanted to make sure we were accelerating as fast as we could to make sure we could step back from having to work so much sooner rather than later.
Tex:Yep. And Ryan, So, you hiding spreadsheets actually actually it's not like a instant, like boom, I get it straight away. It's something that you work your way through. I think you guys did a great job of doing this, even though you would have felt that apprehension around it. At what point did you, where you we can do together and this is the way we can do
Monique Beh:Yeah, I think, basically when get all that data across we, can sit down look at how much we spent on groceries and categorize everything and really put the bigger picture into everything as to what it costs us to live week by week or month by month. Then, also with developing your goals we could see, we're doing Japan, we've done Bali, we've paid the boat off, we've got a cash question, like, we've done a lot of stuff, and you can actually see, okay, in September, this will be done, in February, Japan will be done, you can see the way ahead like, this is actually working, even though you're only putting in maybe a couple of hundred dollars or a hundred bucks here and there just to reach those goals. But still, at the end of the day, by the time you get there, everything was achieved. And when I was kind of sitting there running blind, just thinking, Oh, hell, do you think we could go to Japan and then book a last minute trip on a credit card and rack up a debt and end up paying interest?
Tex:you could absolutely afford it, but your assumption was that you couldn't, so you should use credit.
Monique Beh:Yeah.
Tex:Like, it's amazing how, someone said this to me the day, I think, I was meeting with an accountant, and I don't know how this came up, but it was like, that's actually a great analogy, he said, he's having this conversation with his kid, and his kid was afraid, you know, that there's a monster under the bed, and he's like, well, let's just have a look. Let's just find out, right? And, I think that's very analogous to money, right? We are living in this kind of, anxiety, and have the information. And the best where way to eliminate it, to want to it actually, is to go and get the if it's all of the money
Monique Beh:Yeah. we were kind of controlling the money actually, the money sort of controlling us, you know, that we making the decisions as go I think it was really good for Brian actually see too, because I'd been handling prior that, for him wow, actually, I didn't realize spent that much groceries or that this is how much just life actually costs. and therefore He realized well when I want whatever some big thing for the boat. he started realizing. Oh, that's not something I can just have in one month. That's something we need to work towards. So suddenly we were just on the same page. And yeah, maybe something I just really didn't need. Yeah, well, maybe it was something he just really didn't
Tex:hey, it's like Parkinson's law. It doesn't just work for time, it works for your money. So your wants expand so as to consume the money available to them. If you don't give those dollars jobs, then that money finds jobs basically. it sounds like forecasting was a big thing for you guys cause that's what you're talking about just for the listener here. That's what you're talking about when you talk about being able to look forward and see when me just is something that you guys well because, what I noticed picked this up and then you really started using those tools and you're just starting to tick about wedding, you talked about honeymoon, you talked about boat, you what are a few of the other things you guys have got done in between when you started and our
Monique Beh:we also, refinanced the house, and moved into a recycling strategy. So we invested, decent amount, to start, building a portfolio like a passive income portfolio. So achieved that well and we're to add to that, and pay down our. pay down the mortgage, non deductible debt. because as we said, the tax time was a bit of a painful time for us. So we're starting to put in some strategies to offset that. that's actually been going really well. Yeah, that's going really well. that
Tex:another here around consumer debt well,
Monique Beh:rid of that. Yes. Yeah. so we've, we've had quite a lot of holidays, but something that we do really, focus our resources on, like our money and our time is adventures, and because Ryan works away, we've structured our work life so so that get five days him. So not many couples out there get five days off together every fortnight. So. We can go away camping or boating we've got or our little team go crabbing and things like that. So we make sure we've always got funds there directed into that, especially in, boating season where we want to go island camping or, things like that. So yeah, so we're funding continually having a good life and adventures now, not just only planning for the future.
Tex:Yeah, and then, so you guys got married, you funded the marriage and then the honeymoon and that was the month camping on the island, is that
Monique Beh:Yeah, we had a few weeks camping on the island and a couple of other overnight trips on the boat.
Tex:Awesome. So that was a highlight. One of the reasons I really want to get you on, all that is uber important, but you dropped a note or a post in the community earlier on this year, and I read it, and I read it again, and I half wrote a reply, and then I tried to write another reply, and I ended up getting a reply out, and the reason why is because you shared, it There's such a critical moment in your life and you talked about the value of having financial little a really challenging situation. I would love it if you already for you guys, because from my point of view, like you came to christmas whack, killing it. And then we really didn't even know until after this had all been sort of sorted, what you guys had sort of dealt with earlier on this year. So what did happen and financially?
