TRANSCRIPT
In the Right Place | Being Money Savvy with your Investments
Iva 1:20
Hi and welcome. to a new episode of the Mom Bosses Abroad podcast. We are here today with Candice Bakx-Friesen, and she is going to share with us all her wealth of knowledge regarding investment and mindset. So Candice, welcome to our podcasts. We're so glad to have you here with us today.
Candice 1:33
Yeah, I'm so excited to be with you guys. Thank you.
Desiree 1:36
Yeah, so Candice is an entrepreneur, a real estate agent, sales trainer and a certified money coach. She has a very candid approach to business and affinity for getting past all that fluff and getting to the root of each challenge for our clients so that they get a lot done. And this has led her to becoming a really highly sought-after coach within the finance and real estate industries. She's so passionate about helping people reach their financial dreams. She is located in the middle of beautiful Canada, and she is a mom of four. So great to have you here, Candice.
Candice 2:15
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Desiree 2:16
Why don't you tell us a little bit about your personal journey about what made you go into the sort of money coaching world/real estate investment, all of that and how do you handle it all with four kids around you?
Candice 2:34
Well, that's I think the most common question I get asked how do you do it all and, and that's fair, you know? But I think like anything, you know, we start at one point and we just slowly add either things or growing our business or we add kids to the mix or whatever it is. And so I think we went from zero to 100 it would be very hard but slowly, you know, you adjust and you adapt as you're growing your business or your family, or whatever that is. So but yeah, when I started real estate investing that came from actually my now husband, but he had bought his first rental property when he was 17 already. And so, when I met him, he had a couple of rental properties, which was kind of neat, and my family wasn't into that. So it was a whole new thing to kind of talk about and think about. And so I was getting my Bachelor of Commerce, I was going to become an accountant and ended up just switching gears and became a real estate agent when I was about 25 or 26. So it's been about 15 years now. And yeah, so we actually were involved in real estate investing first and not related to that was why I became a realtor I was just approached and said ‘hey, you know would you ever want to be one and join our team?’ And I thought, ‘yeah, you know, why not? Let's give it a go.’ And you know, years later, here we are, so
Iva 4:03
And Candice going a bit more into the subject today about investing and mindset that is such a powerful combination, but for most of us it's not that intuitive, right? We're not that intuitive to say, ‘oh, yeah, you need to have some sort of mindset to go into investing.’ Like that's more applicable when you're talking about, I don't know, working towards a goal or even like coaching, but when it comes to investment, it feels more like okay, whether you have the you have the money or know whatever it is that you want to do and understanding what the investment in and of itself is all about. But can you share with us that whole combo of mindset and investment, why it's so important?
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Candice 4:56
Yes, yes, definitely. And, you know, I was very fortunate that, you know, I came from an entrepreneurial background and so I wasn't necessarily taught that stuff in university. I was but you know, it started when I was a kid, right? And it's no different than any of the moms listening, right? Their kids are going to hear about what they're talking about and the business aspect of it. And sometimes you can have a little bit of maybe mom guilt around that. But I think it's actually a wonderful thing. And the sooner kids can learn about money and everybody contributing as a family and working together. All of those are really good lessons. So I just want to encourage people if they're listening, if you ever feel like you know, my kids deserve a little bit more of my time or things like that. These are lessons that later as a child of somebody who is an entrepreneur, you know, they're valuable lessons actually, that you learn just by taking along with your parents and hearing all those different things that they're doing during their business, right. So I was very fortunate and I definitely acknowledged that but some of the things that you learn as kids are things that you bring forward now as an adult related to money right? So if you were always- if you heard your parents saying like, money is evil, money is bad, I'm always stressed out, don't talk about money, don't ask me about what we bought our house for, there's never enough money, don't ask me to buy things… You know, if you hear those kinds of things, then it's not an open conversation where you can approach your parents to learn more, right? You're basically shut down and so as an adult, you feel like, okay, ‘I can't ask people because I'm going to be shut down. Because that's what I've experienced as a child, right?’ Or everybody else kind of seems to have this figured out why don't I? So there's the stress, the guilt, the insecurity around money, and so it really takes a lot of work and personal development to get past some of these roadblocks that really I think the majority of people have.
