This Golden Hour

104. Winnie and Emaghea Lau and cashsmartforlife.com

Timothy Eaton

In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Winnie and Emaghea Lau from Edmonton, Alberta. Winnie and Emaghea are a mother-daughter duo and the founders of the Cash Smart for Life (CSFL) program. We discuss their mission to empower families—especially homeschoolers—to raise financially confident, values-driven children from as young as age three. Visit cashsmartforlife.com to explore resources, read more about Winnie and Emaghea’s story, and discover how you can start your family’s journey toward financial confidence. This episode is a must-listen for parents, educators, and anyone interested in practical, values-based financial education that starts at home and lasts a lifetime. 


Connect with Winnie and Emaghea

Cash Smart for Life


This Golden Hour

Emahea Lau:

homeschooling. Kids have a sense of self like confidence that I know. Honestly, most kids don't have, and I loved it. I was having so many conversations. With younger kids and they were talking about their money experiences. They're like, this is really interesting. I would really like to learn this. Now.

Timmy Eaton:

Hi. I am Timmy Eaton, homeschool father of six and Doctor of Education. We've been homeschooling for more than 15 years and have watched our children go from birth to university successfully and completely without the school system. Homeschooling has grown tremendously in recent years, and tons of parents are becoming interested in trying it out, but people have questions and concerns and misconceptions and lack the confidence to get started. New and seasoned homeschoolers are looking for more knowledge and peace and assurance to continue. New homeschooling. The guests and discussions on this podcast will empower anyone thinking of homeschooling to bring their kids home and start homeschooling and homeschoolers at all stages of the journey will get what they need and want from these conversations. Thank you for joining us today and enjoy this episode of This Golden Hour podcast. As you exercise, drive clean or just chill. You're listening to this Golden Hour podcast. In today's episode, we get to spend time with Winnie and Lao from Edmonton, Alberta. Winnie and Amag are mother-daughter duo and the founders of the Cash Smart For Life or CSFL program. We discuss their mission to empower families, especially homeschoolers. To raise financially confident values driven children from as young as age three. Visit Cash Smart for life.com to explore resources. Read more about Winnie and IAGs story and discover how you can start your family's journey toward financial independence. This episode is a must listen for parents, educators, and anyone interested in practical values-based financial education that starts at home and lasts a lifetime. Welcome back to this Golden Hour podcast today. We're very excited to have with us Winnie and Imag iia from Edmonton, Alberta. Thanks for being.

Winnie Lau:

Thank you for having us. Thank you for the invitation. Appreciate it.

Timmy Eaton:

Indeed. It's very fun to have a couple of people to talk to. It's just fun to have a whole group discussion when we're here together. So lemme just do a little bio and then we'll get right into the interview. So this is a Canadian mother daughter. Team behind what we call the cash Smart for Life or CSFL program. And it's a parent led financial education movement that helps families raise financially confident, values driven children starting as young as age three. And I'm very excited to talk about that. So fill in other gaps and say anything else you wanna say about just any bio type stuff.

Winnie Lau:

Oh, geez. It's really been driven from my own personal life experience. Anything that we share out of Cash Smart for Life is our living experience. It was really born out of, just my own personal struggle with cashflow. I moved out quite early. I moved out when I was 15, and so I went right into, I don't know that I didn't really focus, it's like when I moved out at 15, it was just more okay, what am I doing? I just had to muddle through it. I had to make sure I had somewhere to live. And survival. Yeah. I was definitely in survival and the. The interesting part about this is like at age 15, you're not really of legal age yet to really move out. So there was certain circumstances in my home where my dad gave authority to allow me to live on my own. So I actually, for, I. From 15 all the way till I was, I graduated high school, I was actually in conjunction with child welfare services and had to work with like a support worker with child services and had to meet with them every single month'cause the agreement was, is that. As long as I went to school and I had a part-time job, they would support me in helping to make up the difference of what I needed for rent and food and so on. Yeah. And it was interesting'cause because I was also in the system. I also, at that time in my life, knew other people who were living off of social services and whatnot, but also my personal experience with having to meet with a support worker every single month, and having to prove myself let me see your paycheck. Let me, let me see the receipts. And it was a very disempowering. Experience, and it was also in my observation of other people that I saw working the system, so to speak, I made a conscious choice that once I graduated from high school, I wanted to get off the system as fast as possible because I did not want to get to a point in my mindset and in my thinking that I had to make. Life decisions based on if I make too much money, I'm not gonna get the support of the government anymore. In my opinion. That's just not how I want it to live. And so I, I'm also first generation here too both my parents came from China basically.