Monique Beh:yeah, so few days before Christmas, our manage arlington so very ill, we were actually in for some flights down to Adelaide for that's how he appeared at the time, we didn't know he was unwell at all. We had checked in, for the flights, 48 hours before. That's how quick it and, um, yeah, we we just went in the room to check on him, to move him from our bed to his bed and he was just curled up in a ball shaken and sweating we were just like, oh my god, what has happened, his little heart was racing, we took him to Inflatable Kingdom that day, he was jumping on the jumping castles and the only thing he did say to me that day, oh mum, I'm all out of energy, that was the only thing But I mean, anyone would be all out of energy jumping on the jumping castles. yeah, we realized he wasn't very well, and so, of lay with him to watch him and his little heart was beating so fast, he was sort of crying out in pain at times. And we knew he wasn't right. So we him into ED. unfortunately that first night they sent us home to take Panadol. within 24 hours, we were back there again, asking to be readmitted. And that's when they could see stats were really crashing.
Tex:so did they miss something or did they just, it deteriorated so much between when
Monique Beh:yeah, I think. Like, we don't really want to point you too much, but I think, yeah, I think it was definitely missed. They said that he had a clear chest and there was nothing wrong with his breathing. But it is hard with small children sometimes to pick this up. but yeah, so when we went back in, they were trying to work out what was wrong, but his oxygen levels were dropping. and he was still in so pain and fever. they took him in for an x ray and his, left chest was a complete whiteout. So that should be black on an x ray because there should be air in there, but it was white the entire chest because of the infection. So they realized pretty soon that he had an empyema, which is a, like an infection in the cavity between your lung and the pleural wall. and that was huge. It had basically collapsed his lung and they realized that they couldn't. treated in Cairns. They couldn't deal with it there. They needed the surgeons from Townsville. So they made a plan to medivac us down with RFDS. Yeah, so we were waiting in the hospital. least one. Yeah, I was still thinking that, we were basically going to go back to hospital and probably get some antibiotics and be sent home, you know. I wasn't at that level where I was thinking, oh, he's actually really sick. It wasn't until we went back and they basically put a little thing on his finger and they were just straight away just said, nah, he needs to come straight through. And I was like, oh, okay. And we went through and went straight in the children's ward, they did a few more checks, and then they put us into a room. Right at the front, in front of all the nurses, and you can see all the nurses through the window. I said, oh, how sick is she? and the nurse said, he's definitely the sickest kid we have on this ward at the moment. That's why he's in this room. We wanted to be able to see him through the window. I found it very hard. I rang mum and dad and got them to come in, thinking the worst. sorry. they came in and my sister came in because they were getting the aeroplane ready. We didn't know whether those family members were going to see, you know, if we were bringing him home or not. So it's quite shocking, like he's the only kid. I don't know if can we got
Tex:is what I couldn't get outta my head.'cause all
Monique Beh:yeah, it's quite hard. You know, you think, you know, they all come to say farewell or Is he coming home? And so basically the plane was on its way and we were just like, okay, we need to strive forward here. we need to take charge and we need to actually do something here. So I basically said to mine, look, I'm gonna go home and pack bags. I was on flight, there was only enough room for mom to go down and it was during all floods too. So I didn't even know if I was gonna get there. But I was like, I packed stuff in the car and I ran across the road We got some really good names across the road and threw a crayfish to them and said, look, our young fella's really sick, we'll be away for a while, can you look after the house? And they're like, yeah, no drama. packed the car and drove back to the hospital and then, waited for the confirmation that the plane was coming, And then when they said the plane's definitely coming, it's landing now, I just jumped in the car and said goodbye to everyone and just started driving. It was like a four hour drive. Yeah. to try and meet them in town. In a situation like that, there's so much that's in your control and so much that's out of your control. And what was happening with Ali was out of our control and we just had to trust, that they were doing everything that they could. But, what was in control for us to some degree was the decision for both of us to go down there. we thought about it and I thought, Oh God, like how long are we going to be down there for, are we going to have to be paying for hotels the whole time? how long are we going to need off of work? will one of us have to leave to go back to work? we just had no idea what the future was going to be. And we thought about our money mapping and forecasting and thought, we know how, where all our money is and how it moves. And we know what things we could pull back on and what levers we could pull to make sure that we could fund those next few months or however long it ended up being before we had to, Go into any debt or anything like that. and so it just kind of gave us a confidence that like, no, we don't have to worry about that. And then we just pushed that out of our mind and thought the money is not a worry right now. We know we're going to be okay because we understand that. And we, yeah, that's when we were just like, okay, we can focus completely on Arlington now.
