Why Is Financial Literacy SO Important?
Can you imagine turning your financial expertise and passion for real estate into a thriving business while balancing family life?
Welcome back to the 61st episode of the “Inspired To Invest” podcast. Tune in!
Meet Stefanie Berry, a CPA from Caledon, Ontario, who did just that. After the birth of her second child, Stefanie boldly left her corporate finance career to start Real Estate Investing Finance, a fractional CFO accounting firm.
Stefanie shares her incredible journey, from flipping houses and private lending to discovering the power of real estate investments for building generational wealth. Through her story, you’ll gain insights into the critical role financial management plays in real estate success and the unique advantages of having a fractional CFO.
Stefanie’s experience is a masterclass in resilience and adaptability, offering valuable lessons for both new and seasoned investors. She candidly discusses the challenges of stepping away from a stable job, balancing a growing family, and managing a real estate portfolio.
You’ll learn why setting aside reserves, maintaining separate bank accounts, and tracking finances monthly are essential strategies. Stefanie also highlights the importance of professional management to avoid overwhelm and the necessity of projecting expenses accurately for better financial planning.
This episode is packed with practical advice and inspiration for anyone looking to navigate the path from corporate life to entrepreneurial success in real estate investing.
To connect with Stefanie, go to @reifinance on social and online.
Thank you to The Wealth Club for bringing us this month’s episodes of “Inspired To Invest”. To learn more about them, go to @thewealthclub on social or sign up online.
Need support underwriting potential property investments? Check out PropertyCast.io.
“Inspired to Invest” is proud to support the Beyond Success Program, a not-for-profit financial literacy program for students, launched by More To Give & MAK Investments. Find out more on social & online.
Join us again on Aug. 21 to hear from a couple who is committed to building a lasting family legacy by investing in real estate.
Thank you for tuning into “Inspired To Invest”, hosted by @serenaholmesrealtor & remember, “when you invest in yourself, the sky’s the limit!”
Sign up so you never miss an episode!
And, for everything related to real estate and real estate investing, please make sure you’ve subscribed to @serenaholmesrealtor on YouTube & other platforms. We also have a page dedicated to this podcast on Instagram and Facebook @inspiredtoinvestpodcast where we preview guests each week, highlight their episodes, top takeaways, tips, quotes and more.
Real Estate Investing Podcast Transcript
Speaker 100:02
Welcome to the Inspire to Invest podcast, where we’re sharing stories from real estate investors and how investing has changed their lives. This episode of the Inspire to Invest podcast has been brought to you by the Wealth Club. Hi, everybody, Welcome to Inspire to Invest. I have Stephanie Berry here with me from Caledon, ontario, and she jumped into self-employment after having her second child and deciding that the rat race was no longer for her. So she combined her 10 years experience as a CPA with her love of real estate investing to start Real Estate Investing Finance, a fractional CFO accounting firm. And now she’s on a mission to educate and serve the real estate investing community through financial literacy and financial management. So thank you very much for joining us today. How are you? I’m serve the real estate investing community through financial literacy and financial management, so thank you very much for joining us today. How are you.
Speaker 200:47
I’m good Thanks, how are you? Thanks so much for having me?
Speaker 100:50
Yeah, of course I mean I do resonate with your story because after I had my daughter I definitely decided that I didn’t want to go back into events and you know I had my own business for 18 years and I just knew it wasn’t scalable having a small family and, you know, wanted to kind of rebalance. So I can completely understand where you’re coming from. But with regards to your story, can you talk a little bit about where the real estate investing component comes into it, Because obviously you were focused more on finance. So how did you kind of marry those two industries together?
Speaker 201:17
Yeah, so I am a real estate investor myself. I’ve been investing in real estate for the last 10 years. I’ve been investing in real estate for the last 10 years. I started you know just sort of, I guess, how every person starts, you know, buying their first home for their family and just having dreams of something bigger. And so my first property that I purchased I ended up flipping it. Then we ended up buying a property where we added an additional unit and we started renting it out, and so I started to my.
01:50
I started to open up to the opportunities in real estate investing. I also went heavily into private lending I know you’re a big fan of that as well and so I did a bunch of that. I started to get into bird projects and GP and LP arrangements. So I started to really get into real estate investing and really seeing, you know, the generational wealth that I was creating, as well as the additional income streams, and I really thought that was something that was good for me to continue to do because it helped to protect me should anything happen to my job.
