Just how many areas of life does the subject of money touch? Join the guest podcast interview with Embodiment & Confidence Coach - Lahaina where we talk about her personal financial story and those her clients see.
Welcome to the money, like my podcast, where I can show you how to stop living paycheck, to paycheck, become debt-free and live your definition of financial freedom, I'm your host Mike Staunton, and I can't wait for you to dig into this episode. Let's do it.
Hello, today, I'm speaking with Lahaina and she's in an empowerment and embodiment coach. We got to meet Oh man almost two years ago, just before Covid happened face to face and we connected on socials, and when I went to Sydney we got to hang out there in Manly, where she still is and we're going to kind of take a break from the financial conversations. Even though we will talk about money. This is Money Like Mike and Please share a little bit more about yourself. I know you're from Brazil and now you're in Sydney. How long have you been here?
Again thanks for having me and I'm so excited when you say money I get so excited. So thanks for having me, I'm not a financial expert but yeah. We just! I love, collaborating and Co-collaborating. So thanks for having me, I am from Brazil, I came to Australia just to travel and maybe spend a year, and my plan was to keep traveling and maybe go back to Brazil, and I was twenty-three years old, I had a thousand dollars in my pocket. I knew a little bit of English, so I had that adventure, adventures so and zestful life and I've been here for sixteen years now. I live in Sydney and I absolutely love living close to the beach. I love the lifestyle. I love the culture. I love how safe it is, how beautiful it is. So it has been a journey and at the same time, it feels like it was yesterday. Yet also feels like a lifetime is whined to explain time Flo.
I know that feeling very well. I first came to Australia in 2012 on a two-year visa that turned in four and now, has been ten. I've been here, I'm a citizen, there are so many things that have happened in the last ten years. You know going from twenty-five years old or thirty-five years old. In a new country it was powerful for me, so sounds very similar to you.
A story beautiful and yeah. We just, I think we just met a bit randomly and a big, for instance, and I love like I said I love talking about money I feel like it has been such a taboo topic. You know for so many generations. I know a lot of people even my family. They don't want to talk openly about money. How much you make? How can I help you with things like that? No, don't want you to teach me anything about investment about anything. You know about the economy, about how things work. So I love what you bring to the table about having this open and honest conversation about giving tips about, sharing your expertise, and really helping people to have a more healthy relationship with money. I feel like we live in this kind of like a bit o a sick society that we always stress, anxious, and worry about money right. We come from that scarcity place where money is normally a problem, whereas the next cacher coming from holway in my bills. I don't make enough money a lot of this stuff like deliberate beliefs and behavior issues, so yeah. I really appreciate what you do and I'm following you and getting to know a little bit more about us and how you help your clients.
Awesome. Thank you and I think that's a great segway because you've answered so many questions. But how did that start your early journeys of money? What came up for you? What habits? Good or bad? Did you learn from your childhood?
Absolutely so I remember my dad used to give me like five hies, which is the current in Brazil. I don't remember my age, but I would always go to the news agency and buy the cartoon magazines for kids. So that's how I spent my money and then I got my first job so young. I think I was thirteen and I started working with my unto in her office. I would go to school in the morning and then I'll go help. Her in the afternoon was like kind of like secretary role and she would pay me yea fifty pis per month, which was nothing but he helped me pay my first trip in school. When my dad told me, I don't have money, so you know at the end of the year you go on a trip at your school. I don't know for Your Group and my dad said Yeah, I don't have the money and I was like no, or is I pay you on my own salary. I was only thirteen and that was a huge thing for me. I felt super independent, but not after that on my first like proper job, and I was maybe twenty-one and as soon as I got a job, I went to the bank to open my bank account and they gave me a check and they gave me a credit card and, like I said, no one had ever talked to me about what the real world looks like in Financial terms, and so what happens? Is I'M A girl? I love shopping. I'll go round and round buying dresses and handbags and things that I didn't need and choose. I had so many shoes and I got myself into that just by not knowing how to deal with that. I had no idea how to calculate how much I make how much is, and all I wanted was to fulfill those. I don't know you know that thing that you get inside of you, that you need things that then you need to go shopping to fulfill some lack emotional lack, maybe so yeah, that's how I found. I got myself into that so early in life because I didn't know anything better and so again I would love that my dad, or someone had talked to me like you, know a little bit more about finances. How to be really mindful and safe, about money. Put some money aside. I know everyone said put ten percent aside, but that was just content for me was never a reality. So when I look back, I was like Oh yeah. I wish I had been a little bit more mature and knowledgeable for wrong money back then.