Tex:would have gone you, would instinctual reaction,
Monique Beh:I think we would have had to obviously go into some sort of debt or even after if we were ahead on the house plans, where to redraw pretty much everything and try and survive. And maybe I would have had to have left and gone back to work and left mom there on her own. It was really hard, like we were doing one night each would in one night and then mind a rock up with coffees in the morning and then We'd be living off pretty much hospital food, we'd swap and want to do a night. So, to be doing that on your own, like I'm sure we're not in any of the worst cases around there, and I'm sure people have been through a lot worse, but it'd be very hard on your own. Like it would be, Very hard. I don't know how people would do it, but you just seem to, just go into that mentality of just getting it done, you know, think we wouldn't have been able to completely focus on Arlington, though, if we weren't in that situation, because we, mentally, we would have been taking up a lot of our bandwidth to be like, are we going to be okay? making these other decisions As opposed to just solely focusing on ali. yeah,
Tex:the post that you put up there was the main thing that I took from it was the ability to say we are both going to be here when it matters. And we're very comfortable with the decision. we're not stressed about anything else. this is what the money is for right now. and that, that was the thing that for me kind of really stood out to be out, like, I thought about how far you both come in that moment to be able, like, that's a stressful moment, right? and I, you know, you hear that you don't rise to level your expectations. You fall to the level of your training. And, I think this speaks to the difference between. The way money mapping works and the way everything else works because it is a skill and it's a capability that comes centered in those and the way you guys applied
Monique Beh:Another big thing that probably played a part, which I've never ever thought into before, was the ronald McDonald House. Like, avoid McDonald's. it paid off But we got there and we were thinking it's going to be 230 with a night you know, might be month, two months, and we're trying to whatever it is, we've got the money there, but because we've all set up, but, the Ronald McDonald house was across the road and we went over there and yeah, we were enough to get a place. Someone left that morning and it was huge. Huge benefit wasn't it? We could just walk across the road and people donate food, you could go in there and have something to eat, we're there for Christmas, we're there for New Year's, we got Christmas presents, it was awesome like, yeah.
Tex:then they suck it right?
Monique Beh:Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah, we didn't actually talk about what ended up happening. Yeah. so he ended up spending two weeks in ICU. So he had to have two chest drains, or first a chest drain popped in his chest for five days, and then five days later, they realized they couldn't get it all. And they had another one. So started. All over again, when we thought we were finally out of ICU, had a whole week ahead of us, And by that stage, they can't even walk properly anymore, you know, because they haven't been using their muscles and things. So it was a learning curve again, just to even get him to walking again and things like that, but. Like Ryan said, there's a lot of other people that have been through just as trying or if not probably more trying circumstances, but it was to be able to just focus solely on him was the most important thing for us. Yeah,
Tex:done since together? Because I know you've made the most of it.
Monique Beh:we certainly do and you don't go through something like that without it changing you some way a little bit and it's made us. really acutely aware of how fragile life is and how tomorrow is never promised and that we really need to make the most of all of the time we have right now. As well planning for that future and something that I've been doing or we've been doing together that is, we've been capturing our little adventures that we do, crabbing and spearfishing and island camping and barramundi fishing and that sort of thing with Arlington and creating little YouTube adventure videos. yeah, at travelling tides. yeah, that's right. yeah, so that's what we've been doing. It's something that you, said quite early on. It might even be in one of the podcasts was, the concept of memory dividends, Terry. And that was something that always really resonated with us because you know to spend your time and your energy and resources on not only brings you joy in that moment but that you can kind of dip into in the future and we'll give you dividends in the form of memory dividends. We feel that this is like having our own memory dividends on demand. You know, we can just press play and take us back and something you don't realize when you're a parent is. That you watch your children every day and you don't see the big changes in them. You don't see that they're, the way their language or their voice changes or their little baby face becomes a little boy and having these memories to be able to dip back into. We see those big changes in Arlington and for us just a way of capturing that and sharing it with friends and family and anyone else who's, you know, interested in going on a bit of an adventure. capture
Tex:way to, because it is, it's one thing to have that, know you like the editing side of things coming up, you a Yeah. capture I can see you guys in your older age of going like, was us, that's what we were doing.
