Speaker 1: My name's Tatasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations woman
Speaker 1: and I'm here to acknowledge country t Glenn Young Ganya
Speaker 1: Niana Kaka yah y and beIN ah Waka Nian our
Speaker 1: gay In Mbina, yakarum jar Dominyama, Domagahawakaman, damon Imlan Bomber
Speaker 1: bang Gadabomba in and now in wakah ghana on yak
Speaker 1: rum jar Watnadaa. Hello, beautiful friends, we gather on the
Speaker 1: lands of the Aboriginal people. We thank acknowledge and respect
Speaker 1: the Abiginal people's land that we're gathering on today. Take
Speaker 1: pleasure in all the land and respect all that you see.
Speaker 1: She's on the Money podcast acknowledges culture, country, community and connections,
Speaker 1: bringing you the tools, knowledge and resources for you to thrive.
Speaker 2: She's on the Money.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money.
Speaker 4: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
Speaker 4: that lets you be really pervy about other people's money
Speaker 4: habits educational purposes of course. Welcome back to another one
Speaker 4: of our money diaries where I get the absolute privilege
Speaker 4: of talking with one of our incredible She's on the
Speaker 4: Money community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight
Speaker 4: into it, because this week I got an email and
Speaker 4: it sounded exactly like this, Dear, she's on the money.
Speaker 4: I've proudly been listening to your show since day one,
Speaker 4: and before the podcast, I had no financial literacy at all.
Speaker 4: I've been through redundancy working in the disability space and
Speaker 4: had to move back home during COVID. After that, on
Speaker 4: the advice from my mentor, I made a career pivot
Speaker 4: into people consulting. I also own one third of an
Speaker 4: apartment with my brothers because it was the only way
Speaker 4: I could get into the market at the time. It's
Speaker 4: not always easy, but I'm glad I did it. Fast
Speaker 4: forward to today, live in New York after transferring with
Speaker 4: an American company. This means my finances are a bit
Speaker 4: all over the place. Five bank accounts, A for U,
Speaker 4: one K Ozzie super A, mortgage back home, and tax
Speaker 4: in both countries. Money, Darrist, Welcome to the show. This
Speaker 4: is actually going to be so fun.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 4: I'm very excited. New York is so fancy. How long
Speaker 4: have you been there?
Speaker 5: Yeah, so, I've been in New York for three years now,
Speaker 5: just over three years.
Speaker 4: Oh, that's so exciting. And I mean, you did say
Speaker 4: that your finances might be a little bit all over
Speaker 4: the place. If I asked you to give yourself a
Speaker 4: money grade from A through to F, what grade would
Speaker 4: you give yourself?
Speaker 5: I think I give myself a BUS. I've learned a
Speaker 5: lot over the last few years. I've learnt a lot
Speaker 5: from listening to the podcast. I'm pretty proud of what
Speaker 5: I've done, but I still think there's a lot to
Speaker 5: learn and grow from. And I think that I'd like
Speaker 5: to clean up my finances a little bit.
Speaker 4: Love love, love love. Tell me a bit more about
Speaker 4: your money story and your money journey, because you've gone
Speaker 4: from like being in Australia to now in the US
Speaker 4: for the last three years. Tell me about all of that.
Speaker 4: And I need to know, like what's the future going
Speaker 4: to hold?
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I think, you know, just to go back
Speaker 5: to how I was raised and brought up.
Speaker 2: I grew up with, you know, very middle class family.
Speaker 5: My mother has always been so intensely you know, money savvy.
Speaker 5: She's been a scrimper and a saver her whole life.
Speaker 5: My dad, on the other hand, is a fairly risky
Speaker 5: person with money. I think he's always had his own business,
Speaker 5: maybe not had that much of a security mentality towards money.
Speaker 5: He grew up a little wealthier than she did, and
Speaker 5: so I don't think he cared or thought as much about,
Speaker 5: you know, what life would look like if he didn't
Speaker 5: have any money. And I think I definitely more take
Speaker 5: after my mum. I think that I'm more kind of
Speaker 5: more risk averse with money. I'm definitely a scrimper and
Speaker 5: a saver. I always have been. I would save my
Speaker 5: pocket money. I saved you know, money from birthday presents
Speaker 5: for my whole life, and so I think I definitely
Speaker 5: had that mentality, and that's kind of the way I've
Speaker 5: been brought up up. I think the thing that made
Speaker 5: it hard for me was I'm quite a kind of
Speaker 5: structured type aid person, and when I was made redundant,
Speaker 5: not once, but twice in three years, it definitely kind
Speaker 5: of made me feel like I was never going to
Speaker 5: achieve my money goals. I've moved for jobs twice in
Speaker 5: my life. I moved from Sydney to Melbourne. I moved
Speaker 5: from from Sydney to New York for work. It was
Speaker 5: a massive concern for me in moving here that that
Speaker 5: would be a really scary thing to do, and that
Speaker 5: I wouldn't necessarily be able to be able to afford it.
Speaker 5: I don't have any security for my family. I fully
Speaker 5: financially am responsible for myself, and so yeah, I mean,
Speaker 5: I think my attitude towards money now is that this
Speaker 5: podcast more generally, and listening to this podcast as well
Speaker 5: as some other kind of financial literacy that I've learned
Speaker 5: over the last kind of seven years, has really taught
Speaker 5: me how powerful it is to be financially independent and
Speaker 5: how good I feel when I save money, when I
Speaker 5: I'm able to travel, I'm able to contribute to you know,
Speaker 5: I live with my partner, I'm able to contribute to
Speaker 5: our rent in our life, and that we can go
Speaker 5: on holidays and we can do everything that we want
Speaker 5: to do and we can still save for kind of
Speaker 5: our big money goals. So I think I've come a
Speaker 5: long way from when I first started in my career
Speaker 5: and when I first started saving money to now where
Speaker 5: you know, I'm pretty comfortable. I know, I'm comfortable, I'm happy. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I guess that's kind of my attitude towards money.
Speaker 4: I love that I feel like that's such a big
Speaker 4: goal for so many people to just be like, look,
Speaker 4: I'm comfortable and I'm happy, like that is iconic, especially
Speaker 4: right now when everything is so damn expensive. It's so
Speaker 4: expensive here in Australia, but I can't imagine what it's
Speaker 4: like in the US. I remember when I was in
Speaker 4: New York. I just found everything astronomical. Like I was
Speaker 4: consistently being like, sorry, what, Like, my goodness.
Speaker 2: It's crazy.
Speaker 5: Like I could not even my friends at home when
Speaker 5: I tell them, you know how much rent we pay,
Speaker 5: or even going out grocery bills, whether it's buying a
Speaker 5: cocktail in a bar or going grocery shopping or getting
Speaker 5: an uber it's like double the price of Australia.
Speaker 2: I don't convert anymore.
