Ever felt that nagging voice inside telling you not to spend money on yourself? On today's podcast I invited Sonya Corkery who is the founder of Clear Plan Consulting and brings a wealth of experience as both a former financial planner and co-owner of a multi-million-dollar electrical business.
The heart of our conversation centers on courage – not the absence of fear, and the willingness to take action despite it. We discuss how this courage applies to investing in yourself, challenging financial advisors who don't support your vision, and teaching your children about money so they don't face the same struggles.
I hope this episode gives you permission to define wealth on your own terms. Whether you're avoiding money conversations out of fear, shame, or simply not knowing where to start, this episode provides practical wisdom to help you take that crucial next step toward financial confidence.
We discuss:
✅ Navigating male-dominated industries
✅ How joining business groups can transform results
✅ Financial professionals work for you, not vice versa
✅ Having open money conversations with our children provides them financial skills
✅ How most women's wealth motivations are different than men's
✅ Why taking control of your finances doesn't make you masculine
You can connect with Sonya here ⬇️
Want to learn more or connect with me?
Step 1: Join my Facebook Community.
Connect, share, and learn how to relate to your money with other women just like you.
➡️ Join here
Step 2: Grab your free Human Design chart
Curious what your Human Design chart reveals about how you're uniquely designed to make aligned financial decisions?
Step 3: Work with Me
Learn how to trust your choices, honor your worth, and feel financial freedom that lives in your body, not just on paper.
➡️ Schedule your free clarity call here
From my soul to yours,
Erin
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sonia Corkery (00:00):
You know, they always say you're one decision
away from the rest of your life.
But we have to be willing tomake the changes.
And that's what's really hard,because that reptilian brain,
that front brain that is builtin there to protect you
automatically, is like this is ascam.
No, don't spend money over here.
(00:21):
No, all these other moneystories come up that have been
built over time that block youwhen, objectively, to move
forward, you need to make adecision that is other than the
one that you've already beenmaking.
If you continue on the samepath because you've made the
same decision, nothing is goingto change.
Erin Gray (00:39):
Do you want to create a system to stop avoiding your
money?
Maybe you're feeling guilt andshame when it comes to finances.
Welcome to your Money, yourRules.
I'm Erin, a former certifiedfinancial planner and CFO, and
yet I used to avoid my money andhad fear, no matter how much we
(00:59):
had.
I can't wait to teach you how Iovercame my money avoidance and
started consistently managingmy finances in a really simple
way.
It's time to get comfortablewith money.
On the podcast today, I had sucha fun conversation with Sonia
Corkery, a former financialplanner and owner in her
family's electrical business.
We actually have a very similarbackground, so I know you're
going to love this conversation.
Sonia is the founder of ClearPlan Consulting and, after 16
(01:22):
years in her family's business,experiencing all the highs and
lows, she now helps othersleverage their businesses to
turn their personal dreams andgoals into a reality.
I wanted to also mention thatif you're ready to manage your
finances confidently withoutsacrificing what matters most,
and you want to use practicalstrategies that deliver real
results, let's work together.
(01:44):
You can schedule a free claritycall to see if we're a good fit
by visiting my website atgeneratealifewelllivedcom and
clicking on the link work withme.
I'll also include the link inthe show notes.
Now let's dive into today'sepisode.
Thanks, sonia, for joining us.
Glad that you're here.
Thank you so much for having me.
Yeah, so I think Sonia and Ihave pretty similar backgrounds
(02:06):
financial planners andconstruction work on the
opposite sides of the world.
So if you want to just dive ina little bit into your
background, I would love it.
Sonia Corkery (02:14):
Well, it's so great to speak to someone who's
like-minded and really gets howchallenging it is, especially
for women coming from a whitecollar financial background into
a construction industry.
I don't know about you, erin,but I got a lot of pushback when
I initially came into thebusiness.
So, for me, started a couple ofdecades ago in banking,
(02:38):
essentially progressed throughto financial planning, which was
an amazing stepping stonepersonally to help create
personal wealth, obviously.
So very fortunate there, and myhusband at the time was
actually in the defense and whenhe decided after his deployment
in 2003 to Iraq, he wanted tobecome a tradie, he wanted to be
(02:59):
an electrician.
He then took a mature ageapprenticeship, which put our
finances back a little bit.
But you know, sometimes you'vegot to invest to grow and
eventually he just thought hecould do it better.
So he decided to go intobusiness for himself because
that seemed like the naturalprogression of things to make
more money.
And then, you know, thechallenges just came, one at a
(03:23):
time, because it was new andunexplored, and we've had that
for over nearly two decades.
Now.
That business and it's createda multi-million dollar business
that runs from multiplelocations still runs today, but
we're largely not involved inthe day-to-day running of that
business, which is great.
But for me, a female coming intoan industry like that, it was
(03:45):
like a cold slap in the face.
It was nothing that I'd reallyanticipated as far as how much
pushback I'd actually get forbeing a woman coming into that
industry.
And we have a bit of a sayinghere in Australia where you just
become the missus of the tradie.
They just say, oh, the missusdoes the book work, the missus
does the invoicing.
And I got really frustratedbecause when I wanted to talk to
(04:08):
suppliers they wouldn't talk tome or they'd be like oh, we'll
have that discussion with yourhusband.
So there was a few things therethat were a challenge in the
beginning.
I kind of had to earn mystripes, as it were.
And yeah, I don't know whatyour experience is, but that was
kind of mine in the beginning.
Erin Gray (04:24):
Yeah, I I came in.
You know my my grandfatherstarted the company.
And then I came in just verynaively like, oh, I'll just help
my dad and my uncle just do acouple of things financially.
And then I got in and I was likeyou guys are running this like
a shit show, you know we really,and I remember telling my dad
(04:47):
like I literally feel like Ihave a target on my back because
I was the bad one.
I was the bad parent, you knowlike oh, aaron comes in and
starts saying no to this and noto this and like really starts
changing a lot of things whichthe company needed to do.
But my dad and my uncle aresuch good guys and they will
make those hard decisions, butthey make them probably later
(05:10):
rather than sooner.
And just I remember, likewanting my dad to stand up to me
because he was like you'regoing to need to, just like
you're saying like he wanted meto, like earn my stripes or earn
like what you were saying, likethe respect of the employees,
which is valid, and I also thinklike you need to have that
(05:30):
support of the owner to be like,hey, what she says goes because
it's coming from me, and sothere was some little bit of
time before you know it startedto run like a well-oiled machine
.
But I think you know, with thefinancial industry I don't know
if it's like this in Australia,but with the financial industry
and in the construction, likeI've basically been in a very
(05:52):
masculine dominated industry formy working life and I I think
that's been helpful and also ithas and it hasn't been, you know
, like I have had to in someways feel like I've always had
to prove myself, prove myintellect, prove my knowledge,
which doesn't feel very good.
(06:13):
And also you do gain lots ofexperience in that type of world
where I think it has built meup from a, from a, um, rebound
place or a, you know, strengthplace that, like no, I can, I
can go with some of the best ofthem because I have the
knowledge and experience, um,and it doesn't at all intimidate
(06:37):
me to be in a room, you know,with all men, or I mean I can
shoot the shit with the best ofthem and I can go, you know,
head to head with them as well.
Sonia Corkery (06:46):
So yeah, 100%.
And I found that in thebeginning too, where we call it
like the mom and dad complex,where an employee would come to
me and not get what they wanted.
So then they would go and askmy husband and we had to knock
that on the head pretty quicklyand I just basically said you
know, know, I understand yourfrustration, but that behavior
(07:07):
is not okay and that's not goingto be acceptable.
And it was almost like in thebeginning running a daycare
center, because there were allthese little kids that just
didn't want to listen.
Right, and my, my reason forbeing as part of this business
because my husband asked me tocome on um, because it just kind
of grew into this beast and heneeded, needed, you know, the
(07:30):
expertise and the hand andsomebody trusted um.
When I came on, you know, Ireally had to say to them my
interest here is not to hurt orinhibit you guys.
I want you guys to be in agreat financial position as well
.
If you want to sit and talk tome and pick my brain about
things that you think you shoulddo in your life financially to
(07:50):
get yourself ahead, I'm here youwant to talk about, you know,
you guys have 401k, we havesuperannuation like you want to
talk about that and whatquestions you need to ask or who
you need to ask.
I'm here to help you guys.
And in all of that time, innearly two decades, I think two
people have taken up on thatoffer to come and sit with me
(08:10):
and I don't like obviously Idon't charge them, it's just
there, right.
So to not have something likenot take advantage of something
that's amazing in front of you,just blows my mind.
But talking with builders andclients and the team on the
ground, that was a progressionand that mutual respect came
over time.
(08:31):
But now when I walk on sitelike we have a great chat, you
know we talk about family andeverything, and in the business,
you know it's making more moneythan it ever has.
But my husband had to get to apoint as well where he literally
now he does not look at themoney.
Unless I say that there'ssomething to be concerned about
or I raise something in ourregular meetings.
(08:51):
He doesn't even look at theaccount.
He's like no, I know, that is ahundred percent of your
department.
I don't touch that.
I don't need to know about it.
I just know that when I swipemy card, I can buy stuff Right,
and it's like it's crazy, thetransition that's had to happen.
But but that came through yearsand years of me, you know,
feeling like I had to provemyself in the beginning and now
(09:15):
it's like I'm like hey, I'm hereand I'm doing my job, the
proof's in the pudding, we're inthe best financial position
ever could be financially,personally and business-wise.
So you know, I'm not going tosay I don't know what I'm
talking about because, like you,you know you came from
male-dominated industry infinance, which typically, you
(09:35):
know, women have to work hard toget up the ranks there, like
when I had my babies, I had tohave the minimum amount of time
off because I would have lost myposition, and had to have the
minimum amount of time offbecause I would have lost my
position and had to start again.
And men and it's sad to saythey will never understand that.
And same here, they've justlooked at me as a woman coming
into the business because she'sthe wife and it's the job.
(09:58):
No, I did it to get my wholefamily in a better position.
So, yeah, it's, it's a strugglestreet in the beginning,
absolutely.
Erin Gray (10:06):
It's so funny because I remember my uncle.
I remember like the firstcouple of weeks that I was in
there and I remember him comingin and him saying you will never
be on this bank account andinstead of me like fighting it.
You know, I think that there'stwo ways right.
And I think in this feministI'm not a huge like feminist
movement in the sense of likethe, because I think in this
feminist I'm not a huge likefeminist movement in the sense
(10:26):
of like the, because I thinkit's fake feminist, but like the
overpowering I could have beenlike yes, I am, but I was like,
okay, that's fine, you know,like whatever feels comfortable
for you, and I let it be, but Iknew that I would be.