Thank you for being so honest there, because a lot of people don't always want to say that they learned the wrong thing. You know we're not saying that Your Dad's, a bad man, he's probably a great father, but he just didn't teach you the things and the habits around money that you've been learning the last few years and going back to that time like when you started getting today you're early, you just got into doting. If you will and what was it that caused you to realize there was a problem or did you think there was a problem?
I think I might, you know when I talk about my dad like he didn't know any better. So it's not that you know people are holding information back for me. No, like literally I no one knew any better than what I knew in Brazil that the culture you know just get yourself into that it's normal and then what comes from it is that, like I was saying that consciouness antie stake right. I start getting more and more into that, and you literally don't know how you're going to pay for it. You still want to go shopping is so when I go traveling. If you want to go out for dinners, you still want to have a lifestyle they can't afford and there's also the thing about the society. Now I don't want my friends to know that I don't actually have the money to afford these things. I keep going to show up in a certain way and just getting myself more and more into trouble. So yeah, I think it's so important for us to talk about these, for the younger generations. Are Anyone this better your age as long as you are willing and wanting to know more about how to you know flip the coin around your finances, I think yeah. So I want to learn all this stuff that you talk about a couple of years ago, when I was thirty-eight years old well, and you kind of touch one there. IE for the younger generation. For someone that may have been in a similar situation like yourself and me.
I've been there as well. Why do you believe someone should gain control of their finances today?
It's so empowering it's so liberating is so much fun. You know like there's this freedom that comes with it is this excitement now, and I can talk about investment with my friends and I know what I'm talking about and I look at my bank account and I have savings. I have investments, I don't have any bad. You can hear my voice, I just get so excited.
Yeah, that's right! I mean I talk about it constantly. Every age, every sex, every color everyone looks at the numbers and they want to focus on the numbers, an example would be to. I don't want to pay off my student loan debt or I don't want to pay off my mortgage because I'm making more money over here in these investments. Yes, the math works out. You know this mortgage is three or four percent you're, making seven-ten percent over here. Mathematically, you are correct, but what I want you to hear in both your voice and mine is the freedom that comes with not having that payment. And that is what the numbers can't calculate. The experience about the emotion and coming from the opposite of anxiety. You know, fear of losing sleep all of those things to the complete opposite, which is freedom, excitement, happiness, control. You know feeling and control feeling and power. I think that's priceless.
To be honest, I'm with you in that's kind of what I preach as well. Right, just try it. I challenge my clients and a challenge to anyone. That's hearing me is try being debt-free. If you don't like it, I promise you, you can go back, there's a bank or a credit card company for anyone out there. That's going to be able to lend you money or want to lend your money. If you want to do that around because every single time when people try it, they don't go back right once you become debt-free and realize I did that on purpose. I don't have a payment, then they don't go back and it's a beautiful feeling. So thank you, you're exactly right. So my next question, for you is what is the number one thing of where to start when knowing nothing about money?
Amazing question. The number one thing is getting to know your money so get familiar with your numbers to your income, all of the money that comes in either one source or multiple, and the expenses. Where is your money going? And you know when you calculate everything you could go play a month mi my month and have a lot? Is that any left? You know that you are saving that you can put to words investment or are you getting in that every month and that's going to be a wake-up call as well. If it's fifty every month, he even then, or five hundred or five thousand rise. So from that, you can then plan and review and strategize and do all of the things to change your situation. But the number one always gets familiar with your situation.
Yeah! That's exactly the first thing that I teach in my online budgeting course, and that is to track your numbers. You got to know where you are, you just take a measurement, take a snapshot of where you are and if you have never created a budget, you need to just look back and see what you've spent. Know your income, know your expenses. What do you spend on your four walls right, which is food, clothing, shelter, and transportation, and those things are super important to know, and it sounds like you are across those things.
I think that's it and it's so different. I think I had an idea. I think I spend about a hundred l a week in food and when you actually go check the numbers, it could be fifty and it could be two hundred so again when we get out of our heads and into reality. You know like every few months I check my bank account and I literally get the statement and I go through. You know all the items and your money could be going on gifts. It could be going on donation, it would be going on coffee. You have no idea to you, stop and look because of those four dollars he a five-dollar day. That's when it could have been making a big difference in your account and you don't even know it.