Speaker 5: It just like pains me and it hits my heart
Speaker 5: so hard when I try to convert back to Australian dollars.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're just blocking it out. You're like, oh, my goodness.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but I was recently calculating how much rent I
Speaker 5: pay and what mortgage we could afford to pay in
Speaker 5: Australia and that made me sick to my stomach.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and like it's so hard, but you're also we
Speaker 4: had someone on the show a couple of weeks ago actually,
Speaker 4: who was based in San Francisco, And I know you
Speaker 4: listened to that because we're just talking about it off
Speaker 4: air and she was saying the same thing, just like
Speaker 4: it's so expensive, i'd no longer convert. But you're also
Speaker 4: like kind of paying for a lifestyle and paying for
Speaker 4: the experience, Like you wouldn't want to or I don't
Speaker 4: think you would want to take that away, because yes,
Speaker 4: you could come back to Australia and pay a different mortgage,
Speaker 4: but like, look at the life experience you're getting. Look
Speaker 4: at like the things that you're doing. I just I'm
Speaker 4: in such or of people who are able to do
Speaker 4: this because I'm such a conservative person. Like as much
Speaker 4: as you know I've started businesses and done all of this,
Speaker 4: I've always done it, like I would say, while feeling
Speaker 4: relatively secure in the country I grew up in, Like
Speaker 4: going to the US is a completely different ballgame. I
Speaker 4: want to know you mentioned before, like being made redundant
Speaker 4: twice in three years. That's rude. Like I think that's
Speaker 4: quite rude. I feel like you should be getting like
Speaker 4: a hall pass or something where someone's like, oh, sorry, no,
Speaker 4: we can't make her redundant. She actually got made redundant
Speaker 4: once before, Like that wouldn't be very nice for her ego,
Speaker 4: So we shouldn't be doing that. Talk to me about
Speaker 4: like not just rebuilding from that, because I feel like
Speaker 4: you get a bit of a financial hit because obviously
Speaker 4: you're out of work, you're trying to find a new job,
Speaker 4: but like the ego hit and just feeling like is
Speaker 4: this me, Like did that hit your confidence in the
Speaker 4: way that I assume it might have.
Speaker 2: Oh, my gosh, totally, I think.
Speaker 5: You know, the first time it happened, it was my
Speaker 5: first job, when I was six months into that job,
Speaker 5: and the organization it was a disability organization, and they
Speaker 5: just didn't have the money and they didn't have really
Speaker 5: that they weren't mature enough to be able to have
Speaker 5: me on staff full time. I was their first kind
Speaker 5: of full time employee. And the first time that happened,
Speaker 5: I was like, I'm never going to get another job,
Speaker 5: I'm never going to be able to afford what I want.
Speaker 5: I'm going to have to move home, you know, like completely,
Speaker 5: just a horrible feeling. And then for that to happen
Speaker 5: kind of two years later, right when I start my
Speaker 5: third job in my career. I was like, is it
Speaker 5: something what's wrong with me?
Speaker 2: Is it me? Yeah?
Speaker 5: And what am I doing wrong that's making this happen.
Speaker 5: I've always thought I was a good worker. I've always
Speaker 5: thought i'd work hard. I always go kind of above
Speaker 5: and beyond. I'm never just someone who like clocks off
Speaker 5: at five and leaves.
Speaker 2: And it was the worst feeling ever.
Speaker 5: Hilariously, the company that made me redundant the second time
Speaker 5: I now work for in.
Speaker 4: New York, You're like, bet you didn't see me coming back.
Speaker 5: They essentially like helped me relocate to New York and
Speaker 5: they paid my relocation.
Speaker 4: They moved me here, my goodness.
Speaker 5: So it kind of makes me think that, you know,
Speaker 5: everything happens for a reason, you know, it doesn't feel
Speaker 5: that way, And I hate when it happened.
Speaker 2: I hated everyone that would say that to me.
Speaker 5: I hated everyone that would be like, it doesn't happen
Speaker 5: for a reason, you know, like I have no money,
Speaker 5: I'm gonna have to move back to my parents' house,
Speaker 5: like I have nothing. But now years past that, I
Speaker 5: think business is business, right, and it's not personal, and
Speaker 5: it's not your fault and you're going to find another
Speaker 5: job where you're going to find a different career path.
Speaker 5: And had those things not happen to me, I wouldn't
Speaker 5: have been where I am today. I wouldn't be sitting
Speaker 5: here in New York with my partner who's American, living
Speaker 5: this life literally looking out onto the city. I would
Speaker 5: just probably be in a really different place with my life.
Speaker 5: Not saying that, Like money is the bell on it
Speaker 5: all and gives you everything, but I think it's afforded
Speaker 5: me a lot of It's your freedom.
Speaker 4: It gives you a lot of freedom and choice and
Speaker 4: ability to I don't know. I get quite frustrated when
Speaker 4: people say things like, oh, money doesn't buy happiness, and
Speaker 4: I'm like, yeah, but like it does create unhappiness when
Speaker 4: you don't have enough of it, And like we all
Speaker 4: know the research says, like there's a cap of a
Speaker 4: certain amount of money where you don't get happier the
Speaker 4: more you earn. And that's fine, but like when you're
Speaker 4: in financial distress, when you're being made redundant, when you
Speaker 4: think that you're not going to have an income or
Speaker 4: you're going to be able to achieve any financial goals, Yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm sorry. Money makes me really happy, Like money makes
Speaker 4: me feel really secure, and being secure is actually a
Speaker 4: good thing.
Speaker 2: And I feel that way.
Speaker 5: I mean, I think about the people that can't afford
Speaker 5: to go buy groceries, and I think, you know, yeah,
Speaker 5: that is a terrible feeling. I've been in that position before,
Speaker 5: a lot of people have been in that position before,
Speaker 5: and it feels horrible and that is a really unhappy place.
Speaker 5: So to even have the luxury of being able to
Speaker 5: go and buy groceries every week and not feel like
Speaker 5: you can't put food on the table for you or
Speaker 5: your family, you know, that gives somewhat of happiness. How
Speaker 5: you get from there to like being extraordinarily wealthy. I
Speaker 5: don't think that much happiness carries.
Speaker 2: Along with it.
Speaker 4: No, absolutely not. It's kind of like I would actually
Speaker 4: like us older just have the bare minimum, Like can
Speaker 4: we all just be able to put food on the table,
Speaker 4: not go into debt to do that, and feel like
Speaker 4: we can be safe and happy and have a roof
Speaker 4: over our head and pay for our electricity. Like I
Speaker 4: just feel like that's the bare minimum and we should
Speaker 4: be working towards that. Talk to me about work. So
Speaker 4: you've moved over to America, it's is so fancy you
Speaker 4: transferred with and did you say it was American company?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 4: Like it was the company you worked for over here,
Speaker 4: got made redundant from and have gone back to. So
Speaker 4: talk me through that. What do you do for work?
Speaker 4: How much do you earn? How on earth do you
Speaker 4: get someone who's like, you know what money DRIs will
Speaker 4: pay for you to travel to the other side of
Speaker 4: the world. Like that's cool.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well it probably makes sense to start with how
Speaker 5: I was made redundant from this company as an American company,
Speaker 5: they have a very small presence in Australia. I work
Speaker 5: as an executive search consultant. So basically what we do
Speaker 5: is essentially help companies. Some people call it a headhunter.
Speaker 5: Basically hire executives like CEOs for big companies around the world.
Speaker 5: We also kind of do another bit of work, which
Speaker 5: is leadership and consulting services to businesses. So when you think,
Speaker 5: you know, the culture of a company is really bad,
Speaker 5: we might come in and build a better culture for
Speaker 5: the business or create a plan for CEO succession. I
Speaker 5: was major redundant from that job. I then moved to
Speaker 5: a different company and I was there for three years.