Monique Beh:Back in the old days, you had a photo and just a picture of you standing next to Pears Rock or something, but with the videos, you can actually how I was interacting ali when he was six or five or three, you know, and how he was responding and, giving you little high fives and hug and you can't that in a photo, you know.
Tex:I've set up an email for each of my kids. And, around once every week, I'll write them both an email, and they're not going to get this email until they're about 18 years old,
Monique Beh:awesome.
Tex:but it's a interesting way for me to sort of, So for example, my little fellow last week, he really didn't want to go to gymnastics. he was just buggered, you know. And, he's got like a condition that makes it harder for him. he pushed his way through that and he got into the session. He did a quite a good job. and something I'll be encouraging him to do is just think about what he wants to get out of. Cause a lot of the kids, they're kind of, I guess they're, very externally focused. Like, how did you see that I did this? Did you see this? And did you think that I did well at this? And I always say like, how do you think you did? and so I kind of capture that I'm having with him and I'm talking him through, watching. What he's done in the first six months of this. And so he won't remember this, but he will later on.
Monique Beh:Yeah.
Tex:what but it's so good for me as well, because I also talk about the dilemmas I'm having as a parent. Like, Hey, I went real crook at you today because you did this, but I didn't really know how to talk about it. And I think I might've done the wrong thing when it comes to this. but it does, it's interesting cause it's like peak moments and then there's, it's the troughs as well.
Monique Beh:Letting you reflect back a little bit yourself on. Yeah. Yeah.
Tex:episode, but when they turn 18, I'll give them the
Monique Beh:Yeah. great. Someone, actually to me when Arlington was little, she said, make sure whatever you do, make sure you don't just take photos and videos of child. Make sure you're in them because later on, when you're showing them, they're going to say, well, where are you, mom? What did you look like then? What were you doing and so that's why we've tried to incorporate all like our adventures, like everything that we're doing as well into our memories for him.
Tex:about storytelling. and how do I turn this memory into something that's, it's like
Monique Beh:Yeah. Yeah. So obviously at the beginning I had no idea at all how to use the software that I downloaded. but you know, you only learn by doing, you can't expect to create a masterpiece when got no idea what you're doing. So, you know, I just literally watch youTube videos on how to use this software and at the beginning it was about how to put clips together, how edit out bit of audio you didn't want in there or something like that. But now I'm understanding that a lot more. I can focus how can I sure I'm you know, making the story, not only that it's capturing our memories for ourself, but also that somebody else might want to look at it and be entertained as well. But. At the same time, keep true to what really happened, because these are our memories,
Tex:a different take on things or you could, you know, add different value in different spaces.
Monique Beh:I think, I was actually feeling really stagnant in my work. I've been with government for nine years now. And I was feeling very much like wanting to get out of it. I've had, I've got a great team, a great manager and everything. But just feeling stagnated because I'm not passionate about that and I've just become good at it because I've been doing it for ages, but it doesn't get me pumped at all. But now that I'm spending more time on this endeavor on the things that actually do excite me and I do feel like I'm being creative. That was what I was really missing is being creative. and I feel just even in my job that hasn't changed, but I'm happier there because The other part of my life is happier as well and I am getting to explore, you know, to learn more new skills and to tell my, tell our story and to be creative. When I was younger, I spent a lot of years traveling the world and blogging,
Tex:yeah, I was gonna ask you,
Monique Beh:I'm trying to get back into my writing and that was one of the first things that I wrote again, just because years ago, it was so long ago when I first started blogging that I don't think blogs existed. I actually used to send an email to everybody of my writing, you know, while I was living in Japan or wherever I was at the time. And yeah, and I really miss that. I used to love coming on an adventure with us. especially I think because I was traveling alone, so it felt like I had my friends along with me for the ride, and so I think that's why I'm really excited about what we're doing now, to be able to bring other people and our family and things along on the ride, on our adventures, you know?
Tex:I actually love that. Just, I think the assumption is that you have to change the thing. And we actually had a couple of conversations around, like, what's the other thing that we would do? And I remember having that conversation, like, how do you scratch that itch? You know, how do you scratch those itches regardless, because it's interesting. It's my bet that somehow. This skill is going to make more and more of its way into more and more of your life just as you
Monique Beh:Yeah.
Tex:I just know that if you keep doing know, maybe,
Monique Beh:Yeah. Yeah. our ventures
Tex:It's that sort of situation it's hurting curious And it's just interesting how things start to change.
