Building Your Website and Renting vs Buying a Home

Darryl:
Have you ever been driving and you've got the radio blast in, you're feeling good about the day, then you hear it, that weird noise, the little click. Maybe it's the rattle.

René:
Yeah. And it doesn't go away.

Darryl:
Yes.

René:
That's so annoying.

Darryl:
So this morning I'm on my way to a meeting, I got the radio cranked, I'm in the greatest of moods, and then I hear it tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. And I can feel my mood start slipping, right? So I turned down the radio and I started listening and I'm like, is that the timing belt? But then I don't hear it anymore. It's that whole thing, right? You. You turn down the radio, you don't hear it. And then I'm like, okay, turn the radio back on. I'm singing along to the song. Then about 30 seconds goes by and I'm like, there it is again. So I mute the radio again.

Darryl:
I think I hear it. Nope, it's gone.

René:
So annoying.

Darryl:
Here's what drove me crazy. I push mute for like the fifth time to try to find this tick, tick, tick to realize it's in the damn song. It's a sound effect in the song!

René:
That happened to me last night. Fuck. It wasn't in the car though. It was on tv. And I was like, what the hell? Is the furnace making some funny noise or something? Oh my God. Yeah, I know. Especially with all this friggin digitized music now. They just come up with all sorts of shit.

Darryl:
All these artsy musicians who think they're adding a ticking noise sound that sounds like a busted timing belt, by the way, is like the height of creativity. It sounds great in the song, don't get me wrong, but go screw yourself. This is Taming the Hustle...

René:
Or Something of the Sorts.

René:
So now you have to tell me what song it was.

Darryl:
Unpretty by TLC.

René:
Oh, there you go. Oh, that's kicking it old school. It's even worse with the new ones.

Darryl:
Oh, no kidding.

René:
We had our team playing some classics there from our high school days. And I was like, oh man.

Darryl:
Like Cotton Eye Joe. KIicking it old school is amazing, but I'll tell you, TLC guys gave me problems.

René:
You got 99 problems, but your bitch ain't one.

Darryl:
Speaking of problems, today, I want to dive into a question that every business owner faces at some point, and that's what's the best way to create a website for your business?

René:
Yeah, in this day and age, for sure.

Darryl:
Well, exactly. And it's like, at a time where business owners don't understand the importance of a website, having the right one is crucial.

René:
Absolutely.

Darryl:
So the question we often get asked is, should we take the DIY route when building a website? Should we hire a web designer or developer or go that whole monthly subscription platform like Wix or Shopify or Woocommerce? And each option has its own pros and cons. So today I want to break it down just a little bit to help you decide which path makes the most sense for your goals and your budget.

René:
Yeah. And probably where you're at in your business too. Right?

Darryl:
Exactly. So let me explain the three types and then we'll get into how you choose. So first, let's talk about building your own website. Obviously, this is usually the most budget friendly and if you're tech savvy, you can have a lot of control over the look, the functionality, and it can be really fun to build your own website.

René:
But.

Darryl:
But if you're like me, I ha websites, I know how to do it. They are awful to build. I don't know why people do this as a job. I pat them on the back because it is that skill that I just think is the most torturous skill in all of marketing.

René:
It's admirable, though. But also for a business owner that's trying to do it themselves. I don't know, man. There's. You could be spending your efforts, like actually working your business.

Darryl:
Exactly.

René:
And trying to drive revenue to be able to pay for people to do that and to have them do it professionally.

Darryl:
Yes.

René:
I've seen the do it yourself websites. They're awful.

Darryl:
Most of them. Yeah.

René:
You need a professional that knows what the hell he's doing.

Darryl:
Well, and that's the thing. It's a huge learning curve, especially when you're diving into something like WordPress or learning the basics of HTML.

René:
And how many times are you going to do that in your lifetime, Darryl?

Darryl:
Exactly.

René:
Why would you try to master that of all things?

Darryl:
Because it's cheap. Right. And that's what people think they're like, well, I don't really need a website, so I'll just do it myself. It'll be cheap. And you have to remember that time has value too. So like you said, it takes a lot of time. And when you weigh that cost carefully, if you have the time and enjoy the challenge, then, yeah, go for it. If you're just at the beginning stages, you haven't opened the business yet you're planning.

Darryl:
I always tell this to business owners. When they first come to us as new businesses, startups, let's get your website going. And they're like, well, hold on. Well, let's talk about opening the business. And I'm like, well, you can't open the business until you have the website.

René:
Yes, I agree. Even I know that.

Darryl:
Yeah, it's like you need to be 100% prepared. So let's talk about that next step of hiring a web designer or developer.

