067: Starting From Nothing… to Lifestyle Businesses… to FI | Jonathan Bielaski

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Money Mechanic
Welcome to Explore FI Canada, where we investigate the financial independence topics important to you. Join us as we learn how to optimize our lives, save money and invest for our future. We’ll go coast to coast interviewing experts and chatting with Canadians about their inspirational FI journeys.

Chrissy
PolicyMe is Canada’s easiest way to buy life insurance. In about 15 minutes, you’ll receive a free no obligation quote, and an instant decision. Plus, most people won’t require a medical exam. Visit exploreficanada.ca/policyme to get your quote today.

Money Mechanic
Chrissy, have you got your canoes and kayaks out of the garage over there?

Chrissy
No, thankfully, we’re doing okay. But I know a lot of people in BC are not doing as well as we are.

Money Mechanic
Yeah, a shout out to all the listeners that have reached out to us thinking of us particularly and I can announce that we are very, very fortunate where we are here in Victoria, that we haven’t been impacted. There were some minor things last week. But again, you know, to date this recording a bit. It’s raining a lot again today. So I am sending out my thoughts, my best wishes to all the people that have been affected around us here in BC and and hope they can all recover safely.

Chrissy
Yeah, I agree. It’s been a tough couple of weeks for a lot of people. And a lot of hard work has been done to restore roads and clean out homes. And hopefully, the rain won’t be too bad this time. And we’ll be able to make it through and see the other side and dry out and clean up.

Money Mechanic
Yeah, more importantly, the guest we have on the show today, they might not be getting their Amazon orders because if they’ve landed in the Vancouver port, they may be stuck here for a while and not getting all the way out to Ontario for Jonathan’s, you know, his holiday festivities. Jonathan, welcome to Explore FI Canada. Tell us a little bit about yourself and why you’re here with us today.

Jonathan
Thank you. It’s great to be here with you guys today. And luckily, my wife and I have done all our Christmas shopping already. So everything actually has been delivered. So you know, the the disruptions and stuff. Yeah, it’s definitely a very tragic thing that’s happened. But uh, you know, it’s, you know, once in 1,000 years type thing, or once in 100 year type thing that’s happening. So very interesting to see. So, you know, 2020 2021, you know, come December, it’ll actually be nice to push it off to the side a little bit more, right? For more than one reason.

Money Mechanic
Just let me just throw this out there because I grew up in the Lower Mainland, which is sort of the Vancouver surrounding area. And I had no idea that the Sumas area, Abbotsford, that got the worst of the flooding, that was actually a lake that they pumped out in like the 1920s. And it’s like, wow, what a big fight against you know, Mother Nature and natural causes like this. It’s a tough battle to win. They’ve been doing it for so long. And I had no idea that was used to be lake!

Chrissy
Me too, I didn’t know either. Like, no wonder it’s flooding. Really, fighting Mother Mother Nature with a few pumps and some levees and dikes. I don’t know how long we can hold up against that.

Money Mechanic
Yeah, exactly. So anyway, I’m going to date this episode, because you just really impress me, Jonathan, because it’s November 25, and you’re done for Christmas. You’re like 20 days ahead of me.

Jonathan
It’s been one of those things that my wife and I have been trying to do for many, many years now is actually stay ahead of the ball with everything and to make sure that we actually get everything done and everything that we need in stock, because, you know, it is it’s one of those things lately that it’s been like, oh, wait a minute, that’s gonna take two months to get here. And it’s like, but it’s December 1, it’s not going to get here on time. So and then, especially with my kids, like I do have three little kids. So their lovely things that they’re actually deciding that they actually want are definitely changing now. So it’s like they’re like, very specific. And it’s like, wait a minute, that thing doesn’t even come out yet. Why are you deciding that thing is what you really need. So that’s why it’s we’ve definitely been been on top of things and online ordering has been our friend but at the same time ordering local for a lot of other weird things is been good, because then it’s like we need time for artisans to actually create the things that we’re going to be bringing in so. So yeah.

