Podcast Transcript:
Love & Money: Stories from couples in love and business with Aaron Christie-David from Atelier Wealth
Host – Kylie Sultana [0:11]:
Hi, I’m Kylie, your host of The Money Brew. And as you may know, I am a director and co-founder of financial planning business Creo Wealth with my husband, Anthony. And today I have a special guest that I will be chatting to. So I’m talking to Aaron Christie David, who is the managing director and founder of Atelier Wealth Mortgage Brokers.
Host – Kylie Sultana [0:42]:
Now, Aaron co-founded Atelier Wealth with his wife, Bernadette, several years ago. Aaron is highly qualified and has a wealth of knowledge. I like that, a wealth of knowledge and experience in the finance industry. During his free time, he enjoys being active at the gym and doing Pilates. Yes, so do I. Aaron says cooking is relaxing and he gets a lot of enjoyment from being able to try new recipes and cook for a crowd. That’s interesting. And he says that his toughest crowd to please are his two beautiful daughters, Sienna and Zara. When he’s not working, training or cooking, you can find him at the local park or beach chilling out and enjoying life. That sounds like a dream. So enjoy my conversation with Aaron. So welcome and I have got the awesome Aaron Christie-David from Atelier Wealth with me today. Thank you for joining me Aaron.
Pleasure to have you here. Thanks for having me on, appreciate it. Yeah you’re welcome, you’re welcome. So we’re going to get straight into it. Now you are a mortgage broker. Yes. Yes.
Host – Kylie Sultana [1:59]:
So I’d love to know why you became a mortgage broker. What was the.
What was the epiphany that you had and said, I need to do this?
Aaron Christie-David [2:03]:
Yeah. Yeah, look, you could call it an epiphany. My background was in financial services, but I used to work in marketing and I used to take care of home loan distribution, through mortgage brokers. So I had a pretty good idea about what mortgage brokers did and because I worked inside a bank at CBA, I had a pretty good idea about how the product worked itself as a home loan product. The epiphany really was Bernie and I, my wife Bernie and I, we’re on our honeymoon and we’re in Vietnam and we’re kind of sitting on a crate eating a band my as you do and as you do you know two dollars that it probably cost us I guess it’s that you know some people have that moment when they have kids or have a family or maybe happen to set a certain age in life or they’re just like what am I doing and at that point we had pretty good corporate roles Bernadette was in uh human resources for cricket New South Wales I used to work in marketing at Commonwealth Bank.
Aaron Christie-David [2:55]:
So our ultimate dream was to go and move to New York and kind of chase a dream of, you know, studying and improving our corporate careers, maybe it was an MBA or something along those lines. And as we sat there and planned it out, it was like, hang on, what are we going to do? We’re going to struggle as renters in New York. We’re going to come back with this giant amount of debt from a student loan as well. And then we’re going to work corporate careers that will probably take us away from each other and potentially a family that’s started in the future.
Aaron Christie-David [3:22]:
To chase his corporate dream and yeah the payoff would be great um you know as you move up in in corporate but then it just didn’t something didn’t sit right and i thought hang on there had to be a better way and my older brother was just starting his mba at the time we were both going to do it together and i just thought nah i’m going to put that money into a business and see how we go so he’s uh he’s he’s done his studies and he’s obviously moved up he’s become a cfo now uh so obviously it’s paid off dividends for him uh but for me you know now our business will turn eight in july this year and well i guess where we started to where we are now eight years later it’s yeah definitely a journey it’s something that we’re proud of not without it’s moments like any roller coaster ride oh tell me about it yeah tell you about it and i think the the transition to mortgage broking was was a kind of a smoother one given that you know i bought I bought properties being through it. That doesn’t necessarily give you the skill set to become a broker. It just gives you an idea about what’s involved. But the fire in me was…
Aaron Christie-David [4:30]:
Why don’t I help people build property portfolios? That was my ultimate goal. And to have that level of cushion in their retirement and an idea that then you could pretty much control your work. Could you dial down to four days, three days? Could you work doing something you really enjoyed as opposed to trading your time for a paycheck? And that then became, I guess, that ethos that now we’re famous for.
Host – Kylie Sultana [4:55]:
Yeah I love that so what made you decide to work together what was the conversation around that and on your honeymoon too I mean that’s pretty brave deciding to start a business together on a honeymoon so tell me about that conversation and and how did you decide what roles each of you would take within the business
Aaron Christie-David [5:14]:
so at that time we really didn’t know what we didn’t know so that was my dream was to start the business and Benny really supported me on that so two weeks that after we came back from our honeymoon but he’s like hey look you haven’t done anything.