René:
I apologize for cutting you off earlier by the way. That was.

Darryl:
That's okay. This is what this is all about. I cut you off. I don't apologize.

René:
You apologize way too fucking much.

Darryl:
Well, not for cutting you off anyway.

René:
I felt bad.

Darryl:
Yeah, well, just because I'll cry in the fetal position tonight doesn't mean you have to apologize. Don't worry about it.

René:
If I don't see it. Out of sight, out of mind. You're not going to make me feel bad about it now.

Darryl:
So let's talk about spending that dollar and hiring a web designer developer. Obviously this is a much pricier option, but you're paying for that expertise. Like you mentioned earlier.

René:
You get what you pay for.

Darryl:
Ah, 100%. I was just going to say that. See, now you're stealing my words.

René:
No, I'm just reading your mind. You complete me. We finish each other's sentences now.

Darryl:
Well, just like what we do in our tasks, a professional will take your vision and make it functional, polished and 100%. It'll be more SEO friendly.

René:
My brother in law is a website designer. As one of his many hats with his business but man, is he good at it. But like you say, it's not for everyone, man, you need to know what the fuck you're doing.

Darryl:
Oh yeah, and you have to enjoy it. I, you know, code can go fuck right off as far as I'm concerned.

René:
Let's remind everyone that you're a marketing consultant and not a website designer.

Darryl:
Yeah, when we're talking code, like I've built websites, many websites in the day and when you forget an end bracket in the code and the whole website goes down because of this one stupid bracket, I just can't handle it.

René:
That's the old days of the friggin Commodore 64 though. You remember that? Oh my God, I hated it. You had to code this shit and it was like, oh my God, this is awful. I just want to play a video game.

Darryl:
Exactly. But using a professional and spending that money, it's a great choice because you need that customization sometimes. Like a booking system or an Interactive portfolio or just a simply unique layout. Think of it as paying for peace of mind. You're getting someone who knows how to make your site look sharp, work seamlessly, and the most important part, Rank better on search engines.

René:
No kidding. And the complexity of your website too, right? If you're tracking inventory and stuff like that, like, that's not for the average Joe.

Darryl:
Exactly.

René:
That is not something you do yourself anymore.

Darryl:
But here's the thing. If you're starting out hiring a pro, it requires that bigger upfront investment, which might be anywhere from a few hundred dollars depending on how complex your website is, to thousands, like several thousands of dollars, and depending on the complexity, as I said. But don't forget, you need to regularly update and maintain your website. There are likely additional charges down the road too. So if your budget allows for it, you want a site that stands out. So hire that developer designer and that is a great option. Just be prepared for that upfront cost and ask about long term maintenance fees before you even start. You don't want those surprises down the road.

René:
I've actually had some business owners that, you know, people that were working for the man and decided to take a leap for themselves and believed in the product or believed in the service that they were offering and would ask me, you know, like, I created a Facebook page and I'm on Instagram and wherever other platform they may use and they'll say, well, you know, do I still need a website? What are your thoughts on that, Mr. Boulley?

Darryl:
100%. I do not go to Instagram or Facebook when I'm Googling and the best Chinese restaurant in Toronto.

René:
There you go. That's my thought too. But I just, I didn't know.

Darryl:
When I'm in Barrie and I want to look for the best shoe store, I don't go on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter or TikTok. I go to Google.

René:
I am with you. So I'm glad we agree. Yeah, I'm smarter than I look.

Darryl:
Well, you are, you are. It's. I. It sucks that I have to look at you so much sometimes, but you are smarter.

René:
We don't have to do video. I could do these in the nude.

Darryl:
Wait, I thought you weren't wearing pants.

René:
You'll never know.

Darryl:
Okay, finally, let's talk about platforms like Wix and Shopify and Woocommerce. Because these offer a sort of middle ground solution where you pay a monthly fee for website templates and support and built in hosting and if you want e-commerce features, Shopify and Woocommerce are fantastic. Because they handle everything from payment processing to inventory and really everything in between. But you're also a little bit limited to the platform capabilities.

René:
A little more cookie cutter.

Darryl:
Yeah, that's where it sometimes gets a little tricky. And if you need something highly customized, you're definitely going to hit some walls. And if you're customization beyond the template and you decide that's the route you want to go, you can hire people and you can pay for plugins to do this, but those come at a cost and those are usually a monthly fee. So you're going to pay a monthly fee to Shopify or wix and then you're paying for all these different plugins per month and they add up over time. I've actually had clients say, yeah, we have a WIX website and it's not bad, it's a little expensive. And I say, what do you pay monthly? And they were over $1,000 a month. Apps like this become a hidden cost and I was shocked. I was floored.

