How did the Practical Magic witches afford their house?
Did they have a HYSA for a down payment? And other questions I have as a startup founder of Tesoro, the money tool for first-gen wealth builders.
The Eldest Daughter Witchcraft of It All
As a Latina who stayed home and was given free rein to watch cable with minimal supervision, I watched many questionable movies via DirecTV. One magical July afternoon, my mom had finally had enough of 13-year-old me, and there I was, home alone on the couch, when Lifetime decided to show me culture, aka Practical Magic.
Let me tell you, I was never the same.
There’s life pre-Practical Magic and life post-Practical Magic.
I was hooked, I’m not sure anyone needs to hear Aunt Frances say “My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage,” more than a gay, Latina, immigrant eldest daughter sharing a room with her two siblings on an island in Alaska where no one looks like her.
The obsession has been lifelong, so much so that when my wife proposed, she took me to Whidbey Island in Washington, where (inside scoop) Practical Magic was filmed.
Real Estate Questions
Apart from the fashion, which Viv Chen is covering and which is making me want to dip into my clothing savings fund to hunt down the Collette Dinnigan dress Sandra Bullock wears while looking devastatingly beautiful as the ultimate eldest daughter - this movie + HGTV is what started my real estate girly obsessions (tale for another stack).
At thirteen, I didn’t know about mortgages, but I did have a few questions. How lucrative could bird murder in exchange for love potions possibly be to afford a 19th-century white Victorian with a glass conservatory, beachfront view, and what appears to be multiple acres of land? The girl math was not mathing.
If the Aunts’ matchmaking dealings were indeed lucrative enough to save up for the down payment, we know that money was absolutely stashed in the conservatory behind the Belladonna (IYKYK).
Tell me this doesn’t remind you of your mom, Tías, or Abuelas hiding money in the house in random containers.
My longest-running childhood “piggy bank” was a chocolate Nesquik container, the yellow kind with the label still on, SARA written in Sharpie to distinguish it from my sister’s.
But Let’s be Real: It Was Inherited Wealth
True fans already know Maria, the Owens’ ancestor (won / scared the island people away? / secured the bag), and thus they inherited the land and the house.
And just like that, to no one’s surprise, it all leads back to inherited wealth. Because tell me how else were these four women supposed to afford this Victorian waterfront ESTATE, selling mint oatmeal-flavored shaving cream. This was pre-Goop, and we know the island folk were not paying $80 a pop for Sally’s creations.
For Those of Us Without the Victorian + Oceanfront Starter Home
For those of us without inherited wealth, or as I like to say, those of us in the Tesoro Wealth Club (TWC) who have the greatness of building wealth thrust upon us, where should we be keeping our $$ as we save up for big purchases?
Enter:
The High-Yield Savings Account (HYSA)
Tesoro’s favorite intro tool to the world of compound interest.
If you haven’t heard of compound interest, come on in, have some chocolate cake made by the Aunts, and listen up.
A Practical Magic Explanation of Compound Interest
Aunt Frances (smiling, sipping on a midnight margarita): “Darling, compound interest is the closest thing to real-world witchcraft there is.”
Aunt Jet (lighting a candle): “It’s when your money starts to grow itself. You tuck it away, feed it a little at a time, and *poof* it grows.”
Aunt Frances: “A seed that blossoms not once, but over and over.” (Much like Jimmy-Angelo’s recurring roses, but only these are the good kind)
Aunt Jet: “At first, you only see one little sprout, a few dollars of interest. But next year, that sprout grows flowers, and the interest earns interest. That’s compound interest.”
Aunt Frances (grinning): “That’s compound interest. You earn money on the money you’ve already earned, a spell that renews itself every moon cycle, if you’re patient.”
Aunt Jet: “So you see, the trick to this spell isn’t power, it’s time. The sooner you start, the stronger the spell.”
Aunt Frances (raising her glass): “To compound interest! The quiet magic that makes money multiply while you sleep.”
Thank you to the Aunts for sharing their wisdom and spells. As the Founder of Tesoro, the best tool out there for first-gen wealth builders to open their high-yield savings and investment accounts, let me add the following:
The Aunts are right, the real magic is time.
The earlier you put your money into an account, like a high-yield savings account (HYSA), the longer it has to grow, aka accrue interest.
A HYSA is an FDIC-insured account that pays much higher interest than a regular savings account, often 10 to 15 times more.
FDIC stands for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, a government agency that protects your money in a bank. If a bank ever closes or has problems, the FDIC guarantees your money up to $250,000 per person, per bank.
So when an account (like a high-yield savings account you get matched with through Tesoro) says “FDIC-insured,” it means your money is safe and backed by the U.S. government.
In other words: Even if the bank disappears, your money doesn’t.
Your money earns interest, which means it grows automatically over time while staying fully accessible. It’s one of the simplest, safest ways to start building wealth, especially for goals like saving for a down payment or your emergency fund.
So, darling, that’s how you put the lime in the HYSA coconut.
If the Owens sisters have got you motivated (and if you really want to make my day), I’d love to walk you through opening your own high-yield savings account (HYSA) one-on-one.
Comment down below and/or:
1) Check out my website www.tesorowealth.com and take my very short survey
2) I’ll walk you through opening your HYSA (for free!)
3) If you want to skip that, book a meeting directly with me here.
We’re building wealth together, even without inheriting Maria’s land.
Hope this reaches my first-gen eldest daughters out there. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts, comments, and whether you’re more Sally or Gillian.
Don’t forget to subscribe! See you in the club - the Tesoro Wealth Club that is.
With gratitude,
Sara
This is such an interesting take
Thanks for exposing the means of Practical Magic production. May we all own houses like that one day.