02:21
And so with that whole experience, coupled with my corporate finance experience, I had this burning desire to be an entrepreneur, and so I, when I was digging deep and trying to figure out, well, how can I serve others? I thought, well, based on my finance knowledge, I saw there was a huge gap in the real estate investing community. Like, real estate investors absolutely hated managing the finance component of their business, and it was actually the area that I loved the most. So I was like why not bring my expertise directly to real estate investors so that they could help to protect their assets and their wealth and to ensure that whatever that they were building, that they were managing it properly?
Speaker 103:06
Yeah, and I think that’s so important because sometimes people dive in head first. And one thing that I’m even surprised by with the masterminds I’m in and the community that I’m in is that some of them really lack the business acumen and just some of the foundational things that I think you really require to build strategically and to be successful, because if you don’t set it up you know the right way early on, it can create fractures and issues later on as you continue to grow and scale. So I think that’s really important to focus on.
Speaker 203:33
Yes, definitely, it definitely snowballs Like if I can get, if I can help beginner real estate investors. I feel great doing that Because I know as they scale, they’ll take those same systems and tools that I’ve introduced to them and they’ll get and it will scale with them. And so it’s so much harder to to do it once you’re already large and things are out of control and to kind of unravel all the issues. So it’s great to start when, when you’re smaller.
Speaker 103:59
Yeah, absolutely Now. Well, this one thing, like I’ve actually never heard of what fractional, like what a fractional CFO is, so maybe you can actually talk about what that is yes, and I think this is very common.
Speaker 204:10
I get this question a lot. So a fractional CFO is just think about how every big company has a CFO, and a CFO stands for chief financial officer. Yeah, a an executive position similar to like a CEO, but the CFO manages the whole finance component of your business. And so for small and medium sized businesses, having a CFO is sort of out of reach. Because they are, they come with a big price tag. Yeah, fractional CFO is able to help small and medium sized businesses on a part time basis at the fraction of the cost. On a part-time basis at the fraction of the cost. Okay, got it People really to get that strategic guidance and the finance support that are typically not available to you but is now available to you if you work with a fractional CFO. Yeah, it’s a great concept.
Speaker 104:56
Yeah, I mean that’s what a lot of people also do, Like they’re not necessarily big enough to have, like a full-time bookkeeper or a full-time accountant. So obviously you bring in these different people. You know, maybe you need 10 hours a week as opposed to 40 or something like that, so that makes perfect sense. Now, as you continue to kind of grow your business, you touched on some of the different real estate investments that you were part of. What would you say you’ve enjoyed the most or found to be most beneficial to you?
Speaker 205:28
That is a really good question. I would say that, um, for me, I haven’t been like a one strategy person. Um, I know some some people suggest, you know, find one strategy that works for you and then rinse and repeat. Um, that’s never been how I have viewed it. Um, especially since I’m a big proponent on diversification. So I like to try a little bit of everything. So I’m not sure if I would really push anything that I’ve done.
05:50
I did what I needed to do in the moment that made sense for me in that moment. Yeah, and so I’m all. I was all about unlocking opportunities for us to live our life better, my family to live my life better. And so, you know, when I, when we had that first property and we wanted to flip it, it was because we were looking for a bigger home, because we were starting a family. So we flipped it for that reason to grab, you know, to force the force, the value up, grab additional equity and put it into the next home.
06:20
Yeah, and then you know, I started to think ahead and I was saying, okay, well, now that you know I started to think ahead and I was saying, okay, well, now that you know we have our first daughter, we’re gonna start having to pay for daycare costs. How can I offset that cost? Well, I’m going to put in a basement suite and I’m going to have that tenant pay for my, my child’s, daycare. Yeah, so that’s what I did there, and so, as I went through life, I just I used real estate investing to unlock a better life for my family, and I feel like I continue to do that in different strategies. Yeah, that’s one thing I always suggest when I talk to people. It’s like pick the strategy that makes sense for you, for what you need and for the goals that you’re trying to achieve. Like you need to align the two. It’s not just about blindly choosing something that you know maybe everybody’s doing.