Timmy Eaton:

That's fascinating. And then do you want to add anything imag to any of that?

Emahea Lau:

My mom's journey of how she became. Her independent self obviously has more to do than just with her own experience with money. But mine obviously wasn't like that. Like I grew up with a money system in place. So I think there's huge differences in my outlook on life or maybe survival mindset that I don't have compared to my mom's. I am fortunate enough to have been raised with a particular set of mindset and values and system in place compared to my mom, but I also know I would've never been here if she hadn't gone through financial struggles that she had been, and the biggest part is she just wanted to stop the cycle.

Timmy Eaton:

Totally. And that, what's cool about that is it passes on you taking that, like the likelihood of that passing down to your children and so on. It increases because of what Winnie was willing to do. I just wanna tell everyone right now, like they, they should go to cash smartt for life.com and check out more of the story and stuff like that in detail, and then see all the resources and everything that, that Winnie and imagine have available for people. How do you see this just to make it relevant to my audience right off the bat, and then let's get into your story and like what you guys do and what you offer. How do you see this what you're doing with cash Smart for Life as relevant to homeschool families specifically?

Winnie Lau:

This is,

Emahea Lau:

from my understanding, our target audience is homeschooling families because they are already open minded, take control of their children's future in a really positive way, and they don't depend on other people to raise their children in a really progressive. To be independent, which is why we aim for homeschooling families because how often have you brought up the topic of money with people and someone says, Ugh, they should be teaching this in schools and it's a, it's a, it's a blanket excuse, I think as how. Is how I believe that response is. So that's why I believe we, we target homeschooling parents because they're already already gung ho to take control.

Timmy Eaton:

What's cool about homeschooling is that we have the time to integrate things that are flexible curriculum, flexible schedule to be able to spend time on that. And if a kid wants to go really deep, they can.

Winnie Lau:

Yeah. Well one of the things that we also share is that I also don't believe financial education ought to be taught in school. Because by the time. The curriculum makers, come up with something that is going to, be valid. It's gonna be so watered down, it's not gonna serve any and outdated Yes. In general. Yeah. And I also feel like money, much like religion is very personal. Money does carry a certain set of values and I think that. For parents who can, even if you are not homeschooling, but I just think that there's more of an opportunity as a homeschooling parent to really take the program and be so much more successful with it because there's so much more space that as parents, they've given themselves to be able to be available to really nurture. Great financial values and to be able to implement all the like pieces and tools that we've shared in the Cash Smartt for Life program to make it successful so that by the time, those kids grow up and are ready to move out of the house, they can. And I had an instinct, like I had faith that, okay, I'm gonna share this with am and this is my vision. I feel like if I do this for her right now, she's going to feel so much more competent to be out on her own and then I don't have to worry as much. Yet that was my vision. That was me having faith. I didn't actually know that it would actually occur until. She moved out.

Timmy Eaton:

It's almost like homeschool families that are, instilling all these things in their children, but they really don't know the fruit of their labor until these kids go out and put it into practice. That's a good comparison. Now you said, I imagine that you guys. Target homeschool families. I didn't actually realize that. Just so our audience knows me and Winnie met about three or four weeks ago at a conference, a homeschool conference, and I know you were there obviously targeting homeschool families, but I didn't know that in general you did that. And so how do you do that? Like, how do you get to them?