Darryl:
I was like, holy man, if you would have took that money, hired a developer to do this website, you would have been out the door. That's like a year's worth of your cost.

René:
Yeah, but like with my recent renovation though, like I got plugins everywhere. Do I have to pay extra for any?

Darryl:
Different plugins. That was a bad dad joke. So how do you choose which route is best for you? Well, I'm going to try to give you some quick tips. As we talked about budget. If it is tight, DIY is going to be your best bet out of the gate... for now. And I can't stress that enough. For now, if you have more room to spend and want something custom, go for the designer. And if you're willing to pay monthly for simplicity and built in tools, platforms like Shopify and Wix, then that could be your sweet spot.

Darryl:
But something important to ask yourself is how much time do you have? Because as we mentioned, DIY takes time upfront to learn to build and troubleshoot. Platforms like Wix and Shopify are a little bit faster to get going since they're designed to be user friendly, but they still take time. And hiring a designer on that side frees up your time. But the process might take weeks or even months depending on the project. And the other important aspect is how are your technical skills? Because I have people who say, oh, I'm pretty tech savvy and they say we're going to build a Shopify site and they get 20 minutes into their project. And they're like, okay, what do I do next?

René:
That's like buying something from Ikea with no instructions.

Darryl:
That's exactly. Yeah, exactly.

René:
No thanks. Count me out.

Darryl:
But if you're tech adverse, then you have no choice. You have to hire a designer.

René:
Yeah, I agree.

Darryl:
It's simple. Okay, my last point and the most important and that is your business goals. Really think about what you want your website to do. If it's simply a brochure site like we call it. And that's. And we call it that because it's a simple website that is literally like a brochure on the Internet.

René:
Yeah. Rarely changes you updated as just information. Yeah.

Darryl:
And it's there to showcase your services. And in that case, DIY or a platform is great because it's nice and easy to do. But if you need E-commerce, you're going to have to go with something like Shopify or WooCommerce or hire that developer because you need that strong set of tools for that. But if you're envisioning something unique like a client portal, we have lawyers who have asked us, you know, can you build a site with a client portal? And we give them the price. They are shocked. They're like, why is it so expensive? And it's like, because these are integrated systems.

René:
It takes work. You're not asking me to change your oil, you're asking me to build you an engine.

Darryl:
Exactly. So remember, the goal is to pick the option that best aligns with your business goals, your budget and your available time. And I want you to think of building a website like buying a car. It has to be the right fit for you. If you cheap out and buy the car that doesn't fit your lifestyle, you're going to have problems down the road. You're not going to be able to fit stuff in that you want it to fit in. And your website, lastly, should ever be evolving. Whatever you choose today might work for now, but start planning to be better later on.

Darryl:
If you did DIY or went with wix, that's fine for now. But as you grow as a business and you have to put more information on your site and you want to put more detail into your site, then start looking at hiring developers.

René:
It's definitely not a set it and forget it mindset when it comes to website.

Darryl:
No, 100% you have to jump like, yeah, I'm not even going to get into that. All right, that's my scoop. Jump on the old WWW and rock that website. All right, we'll Be right back.

Darryl:
You don't have to build a website right this minute.

René:
Yeah, I'm not sure what website I'm building. No? Well, I mean, my Only Fans account's already set up, so.

Darryl:
And you had to call me to set that up?

René:
Yeah. That was awkward. Can you upload these videos? Darryl, My face is covered. You'll never recognize me.

Darryl:
Oh, God. All right, what the hell are you talking about today? It better not be your Only Fans account.

René:
Well, you've been nagging me since we started these episodes about talking to the audience about renting versus owning.

Darryl:
Yes. Because we are in an age where doesn't matter how old you are or young you are. The question comes up. Do I rent a house? Do I buy a house if I can afford it? Do I do that? Do I invest? What do I do?

René:
Should I stay or should I go now?

Darryl:
Yeah. People ask me this question, and you know what I always say? I'm not a fucking financial planner.

René:
Yeah.

Darryl:
Just because I have a podcast with a financial planner on it does not give me the qualifications to answer these questions.

René:
What I always say is #callRene.

Darryl:
Exactly.

René:
Well, there's no right or wrong answer.

Darryl:
Okay, well, that's good. Thanks for joining us today, guys.

René:
I'm not going to convince you of either as well. You know, I'm not going to try to persuade you to. To believe or, you know, for me to try to influence you to think that renting is better or that purchasing is better. It really depends on your circumstances.

Darryl:
So how do you make these kinds of decisions?