Chrissy
Well, you reminded me that this episode is going to be our holiday episode. We’re going to be dropping it in December and it will be our last episode until we come back in the new year. So just so our listeners know, we’ll be gone for a little while until about mid-January, and then we’ll be back in your earbuds at that time. Now, you mentioned that you’ve got three kids and you… sounds like you’ve got a nice Christmas planned for them. But you mentioned in your email to us that it wasn’t always this way in your life. You mentioned that you started from nothing and parents losing everything when you were a child. So can you go a little bit into that story? And let us know your beginnings?

Jonathan
Yeah, definitely. So my whole story basically started, my parents were entrepreneurs. My dad was an entrepreneur, he owned his own custom printing shop made beautiful large format, prints, and all that type of stuff. And then my mom was a graphic designer. And, you know, they went through everything. But in the 80s, and 90s, there was the big transition one to going to digital for a lot of stuff, and two, just a bunch of the recessions and ups and downs of everything. And you know, my parents lost everything, we lost our house, we lost the businesses, we literally were, you know, going and started for nothing. Now, as a kid, I didn’t really notice it very much, my parents tried to stay sheltered. But again, money wasn’t a topic that we talked about at all, as all long as everything was happening. And as long as things were so going along, it was fine. You know, when I started working for myself, like I started working, when I was 12 years old, you know, you’re doing the paper route, doing all the other stuff, but it was just kind of our main culture that we would just help the family out. So all the money that I would be generating from that stuff would go to the family. And that would help them buy. So you know, it was just kind of the whole atmosphere that we had. But I did see a lot of different things like, you know, parents having their their businesses and you know, even myself, you know, where we would go on vacation. Now, we never traveled very much. But we would go up north, like up to Northern Ontario, or the Bruce Peninsula. And we’d spent time with family at a cottage or even like, when we had the store and everything like that, we would be going out to dinners or we like myself, I’d have horseback riding lessons or anything like that. But again, I was still very young, like I was seven, eight years old. And then when I was about 9, 10, that’s when things started going a little bit a little bit haywire, you know, and then we lost everything that way. So, so it was a an interesting time, you know, but it didn’t deter me, it almost made me more passionate and more interested into exploring the options of what can I do? How can I make money? What were my options. So to give a little bit of backstory of where I am today versus where I was, is, that was my childhood. That was my upbringing, I actually left my house and left, where I was living when I was 16. And went off to college. Now, the college thing is a whole nother thing that my parents didn’t really want me to do. Because they always pegged me, it’s like, you know, you know, myself right now. They pegged me as Oh, go into computer science, don’t go into an art go into something business, marketing, finance, accounting, that type of stuff, where you can get a job, work at that job, and, you know, build up because they did, like, they were both the artisans, they both had their own business, they, you know, generated that type of thing. And then it all came crumbling down. And like I saw it, it broke my dad, like it’s he never went back to work full time. So I could see the, the impact it had on them. But To their dismay, I, I went to share, I went to college and got my photography degree, but at that time, I had already known that I would wanted to be a photographer. It was in me, like I started my studio when I was in high school, and I was cooping and so even like my first my first week at college, I actually had to go up to the prof and or like the the coordinator and the the course lead and everything and be like, I’m not going to be here for the first week, week and a half of school and he’s like, Well, you have to be you have to understand the cameras. You have to do this and you have to go and I’m like, Well, I’m going to be on a photoshoot in Miami with my mentor. Is that okay? And he was kind of like, yeah, I really have no choice. Sure, go ahead. And if it’s one of those give takes because like I had started work so early, and like, you know, I worked in grade 12 newspaper delivery or sorry, 12 years old newspaper delivery, all that type of stuff. By grade nine. I was a janitor working every night with a company so going around from place to place as a janitor, working in the janitorial sector. And then I got into food service and then I was apprenticing shafts. So I did multiple things all through my high school. And then by grade 12 I opened my own studio because I knew I was going to go into photography against my parents wishes. And that kind of got me into college. And then yeah, my professors right off the gate were like, Huh, okay, well, sure you really know what you’re doing whatever, whatever we’ll see, we’ll see. And it was a two year program. So I did that. I ended up graduating top of my class, my college that I went to actually became a client of mine during that time. And they’ve been a client of mine for the past 22 years. And so it’s been a really good, good transition and a good career that I’ve had. Now, not to say that this hasn’t had bumps as well, because I graduated college in 2000. So right after, you know, the lovely downturn, a whole bunch of other things happening, a lot of the arts and culture kind of just crashed and everything there. So my parents were like, Okay, John, you know, we went through a recession, we lost our businesses, we lost everything. Don’t do the same thing. And I’m like, I’ll be fine. Everything’s good. Like my studio that I was working with wanted to partner with me all this type of stuff. They’re like, No, just go get a real job, get a real job, whatever you can do get a real job. So I’m like, Okay, let me see. Let me weigh my options. I went out, I actually did get a real job. I went in. By the time I was 19, I was a senior executive at a international manufacturing company, flying all over the states setting up showrooms setting up multimillion dollar contracts for ad campaigns and all this type of stuff. And then three years into it, I was making a really good wage. So for like, early 2000s, you know, we’re just about six figures. I was like, 20 years old, doing everything. And I’m like, I’m going to quit. And my wife, well, my, my fiancee at that time, she was like, what are you gonna do? You’re gonna quit? And I was like, yep. And she’s like, Okay, well, let’s see how this goes. I’m just graduating. She’s like, she’s just graduating at that time. And I’m quitting my full time job we had just bought built our house. So that closed, like the year before, and we were just about to have our first son. And she’s like, and you’re quitting? And I’m like, yep. And she’s like, All right, go ahead. Let’s do it. Let’s do it.