I tell people I don't care what you spending money on if the gifts or its coffee, or if it's a fancy car. I don't care it doesn't matter, it doesn't change my life either way. I just want you to pay for that with the money that you have. Not using debt, not using your credit card not taking out loans to buy things that you can't afford. So that's really powerful. In your journey. I'm curious. Have you started doing a monthly budget?
Not so much a budget, but yet having the understanding, how much money I make and where I want my honey to go so at the moment I have different bank accounts. So I know exactly what my six expenses are and then the money goes straight there and then the rest. How much I want to be saving for personal development and course, so I have a little bit. I don't have a super strict budget like, but I have allocated money for everything at this point, but sometimes throughout the month you know it changes for different months for different things so, like now, we had it to the end of the year. There might be a few more social occasions that you're going to splurge on restaurants and catch-ups, but looking like okay, this money is going to come from something else right. So it's not that I'm making more money this month. So understanding you know if you're going to be standing more in a particular. I think where is this money coming from? Maybe from all they're like traveling or I don't know worse.
That's right as you and I are in the southern hemisphere right, it's going to be summertime and Christmas. It's we've been out more in the last week than we have in the last seven and a half months, because we've been living on Fraser Island. There's only one place that we really wanted to go anyway, and it's just the nature of the beast. If you will but like you say, if you own, that fixed income or your income hasn't changed, where's that money going to come from that you had potentially allocated somewhere else and again it doesn't matter what you spend your money on. Every month is different. You said it, and I say as well: Christmas only comes in December like if you buy gifts for your kids or your family or whatever the Christmas is once a year right, so you don't have to spend a part of your income in January. If you don't want to, I think it's wise to have different accounts like you said, and build that up over time. So if you spend, I don't know a one thousand two hundred dollars for the year, then that's a hundred dollars per month. You could save, or you just get to December and allocate one thousand two hundred dollars, either way, works and what you have said like for building those other accounts, and I do the same. I have a travel account, for example, and I just put money in there over time and then that builds up and I get to spend that all my travelling.
That's so cool and I'll talk to the girls now and I'll be super girly. My birthday's coming up in February- and I know by that I want to get my hair done. I want to get you know my ally shit, then eyebrows at which I don't usually do, but I know you know it will be a good month to celebrate and feel beautiful and I'll have a couple of parties. So I'm already allocating money from now on to back account, because I know it will be an kind of like an expensive month of you know: Beauty Treatment so yeah so leading to that. I'm like okay, I'm not going to be buying any dresses now and I'm going to be. You know expanding on these other things because I actually want to have the money. I don't want to get myself into that. I have the money ready when February comes.
That's amazing! For you and your clients are you able to have that conversation or does that conversation come up with beauty and feeling beautiful on the inside and outside? How does that work for you and your clients.
Absolutely so is funny, because I noticed my clients come to me, for you know embodiment and confidence and feminine flops, but they all want financial stability and financial freedom. So when we jump on a first school to find out more about each other that is pretty much their number one priority. So obviously, because I've been on this, journey and can have my clients as well in understanding a little bit better at this concept about money refinement, as you know how to save, how to invest and so on, and what I talk about. Confidence is exactly what we said at the beginning that, if feeling in power it doesn't matter what are an wife when you know your numbers, when you know how you feel when you know what's stopping you- and you know your strategy, you feel so empowered and confident and is the same front mined for love for confidence. You know so yeah, it's the same concept is just teach. I teach you a little bit of a different way for women.
That's amazing, I think, and I think everything is related right then. The very first session I do with clients is around the will of life, and how do you gauge yourself on different areas, its career, its health and wellness? It's your relationships, it's your romance! It is your family life, your hoe life and your finances, and I believe it's all related and that's what you're finding out as well. Even though women are coming to you for this embodiment piece and want to have that confidence and going be in the flow money touches it when he touches everything because we got to spend this is the medium of exchange today, right like we get paid for our time, and we get to spend that money on the things that we'd love to do yeah. I think like like the saying goals. Money doesn't bring happiness, but it definitely helps because it brings the freedom of choice right so even yeah, it doesn't mean that need to have more money I'll be happier, but I'll have more choices in doing healing work in you know, working with coaches and investing myself and feeling pretty and going shopping. So then money will make a difference in that sense that I feel more in power and more freedom again around all areas in life. So that's why I love this conversation about money because it's so related to freedom.
I'm with you right. I love talking about giving that's a big part of my world and it's hard to give when you're broke. It just really is, and when you're too busy giving all your money to banks or credit card companies or whatever it is, then you have less money to give, and then you also feel you may feel I have in the past. You may feel constrained in the sense that you don't have the time even to give your time because you're too busy working for money to pay the other things off.