René:
I'm going to talk you through it as if I were talking a client through it, and we'll make sense of it.

Darryl:
All right.

René:
So it really depends where you live. So that's typically the first conversation.

Darryl:
Okay.

René:
Is where are you looking at buying and where are you looking at renting?

Darryl:
Yeah. Yeah.

René:
Okay. So I'll use myself as an example. So when I sold my home with the anticipation of buying the building we're in, renovating it and all of that stuff. And we sold a little earlier than we had anticipated because we were at the peak of the markets after year one of the pandemic.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
So Megan and I said, you know what? Let's jump on the train while the going is good, and let's sell at the Peak. You know, the old buy a low, sell high.

Darryl:
Wait a second. You, as a financial planner, knew the right times in the market.

René:
No, no, no. Don't put words in my mouth.

Darryl:
Just kidding.

René:
I'm not timing the market there, but I. I knew that even if it kept going for another year, that we were somewhere about.

Darryl:
Yeah, yeah.

René:
The peak.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
Right. And I didn't want to risk it.

Darryl:
So you pay attention is what you do.

René:
Yeah. Playing it safe and being a little on the conservative side, we decided to get out. And maybe things got a little hotter in the months to come following the sale, but we were close.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
So then we knew we had to rent. So we ended up renting a two bedroom apartment that really fit our needs, to be honest. You know, it was at the point where the girls were off to school. There was no one but Meghan and I and the dogs. And it was in the middle of a pandemic where we couldn't have guests over for a dinner party anyway.

Darryl:
Right, exactly.

René:
So we just plunked our big TV in the living room there and mounted it on the wall. And we watched a ton of movies and series through the pandemic when we were isolating, and it really ended up doing the trick. But the kicker is because the region that we live in, we were renting for like a thousand bucks a month.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
Right. So there's no home that I know of that with someone with a mortgage, even if it's a tiny little one, that you're paying a mortgage, you're paying your property taxes, you're paying utilities, you're paying your insurance, and you're also responsible for the upkeep. Right. The upkeep is your repairs, your maintenance, your renovations. There's no way you can live on a thousand bucks a month.

Darryl:
Exactly.

René:
So we stayed there for two years. Right. So for 24,000 bucks, we lived. Well, in my opinion, it was super cute. We were the first ones to live in the. In the newly renovated place.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
That is because we're in a small northern community.

Darryl:
Right.

René:
Things are different in the city.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
However, things are also a lot more expensive in the city.

Darryl:
Yes.

René:
You know, a $400,000 home here is gorgeous, right?

Darryl:
Yes.

René:
You spend a half a million bucks on a single dwelling. Home is beautiful in Kirkland Lake.

Darryl:
In Toronto. I could buy a parking spot for that.

René:
Yeah. You get half a condo. It's really important that you set the grounds for where you're looking at buying or renting, because that has a pretty significant impact, in my opinion.

Darryl:
Yeah. No, Kidding.

René:
Because you got to look at cost of renting and you got to look at cost of homes. The second thing is what we're living through right now is I wouldn't say a historically high, but it's been a long time since we saw interest rates at these levels.

Darryl:
Ah, no kidding.

René:
Right. So someone contemplating buying a home, you have to come up with a down payment. Provided you have that, you're now faced with a really hefty mortgage payment because interest rates are super high compared to what they were two years ago.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
So where do you live and what is the interest rate environment that we're living in?

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
So I'm kind of going through the pros and cons of both as we kind of go down the line of you this conversation of, you know, what is the right decision for you? The next thing, Darryl, is people don't always think of. This is flexibility. This is the most common sentence I hear is I don't want to piss my money away with rent.

Darryl:
Yes.

René:
I want to put it into something. However.

Darryl:
Yeah. We've been told this from our parents since the dawn of time..

René:
And in many ways it makes sense in many ways. But if you look at your flexibility, if you are looking at moving around because of job opportunity or just because you want to be adventurous and you want to live in different communities or parts of the country or different parts of the world.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
That if you're going to buy and sell everywhere you go, you're going to be looking at your initial costs. Right. Your purchasing costs are the down payment.

Darryl:
Exactly.

René:
Are legal costs. Home inspection costs. Probably an appraisal for the lender. And if you hire a realtor for selling your home, then you now have to pay the selling costs, which is, you know, 4 to 6%, I would guess. So if you're hopping around, let's say every one to two or three years, regardless of the real estate market, it may actually be costing you money to do something like this.

Darryl:
Yeah. No kidding.

René:
And you have to make sure that you live there long enough to pass the principal residence test. Right. So that you don't have to pay a capital gains tax in the event that you do sell at a gain.