Aaron Christie-David [5:24]:
About this business idea that you had and i was like great and i then found a mortgage choice business which was for sale in alexandria and i bought that uh two weeks once we got back, and used all our savings and at that point uh i just had to fail forward like for me i hadn’t been in lending so i had to understand the lending processes i had to understand how the The mortgage broking role really kind of hit a sweet spot with people as well. And Bernie would then come after her job and help me out. And that was how Bernie really kind of got involved at the start, you know, weekends, after hours, just helping me with a lot of the paperwork, with a lot of the data entry. And at some point we got to a real tipping point, which was, hey, I need to hire someone, I need to recruit someone.
Aaron Christie-David [6:15]:
Can we afford to replace your income i said look jump into the business and let’s try and work this out and that was that that was that moment where bernie came in she was doing for free and then she got paid and then our next recruit was bernie’s brother damien who joined us a few months later.
Aaron Christie-David [6:32]:
And again the same thing for damien was hey mate we just need a bit of a hand can you come in and spare us a day or two and just give us a uh give us a helping hand and you know a day or two turn into three turn into four is that mate we can we make this full time and then with damien joined It became that perfect trilogy for us, which, you know, the team, we didn’t really step on each other’s toes. I kind of assumed sales, marketing, business development. Bernie was really the ops, the IT, finances as well. Again, that’s her background too. And then Damian was very much the technician, so product delivery and a lot of that support role. So we naturally just gravitated to what our strengths were and we had each other’s weaknesses covered. Other and even to this day I think we’ve got a really good working relationship because we know we can’t do what each other does and so when you know that you can’t survive without each other kind of has that little solidarity in the team going we need each other no one’s got a bigger ego than everyone else because it’s like hey we’re pretty much equals so I really love that that you all play to your strengths and I think that’s probably what has made you such a success you You know your lane and you’ve stuck to it. You’re not trying to do something that you don’t know. So you’re all kind of taken on that role and just kind of full steam ahead and with the one big goal.
Host – Kylie Sultana [7:48]:
In mind i know so i wanted to ask you about your personal relationship a little bit with bernie but don’t worry i’m not going to get beyond the bank accounts it’s okay no secrets exposed bernie oh okay look i just want to know i’m really big on couples because we see a lot in our practice when couples don’t have conversations about money about their goals and what they want to achieve especially you know if you let it go years and years then it’s a harder conversation to have obviously so how do you and Bernie go about having those money conversations for your personal life and setting your financial goals so do you sit down and talk about where you want the business to go and then personally what sort of wealth you want to accumulate what your your plans are coming into retirement and you have young children too still at school so what are the conversations you have around supporting them potentially because I know a lot of couples, have different opinions of how you should support your children depending on the background you’re from so I’d really love to hear about all of the things there great I think like all right all relationships money is a big one and it’s at the start of our relationship.
Aaron Christie-David [9:10]:
You know, I was frivolous, you know, I was the spender in the relationship, which is probably counterintuitive to how this type of relationship should be.
Aaron Christie-David [9:21]:
And Bernie’s the diligent, I mean, she had a background in tax and accounting and she’s, you know, she loves spreadsheets. She helped her parents pay off their mortgage, you know, as quickly as possible. I love that. Yeah, my family didn’t speak about money, Kylie. So for us, you know, we grew up with that. It’s rude to talk about money versus their families. They’re very open about money. And that, again, was a real shift.
Aaron Christie-David [9:45]:
You know, I would have grown up never knowing how much my parents’ mortgage was or if they even had a mortgage at some point when it was paid off so yeah that that takes a lot to to reshape how you look at money i know we’ve spoken about this as well right from your journey, but i think it’s like when you get to those moments where things are uncomfortable when you have you come to a bit of a head about you know loggerheads over over money it’s like this is when this is a good time to have a conversation so i was very clear at the start bernie handled all the banking and finance for us i just got told how much i could spend or what we were aiming to save and what i needed to earn and i i can work with that i can work with those type of confines as well and look when i started the business i think at that point we had two investment properties and we were renting and bernie’s income would have been only 55k that’s tough on a business that isn’t producing income for the first 12 months, really, right? Yeah. So we had to, you know, I’d tap my card and go, I don’t even know if there’s any money on this. That moment of truth, right?
Host – Kylie Sultana:
Yeah. You’re waiting for the little thing to spin and, like, did they get accepted?
Aaron Christie-David [10:58]:
Correct. And you’re like, oh, wrong card, sorry. And you’re, like, you think on your feet a little bit. At that point you go, jeez, no, never again. And I think that was for me at that turning point where I’m like, I have to make this business work. Because the other thing is going back into a corporate gig, which I was like, I think I’m done. So that would have fused in me. And, look, over time, you know, we’ve rented, we’ve renovated, we’ve bought properties, we’ve bought off the plan, we’ve sold properties. I feel like we had a lot going on in our 20s and 30s from a property perspective that gave us insights.
