Carolyn Mowat officially launched her book, Creating Overflow, in Seymour on Saturday, October 3.
Photo by
Billie Davern
For Carolyn Mowat, Seymour’s latest published author, a waterfall is more than a serene sight. It serves as symbol for what different streams of income, when working together, can create.
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Launched during an intimate gathering at the Seymour VRI Hall on Saturday, October 3, Creating Overflow is Ms Mowat’s way of starting conversations around the often taboo topic of money.
“It’s about money, and money is very personal for some people and it’s not something you talk about, really,” Ms Mowat said.
“Until you find somebody who you know is interested, you don’t talk about it.
“Since the launch, I’ve had a couple of really good conversations because people have said to me, ‘I’m investing in this’ or ‘I’ve got money in that’ — conversations about money with people who I would not have that conversation with otherwise.”
Raising 11 children on one income, Ms Mowat was all too familiar with budgeting.
She said her investment journey began when assessing her and her husband’s retirement fund.
“We looked at our retirement balance, five or six years ago now, and thought, ‘that’s not enough’,” Ms Mowat said.
“Then it became my responsibility to make that lump sum grow somehow.”
Carolyn Mowat explaining her waterfall metaphor at her recent book launch.
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Supplied
Learning through a number of courses about everything from cryptocurrency to trading, Ms Mowat strived to increase that lump sum.
“My ultimate aim is to be self-funded by the time I retire,” she said.
During this journey, she found that the image of a waterfall closely reflected the process of generating wealth.
“My waterfall image is about having multiple different streams of investment,” Ms Mowat said.
“One is what’s going to earn your income and the other is going to create a lump sum.”
After learning how to invest herself, she said she wanted to share her knowledge with the wider community, particularly with mums who wanted to stay home.
“My heart is for mums. I know every mum doesn’t want to do this, but there are a lot of mums who wish they could stay home with their kids but feel like they can’t afford it,” she said.
She said, amid the current cost-of-living crisis, it was important for people to understand how to generate money through different streams.
“It’s becoming a matter of survival to learn how to find things that are going to earn you money,” Ms Mowat said.
“By the time you get paid, then you learn how how to take out the tax, and then you put it into the bank and your savings, you’re going backwards.
“There’s risk in investing, but there’s also enormous risk in not investing.”
Following on from the release of Creating Overflow, Ms Mowat will be hosting webinars and, later, workshops to support people with their financial journeys.
She said a primary focus would be on investing safely.
“I’m hoping the fact that I focus on safety protocols gives people the confidence to look further into it and get people to start on the journey with me,” she said.
