Joanna is a health and wellness entrepreneur, the brains behind ‘The Healthy VA’, a switched on Stockspot investor and according to her website, a self described introverted tech nerd!
About 18 months ago, Joanna and her husband set up a Stockspot Kids investing portfolio for their son, not long after he was born. They’ve been Stockspot clients for a few years, so one of Stockspot’s free kids investment portfolios made sense to them.
Joanna kindly spared some time from her busy schedule to chat with me about her background and why she’s investing for her son.
UK to Australia
Joanna grew up in Jersey in the Channel Islands, UK. “It’s small, but beautiful” she tells me, as I lament how I didn’t visit it while I lived in London, despite it’s more temperate climate and French vibe.
Like many Brits Joanna and her husband fell in love with Australia when they came here backpacking. “We hadn’t planned to move here permanently. We backpacked around the US and Australia in 2009, with Sydney being our last stop to do a Working Holiday Visa. 10 years and a citizenship ceremony later, we are still here!”
I realised there was a gap in the market
Joanna left her corporate HR career of 10+ years to follow her passion to work in the holistic health industry. “I quickly realised there was a gap in the market to help naturopaths, nutritionists and health practitioners with the business and administration side of their practice.”
Joanna became the go-to Virtual Assistant for health businesses needing admin, tech and creative assistance, and called her business ‘The Healthy VA’.
“I now provide consulting services to health business, and coach other aspiring VAs and Freelancers too. It’s amazing, I can choose my hours and clients, work from home, and be in an industry I love.”
It made so much more sense
Joanna setup a Stockspot Kids investment portfolio for her son just after he was born.
“My husband and I were already investing with Stockspot. He found out about Stockspot and he liked it. As an accountant, he understands investing and loves new technology too. What we liked about Stockspot is the advice and the portfolios are based on algorithms, and the tech element removes human error. We feel it’s more transparent than a lot of other options out there.
“When we had our son, I decided to setup a Stockspot Kids portfolio for him too.
“It made so much more sense than a bank savings accounts.”
“I didn’t want to put money in a standard low risk bank account, I wanted something with higher risk and returns. Also, with the way the banks have been behaving recently and are now perceived, I wanted to do something with a forward-thinking company.
“It’s for the long-term, about 18 – 21 years, so he’ll get those compound returns when he becomes a young adult. I figured as a 1-year-old, he can afford to take on a lot more risk! As he grows up, we’ll talk to him about his investments and show him how it works. I hope he’ll learn the value of money this way and more about finances than I was taught as a kid.”
Why Stockspot for Kids?
“The kids account was easy to set up, and it’s easy to view the online dashboard through the app. It’s simple for family and friends to contribute too. We just give them the account details and they can pop in however much they want.
“For his first birthday we asked for contributions, instead of an abundance of toys. It’s been really easy to do this with the Stockspot portfolio.
“For example, we have two nieces in the UK, and have contributed to their UK investment each year for Christmas. The process is so long winded – we have to transfer the money to my brother-in-law, who then has to invest manually on our behalf. With our son’s Stockspot account, we can share his account details with family, and they can deposit the money online. Simple.”
Previous investing experience
Joanna says she doesn’t consider herself an experienced investor. Yet like many of the clients I chat to she speaks Stockspot’s language: “Long-term investment, compound returns and risk versus reward.” It’s clear she’s well versed in some of the most important fundamentals of Stockspot’s investment philosophy (which makes us happy!). Showing you don’t need a degree in finance to be a good investor.
“We didn’t really talk about finances at home when I grew up and certainly didn’t get much info from school.
“I want to be able to talk to my son about investing as he grows up.”
Goals for the future
“My husband probably looks at all our Stockspot portfolios more often than I do, and we top them up monthly. We both have some broad long-term goals we hope we’re on the way to fulfilling.
“Most of our family still live in the UK, so the dream is to be able to call Sydney our home, but have the flexibility to visit UK family annually for extended periods. We’re halfway to being able to do that, it’s exciting.
“Ideally, we’d like some investment properties too. As a family we’re more about experiences than having material possessions, so a flexible lifestyle is our goal.”