Desiree 7:06
Yeah, that's a really, really good point when you said about the money being a taboo topic and a lot of lot of households and I was like that as well. When I grew up, and I'm originally from Germany, and in Germany, it's a big taboo to talk about money or ask anybody about like, what are you earning? How much did you buy this for? You know, how much did you spend on this and how much was dinner last night? Like you are not allowed to ask these questions. It's a really big thing. And I even carry that with me today where I'm like, I really, especially when you're an entrepreneur, you're trying to research certain things, compare certain things, finding your way. But then you're like, I can't ask these questions. How do I figure it out? How do I find out so it's, it's really, really difficult and when I then moved, I spent a lot of years then in Asia and there they are, so like, they talk without a filter sometimes, but they're also very candid and very upfront, and we're like, so how much do you or how much is your salary? So how much did you buy that? That bag for? And it's like, I was really shocked in a way and I was like, ‘you're not supposed to ask me that.’ And now the worst thing is like, how do I answer without being rude and saying that I don't feel comfortable telling them? And so it's true. It's a huge mindset shift. So what do you think is like a healthy sort of middle ground to be open to it yet be like responsible or also, you know, just mature enough to disclose what you should disclose and not disclose
Iva 8:52
how much other or how much information is too, is too much, or too intrusive?
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Desiree 8:57
Yeah, yeah.
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Candice 8:59
Well, and I think what you were saying is such a valid point, and then you know, when you become part of a relationship, now you have the other person who grew up often in a different way, or were attracted to the opposite. So you might be a saver but your partner is a spender. And then you have to filter in and then what are you teaching your children they should think, Well, we, I should teach what I've been taught. Again, when we w say money is one of the major problems for relationships this is why right and again, you can see why because we come with, I don't want to say baggage but things that we've learned around money. And again to now say, ‘Okay, well how are we going to make this work?’ It doesn't even so often, it's like, ‘Well, should we have a joint bank account or not?’ And it really doesn't even revolve around that. It's just a lot of, again, the mindset around money and what's that gonna look like? That was a couple, right? So I think that, you know, to just go around talking to everybody about money isn't gonna work and probably not a really safe thing to do. To have some of those trusted people that you can talk to. So that's gonna be an advisor, a money coach. Maybe you have a friend or two where you sort of figure out that you can connect around money. But I think it's really important not to put the pressure of that on friends, you know, so I have the friends that don't. If we get together for dinner, we're not talking about money. We're not talking about business because they were my friends first. And I can't expect them to be interested in my business or anything like that. So I think it's joining online groups and just joining maybe in person groups, with some people that have that like-minded, you know, interest in pursuing either their goal of entrepreneurship or to better their financial future, and really connect with those people and have that accountability to help each other reach their goals.
Iva 11:03
So Candice would you say that within the line of when you talk about going into investing there's that twofold aspect of saying ‘okay, first of all, understand who can you trust or have this conversations moving forward about investing in and of itself, but also, what is your mindset around the idea of investing? And going into that route? So what would you say is a good way to go about it, or it could be a mix?
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Candice 11:39
Yeah, so there's no one right investment, and that's what can be so difficult sometimes, like, we want to just look for a silver bullet. That's going to be the perfect investment, but it doesn't exist. What could be great for me could be something you're not interested in investing in, right? So, I think again, you really have to do some research, figure out what you're interested in investing in how much risk tolerance you have, how much return you're looking for, because they're usually inverted, inversely related, right. So more risk is usually more return not the opposite. And you know, ultimately, at some point, you have to make a decision, right? And that's the part that can be hard for people where you can get into this analysis paralysis, no different than in a business, right? You could be researching a business you want to start for 10 years or you could be dreaming about it, but some point you got to just start and take action. That's the fear. Right?
Iva 12:38
And I think right now, it's so relevant to have this conversation about investments because of what is happening in the world right now within the global context. And you know, I was I was talking to someone actually yesterday about this and they were saying like, ‘yeah, you know, what if you_ right now is the period at least here where most companies bonuses are given out right. And, you know, final year reviews are done and bonuses come out and all of that. So people now have and are sitting on this lump sum of cash, and now they're wondering what is the safe bet or, you know, what do I do with it right and maybe sitting, putting the money in the bank is not the smartest thing. So are there any practical ideas of what people can explore with regards to that and seeing like, well, this is a way that you can obviously educate yourself and do more research, but those are great starting points.