Speaker 5: While I was at that other company, A previous company
Speaker 5: kept calling me saying, hey, we'd love you to come back.
Speaker 2: I think you should come back. We've got a job
Speaker 2: opening for you.
Speaker 4: And you're like, but you did me a dirty the
Speaker 4: first time. I would have been really apprehensive.
Speaker 2: And eventually I was like, can I come back? But
Speaker 2: in New York?
Speaker 5: And they saw it as this long term The industry
Speaker 5: is very small in Australia, so they saw it as
Speaker 5: this long term you know, we bring you back, maybe
Speaker 5: you'll come back to it Australia down the track.
Speaker 4: Ha ha ha. Smart from them, but also strategic from you.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And so they introduced me to the business in New
Speaker 5: York and essentially I ended up moving over with the
Speaker 5: business three years after I was made redundant from that
Speaker 5: same company.
Speaker 4: Wow. And so what do you get paid if you're
Speaker 4: in executive search?
Speaker 2: So it's funny.
Speaker 5: When I moved over from Australia to New York, my
Speaker 5: salary did not change one bit.
Speaker 2: It was the same.
Speaker 5: It was one hundred and thirty thousand Australian dollars to
Speaker 5: one hundred and thirty thousand US dollars.
Speaker 4: Excuse me, just.
Speaker 5: The same amount. And now I've been promoted over the
Speaker 5: last three years.
Speaker 4: Wait. Sorry, so you went from one hundred and thirty
Speaker 4: Australian dollars to one hundred and thirty American dollars. Does
Speaker 4: that mean you kind of basically doubled almost double dur income.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So at the time, we're just like skimming across the
Speaker 4: fact that there's currency conversion here.
Speaker 2: Guys.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was like, hold on, hold on, that's like
Speaker 4: a really good deal.
Speaker 5: I ignore currency conversion because everything costs the exact same
Speaker 5: in the US in US dollars as it does in Australia.
Speaker 5: So at the time, when I got that pay and
Speaker 5: I was like, I'm going to earn one hundred and
Speaker 5: thirty thousand base and then we get kind of a
Speaker 5: cash bonus, I thought I'd like made it. I was like,
Speaker 5: this is amazing, this is the best thing that could
Speaker 5: ever happen to me, and it is. It's incredible. But
Speaker 5: then you move here and everything costs the same, if
Speaker 5: not more, in US dollars in New York, and you think,
Speaker 5: actually it was kind of ends up being less money
Speaker 5: at the end of the day that you kind of
Speaker 5: come homework.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's crazy because you've basically gone from having one
Speaker 4: hundred and thirty grand Australian to two hundred thousand Australian,
Speaker 4: which is like the currency conversion there, which is fine,
Speaker 4: but like having experienced it, having you know, done lots
Speaker 4: of research into this space, like everything is astronomically more expensive.
Speaker 4: I remember one of my favorite things when I travel
Speaker 4: money Durst is to go to the groceries store close
Speaker 4: to like where we're staying and just like have a
Speaker 4: bit of a wonder round see what the prices on
Speaker 4: things are. And obviously, like I don't know, when you
Speaker 4: move to a you probably did this. American grocery stores
Speaker 4: are so fun. It's like a wonderland. They have so
Speaker 4: much more stuff than you could ever imagine. Like why
Speaker 4: are there pop tarts? Why is there a whole? I
Speaker 4: al feel like pop tart? What are you talking about? Anyway,
Speaker 4: I had it. That's fun, but it was insane how
Speaker 4: much things were. Like I thought we were crazy in
Speaker 4: Australia in America, unhinged.
Speaker 2: It's crazy. Actually, it's so funny.
Speaker 5: We came back to Australia recently for a visit and
Speaker 5: my partner both of us were like, it's really it
Speaker 5: feels quite cheap here for us, Like everything was discounted,
Speaker 5: everything about like forty percent off the price just because
Speaker 5: of the US dollar.
Speaker 2: But I know that's not the case.
Speaker 5: Like my family's still there, and I know people are
Speaker 5: really struggling, So I'm not coming from a place without
Speaker 5: that perception.
Speaker 4: No, But it's just our experience. I think that's the
Speaker 4: beauty of money diaries, right, Like we get the opportunity
Speaker 4: to share your experience so that other people can learn
Speaker 4: from it, because it's so beautiful to be like, oh,
Speaker 4: my goodness, like you're on the other side of the
Speaker 4: world and you're sharing all of your like money secrets
Speaker 4: basically with us. It's not because you don't get it.
Speaker 4: It's just we're all in different situations and that, to
Speaker 4: me is really cool.
Speaker 5: And I should say I was promoted last year, so
Speaker 5: my total package now I have a base salary of
Speaker 5: one hundred and fifty thousand US dollars and then I
Speaker 5: earn this bonus, which is a cash bonus annually. It's
Speaker 5: very weirdly calculated. I have no clue how they decide
Speaker 5: how much it is. Last year it was fifty thousand dollars,
Speaker 5: so just one time a year, you get fifty thousand
Speaker 5: dollars in your bank account.
Speaker 2: Why, it's a bit crazy.
Speaker 4: And what does tax on that look like?
Speaker 2: Oh like fifty percent?
Speaker 4: Fifty percent, jeez, Louise. So now you're earning like two
Speaker 4: hundred USD which is about three hundred thousand Australian dollars.
Speaker 4: That's crazy. But also you're probably like Victoria to live
Speaker 4: in New York. That's a bare minimum.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And then on top of that, which is kind of
Speaker 5: an interesting piece that they do in the US, they
Speaker 5: don't in Australia, but it's something called profit sharing. So
Speaker 5: if the company performs well and profits, then the employees
Speaker 5: get a small portion of those profits based on how
Speaker 5: much they earn. So it's based on a base salary.
Speaker 5: It's a percentage of the profits. So I think last
Speaker 5: year that added up to about fifteen percent on top
Speaker 5: of my base salary. That goes straight into the equivalent
Speaker 5: of my superannuation.
Speaker 2: So my fourah one k.
Speaker 5: Yeah, crazy, which is a great system. It's a private company,
Speaker 5: so they can kind of do whatever they want.
Speaker 4: So talk to me about having gone from the Australian
Speaker 4: system where we have superannuation to having a four oh
Speaker 4: one case. So for those of you falling along at
Speaker 4: home in Australia, superannuation is government mandated in Australia, but
Speaker 4: there's no system like that in America. It's kind of
Speaker 4: would you say, it's like voluntary. So some companies engage
Speaker 4: with it. You can contribute to it, like it's a
Speaker 4: good idea, but it's not something that they absolutely have
Speaker 4: to pay like they do in Australia.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's totally right. I actually the system.
Speaker 5: I think it's a terrible system, and I think it's
Speaker 5: really disadvantages people that are living paycheck to paycheck.
Speaker 2: And I wish it wasn't the case.
Speaker 5: I really struggled when I moved here with figuring out
Speaker 5: the tax on a four oh one K if I
Speaker 5: wanted to take it back to Australia. I was deciding
Speaker 5: whether it would even be worth me having a four
Speaker 5: oh one K, or if I should just continually contribute
Speaker 5: to my own superannuation in Australia. But a lot of
Speaker 5: companies do a process called matching, so if you put
Speaker 5: in three percent of your pay, they'll put in three percent.