Emahea Lau:

Going to the A HEA conference was our first time doing that, and that was by far my favorite. I Oh, cool. Loved talking to everyone. And also the kids, no problem. Walked up to the booth multiple times and started like, what are you doing? Yeah, what's

Timmy Eaton:

this, what about?

Emahea Lau:

And I'm like, homeschooling. Kids have a sense of self like confidence that I know. Honestly, most kids don't have, and I loved it. I was having so many conversations. Yeah. With younger kids and they were talking about their money experiences. They're like, this is really interesting. I would really like to learn this. Now. Is this program for like me or does? I'm like, it is for your parents. And they go, okay I don't know. Or bummer. Yeah. And that's a bummer. I did love that. Another way that I even found out about the A HEA conference is because I was looking at homeschooling. Communities and whatnot. And I was

Winnie Lau:

kind of Reaching out specifically to homeschooling facilitators. And and actually it was a homeschooling facilitator that actually recommended to us like it's not something like they can personally do sometimes. Maybe you ought to go to here and you might have better opportunities.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. So basically you are looking for opportunities to get, put your resource in front of them so that they know it exists because you know it'll be beneficial and those are the families that really take it. So maybe tell us a little bit about the story.'cause you said starting as young as age three, which I think a lot of people would be like, really that's crazy. But that was your experience, wasn't it? Iag?

Emahea Lau:

My journey started at the age of four, so my mom started introducing the concept of money at the age of four. Of course, the whole money system that she had taught me was gonna take some time. It was really just learning, why a nickel is maybe worth more than a dime, even though it's bigger, just getting me. Introduced to money and understanding that. But as I grew older, by the time I was eight, I was totally able to understand my entire money system that my mom had laid out for me, and that's where my journey began. I will say though, our program is for children who are three and above, but that it also is because we had a recent set of parents who joined us and she had a 2-year-old. And so she was like, oh, I don't know. Like I have a 2-year-old and a, I think a 5-year-old, and she was doing it for a 5-year-old, but she was also introducing the system to her 2-year-old, and her 2-year-old was picking it up. And I would even say, just start as young as,

Timmy Eaton:

yeah, just let him be exposed to that from the vic, from the get go, right?

Winnie Lau:

Why not? Like they understand as soon as they can really start they're understanding you, like understanding your full sentences. Even though they may not be able to speak that's still a good time.

Timmy Eaton:

Walk us through a little bit. So what kind of education, what kind of resources do you have? And then maybe I'll try to drill a little bit down on some of the specifics. And then, what makes CSFL unique from other financial kind of education platforms.

Winnie Lau:

So I, I believe first of all, it's what makes it unique is us. I, there's no other mother-daughter duo doing this, and no one has our story. So that's the main difference. It's like we're speaking from our own experience. Yeah. And we've had, several years now of being able to iterate this. I'm an educator at heart, even though I'm not, I don't have my bachelor's in education or anything like that, but I like to be taught the way that I would've liked to be taught, but I've also been to a lot of programs myself. So I also have seen it, like I've been able to observe over a long period of time what works at a group, level and what doesn't work at a group level. I think again, based on a lot of personal experience, this is how the program was created.

Emahea Lau:

And for specifics of what exactly is the Cash Mart for Life Program? Program? Yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

If I brought my kids and we, or we were doing it together with you guys or whatever. How does it work?