Aaron Christie-David [11:36]:
Yeah. But we knew ultimately we wanted to buy our own home. That was non-negotiable. We want to put down roots, we want to buy our own home, have that security stability and yeah we’re fortunate probably i’m going to say three years ago to be able to buy in a great place down the coast and uh yeah obviously having a mortgage that’s a that’s a big commitment even being a mortgage broker doesn’t leave me immune to the fact that when you get 13 rate rises something has to give right so we’ll just figure out before like that’s the rba wanted people to feel a bit of hurt and pain and 13 rate rises will certainly do that to many households that have a mortgage that have kids that want to have a lifestyle as well and at that point you’ve really been you’ve really got to be open and honest about what is non-negotiable and what is up for discretionary so discretionary spending definitely dialed down, you mentioned around kids and we weren’t willing to take the kids out of say swimming or little athletics or dance so that meant personal spending dropped back to make sure that we put our kids as a priority first and foremost, whereas I look at the swimming classes two years ago, you couldn’t get in, versus now it’s noticeable how empty the classes are. Yeah, wow, that’s interesting, isn’t it? Yeah. It’s telling. It’s telling. I mean, swimming is something that kids need to do.
Aaron Christie-David [12:57]:
Yeah but on a family that’s on a budget for example that’s maybe where they go ahead with and they could be down to one income having another baby so you just don’t know what people’s scenarios or situation is but i think going through this gave me a huge amount of empathy that when i’m talking to clients i’m like hey but what about this or what about this and and sometimes you don’t see you don’t know what you don’t know you don’t see what you can’t see until you get to that point yeah but to answer your question i i was i was pretty adamant personally something that i wanted the girls have a pot of money when they got to 18 so what we’ve done is every week they each get a hundred dollars that sits.
Aaron Christie-David [13:30]:
In a bank account compounding nicely uh away for them and even when times you know got skinnier uh as well we said no that’s a non-negotiable too that’s their hundred dollars each week and you know anytime they get money for their birthdays or christmas it’s like go straight into their bank account as well and that money when they in 2018 can only be used to buy property and that’s kind of my my that’s that’s my mandate you can only use that money to buy property you don’t buy a car you’re on holidays you save you get your job and you work for that but you use that money to go and buy property
Host – Kylie Sultana [14:00]:
yeah yeah i love that and we did similar for our boys but we set up a managed fund for them so then when they started working we encouraged them to put their own money into that so that it you know you know compounded and they got the dollar cost averaging for a little bit so and then once they turned 18 it was just signed over to them and said that’s your money you want to go study or or whatever so yeah but i think we’ve raised our boys well they you know haven’t cashed out any of it yet they’re just like no no no i don’t know they leave that there that’s growing nicely i like that so but i love that you’ve done that for the girls and it’s one thing to speak about it.
Aaron Christie-David [14:46]:
Just to finish that point, I just wanted to speak about it. But there’s one thing to do something about it. And you want to teach your kids about money. You’ve got to lay a very good, you show a good example. You lay down some good foundations. Because when they get to 12, 13, that’s 12, 13 years of compounding. That’s, you know, we know it, the magic of compound interest. It’s like we’ve missed a good chunk of that. If we made it a decision, yes or no, it was like this is a hard, yes, we’re doing it. So, yeah, definitely having kids. you learn to put your priorities later
Host – Kylie Sultana [15:24]:
and i love to you mentioned 12 or 13 i feel like that’s a really impressionable age for kids and that’s when they really start to understand the cost of everything and the cost of living i mean we used to take our boys to the grocery shopping and get them to work out you know the value before they put the you know how much it was per kilo or or grams, you know, on the little tags and we would get a calculator, take the calculator shopping and get them to work it out, what’s the best bargain. Just because, yeah, but it was a little bit of fun to distract them shopping but it was also a lesson for them. So that’s just what we used to do.
Aaron Christie-David [16:00]:
Now what we do is we do our delivery on Coles online so we don’t take them to the shops because it ends up becoming more expensive.
Host – Kylie Sultana [16:08]:
To never go shopping hungry, that’s my top tip there. That’s exactly it, yeah. You end up with the entire shop in your cart because you’re just hungry. You’re like, oh, I’ll get that. And it’s not good for my waist then because if the Tim Tams are on special, it’s disastrous because I’ll just buy six packets of them and then they’re all gone the next day. And I have no idea who eats them, Aaron. No idea.