Chrissy
What a wife!

Jonathan
I know. And, you know, like, honestly, without her support, and without a bunch of things, I would still be working in corporate world. And but yeah, definitely having the support of my wife really helped advance everything and free up a lot of stuff. And so then like, really, for like the past 15 years, it’s been working on my entrepreneurial side, my creative endeavors, my business ownership and my multiple developments within that, and then just growing my, my own personal brand and business that way.

Chrissy
And has your wife been working this whole time? Or is your Are you a one income household? How’s that been working?

Jonathan
So when I was starting out, I was traveling a lot. And a lot of people can understand this too, especially in the creative field, or in the corporate world, is like we had my first son, I was traveling every second week, somewhere in the US or Canada. And I was going on to productions and all this type of stuff. And I was just trying to build my name, build it, build it, build it, build it. And luckily, my wife is very supportive. And like she is a she’s a nurse. She specializes in gerontology. But that was shiftwork. And when we had our first son, it was one of those things that it’s like, okay, doing shift work, trying to find 12 hours of daycare didn’t really gel. But one thing, she’s always been a teacher and an educator as well. So she actually got a professorship early on. And so she’s a professor of nursing, which again, has helped myself have freedom, because we have the one steady income that we know is going to keep coming and being a professor, you know, it gives us lots of free time and everything like that. And I’m allowed to kind of come up with these crazy ideas and be like, Hey, let’s do this. Let’s do that and go for

Chrissy
Well, yeah, I think that’s important to note that you did have that steady income coming in because it is hard when you’ve got kids to make that leap into something that’s a little unknown and unpredictable as far as income