Emahea Lau:

So this is a program only for the parents. So it's an eight module. Course, and from start to finish we, me and my mom, help parents set up the exact same money system that I was taught when I was younger, but

Winnie Lau:

more improved, actually. Way

Emahea Lau:

more improved. Way, way more improved. It is truly a step by step in a way that breaks down why we teach these. Specific values the way that we do. Yeah. And it's a live program. So that's our favorite way of doing it right now, because we get to talk to the parents, they get to answer live, they get to come back, they share their experiences. It's not just like a program where you learn all this information and then apply it. You're applying it as you're in the program and we're doing the journey together. We're taking that step together. And you have support along the way. So from start to finish. You will have a money management system set up for your kids so that you feel like you have intentionally and taken hold of how exactly you're gonna teach. Great money management Yeah. Habits to your children,

Winnie Lau:

even if you don't know where to start one of our last set of parents, which I really like.'cause the dads are really starting to get involved. And this particular dad, he's really well educated. He's super smart. He just said, you know what, I just need a way to like. Kitify this I know what I'm doing with money. Yeah. But I have no idea how to explain this to my kids. I just want a way that's gonna make it good for my kids, and I have no idea how to do that. That's why I'm doing this.

Emahea Lau:

And not only that. Every set of parent that walks away from our program is this may be a system for my kids, but

Timmy Eaton:

it's actually for me. It's

Emahea Lau:

actually for me. Yeah. Totally.

Timmy Eaton:

Thanks. No, I can see that. It

Emahea Lau:

really is, it's sim, it's simple in a way that breaks down money and makes families look at money and kids look at money more as a tool that they're gonna use throughout their life, other than an energy that affects their emotions and their ability to feel self-confidence. Just capable raising capable kids.

Winnie Lau:

I would also say so. One of the best things about this is that we're not here making overtures about how this is gonna make your kids rich. Yeah. It's not about that at all. Yeah. This is something so much more fundamental, which is about cash flow management. Let's just start at the basis of where, things can actually be resolved. If I sat and listened to over a. News of most of all the sob stories with money and everything. I truly believe that the solution to that is if people really had a system for how they manage their money, that wouldn't be even happening in the first place. No. I also feel like we wouldn't have allowed so much government overreach to have happened either if we actually were financially empowered ourselves. So I think it, it really does begin with us as parents to really start. Breaking that cycle of, not allowing our children to leave uneducated around money and how to handle it. And for Mia, she's not a post-secondary child at the moment. Maybe she might at later time, but she isn't the fact that she was able to stand on her own two feet financially with minimum wage jobs when she moved out over for like over five years and then COVID hit and she wasn't requiring the COVID payout per se, to keep her afloat.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. She had she knew how she had been educated. Yeah. It makes me think of, look, when I left home, I literally had no clue how a credit card worked. You mentioned that you didn't think it was probably a good idea for schools to take this on anyway. And one thing I thought of there is just how hard it can be for like, people to adapt that to each customized situation. And so that would be hard maybe for it to happen. And it's probably the. The responsibility of parents to to ensure that their kids understand financial principles. So can I just ask you then, what are the core principles or values that you teach? If you had to narrow it down to like, we start you this way and we, are we talking about investing and are we talking about like saving?

Winnie Lau:

What we do has nothing to do with investing per se. We're talking about the fundamentals of like mindset management around money, cashflow management, like how to handle money once you get it and how to actually purchase things, right? Investing is something that people should be learning after they get a handle on how they manage the basics of, yeah, not just the management, but the emotional management. Think about it. How many purchases are we made like that are actually emotional. Most of them. Most of them are based out of the emotions. So it's actually learning to help develop the emotional intelligence around how to handle money, starting with the small stuff.

Timmy Eaton:

And so how do you teach that?

Winnie Lau:

Through our system, like our system naturally engages with the natural flow of per helping the children themselves develop a skill for making small purchases in their lives because they're separating it out so say for example it's. Semi similar to what, Dave Ramsey teaches with his Yeah. Chil like his Yeah. My kids

Timmy Eaton:

have done his course. Yeah.

Winnie Lau:

It's very similar, but there's a few different add-ons and, also there's we give you more tools as a parent to really know how to coach them and how to respond.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah, that's, I wish we could do a, a, a role play.'cause that would be cool to see how you would respond. Like it's I imagine if somebody said to you, so what do you feel like you was instilled in you? What did you learn that you feel like you have this financial education like? What are some particulars?