Aaron Christie-David [16:35]:
Yeah, it’s that Tim Tam fairy that just sneaks in and steals them all. Yeah, that’s it. That’s it.
Host – Kylie Sultana [16:40]:
So now everyone knows that Tim Tams are my weakness. so if you want to, Influence me? Tim Tams are the thing. So thank you for sharing about your relationship with Bernie. It’s really great to hear a man that was the actual frivolous one, because I think a lot of media tell women that they’re the frivolous ones. So then we just think, oh, it’s us. But it’s really nice to hear that there’s a man that was frivolous. And I love that you’ve now managed to work with that, as I have, because I was the frivolous one. And you’ve got to look out for your triggers. If there’s something triggering you, you’ve got to be like, oh, no, stay away from that. And sometimes it’s certain people. So I’ve had to take certain people out of my life momentarily because they encourage me to spend and it’s disastrous.
Aaron Christie-David [17:28]:
I think as time goes on, like you think like the earn more, like the stakes get higher. Like when you’re i don’t know 20 something it might be like a cheaper car it might be a nicer you know i’m going to thailand or it might be something along those lines as moving to your 30s is probably clothes for example you know some of that discretion or going out uh as you into your 40s it’s now designer handbags and watches and cars yeah the stakes just got a lot higher and it’s far more zeros as well and i think it’s we call it lifestyle creep you call it comparison court envy whatever it is keep up with the jones however you want to kind of wrap it up and justify it but then it’s like the house with the u-butte renovation on it and the fancy pools are like there’s a there’s a danger in playing that game i mean there’s nothing wrong here’s my thing there’s nothing wrong with if you’ve earned it you’re saved for it and you buy it there’s absolutely nothing wrong with any value it but when.
Aaron Christie-David [18:31]:
It’s the ill intentions behind it that’s when you know you know that it’s just like it’s not for personal satisfaction it’s for outward validation yeah check yourself on that
Host – Kylie Sultana [18:45]:
i think so and i think as you get older actually your your view of that changes because i know when i was a little younger so i’m 52 now nearly well 53 this month we’re recording in march 24 so 53 this month but i think as you get older.
Host – Kylie Sultana [19:02]:
And your priorities change I don’t know whether that’s because you become more mature or maybe it comes down to the experiences you’ve had along the way but I used to see people with beautiful homes and beautiful cars and think oh wow but now I see that and I’m like oh man how much debt are they in for that like no thank you I don’t want that much debt for that and it’s like we’re actually I even look for downsizing now because it’s like yeah we have have a nice home and everything but.
Host – Kylie Sultana [19:33]:
You know, we could probably live in a nice little villa somewhere and help the boys get into something or, you know, so it’s like I think your priorities change. And cars, I used to like nice cars, but I drive a Mazda 3. I like it. I love my car. You know, you know, and I just like, yeah. And then we went and looked at an electric car a little while ago and test drove and it was like, yeah, that’s a lot of money. I don’t know. I know we’re going to save on petrol and stuff, but seriously, I don’t know if I want to spend that much money on a car that’s going to get me from A to B. I’m just not sure I want to do it and I’m just not in a place. I’d rather have the holiday with the money. Yeah. So you kind of prioritise what you want in life and I’m not interested. I could drive a scooter as long as it gets me down to the shops. You know, I don’t care. As long as it takes me to get my coffee, I don’t care.
Aaron Christie-David [20:29]:
Yeah, that’s a massive ego check, isn’t it? kylie like the car is yeah you know they’re built up to be an extension and symbol of your wealth and yeah and the the ego certainly wants it because you know you mentioned you drive a mazda 3 i did i traded in a awesome golf gti walked out of the dealership with a check and traded in my brand new car for i think it was a 10 year old mazda 3 and the first question i got was hey it’s not going well i’m like it’s actually going better the fact that i don’t need a nicer a car to prove it now, which is, you know, again, contrary thinking. And again, it’s not to show off, but it’s just to go, I’m not going to play this game, which is the fancy car to prove that I’m doing well. No, no. And that’s not a statement for everyone. Some people really, really, really enjoy their cars. And if that brings you happiness, that brings you joy, then do it. Do it.
Host – Kylie Sultana [21:30]:
Yeah, exactly. but if you’re doing it to impress someone else you’ve got to check what you’re doing that for yeah yeah you might want to rethink yeah yeah i agree aaron, You wrote a book.
Aaron Christie-David: Yes. Yes, I have.