Jonathan
Definitely without like without have like I think it’s been instrumental especially within the our success and our journey to where we are now with within our money situation and with being basically financially independent. Having one steady income has given like even my wife Andrea, she says all the time. It’s just like, John, you know, if you think you can do it and you think this will be good for us, like even we just had a conversation today about an acquisition that we’re doing that she’s like, Yeah, go for whatever, you know, let’s give it a go. If it doesn’t work out in a year and a half, it doesn’t work out. But let’s, let’s look at it, let’s do it, and what’s the worst that’s gonna happen. And, you know, it’s we’ve kind of designed our lifestyle. And that’s a really big thing that I see. And like I like to talk to people about and I, you know, talk to as many people in both the creative field as well as the educational world is creating your lifestyle, like creating what you want to do. And, you know, not waiting to the end, not waiting till retirement before you actually get to experience stuff. Like one thing, like, I didn’t travel internationally, or anywhere until I was in my early, well, I’d say late teens, early 20s. And my kids before they were one years old, we’re on planes, and going to different countries, and you know, experiencing different things. Like even like my oldest son just recently, due to COVID, and everything, he’s just like, okay, that it’s time we start going visiting different places again, and he’s 14. He’s been to like multiple different places. But it’s like that culture, that experience has been instrumental in their upbringing, but also in designing where we are right now and where we want to be. So we needed to actually set up all our finances and set up our lifestyle, so we could actually accomplish what we were doing and what we wanted to for the kids.

Money Mechanic
I want to jump back a little bit here, because you have a really interesting story. And I’m gonna go back to childhood a little bit, because you talked about your parents being entrepreneurs and business owners. And it’s an interesting subject for me, because I like to think of myself as an entrepreneur. But I’m really not very good at it. Because my experience with childhood was my father attempted to be an entrepreneur, but he was never a very successful entrepreneur. So it left a bit of a bitter flavor in my mouth, if you will, for that whole thing. It all, it almost felt very risky to me. And that’s kind of made me even though Chrissy may disagree with me, because of all the fun little investments I have. It’s made me very conservative in a lot of ways, and especially when it comes to business. And I’m going through this right now with a partner, we’re thinking about starting a business, and I’m very trepeditious. So what I want to dig into a little bit is how that affected your mindset. Because it sounded like, you know, when your parents were successful, there was good times and spending. And when there wasn’t, you know, you had to really reel that in. And I’ve known people like that where they’re wildly successful and very flashy. And then all of a sudden, they’re broke. And I can’t wrap my head around that. So what how did that influence you? Because clearly, you’ve become an entrepreneur and a successful one. But how did those early days kind of frame that mindset for you?

Jonathan
Yeah, it’s it’s definitely one of those things that the early days of my childhood kind of was a crash course in everything that you shouldn’t do. So everything, including like, cash flow, and money management, and everything like that, I didn’t learn any of that from my parents, because it’s like, I saw everything that shouldn’t happen. Like your business is failing. So put more money at it. Your business keeps failing. Okay, take out loans to pay for that, oh, you need to buy more equipment to get to that next level. Okay, well take out mortgage on your house to go do that. So then it like it’s like this house of cards, that all of a sudden crumbles. So it was it’s almost like it was a blessing for me because it’s like it was one of those things that I saw everything that could go wrong. And I made sure and developed everything that I was doing, to make sure that it wouldn’t happen. And that’s like been crazy thoughts all the way through. And every venture that I do right now is like, how do I make this so there’s fail-safes, left, right and center. So if one thing goes, we can do X Y Zed to actually keep things afloat, or if this goes here, we have multiple things like as of right now, even like I’ve built out what we have. So we have multiple revenue streams, like beyond belief, and we have fail-safes and redundancies that my parents never had. And then also, because I’m a creative and because I’m a photographer, and that is my mainstay, and a lot of things, in college and in schools, especially in the creative fields, you’re never taught about the business side of it. And I was never taught about it either in college, so I did major self study into understanding businesses how they went and then talking with people because like even myself, I’m like, I have a learning disability for dyslexia and dysgraphia, which is, it is what it is. And I’ve learned to adapt that from writing and everything into communication skills. So understanding and talking with people and learning and listening was like my biggest asset, especially through high school, and grade school and everything like that. So I continued that on so I would talk to as many people as possible, go for lunch, go talk to somebody, you know, talk to other business owners, and figure out like, even the people that failed, why they failed. So and then like, now as a creator, and I actually get to go in create videos and segments with other entrepreneurs. And it’s actually almost like a little self education. It’s like, you know, I get to go talk to this person that had 10 businesses fail. But then as you know, 11th, one, he made $300 million. So it’s like, after the video, and after the cameras go off, and everything like that, I actually get to have like those 15, 20-minute, casual conversations. But the act of listening and asking questions, and actually engaging in those things really propelled us to the next level. So that’s where it’s like that stepping stones, if my parents were successful, alright, chances are, I wouldn’t be where I am today. And that’s, it’s a really weird paradox, because it’s like, like, even like myself, right now, I’m financially independent. But my mom with her mindset of money management and everything, like she’s 30 years older than me, she still can’t retire. And as much as I try to help her and coach her, her money mindset is in a different place. And so that’s where it’s like, if I didn’t have the those experiences, I wouldn’t be able to build the concrete house that I have right now versus the house that was basically cards and paper that just blew away,