Speaker 107:04
Yeah, I know that makes perfect sense. Now, when you look back at the different things that you’ve done, is there anything that stands out to you as something that you’re most proud of or something you feel like is your most successful investment?
Speaker 207:14
So my I would say and this is an interesting one too, because even when you say success, I wouldn’t I wouldn’t even know if I would define this success as in a dollar figure, but this is success. Now that I look back and I and I’m just proud of what we’ve done. And so we, after our second home, we had purchased a one acre property with my parents, and so it was a joint purchase, and the reason we did it was kind of like a house hacking methodology. We wanted a big lot. Obviously, we had other properties still. We didn’t want to sell them, and so it made a lot of sense for us to purchase it with my parents.
07:58
I’m an only child, so it was about supporting each other while I had a young family and while they aged. Also an option for us to house hack yeah, that we can keep costs down and also I call this like our generational home. So I plan to continue to pass this property down to my kids, and I hope they do the same. It’s something that I feel really proud of that we were able to secure like an amazing property like this, and we love living in this area. We’re surrounded by nature and it’s just. It checked all the boxes in so many different ways, and I don’t even think about the money aspect of it was everything that made it feel successful.
Speaker 108:39
I mean, I’m walking distance to my mom, so I know how beneficial that can be, especially if you start to grow your family. I guess, on the flip side to that question, what would you say are some of the obstacles that you’ve faced and, like some of the biggest, challenges.
Speaker 208:53
Yeah, so I think, similar to a lot of people, the last couple of years have been extremely challenging. I would say that I’ve always stayed extremely close to my numbers, obviously because that’s my favorite aspect of managing my properties and my business. Yeah, and it’s still been hard, even though I have been in the numbers and I’ve been monitoring everything, and you’re looking for areas that I can improve and trying to cut costs, trying to increase my income and doing all the things, but it’s still hard, and so I just think that the last couple of years have been a huge learning experience, that I would say this is my first downturn and so I’m taking away so many learning lessons from this about, you know, having bigger reserves. I had reserves. I now think I should have had bigger reserves. Yeah, you know, maybe pivoting faster right, like when you started to see things getting tough well, what could I have done earlier rather than, you know, wait? So I think the last couple of years have definitely tested us all as real estate investors.
Speaker 110:00
Yeah, and I think that’s something that someone had said to me not too long ago, just in terms of you know, when they go into a mortgage for their rental property, especially on the commercial side, that they go in fixed because at least that way you know that you’re stable for a period of time.
10:12
And you know, I think a lot of the real estate investors took advantage of those really low interest rates that were 2% or something like that at a variable. And even if they did decide to lock in, that’s still probably at least 5% or something like that, right? So it’s still considerably higher than what they would have gone into it, and in some instances maybe they didn’t even lock in, so they could be sitting at an even higher rate right now, right? So I think that made a lot of sense for me. Like, I think when you are in your family home, that’s one thing, but when you are dealing with like a much larger asset and just like much larger budgets and numbers and stuff like that, you just have to consider all those things like no one expected this, but that’s the whole thing.
Speaker 210:49
You have to plan for the unexpected right, exactly, and I think that you know I looked at the same type of thing that you just mentioned, like, should I lock in now? Should I lock in now? And I think no one thought it would get this bad right, but if you’ve never gone through it, you would have never experienced that right. And so now, definitely, you know, the next go around I’ll definitely be more aggressive with you know, pivoting faster if I needed to, because I’ll remember how this felt.
Speaker 111:18
Yeah, no, absolutely, and that’s the thing I think the last downturn was. You know, most people talk about 2008, but a lot of the investors actually started at that point because that’s where everything bottomed out and they built up from there, right. So there are other people that have been through those cycles or even going back even further, but for us, some of us started after that point, right. So I can understand this is just uncharted territories in a lot of ways. I know that you’re a big believer in educating yourself and mentorship and things like that, so when you look back at you know the different circles that you’ve run in is there anything that you would say stands out to you as the best advice that you’ve received Best advice.
Speaker 211:56
Honestly, I’m extremely grateful and extremely proud of the fact that my parents really instilled in me financial education, and I feel like it’s something that I’ve taken with me my entire life and I feel so privileged to have had that beginning, so I think that’s actually what I feel the most proud of and that has helped me.