Darryl:
Yeah. And I've known people like this, and I'm not talking like students who don't have a family and they're jumping city to city. I'm talking actual families of four. Really well off. And they're just renting because that's what the job is going from city to city for a couple of years at a time.

René:
Our parents generation worked for one employer had, you know, hopefully a pension plan and retired with that same employer after 30 some years of service. But that does not happen anymore. It's really, really rare. And people are a lot more mobile. Like a lot of my clients have their families spread all over Canada and many in the US and many abroad. We've got clients that have, you know, their children are teaching in Korea, you know, they're in Vietnam, they're working in the US as a nurse or whatever. So anyway, mobility and flexibility can make renting very attractive.

Darryl:
Yeah, no doubt.

René:
Because, you know, even though you probably have to sign a one year lease if you're in any size city really, but still after that year you just pack your furniture and in fact you can get a furnished one that you don't even have to pack up your sofa, you just pack up whatever's in your closet and you leave. Right. So we're in an era now where it's more attractive to rent because people are a lot more mobile, a lot more adventurous and a lot more open to moving around. So to me, renting is more attractive than it's ever been.

Darryl:
Yeah. Depending on the circumstance.

René:
Depending on the circumstance. Even a vacation home. I get asked often, you know, I'd really like to buy a home in Mexico. I'm like, that's fine. Okay. Let's say you buy a home in Cancun.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
Because that's where you want to be. You want to be where there's high traffic and tourism and you buy a home there. Well, you might get tired of traffic and you might get tired of tourism and you might want to be in a quieter area in Mexico. You might not even wanting to be in Mexico. You might want to be in Portugal or, or Spain or Italy. But if you rent right then all of a sudden you decide you've had it with Mexico and you want to change the scenery a little bit and the vibe or the culture and all of a sudden you end up in Portugal. Well, you don't have to deal with, you know, foreign tax, you don't have to deal with buying and sell. You don't have to deal with any of those headaches.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
But getting back to your principal residence is not a whole lot different now because people are very, very mobile.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
From a financial perspective, it does long term make sense to buy a home.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
So if you're going to stay in the same region and you have the resources, then, you know, renting versus buying, you end up further ahead by buying and having the equity that you built in your home. So the biggest pro of buying is building equity in your home and the capital appreciation of that. But that also has a lot to do with where you live. Because if you're in a region like Kirkland Lake is booming now because of the mining industry and what's going on in the surrounding area. But for, I would say a decade, we were in essentially a recession.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
Like, I remember buying my first house for like $34,000 Darryl. Like, it's insane.

Darryl:
My car was more expensive than your house.

René:
Right. So it, you know, buying versus renting, again, really, really depends on where you live and what the circumstances are. But like, if you have, say, a $500,000 home and you keep it for 20 years and you make those payments religiously, and after 20 years, the house is paid like that home, even if it grows at 5%, which is, I would say, conservative for the growth of real estate that we've seen in Canada. On average, you would have a home that would be worth well over a million bucks, and that's after putting, say, a 10% down. So you've forked up $50,000 immediately and you've made your mortgage payments instead of a rent payment. But even if you invest that 50,000 and even if you manage to earn, you know, like 8, 9, 10%, you're not going to come anywhere near that 1 million plus that you're going to have in the equity of your home. So it does make sense long term. Getting back to one of my points earlier is if you're buying and selling because you're mobile, because of your lifestyle, or because of your career, you know, you have to factor in the buying and selling costs, the interest rate environment that we're living in and the region that you live in, if that property is actually going to increase or decrease because, you know, you start selling at a loss because you're moving every three years, that could be problems, problematic as well, too.

Darryl:
Yeah, for sure.

René:
So there's no right or wrong answer in general, but if I'm talking specifically to one person, we're going to zero down on what makes most sense for them.

Darryl:
Now when it comes to retirement. Because I know people who own their home, they've retired, and they say, we're going to go into a condo. And they go and they sell their house. And then I say, wow, this condo that you bought, then I. I've heard it more times. Often than not. No, no, we're just renting. And I'm like, wait a second, you sold your house probably for A couple million bucks and now you're renting again.

Darryl:
My brain doesn't function for that because I've always been told, you sell your house, you move, you're going to buy something smaller, and that's how you're going to retire.

René:
See, but I love that attitude because now you're in your retirement years and you want again, the flexibility and the freedom and you want trouble free. Right?

Darryl:
True. Yes.

René:
You don't want to be worrying about plumbing problems. You don't want to worry about mowing your lawn. You don't want to worry about having to retire replace the roof every 15 or 20 years. Right. You want maintenance free because as you age, even if you were to buy the condo as an example, a lot of the people that I work with, including myself, do not want to mow lawn anymore. Right. So you don't want that upkeep of the big yard and the flower beds and all of that stuff. Like, what I have around the building here is more than enough.