And then it got to the pointwhere it was like Erin, I need
to check when are we at, can you?
You know like I signed?
Sonia Corkery (10:39):
up.
Erin Gray (10:47):
Sorry, sorry, you're not, sorry, you got on the
account.
I can't help you, but I mean Igot on the account, right, I was
the one that signed all of that, I did all of that money and he
spoke so highly of me.
But that came from, like you'resaying, that trust over time
and him seeing that I could doit and that I did have their
best interest at heart.
And you speak about your babiesand obviously I was a different
person at this time, but I wasthe one doing payroll at that
(11:07):
time when I had my only daughter, my only child, actually and I
did not put my foot down becauseI had lots of stuff wrapped up
in.
I think a lot of people do withbusiness of like our identity,
right, and I remember my momsaying Aaron is only going to
take a week off with Grayson andmy dad was like, sorry, we
(11:27):
don't have maternity leave.
And I and at the time I waslike yeah, we don't.
And now I would be like, well,you guys are going to have to
figure it out because I want tostay at home with my baby.
And I think that there's thisbalance that, like you're saying
, like you know, my dad said Inever understood what it was
like for your mom to be with runa business, I mean like when we
did startups at 3am.
(11:57):
Of course you guys can dostartups at 3am because you have
a wife that takes care of thekids at home.
You know, and I think that thereis this thread or this silent
thing that goes unnoticed withwomen of like that there is this
loneliness or this like I'm theonly one going through this
because we don't talk aboutstuff like that and we don't
(12:17):
have I don't know for you, butat least for me when I was doing
that there were a couple ofother business owners that we
would have somewhat of moneyconversations with, but not like
what you do when you have aproject manager.
Project managers they shoot theshit and they're talking about
all their jobs and you have thebidders that are talking about
all the details.
But there are very few peoplethat I had that I could really
(12:39):
go and talk to about money andthe situation and what we were
going through at that time, andI'm curious what your experience
is as well or has been in likejust that thread of like.
Women need to be talking aboutthis and we need more connection
with each other, more talkingabout money, more just
connection in general,absolutely so.
Sonia Corkery (12:59):
I think it wasn't until 2016,.
We actually joined our firstbusiness group, so we'd been
kind of struggling along and itreally really put a massive
impact on our relationship.
Like I knew I still loved him,I knew I still wanted to be
married, but there was nodisconnect between our personal
relationship and our businessrelationship.
(13:19):
So when I was coming into theoffice I was really hurt with
the way sometimes he would talkto me because I'd think, gee,
that was really rude and abrupt.
But he just wanted to get thejob done and he was talking to
me directly, not like a wife butlike an employee.
And then I got upset because Iwasn't an employee, because I
view this as a partnership,right, and he viewed this as his
(13:43):
business.
But nobody said anything, likehe never said when you come into
the business, you know myposition will be that I am the
owner of this business and Iwould view it as an employee.
I assumed that I would be anequal partner, otherwise why
would I have come into this?
Right?
I left a job on massive money,great career, to come in to take
a $60,000 a year pay cut rightTo help him because he asked me
(14:08):
and then to be viewed as anemployee?
No, no, I would have stayed atmy corporate job.
So there was a lot of thingsthat we didn't discuss because
we didn't think to discuss them,because we just were coming in
completely blind.
And when I came in, like I saidthere was no division of hats.
And then when we were just atthis bottleneck in 2016, where
(14:30):
we just couldn't crack, I thinkit was like we couldn't crack
the 3 million, like we'd crackthe 1 million, like we'd got to
three and we were justfluctuating between three and
five and we weren't reallycracking up.
So we joined a business groupand it was a lot, it was a big
investment for us.
Like, initially, we went to anintroductory seminar.
It was like three or $4,000.
(14:50):
And I was like, oh my God,three or $4,000.
Next minute, we're dropping$120,000 over two years on being
part of this business group.
And it was like a revelationbeing able to sit in a room with
other like-minded people whoare experiencing the same thing
as what we were, and being ableto just lay it all out because,
(15:12):
like you're not going to seethem next week, I'm just going
to be raw, raw, honest, spew outeverything that I'm feeling and
I connected with every couplein that room.
Every couple in that room werein the same position as us and
outside of that, we felt soalone, we felt so disconnected.
Um, locally and I don't knowwhat it's like for you, but
(15:34):
locally here, electricians as awhole do not share because they
always view each other as acompetitor.
Yeah, plumbers different.
Those guys will have a chin wag, you know, say hey, how's it
going?
What are you guys doing?
You know, super openelectricians like no, it's just
not on the table for discussion.
So for us, we, we just cravedgoing to those events where,
(15:57):
even if they weren't in the sameindustry, the fact that there
were couples there or peoplejust willing to be honest about
I am hurting, and this is whyI'm not going to put on a facade
and say things are okay,because they're not.
And financially I am crippled,like I am in trouble and I need
help and I was sitting theregoing.
I can help that person, I canthere going, I can help that
person, I can help that person,I can help that person.
But it's whether they'rewilling to be in that point
(16:19):
where they're willing to listen.
You know that's a whole otherthing.
Erin Gray (16:23):
I think that clients that I've helped I've done a lot
of market research and I amjust in awe of the amount of
women that when I tell them theyuse the exact same words that
you know someone else is using,that you can see their shoulders
relax.
You can see, like almost thisrelief, like wow, so it's not
(16:46):
just me and I think that there'sso many of us that that's one
of the things I love about thepodcast is like I want to get
the word out that, like we allare experiencing this or have
experienced it, and it doesn'tget better by like sweeping it
underneath the rug.
You know, and we need tonormalize talking about money,
(17:06):
talking about where we are withmoney.
What are we working through?
Because either someone, theperson next to you, has either
experienced it and can help youor is experienced it and can
provide some support as you'regoing through it.
And I think I just actuallyrecorded a podcast today about
the fear of losing money and howimportant it is to invest in
yourself.
And I think that when we havemade investments in ourselves
(17:31):
and they haven't gone air quotes, you know, like you think that
they would it sometimes makescan make us feel a little bit
more fearful of continuing toinvest.
Sonia Corkery (17:40):
So I would love it, your ideas or thoughts on,
you know, I think that we haveto be in a position we can have
opportunities presented to us tomake change, like every day you
could make.
You could change your life in acompletely different trajectory
on one decision.
Yeah, you know they always sayyou're one decision away from
the rest of your life, um, butwe have to be willing to make
(18:05):
the changes.
And that's what's really hard,because that that um, that
reptilian brain, that frontbrain that is built in there to
protect you automatically, islike this is a scam, no, don't
spend money over here.
No, or all these other moneystories come up that have been
built over time that block youwhen, objectively, to move
(18:27):
forward, you need to make adecision that is other than the
one that you've already beenmaking.
If you continue on the samepath because you've made the
same decision, nothing going tochange.
You need to be at that point inyour life when you're ready for
it.
So I had to catch up with somefriends yesterday.
We always do our own mastermindand obviously we do our own
planning as well for ourselvesand our business.
(18:48):
And I said, man, they justdropped this gold nugget.
Amazing, like gonna take tonext level.
I'm like, why did I not knowthis, like 15 years ago, and
they said because you weren'tready, you weren't ready.
You've got to be ready to makethose changes and you've got to
want it.
And the difficult thing that Ifound working in a relationship
(19:09):
partnership is both of you haveto be ready, because you've got
one person screaming from therafters going this is what we
need to do.
People hello, this is the restof our lives, this is the
pathway it works.
Let me show you and the otherperson's like nah, sorry, not
ready.
Yeah, and it's challenging, butyou gotta wait like.
Erin Gray (19:28):
You gotta get there together yeah, I think,
willingness and courage.
Courage obviously is emotion,but willingness and courage, I
think, are the top twounderrated, under talked about
emotions or whatever feelingwhatever you want to call it
that we have to have, because Ithink, like you said, we can
want a lot of things.
(19:48):
Right, you can want to do that,but are you willing?
And I think there is a very,very slight difference.
And the difference to me islike that's where courage comes
in.
Right, it's like I'm willing todo the hard things, even when
I'm ready to shit my pants.
Right, like I'm willing to, youknow, make this decision or
invest in myself or do it thisdifferent way.
(20:10):
And that takes courage, and Ithink we don't, at least in the
Western world.
I'm curious if this is the wayin Australia.
It's like we don't build up.
What courage is?
It's almost like bravery.
Is this like I'm going to go inwith no fear at all?
And it's like courage to me isyou continue to do it, even when
you're scared, because you knowthat that is, you know, going
(20:31):
to get you to the next place, orwhat you are wanting is you're
worthy of that, and so it's avery different feeling.
Courage to me is versus yeah,wanting or bravery or things of
that sort.
Sonia Corkery (20:46):
And the difference is in the action as
well.
Like you need that courageAbsolutely, but it pushes you to
the point where you've taken anaction.
Yes, and you know it's like Iliken it to and a lot of the men
listeners might not get this,but the women will.
(21:07):
When you've had a baby, thelead up and the fear of the
unknown of you have this thingand it has to come out right,
like it's coming out of yourbody one way or the other.
And there's fear in thatbecause you don't know what's
going to happen, because thenatural part of what you're
built for takes over.
Whether you know, you birththat baby, naturally, you have a
cesarean, whatever thecircumstances is, but you don't
(21:28):
know what's on the other side ofthat.
The first time, yeah, you areabsolutely crapping yourself
because and the guys are like,don't worry, millions of women
have done it, you'll be fine, noproblems at all.
And meanwhile you're like, ismy body going to be an ag?
Like how much pain is it goingto be?
Is the baby going to be okay?
How long is it going to takefor recovery?
Like is everything going to goto plan?
(21:49):
And you literally are in a pointwhere you have no control.
And that is the scariest thingin the world is where you can't
control the outcome of what'sgoing to happen.
You just hope for the best andat the end of the day you have
this beautiful baby.
That hormone kicks in.
You forget about that paininstantly and you you know a lot
of us decide to go back andlet's just have another one,
(22:10):
because that was amazing, youknow, and and it was.
It was excruciating and awfuland messy and gross.
But so are things in life.
But sometimes to get onto theother side of that, you have to
go through some of that crap andwe do it fearfully because
we're so scared if we don't endup with the thing that we've
already got.
Well, you've already got thatthing, but what you're missing
(22:33):
out on because you're not takingan action and stepping into the
fear on the other side, couldbe 10 times better than what
you've got now.
But you'll never know if youdon't try and look at the end of
the day.
If you're smart with money andyou've provisioned and you know
like profit first model, ifyou're doing all the things
right and you're provisioningand you've got that buffer,
(22:53):
what's the harm in giving it ago Like I don't understand, like
just just cut yourself someslack, like step into the fear
and push forward and take action.