Speaker 5: My company, actually, I don't think has the best matching program.
Speaker 5: You put in six percent and they will match three percent,
Speaker 5: so they'll match half of the six percent, right, Yeah,
Speaker 5: it's really strange. So in totally if you put in
Speaker 5: six percent, they'll add three percent and that takes it
Speaker 5: to nine percent. But because they do that profit sharing,
Speaker 5: my company ends up giving me more in my four
Speaker 5: oh one K then I would get in my super
Speaker 5: in Australia because they add I think it's like last
Speaker 5: year was fifteen percent profit sharing into my four o
Speaker 5: one K at the end of the year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think it's interesting. And if you are
Speaker 4: about to ask you about this actually, but if you
Speaker 4: ever do booth back to Australia, something that I would
Speaker 4: recommend is talking to an expat financial advisor, so someone
Speaker 4: who really specializes in Americans or Australian citizens who have
Speaker 4: lived abroad who are coming back. And I've got a
Speaker 4: great recommendation if anybody needs one. But it's so important
Speaker 4: to work out what that looks like because there are
Speaker 4: a lot of like us and then Australian tax implications,
Speaker 4: because the Australian tax system doesn't recognize the four oh
Speaker 4: one K as a tax advantaged account, but obviously in
Speaker 4: America it is, and there's like lots of different strategies
Speaker 4: and how to get it back into Australia basically, but
Speaker 4: the ATO sometimes and I'm not an accountant so I
Speaker 4: can't give advice on these. Is just interesting to know.
Speaker 4: Sometimes the ATO might actually look at you pulling money
Speaker 4: out of your for a one k's income and then
Speaker 4: try and tax it at your marginal tax rate, which
Speaker 4: you go, well, hold on like it was taxed on
Speaker 4: the way in. But that was the US system, not
Speaker 4: the Australian system. So I have seen situations where people
Speaker 4: move back to Australia still have their for a one
Speaker 4: ks for life and then just have withdrawals over time.
Speaker 4: I've also seen people completely extinguish them and bring them
Speaker 4: all back into Australia and put them into their subernuation system.
Speaker 4: So it's completely up to you. But that's one hundred
Speaker 4: percent something I would be getting very specialized advice on, because,
Speaker 4: as you said before, it's a lot of money. But
Speaker 4: then also the tax implications. Tax rates are so high
Speaker 4: in the US but also so high in Australia that
Speaker 4: you just don't want to make the wrong move.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's crazy, And actually I got advice before I
Speaker 5: left and the advice that I got this was not
Speaker 5: formal advice. This was from a friend and he said,
Speaker 5: don't put any money into your fur A one k
Speaker 5: if you can avoid it, because it's such a headache.
Speaker 5: You'll get to tacks a huge amount when you bring
Speaker 5: it back to Australia. But then I couldn't part with
Speaker 5: the idea that my company would then be not contributing
Speaker 5: anything exactly.
Speaker 4: And it's like, well, they're going to give me free money.
Speaker 4: I can work this out later down the track. And
Speaker 4: there's definitely a way to work it out, I promise.
Speaker 4: It's just more complex, unfortunately, and it might be about
Speaker 4: drawing down certain amounts or even maybe holding American investments
Speaker 4: for the rest of your life. Like there's a lot
Speaker 4: of ways around it. And I think that it sounds
Speaker 4: a lot more intimidating than the reality of it, because
Speaker 4: even if you live in Australia, having American assets is
Speaker 4: not the end of the world. We've got the Internet.
Speaker 4: It's almost like you and I are hanging out on
Speaker 4: the Internet truly right now in different countries and having
Speaker 4: a chat. So like, I feel like sometimes it feels
Speaker 4: more complex than it actually ends up being. So tell
Speaker 4: me about the future, Like, are you ever coming back
Speaker 4: to Australia, you said before, and they need to know
Speaker 4: how you met that, Like you said before, My American
Speaker 4: partner and I live together, So how's that going to work?
Speaker 5: Well, it's so funny. He came to Australia for the
Speaker 5: first time maybe a few months ago. He is in
Speaker 5: love with Australia. He loves it. He wants to move tomorrow.
Speaker 5: If it was up to him, we'd be moving tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Oh my heart.
Speaker 4: I kind of love that because you're like in the
Speaker 4: good position where you're like, I'm living, loving, loving in
Speaker 4: New York. But if I ever want to move home,
Speaker 4: that's not going to be an issue.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I guess I was worried about that. I've
Speaker 5: always been very clear with people I was dating when
Speaker 5: I moved here about the fact that I'm going to
Speaker 5: move back at some point. That's always been clear. I'm
Speaker 5: not having a family. I cannot raise a family in
Speaker 5: the US away from my family. My brother just had
Speaker 5: a baby, and thinking about having a family and raising
Speaker 5: them away from my cousins or their cousins is not
Speaker 5: really an option for me.
Speaker 4: It becomes so important, right It's such a funny conversation actually,
Speaker 4: and I interviewed and you listen to it, and probably
Speaker 4: everyone listening to this episode of Money Dari's heard our
Speaker 4: interview with the woman who moved over for her husband's
Speaker 4: job in tech in San Francisco, and so I went home.
Speaker 4: It was funny because my husband has a very similar
Speaker 4: career path to hers, and I say, oh, my gosh, Steve, like,
Speaker 4: you could move to San Francisco and you could do
Speaker 4: all of this stuff, and he was like, no, I
Speaker 4: would never have my kids in the US, like I
Speaker 4: don't want to bring kids up in the US. I
Speaker 4: don't want to bring kids up away from my family.
Speaker 4: And I was kind of like, oh, that was just
Speaker 4: like a fun thing to discuss because it was, you know,
Speaker 4: similar to your career. And then I was like, hold on,
Speaker 4: that must be a massive consideration. What was it like
Speaker 4: when your brother had a baby and you're just not
Speaker 4: in the country.
Speaker 2: It's been really tough.
Speaker 5: So when my brother had a baby, I was thinking,
Speaker 5: oh my gosh, how could I possibly be so far
Speaker 5: away from my niece. And then I thought about, you know,
Speaker 5: when my other sibling has a baby, what that might
Speaker 5: look like, and thinking about those cousins growing up together
Speaker 5: around the corner from each other, and me being so
Speaker 5: far away and my kids potentially growing up so far
Speaker 5: away just didn't really feel like a possibility for me.
Speaker 4: Yep, totally.
Speaker 5: And then thinking about that, my partner's family is all
Speaker 5: pretty disperse around the country. Americans all, I guess Americans
Speaker 5: are probably better than Australian.
Speaker 4: They're wild, are they. They just live in different states
Speaker 4: and think it's easy, And so there's.
Speaker 5: Not one central sort of home for his family. And
Speaker 5: so because of that, I think they're all more open
Speaker 5: to kind of moving to different cities in the US.
Speaker 5: And then he came to Australia. He loved how much
Speaker 5: nature there was, he loved how outdoors we were, he
Speaker 5: loved my family, and I think that kind of made
Speaker 5: things a little bit easier for him on actually potentially moving.
Speaker 5: And so he's like, now he's looking for jobs in Australia,
Speaker 5: he wants to move. Now I'm the one that's thinking,
Speaker 5: kind of career wise, it probably makes sense for me
Speaker 5: to stay a few more years, get a few more promotions,
Speaker 5: and then and then go back.
