Max Phelps is an award-winning mortgage broker with 16 years of experience, dedicated to helping clients achieve long-term financial success. With a property portfolio of 14 rentals, Max combines practical financial advice with insights into psychology, empowering clients to make confident, informed decisions about their future.
Maths teacher turned finance expert, Max is an award-winning mortgage broker who combines a deep understanding of different life stages, with logical calculations, to coach people to make great financial decisions with confidence.
With 16 years as a mortgage broker and 10 as a former financial planner, Max has been a written two books on finance – “Getting your money $hit together” and “Spending Fast and Slow”, to help people go from mastering best practice in personal cash flow, to building property portfolios to make work an option, rather than a necessity.
Driven by a desire not to be poor, having grown up in a family of 9 kids living on minimum wage and government handouts, Max built a property portfolio of 14 rentals. At age 46, with passive income higher than living expenses, Max decided to dedicate himself to helping others get ahead, when retirement would have been easier.
Max has appeared on morning TV with the Today show and Sunrise and Today Extra, plus numerous radio appearances across most major stations and many regional ones, including TripleM, ABC and 2GB.
Max’s focus on long term happiness, provides a unique perspective on financial decisions, in an industry which profits from materialism and excess. His ability to both imagine and calculate the practical and emotional consequences of each option, leads to better overall decisions that people can confidently justify to family and friends looking to question everything.
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To help others achieve long term happiness and confidence in their lives.
I provide education and guidance to help people be confident in all their financial decisions. I do this by breaking down goals into short, medium and long term for multiple areas of people’s lives, so we can discuss and estimate the likely impact of each decision. The ultimate aim is long term happiness and prosperity, but we all have a tendency to get caught up in the short term and then regret our choices later.
People thinking about starting a family, starting a family, or with young children, tend to underestimate the future changes in their lives and especially their housing needs. This can lead to enormous, wasted expense in stamp duty and agent fees, buying property that won’t meet their long-term needs. There is also a natural tendency of people to spend more than they realise, on small, unimportant stuff, that can limit or destroy their long-term financial plans. Both put pressure on people to work longer hours each day, more days each week and for more years of their lives, in jobs they don’t love, resulting in less happy, less meaningful lives.
Weaknesses in any area can detract from the joy we get in areas where we are confident and strong. I do a job I love, am very fit and healthy, use my recreation time well, feel a strong sense of belonging, travel overseas regularly and was financially set for life, but was in a relationship that was bringing me down and neither of us were happy. Holidays felt lonely, I’d work weekends to avoid being at home and going out together felt like a test I could rarely pass. Having moved on from that relationship, my life is back in balance and I’m happier than ever.
Our aim is to positively impact Australians by helping them get more out of life. By showing them it’s possible to design a life that will bring greater happiness, greater confidence and to be optimistic about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Life will always put pot-holes and speed bumps in our way, but the rounder our wheels, the better we’ll roll on through without crashing into a heap.
At Joya Life, we believe life planning is more than just setting goals—it’s about aligning your journey with your values, passions, and aspirations. Whether you’re single or in a relationship, we provide personalised guidance and expert advice to help you make confident decisions, achieve your dreams, and live a fulfilling life. The starting point, is knowing where you are now.
Once you complete the Joya Life Scorecard, you’ll receive personalised feedback in a visual way, via the Joya wheel, to help you improve in key areas. Whether it’s managing work stress, enhancing relationships, or prioritising your health, the scorecard will help you create a clear roadmap for progress. You’ll also be able to track your journey over time, ensuring that your goals stay aligned with your values as you grow.
We recommend taking the Joya Life Scorecard every 3-6 months to track your progress and reassess your goals. As life evolves, so should your approach to personal growth. By revisiting the scorecard periodically, you’ll stay on track and make adjustments to continue moving towards a fulfilling, purposeful life.