And yes, you're right, courageis massive, um, and we don't
give ourselves enough credit.
But man, we've got millions ofwomen around the world pushing
out human beings.
Like, take that step foryourself, invest in yourself.
Erin Gray (23:15):
Yeah, I mean, I think that's the difference between
wanting and willing.
Right.
Willing is like I'm willing,I'm going to actually take the
action.
Wanting is like I talk about itfor a while and it sounds
really nice.
But willing is like I'm willingto do the thing, even though
I'm scared.
And you know, you saidsomething about the having a
baby.
It's like I say this all thetime.
I'm like if we can birth a babyor there's so many things that
(23:38):
we can do, we can figure outmoney, we can figure out
business.
We can like that is so minute towhat you know, producing a
human and I know we are thehouse for it and it, you know,
just does its own self.
But I mean, there is a part ofus that we co-create with that
and you know, if we can do that,we can totally figure out.
You know how to feel moreconfident with money and how to,
(24:04):
and, and I think that that isjust like really, which you know
, that fable of like.
It's like this boy and hisgrandma, grandpa, and he's
talking about like which youknow, which one do you choose?
And it's like the one you feedthe most.
You know, and it's like that'swhat I think it is with fear and
money.
It's like are we spending moretime telling ourselves we're not
good with money, tellingourselves that we don't know, or
(24:27):
that our CPA knows better, orour financial planner or
whatever, or are we, are wegiving ourselves the credit?
And like I'm going to figurethis.
It's a skill set, you know it's, it's something that we're not
taught, I think also, as in thefinancial education you know, in
like school, I've asked, youknow, my teachers, my daughter's
(24:49):
teacher, like do you want me tocome in and talk about money?
Like you guys are learningabout Shakespeare, like why
aren't we talking about money?
Sonia Corkery (24:54):
You know, give me a give my child a skill set
they're actually going to use.
Like, let's be real, it is.
Don't even get me started onthe education system, because
I'm sure it's the same there asit is here, but so with my kids
and you're probably the same youknow I want my kids to have
opportunity.
I want them to have choice.
I want them to have freedom.
(25:14):
I want them to know enough tobe able to step into the world
and not be scared and have thatleg up.
So we do a lot of education athome and we talk about business
all the time.
Our conversations are extremelyopen.
We show them when we're trading.
We show them like they havetheir own share portfolios.
We trade on crypto.
(25:35):
We have bullion, we buyproperty.
We explain why we're doing thethings that we're doing and
trying to give them that reallife education so that that is
their normal.
Yes, because even having aconversation around the dinner
table in a lot of families isn'tnormal.
It's considered rude, and whyit's.
(25:56):
It's what makes the world goaround.
We all have it, we all need it,we're all earning it, we're all
building these portfolios.
Why is it not common to sit andbe able to have an open
discussion about money, becausepeople are fearful of being
judged on what they haven't gotor don't understand.
And we need to get thatpsychology and and build that
muscle, as you said, like thattool belt, to be able to work
(26:19):
past that and be like I'm notgoing to go up and ask somebody
hey, how, how much money do youhave or what do you earn, whilst
we see that happening on thestreet all the time Do you drive
a really nice car?
What do you do for a job?
And that is now becoming thenormal.
People are inquisitive, theywant to know and understand how
those people got to thosepositions.
What did they have to do?
And it's great to see a lot ofwomen now are really getting
(26:40):
ahead and saying well, you know,I'm in oil or I'm in, you know
bullion or I'm in crypto, and Itook a chance and look at what
happened.
Erin Gray (26:49):
Yeah, and I think a lot of women that's, you know,
some of them have issues withlike, oh, I don't want to be
like that, you know, like theylook at certain men or things of
that sort.
It's like your wealth doesn'thave to look like that.
Your wealth, which a lot of forwomen, a lot of wealth for
women is like I want to makesure my kids are taken care of.
(27:10):
I want to make sure that if theschool asks for money, I can
just write a check whenever Iwant to.
I want to be able to, you know,take my parents on vacation or
pay for their assisted living.
That's what typically I havefound with women.
That's what the wealth you know, what they want the wealth for.
And, like you said, I think it'sso important to talk about um
money with our kids, and most ofthe women want to, and it comes
(27:32):
from because they didn't havethat growing up and so now they
are having to learn the skillsetat 40 or 50 versus teaching it.
Like you say, like it's justnormal for us to have
conversations in our housearound money because I want my
kid to know how to buy a car orhow to invest, and those are
important skill sets to teachour children, and it has to
(27:53):
start with us first, and it'sokay, and I want to say too,
it's okay wherever you are, Ifyou're listening and you're like
well, that's not me, I don'tknow how to do a portfolio.
I don't know how to do aportfolio.
I don't know how to do you knowcrypto and all that.
That's okay, Right, Like we allstarted somewhere.
And here we go back towillingness.
Who can you talk to?
Who can you get around to startlearning some of these things,
(28:15):
so you can become more educated?
Sonia Corkery (28:17):
Yeah, well it's.
It's about having the the tasteto explore, like having the
willingness to explore.
As you said, we have this great, amazing thing.
That wasn't like we had it inthe 90s, it wasn't as great as
it is now, but it's called theinternet and Google and pretty
much you can learn just aboutanything if you want to.
As you and I are talking aboutYouTube, you know a lot of
(28:40):
people don't watch conventionalTV anymore.
They have an interest that theyfollow, they look on YouTube
and they learn it.
They don't even know thatthey're learning because they're
having a great time, becausethey're watching this.
You know great video and whatyou know.
I started with, like outside.
You know I never learned aboutcrypto and financial planning.
I never learned about bullionand financial planning.
(29:01):
I learned about managedportfolios and those kinds of
funds, index, etfs, you knowwhatever but I didn't know and
understand about propertyinvestment and commercial and
what those things were.
So I had to learn and you can goto seminars if you have a
particular interest and you canmeet those like-minded people.
(29:21):
Or you can open a superheroaccount for your child, have an
app on your phone and put 10bucks a week in there for share,
investing for them.
Like you can start small andplay with a safe amount of money
and educate yourself on aplatform that you can hold in
the palm of your hand this minicomputer that goes everywhere
with us and you can see how yougo.
(29:43):
And then, when you want to getin a position where you want to
get more advice or you want toupskill yourself, you can invest
when you're comfortable and goand speak to somebody who's a
professional in that field.
Or you can find the mostsuccessful person in your town
who might be worth hundreds ofmillions of dollars in a
specific area.
For us it was a really goodfriend of dollars in a specific
(30:04):
area.
For us it was, um, a reallygood friend of ours in
commercial property owns like500 million dollars worth of
commercial property and I waslike I want to know how you did
it and let them tell their storyto you and they want to.
They're more than willing.
They want to teach.
Erin Gray (30:18):
They want to see success right.
Sonia Corkery (30:20):
We all want to see people successful.
Let's just get on that trainand stop trying to dog everybody
and they will share with you.
And for the women, like justbeing able to say I want to know
what's happening with ourfinances, I want to be on the
same page, let's make decisionstogether, let's talk about it
and let me help you understandmy feelings and me understand
(30:44):
yours.
You have the right to ask aboutthe money, yeah absolutely I.
Erin Gray (30:49):
And something that has changed for me because, just
like you said, with financialplanning, you know it's the
normal, you know investing inthe market and, as I have
learned more and dug deeper intothe market here and like who's
actually controlling it, and itcomes back to like, yeah, that
that has been a thing that myhusband and I have talked about.
It's like how do we actuallywant to invest our money now?
(31:10):
Because the way that we didmake our money may not be
actually the way we want tocontinue to generate our money
and grow our wealth.
And I think that that's ananother wonderful conversation
to have is like what are theways that investing your money,
whether it be real estate orwhether you know whatever it is
that really light you up?
Because here's the deal Ifyou're just investing in the
(31:30):
stock market because somebodysays to invest in the stock
market, but you want to rollyour eyes back in your head
every time, you then maybethat's not the best way to
invest.
Like what is the way that isgoing to like really get you
excited and do do those things?
You know?
And I think that there is noone right way or wrong way to
invest and build your moneyright, build your wealth.
(31:50):
And I think, having thatpermission because you know
watching the market and what hasbeen happening and all of this,
it's just like I don't.
I'm going to invest in mybusiness.
I'm going to invest in, youknow, some houses that that
feels so good that anotherfamily can rent from us or
something like that.
Like those are things thatreally have started to excite me
(32:13):
.
Versus okay, you just blindlyand just put the money away and
forget about it.
It's it's actively caring aboutyour money and how, how is it,
is it growing?
Sonia Corkery (32:24):
and working for you.
Well, it's like if you didn'tnurture your child in the right
way, they wouldn't be able toflourish and grow and be the
best version of themselves.
Your money is the same.
It is a transfer of currency.
It is a transfer into otherthings that they have ability to
grow in the market at any giventime.
(32:44):
And, like you, you knowdiversification is the key.
But if it makes you sick atnight to have your money
invested in crypto, like if youcan't sleep, it's probably not
for you.
Yep, it's.
You're a hundred percent,absolutely aligned with me when
you say you need to have itlight you up.
It has to feel good, becausethat is where you're going to
(33:05):
want to put your energy into,the thing that makes you feel
that way.
And what's right for one personisn't necessarily always right
for someone else.
But having the courage toexplore the different options
and at least get the baselineeducation so you know and
understand what it is and itsplace in the world, that's the
(33:25):
stepping stone that everybodyneeds to take, so you don't have
to like drop a heap of money onsomething.
If you don't want to go to aproperty seminar, then don't,
but but do some free educationonline, like there's all these
things, and people call up andthey're like we're going to do a
webinar.
You know, do you want to be on?
Yeah, sure, you know I'lllisten, but I'm not going to
(33:47):
commit to anything until I feela hundred percent comfortable.
But just having the courage tosit there and you know, know and
understand and listen what'sactually happening in the world,
and just being just being aware.
Erin Gray (33:59):
I was going to say it gives you options, right?
You just no-transcript willjust totally abdicate
(34:30):
responsibility.
We were talking aboutabdicating responsibility to our
husbands.
I see it too with like CPAs andfinancial planners and
bookkeepers, and there's onething of like delegating,
there's another of complete likeso-and-so is taking care of it,
and you just are completelyremoved and you are not owning
and having any responsibilityfor your own business, your
(34:52):
money.
Sonia Corkery (34:53):
Yeah.
So when the tax office turns upon your doorstep because
something has been incorrectlylodged or fraudulent, you are
100% responsible.
So you need to know andunderstand what's actually
happening and it is not okay toabdicate that responsibility
because of the responsibilitythat comes back on you if
they've done the incorrect thing.
And sadly, you know, noteveryone's honest, unfortunately
(35:17):
in this world.
And I want to know andunderstand.