12:19
My dad was an accountant as well, my mom was in banking, and so there was a lot of exposure and talk about money openly and freely, and I think that’s so incredibly important and this is part of what I do and I want to do more of this is just breaking down the barriers and just talking about it, because I feel like that’s the way we learn. That’s the way that we can understand other, different perspectives and how other people are doing things and and just improve our own situations, and I feel like, um, I just hope that, that that continues to happen and and you know, if I can help at least one person by you know me talking about my story or talking about how I do things and open up, and opening up people’s eyes to different ways of doing things.
Speaker 113:02
I’m going to do that, yeah, no that’s awesome and, on that note, we’re just going to take a really brief break for a word from our sponsors and we’ll be right back. Welcome to the Wealth Club. Hustle smart for real wealth. Own the future. Join a thriving community of go-getters on the path to overall wealth. What’s included? Live sessions with top coaches await you. Imagine having a virtual business mentor in your pocket, on the go for every aspect of your life. For just $30 a month, you’ll get daily accountability sessions, monthly meetings and networking opportunities. And that’s not all. You’ll also get a community of coaches, monthly prizes and so much more. Become part of the 1%. Your journey has just begun. Join like-minded leaders and commit to the growth you need for your mind, body, bankroll and soul. Ready to get started, join the Wealth Club today to unlead your true potential. To sign up, go to schoolcom forward. Slash the Wealth Club. Thanks again for following along with this episode of inspired to invest.
14:04
In addition to real estate investing and running my own brand experience agency for 18 years, I also published a book called the accidental entrepreneur in october of 2021. This is my story and it chronicles how I turned tragedy into triumph to embrace my destiny in entrepreneurship. If you’re interested in picking up a copy. You can find the link at serenahomesrealtorcom and you can also find my link tree with all of the retailers in the details below. Thanks again for your support. Have you always wanted to invest in real estate to build long-term wealth? Start today with just $10,000. Introducing Honeytree Real Estate Investment Trust. Welcome to the Temple Building, a mixed-use 0.48-acre site with 25 residential tenants and five retail spaces In the heart of Brantford, ontario. This property was purchased for $5.8 million and was recently paid for $6.470 million and an instant investor upside of $670,000. Honeytree is taking on a light, value-add strategy, adding AC, laundry and energy-star-efficient appliances Coming soon to Honeytree Real Estate Investment Trust. For more information, go to honeytreegrowca.
15:22
Inspired to Invest is proud to support the Beyond Success program. In today’s complex world, it’s absolutely crucial for our youth to learn how to take charge of their financial future. We believe that every young person deserves access to accurate, practical financial information. Designed to bridge the gap, the Beyond Success program leverages a comprehensive educational boot camp to equip young minds with essential financial literacy skills. At Beyond Success, it’s not just about teaching financial literacy. It’s also about fostering a foundation for a prosperous and empowered future.
15:56
Join us. Together, we can build a brighter financial future for the next generations. Join us. Together we can build a brighter financial future for the next generations. Hey everybody, welcome back to Inspired to Invest. I have Stephanie Berry here with me today from Real Estate Investing Finance, a fractional CFO firm, and she’s talking about her experience kind of growing her portfolio while she was growing her family and then launching her own business to support other real estate investors. I guess one thing I always like to ask people is what’s the craziest thing that’s happened to you as a real estate investor and entrepreneur so far?
Speaker 216:34
So I would say the craziest thing has just been taking the leap out of corporate finance. It was a huge decision for me. I was coming off of my second maternity leave, I had started up my business, I had some clients. I didn’t feel fully ready I don’t know if you ever feel fully ready and so you know, just taking that leap out and not having that of a salary was a huge, huge thing for me. But now that I’ve done it, I don’t think I would have done it any other way, because I feel like you thrive. You end up thrusting yourself into resiliency and figuring it out, and I feel like that’s what you just have to do, and I think as entrepreneurs, we’re very good at that and we don’t give ourselves enough credit. Yeah, so I think that’s been the hardest, because obviously it’s a roller coaster ride, right. You know amazing things and then challenges and then roadblocks, and you know overwhelm and all of the feelings at once, but you just keep working at it.
Speaker 117:41
Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. Now, I guess, in terms of lessons, is there anything that you look back on your experiences and think like I wish I knew then what I know now. Or is there anything that you think you would have done differently Now, knowing like where we’re at today?