Emahea Lau:

For me, I think it's that this system isn't just about. It's not about, oh, I can save a lot of money and I have a lot of money in my bank account, right? It's, I make a particular amount of money that hasn't even been a large amount of money, and I can, now, I know that I have the discipline, the habits, and the knowledge to, to purchase every single essential thing that I need. To live throughout my life comfortably, even on minimum wage. And I wouldn't even say, the system that we teach is almost stupid, simple, but a lot of people don't think of the aspects that we add into our system. They don't think of them to add into their own. And the biggest thing I've ever taken away from knowing how to manage my money is just being raised as someone who really doesn't believe that I have limits on. What I'm capable of.

Timmy Eaton:

So it's really mindset more than anything.

Emahea Lau:

It's mindset and emotional, but we give you a physical system, the exact system that I've used, but I just, the older I get, the more I realize that it affected the confidence, the person I became more emotionally and then what I'm physically able to do, or the habits that I've earned, like.

Timmy Eaton:

So just take one aspect and walk me through it. Give me like, how is it, is there a title to the different things, like the different modules,

Emahea Lau:

titles? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. What would be

Timmy Eaton:

the first one? For example,

Emahea Lau:

the first one is always mindset. Okay. You gotta basically erase, we walk you through what you currently feel about money, why you feel that way. Maybe your own habits, because we're about to rewrite it. And give you a new perspective because it's, yeah. And

Timmy Eaton:

homeschooling, that's called deschooling. So that's the first thing that a lot of people have to do. Yeah. Is they have to kinda change the conventional, institutional way of thinking and maybe even toxic thoughts that you've had and then, really detox and then be able to have a fresh view of what you're doing, like.

Emahea Lau:

and that's how we kind of start. And it's even on our website, all of our eight modules that we go through. But from the beginning to the end. Yeah. The first one is about mindset, the mindset shift, what we're introduced, and then we basically jump into the system because again, the system is what we teach, but the fundamentals of the actual kid that you're raising, what they're gonna gain. That is a lot of what we teach and how you can continue supporting this new system with your kids, with the verbiage you use or the activities you do or what you introduce them to in the world around money.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. It seems akin to like, you can give the fish or you can teach to fish, and it seems like you guys are providing the education, the mindset to then address any kind of financial. Scenario as it comes up.

Winnie Lau:

But especially on

Timmy Eaton:

spending, it sounds like,

Winnie Lau:

especially on Yes. Spending, because I think within the first two or three modules the feedback that we keep getting, but we've also intentionally designed the program that way, is that there's, a different feeling and a different experience in how they are already feeling and engaging their children about money. There's already like a definitive difference within a very short order period of time. And that really truly matters a lot. Yeah. Because it frees up, not only does it empower your children, but it actually empowers you. The parent, like I give myself a pat on the back for having done that, right? Yeah. Like I wanted to make things change and I did something based out of my own mistakes. I wasn't perfect when I first started this. And any parent doesn't have to know what they're doing.

Emahea Lau:

And I think any parent doesn't wanna keep financially supporting their children all the way into their thirties. I'm sure that's a huge worry for a lot of parents.

Winnie Lau:

It's obviously not for everybody.'cause even at the homeschooling event, right? Again, this is based on values. If you value and you don't mind you know your children going out independently, that's different, right? But a lot of the people from the colonies, that's not their game. They don't want their kids to go out and live out financially independently because that's not their culture.