But you know what, for me, Ilove, love, the strategic aspect
of finance, and so I challengedmy CPA, so do I, and he, he, he
must like freak out when hesees my number on that phone.
But you know what?
Like I give him some doozies,some curly ones, and he's like
(35:38):
wow, you know, I never thoughtof it that way and I'm like good
, I'm glad you learned somethingtoday and I got to do something
that I wanted to get done.
So excellent, and you know he'sa very smart man.
But sometimes you got to thinkoutside the box and have that
courage to go and have thatconversation and say, actually I
think we need to do it this way.
Is it gonna is it illegal?
(36:00):
Is it gonna, you know, get meinto a financial hardship
position?
Like is it going to get me introuble.
If it's none of those thingsand it makes sense to me and
it's doable, and it's okay, thenlet's do that.
You are in charge, you're payingfor a service and, at the end
of the day, that decision shouldlay with you.
It's not, they work for you,not you for them.
So let's, let's have thatunderstanding of don't feel, um,
(36:25):
like you can't have thoseconversations, and if you've got
someone that makes you feel notable to have that conversation,
they are the wrong person foryou.
Get a different specialist,find someone who will work with
you to achieve the dreams thatyou want financially, because,
at the end of the day, they'redoing what's best for them with
their own knowledge and pathways.
(36:45):
We want you to have that too.
We want you to have theabsolute best and be successful.
And that specialist that you'vechosen to be in what we call
the red team you know solicitor,accountant, banker, you know
brokers, whatever those peoplecollectively need to be on the
same page about what your endresult is going to look like.
Erin Gray (37:11):
I'm like preach, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, because it
really I mean I have had with,specifically with my you know
family's business.
I remember saying like thatthat seems like something you
read in a tax code book.
That is not necessarily reallife, you know, and you have to
think about where the CPA iscoming from is.
And a lot of times they arecoming from fear.
Right, they are, they areerring on the side of caution
(37:31):
because they don't want to have,like the, the a word of audit
is just so everyone is sofearful of it, you know, but the
likelihood of it actuallyhappening is very small.
And also, like, if you are notevading your taxes and you are
and here we go back to tax lawit is up to interpretation and
as long as you are following thelaw and it is, you know it it's
(37:53):
okay to push back on youraccountant.
And going back to you knowyou're saying like,
understanding your numbers.
You know, when I came into thebusiness and understanding
franchise tax, and that was justsomething that they just did,
and then I really dove in and Ijust started saving like tens of
thousands of dollars a yearCause I understood above the
(38:14):
line, below the line and likeand I started questioning you
know, and, yes, did that taketime?
Yes, but how much did I set usup for years to come of not
overpaying and that is worthsomething?
And I think that, yeah, do youneed to understand and go home
and read tax law?
No, but do you actually need toknow how your forms work and
(38:36):
understand, like Sonia's saying,they work for you?
And even if it does cost anextra hour or two to ask those
questions, you're think about itas you're building this
knowledge for years and years tocome.
And so, understanding andgetting this information so that
you can make informed decisions, not just today in this tax
year, but down the road 20 yearsfrom now, like money well spent
(38:59):
, money well invested Absolutely.
Sonia Corkery (39:01):
And you have to be ready to pivot.
So once you learn the education, something that you've done for
a very long time might change.
Your tax laws might change.
And again, I'm with you youdon't need to know everything,
but what you do need to know iswhat's changing in the industry
and what things you might needto be considerate of to cause
you to pivot.
(39:22):
In Australia, for example andthis is going to probably blow
your mind they have just putforward to change the
legislation for our government,our tax man, to be able to tax
us on unrealised gains.
Wow, so we're in a position nowthey're going to start that
(39:44):
with our superannuationpotentially and equivalent to,
say, 401k, where you're puttingyour savings for retirement, and
we have the ability to havewhat's called a self-managed
super fund.
If you have a certain amount ofmoney, you can actually manage
that superannuation yourself andyou can have the ability to
invest in all kinds of assetclasses yourself, such as
property, et cetera, et cetera.
Erin Gray (40:06):
So it's self-directed IRA here yeah.
Sonia Corkery (40:09):
So essentially they want to now tax us on the
unrealized gains of those assetswithin that that which is for
retirement right.
So they tax it at 15% on theway in as a before tax
contribution and when you reachpreservation age to be able to
then take the money out forretirement which for me would be
age 67, normally I'd be able totake those funds at 0% on the
(40:30):
other side.
But now they're going to tax methroughout my growth of the
rest of my life on theunrealized gains.
Now I can bet your bottomdollar.
I'm not going to get a creditback if that thing goes
backwards.
Erin Gray (40:42):
I was was going to say I'm like calculating in my
head how does this work.
When it goes down, do I get arefund.
Sonia Corkery (40:47):
So so, for me, you have to be able to be ready
to pivot, so you can't rely onalways the CPA to give you the
information.
You probably need to be signedup for some newsletters, some
updates, some things that arecoming through.
So it's just the little tidbitshere and there to grab your
attention and say, hey, thismight actually be changing.
Now, if that in fact doeschange, how does that change
(41:09):
your wealth trajectory?
What are you going to need topivot or change to ensure that
you're keeping within the taxlaws but still going to reach
the end result that you want toreach?
And it's just that little bitof education along the way that
you need to have to just be like, okay, is this going to change
what we were doing?
If it's going to cost you tensof thousands of dollars because
you haven't noticed something orhaven't been aware and the cpa
(41:34):
hasn't advised you, well, that'sup to you.
So, um, it's just being mindfuland aware of what's changing,
being able to pivot, you knowand and sit down and have
another meeting and say, right,like normally.
This was the trajectory for thenext 12, 18 months, two years
and beyond.
Now this legislation ischanging.
We actually need to incorporatesomething different in the
(41:55):
business to ensure that, a we'rekeeping within the legislation,
b that we're not spending tensof thousands of dollars where we
don't need to spend it.
As you said, being aware ofthose legislations, um and c
like just making sure thateveryone's on board with what's
actually going on, because thecommunication is the key at the
end of the day with finances.
You've got all thesespecialists that you need to
(42:17):
work with um, especially ifyou're doing lending and working
with brokers, and then you'vegot your solicitors.
You know and being okay withsacking those people if they're
not on board with you.
100%.
I had to sack my solicitor.
Erin Gray (42:31):
I'm assuming you're a solicitor as attorney.
Sonia Corkery (42:33):
Oh, yes, yes.
So I still get them to do a lotof my conveyancing things when
I'm purchasing properties.
But when he came to me, erin,and he said, sonia, you are not
Warren Buffett, you do not needall these entities I went you do
not understand what the visionis.
You're great.
I love you, terry, awesome.
Sorry, this is my position andthis is what we know is best for
(42:56):
us.
Be okay with that.
Erin Gray (43:01):
Yeah, I'm like the words that come out of my mouth
are you are not the boss of meand so often and this goes back
to you know understanding whereyour specialists and advisors
are coming from.
If they're coming from afear-based place or they're
coming and infusing their beliefsystem into your cause, that
comment.
To me, that means he probablydoesn't have a lot of entities,
and so that is a that is amindset thing, that, like you
(43:24):
said the very beginning, if he'snot I know you said it towards
the spouse but if he's notwilling or your advisors aren't
willing to change that is not aconversation.
That like I'm not here toconvince you.
You're either on my bus oryou're not, and I'm not going to
try to convince you.
We just thank you for your timeand service and help, but I
(43:45):
need to go find somebody else,and it's okay to say that.
And more women need to gain thecourage and know that.
It's okay.
Like, listen, it's like theboyfriend from high school.
Like there's plenty of you,right, I don't need you, need me
more than I need you.
So that's the type of energyand relationship and not from a
(44:06):
disrespectful way, right, butlike someone that's tolerating.
No, I'm not going to.
I'm not going to continue towork with you If that's the
mindset that you're going to bein.
I'm going to find somebodythat's going to help me do what
I want to do.
Sonia Corkery (44:18):
And that's right and it doesn't make them a bad
person.
It doesn't mean you can't be incontact with them and, like as
I said, I still use that firmfor my conveyancing.
You know, I trust them, it'sgreat, no problems there.
But I look at my entireportfolio from different avenues
.
I look at, obviously, the taxposition of those different
(44:39):
entities and what's in thoseentities for what reasons.
But I also look at assetprotection, because it has taken
me decades to build to thepoint where we are.
So it of course, is in my bestinterest to have multi-layered
protection and that's the viewthat I'm coming from.
And I think to myself, if hereally knew me as his client and
(44:59):
he knew and understand where Iwas heading, that he would get
that and he'd be like, okay, yes, you could do this with one.
She's doing it with likeseveral.
Her reasoning is so that thoseassets are each separate from
each other and they protect eachother from each other and that
is why, for example, her husbandis the director in all the
companies and she is the trusteeof all of the trusts, and the
(45:23):
reason that they're separate isfor those reasons.
Like it, you know, we're anelectrical business.
There is risk involved, I needto mitigate everything that I
have built and grown from thatrisk.
So, yes, I, I want to come fromthat perspective and um, and
yes, I challenge.
But I challenge because, at theend of the day, when I'm on a
(45:45):
beach somewhere in 20 years'time, you know I'm not going to
be thinking about what myaccountant or my solicitor is
doing with their day, like Iwant to know that I've built and
protected this thing to get tothe outcome that I wanted.
My kids will each have a home.
Goodness knows that them tryingto get anything in this current
economic climate is going to bea challenge.
Anything that I'm doing now isis for that right and um, and I
(46:11):
agree with you.
You know, I would say to yourlisteners, like, reach out, just
drop an email and say, hey, doyou have time to have a chat?
Don't be scared, call me, emailme, you know, just to have a
chat and a chingwag, ching,chinwag, oh, aussie, and just
throw the ideas around.
And if you don't feel safe,doing it in your local community
because you know too manypeople, whatever, reach out to
(46:32):
someone on the other side of theworld.
That's what COVID gave us.
It gave us everyone's on Zoom.
Now you know and you can reachout and connect and just have a
discussion, and it's okay.
And it's okay and it's okay todo that until you get to the
point where you feel moreconfident that you can continue
to pursue those pathways on yourown.
Erin Gray (46:50):
I love it.
You got anything else that youwant to add that maybe we didn't
talk about?
Sonia Corkery (46:54):
I just want to say I'm so impressed by the
amount of women that I see comethrough on this platform that
are really starting to takecontrol.
It doesn't make us masculineladies.
What it does is this means thatwe care about our lives and
what we want to achieve in ourlife.
We get one go at it, one crack,one body.
Let's do the best things thatwe can for us and our families,
(47:17):
and don't be afraid.
Reach out to people and andconnect with like-minded people.