René:
And it's all evergreens with mulch. Like, it's a very little work. But for renting, all of the headache is gone. And the only way that I could really put that into perspective is like when you're leasing a vehicle for three years and you have three years worth of warranty, you know, you have a fixed payment.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
You know that it's predictable for your budget in retirement. You know that you're not going to have any unexpected cost because you have full warranty. And you're not going to hear any of the rattles even if the music is off. And in three years you get to treat yourself to a brand new vehicle.

Darryl:
Yeah, yeah.

René:
Right. So renting is a bit similar. And when you retire, the other thing, too, when you mentioned they sell their house for, you know, 1.8 million bucks, and then all of a sudden you're renting for 3500 bucks a month. Well, depends on well, too. But let's say you decided to do this at 65 or 70 and you're going to rent for the rest of your life. Well, now you have $1.8 million that you get to play with. Right. Like, you may leave it for your kids anyway and just leave a legacy and have a nice hefty estate. But it also gives you the ability to spend it if you want to do more traveling.

René:
If you want to treat the kids and the grandkids now and give them some of that money up front instead of having all of your money tied up in real estate, you've now liquidated, so you have access to that cash. Right. Instead of taking some reverse mortgage like we've talk about, and paying interest and having contracts and additional costs, now you've got this investment that you've taken to us. We put it to work for you. You got 1.8 million that you can now do whatever the fuck you want.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
Alright, so just to stay on the same example, if you're 65 and we anticipate that you're going to live till age 85, and you're going to be 20 years in retirement and you're renting for 3500 bucks a month usually gets you a pretty nice pad. And you're earning a conservative 4% on your investment. Investment. You know, just because you're playing it safe during retirement, that means that you would need 578,000 of your investment to be able to fund that for your entire life. So that means that you have over $1.2 million left over to travel. And if you rent out of country when you want to winter somewhere, you can spend three months in Portugal at another $3,000 a month. And that just chews away at that extra $1.2 million that you've got. It really, really opens the doors to possibilities.

Darryl:
Yeah, no kidding.

René:
And if you're on this Earth for 85 years, it goes by fast, man. I'm almost 50, dude. I'm well over the halfway mark. So you start to think of these things, it's like, okay, what do I want to experience in life? What matters to me? What's important? Right.

Darryl:
Exactly.

René:
What are my personal goals? To make sure that I don't wake up at 80 saying, fuuuuck I got five years left. So much to do still.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
So renting, although could be less financially advantageous. There's a price to pay for freedom. Right. And this gives you freedom.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
So there's really pros and cons to both options. It really depends where you are in your life, your life stage, your family life, your career. How often are you moving for work or for your lifestyle? Where do you live? What are your financial resources? Because if you don't even have the down payment, forget it. Don't even consider it. You're just gonna rent. That's it.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
And then, you know, the emotional side of things is, you know, do I want something that's easy and trouble free, like a fully insured leased car.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
With full warranty and zero worries, or do I buy the vehicle and have to fix it up whenever it breaks? My problem.

Darryl:
In theory, I like it. You say the maintenance free, you know, no mowing the lawn, no fixing the plumbing. But I have to say, I think Erin's still going to be on my case to do a bunch of this around the condo.

René:
Yes.

Darryl:
That doesn't solve any of those problems.

René:
Well, if you own the condo, it's one thing. Like, I like the condo life, but I don't, I don't think I make a very good condo owner because you have to follow all these strata rules and oh my God, you have to adhere to a certain paint color on your deck. And it's not fun because like I come here and I just do whatever I want. Right? Provided I'm following the, you know, the building code. So anyway, that's another thing is that you have to be okay that if you're going to paint the place from time to time, your landlord might not give you that.

Darryl:
Yeah, yeah, right.

René:
And if you're tired of the countertop in the kitchen. That's one thing that I didn't like about our little apartment was that towards the end, after two years, like, yeah, you know, the countertop was fine, but it's not something I would have chosen. And if I were to stay here for any length of time, I'd want to change this. Well, who picks up the tab on that? Right?

Darryl:
Exactly.

René:
Again, it's a very careful process, in my opinion. There's no right or wrong answer. It's just what is right for you. And have a conversation with someone that knows what the hell they're doing or bounce it off. Friends just don't ask the wrong friends because sometimes they're just a little too opinionated.

Darryl:
I just want to rent a condo in all my favourite cities.

René:
Yes.

Darryl:
I don't need one house, I need many.