Host – Kylie Sultana [21:44]:
And I’m really excited about it. We’re coming to the launch. I’m really excited to get my hands on a copy. I actually am. I’ve set myself a goal to start reading again, and I have started reading again, and I’m actually really enjoying it. Mind you, I read at a night time, so I read about five pages and I get too tired and have to go to sleep. Because you’re asleep. Because I have to go to sleep, yeah. so tell me about what made you want to write a book and then tell me about the book.
Aaron Christie-David [22:16]:
Yeah look i didn’t have a burning desire to write i have to be an author i have to get my name out there it’s not that wasn’t the intention what it was there’s only so many conversations that i can have one-on-one in a week there’s only so many conversations my team can have one-on-one or we can do webinars seminars but what i found was a lot of people need to go on a journey which means they need to absorb information in their own time and then it’s i guess it’s a tactile you know reading a book it sinks in a lot more uh as well so that ability to remember recall what you’ve read you can go back to it as well so the book to me is a culmination of years like i’ve been doing this nearly 10 years 10 years of conversations that have really kind of hit the spot that have landed well that have been you know that have gone on to help people buy property or you get into the market, for example. And so once I just wrote a book, it’s like it wasn’t that hard in the sense to take all those conversations that I’ve had over 10 years, distill them down to like 30,000 to 40,000 words and go, right, here’s a bit of structure because it’s what people need. And the penny drop moment for me was when I read about the home ownership dream just getting out of reach for so many younger Australians.
Aaron Christie-David [23:33]:
I’m just fortunate that I happened to be born 10 years before other people and I was able to get into the market 10 years before other people. If I was trying to get into the market today on a median income, yeah, I’d feel despondent. I’d feel like the market is moving faster than I believe it’s safe. And that may be the truth of the market, but there’s still people that are buying and still getting into the market. It’s just a different way than what was done by our parents or the generation before us. And so the goal for the book is if we want people to get in don’t be tone deaf and go hey buy a property it’s going well show me how and this book is the blueprint about how
Host – Kylie Sultana [24:13]:
yeah i love it and what is it called i know what it’s called but i’d like to hear you say it
Aaron Christie-David [24:13]:
yes i think it’s called the happy home loan handbook and if i give you some context
Host – Kylie Sultana [24:22]:
i love that name
Aaron Christie-David [24:25]:
a lot of people yeah thank you i appreciate that yeah so people see a home loan as a as a ball and chain they see it is like, in financial planning, sometimes it’s called bad debt because it’s owner-occupied. It’s non-deductible debt. But let me tell you, a homeowner can be the happiest debt because it means I’m not renting. It means that I’ve been able to get a mortgage from a bank. It means that I’ve got security, stability for my family. It means I can add value by a renovation or making the garden line. It means I can be part of a community on a street where I’ve got awesome neighbours that take the bins in and out for me when I’m on holidays. Yes. That’s what it means.
Host – Kylie Sultana [25:00]:
Ours by the lawn for us. No, this is it, right?
Aaron Christie-David [25:01]:
Yeah street christmas party like i never got that when i was living in an apartment in sydney right we knew it was transient we knew it was transactional people were going to move in and out for example you didn’t really build those relationships yeah when you’re renting and you knew at some point you were going to leave anyway versus when you have your own home you’ve got a vested interest in making sure this community is thriving because i’ve bought into this community
Host – Kylie Sultana [25:24]:
exactly exactly yeah
Aaron Christie-David [25:25]:
what’s the alternative to having a mortgage you got to rent but at some At some point the landlord’s going to put up the rent, going to send you out a notice because they want to do some renovation work or sell the property, which now you’ve got to look again. That’s disruptive if you’ve got a family. That’s disruptive if you’ve got a lifestyle that’s set up in that place. And now you’ve got three, four weeks to go and find a brand new rental in a rental crisis that we’re suffering in this country. So it’s a lesser evil to go and get a mortgage and pay that off instead of paying someone else’s mortgage off for them. And I think renting serves a purpose for a time in our lives but at some point I meet so many people that have a yearning to buy their own home and very, very rarely have I met anyone that regretted buying their own home.
Host – Kylie Sultana [26:09]:
Yeah, we definitely don’t regret buying our own home. So we lived in a completely different area and, you know, for varying reasons we had to move. So we bought the block of land where we are now. But to buy a block of land in this area now is like close to a million dollars just for the block of land, and they’re small blocks of land. But we only paid $300,000 for the land and then built the home. So we just had the house valued at much more than what we you know have paid but i think too with you buying your own home this is just from our personal perspective we bought the home here knowing that we would potentially want to retire somewhere else and so we kind of looked at this as an investment even though it’s classed as bad debt because it’s our home but we looked at it and thought well once we hit the right age we’re going to take advantage of the downsides of a contribution into our super right so because we’ve been in our home more than 10 years so you know if you can kind of look forward at different kind of strategies i don’t think there’s anything wrong either with getting into the market and living somewhere if you can because i guess there’s the first home loan buyers all that sort of stuff that you can take advantage of as well if you want to live there and i think same goes for rent vesting you know just.
