Investing in Hobbies with Chandra Savage
Investing in Hobbies with Chandra Savage
I’ve interviewed a number of guests who’ve talked about the financial benefits of side hustles, but I’ve rarely talked about the pursuit of a love or a hobby without any clear long term financial benefit. At the Financial Gym our slogan is “What are you working for?”, meaning why do you get out of bed and work hard every single day. What brings you joy and makes you thrive? The answer doesn’t always have to, and shouldn’t always be, something that will provide you monetary rewards.
Joining me today is Chandra Savage, Financial Trainer at The Gym, to share her journey from not being a wine drinker at all, to pursuing a passion project of making it herself. I hope you’re inspired as I am by Chandra’s story to find and invest in things that bring you joy for the pure joy of it.
What are we drinking?
Chandra - Shiraz
Shannon - Boxed Chardonnay
Podcast Notes
Chandra came to The Gym through a Facebook post in her group Dream Catchers. She decided to act on it and she applied for the job. She has now been working at The Gym for almost three years.
Prior to working at The Gym, Chandra took Financial Peace University through her church. She was working with her group at church and working at The Gym was a good extension of that.
Chandra has had some tough clients. One of them was challenging from the first meeting. After Chandra created her plan, the client told her she hated it and she wasn’t going to do anything in it.
About six months later, the client had a breakthrough. She did everything that Chandra said and her life was changed.
Chandra discovered wine because of a guy. She was dating a stockbroker and she went to a work event with him at a wine bar. He left her alone for most of the time so he could network, and when she went to the bar she ordered a rum and Coke.
Her date made a beeline for her and told her she shouldn’t be drinking rum and Coke, because they were at a wine bar. She didn’t want anyone to speak to her like that about wine ever again.
For a while, Chandra was working at Del Frisco’s and she had to meet with the sommelier. He told her she needed to know at least four wines to recommend to clients, because the wine list was 120 pages. This was when she started to like wine.
Chandra started taking classes at the International Wine Center in New York. She had to do an independent study, because she was working on Long Island and couldn’t make it to class. It was about $570 for the course. At the time, Chandra was all in, because she was learning so much. However, that price did not include all of the wine she needed to buy.
The company she worked for owned a wine company and she was able to get that company to sponsor about 80% of her wines for the study.
The study covers grapes and how they are grown, the acidic compounds, the alcohol content, and other topics like this.
Going into the course, she wanted to take the class, because she thought she wanted to be part of the staff at the wine school. She didn’t want to be a sommelier, because the training can be very expensive and time consuming.
Chandra received her first certification and went on to the third level and failed the blind tasting. Her job responsibilities didn’t permit for her to study on a consistent level and, before she knew it, a year had passed and she would need to pay the $570 all over again.
Chandra felt like she spent a lot of money on wine and about a year ago she decided that she should spend that money on making it herself. She wanted to make something she really loves.
The first wine she wants to make is a Crémant Blanc de Blanc. Years ago there was a wine event in New York called Around the World in 86 and the Crémant always stuck with her. It was sparkling and felt like the bubbles danced on her tongue.
Chandra spoke to some of the wine makers she had a relationship with, and they recommended that she work with a custom crush facility, since she didn’t have a vineyard. She called a few of them and had some conversations about what needed to happen.
One of her conversations was with a man at East Coast Custom Crush Facility in New York and he walked her through all of the steps she would need to take to make wine. It was overwhelming. He said if she did these first three steps he would be impressed:
Find a chemist to create your recipe
Get your wholesale license so you can work with a custom crush facility and so you can distribute in New York
Have a your COLA regulated label for your wine
Chandra did meet a chemist through LinkedIn. She went back to one of the wine makers she knew and they said they would come up with a recipe, but she would need to pay them a lot of money.
She started reaching out to people on LinkedIn and no one got back to her. Victoria Seachrist, Financial Trainer at The Gym, brought in some wine her grandpa made and Chandra thought maybe she could do this at home.
Chandra was doing her wine podcast, called Mo Wine, that’s based on The Wine Century Club. In order to become a member, you need to taste 100 different varietal grapes, some of which are indigenous to certain areas and are very difficult to find.
It is a passion of Chandra’s to get into this club. The list is 11 pages long.
When it comes to wine, people only want to know how much it costs, what it tastes like, and what it pairs best with.
Chandra made her first wine from a kit that came with a juice concentrate and other supplies. She put it all together and waited for six weeks and then she bottled it. When she started the bottling process, she realized she missed a step with the sugar measurement six weeks before.
After bottling it, she had to put it away for another four weeks. It was ready to go on Labor Day weekend and she hated the taste of it, because it was very strong. She is going to try again, but without the kit.
Chandra is allowed to make up to 500 bottles of homemade wine. She cannot sell it, but she can list a suggested donation.
Someone Chandra knew in high school recently reached out to her, because he heard she was making wine. He said he could help her with contacts and distribution.
Chandra hasn’t decided what she is going to call the wine, because she needs to smell it and taste it first.
Takeaway: My biggest takeaway is to make sure that you budget for hobbies or activities in your life that bring you joy, so when you discover them, money will not get in the way of you pursuing them.
Random Three Questions
What has been a gift from the experience of a pandemic for you?
If this was your last meal on earth, what would you choose?
Where would you like to travel next?
Connect with Chandra
Podcast: www.mo-wine.com
Facebook/Instagram/Twitter: @mowineforu
If you have any topics you would like me to cover on this podcast, or if you’d like to get in the financially naked hot seat, I encourage you to email me to Shannon@fingyms.com, or join the private Martinis and Your Money Facebook group, and let me know what you want to hear.
If you’d like to create more room in your monthly finances so you can pursue more activities that bring you joy, I hope you’ll reach out to my team at The Financial Gym. We’ve worked with over 6,000 clients at this point and we’ve literally seen it all, and we would love to help you achieve your financial dreams. If you’re ready to get started, head over to, or send friends to, financialgym.com to get set up today.