Money Mechanic
You bring up a really interesting sort of point there. And I think it’s something especially listeners that are interested in any kind of entrepreneurial pursuits, is, you have to be totally okay with failing. And it’s a hard mindset, like I don’t, I’m not very good at failing, like I have, I’m pretty competitive. And I like to kind of hedge my bets so that I’m gonna win, right? Or not necessarily win, but succeed. Right? So that doesn’t make me a very good entrepreneur. And growing up, the discussion in the mindset was, you know, you do your best to try and succeed. It wasn’t like failure was an option type thing where I think you really have to become good at and accept it and talk about it and learn from it to move on. And it sounds like that’s kind of what helped you through experiencing those failures. And then were you able to talk about it as a family, or did it become, you know, a point of contention.

Jonathan
It was definitely one of those things that we never really talked about. Money was not a topic that we talked about. It’s interesting, because money in my family and with my kids and everything like that, it’s something we talk about daily, if not weekly, like it’s just casual conversations here and there. But with my parents, it wasn’t a taboo subject, but it was just never brought up. And then with my wife’s family, it was quite opposite. Like my wife’s family, it was very much like a taboo topic, like nobody talked about it. You didn’t talk about money, you didn’t talk about your jobs, you didn’t talk about your salaries, he talked nothing about it. And it’s interesting, but like, this is where it’s like listening to people and finding not the success stories all the time. But also hearing about the failures is just as important. Because it’s funny, because it’s like a lot of people would say I’m very risky and what I do like being an entrepreneur, being a creative and growing, you know, multiple businesses at the same time, but I see myself as being very risk adverse, because I know it’s like if one thing fails, like for example, my clientele is very diverse, I have clientele in the agriculture sector, I have clientele in the education sector, I also have client in the pro athlete and professional sports sector, so very recession, proof clientele. But likewise, if sports goes down, my education sector, chances are will pick up if my education sector goes down. Agriculture is always there because agriculture is a continual sector. So that’s in my creative like in my photography and content creation world, but then to offset that I vertically integrated as well where it’s like, we own a large format printing shop, which also supplies the same clientele, but in the next generation like the next round of things So chances are, we’ll create photography for them. And then the print shop will utilize that in the print campaigns and whatnot. So, so creating yourself vertically really helped out that way. And then likewise, it’s like if I become not the quote, unquote, like flavor of the month photographer, whatnot, and it’s like, oh, yeah, you’re not really great anymore, anything like that. I actually own a equipment rental company, and the support staff for the younger generation of photographers to grow up. So it’s like, I’ve integrated myself into that education sector and everything. So it’s all risk adverse that way, because like, if one goes down, the other could pick up or vice versa. And, you know, yeah, there’s been some flops, for sure, there always is, but like, at the same time, it’s like, for me, one thing my wife has always been very important about and very strict about was, we need to always have the amount of cash on hand if you’re going to lose it. So for example, like right now we’re acquiring a couple, like location trailers and stuff like that. So nice, vintage ones, very fun little things that, you know, it’s like a little hobby that I want to do. But we have enough cash on hand to buy those cash. So if they don’t actually work out, we can just sell them at a very minimal loss. But the loss, we already know we have X amount of rentals. So it’s either way, it’s a wash. So that’s where it’s like, not going into debt, to get to the next level, and not always thinking, oh, what you have isn’t good enough to actually get you to that next level.