We are all here and we'rewaiting to talk to you guys oh,
I love it okay.
Erin Gray (47:26):
Where can people find more about you and learn about
you?
Connect with you?
Sonia Corkery (47:29):
um, I'm on all of the socials so you can get me
um at clearplan consultingcomaubecause I am an aussie, but I do
talk to everyone around theworld.
Um, and you can drop me anemail or you can contact me and
and's have a chat.
Love to talk to you guys.
Erin Gray (47:44):
I love it.
Okay, thank you for coming on.
Thanks, erin.
Did you learn something today?
Do you know another femaleentrepreneur who might be
avoiding her money?
Will you send this episode overto her for me and, if you have
it in you, please leave me areview for this podcast?
It helps the show grow and Ilove hearing from you.
(48:13):
See you next week.
You know, they always say you're one decision
away from the rest of your life.
But we have to be willing tomake the changes.
And that's what's really hard,because that reptilian brain,
that front brain that is builtin there to protect you
automatically, is like this is ascam.
No, don't spend money over here.
(00:21):
No, all these other moneystories come up that have been
built over time that block youwhen, objectively, to move
forward, you need to make adecision that is other than the
one that you've already beenmaking.
If you continue on the samepath because you've made the
same decision, nothing is goingto change.
Erin Gray (00:39):
Do you want to create a system to stop avoiding your
money?
Maybe you're feeling guilt andshame when it comes to finances.
Welcome to your Money, yourRules.
I'm Erin, a former certifiedfinancial planner and CFO, and
yet I used to avoid my money andhad fear, no matter how much we
(00:59):
had.
I can't wait to teach you how Iovercame my money avoidance and
started consistently managingmy finances in a really simple
way.
It's time to get comfortablewith money.
On the podcast today, I had sucha fun conversation with Sonia
Corkery, a former financialplanner and owner in her
family's electrical business.
We actually have a very similarbackground, so I know you're
going to love this conversation.
Sonia is the founder of ClearPlan Consulting and, after 16
(01:22):
years in her family's business,experiencing all the highs and
lows, she now helps othersleverage their businesses to
turn their personal dreams andgoals into a reality.
I wanted to also mention thatif you're ready to manage your
finances confidently withoutsacrificing what matters most,
and you want to use practicalstrategies that deliver real
results, let's work together.
(01:44):
You can schedule a free claritycall to see if we're a good fit
by visiting my website atgeneratealifewelllivedcom and
clicking on the link work withme.
I'll also include the link inthe show notes.
Now let's dive into today'sepisode.
Thanks, sonia, for joining us.
Glad that you're here.
Thank you so much for having me.
Yeah, so I think Sonia and Ihave pretty similar backgrounds
(02:06):
financial planners andconstruction work on the
opposite sides of the world.
So if you want to just dive ina little bit into your
background, I would love it.
Sonia Corkery (02:14):
Well, it's so great to speak to someone who's
like-minded and really gets howchallenging it is, especially
for women coming from a whitecollar financial background into
a construction industry.
I don't know about you, erin,but I got a lot of pushback when
I initially came into thebusiness.
So, for me, started a couple ofdecades ago in banking,
(02:38):
essentially progressed throughto financial planning, which was
an amazing stepping stonepersonally to help create
personal wealth, obviously.
So very fortunate there, and myhusband at the time was
actually in the defense and whenhe decided after his deployment
in 2003 to Iraq, he wanted tobecome a tradie, he wanted to be
(02:59):
an electrician.
He then took a mature ageapprenticeship, which put our
finances back a little bit.
But you know, sometimes you'vegot to invest to grow and
eventually he just thought hecould do it better.
So he decided to go intobusiness for himself because
that seemed like the naturalprogression of things to make
more money.
And then, you know, thechallenges just came, one at a
(03:23):
time, because it was new andunexplored, and we've had that
for over nearly two decades.
Now.
That business and it's createda multi-million dollar business
that runs from multiplelocations still runs today, but
we're largely not involved inthe day-to-day running of that
business, which is great.
But for me, a female coming intoan industry like that, it was
(03:45):
like a cold slap in the face.
It was nothing that I'd reallyanticipated as far as how much
pushback I'd actually get forbeing a woman coming into that
industry.
And we have a bit of a sayinghere in Australia where you just
become the missus of the tradie.
They just say, oh, the missusdoes the book work, the missus
does the invoicing.
And I got really frustratedbecause when I wanted to talk to
(04:08):
suppliers they wouldn't talk tome or they'd be like oh, we'll
have that discussion with yourhusband.
So there was a few things therethat were a challenge in the
beginning.
I kind of had to earn mystripes, as it were.
And yeah, I don't know whatyour experience is, but that was
kind of mine in the beginning.
Erin Gray (04:24):
Yeah, I I came in.
You know my my grandfatherstarted the company.
And then I came in just verynaively like, oh, I'll just help
my dad and my uncle just do acouple of things financially.
And then I got in and I was likeyou guys are running this like
a shit show, you know we really,and I remember telling my dad
(04:47):
like I literally feel like Ihave a target on my back because
I was the bad one.
I was the bad parent, you knowlike oh, aaron comes in and
starts saying no to this and noto this and like really starts
changing a lot of things whichthe company needed to do.
But my dad and my uncle aresuch good guys and they will
make those hard decisions, butthey make them probably later
(05:10):
rather than sooner.
And just I remember, likewanting my dad to stand up to me
because he was like you'regoing to need to, just like
you're saying like he wanted meto, like earn my stripes or earn
like what you were saying, likethe respect of the employees,
which is valid, and I also thinklike you need to have that
(05:30):
support of the owner to be like,hey, what she says goes because
it's coming from me, and sothere was some little bit of
time before you know it startedto run like a well-oiled machine
.
But I think you know, with thefinancial industry I don't know
if it's like this in Australia,but with the financial industry
and in the construction, likeI've basically been in a very
(05:52):
masculine dominated industry formy working life and I I think
that's been helpful and also ithas and it hasn't been, you know
, like I have had to in someways feel like I've always had
to prove myself, prove myintellect, prove my knowledge,
which doesn't feel very good.
(06:13):
And also you do gain lots ofexperience in that type of world
where I think it has built meup from a, from a, um, rebound
place or a, you know, strengthplace that, like no, I can, I
can go with some of the best ofthem because I have the
knowledge and experience, um,and it doesn't at all intimidate
(06:37):
me to be in a room, you know,with all men, or I mean I can
shoot the shit with the best ofthem and I can go, you know,
head to head with them as well.
Sonia Corkery (06:46):
So yeah, 100%.
And I found that in thebeginning too, where we call it
like the mom and dad complex,where an employee would come to
me and not get what they wanted.
So then they would go and askmy husband and we had to knock
that on the head pretty quicklyand I just basically said you
know, know, I understand yourfrustration, but that behavior
(07:07):
is not okay and that's not goingto be acceptable.
And it was almost like in thebeginning running a daycare
center, because there were allthese little kids that just
didn't want to listen.
Right, and my, my reason forbeing as part of this business
because my husband asked me tocome on um, because it just kind
of grew into this beast and heneeded, needed, you know, the
(07:30):
expertise and the hand andsomebody trusted um.
When I came on, you know, Ireally had to say to them my
interest here is not to hurt orinhibit you guys.
I want you guys to be in agreat financial position as well
.
If you want to sit and talk tome and pick my brain about
things that you think you shoulddo in your life financially to
(07:50):
get yourself ahead, I'm here youwant to talk about, you know,
you guys have 401k, we havesuperannuation like you want to
talk about that and whatquestions you need to ask or who
you need to ask.
I'm here to help you guys.
And in all of that time, innearly two decades, I think two
people have taken up on thatoffer to come and sit with me
(08:10):
and I don't like obviously Idon't charge them, it's just
there, right.
So to not have something likenot take advantage of something
that's amazing in front of you,just blows my mind.
But talking with builders andclients and the team on the
ground, that was a progressionand that mutual respect came
over time.
(08:31):
But now when I walk on sitelike we have a great chat, you
know we talk about family andeverything, and in the business,
you know it's making more moneythan it ever has.
But my husband had to get to apoint as well where he literally
now he does not look at themoney.
Unless I say that there'ssomething to be concerned about
or I raise something in ourregular meetings.
(08:51):
He doesn't even look at theaccount.
He's like no, I know, that is ahundred percent of your
department.
I don't touch that.
I don't need to know about it.
I just know that when I swipemy card, I can buy stuff Right,
and it's like it's crazy, thetransition that's had to happen.
But but that came through yearsand years of me, you know,
feeling like I had to provemyself in the beginning and now
(09:15):
it's like I'm like hey, I'm hereand I'm doing my job, the
proof's in the pudding, we're inthe best financial position
ever could be financially,personally and business-wise.
So you know, I'm not going tosay I don't know what I'm
talking about because, like you,you know you came from
male-dominated industry infinance, which typically, you
(09:35):
know, women have to work hard toget up the ranks there, like
when I had my babies, I had tohave the minimum amount of time
off because I would have lost myposition, and had to have the
minimum amount of time offbecause I would have lost my
position and had to start again.
And men and it's sad to saythey will never understand that.
And same here, they've justlooked at me as a woman coming
into the business because she'sthe wife and it's the job.
(09:58):
No, I did it to get my wholefamily in a better position.
So, yeah, it's, it's a strugglestreet in the beginning,
absolutely.
Erin Gray (10:06):
It's so funny because I remember my uncle.
I remember like the firstcouple of weeks that I was in
there and I remember him comingin and him saying you will never
be on this bank account andinstead of me like fighting it.
You know, I think that there'stwo ways right.
And I think in this feministI'm not a huge like feminist
movement in the sense of likethe, because I think in this
feminist I'm not a huge likefeminist movement in the sense
(10:26):
of like the, because I thinkit's fake feminist, but like the
overpowering I could have beenlike yes, I am, but I was like,
okay, that's fine, you know,like whatever feels comfortable
for you, and I let it be, but Iknew that I would be.
And then it got to the pointwhere it was like Erin, I need
to check when are we at, can you?
You know like I signed?
Sonia Corkery (10:39):
up.
Erin Gray (10:47):
Sorry, sorry, you're not, sorry, you got on the
account.
I can't help you, but I mean Igot on the account, right, I was
the one that signed all of that, I did all of that money and he
spoke so highly of me.
But that came from, like you'resaying, that trust over time
and him seeing that I could doit and that I did have their
best interest at heart.
And you speak about your babiesand obviously I was a different
person at this time, but I wasthe one doing payroll at that
(11:07):
time when I had my only daughter, my only child, actually and I
did not put my foot down becauseI had lots of stuff wrapped up
in.
I think a lot of people do withbusiness of like our identity,
right, and I remember my momsaying Aaron is only going to
take a week off with Grayson andmy dad was like, sorry, we
(11:27):
don't have maternity leave.