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Candice 13:46
Yeah, and every country is going to have different programs and products that are available. So for example, in Canada, we have a program or a product that's called RSP. Where they will actually you know, your income can be reduced by investing through an RSP product. The common thing that people say and what I was thinking when you were talking about the global stage right now, is that when things are in turmoil, people feel like I can't invest because it feels scary, right? Yes. so whether that was the start of COVID, whether that was the 2008 crash in the United States. Now it's the war in Ukraine, you know, there will always be something, right. There really always is something that's kind of going on in the world, right. And so what is the safest bet? I'm not sure what the safest bet is right because safe might be putting your money in the ground, but you know, you're losing money every day.
Iva 14:50
The mattress, yeah, but a lot of people do think that real estate for the most part remains quite safe. You know, in terms of return on investment and stability, obviously, depending where you want to invest, right and which part of the world of course, but, you know, for the most part is. Would that be something that you would say yes, it is or you do need to do a lot of research as well on that and really, really get knowledgeable on what is it that you're going to go about investing in real estate?
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Candice 15:25
Yeah, so I'm biased because I invest a lot in real estate. So I'm going to tell you, it's definitely a good bet. That it depends on the market and you have to know the market right? And so sometimes it might look like there's a really good deal and, you know, in another country or in another part of Canada, but I tend to say you know that, for me, my comfort level is investing where I can drive to my properties, right? So again, the next person is gonna say, ‘Yeah, but Candice, like it doesn't matter. Just go to a market where you can get the most appreciation so you have the most cash flow.’ So all of these different things, it depends what you're looking for again. So real estate has a few different options, which people like that's another perk to investing in real estate. So the value of the property goes up, the mortgage pays down, and you can have cash flow as well every month from the rent trade. So even if things go bad, one of those three ways I'm still benefiting every month from the other two ways for example. So if the market stabilizes, and my property doesn't go up in value anymore, significantly, it's still getting paid down. I still have cash flow, right? So that sometimes feels a little bit safe to people too, because you have a few options. The other thing with real estate is that you have leverage which is cool. So I can invest, you know, if I go buy a property for 200,000 I'm going to invest 50,000 of my money and the rest is going to be a mortgage.
Iva 16:58
Using the bank’s money, right?
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Candice 17:01
Exactly. Yeah. And the renter is paying down that mortgage for me. So my investment is 50,000. But the game is on 200,000. Right? So if my $200,000 house goes up, that's the cool thing about real estate is you don't get that opportunity for leverage like that in other investment products.
Desiree 17:21
Right, right. No that's a really good point. I always think it's for us it's a little bit tricky. Being expats and always moving like we're never home and probably the markets we feel most secure and comfortable is our home countries, or at least countries that are close to us. So, we're not there a whole lot and so that can be a little bit tricky as well, but it's definitely also a good stable sort of investment to think about for our future and for children. And another thing it's something that can easily be passed on to your children. So it's like a legendary in a way investment. So that's another good thing true,
Candice 18:08
You know, even if you're not in your home country, if you get property management or if you have some family to help or you know, a really good family friend do it. There are ways to do it. And you know, even if you decide after 10 years, maybe this isn't for me, after all, you can always sell the house, right?
Desiree 18:26
That's true. That's true. Yeah, that's what we're doing at the moment as well as going back to finding people that you can trust and that will take good care of it while you're not around very much. So yeah, that's, that's very important.
Iva 19:42
And I liked something that Desiree shared just now and Candice you might link it as well to what we were starting off with in the subject of the mindset aspect of playing the long game. Because we're not talking about necessarily_ I know there's this concept of flipping, people like to flip right? They come and then they buy something that they flip immediately sell but if that is not your main I would say this is just my perception, if that is not your main focus on a business, right? And you're just wanting to diversify. And you're just waiting for things to appreciate in the long term, as Des said, the long term plan of saying I will inherit this to my kids or you know, down the line we'll see but right now there's no immediate need to get rid of that and make a profit, then that is a good mindset aspect to jump into with this type of investment especially in real estate to say it's not with the lookout of flipping it and having a profit in the next six months is more down the road- probably decades or a couple of years at least.