Speaker 4: Yeah, one hundred percent, because I'm assuming that your space
Speaker 4: you said before is relatively niche, like executive search in Australia,
Speaker 4: I would assume is not as large as it is
Speaker 4: in the US. So what could that mean for your
Speaker 4: career down the track.
Speaker 5: I think it's certainly there is options in Australia, there's
Speaker 5: just a.
Speaker 2: Lot less option.
Speaker 5: So it'd be better for me to kind of stay
Speaker 5: here and get promoted and then eventually move back to
Speaker 5: Australia in a more senior role because it's so small
Speaker 5: in Australia, there just isn't a lot of room for promotion.
Speaker 5: There's not a lot of room for growth. And when
Speaker 5: you think about it, if you just think practically, most
Speaker 5: of my clients are like ASX one hundred equivalent companies
Speaker 5: like NASDAQ one hundred, big companies, and they just aren't
Speaker 5: as many of them in Australia. And so when you're
Speaker 5: working with smaller companies.
Speaker 2: It's smaller roles. It's not that it's not important, it's
Speaker 2: just not as much what we do in our job.
Speaker 4: Yeah, one hundred percent, I'm assuming that your type of role.
Speaker 4: When you find somebody through executive search, there's a whole
Speaker 4: pr release about who's going to be the new head
Speaker 4: of this company, and then it's like, yes, there are
Speaker 4: lots of CEO roles in Australia, but they're not you know,
Speaker 4: listed companies that are always chopping and changing. There's just
Speaker 4: so much more business that happens in the US.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And also when you think about what we do, a
Speaker 5: lot of the time a company would hire us to
Speaker 5: do that work because they owe it to their shareholders
Speaker 5: that they are not just finding one person that could
Speaker 5: do the job, but they are being diligent enough to
Speaker 5: look at every market, every sector, every industry in the
Speaker 5: world and find the best possible person in the world
Speaker 5: that could do that job. And just internally, they can't
Speaker 5: do it themselves, they need to hire us to do that.
Speaker 4: No, and you do that day in, day out, So
Speaker 4: it makes sense to go to the professionals for that.
Speaker 4: And I mean looking at the way that a board
Speaker 4: would look at that as well. Having somebody who's an
Speaker 4: external feels a lot more secure than you know, being
Speaker 4: accused of something happening inside or a friend being promoted
Speaker 4: or whatnot. It just makes a lot more sense when
Speaker 4: there's a lot more at stake.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 4: So tell me about this idea of moving home with
Speaker 4: your partner one, How did you meet your partner? Like,
Speaker 4: did you meet in New York? Did you meet before
Speaker 4: you moved? Did you meet at work? Like I need
Speaker 4: to know the boss.
Speaker 2: Actually, it's so funny.
Speaker 5: So one of my friends that I met in Australia,
Speaker 5: he had been on exchange in Australia and we lived
Speaker 5: in dorms next to each other when we were at
Speaker 5: UNI together. He moved back, he's American, moved back to
Speaker 5: the US and he invited me to come to a
Speaker 5: brunch one day and he said, my friend is visiting
Speaker 5: from out of town, and I come to that brunch.
Speaker 5: It's just me my friend, And that's how I met
Speaker 5: my partner. He was the other person at the brunch.
Speaker 4: Was he just matchmaking you?
Speaker 2: Actually, I don't know if he was matchmaking me.
Speaker 4: Maybe he was, but it was just like unintentionally worked.
Speaker 4: He became the third wheel.
Speaker 5: And he didn't live in New York at the time,
Speaker 5: so we dated long distance for a year and then
Speaker 5: eventually I.
Speaker 2: Convinced him to move to New York.
Speaker 5: That certainly hasn't been a dream of his to live here,
Speaker 5: but he's really happy in nol and so he moved
Speaker 5: to New York about a year ago and we've been
Speaker 5: living together for a year.
Speaker 4: That's so sweet. I love asking people about their love stories.
Speaker 4: I know it's a money podcast, but I'm always like, so,
Speaker 4: how did you meet? What's going on? Like that is
Speaker 4: so sweet? All right, tell me what are your big
Speaker 4: money goals? Like you were mentioning before for like, life's
Speaker 4: really expensive, but you do have a pretty good income.
Speaker 4: So what are you saving for? What are we working towards?
Speaker 5: So I think that you know, there's smaller money goals
Speaker 5: like holidays, visits back home, things like that, and then
Speaker 5: I think our big money goal is eventually my partner
Speaker 5: and I would want to move back to Australia, and
Speaker 5: like everyone would love to buy a house. A house
Speaker 5: might be ambitious in Sydney. It feels pretty far away
Speaker 5: to actually be able to do that right now. So
Speaker 5: we're trying to kind of save as much USD as
Speaker 5: we possibly can because I think the exchange rate would
Speaker 5: really help us out.
Speaker 4: The exchange rate is going to definitely help you out.
Speaker 5: I'm envious, like I'd said earlier, Like ironically, I was
Speaker 5: looking at kind of what the mortgage repayments would be
Speaker 5: on a one point five million dollar property in Sydney.
Speaker 4: It would have been less than your rent.
Speaker 2: That's less than what we're paying in rent.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, you'd be fine, You'll be absolutely fine. It's astronomical.
Speaker 4: You're going to live large when you move home.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we just have to save because otherwise than you're
Speaker 2: not living large. Because if we don't.
Speaker 5: Save money now, then you know we're going to be
Speaker 5: paid in Australian dollars, that we're going to be paid
Speaker 5: accordingly in Australian dollars. So it's thinking about kind of
Speaker 5: how do we maximize the time we have and live
Speaker 5: here rather than move back straight away. And the best
Speaker 5: way to maximize that is save us dollars as much
Speaker 5: as we can.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, it is money dice. Let's go to a
Speaker 4: really quick break because on the flip side, I'm going
Speaker 4: to ask a little bit more about your four oh
Speaker 4: one K and I want to talk about investments and
Speaker 4: best and worse money habits. So guys don't go anywhere,
Speaker 4: all right, money dis We are back and we were
Speaker 4: talking about your four oh one k before, but we
Speaker 4: didn't dive further into maybe what you hold inside your
Speaker 4: four oh one k. Talk to me about investment. Are
Speaker 4: you investing, If so, in what how are you making
Speaker 4: decisions around your four oh one K?
Speaker 2: So, yes, I'm investing. I have a four oh one K.
Speaker 5: There's about sixty thousand US dollars in it at the moment,
Speaker 5: which actually feels quite significant.
Speaker 2: If I've only been here three years.
Speaker 5: That's honestly impressive, so impressive, And honestly, I have only
Speaker 5: been putting the minimum myself. I only put in six
Speaker 5: percent myself. It's just the extra that's added from the company. Honestly,
Speaker 5: I don't really know how it works. It seems to
Speaker 5: be way more than I expect in there. Some of
Speaker 5: it is unvested, so that means that I have to
Speaker 5: work here for a number of more years before the
Speaker 5: money can pay out, but only a small portion I think.
Speaker 5: I look today, it's like fifty thousand is vested and
Speaker 5: sixty thousand is the total amount.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Cool.
Speaker 4: That makes you feel a little bit more secure because
Speaker 4: you're not feeling like you're I guess, hamstrung to a company.