Chrissy
I think it’s so impressive how you came from the background you came from with parents that used debt in a very unhealthy and unsustainable way to where you are now where you’ve got all these backups, and backups on backups, you know, you’re very careful, you’re quite conservative with how you manage your finances. And that’s quite a massive turnaround. And so I’m wondering, at what point does FI come into your journey? Because you mentioned that your financially independent already? At what point did you discover financial independence? And then when did you reach it? Was it already, had you already reached it when you discovered the whole community?

Jonathan
It was very interesting, because I was looking for something. And I think it was, it was probably about four years ago, that, you know, it was just one of those times where it’s like I was already had multiple businesses, we were like, I had my print shop, I had my equipment rental company, I had my production studio, but we were in the process of acquiring my actual physical studio. And it was one of those things where we were like, Okay, well, you know, we had gotten to the point where we had paid off our mortgage. And that was something so then we were, I was like, Well, what next, the entrepreneur in me is always about what next? What’s next what we have to do. So I started listening to more podcasts and more people, you know, and then it’s like, I was down in the US working with some clients down there. And they’re like, all you got to check out like Dave Ramsey, and Chris Hogan, and all those guys. And you know, you get into that, and then listen to some of that stuff, and then just kind of went down the rabbit hole. But then it’s like, for me, it was one of those things like taking into consideration all the different things that we were doing already that it’s like we kind of, I was already following the path down to financial independence, prior to even knowing what financial, like the whole FIRE and FI community was. But then it’s like, I was in the car a lot. So it’s like, you know, driving back and forth, Toronto, all the different locations on airplanes, and it’s like, podcasts are your like, favorite thing during a time. So it’s like, how many? It’s like, oh, man, it’s not Monday, and this podcasting come out yet. I actually have to listen to repeat of something. And it just continually kind of went through and kept going and going. But yeah, so like, if I look back, you know, it was just one of those one things. It’s like, my financial adviser would come to me and he’s like, whoa, John, like, you know, you guys are already saving a lot. Like, you already have these things. And it’s like, it’s like when we, you know, acquired like, our studio building. And when we acquired like, we decided it’s like, okay, well, for our family. It was important that we had vacations in the summer, but we didn’t actually like any of the cottages we went to or anything like that. So we actually acquired a cottage for us. We’re… my grand… well, up on the Bruce Peninsula where my grandparents were, and it’s, you know, it was just starting to build these building blocks. And then it was like, what was it probably during COVID Or just prior to COVID when we decided to look at things again, and I was like, went to my wife, I’m like, you know, we don’t really have to work anymore. And she’s like, but why would we quit? She’s like, I’m a professor, I teach, I get 44 days vacation, she gets like two and a half months off. And she’s like, John, you’re a photographer, and you own these other businesses, like two of your businesses, you don’t even all you do is go in and look at the books and talk to the accountant, and you don’t even do anything and you get paid your dividends. And she’s like, Well, why would we quit? Let’s change our mindset a little bit, too. Let’s just go out, we’ve been doing all these experiences with the kids. Let’s just continue that. And yeah, we have the big savings, right? And yeah, we’re chunking away at it. But now we’re focused on building experiences, to go forward. And you know, know where we’re going to be with the kids and making those memories. And that’s kind of the most important thing for us is because, like, I like what I do. And it’s funny, because it’s like, if I was retired, and this is what I even ask some of my students or in the photography world, or either business owners, I mean, I’m like, so if you were retired, what would you do? And like, when people ask me, Well, what would you do? And I’m like, Well, I would actually probably, you know, work with really good food and work with, you know, resorts and stuff like that, and like, go to those things. And I’m like, wait a minute, I already do that. And I get paid.

Chrissy
How lucky are you?