Monique Beh:Yeah. And we're trying, we're both but that in some form really. Yeah. With no expectation of
Tex:you
Monique Beh:back, but the joy of doing the thing. So for me it's obviously we love outgoing on but for me it's capturing those and being, create, trying to get better telling the story or videos together. And Ryan's um, starting learning like an AutoCAD type thing too. Yeah, to, design his own spear gun handles because he really likes building spear guns. So we're both just pulling on a thread to see where it takes us to some degree.
Tex:I can see you guys investing in a 3D printer soon.
Monique Beh:I told him he can't have it till he's got a design.
Tex:you chuck it into a 3D printer, you got your prototype, is that right?
Monique Beh:handle's pretty much ready go. I just need to get a printer and print it out. Yeah, yeah. Yeah,
Tex:the last thing I want to cover here is just where you guys are at are you guys up to now? And you're like, you do
Monique Beh:we Feels really good. So like, we obviously did a lot work afterwards with refinancing and, you know, prosperity plan and setting up how everything was, going to grow, so that we could start building our passive income but it's happening now. So feel a bit vacant not coming to as many, community catch ups within the mentorship stuff. But we're just ticking along and everything's doing what it's supposed to do. So there, there isn't as much work anymore. And we're at a point where, yeah, we're just enjoying the ride at the moment. And I think we, something that we have noticed is that the way we thought at the beginning has changed. Over time, we were very much, we're not our own business. We don't, you know, there's too much work involved in that. but slowly we're starting to see. Taking off the blinkers and saying, Hey, maybe there are other things that we could be doing and just really exploring those things and seeing yourself get in a better financial position. You feel less tied to those careers that you had and you start feeling like, Oh, let's just see what happens in time. But yeah, we both feel like there could be change ahead, we just don't know what that. is yet. And we were okay with that.
Tex:you don't even need to know that. that's a cool part. You can just like Ryan said, just enjoy the ride.
Monique Beh:Yeah. exactly. Got the money working for us too with the investments and. Yeah, it's good. We're starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel and just keep heading toward it.
Tex:That's amazing guys. if you were going to
Monique Beh:do
Tex:advice, let's rewind it to two and a half, three years ago. If you're going to give yourselves advice at that stage, what do you say to yourselves? Knowing what you know now, what do you say to yourselves how you move forward? How you make the progress that you want to make and how you make it? Would you have a bit more fun?
Monique Beh:Do you mean like pre, just pre the mentorship?
Tex:Just like if you think about somebody in your life who, you know, is were not quite on the same page, hard.
Monique Beh:yeah. look at the monster under the bed, learn yeah, controlling your money and taking charge of it yourself. And, struggling way you guys to learn to get understand what you in life. So our life by design, which we hadn't mentioned yet at all, was a massive thing for us. and that was the first step, but we looked at that and realised. Hey, we're actually already a lot living the life that we want. It isn't this magical place in the future that we're trying to get to. We actually already do a lot of this stuff and we just want to do more and we want to understand our money and our finances so that we can prioritize these things that are really important to us. And. We then realized we were both on the same page as what we want. So we were in a team moving forward as opposed to individually. you get on the same page as your partner is a huge thing and understand what you want for your future and prioritize the things that are most important to you, which isn't always about money. It's about for us anyway, about spending time together and doing the things that we want to do, because. Yeah, tomorrow isn't promised.
Tex:I was going to ask you to finish that sentence for me, but I think you already finished that. what? would you say, Ryan?
Monique Beh:yeah, Tom, tomorrow is not promised with anything. I think you've got to make the most of where you are now. And if you are in control of the situation and you can manage your finances and yourself up correctly, well, then you can do more of that with confidence and, yeah, enjoy it. Enjoy the ride.
Tex:Guys, thank you so much for coming on and sharing that story with us, particularly around Arlington. I know that's easy to talk to, but I was very sure that if we could talk about it, we could share that, that it would inspire a lot of people. To think very differently about the value, of spending the time, spending the energy, spending the money to really get yourself sorted in this part of
Monique Beh:Yeah.
Tex:costs, if don't, and there's massive opportunity when you do, which I think you guys are such a good example of. So, looking forward to seeing where you can take things in the next couple of years as well. We'll be paying attention. Go back to YouTube if you haven't already done it, go and subscribe Tired. See what guys are up to, see life
Monique Beh:Thanks so much for your time, Terry.
Tex:Thank you
Monique Beh:you. Cheers.