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Candice 20:48
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Great point. Yeah. So the difference with flipping a property like you mentioned, that's usually looked at more as income. So, I'm going to find a good deal. I'm going to get my hammer and I'm gonna swing my hammer. I'm gonna paint this house and I'm putting in the time right so when people say, I want to quit my job to invest in real estate, that's often what they go into because they need to replace their income, right? So I need to flip that property to get a profit. And then I need to you know, pay for my groceries and everything from flipping a house. So that tends to be looked at as income and in Canada anyway. It's taxed as income as well. Whereas what we're mainly talking about as an investment option, that's that long term focus, like you said, and, you know, for myself and my husband, we both don't have pensions. So our little houses are our pensions, right? Yeah, eventually, on one day, yeah. Yeah.
Desiree 21:49
And their safety assets too, right. If you want to go and purchase something in the future, or take out another loan for anything else, these assets become crucial, and asking for certain loans as well. So yeah, definitely.
Iva 22:06
And also, do you think Candice, that it's also a good thing to say, I should only invest if I know that I'm not really needing the money? I can, you know, if something happens, that I'm still going to be okay, like if it's not going to completely drive me to the ground, because I just lost all this money, you know, right. It's like investments have an inherent risk, right. regardless of what it is, so just to be able to be okay with that risk, should mean going into it with the mindset of saying, It's okay, if anything happens. I can take the hit.
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Candice 22:52
Yeah. Yeah. And you know, the nice thing about real estate is that it's an asset that we understand, right? So if you already own a home, it's simply buying another home. It's another home with a furnace. It's another home with a roof right? These are things that we sort of understand already, versus stocks or mutual funds or things like that people sometimes feel like ‘well, I don't know how to understand the balance sheet’ or, you know, kind of relying on this advisor, which is fine, and there's great advisors out there, right. But as real estate investor again, if you're investing in a market, you understand, you already know if that house is overpriced or not just from living in the area and knowing sort of what the real estate market is like. So that's another kind of comfort level around real estate is just the familiarity of what you're investing in. But I would definitely say no different than when I sell somebody their first home, you should have a little bit of an emergency fund. And it's the same with a rental property right? If for whatever reason, the furnace suddenly goes in Canada that needs to be replaced right away when you know because it's typically good to go in the middle of winter right? To be able to replace that furnace or any other emergency that comes up. So there are some safeguards around how you can protect yourself or if you suddenly have a month where you aren't getting rent, then you have a little bit of money saved so it's not right away, like ‘oh, no, this is a big problem, right?’ And another thing that some people do is, they keep their first house so as you're looking to upgrade, so you're a single person or a couple and then now you have a few kids, so you decide to upgrade but people keep their first house. And again, you know, that house because you've been living in it. So there's a little bit of that comfort level again.
Iva 24:46
These are all great tips. Candice, that you've shared with us. Is there anything else that we should be on the lookout for when starting out in this decision to say ‘yes, I want to, I feel like I'm ready to dive into investing.I still am not sure how or why or how or what or what to do about it.’ But what are some good starting points that they can take with them as they look into this?
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Candice 25:15
Yeah, so my number one tip would be to transfer some money today into your savings account. Because that's usually the problem, right? Is that we're always waiting or, well, if I just transfer 50 bucks, that means nothing. It's not going to help me in the long term, right? So we're waiting for a big bonus or we're waiting for an inheritance or we're waiting for the market to be better. We're waiting for now the war to be ever over. Right? We're always waiting for something or something so biggest, yeah, the biggest mindset shift is really just I gotta get started, you know? So if you have debt that's very expensive, like credit card debt, you know, and you're paying 20% 30% Yes, get rid of that as soon as you can. But if you have some small loans or if you have a mortgage, don't wait until that is gone. start as soon as possible because you want to take advantage of compounding, right? You want to take advantage of as many years as possible for that money to grow, grow, grow. So
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Desiree 26:12
That's a really, really, really good tip. And, again, like it brings us back to what you mentioned at the beginning of like, your children are going to be watching you what you're going to do when they start to understand right, what about the saving part? Also, I was brought up in a household again, a German house sounds like you've got to save, you got to save everything you have. Whereas my husband it's a little bit more from the other side. It's like ‘no, you got to live in the moment. We've got to spend’ of course all within staying, you know, financially safe, but like, we've got to enjoy it now and spend, so how do you raise your kids right to find that middle ground of ‘Yes, it's good to spend to have obviously that lifestyle that you want,’ but ‘save what you can’ and it's also really important that they watch you same with watching you work. I also think it's really great thing if kids are watching your work because you're setting an example, right?