Timmy Eaton:

I wanna present an idea to you and then just respond to it if you don't mind. Carol Dweck is she's pretty much the foundation of this idea of mindset that a lot of people build on. And she wrote a book about it and in her book she talked about like scarcity versus abundance mindset. And and I know you've probably heard those terms before, so how do you apply that? Be, because you're saying like, how do I take even a minimum wage and how do I work within that kind of thing? How would you respond to the idea of, and I don't, depending on your understanding of scarcity and abundance mindset. There are some that say, I feel like if I were to just talk about myself, I feel like I grew up. And it was always about no. And I'm saying the way that I was conditioned not necessarily consciously, but just the way it was. And then my personality naturally gravitated more towards a scarcity mindset. No, we can't do that. We can't do this. Instead of, no, we choose not to, or we choose to, or that kind of thing. And then if you come from the abundance mindset, you're going. No, like we, we wanna provide abundantly for our family and we wanna provide nice things and money's not evil and where's your heart in the whole thing? So anyway, that's a ton of stuff to say. Respond to the idea. How do you guys view scarcity versus abundance mindset? As

Winnie Lau:

I'm listening to you talk about that, what really comes up for me is scarcity. Is like a reaction, right? It's like you're reacting to everything. It's based on there's no intention there. And there hasn't been a moment for that person to really just go, how can I make this better? It's not having had taken the time to shift from, okay, this is how I'm feeling, to, how do I want to feel? Abundance is being intentional. Like you choose it, you have to choose it very much. Like I feel like I was just surviving, which is like scarcity.

Timmy Eaton:

Yes. Paycheck to paycheck. Like she was, yeah.

Winnie Lau:

Yeah. And I, it didn't really hit me that I really wanted things to change until like she was one and I was a young mom, I got pregnant 22, had her at 23 things didn't work out with her dad. And it just took me a while to a acclimate to being a parent.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. But

Winnie Lau:

The more and more that she was starting to grow I don't know how children do it. At least this one. I just I just kept being more and more like in, in love with this child of mine. Yes. Oh my God, like I just love this little person. I just and I wanted more for her that I couldn't, like I kept doing life like I was single. And it was like, okay, this is not gonna work anymore. Like maybe

Emahea Lau:

responsible

Timmy Eaton:

for this. Yeah. Like I gotta prepare this child for the future. Yeah.

Emahea Lau:

So much responsibility that I don't yet know, but I can only imagine it would be terrifying. Okay,

Winnie Lau:

This is why this is so so weird. But again, because I moved out when I was 15, sometimes I forget. As she was growing up, I was capable of doing lots of things by the time I was 15. So I also expected her to do a lot of these things by the time she was 15.

Emahea Lau:

We are a good team, don't get me wrong, but we are still a mother and daughter. Of course.

Timmy Eaton:

I think your response when it was really good to that idea of scarcity, like I just love what you said about. Scarcity probably is rooted in this idea of reactionary and you, you're anxious and oh man, we can't do this because of this. It's like not taking control of your situation. And I can relate to that'cause I think I've experienced that the majority of my life. But the idea of abundance is intentionality and being deliberate. And in control and what you choose to do. So I really I really enjoyed your response to that.

Emahea Lau:

I was just gonna say like that, I think in this day and age, leaving your children's financial understanding, you are just teaching off of reaction or how you were raised,'cause your habits were passed down from your parents and, you're teaching your kid. What you understand about money and it is gonna be reactionary, but it's just not always intentional. And you can be teaching your kids a lot of your own fears about money and your positives too. Yeah. It is just a big thing. There's a lot of emotion around money already,

Timmy Eaton:

The emphasis on, being intentional not necessarily just being a product of your situation and, oh, I was taught this way and so I just perpetuate that. But do something about learn,

Emahea Lau:

not leaving it up to chance. Don't leave your children's. Financial understanding, money management skills, all of that up to chance

Winnie Lau:

And that is 100% true because the financial noise out there. If we're not intentionally teaching our children, then someone else is and already is like TikTok. We talked about that as totally. Like social media is teaching our kids and whoever and all the different channels that are talking about that. The banks, when they go in for their banking experience, the bank is teaching them about money. When our kids are listening to us, when we're talking about money in the way that we re react and respond to money, we are teaching them unintentionally. Yeah. Because we're not consciously thinking about, okay, what am I leading my child to think about? Or. What am I leading them to believe about money.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. It's like the same principle almost on every other topic. It's like there's a delusion of information all over the place. There are a myriad opinions all over the place. So if we don't teach fundamentals and educational principles about finance or any other topic, then you really are prey to whatever. Is going to market to you the best, more, most effectively. And so you have to have ingrained, instilled within you some principles from which to operate. The eight module course, is that the only course you do?