Host – Kylie Sultana [27:27]:
Just, yeah, sorry.
Aaron Christie-David [27:28 ]:
Yeah, no, you’re spot on. I think what you said there is it’s an interesting one, right, because if you think back to generations gone by, you never saw your home as an investment. It was a roof over your head and that’s what it was, whereas now we know we’re going to trade up. Like you used your last property as a stepping stone to buy this place. And that’s a new phenomenon where it’s like, hey, where am I going to buy? And this is probably a better increase or how do I make it increase in value, right? Whereas in generations gone by, that wasn’t the case. And when I did a lot of research into home ownership and your parents would have bought a house at two and a half times their household income, we’re now buying houses at seven and a half times two incomes versus our grandparents only ever had one income or our parents only worked on one income. And so the game has changed so much that what worked for a parent will not work for a child. As harsh as that sounds. No. Yeah.
Host – Kylie Sultana [28:27]:
I know. And it’s interesting. You know, you hear a lot of people say, well, I did it. But, yeah, you did it 20 years ago. It’s a completely different landscape now for investors. 20 years ago. And, I mean, that’s why we –.
Host – Kylie Sultana [28:40]Sorry?
Aaron Christie-David [28:41]:
20 years ago, the real estate agent drove you out to the house in their car, right?
Host – Kylie Sultana [28:45]:
Exactly, right? Exactly. Well, see, I was lucky enough to meet Anthony. He already had a home when I met him that he was renting out. So we actually moved into that when we kind of got engaged and renovated and eventually knocked that down and rebuilt a bigger home on that block. But we sold that and then came to where we are now. But we did rent in between. tween and yeah so but the book the happy home loan handbook so it’s been launched soon, i can’t wait to get my hands on a copy i’m really excited in fact i might buy a couple of extras just to hand out to some clients so we might might do that but i’d really love to know before we wrap up that the top tips that you would have for someone so let’s talk about out top tips for mortgage brokers what so they’re not all created equal right mortgage brokers we’ve spoken to lots of mortgage brokers we’ve looked at partner with lots of mortgage brokers and you guys are one of the ones that match our values and our ethics you know that’s kind of why we are happy to send clients your way and vice versa so yeah when someone’s looking for a mortgage broker and we we tell people as well looking for a financial advisor i don’t care if you come and see us but go and get help but if there’s three things that they should look out for when they’re looking for a mortgage broker what would it be.
Aaron Christie-David [30:11]:
Yeah, it’s what I call, I get this a lot when people say, why us? And I usually say it’s what I call the three E’s. So one is experience.
Aaron Christie-David [30:21]:
They’ve either done it themselves. And what I mean by that is, I’ll give you an example. We’ve bought commercial property. We’ve bought our own home. We’ve bought investment properties. We’ve renovated. Yeah, I’m not saying that to about any ego. It’s just that there’s experience that we’ve got personally having done things. And there’s brokers that have bigger portfolios than me. Again like well they’re the ones that you go to for a huge portfolio right so there’s experience uh there’s uh empathy that i’d say and around that is going hey i’ve been in your shoes and i know what needs to happen and exactly what you’re doing is i can understand the ebbs and flows of emotions that comes into it and that’s yeah that’s a big one uh and then the last one say is emotional intelligence and that’s the third the bonus is going to be expertise like hey look we’ve got an actual sweet spot around the niche i’ll come back to that in one second but the emotional intelligence is a big one where you go this is a highly highly emotional journey, getting a loan approved you take people on a roller coaster where it’s like they’re fearing if the bank’s going to say no who’s the bank going to say yes they say you’re like mate absolutely they don’t want our word for it they want the bank’s word for it so as a broker you’ve got to be able to coach people through this emotional rollercoaster of being able to get a loan approved and ensuring that all the money they’ve saved up for isn’t going to be lost when they go to buy this home. It’s people’s greatest fear.
Aaron Christie-David [31:45]:
And so nothing I say to them, I’ve done this 10 years, never lost a deposit, never missed settlements. That doesn’t matter because all that matters is their situation and what they’re going through.
