Summary
In this episode, Brian and Jessilyn share how real estate investing became the foundation that carried them through job loss, burnout, the pandemic, and multiple major life transitions. They break down how couples can build financial fortitude through emergency reserves, HELOC strategies, insurance, and “what-if” scenario planning. They also discuss designing an investment portfolio that can pivot—covering diversification, liquidity, risk tolerance, market selection, and treating real estate like a true business. Finally, they highlight the importance of communication, shared vision, goal-setting rhythms, and knowing when to bring in outside help to strengthen both the relationship and the wealth plan.
Chapters
00:00 – How Real Estate Carried Them Through Crisis
07:05 – Building Financial Fortitude & Safety Nets
08:08 – Designing a Portfolio That Can Pivot
14:51 – Partnerships, Planning & Staying on the Same Page
Contact Jessilyn and Brian Persson | Weekend Wealth Investments:
Transcript
Jessilyn Persson (00:03)
Real estate investing isn't just about ROI. It's about being ready for life's plot twists. Today we're talking about how couples can design investment plans that stand strong through illness, job loss, kids, relocations, and everything in between.
Brian Persson (00:19)s
And to start off, we'll start with our own personal story about how real estate supported us through some ups and some downs in our life. It started with ⁓ Jess being burnt out in 2019 and we ended up pivoting our career, our lives and a number of other things. And actually the world ended up pivoting shortly after that as well with the pandemic and real estate was there.
throughout all of that to support us. And we ended up going through 2020 and 2021 and somewhat rebuilding ourselves. And we couldn't have done it without real estate behind us because real estate effectively paid the bills throughout 2020 and 2021 and allowed us to really recreate who we are.
Jessilyn Persson (01:07)
Yeah, I was out of a job come, I think, mid-October 2019 and then you gave your notice, what, three days shy of the world shutting down, which we didn't plan for in terms of the pandemic. We didn't anticipate that.
Brian Persson (01:27)
Just like, how do you not anticipate a pandemic coming? We didn't really watch the news. That was one thing.
Jessilyn Persson (01:36)
It's really true. We thought it was a bit of a joke. What people were doing with toilet paper, should be very specific, not the pandemic itself. yeah, and so then you gave your notice and three days later everything shut down and we're like, okay, here we are. And while we were building a business with some of our partners, made it much harder because we were online as opposed to the events that we were supposed to be doing and all the in-person activities. And then of course, when you start any business, you usually make a lot of income off the hop. So
or real estate supported us to start building that and figuring out, what does this look like and what does it mean for our family?
Brian Persson (02:14)
Yeah, and we did a lot of personal development in that time too. So we, we both had the time freedom of no nine to five job anymore. ⁓ and we could build the business and take any extra time left over to build ourselves too. So there were, there was a lot o