Speaker 4: In case you're like, oh, I decided one day that
Speaker 4: this isn't for me anymore, but I have to stay
Speaker 4: because like one hundred thousand dollars is in the lurch
Speaker 4: like ten grand. Yes, it's a lot of money, but
Speaker 4: like if push came to shove, it's not the end
Speaker 4: of the world.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then I have a super.
Speaker 5: My life, my investments are very complicated, So.
Speaker 2: I have a super in Australia.
Speaker 5: I think there's about fifty thousand dollars in it, which
Speaker 5: actually probably doesn't seem like as much given how long
Speaker 5: I've been working.
Speaker 2: It's not as high as it could be. So it's
Speaker 2: nice to have the four o one K.
Speaker 4: Yeah, one hundred percent. And so when you get your
Speaker 4: four oh one k, a four oh one K works,
Speaker 4: let's just for simplicity's sake, A four oh one K
Speaker 4: works very similarly to a superannuation fund, so it's basically
Speaker 4: a tax structure. And then inside your fro one k
Speaker 4: you would pick investments. Have you gotten a company to
Speaker 4: do that for you or have you just gone and
Speaker 4: been like, all right, I'm just going to pick like
Speaker 4: an index fund and all my money goes in there,
Speaker 4: Like what are you doing?
Speaker 2: From that side of things? So I think in the US, actually.
Speaker 5: It's the company picks which company they use. So my
Speaker 5: company picks which company they use. To monitor it, and
Speaker 5: then I can decide on how the investments are run.
Speaker 2: So I have kind of.
Speaker 5: Forty percent in a Vanguard Targeted Returns, I have twenty
Speaker 5: one percent in a Vanguard MidCap Growth. I have twenty
Speaker 5: percent in JP Morgan large cap, and then nineteen percent
Speaker 5: in the Russell thousand index. So I picked how those
Speaker 5: were positioned.
Speaker 2: Which is kind of similar.
Speaker 5: I know in superannuation, I also could pick whether I
Speaker 5: wanted high growth, low risk, what sort of profile, whether
Speaker 5: I wanted sustainable investments. So it's kind of similar, but
Speaker 5: you don't get to pick which company use. The firm
Speaker 5: picked twitch company I use.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I find that so interesting because it's always
Speaker 4: like you want full control, but then you also still
Speaker 4: don't have full control. It's all very convoluted over there.
Speaker 4: Tell me a bit more. Are you investing outside of
Speaker 4: your four one K and your super or is that
Speaker 4: not something that you're doing at the moment, Like what
Speaker 4: are your thoughts?
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I invest, I invest. This is another My
Speaker 5: life is very complicated. But essentially, when I first moved here,
Speaker 5: I thought maybe I could invest in the US. It
Speaker 5: turns out that I cannot do that because I am
Speaker 5: not a permanent resident. I'm on an E three visa,
Speaker 5: which is an Australian specific visa for the US, which
Speaker 5: means you are not a permanent resident and you don't
Speaker 5: wish to be a permanent resident. So I initially started
Speaker 5: investing in the USA and then realized I could not
Speaker 5: do that.
Speaker 4: Naughty, naughty.
Speaker 2: So now all of.
Speaker 5: My investments I have to transfer any savings back to
Speaker 5: Australia in Australian dollars, and I use my Australian investment account,
Speaker 5: so I invest in Australia. I have about seventy five
Speaker 5: thousand dollars in that investment account in Australia.
Speaker 2: Oh look at you go?
Speaker 4: And how did you decide on what investments to pick
Speaker 4: in Australia? Like that kind of makes sense, and I
Speaker 4: kind of if I put my ex financial advice I on.
Speaker 4: That makes me quite happy because I know you've got
Speaker 4: like a good nest egg coming home too, right, And
Speaker 4: we don't have to worry about the tax on that
Speaker 4: because all of that's sorted. How did you pick the
Speaker 4: investments inside that?
Speaker 5: Honestly, my brother is really interested in this, and so
Speaker 5: I do what he tells me to do.
Speaker 4: Very sexy. That's exactly how my sister works.
Speaker 5: So he tells me I should have about half my
Speaker 5: money in Australian companies and then the other half in
Speaker 5: US companies to kind of diversify my portfolios. So I
Speaker 5: have half of Minor Australian Index or ETFs, the other
Speaker 5: half of US ETF or international or Global ETFs.
Speaker 2: I also have a very stupid.
Speaker 5: Investment in this fintech that I thought would go to
Speaker 5: the moon.
Speaker 4: That's okay, that's fun.
Speaker 5: It's been about five years that I've had that and
Speaker 5: they have not gone to the moon. And I don't
Speaker 5: want to sell until I've at least made the money
Speaker 5: back that I've lost.
Speaker 4: That's a bit like me. There was this biopharmaceutical company
Speaker 4: that I got so excited about and I'm still holding
Speaker 4: on hope. Like my husband sometimes goes, how's that going,
Speaker 4: and I go, I don't want to talk about it,
Speaker 4: but I will not sell those shares until I at
Speaker 4: least break even. But it's coming up Millhouse, like it's
Speaker 4: coming up one day. It's going to blow your boots
Speaker 4: out of the water, like it's going to go to
Speaker 4: the moon. A promise, but I won't tell anybody what
Speaker 4: it is now, because I'm so embarrassed that I invested
Speaker 4: money in this. I'm always like, bah, what a coincidence.
Speaker 4: I forgot the ticker code I log in.
Speaker 2: It's so funny. I log in.
Speaker 5: Recently it had actually surpassed what I paid for it,
Speaker 5: and I still couldn't sell them.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 5: Maybe it's just like gambling energy in me. I was like,
Speaker 5: they're going to go to the moon.
Speaker 2: They're going to go to the moon. I'm going to
Speaker 2: make way more money they have not.
Speaker 4: So yeah, look I'm in that situation. I actually, just
Speaker 4: as were talking, I googled the company and I bought
Speaker 4: in at two dollars a year, which I was like, oh,
Speaker 4: that's pretty good. It's two dollars a year. They're currently
Speaker 4: sitting at thirty cents a share, so like, we're not
Speaker 4: doing well, but you know what, I believe in them
Speaker 4: for the lull.
Speaker 2: I'm actually just looking at mine as well.
Speaker 5: And I think when I bought them, I bought them
Speaker 5: just after they IPO, and I bought them for a
Speaker 5: dollar twenty five and I am now in the profit.
Speaker 2: They're at a dollar forty two today.
Speaker 4: So okay, look at you you're doing much better than me,
Speaker 4: who's literally an ex financial advisor. This is why now
Speaker 4: all of my money just goes into my ETFs, Like
Speaker 4: I don't even think about it anymore. Like I used
Speaker 4: to have direct share portfolio, which did well but was
Speaker 4: too much work. And now I just play with this poor,
Speaker 4: poor share and my ETFs and we're just going to
Speaker 4: call it a day.
Speaker 2: I reckon, Yeah, me too.
Speaker 5: I don't have the time or capacity, and it's never
Speaker 5: going to be my full time job. So it's ETFs
Speaker 5: about it to focus on for me.
Speaker 4: Agreed, Now talk to me because debt is something I
Speaker 4: want to discuss. You actually own an apartment with your
Speaker 4: siblings back home, because only way that you could get
Speaker 4: into the market. What kind of debt are you in
Speaker 4: for that?