René:
Man, imagine if you had fuck you money like that and you just go wherever you just want it to be in the sun somewhere. And you just go to Costa Rica because you got a place there.

Darryl:
Yeah. Or like I come home and I'm like, how was your day, Erin? She's like, well, let me tell you. And I'm like, you know what? I'll be back. And then she calls my cell two days later, where the hell are you? In my Costa Rica. We'll be right back. Back.

Darryl:
So I want to take websites or social media and home life and smash them all together and chat about what I call digital decluttering. And really how to organize your online life. That can give you peace of mind.

René:
Yeah, and maybe help you disconnect a little bit, too. We're so fucking wired to our devices now.

Darryl:
Oh, no kidding. And it's stressful.

René:
It is stressful. I have a hard time disconnecting, and when I find that I'm cluttered makes it ten times worse.

Darryl:
Well, and speaking of that clutter, we all know the stress of scrolling through endless files on our computer or trying to find that email from months ago, the whole digital clutter can make life feel fucking chaotic. So I want us to talk about a few simple ways to tidy things up.

René:
Just forget. Two months ago, I had to find a receipt from a steakhouse that I went to with Ryan in Orlando, 2022, because the CRA was asking for it during a travel expense audit and it was legit. And it was the only receipt that I could not find from that trip because we were. Yeah. Anyway, we were at a conference for our industry. Try going through two desktops and your network and trying to find this receipt that has been stored somewhere.

Darryl:
Well, then that's the thing. We both have careers that require us to have tons of files on our computer and an insane amount of emails at the same time and stuff that we really probably don't need anymore but is still on there.

René:
Yeah, for sure.

Darryl:
So I want to pick on you for a second. You keep all your stuff super secret, which, for your job, you have to. I've never seen what your desktop looks like.

René:
You don't want to.

Darryl:
Well, and that's the thing. Are you organized files or do you have thousands of folders and hundreds of screenshots.

René:
Hundreds of fucking screenshots and folders like my. I have three screens. It fills two and a half of the screens.

Darryl:
Holy crap. Well, let me give you some quick tips. About five years ago, I was in the same boat. I always had so much on my desktop. I knew where everything was, but it was a mess. Like, you open it up and it's.

René:
Like, oh, it's a mess, dude. Typically what I do is, is I have to first save the document on my desktop.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
There's no sense saving your in your client file. It's an ever changing document.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
So I just save it on the desktop and 90% of the time I email it to You. But then I'll forget to delete it.

Darryl:
Yeah. Yeah.

René:
So then every once in a while, like, it's mostly PDFs, to be honest with you.

Darryl:
Gotcha.

René:
I've got hundreds of PDFs on my monitors that are just sitting there that every once in a while, I just have to go through and just delete.

Darryl:
On my desktop, I have multiple folders. And it took me a while to get to this point, but at one point I said, I need to be more organized. Cause I feel like when I sit down at my desk, I see all those icons and all those folders, and it's like. It's stress, instant stress for me.

René:
I know that makes you anxious.

Darryl:
So now I have a folder on my desktop. It's called Hepburn Productions. I have one called Taming the Hustle. I have a screenwriting one and a few others. But I also have a folder on my desktop called to sort. And in my calendar, every Friday morning, 10:00am, I have a meeting scheduled, called to sort. And guess what I do.

René:
You sort stuff.

Darryl:
I sort those fucking random items. Items.

René:
You're committed, man.

Darryl:
I do what you do. So when I'm on with a client, we're doing something, I save a file, I pull it out of an email, it goes to my desktop, and then I try, within a few minutes, I try to put it where it belongs. And if I don't get to it before the end of the day, I drag it to sort file. And that's how I do those things.

René:
It's genius.

Darryl:
I think so. I think it's, it's, it's, it's really helped me. I said, it's a lot there. The record was skipping. It's just so easy to get lost in all the clutter. And when it gets too overwhelming, you're like, well, fuck that. I don't got time for this.

René:
You, too, are smarter than you look.

Darryl:
I know. I know. Well, let's talk about your inbox and your email, because I have OCD about notifications.

René:
That I know. We've had conversations about this. Oh, if I'm at Darryl's and my phone's on his kitchen table, and you know how, like, there's a protector, there's a password protector, but the thing will light up every time you get a message, and it'll show you how many messages you have, and he'll see, like, 38 texts, and he's like, how the fuck can you live with yourself? I'm like, that only happened since I arrived here, and I'm just being polite and not spending all my life on my phone that drives you fucking bonkers.

Darryl:
It does. I can't open my phone and see my email icon. And it has like a 50 or 100 or 300 or a thousand. I know some people who literally, their job doesn't require email. Okay. They actually work with their hands or something. And they're not getting lots of emails.