Aaron Christie-David [31:55]:
Yeah yeah and so a lot of brokers uh it’s hard to take the industry it’s a male dominated industry uh for example you know males typically don’t display a lot of emotional intelligence, and that’s something that we really work on with our team guide show some empathy show some emotional intelligence this is people’s greatest one of their greatest stress points in their life and the last one that i’d say is expertise so expertise is hey look we’ve got a team that’s specializing first-time buyers i’ve got bernadette who specializes in commercial smsf i specialize in investors for example so when you have a level of depth and knowledge there as well it’s like yeah i know exactly what your thoughts one exactly what your pain points are because i’ve helped numerous people like yourself as well so you can’t be all things to all people which is why we have to divide and conquer when clients do come into us but again when i get a specialist or generalist they know they’re usually in good hands because we’ve been there done that,
Host – Kylie Sultana [32:54]:
yeah and i love that i really love that so thank you for joining me today oh no sorry i want three top tips for sorry that’s all right let’s go back he hasn’t kicked in i had the copy an hour ago but it has kicked in now i want your top three tips for couples so you and bernie you’re a couple, you’re in business together, what are the top three tips that you would have for couples that are in business?
Host – Kylie Sultana [33:22]And for talking about money, what’s your?
Aaron Christie-David [33:28]:
I’ll talk to you. I’d say the first one is you can’t build a house. You’re putting him on the spot, I know. Yeah, that’s right. You can’t build a house with two different blueprints. So you need to have an alignment on a blueprint, yeah? Yes. So, hey, what are we looking to do? What’s our ultimate goal here? If you’re out of alignment, anything after that’s just not going to make any sense. So you’ve got to get on the same page, yeah?
Aaron Christie-David [33:47]:
The second step is if you can’t get alignment, then you definitely need a professional. You need you need a financial planner in your corner your mediator someone in there a budget specialist whatever you’ve got yeah to unlock whatever pain point that we’ve got from an alignment perspective and then i’d say you need someone that’s going to take take ownership of this so again the analogy that bernie and i use is you don’t see two captains going out for a toss of the coin yeah on the sporting field one person is the leader one person is the captain yeah Yeah, and someone then has to be responsible with the other person’s support and the other person’s buy-in, for example, and then the last one, so we’ve got kind of three, we’ll make it four, but then there’s got to be consistency and regularity around catch-ups. So if it’s a monthly date night, if it’s a fortnightly date night, we do an hour catch-up around our business at the end of the month.
Aaron Christie-David [34:39]:
We then talk about our personal finances. We’ve got a spreadsheet that we both have access to in terms of our cash flow for the month. So we know what are the expenses coming in what expenses going out we know how many holidays we want to take this year we know what it takes what our minimum break-even point is on our household and what our break-even point is on our business uh you know things are unexpected you know we’ve got the scotty pate buckets for example you know if there’s an emergency we’ve got money for the emergency we know how much is in our super we know how much our mortgage is so there’s the other part which is actually not digging our head in the sand but just going hey look i know my numbers and when people when you probably do this all the time when i ask people how much do you earn i don’t know i was like that’s a critical number to know.
Aaron Christie-David [35:24]:
It’s a critical number you don’t know your number and how much you earn that’s how much you’re worth like we’ve got to recheck this a little bit it’s not that you walk around beating your chest going this is how much i earn i think it’s endearing sometimes that people don’t know how much they earn but when you’re going to pick up the phone and call a finance professional that’s kind of one of the things that they want to know so you should have that information that’s pretty handy yeah it’s one of the first things yeah yeah what are we working with the income question is not around judgment hey what are you working with and where are you at in your life in your journey then i can then take yeah exactly yeah that’s right that’s
Host – Kylie Sultana [35:59]:
right well how much are you earning and how much are you spending exactly you have a spreadsheet you know exactly what’s coming in what’s going out so it’s not a budget as such it’s just like a a map of where your money’s going you need to know what you’ve got left over so you know what you can do with that you you don’t know what you can do with it unless you know what your goals are your blueprint yeah exactly yeah just all of that was music to my ears yeah yeah yeah I was sitting here you were saying all of that and I’m like oh my god if I was in the same room I would have hugged you and kissed you I love it I love it I love it
Aaron Christie-David [36:40]:
when you’re when you’re when you’re trying to help people and that’s that’s I think again you talk about the conversations that land and you go hey hey, look, these are pain points. If you’ve been doing this for long enough, you generally know, hey, these are the pain points that we have to suffer. And my book’s no different.
Aaron Christie-David [36:53]:
Money books, when you pick them up, it’s usually how do you spend less.
Aaron Christie-David [36:56]:
How do you save more, how do you invest better? They usually fall into one of those three sweet spots. And I think for my book, it’s, okay, yep, how do we help you stop renting? How do we help you get into your home? How do we help you pay your loan off faster? And how do we help you at some point invest in the future? But it all starts, like all journeys, they start at the very beginning. How do we take that first step and then the step after, and the step after that as well? And if we can help you guys, if we can help more people have the confidence.