Speaker 2: So for that apartment?
Speaker 5: Believe the apartment was just under a million dollars, so
Speaker 5: together and we put a twenty percent deposit down, so
Speaker 5: I think together right now we're at about six hundred
Speaker 5: and fifty thousand. There's three of us individually just under
Speaker 5: three hundred I think two fifty each.
Speaker 4: And what do you think that that apartment is valued
Speaker 4: at now?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 4: Are we doing well? And tell me, like how do
Speaker 4: you own an apartment with siblings without fighting?
Speaker 5: That's a really great question. It's certainly not without fighting.
Speaker 5: And we all definitely do not have the same money
Speaker 5: goals and the same kind of money values in life,
Speaker 5: and I think that's been really challenging.
Speaker 2: I think the idea of owning an.
Speaker 5: Apartment with your siblings is like my mum's dream, right,
Speaker 5: I'll look at my.
Speaker 2: Three children all owning an apartment.
Speaker 4: Together, so cute aspirational.
Speaker 5: It's certainly not been without its challenges. I think it
Speaker 5: was challenging. Recently. We had a fixed three year interest
Speaker 5: rate and it recently just changed to variable about a
Speaker 5: year ago, and that went up from you know, our
Speaker 5: mortgage repayments doubled and our tenant. We're not going to be,
Speaker 5: you know, slimy landlords. I think all of us have
Speaker 5: all been in our fair share of really terrible rental
Speaker 5: living situations, so we really try to be more conscious
Speaker 5: of you know, we had a letter from these two
Speaker 5: lovely twenty year old nurses who wanted to rent the
Speaker 5: place out, and we had an older couple who definitely
Speaker 5: had more money, and we picked the two nurses cute
Speaker 5: because we thought, you know, we've all been in our
Speaker 5: twenties and not been able to find a rental property.
Speaker 5: But we're not upping their rent in the way that
Speaker 5: maybe other people are purely out of I couldn't do
Speaker 5: that so purely out of the art, And I think
Speaker 5: it's certainly not without its challenges because we're all in
Speaker 5: very different stages in our.
Speaker 2: Careers in our money goals.
Speaker 5: One of my siblings is back at university. My other brother,
Speaker 5: you know, earns quite a significant amount of money, and
Speaker 5: so sitting in between that, we're certainly not in the
Speaker 5: same values of money. We will never pay off this
Speaker 5: loan at any rate bar the bare minimum principle and interest.
Speaker 5: This is not going to be something that we're going
Speaker 5: to be throwing money art. This is just a stable,
Speaker 5: long term, thirty year investment that will just be paying.
Speaker 4: Yes, So the plan is to kind of like hold
Speaker 4: it for the next thirty years. It's not to like
Speaker 4: wait until it increases and then sell and use the
Speaker 4: profits for your own home deposits or something like that.
Speaker 2: That certainly could be an option something we haven't talked about.
Speaker 5: What actually the dream is. It's one of four apartments
Speaker 5: in an art deco.
Speaker 2: Oh, cute.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I actually love those as in an investment because
Speaker 4: the rooms are bigger, usually tall ceilings, really sturdy brick,
Speaker 4: so like not a lot of like maintenance, and who
Speaker 4: doesn't want to live in an apartment in a small block.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so it's only four in the block. I think
Speaker 5: our secret dream would be buy out all the other
Speaker 5: three owners, who are all investment owners. Then you've got
Speaker 5: a whole giant block of land in Sydney. But who
Speaker 5: knows what's going to happen.
Speaker 4: We can manifest, we can dream, and.
Speaker 5: That would require all of us to have again another
Speaker 5: deposit for another million dollar apartment, three more times in
Speaker 5: the next thirty years.
Speaker 2: So you know, we could dream.
Speaker 4: Hey, I mean, if you've got a million dollar apartment
Speaker 4: and you give it another five years, it's going to
Speaker 4: increase in value. And then what we could do is
Speaker 4: use the equity in your previous apartment to buy the
Speaker 4: next apartment, and then we don't even need a deposit
Speaker 4: ever again, and we just hop from one to the
Speaker 4: next to the next, and we just use the equity
Speaker 4: in each and then in what we do, we demolish
Speaker 4: the apartments because that's obviously very ethical when it comes
Speaker 4: to landlord's stuff, but we demolish it and then we
Speaker 4: sell the land flex seven times what it's worth to
Speaker 4: a developer who's going to put irise on it, and
Speaker 4: then we're retiring.
Speaker 2: See this is why I needed to be on the podcast.
Speaker 4: Right exactly, because you're a property mogul. Watch out, guys.
Speaker 4: We'll have her on the show in twelve months and
Speaker 4: she'll be demoing apartments and developing.
Speaker 2: I'll be a flip person or whatever they call them.
Speaker 4: Honestly, I cannot think of anything worse. My husband and
Speaker 4: I are talking at the moment like what's our next
Speaker 4: property move, Like, you know, what do we want to do?
Speaker 4: And I think we've both agreed like renovating probably not
Speaker 4: for us. Like at the moment in this economy, every
Speaker 4: person that we know, their renovation is either being pushed
Speaker 4: out astronomically or it's going way over budget, and people
Speaker 4: who are building from scratcher getting astronomical quotes. I'm like,
Speaker 4: do you know what? We just need to find something
Speaker 4: that's already built and call her today.
Speaker 5: Also, I guess my theory is like why is it
Speaker 5: so ingrained in Australians that they need to buy property.
Speaker 4: The great Australian dream.
Speaker 2: Why is that the Australian dream?
Speaker 5: Now that I live in New York, I question it
Speaker 5: every day because people spend their entire lives renting.
Speaker 2: They never have a care in the world about wanting
Speaker 2: to buy.
Speaker 4: I mean, we can do a little bit of a
Speaker 4: history lesson and maybe I'll chat with my producer and
Speaker 4: do a whole episode on the aspect. It's because Australia
Speaker 4: is a relatively new colonized country, right, So like technically
Speaker 4: White Australia has only been around for two hundred years,
Speaker 4: and therefore property was always something that was completely accessible
Speaker 4: to us because of the amount of space that we
Speaker 4: had versus the population that we had. And so like
Speaker 4: you go back to like the US, you've always had
Speaker 4: massive populations in small amount of spaces, so the ability
Speaker 4: for people to own property is actually not within reach,
Speaker 4: whereas historically, like we're hearing about our parents buying land
Speaker 4: for like six thousand dollars, unheard of but actually within
Speaker 4: reach for them. And now our population has increased so
Speaker 4: much and the space is now the issue. Land is
Speaker 4: not available in the way that it was historically, and
Speaker 4: we actually need to be reframing what the great Australian
Speaker 4: dream looks like because to own a property, is it
Speaker 4: actually the Australian dream to die in debt for a
Speaker 4: property that you never pay off, because that's the reality
Speaker 4: for lots of people, and like it is really depressing
Speaker 4: when you start talking about it. But I think we
Speaker 4: do genuinely need to reframe what our goals are because
Speaker 4: I would much prefer people to go, you know what,
Speaker 4: property is not my thing the I actually just want
Speaker 4: to be financially secure. I have some good investments, live
Speaker 4: a good long life. I can rent the whole time.