Jonathan
Yeah, exactly. So it’s like, I’ve crafted my, we’ve crafted our lifestyle around what we like to do, so everything that we would do, if we were fully retired, we’re doing now, just Yes, there is headaches and stuff like that. But that’s like, that’s normal life. Like, you can’t go through life without having any ups and downs, because you know, it’s like one of those things. It’s like, being manic, either manic happy or manic, depressed. He can’t be one all the time. And it’s just not healthy. So that’s why it’s like, really, it’s like looking at what I would do if I was retired and just crafting it. But yeah, it was insane. And it’s like, even like, you know, going back just last week, there was stuff happening with my wife’s schedule, and all that type of stuff and our kids and everything. And then we were trying to figure out, what do you want to do? And I could ask her, and I could be totally honest with her and say, Listen, if you’re not comfortable taking on these extra projects, because you know, they’re going to be longer term, or they’re going to be big and take up too much time and we’re not going to be able to travel, then just leave your job. Like that’s it. And she’s like, Yeah, no, so she could go in and talk to her coordinator and her supervisor well to her boss, basically, and basically be like, Listen, this is the way it is like this as being too much during COVID. This was great. But at the same time now it’s too much. If you don’t like it, I got to look at my options.

Chrissy
Yeah. How amazing is that? The power of FI.

Jonathan
Exactly. It gives you the ultimate freedom, right? So, but we’re always careful too, because the the one biggest thing that I’ve seen too many because like, I happen to actually live in the big tech sector in Kitchener Waterloo, if everybody knows where that is. So like, I’ve seen Blackberry, and rim and all that type of stuff go up and down and all of the crazy startups and I’ve actually got to work with a lot of it because they’re working in the educational sector. The one thing that we’ve always done is we’ve always lived within our means. And that is, hands down. The biggest thing like my wife, she still drives a 12 year old car. And my car is what eight years old my van is for my work is even five years old, just off lease this year, and all that type of stuff. Now mind you, it’s like it’s one of those things like we know, we take care of them, we maintain them, they’ll last for a long time we bought really good vehicles. You know, same with our houses we didn’t buy huge and extravagant we kept within our budget, because we were able to build them same with our cottage like we got our cottage at the peak, but at the same time. It’s like we knew when we were buying our cottage, we had set out parameters which we wanted until it hit all those parameters. We didn’t move forward. But then we bought a cottage that we could actually buy basically cultivate and force appreciation on and now our cottage is worth five times more than what we bought it for. So it’s it’s been all those things like living within their means and you know, staying within that and, you know, we do have lifestyle creep we do you know, it’s a typical typical thing. But at the same time, we know, even if we like I totally lost my job, we’ve always lived off one income. And it’s always been my wife’s income that we’ve been able to live off of, because mine’s the fun money. And then hers is the steady paycheck that we always know.

Money Mechanic
Can’t wait till my wife listens to this episode, because I’m trying to convince her of the same thing. So thank you, Jonathan, I got two things I want to pick out here from what we’ve just been talking about here. First of all, really good point for the listeners that really struck me is that you’re describing multiple streams of income from your equipment rentals, from, you know, the studio from different things, I think people really forget how risky it is to just have a job with one source of income. And there’s lots of people that are lucky to have a stable job that they feel confident will last, some people maybe don’t have that stability, but it really comes down to one source of income is is quite risky. So I’m really impressed with your story. And, and I think that really aids to the sway people sometimes into an entrepreneurial ship, so that they can develop multiple streams of income and anybody on the FI journey with you’re investing with real estate, but dividends, whatever you want to choose whether it’s commercial property, you’re investing in businesses and local businesses, you can start developing those multiple streams to give you, you know, protection, risk protection,

Jonathan
For sure. And like that is a very big thing. Like even like myself, it’s like we own real estate. We have we own multiple businesses, we own personal properties. And we also have physical like, property and invest house. So it’s yeah, it’s all those assets. Right?