Aaron Christie-David [37:28]:
Self-belief and the support that we can help more people get into the property market, isn’t that a real joy? There’d be nothing. Yeah, absolutely. There’s no greater joy than that.
Host – Kylie Sultana [37:37]:
Yes. Absolutely. And I know how thrilling it is. I mean, we’ve got two investment properties, but I know how thrilling it is when you buy your first one and you’re like, wow, I’ve done it. Or even any home. It’s just investing. It’s like I’ve started. started it’s just that first step to start creating that future that you’ve always dreamt about because it’s not unobtainable but you’ve got to know what that future is first before you do anything yeah exactly i was going to ask you oh actually i was going to say our son’s 21st birthday is coming up in july so perfect gift for him i’m going to get a copy of your book for him because he’s beautiful got dreams of being a property mogul so yeah that’ll be a great gift for him
Aaron Christie-David [38:25]:
how exciting how exciting is that i mean when i see young people market i’m like, a young person trying to get into the property market hats off to you i love it
Host – Kylie Sultana [38:40]
yeah yeah well he’s very tight with his money i’ve got to tell you so he gets that from his dad he’s very tight, very tight, which is a good thing and a bad thing. Yeah, it’s a little bit of a bad thing, but it’s, yeah, it is good. No, it is good.
Host – Kylie Sultana [38:55]:
But Aaron, so people can find you on Instagram, LinkedIn. Yeah. And Facebook. You’ve got an excellent website. I love your website. So I’m going to have all of the links up for everyone. They can go along and follow you. your book is launched on the 21st of march is that correct yeah 2024 so and where is that available bookstores online
Aaron Christie-David [39:22] :
yeah so the bookstores so you can get booktopia amazon some dymocks will have it uh harry hartog and then some of the we’ve got one in penrith yep there you go yeah so uh yeah online is probably the easiest part for a lot of people get to booktopia yeah Yeah, if you want to go to a book store, there’s a couple there that have it. And, yeah, very keen to get people’s feedback. We’ve had a couple who have already picked up the book and reached out to us. So I’m getting a real kick out of it. It’s all new feelings for me because now people are reading it and absorbing it, and now they’re actually reaching out. I’m like, this is amazing, this feeling that people now want to take action off the back of reading it. What would those people maybe have done before? They might have stumbled around in the dark, but this has become an enabler. It really brings a lot of joy.
Host – Kylie Sultana [40:10]:
Yeah, it is exciting that somebody’s reading your words and they’re taking action from it. That’s, yeah, I can imagine the joy that would be, yeah.
Host – Kylie Sultana [40:19]So maybe I might write a book, Aaron. Maybe you’ve inspired me to actually write a book.
Aaron Christie-David [40:25]:
And that’s exactly what happens. Like I’ve had people that have gone around, you know, people before me in my circle going they’ve read a book and, you know, again, that’s had a massive impact on their community as well. And I’m hoping like me going, hey, look, it’s not that hard. You definitely need to carve out the time and the energy and space to write a book. And I was lucky to go away and write.
Aaron Christie-David [40:47]:
But here’s the thing, like if we can just make that ripple effect bigger, it starts here, then you guys can create something. It inspires someone else to do something. It’s like, hey, this ripple effect is getting bigger and bigger and the rising tide is lifting all these ships. Happy days. Yeah.
Host – Kylie Sultana [41:00] Yeah. Love it. I love it. So thank you again for joining me today. I really loved chatting with you again and I have been a guest on your podcast so I might pop that link up there just for good measure so everyone can go and have a re-listen to that but I’ll have all of the links on for everyone to go and follow you and to buy the book I would even though I haven’t read it I highly recommend it because you are really one of the good guys Aaron I really love of your business and I love your website you have got an amazing website I love it that changes when you’re and you’re a bit of an amateur chef too aren’t you
Aaron Christie-David [41:38]:
i’m a frustrated master chef my brother has my brother has a couple of restaurants and now he won’t hire me but uh i’m trying i’m trying well
Host – Kylie Sultana [41:47]:
now you know what you can do when you know the business is running itself you can go and do your chef
Aaron Christie-David [41:52]:
that is i tell you what that is the dream once you sell this all up and you get a little cafe yeah oh i love what food wouldn’t that be great brings people together and
Host – Kylie Sultana [42:00]:
sitting around eating and drinking coffee all day how fantastic would that be i’d love it yeah again aaron thank you so much thank you
Aaron Christie-David [42:12]:
thank you mate.
[42:13]Music.
