Will We Get Rich From Betting? 😬

Good morning, and welcome to June! 

This might be one of our favourite months of the year - the days are getting warmer, they’re getting sunnier, and it’s also Steph’s birthday month (and this year is extra celebratory thanks to a big milestone birthday that’s coming up). 

We hope that you’re excited to kick start the new month with another issue of Money Convos. This month we’re bringing you some important money topics and interesting money updates. Let’s jump in! 

Here’s what’s up in this copy 🤑🗞 

• The new way of ‘investing’ is… gambling? ⚠️

• A spending challenge update 💰

• Dennis went on a bachelor party trip ✈️

• Why is everybody ‘life stretching’? 

• Money lessons Steph learned before age 30 🧁

Money Convo Of The Month

Will You Get Rich From Betting??

Investing is probably one of the most impactful topics that you’ll ever learn about (which is why we talk about it literally all of the time!)… But one of the main questions that we see come up time and time again is when and how will I get rich from investing?? 

And it’s actually a very valid question that almost everyone asks throughout their money journey, and unfortunately the answer usually leaves people feeling a bit unsatisfied. 

Why? Because the answer is that it takes time, and time requires patience. At this point it’s not a secret that you can make a life changing amount of money from investing in the stock market over the long-term, but the idea that you can do it overnight - or over a short period of time - is simply a lie. 

We’re living in very uncertain times right now, from geopolitical issues, the housing crisis, the rising cost of living, and so much more. People are fed up, and they’re looking for alternative ways to earn extra money, and we’ll be the first to tell you that there’s nothing wrong with that at all… unless you’re being sold on a new form of ‘investing’ (emphasis on the quotations) that somehow requires little to no knowledge and a very small amount of money. 

Sounds great, right? Well here’s the thing… When we say ‘investing’, what we really mean is gambling, but we’ll get there. 

For a lot of people, this sounds like the perfect solution to everything that we’ve been seeing and experiencing. Imagine someone telling you that you could solve all of your financial problems using only one app and a few dollars - many people would be sold right away. 

And if you still have no idea what we’re talking about… Welcome to the world of prediction markets. The idea is really simple - prediction markets are an online marketplace that allows you to make predictions (or bets) on real life outcomes. That means that you can put real money behind yes or no questions, and if you’re right, you make money. Easy, right? 

Here’s a few examples of what that looks like - When will Taylor Swift drop her next album? Who will win the next election? Will the price of gas fall to $___? Will the weather in Toronto hit 30 degrees this week? Will the San Antonio Spurs beat the New York Knicks? 

This might sound like a series of random, and possibly irrelevant, questions, but to those who are using these platforms, getting any or all of these questions right could be the difference between them making rent this month or not. 

Or, if you have insider knowledge at the company you work for, being able to cash in on thousands of dollars using insider trading. And yes, if you look up some of the most recent prediction market stories in the news, you’ll probably be shocked to learn what people are up to (like the Google engineer who placed bets using insider information and won $1.2 million, but has since been arrested). 

The main thing to understand here is that, despite what the ads say, you’re placing bets - not investing. 

The main platforms that are driving this new form of gambling are Polymarket and Kalshi. Both of these companies have essentially borrowed the marketing playbook from the sports betting industry, but what they’ve been able to do is create a product that markets itself to a broader group of people (not just sports fans). 

We recently shared a YouTube video where we dove deeper into this topic, highlighting how there’s been a rise in gambling addictions, and that these platforms have been benefiting greatly because of it. 

So, the next time you see one of these platforms (that are classified as ‘financial platforms’ in the US by the way), remember that they operate like a gambling product.

Check out this video to hear more of our thoughts on this topic.

$32,000 Or Less Challenge 💰

Okay, so, I have something to admit…

…I’m starting to feel like I might go a little bit over my $32,000 spending challenge limit for the year. 🫣

I’m still committed to this goal, and I’m going to continue to do my best to hit $32,000 (or as close to it as I can!) in 2026. But, looking at my progress realistically so far, I know that I’m going to really need to focus in order to make it happen. 