And I and at the time I waslike yeah, we don't.
And now I would be like, well,you guys are going to have to
figure it out because I want tostay at home with my baby.
And I think that there's thisbalance that, like you're saying
, like you know, my dad said Inever understood what it was
like for your mom to be with runa business, I mean like when we
did startups at 3am.
(11:57):
Of course you guys can dostartups at 3am because you have
a wife that takes care of thekids at home.
You know, and I think that thereis this thread or this silent
thing that goes unnoticed withwomen of like that there is this
loneliness or this like I'm theonly one going through this
because we don't talk aboutstuff like that and we don't
(12:17):
have I don't know for you, butat least for me when I was doing
that there were a couple ofother business owners that we
would have somewhat of moneyconversations with, but not like
what you do when you have aproject manager.
Project managers they shoot theshit and they're talking about
all their jobs and you have thebidders that are talking about
all the details.
But there are very few peoplethat I had that I could really
(12:39):
go and talk to about money andthe situation and what we were
going through at that time, andI'm curious what your experience
is as well or has been in likejust that thread of like.
Women need to be talking aboutthis and we need more connection
with each other, more talkingabout money, more just
connection in general,absolutely so.
Sonia Corkery (12:59):
I think it wasn't until 2016,.
We actually joined our firstbusiness group, so we'd been
kind of struggling along and itreally really put a massive
impact on our relationship.
Like I knew I still loved him,I knew I still wanted to be
married, but there was nodisconnect between our personal
relationship and our businessrelationship.
(13:19):
So when I was coming into theoffice I was really hurt with
the way sometimes he would talkto me because I'd think, gee,
that was really rude and abrupt.
But he just wanted to get thejob done and he was talking to
me directly, not like a wife butlike an employee.
And then I got upset because Iwasn't an employee, because I
view this as a partnership,right, and he viewed this as his
(13:43):
business.
But nobody said anything, likehe never said when you come into
the business, you know myposition will be that I am the
owner of this business and Iwould view it as an employee.
I assumed that I would be anequal partner, otherwise why
would I have come into this?
Right?
I left a job on massive money,great career, to come in to take
a $60,000 a year pay cut rightTo help him because he asked me
(14:08):
and then to be viewed as anemployee?
No, no, I would have stayed atmy corporate job.
So there was a lot of thingsthat we didn't discuss because
we didn't think to discuss them,because we just were coming in
completely blind.
And when I came in, like I saidthere was no division of hats.
And then when we were just atthis bottleneck in 2016, where
(14:30):
we just couldn't crack, I thinkit was like we couldn't crack
the 3 million, like we'd crackthe 1 million, like we'd got to
three and we were justfluctuating between three and
five and we weren't reallycracking up.
So we joined a business groupand it was a lot, it was a big
investment for us.
Like, initially, we went to anintroductory seminar.
It was like three or $4,000.
(14:50):
And I was like, oh my God,three or $4,000.
Next minute, we're dropping$120,000 over two years on being
part of this business group.
And it was like a revelationbeing able to sit in a room with
other like-minded people whoare experiencing the same thing
as what we were, and being ableto just lay it all out because,
(15:12):
like you're not going to seethem next week, I'm just going
to be raw, raw, honest, spew outeverything that I'm feeling and
I connected with every couplein that room.
Every couple in that room werein the same position as us and
outside of that, we felt soalone, we felt so disconnected.
Um, locally and I don't knowwhat it's like for you, but
(15:34):
locally here, electricians as awhole do not share because they
always view each other as acompetitor.
Yeah, plumbers different.
Those guys will have a chin wag, you know, say hey, how's it
going?
What are you guys doing?
You know, super openelectricians like no, it's just
not on the table for discussion.
So for us, we, we just cravedgoing to those events where,
(15:57):
even if they weren't in the sameindustry, the fact that there
were couples there or peoplejust willing to be honest about
I am hurting, and this is whyI'm not going to put on a facade
and say things are okay,because they're not.
And financially I am crippled,like I am in trouble and I need
help and I was sitting theregoing.
I can help that person, I canthere going, I can help that
person, I can help that person,I can help that person.
But it's whether they'rewilling to be in that point
(16:19):
where they're willing to listen.
You know that's a whole otherthing.
Erin Gray (16:23):
I think that clients that I've helped I've done a lot
of market research and I amjust in awe of the amount of
women that when I tell them theyuse the exact same words that
you know someone else is using,that you can see their shoulders
relax.
You can see, like almost thisrelief, like wow, so it's not
(16:46):
just me and I think that there'sso many of us that that's one
of the things I love about thepodcast is like I want to get
the word out that, like we allare experiencing this or have
experienced it, and it doesn'tget better by like sweeping it
underneath the rug.
You know, and we need tonormalize talking about money,
(17:06):
talking about where we are withmoney.
What are we working through?
Because either someone, theperson next to you, has either
experienced it and can help youor is experienced it and can
provide some support as you'regoing through it.
And I think I just actuallyrecorded a podcast today about
the fear of losing money and howimportant it is to invest in
yourself.
And I think that when we havemade investments in ourselves
(17:31):
and they haven't gone air quotes, you know, like you think that
they would it sometimes makescan make us feel a little bit
more fearful of continuing toinvest.
Sonia Corkery (17:40):
So I would love it, your ideas or thoughts on,
you know, I think that we haveto be in a position we can have
opportunities presented to us tomake change, like every day you
could make.
You could change your life in acompletely different trajectory
on one decision.
Yeah, you know they always sayyou're one decision away from
the rest of your life, um, butwe have to be willing to make
(18:05):
the changes.
And that's what's really hard,because that that um, that
reptilian brain, that frontbrain that is built in there to
protect you automatically, islike this is a scam, no, don't
spend money over here.
No, or all these other moneystories come up that have been
built over time that block youwhen, objectively, to move
(18:27):
forward, you need to make adecision that is other than the
one that you've already beenmaking.
If you continue on the samepath because you've made the
same decision, nothing going tochange.
You need to be at that point inyour life when you're ready for
it.
So I had to catch up with somefriends yesterday.
We always do our own mastermindand obviously we do our own
planning as well for ourselvesand our business.
(18:48):
And I said, man, they justdropped this gold nugget.
Amazing, like gonna take tonext level.
I'm like, why did I not knowthis, like 15 years ago, and
they said because you weren'tready, you weren't ready.
You've got to be ready to makethose changes and you've got to
want it.
And the difficult thing that Ifound working in a relationship
(19:09):
partnership is both of you haveto be ready, because you've got
one person screaming from therafters going this is what we
need to do.
People hello, this is the restof our lives, this is the
pathway it works.
Let me show you and the otherperson's like nah, sorry, not
ready.
Yeah, and it's challenging, butyou gotta wait like.
Erin Gray (19:28):
You gotta get there together yeah, I think,
willingness and courage.
Courage obviously is emotion,but willingness and courage, I
think, are the top twounderrated, under talked about
emotions or whatever feelingwhatever you want to call it
that we have to have, because Ithink, like you said, we can
want a lot of things.
(19:48):
Right, you can want to do that,but are you willing?
And I think there is a very,very slight difference.
And the difference to me islike that's where courage comes
in.
Right, it's like I'm willing todo the hard things, even when
I'm ready to shit my pants.
Right, like I'm willing to, youknow, make this decision or
invest in myself or do it thisdifferent way.
(20:10):
And that takes courage, and Ithink we don't, at least in the
Western world.
I'm curious if this is the wayin Australia.
It's like we don't build up.
What courage is?
It's almost like bravery.
Is this like I'm going to go inwith no fear at all?
And it's like courage to me isyou continue to do it, even when
you're scared, because you knowthat that is, you know, going
(20:31):
to get you to the next place, orwhat you are wanting is you're
worthy of that, and so it's avery different feeling.
Courage to me is versus yeah,wanting or bravery or things of
that sort.
Sonia Corkery (20:46):
And the difference is in the action as
well.
Like you need that courageAbsolutely, but it pushes you to
the point where you've taken anaction.
Yes, and you know it's like Iliken it to and a lot of the men
listeners might not get this,but the women will.
(21:07):
When you've had a baby, thelead up and the fear of the
unknown of you have this thingand it has to come out right,
like it's coming out of yourbody one way or the other.
And there's fear in thatbecause you don't know what's
going to happen, because thenatural part of what you're
built for takes over.
Whether you know, you birththat baby, naturally, you have a
cesarean, whatever thecircumstances is, but you don't
(21:28):
know what's on the other side ofthat.
The first time, yeah, you areabsolutely crapping yourself
because and the guys are like,don't worry, millions of women
have done it, you'll be fine, noproblems at all.
And meanwhile you're like, ismy body going to be an ag?
Like how much pain is it goingto be?
Is the baby going to be okay?
How long is it going to takefor recovery?
Like is everything going to goto plan?
(21:49):
And you literally are in a pointwhere you have no control.
And that is the scariest thingin the world is where you can't
control the outcome of what'sgoing to happen.
You just hope for the best andat the end of the day you have
this beautiful baby.
That hormone kicks in.
You forget about that paininstantly and you you know a lot
of us decide to go back andlet's just have another one,
(22:10):
because that was amazing, youknow, and and it was.
It was excruciating and awfuland messy and gross.
But so are things in life.
But sometimes to get onto theother side of that, you have to
go through some of that crap andwe do it fearfully because
we're so scared if we don't endup with the thing that we've
already got.
Well, you've already got thatthing, but what you're missing
(22:33):
out on because you're not takingan action and stepping into the
fear on the other side, couldbe 10 times better than what
you've got now.
But you'll never know if youdon't try and look at the end of
the day.
If you're smart with money andyou've provisioned and you know
like profit first model, ifyou're doing all the things
right and you're provisioningand you've got that buffer,
(22:53):
what's the harm in giving it ago Like I don't understand, like
just just cut yourself someslack, like step into the fear
and push forward and take action.
And yes, you're right, courageis massive, um, and we don't
give ourselves enough credit.
But man, we've got millions ofwomen around the world pushing
out human beings.
Like, take that step foryourself, invest in yourself.
Erin Gray (23:15):
Yeah, I mean, I think that's the difference between
wanting and willing.
Right.
Willing is like I'm willing,I'm going to actually take the
action.
Wanting is like I talk about itfor a while and it sounds
really nice.
But willing is like I'm willingto do the thing, even though
I'm scared.
And you know, you saidsomething about the having a
baby.
It's like I say this all thetime.
I'm like if we can birth a babyor there's so many things that
(23:38):
we can do, we can figure outmoney, we can figure out
business.
We can like that is so minute towhat you know, producing a
human and I know we are thehouse for it and it, you know,
just does its own self.