Money Mechanic
So the second question I have, or thing that I’ve been pulling out of this discussion, and this is going to be a super hard question. But Chrissy, I think we need to start pulling this into the show more, because we didn’t address this in our talk with Liquid. And we really, really should have. And it’s something I’ve been thinking a lot more about recently. And it’s sort of coming up in some of the books that I’m reading and things like that, is that a lot of us don’t think about how much of a role luck has played in our successes and our failures. So it’s a hard question to answer, because it’s a very introspective type question. But Jonathan, what role has luck played in your journey towards FI or to FI?

Jonathan
Luck has definitely been an important thing. And I would almost say it’s, it’s not necessarily just luck, but it’s stepping stones. Because this is the you know, a lot of people ask me, because like, for example, I was giving a lecture a couple of weeks ago at a conference, and we were talking and they were like, well, how do you get to that point where you’re working with these amazing clients, and I’m like, it’s all been stepping stones. And there’s been very pivotable moments. Like, for example, like I was working with doing photography and creative content for a health and safety agency. Well, the creative director there left and started working at the major sports entertainment, well, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. And he just happened to call me because I did the work with him before and was actually really good at it. So then he brought me on there, and then that I started out shooting architecture and food. And then we got into pro athletes. And then it kept growing and growing and growing and growing. To the point where now it’s like, it’s just part of what I do. But had I not had that art director leaves. It was kind of like serendipitous, and my wife always says to me, when we’re pursuing, like different businesses, or acquisitions or anything like that. She’s like, if it’s not, right, it’s not gonna happen. Like there is like that little bit of like you said, it’s luck, right? Or that little bit of, you know, it just happening. And like, my wife’s very, very conscious of this. And it’s weird because it’s like, I’m more very, this is my spreadsheet. This is my books, this is what I need to do. This is the atmosphere that I need to create, but she’s very much like, like, even like when we’re looking at other things, like different cottages or whatnot. And she’s like, well, if it happens, it happens. You know, if it’s right, it’s gonna happen. You know, if it’s not, we can wait. It’s not a big deal. And so yeah, luck is actually it’s it is a very big thing, but also setting yourself up to be in those situations where everything can align is very, very important. So for example, like when I acquired one of the my company’s it had actually been a outsource company that at my old job I actually outsource stuff to. And then I stayed in relationships with them. Now they happen to be retiring. So we went in, I went in and talked to the managing partner and the production manager said, Hey, why don’t we buy this company and run it because I know they’re retiring. And it just so happened that everything aligned to the point where it’s like, alright, we could buy it, we could actually make it work and actually continue on with it. And then it’s become very great for all three of us. But without setting those foundational pieces in play, it would have never happened. Or if I would have just let it go, it would have or never even thought of it, it just wouldn’t have even been an option.

Chrissy
Yeah. And that’s something I’d like to point out about luck, I want to push back against people who just say, Oh, he was just lucky. I don’t think it’s fair to say that in a lot of cases, because luck is actually when preparation meets opportunity. And like you keep repeating in telling us about your luckiness in that you prepared for a lot of these opportunities. If you were not set up to be in a position to take advantage when they presented themselves, you would not be able to have that luck come to fruition or do anything for you. So I don’t think luck is something that just happens necessarily sometimes, but a lot of times it’s because you’re ready, and you were ready to grab these opportunities that came your way.

Money Mechanic
Oh, Chrissy, that was so good. That was so good. You nailed it spot on. And it really makes me reflect on this whole journey towards FI is is exactly what you said is preparing for those opportunities. And by kind of changing your mindset and adopting the FI and you know living below your means frugality, creating a good savings rate, learning how to invest, all these little things are preparing you for the opportunities when they come along.

Chrissy
Yep. And that’s how you get them. And that’s why I really bristle when people say Oh, you were just lucky or whoever was just lucky because there’s a lot of legwork, a lot of hard work that goes into being ready to grab those opportunities when they come.

Money Mechanic
Alright, let’s take a quick break for our sponsor for this episode. And we’ll be right back to continue our discussion with Jonathan.