I will say that I’ve found that I’ve been spending very intentionally this year - I’m just not allowing any breathing room in my budget for the bigger expenses that pop up. Anyways, let’s get into this month’s results. 

In May, I spent $3,260.13, and here’s how it was split out -

That means that I have $17,086.19 left in my annual total to spend for the next 7 months of 2026. 

*Correction from last month’s issue - my grocery total was incorrect, so my actual amount left over prior to this month was $20,346.32. 

I now need to spend an average of $2,440.88/month for the next 7 months in order to hit my goal. 

If you want to see me talk more about this in video form, keep an eye on our Instagram this week.

How Much I Spent Going On A Bachelor Party Trip

I’m going to be a groomsman for the first time later this year - it’s for a friend’s wedding, and I’m really excited to be a part of it! 

The first groomsman activity actually happened last month, which was his bachelor party. He wanted to do a guys trip to celebrate, and we ended up going to Mexico City (yes, coincidentally a few weeks after Steph and I went - thankfully I loved it there!). 

It was a four day trip, and we knew about all of the expenses in advance. The groom covered the Airbnb and some of the food and activities on the trip, and the rest of us all took turns covering the other meals and activities.

Here’s the full breakdown on what I spent -

The trip was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to watch one of my oldest friends get married later this year. If you want to see the behind-the-scenes of the trip, check out this video.

Is Everyone Life Stretching Right Now? 👀

There’s a new term in town, and it’s called life stretching. 

Life Stretching = When younger adults delay the traditional milestones, and stay in the different phases of life longer (examples include living with parents longer, getting married and having kids later, waiting to buy a house, etc). 

We recently stumbled across an article that talked about how common it’s becoming for young people to do these things later in life, and ‘stretch’ the current phase that they’re in for longer…

…and considering that Steph turns 30 this week, it had us thinking about the fact that we’ve technically been life stretching ourselves. 

We generally weren’t in a rush to get married (that one was based on our personal situation being self-employed and working together), and now we aren’t in a rush to buy a house (which is more so based on the cost of housing where we currently love to live, and us knowing that our money is better served going towards our long-term stock market investments). 

But our personal experiences aside, it seems like most young people who are life stretching are doing it because they feel like they have to due to the current cost of living. 

There’s a few ways to look at this - on one hand, it’s not ideal that the cost of living, and housing, continues to outpace income growth. On the other hand, we - at the individual level - have to focus on what we can control, and doing things like living with our parents longer and/or buying a house later are ways we can make it work. 

We’d love to know if you’re currently life stretching, or if you’ve life stretched in the past - let us know by dropping a comment on this video that we recently shared about this topic.

It’s Time To Turn 30! 🥳

It’s my 30th birthday in two days, and honestly… I’m feeling really excited! 

I love a fresh start and a reason to celebrate, and I’m looking at the start of my 30s as both of those things. 

Over the past few months, I’ve been really reflective on what I've accomplished throughout my 20s, and also about all of the different lessons that I’ve learned. 

There’s a few key money lessons that looking back truly helped guide me through my 20s, and that I know I’ll see the benefits from throughout my 30s - 

• Your 20s are all about building habits - it’s really easy to think that you’ll start doing the ‘right things’ later, when you know who you are more and when you have more money, but building confidence actually comes from doing and getting started. You won’t magically do the ‘right things’ in the future if you don’t start building the right habits now. 

• You need to know where to take risks - the beautiful thing about being in your 20s is that you have time to try new things and take risks, and that’s a good thing… but you need to take the right risks. For me, I quit my job, became self-employed and started a completely different career path at age 25, but I also invested in passive ETFs. I took a risk, and then ‘protected’ my money at the same time. 

• The sooner you invest, the less you’ll need to invest - it’s not a lie when they say that the first $100,000 is the hardest, and after that compound interest really starts to do its thing. Start investing now, and keep learning about how it works as you go. 

• You need to create your money system before you create your lifestyle - it’s so easy to get caught up in buying things because other people are, and being in a rush to build your ‘dream life’... but, if you focus on building your savings first, and creating your lifestyle second, you’ll be exponentially better off.

Here’s to turning 30 - I can’t wait for the lessons I’ll learn over the next 10 years!