But I mean, there is a part ofus that we co-create with that
and you know, if we can do that,we can totally figure out.
You know how to feel moreconfident with money and how to,
(24:04):
and, and I think that that isjust like really, which you know
, that fable of like.
It's like this boy and hisgrandma, grandpa, and he's
talking about like which youknow, which one do you choose?
And it's like the one you feedthe most.
You know, and it's like that'swhat I think it is with fear and
money.
It's like are we spending moretime telling ourselves we're not
good with money, tellingourselves that we don't know, or
(24:27):
that our CPA knows better, orour financial planner or
whatever, or are we, are wegiving ourselves the credit?
And like I'm going to figurethis.
It's a skill set, you know it's, it's something that we're not
taught, I think also, as in thefinancial education you know, in
like school, I've asked, youknow, my teachers, my daughter's
(24:49):
teacher, like do you want me tocome in and talk about money?
Like you guys are learningabout Shakespeare, like why
aren't we talking about money?
Sonia Corkery (24:54):
You know, give me a give my child a skill set
they're actually going to use.
Like, let's be real, it is.
Don't even get me started onthe education system, because
I'm sure it's the same there asit is here, but so with my kids
and you're probably the same youknow I want my kids to have
opportunity.
I want them to have choice.
I want them to have freedom.
(25:14):
I want them to know enough tobe able to step into the world
and not be scared and have thatleg up.
So we do a lot of education athome and we talk about business
all the time.
Our conversations are extremelyopen.
We show them when we're trading.
We show them like they havetheir own share portfolios.
We trade on crypto.
(25:35):
We have bullion, we buyproperty.
We explain why we're doing thethings that we're doing and
trying to give them that reallife education so that that is
their normal.
Yes, because even having aconversation around the dinner
table in a lot of families isn'tnormal.
It's considered rude, and whyit's.
(25:56):
It's what makes the world goaround.
We all have it, we all need it,we're all earning it, we're all
building these portfolios.
Why is it not common to sit andbe able to have an open
discussion about money, becausepeople are fearful of being
judged on what they haven't gotor don't understand.
And we need to get thatpsychology and and build that
muscle, as you said, like thattool belt, to be able to work
(26:19):
past that and be like I'm notgoing to go up and ask somebody
hey, how, how much money do youhave or what do you earn, whilst
we see that happening on thestreet all the time Do you drive
a really nice car?
What do you do for a job?
And that is now becoming thenormal.
People are inquisitive, theywant to know and understand how
those people got to thosepositions.
What did they have to do?
And it's great to see a lot ofwomen now are really getting
(26:40):
ahead and saying well, you know,I'm in oil or I'm in, you know
bullion or I'm in crypto, and Itook a chance and look at what
happened.
Erin Gray (26:49):
Yeah, and I think a lot of women that's, you know,
some of them have issues withlike, oh, I don't want to be
like that, you know, like theylook at certain men or things of
that sort.
It's like your wealth doesn'thave to look like that.
Your wealth, which a lot of forwomen, a lot of wealth for
women is like I want to makesure my kids are taken care of.
(27:10):
I want to make sure that if theschool asks for money, I can
just write a check whenever Iwant to.
I want to be able to, you know,take my parents on vacation or
pay for their assisted living.
That's what typically I havefound with women.
That's what the wealth you know, what they want the wealth for.
And, like you said, I think it'sso important to talk about um
money with our kids, and most ofthe women want to, and it comes
(27:32):
from because they didn't havethat growing up and so now they
are having to learn the skillsetat 40 or 50 versus teaching it.
Like you say, like it's justnormal for us to have
conversations in our housearound money because I want my
kid to know how to buy a car orhow to invest, and those are
important skill sets to teachour children, and it has to
(27:53):
start with us first, and it'sokay, and I want to say too,
it's okay wherever you are, Ifyou're listening and you're like
well, that's not me, I don'tknow how to do a portfolio.
I don't know how to do aportfolio.
I don't know how to do you knowcrypto and all that.
That's okay, Right, Like we allstarted somewhere.
And here we go back towillingness.
Who can you talk to?
Who can you get around to startlearning some of these things,
(28:15):
so you can become more educated?
Sonia Corkery (28:17):
Yeah, well it's.
It's about having the the tasteto explore, like having the
willingness to explore.
As you said, we have this great, amazing thing.
That wasn't like we had it inthe 90s, it wasn't as great as
it is now, but it's called theinternet and Google and pretty
much you can learn just aboutanything if you want to.
As you and I are talking aboutYouTube, you know a lot of
(28:40):
people don't watch conventionalTV anymore.
They have an interest that theyfollow, they look on YouTube
and they learn it.
They don't even know thatthey're learning because they're
having a great time, becausethey're watching this.
You know great video and whatyou know.
I started with, like outside.
You know I never learned aboutcrypto and financial planning.
I never learned about bullionand financial planning.
(29:01):
I learned about managedportfolios and those kinds of
funds, index, etfs, you knowwhatever but I didn't know and
understand about propertyinvestment and commercial and
what those things were.
So I had to learn and you can goto seminars if you have a
particular interest and you canmeet those like-minded people.
(29:21):
Or you can open a superheroaccount for your child, have an
app on your phone and put 10bucks a week in there for share,
investing for them.
Like you can start small andplay with a safe amount of money
and educate yourself on aplatform that you can hold in
the palm of your hand this minicomputer that goes everywhere
with us and you can see how yougo.
(29:43):
And then, when you want to getin a position where you want to
get more advice or you want toupskill yourself, you can invest
when you're comfortable and goand speak to somebody who's a
professional in that field.
Or you can find the mostsuccessful person in your town
who might be worth hundreds ofmillions of dollars in a
specific area.
For us it was a really goodfriend of dollars in a specific
(30:04):
area.
For us it was, um, a reallygood friend of ours in
commercial property owns like500 million dollars worth of
commercial property and I waslike I want to know how you did
it and let them tell their storyto you and they want to.
They're more than willing.
They want to teach.
Erin Gray (30:18):
They want to see success right.
Sonia Corkery (30:20):
We all want to see people successful.
Let's just get on that trainand stop trying to dog everybody
and they will share with you.
And for the women, like justbeing able to say I want to know
what's happening with ourfinances, I want to be on the
same page, let's make decisionstogether, let's talk about it
and let me help you understandmy feelings and me understand
(30:44):
yours.
You have the right to ask aboutthe money, yeah absolutely I.
Erin Gray (30:49):
And something that has changed for me because, just
like you said, with financialplanning, you know it's the
normal, you know investing inthe market and, as I have
learned more and dug deeper intothe market here and like who's
actually controlling it, and itcomes back to like, yeah, that
that has been a thing that myhusband and I have talked about.
It's like how do we actuallywant to invest our money now?
(31:10):
Because the way that we didmake our money may not be
actually the way we want tocontinue to generate our money
and grow our wealth.
And I think that that's ananother wonderful conversation
to have is like what are theways that investing your money,
whether it be real estate orwhether you know whatever it is
that really light you up?
Because here's the deal Ifyou're just investing in the
(31:30):
stock market because somebodysays to invest in the stock
market, but you want to rollyour eyes back in your head
every time, you then maybethat's not the best way to
invest.
Like what is the way that isgoing to like really get you
excited and do do those things?
You know?
And I think that there is noone right way or wrong way to
invest and build your moneyright, build your wealth.
(31:50):
And I think, having thatpermission because you know
watching the market and what hasbeen happening and all of this,
it's just like I don't.
I'm going to invest in mybusiness.
I'm going to invest in, youknow, some houses that that
feels so good that anotherfamily can rent from us or
something like that.
Like those are things thatreally have started to excite me
(32:13):
.
Versus okay, you just blindlyand just put the money away and
forget about it.
It's it's actively caring aboutyour money and how, how is it,
is it growing?
Sonia Corkery (32:24):
and working for you.
Well, it's like if you didn'tnurture your child in the right
way, they wouldn't be able toflourish and grow and be the
best version of themselves.
Your money is the same.
It is a transfer of currency.
It is a transfer into otherthings that they have ability to
grow in the market at any giventime.
(32:44):
And, like you, you knowdiversification is the key.
But if it makes you sick atnight to have your money
invested in crypto, like if youcan't sleep, it's probably not
for you.
Yep, it's.
You're a hundred percent,absolutely aligned with me when
you say you need to have itlight you up.
It has to feel good, becausethat is where you're going to
(33:05):
want to put your energy into,the thing that makes you feel
that way.
And what's right for one personisn't necessarily always right
for someone else.
But having the courage toexplore the different options
and at least get the baselineeducation so you know and
understand what it is and itsplace in the world, that's the
(33:25):
stepping stone that everybodyneeds to take, so you don't have
to like drop a heap of money onsomething.
If you don't want to go to aproperty seminar, then don't,
but but do some free educationonline, like there's all these
things, and people call up andthey're like we're going to do a
webinar.
You know, do you want to be on?
Yeah, sure, you know I'lllisten, but I'm not going to
(33:47):
commit to anything until I feela hundred percent comfortable.
But just having the courage tosit there and you know, know and
understand and listen what'sactually happening in the world,
and just being just being aware.
Erin Gray (33:59):
I was going to say it gives you options, right?
You just no-transcript willjust totally abdicate
(34:30):
responsibility.
We were talking aboutabdicating responsibility to our
husbands.
I see it too with like CPAs andfinancial planners and
bookkeepers, and there's onething of like delegating,
there's another of complete likeso-and-so is taking care of it,
and you just are completelyremoved and you are not owning
and having any responsibilityfor your own business, your
(34:52):
money.
Sonia Corkery (34:53):
Yeah.
So when the tax office turns upon your doorstep because
something has been incorrectlylodged or fraudulent, you are
100% responsible.
So you need to know andunderstand what's actually
happening and it is not okay toabdicate that responsibility
because of the responsibilitythat comes back on you if
they've done the incorrect thing.
And sadly, you know, noteveryone's honest, unfortunately
(35:17):
in this world.
And I want to know andunderstand.
But you know what, for me, Ilove, love, the strategic aspect
of finance, and so I challengedmy CPA, so do I, and he, he, he
must like freak out when hesees my number on that phone.
But you know what?
Like I give him some doozies,some curly ones, and he's like
(35:38):
wow, you know, I never thoughtof it that way and I'm like good
, I'm glad you learned somethingtoday and I got to do something
that I wanted to get done.
So excellent, and you know he'sa very smart man.
But sometimes you got to thinkoutside the box and have that
courage to go and have thatconversation and say, actually I
think we need to do it this way.
Is it gonna is it illegal?
(36:00):
Is it gonna, you know, get meinto a financial hardship
position?
Like is it going to get me introuble.
If it's none of those thingsand it makes sense to me and
it's doable, and it's okay, thenlet's do that.