Emahea Lau:

Yep. And

Timmy Eaton:

what would you say, if somebody said, Hey if I do this course, what is the result? Like, how would you state the result of the course for people? Like what are they getting out of it?

Emahea Lau:

They are getting and setting up? The exact system that my mom used for me, it is the money system that teaches your kids how to manage their money. It, it is just a system like you don't have to think about how am I gonna teach my kids how to save or how do I teach them the importance of giving, or, there's all these different aspects within this system and that you get the system, you get a system that you can use and you can instill your own values within it.

Timmy Eaton:

I would also

Winnie Lau:

say that it's peace of mind as a parent knowing that, i'm creating a way so that I'm having more than one connection it's not about making, yes, I want her to be independent financially when she goes grows up. But because of the dialogue, there is actually a relationship that is created an extra layer of a relationship that is created connection in between the parent and the child that will last. In a much better way throughout the lifetime. So I guess what it comes down to is more connection in the family. You can make an avenue, another point of avenue to keep the lines of communication open because you've also made it a safe place to come back to. You know what, even if a parent wasn't as super intentional, how many times, will a child come back to the parents? And unless the relationship is just terrible. But how many times will a child come back to the parent anyways for help? For something financially? There's so many examples. Of this happening. But what if you can create a much more positive financial environment from one generation to the next where you can keep more money in the family as a result? Because we're talking about financial independence here, but it's like the first thing is, Hey, let's just teach the system to the kid. But I do delve into the second layer, of the, last three modules of our course really starts to really plant seeds about what does it mean to keep more money in the family. Yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

Making it intergenerational. Yeah. Can you tell us like the modules, like what are the eight modules?

Emahea Lau:

So the first module is uncover your unconscious mind. Your second one is systemizing for success, so we just dive right into the system that you're gonna be using. Your third one is really explaining how you are going to personalize your child's own cash flow system that you currently have. And by module four, you will have basically introduced the system to your family. And we're gonna talk about it. We introduce new verbiage, all of that by module five, we're gonna talk about what it really means from your kids, making those small purchases in life to when they get older, and make those bigger ticket purchases in life. How you transition into doing that. And then module number six, is how we're going to prepare you for those bigger purchases. For your kids to have those bigger purchases. Module seven is we talk about how do you prevent lost opportunity within the family. And then the last module, we really dive into how you can keep more money within the family so that this one system, if you are the starting point, can a hundred percent trigger your children's children to have money that they understand how to manage and continue with. Generational wealth. Like I know that I am 110% going to be teaching my children this exact same system.

Timmy Eaton:

It's good to hear that you're that passionate about it. What was the difference between module five and six?

Emahea Lau:

Module five was the purchases made small to big. This is where I talk about my own personal story, transitioning

Timmy Eaton:

From the small ticket to a, considering bigger ticket, like home vehicle, that kind of stuff.