That's very fair, I agree. I was volunteering work on a animal shelter a couple of years ago and it was on a Saturday because you know I had to work Monday to Friday. You feel the constraint of time when you don't have the money so like. Oh I'm using the time of my weekend to do this volunteer work or, like you said, one thing that really frustrates me is: If I have a friend's Barday coming up and my either I pay for the dinner and the party or pay for their birthday present. You know what I mean you don't have to be always compromising and making this choice is when we have that freedom to be like. No, I want to you know, come to their birthday party, have a big dinner with them, celebrate them and give them a gorgeous gift because they're, my friend and you know, they're deserving, and it feels good. So I totally agree with you regarding donating our time, our money being present. You know if we are always with anxiety around money, we're not going to be present weour loved ones. We always going to be stressed and thinking about how am I supposed to pay for bills Tom I supposed to get for next month, so many stores with with those the Spero things and we've all experience, and I believe on some level, even if it's not us personally, it could be friends or family that have been through those things and it's it's empowering to be on the other side and on that, on being on the other side,
I know you shared a little bit about where you started and what you've done. Do you mind sharing with everyone of where you are today?
Yes, I think I've focus on these things. So the first thing, I made a decision that I was going to change my money story, so you know for anyone listening. You can do anything you want and that's why I love talking about mindset and taking action. So I realized I was telling myself a story. I don't understand money is too hot. I don't understand it's complicated and in one day I decided no, I can learn. You know. I've learned so many things in my life. I can learn about money, so yeah I took on books and courses and changing my mindset, changing my habits and so that it has been for a couple of years right now, where I'm at right. Now I don't have any debt which is so liberating. I have a bunch of money saved. You know for my personal life or any emerges. Is I've invested in the stock market? So I understand now about the stock market. I have a little bit in big point just for fun and yeah and like a say, I don't want to get myself back into that. I just I keep budgeting for things that I want to purchase experiences products, everything because I don't want to keep putting stuff on my credit card. So if I want something I get organized in advance today, but to go in a for it, amazing, your pitcher, perfect right and this didn't take forever.
How long did your journey take to go from what you words where you were today? Did it take ten years five years?
I think, maybe a year because yeah it's been two years, but maybe one year I flipped everything and, to be honest, I know a lot of people are so upset about covid, but I'm grateful because I was not traveling us I'm going to restaurants, so that really helped me in taking that time at home to get clear on my finances and then save that money and paid my bet. So yeah, that's my reality. You know I'm actually grateful for Covid because it created for me a different experience in a different opportunity.
Yes, amazing, I think there's going to be so many success stories out of covid. I know we've been unended with all the negative things and the people that have lost to jobs and all that, but there's so many of us out there that have actually thrived in this and I continue to meet them myself included. There are so many businesses out there. You know to make a little joke if you manufactured face masks or plexiglass, you've done really well right? And there's just so many opportunities out there that are going to continue to have been born in this last twelve months or twenty-four months. At this point, it's just going to be beautiful, so yeah all right. Well, thank you for sharing. I love closing on this question and you started talking about it, so I was really excited so you've already kind of know what I'm going to ask. I guess so consciously where, what does freedom mean to you?
Such a good question. I think, as I was saying before, it is the freedom of choice. Right I don't want to have the constraints of this is the only way, so I can only have this car. I can only you know. With first-rate, men go into a restaurant and having to warded the cheapest thing on the menu. So that's a constraint, so freedom means I get to look at the menu and peep whatever I want to eat doesn't matter how much course you know freedom means I get to wake up every day being creative being, I know I can focus on my coaching clients. I can focus on my business because I'm not stressed out about paying bills, so you know freedom names. If I want to to take on holidays, I can afford to go somewhere. I love traveling so that what freedom means to me is having those options available and still being conscious about it. You know still being responsible about it, but it's more got their feeling beautiful that you were sharing.
That's all I have for now. Any questions you have for me. Anything else you want to share for both as you follow you.
I love you, you know your emails with your again it your stories and your tips. I love following our social media, so I'm a huge fan and again I'm so grateful for people like you that are talking about this. Such an important topic and inspire people are in the world to have a better relationship with money. Also, thank you. Thank you.
Thank you for all of your wisdom, time and openness with sharing your story, so I look forward to you seeing how others respond. Absolutely.
Thank you thanks for listening, if you enjoyed this show or found value in this episode, the number one thing you can do is subscribe rate and review this podcast. I can't wait to see you in the next episode.
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