That's to help me with my mom guilt. But same with talking about money or when you start paying them pocket money, how to deal with that like little lessons you can give them along the way and say ‘okay, do you need to spend all your pocket money in one go and this silly toy that will last maybe two weeks, give you two weeks of joy and then collect dust? Are you going to save it maybe to buy something a bit more exciting, you know, with three weeks’ worth of pocket money or so? Yeah, it's really interesting that you get in tune with your mindset with what you believe and to be on the same page with your partner. And then pass that on to your children. Yeah, but the savings account it's very true.
Iva 27:59
Yeah, that's a good and also I would say get some expert advice. Seek someone that can actually does that for a living and that can actually give you better guidance on what is it that you want to do or the pros and the cons so that you're really well informed? And I think in that regard, you are offering some complimentary calls right for our listeners if they want to reach out to you and ask you a little bit more in depth, you know how to go about it, real estate or other sorts of investment that they are thinking about doing? Can you tell them a little bit how to go about it?
Candice 28:45
Just reach out. So my website is http://www.investorsmarts.ca And, yeah, just reach out and I've got a 20 minute complimentary call button right on there. So feel free to do that. And I'm happy to help out with anything related to money. So sometimes it's like, you know, I can't get past this communication block with my spouse. You know, I'm trying to increase my income in my business or I'm trying to figure out how I can save more money you know, there's all these different topics. So wherever you're struggling, just reach out and I'm happy to help.
Iva 29:19
Fantastic because you also have a podcast right that they can also check out and listen to where you give as well some additional information about investing and everything related to that topic.
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Candice 29:38
Yeah, it's Called Investor Smarts, Money and the Entrepreneurial Spirit. And so we talked with other entrepreneurs, about, you know, the money struggles they had while they grew their business, or some tips and tricks of different things that they've done. And it's really interesting how sometimes we start on one path and then it leads to different business opportunities. And everyone's got a really interesting story. So yeah, I've got almost 100 podcast, so feel free to listen in on different people theories.
Iva 30:26
There's a lot of knowledge in there and it also ties with what we said at the beginning, where you were sharing that sometimes there are friendships that you have that you don't necessarily go into those topics because they're from way back when right and so it is important moving forward if you are really wanting to talk more about that with other people to find those likeminded kindred souls that are also in that same wavelength and listening to this type of podcast and series and information definitely helps you to see okay, these are all very relatable stories that I can that I can relate to.
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Candice 30:45
Yeah, and I think you know, time and time again, again, it's a bit of a mindset thing where we think ‘oh, who's gonna want to talk to me about this? Or I'm too shy to ask,’ but I think I could say with pretty strong confidence that anybody that's been on my podcast is more than willing to have a conversation, you know what I mean? Like people are so giving, and so helpful. So I think, again, just reach out if you need help. Now.
Desiree 31:10
And we're not alone. We're not alone in this journey, often as internet entrepreneurs. solopreneurs we think we're alone. We think we're the only ones with this problem, but we're not. So it really helps to have this community of women, there's like-minded people where we can share tips, tricks moving forward. And really advice on you know, the ones that have gone before you and we're never alone on this journey. So that's what we always say we love to surround ourselves with other women who are in similar positions and, you know, we empower each other and that's why we love chatting with you as well to give us that other insight of what can we do, what are our options for investing and there we go, we found someone else who can help us along this journey. So thank you so much for for all your insights today.
Candice 32:20
No problem. Thanks. So much for having me.
Iva 32:25
Thank you, Candice, for chatting with us today. And if you want to connect with Candice, you can find her on Instagram @investorsmarts. And we're also going to be posting the links to her Facebook, LinkedIn, website. And also her podcasts and complimentary coaching call because as we said, the best mindset out there is an abundance mindset and that's how we want to move forward in what we do, that's the best energy that there is.
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Candice Bakx-Friesen
Candice is a Canadian woman entrepreneur, real estate agent, sales trainer and certified money coach.
Her candid approach to business and affinity for getting past the fluff and getting to the root of each challenge for her clients so that they get a lot done, has led to her becoming a highly sought after coach within the finance and real estate industries.
She is passionate about helping people reach their financial dreams - and She is a mother of 4!
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