From house-sitting her way to buying property to pivoting after a break up

Larissa (0:00)

I think I started with maybe 11,000.

Jess (0:03)

Oh my god.

Larissa (0:04)

I also felt like I really knew what I was doing, because I was doing so well, I was like, I've clocked this, this is great, I'm an investor, I know what I'm doing, until it all went downhill. Get rid of our rental, quit our jobs, take a big leap, and start traveling around Australia, our house and pet sitting. I read all the books, I listened to all of the podcasts, but the learning started within weeks of actually, you know, doing, buying my first ETF. I'll figure it out myself, and I am, and I'm really proud of myself.

Jess (0:29)

This episode is sponsored by UBank, Money Done Better.

Welcome back to Get Started Investing, a show that helps you make the most of your money. This is How I Got Started. It's a series where I get to sit down with a community member to hear the highs and lows of their journey to investing. These are real stories and we hope they're going to give you the confidence that investing is for anyone. Today we're joined by Larissa, a 29-year-old former osteopath who's now pivoted to the tech startup world. Have you ever been in a conversation where everyone seems to understand something except you? Well, that's how Larissa felt when she overheard her friends talking about investing. So she decided to teach herself about it, money, shares and ETFs, and then took a pretty unconventional path towards property ownership with her then partner, giving up their rental, renovating a camper van and house sitting to save on rent. After a recent breakup changed her plans, she's now locked in and feeling really good about building a solid financial future for herself. This is how Larissa got started.

Larissa or Ris, welcome to Get Started Investing.

Larissa (1:28)

Thank you for having me.

Jess (1:30)

Very excited. We made it here. It's a bit of a backstory.

Larissa (1:33)

Bit of a journey to get here, but we're all here today.

Jess (1:35)

So for a bit of context, you and I, we were going to have this chat.

Larissa (1:38)

What was it?

Jess (1:39)

A few months ago.

Larissa (1:39)

I think it was back in June.

Jess (1:41)

Back in June.

Larissa (1:42)

Yeah.

Jess (1:42)

And then your life changed a little bit.

Larissa (1:44)

Yeah.

Jess (1:45)

Yes. So we'll get into all of that. You went through a relationship breakup.

So I guess it's really interesting for us to sit down and have this chat because I still want to talk about the journey we were going to talk about, but then also how that's changed now. Post everything.

Larissa (2:01)

Yeah, for sure. And I'm so glad about having this chat as well because I feel like we were just chatting before when I filled out all the forms and everything beforehand. I was like, I need to look at this because so much has changed. And yeah, lots of really exciting changes and things to chat about. So I'm very keen.

Jess (2:12)

Exactly. So I'm glad we could sit down and do it. Now, the series is called How I Got Started. I do want to understand how you got started. But first, I'd really love to understand why you got started. What are you investing for?

Larissa (2:24)

I think for me, investing is something that just buys myself options and time and optionality for future me.

I'm one of those people, I've always been good at saving, but I really wanted to take it to that next level. There's also an element of it that it's like, if it's out of sight, out of mind, I can't get my mitts on it. That just really works for me. But yeah, I think at the core of it, it's just buying myself options and time down the track for sure.

Jess (2:47)

A hundred percent because yeah, we'll get to this as we go through your story, but you're definitely adventurous. I feel like you need to have a lot of options.

Larissa (2:55)

Yeah, absolutely. It definitely is buying me more adventures and more holidays and more time. Yeah, so very excited.

Jess (3:01)

I love that. Now, one thing I've seen you say is you said, in your 20s, you'll have people tell you to enjoy being young and spend all of your money. And then other people will tell you to work hard and save your money.

And you said it's important to know that you can still have the time of your life and make sure future you is okay, too. So I find that really interesting. I'm really keen to understand how you've gone about that throughout your life. But before we get into that, can you paint us a picture of what life looks like for Larissa today?