Speaker 217:58
Yeah so I think it’s like what we we chatted about with with the last couple of years. I think if had I known what I know now, I would have set aside more reserves, and so that’s definitely something that I suggest to my clients. As you know, interest rates start coming down as cash flow starts coming back in. As much as it’s tempting to just, you know, want to take the cash flow and run because you haven’t seen it potentially in so long. You know, definitely building up your reserve fund and having it be more robust is something that I’m suggesting.
18:43
Capital improvement, reserves, things, even an emergency fund, or even seasonal, seasonal expenses, you know, things that come up once a year that come and surprise you that you might not have cash flow for. Yeah, these are all things that you should be planning ahead. Putting that money aside, you know, a little bit every month is way, way more manageable on your cash flow than having these big surprises come in. So that’s something I would definitely do. And then, like I mentioned, just learning to pivot faster, right, and so you know that’s definitely something, if this happens again, that I will be. You know, looking at things faster, reaching out to people for support faster, getting my options out there and making a move, yeah, kind of waiting around, waiting around. So those are the things.
Speaker 119:22
When you talk about your business and the different real estate investors that you work with, what would you say is kind of like a common mistake that you tend to notice and then try to go about fixing, or you know just something that you think like someone starting out should really have their ear to the ground more closely on.
Speaker 219:39
Yeah. So for beginner real estate investors, I think definitely getting the right tools and systems in place to manage your finances right from the start is crucial. So making sure that you are setting up a separate bank account is absolutely number one thing you should be doing. And then you know, getting in the habit of tracking your finances on a monthly basis. That, to me, is a non-negotiable, and so you definitely should be sitting down and tracking everything that’s going through the separate bank account for your properties. Having multiple bank accounts for different properties is also very helpful to keep things separate so that you can see what’s going on, and staying consistent on that, and making sure that you’re putting aside, you know, the proper documentation so that you’re ready when it comes to tax time. Yeah, that’s the main thing for the beginner real estate investors.
20:33
Once you start leveling up, I think the big thing that I notice is people think they can self-manage longer than they should be self-managing, and so I get a lot of people coming to me that are in full like overwhelm and meltdown mode because they’re now into you know, 345 properties and they have no idea where their finances are anymore. They’re way behind. Yeah, they don’t have a bookkeeper. They’re still managed, trying to manage and like spreadsheets and it’s, and it’s just it’s out of control, and so at that point in time it’s even harder for you know a finance professional to come in, because now we have to clean everything up it’s going to cost them more to do that and then get the systems you know where they’re supposed to be and then get onto a smooth run with them.
Speaker 121:17
So I think those are the two big, big things and I mean it’s even harder to just recognize things if you let too much time go by, right? I mean I had my own business for 18 years, so you know I was really diligent about reconciling my accounts every month and stuff like that. But at least you could acknowledge, like, what those expenses were if you’re doing it on that kind of a consistent basis as opposed to after you’re like. You know, someone was talking about, for example, that they hadn’t looked at their credit card statements in months and they’re like they didn’t know that something had renewed at a high amount or this or that, and it’s like look, what do you mean a few months. And you know this is someone that’s quite experienced, but I was very surprised to hear that he doesn’t look at things like that, because I look at my credit card, probably weekly, and I just like I don’t let it to be a giant amount at the end of the month, right? So I’m pretty diligent about paying it regularly, which is also good for your credit and things like that. And then I think the other thing that I adopted when I had my business is that I found a lot of the accounting softwares didn’t allow you to project appropriately because we would put the invoices in, but it didn’t really capture all the expenses you’re expecting to come out.
22:19
So one thing that we adapted and it was actually in part of hiring a bookkeeper I had a number of account managers that had to provide details of who was going to get paid, and that could be upwards of a couple hundred people weekly.
22:31
So we had this spreadsheet where we would just identify, like we know, $10,000 is coming out in two weeks for payroll for this event.