Emahea Lau:

Yeah. Like from when I was like still in school, making my purchases to when I had moved out and how I did it and how it affected me as a young adult. And six to eight is where we dive into how to keep more money in the family,

Winnie Lau:

and it's important, right? Because the, like we're called cash smart for life. You'll understand. And have more value around. Oh, that's why it's called Cash Smart for Life, because it's really a system for life. And because I think all of us get lost if you weren't taught intentionally and things can really start to go sideways with one or two or three big purchases. Totally. And no cash flow management, why is it that there's so many different firms? Why is it that bankruptcies and consumer proposals are so huge? It's because when it comes to those bigger purchases, there has been no intentional a coach to really walk you through and help you prepare. Like if you could think about if you broke the cycle, started teaching your kids about managing their cash flow'cause what do they always say about long-term thinkers? What do they say about planners, a lot of the time right? Like they may seem boring to those spenders out there, but, is there more of an opportunity for us to feel more a sense of security around having enough money when we come become older? If you're apparent, like for yourself, you have six children.

Timmy Eaton:

Yep.

Winnie Lau:

Don't you think about how, like, how am I gonna have enough money for retirement? Because where does all your income go right now? Mostly into the home, into your children, and they're not even all grown yet. They're gonna still want your financial support somehow. So how can you do that and support them when you still also have to think about your retirement in the future.

Timmy Eaton:

My plan is to cut the ties. Cut. No, I'm just kidding. I'm joking. That's like the total opposite of your, of what you're trying to teach here. You guys, this has been such a fun conversation. I wanted to ask you one last thing and then see you respond to that and then we'll wrap it up. Absolutely. If somebody just asked you and they said, okay, so like with all that you're doing and everything you're focused on and honestly for me, like probably the most enriching thing about this whole interview and just like interacting with you guys just to see your relationship. And so I think that's so cool how you guys have become such a mother daughter team in this effort. But if somebody said, Hey. What what is this all about? What's your, like elevator type? Here's what this is all about for us. This is what we want for you. Just in a nutshell, what do you tell families?

Emahea Lau:

I want families to raise the next generation not being so scared. Or have a lot of fear around money. I want to raise the next generation to feel capable, like they can do what they want in their life without feeling like held back because they don't have the financial means. Like really they have the mindset to be like, oh, I wanna make this happen. I'm gonna make it happen. And I think that comes a lot from just the age I'm at right now. Yeah. My friends and my peers that I've made all around. It is hard, it's very hard to watch them struggle with becoming adults and I don't have the same stresses or the mindset. And I would love, I would absolutely love for the next generation to have a bunch of kids who feel independent and capable.

Timmy Eaton:

Mm-hmm. Well Said. Thank you. Yeah, Winnie?

Winnie Lau:

For myself, I just know that the vision I have for having Cash Mart for life is that it all starts with us. If we want to see the change. And truthfully we can start to heal all the things that are going wrong with the world. If we can really help ourselves first and feel like we're in abundant place so that we can give better, we can show up better, right? Because when people are surviving, it doesn't bring out the best in us, honestly. And I truly think it's an absolute sin if we don't endeavor to be abundant, right? It feels so good. If you choose I wanna live an abundant life and all the doors that open up especially your imagination about how you can bring more value to those around you as a result of that. And Right. And connection. Connection people. True. And to truly

Emahea Lau:

understand that you as a parent are the only people in the position of being the parent to your children. And to really grasp the concept that you are the best and only person to ever be teaching your kids about money. Because they going follow you. They are going to trust you and we're just trying to take the guesswork out. You don't have to be good with money. Look at my mom. She, when she started teaching me how to manage money, she was 10 K in debt. She was not your typical financial coach. She just wanted something better. So you really were just trying to give you a place to start. And that's it.

Timmy Eaton:

You guys. Thank you so much. I just wanna encourage everybody to go to cash smartt for life.com and check out all that they have there. So thank you very much for spending time. You guys have an awesome day.

Emahea Lau:

Thank you so much for having us.

Timmy Eaton:

That wraps up another edition of this Golden Hour podcast. If you haven't done so already, I would totally appreciate it if you would take a minute and give us a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify. It helps out a lot, and if you've done that already, thank you much. Please consider sharing this show with friends and family members that you think would get something out of it. And thank you for listening and for your support. I'm your host, Tim Eaton. Until next time, remember to cherish this golden hour with your children and family.