You are in charge, you're payingfor a service and, at the end
of the day, that decision shouldlay with you.
It's not, they work for you,not you for them.
So let's, let's have thatunderstanding of don't feel, um,
(36:25):
like you can't have thoseconversations, and if you've got
someone that makes you feel notable to have that conversation,
they are the wrong person foryou.
Get a different specialist,find someone who will work with
you to achieve the dreams thatyou want financially, because,
at the end of the day, they'redoing what's best for them with
their own knowledge and pathways.
(36:45):
We want you to have that too.
We want you to have theabsolute best and be successful.
And that specialist that you'vechosen to be in what we call
the red team you know solicitor,accountant, banker, you know
brokers, whatever those peoplecollectively need to be on the
same page about what your endresult is going to look like.
Erin Gray (37:11):
I'm like preach, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, because it
really I mean I have had with,specifically with my you know
family's business.
I remember saying like thatthat seems like something you
read in a tax code book.
That is not necessarily reallife, you know, and you have to
think about where the CPA iscoming from is.
And a lot of times they arecoming from fear.
Right, they are, they areerring on the side of caution
(37:31):
because they don't want to have,like the, the a word of audit
is just so everyone is sofearful of it, you know, but the
likelihood of it actuallyhappening is very small.
And also, like, if you are notevading your taxes and you are
and here we go back to tax lawit is up to interpretation and
as long as you are following thelaw and it is, you know it it's
(37:53):
okay to push back on youraccountant.
And going back to you knowyou're saying like,
understanding your numbers.
You know, when I came into thebusiness and understanding
franchise tax, and that was justsomething that they just did,
and then I really dove in and Ijust started saving like tens of
thousands of dollars a yearCause I understood above the
(38:14):
line, below the line and likeand I started questioning you
know, and, yes, did that taketime?
Yes, but how much did I set usup for years to come of not
overpaying and that is worthsomething?
And I think that, yeah, do youneed to understand and go home
and read tax law?
No, but do you actually need toknow how your forms work and
(38:36):
understand, like Sonia's saying,they work for you?
And even if it does cost anextra hour or two to ask those
questions, you're think about itas you're building this
knowledge for years and years tocome.
And so, understanding andgetting this information so that
you can make informed decisions, not just today in this tax
year, but down the road 20 yearsfrom now, like money well spent
(38:59):
, money well invested Absolutely.
Sonia Corkery (39:01):
And you have to be ready to pivot.
So once you learn the education, something that you've done for
a very long time might change.
Your tax laws might change.
And again, I'm with you youdon't need to know everything,
but what you do need to know iswhat's changing in the industry
and what things you might needto be considerate of to cause
you to pivot.
(39:22):
In Australia, for example andthis is going to probably blow
your mind they have just putforward to change the
legislation for our government,our tax man, to be able to tax
us on unrealised gains.
Wow, so we're in a position nowthey're going to start that
(39:44):
with our superannuationpotentially and equivalent to,
say, 401k, where you're puttingyour savings for retirement, and
we have the ability to havewhat's called a self-managed
super fund.
If you have a certain amount ofmoney, you can actually manage
that superannuation yourself andyou can have the ability to
invest in all kinds of assetclasses yourself, such as
property, et cetera, et cetera.
Erin Gray (40:06):
So it's self-directed IRA here yeah.
Sonia Corkery (40:09):
So essentially they want to now tax us on the
unrealized gains of those assetswithin that that which is for
retirement right.
So they tax it at 15% on theway in as a before tax
contribution and when you reachpreservation age to be able to
then take the money out forretirement which for me would be
age 67, normally I'd be able totake those funds at 0% on the
(40:30):
other side.
But now they're going to tax methroughout my growth of the
rest of my life on theunrealized gains.
Now I can bet your bottomdollar.
I'm not going to get a creditback if that thing goes
backwards.
Erin Gray (40:42):
I was was going to say I'm like calculating in my
head how does this work.
When it goes down, do I get arefund.
Sonia Corkery (40:47):
So so, for me, you have to be able to be ready
to pivot, so you can't rely onalways the CPA to give you the
information.
You probably need to be signedup for some newsletters, some
updates, some things that arecoming through.
So it's just the little tidbitshere and there to grab your
attention and say, hey, thismight actually be changing.
Now, if that in fact doeschange, how does that change
(41:09):
your wealth trajectory?
What are you going to need topivot or change to ensure that
you're keeping within the taxlaws but still going to reach
the end result that you want toreach?
And it's just that little bitof education along the way that
you need to have to just be like, okay, is this going to change
what we were doing?
If it's going to cost you tensof thousands of dollars because
you haven't noticed something orhaven't been aware and the cpa
(41:34):
hasn't advised you, well, that'sup to you.
So, um, it's just being mindfuland aware of what's changing,
being able to pivot, you knowand and sit down and have
another meeting and say, right,like normally.
This was the trajectory for thenext 12, 18 months, two years
and beyond.
Now this legislation ischanging.
We actually need to incorporatesomething different in the
(41:55):
business to ensure that, a we'rekeeping within the legislation,
b that we're not spending tensof thousands of dollars where we
don't need to spend it.
As you said, being aware ofthose legislations, um and c
like just making sure thateveryone's on board with what's
actually going on, because thecommunication is the key at the
end of the day with finances.
You've got all thesespecialists that you need to
(42:17):
work with um, especially ifyou're doing lending and working
with brokers, and then you'vegot your solicitors.
You know and being okay withsacking those people if they're
not on board with you.
100%.
I had to sack my solicitor.
Erin Gray (42:31):
I'm assuming you're a solicitor as attorney.
Sonia Corkery (42:33):
Oh, yes, yes.
So I still get them to do a lotof my conveyancing things when
I'm purchasing properties.
But when he came to me, erin,and he said, sonia, you are not
Warren Buffett, you do not needall these entities I went you do
not understand what the visionis.
You're great.
I love you, terry, awesome.
Sorry, this is my position andthis is what we know is best for
(42:56):
us.
Be okay with that.
Erin Gray (43:01):
Yeah, I'm like the words that come out of my mouth
are you are not the boss of meand so often and this goes back
to you know understanding whereyour specialists and advisors
are coming from.
If they're coming from afear-based place or they're
coming and infusing their beliefsystem into your cause, that
comment.
To me, that means he probablydoesn't have a lot of entities,
and so that is a that is amindset thing, that, like you
(43:24):
said the very beginning, if he'snot I know you said it towards
the spouse but if he's notwilling or your advisors aren't
willing to change that is not aconversation.
That like I'm not here toconvince you.
You're either on my bus oryou're not, and I'm not going to
try to convince you.
We just thank you for your timeand service and help, but I
(43:45):
need to go find somebody else,and it's okay to say that.
And more women need to gain thecourage and know that.
It's okay.
Like, listen, it's like theboyfriend from high school.
Like there's plenty of you,right, I don't need you, need me
more than I need you.
So that's the type of energyand relationship and not from a
(44:06):
disrespectful way, right, butlike someone that's tolerating.
No, I'm not going to.
I'm not going to continue towork with you If that's the
mindset that you're going to bein.
I'm going to find somebodythat's going to help me do what
I want to do.
Sonia Corkery (44:18):
And that's right and it doesn't make them a bad
person.
It doesn't mean you can't be incontact with them and, like as
I said, I still use that firmfor my conveyancing.
You know, I trust them, it'sgreat, no problems there.
But I look at my entireportfolio from different avenues
.
I look at, obviously, the taxposition of those different
(44:39):
entities and what's in thoseentities for what reasons.
But I also look at assetprotection, because it has taken
me decades to build to thepoint where we are.
So it of course, is in my bestinterest to have multi-layered
protection and that's the viewthat I'm coming from.
And I think to myself, if hereally knew me as his client and
(44:59):
he knew and understand where Iwas heading, that he would get
that and he'd be like, okay, yes, you could do this with one.
She's doing it with likeseveral.
Her reasoning is so that thoseassets are each separate from
each other and they protect eachother from each other and that
is why, for example, her husbandis the director in all the
companies and she is the trusteeof all of the trusts, and the
(45:23):
reason that they're separate isfor those reasons.
Like it, you know, we're anelectrical business.
There is risk involved, I needto mitigate everything that I
have built and grown from thatrisk.
So, yes, I, I want to come fromthat perspective and um, and
yes, I challenge.
But I challenge because, at theend of the day, when I'm on a
(45:45):
beach somewhere in 20 years'time, you know I'm not going to
be thinking about what myaccountant or my solicitor is
doing with their day, like Iwant to know that I've built and
protected this thing to get tothe outcome that I wanted.
My kids will each have a home.
Goodness knows that them tryingto get anything in this current
economic climate is going to bea challenge.
Anything that I'm doing now isis for that right and um, and I
(46:11):
agree with you.
You know, I would say to yourlisteners, like, reach out, just
drop an email and say, hey, doyou have time to have a chat?
Don't be scared, call me, emailme, you know, just to have a
chat and a chingwag, ching,chinwag, oh, aussie, and just
throw the ideas around.
And if you don't feel safe,doing it in your local community
because you know too manypeople, whatever, reach out to
(46:32):
someone on the other side of theworld.
That's what COVID gave us.
It gave us everyone's on Zoom.
Now you know and you can reachout and connect and just have a
discussion, and it's okay.
And it's okay and it's okay todo that until you get to the
point where you feel moreconfident that you can continue
to pursue those pathways on yourown.
Erin Gray (46:50):
I love it.
You got anything else that youwant to add that maybe we didn't
talk about?
Sonia Corkery (46:54):
I just want to say I'm so impressed by the
amount of women that I see comethrough on this platform that
are really starting to takecontrol.
It doesn't make us masculineladies.
What it does is this means thatwe care about our lives and
what we want to achieve in ourlife.
We get one go at it, one crack,one body.
Let's do the best things thatwe can for us and our families,
(47:17):
and don't be afraid.
Reach out to people and andconnect with like-minded people.
We are all here and we'rewaiting to talk to you guys oh,
I love it okay.
Erin Gray (47:26):
Where can people find more about you and learn about
you?
Connect with you?
Sonia Corkery (47:29):
um, I'm on all of the socials so you can get me
um at clearplan consultingcomaubecause I am an aussie, but I do
talk to everyone around theworld.
Um, and you can drop me anemail or you can contact me and
and's have a chat.
Love to talk to you guys.
Erin Gray (47:44):
I love it.
Okay, thank you for coming on.
Thanks, erin.
Did you learn something today?
Do you know another femaleentrepreneur who might be
avoiding her money?
Will you send this episode overto her for me and, if you have
it in you, please leave me areview for this podcast?
It helps the show grow and Ilove hearing from you.
(48:13):
See you next week.
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