22:38
So at least I could look at you know what’s in the bank, what’s coming in, and then our spreadsheet would kind of capture the high level numbers of what’s coming out over a period of time. But I could literally look at that and be like, okay, we’ve got six months of operating costs and obviously there could be some variables and stuff like that. But it gave me at least a general idea of where we stood in terms of the health of the business and profitability, making decisions and stuff like that, right, and I think if people are just making decisions blindly, it can feel like you have a lot of money, but if you’re not considering those expenses, then you could actually be in the negative and you wouldn’t even know it Right. So I think people need to be very cautious of budgeting appropriately and leaning on the professionals, and I was guilty of not hiring a bookkeeper for 10 years, and then I did change my life you know, got back probably 20 hours a week and stuff like that.
23:22
So, you know, I think you do have to consider, like all of those things and when you’re starting out, yes, you want to save on costs, but you know, saving on time allows you to focus on sales, which brings more money in. So there’s a lot of different things that you can consider when it comes to um.
Speaker 223:45
So next for me, I’m definitely working quite hard on my business and scaling my business um, and so I’ve been working in different avenues creating some. So I have some um online programs that I help beginner real estate investors so I can make that accessible for them. Yeah, I’ve been working quite heavily on some projects lately. So a lot of real estate investors are looking for a finance professional to just give an overview of how their portfolio is doing and provide some options for next steps, especially as we exit. You know this kind of hard time. They want to know like, what should I do next? And so I’ve been doing a lot of those types of projects. But my main focus is on the ongoing CFO services that I provide on a monthly basis and those are typically to medium medium sized investors, think like eight to 10 sort of properties that really they want a fully hands off approach to their finances, and so I’ve been. Obviously, that takes up the majority of my time. Yeah, in terms of my you mentioned like a finance like a finance.
Speaker 124:52
Yeah, yeah so.
Speaker 224:56
I’ve kind of moved away from like targeting a specific number Again, for me it’s all about like unlocking the life that I never want to retire from. So I’m just trying to create the lifestyle that I want, and so ultimately, what I want is like right now I’m not working full time hours and that that’s never my. I never want to go back to working full time hours Because I want to be out there enjoying life, doing traveling and, you know, being able to take advantage of hobbies yeah well, I just want to continue to. You know, being able to take advantage of hobbies yeah Well, I just want to continue to. You know, scale my business.
25:32
I would love to bring in other people that are looking for the same sort of lifestyle, you know, want to make an impact and but still have the freedom to live. So I would love to build out my team a little bit more and then just I can have a little bit more opportunity to scale down and just be more present with my family and do some more things that I love. I would love also to get a little bit further into educating financial literacy for kids Obviously, having kids myself like it’s top of mind, I’d love to get into more of those initiatives, yeah, so that’s kind of what’s on the horizon for me.
Speaker 126:13
I can make an introduction for you. There are some investors in my network that you might know, but they have a program, uh, specifically on financial literacy for children and they go into these high needs areas and stuff like that.
26:23
So it’s called Lord again and um, yeah, I can definitely share a little bit more information of that when we go offline. Awesome, that’d be great. Uh, so I guess, in terms of motivational quotes obviously the name of this podcast is inspired to invest I like to ask people what kind of quotes motivate and inspire them um, I think there was one that I I used to live by and it was um, I’m trying to remember it now it live your life steeped in experiences.
Speaker 226:52
Because I love tea, so it was a play on steeped and because I always, I always believe in the best investment being investments in experiences. Yeah, that was something that I really that really resonated with me, because that’s the part that that’s living life right, it’s the experience piece.
Speaker 127:11
Yeah, that’s that’s for sure. Now, for anyone that wants to learn more about your services or any opportunities to work with you, what’s the best way for people to find you?
Speaker 227:19
Sure, yeah. So I’m on Instagram, my handle is at reifinanceca and then my website is the similar reifinanceca. Those are the two best ways to get ahold of me.
Speaker 127:30
Perfect, so we’ll include that in the show notes below, of course. Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to chat with us today. I think it is a really important topic of conversation for anyone that has tuned in. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, make sure that you like, comment and subscribe. You can also follow along with us on social. I’d inspire to Invest podcast. And remember, when you invest in yourself, the sky’s the limit. Thanks again. Thank you to the Wealth Club for bringing you this episode of Inspired to Invest. The views represented on this podcast are for general information only and does not constitute investment or other professional advice or an offering of securities. The host and guests featured on Inspired to Invest make no representations as to the performance of any particular investment. Should you decide to make an investment, you are responsible for conducting your own review and analysis. It is recommended that you obtain independent legal accounting and tax advice from licensed professionals.