Darryl:
And I'll look at their phone and they got like 692 emails unread. And I'm like, what the hell is going on? Why do you have so many emails? And they're like, oh, you know, it's just a lot like, I gotta go through it, probably stuff I gotta delete. I've sat down with people before and we've discussed this because they're like, how do I get organized like you? I've had friends ask me this and I'm like, hey, I'll show you what I do. And when we start going through their email, we look and I'm like, just unsubscribe from stuff. And your email's gonna be so much lighter. How many Canadian Tire Flyer emails do you need once a week and you don't even open them.

René:
Yeah.

Darryl:
That's like, why not just click on subscribe and that's 5 less emails a week.

René:
I live on my phone. Right. That's how we communicate.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
I physically can't keep up. I mean, I would have to sleep less.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
Right. Because you just, you get messages, whether it's work or just social or. Or networking or relationship building or just hanging out with your buds. You're on Instagram, you're on Facebook, messenger, you're on text, you're emailing, like every.

Darryl:
But even within my email, I have folders and labels built in. So when a new email comes in, if I can't get to it, I have a folder that's "Needs Attention". So I'll drag it over there. It gets it out of the inbox, the notification disappears. But I have a folder that I know before the end of the day, I got to click on that. And that's shit I got to get to.

René:
Meg is like that. And I admire her organizational skills when it comes to that. Because you look at her inbox and it's almost empty.

Darryl:
Yeah. Yeah. Your stress just melts away when it's like that.

René:
Yeah. I'm sorry to stress you out, but. Well, look at the other night. It was a Friday night and I sent you a screenshot of my cell phone.

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
And after 5:00, like after the office is closed, it's the weekend a Friday night, I had nearly 40 DocuSign emails saying that clients had signed their forms. Right.

Darryl:
You sent me screenshots with everything all blacked out, but it just said DocuSign. And, and I won't lie, I was stressed out that I cracked open a drink just looking at what you had to do. It's not fair. Okay, my last declutter, one that I want to get to before we go, and this is kind of a two parter. The first is looking at your social media accounts that you have that you don't use. Like for me, I, I never use Twitter or X or whatever the hell you want to call it now anymore. Yes, I have the account.

Darryl:
I'm not going to delete the account because I don't want anybody to use my name and in case I do want to jump back on. But I deleted it from my phone because I don't need that distraction. Right. It brought zero enjoyment to my life, so why do I need it?

René:
Yeah, see, I didn't delete any of the platforms that I don't use, but I turned all the notifications off.

Darryl:
Yeah, that. And that's a simple step too. Yeah.

René:
At least your phone's not lighting up or vibrating every time you get a stupid message on Twitter, right?

Darryl:
Yeah.

René:
Or TikTok. Holy TikTok is freaking next level friggin activity.

Darryl:
Well, and the last thing like that, when I said it's a two parter. The other thing you should do on social media is to unfollow those accounts that don't add value or that you feel overwhelmed. At one point I realized I was following a bunch of accounts that I had actually no idea that I was following these people. I followed this one like chef or whatever at one point because I watched this recipe. I'm like, well, that's great. I'm going to follow this guy. And it was years ago and I scroll through all the time and I see these weird food things and I'm like, I'm never making that. And I scroll right by.

Darryl:
And then one day I stopped on it. I'm like, I'm following this guy. And I had to like go back and I'm like, I don't see anything that I like, why would I follow? And then I saw like a, you know, a chicken recipe and I was like, from two years ago. And I'm like, okay, I got to unfollow this guy. I see him way too much. He adds no value to my life.

René:
I find now though that if you don't have that guy that you followed, you're going to have some sort of marketing of some sort. Right? Like, your feed is filled with so much more than just your friends now.

Darryl:
100%. Yeah. And you can't get rid of the marketing unless you stop going on these platforms.

René:
Stop going on the platform. Yeah, just don't delete Taming the Hustle... or Something of the Sorts.

Darryl:
100%. In fact, follow us on Instagram, follow us on whatever platform you're listening on right now. Hell, even leave us a review.

René:
And we're smarter than we look.

Darryl:
And don't forget to visit our website, because there are only three days left for you to vote for us for The Discover Pods 2024 awards for best business podcast. And if we don't win, there's a good chance I'm probably gonna cry.

René:
Yeah, he's pretty sensitive.

Darryl:
Actually I'll probably cry, win or lose. All right, that's it for today.

René:
So great spending some time with you, bud.

Darryl:
Aw, you too. Thanks for listening. And we'll see you all next time.