Speaker 4: But I also think that that means that our rental
Speaker 4: process and our rental policies need to change as well,
Speaker 4: because you're in the US right now, and I'm assuming
Speaker 4: that you're finding your rental a lot more flexible than
Speaker 4: the rentals in Australia. Like in Australia, you still can't
Speaker 4: put things on walls. We need to apply to have
Speaker 4: pets and all of that stuff is given. In fact,
Speaker 4: in the US it's really normal to have like fixed
Speaker 4: rate rent for ten years, and like that's not something
Speaker 4: that exists here anyway. That's my little property rent No totally.
Speaker 5: I mean I'm looking around my apartment, there's stuff all
Speaker 5: over the walls. We've got, you know, and that would
Speaker 5: just not be possible in Australia and it's your home.
Speaker 5: And on top of that, you know, I live in
Speaker 5: an apartment. The apartment building has a dorman, a package room,
Speaker 5: a elevator, you know, kids play area, gym and I
Speaker 5: could see myself raising a family in this apartment. In fact,
Speaker 5: it'd be a lot easier to do that when you
Speaker 5: have those options, and it's not that much more expensive
Speaker 5: than places that don't have that.
Speaker 2: It's so much easier.
Speaker 5: Imagine being able to go away on holidays and shut
Speaker 5: your door and not be worried about gardening or any
Speaker 5: of that. But that's just not They don't have properties
Speaker 5: like that. They don't have as many options like that
Speaker 5: in Australia.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's where we really need to reframe it, right,
Speaker 4: And they.
Speaker 5: Don't think about like apartment living as a family.
Speaker 4: Yeah, one hundred percent. So money diarist, talk to me,
Speaker 4: you've now, I guess said to us, I'm a B minus,
Speaker 4: but I wasn't always. What do you think now is
Speaker 4: your best money habit?
Speaker 5: I don't know if you've heard of rent the Runway, Yes,
Speaker 5: I have so. Rent the Runway is essentially a clothing
Speaker 5: rental business.
Speaker 4: You have something similar here is called like glam Corner.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but I think glam Corner is only like one
Speaker 5: off items, right that you rent for a wedding or
Speaker 5: something like that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, rent the wrong way like America is better, I
Speaker 4: get it, but like kind of similar. Oh no, you
Speaker 4: can do like your corporate wardrobe and stuff from them
Speaker 4: now too, Like you can pick like a bunch of
Speaker 4: items for like a month or something, which is kind
Speaker 4: of cool.
Speaker 2: Okay, So that's exactly what it is.
Speaker 5: So I would say my best and probably worst buddy
Speaker 5: habit is that I am addicted to shopping.
Speaker 2: I love shopping, I love clothes.
Speaker 5: And something that's really curbed my habit now is that
Speaker 5: I do this monthly subscription. I get five items twice
Speaker 5: a month, so you can have five items in your
Speaker 5: wardrobe at once.
Speaker 4: Every two weeks, I'm getting new clothes.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and they pick them up from my door and
Speaker 5: they drop them off at my door.
Speaker 4: Stop it. See that would never happen in Australia in
Speaker 4: the same way I'm talking like these things are like
Speaker 4: five hundred and six hundred dollars an item.
Speaker 5: I have five in my possession at all times. I
Speaker 5: pay a monthly subscription fee, and it's the best thing
Speaker 5: that ever happen to my shopping habits because shopping is
Speaker 5: also so expensive here in the US. Now, I literally
Speaker 5: don't buy any clothes except basic clothes, and I just
Speaker 5: rent five items twice a month. It was amazing because
Speaker 5: in winter, obviously I don't own any coats.
Speaker 4: You just rent some coats and have some really on
Speaker 4: trend ones. What does that cost you per month?
Speaker 5: So I think it's one hundred and fifty US dollars
Speaker 5: a month, which is a lot of money when you
Speaker 5: don't own the clothes.
Speaker 2: But they give you a discount if you want to
Speaker 2: buy them.
Speaker 4: Oh do they? I f You're like, oh my goodness,
Speaker 4: I need to keep this in my wardrobe. You can
Speaker 4: keep it because I think I'd fall in love with
Speaker 4: so much stuff.
Speaker 5: Yeah, which I do sometimes, but I have to really
Speaker 5: love something, and it gives you an option to, I guess,
Speaker 5: trial it.
Speaker 2: See if you like the clothes before.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's kind of cool, and like do you get
Speaker 4: to try out lots of different styles and stuff like
Speaker 4: that as well? That maybe you were like, oh, I
Speaker 4: don't know, does this work?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Absolutely. I actually tried on a dress today. I wore
Speaker 5: it to the office and everyone was like, you never
Speaker 5: wear things like that. But it felt like in a
Speaker 5: way of you'd ever wear things like that. Don't wear
Speaker 5: something like.
Speaker 4: Oh, okay, yeah, I wouldn't like that. We're not putting
Speaker 4: that back on there, go straight back to the shop.
Speaker 4: Ten out of ten. All right, tell me what do
Speaker 4: you think your worst money habit is that? Also the
Speaker 4: rent in the runway, or like, is there something else?
Speaker 2: I have a few.
Speaker 5: I guess we've been speaking a lot in this conversation
Speaker 5: about how I have so many bank accounts. I literally
Speaker 5: have five bank accounts. I have two in the US,
Speaker 5: I have two savings in Australia. I have a mortgage.
Speaker 5: I have a mortgage offset account, I have superannuation. I
Speaker 5: have four oh one k I'm saving money in both countries.
Speaker 5: My life is very complex. So I would say that's
Speaker 5: a bad money habit, but it's kind of unavoidable at
Speaker 5: this point.
Speaker 4: That's okay, we can clean it up.
Speaker 5: The other one is Amazon shopping in the US is
Speaker 5: so convenient and quick.
Speaker 4: Amazon shopping in Australia now, Like I am counting down
Speaker 4: the days until they let us know when prime day
Speaker 4: is because like I'm just live love laughing for that.
Speaker 5: I just the problem is it's so easy. You go
Speaker 5: on the app and you you know, click click click.
Speaker 5: All of a sudden, I've spent five hundred dollars on
Speaker 5: things I didn't need and they arrive on your doorstep
Speaker 5: the next day.
Speaker 4: Not good, but also kind of cool, right, Like, let's
Speaker 4: reframe that. That's awesome accessibility or something. I feel like
Speaker 4: you are doing better than you think you are, Like
Speaker 4: we've had this great chat. You own property with your brothers,
Speaker 4: which is really cool. You also, I don't know, having
Speaker 4: learned a bit about how you grew up, you're like
Speaker 4: I always saved money from my birthday presence growing up,
Speaker 4: Like that's really sweet but also such a good money
Speaker 4: memory all the way through to being made redundant, which
Speaker 4: absolutely would have kicked your ego, which sucks. But then
Speaker 4: also moving to the US, like you're on a banging
Speaker 4: salary like that is so cool, and your plan is
Speaker 4: to kind of like work up and then move home. Girl,
Speaker 4: You've got so much planning, so much strategy, like I'm
Speaker 4: so I just can't wait to check in with you
Speaker 4: in like twelve months, two years see where you're at.
Speaker 4: Do you actually think that B minus is right or
Speaker 4: what do you think it would take for you to
Speaker 4: maybe get to an A?
Speaker 5: I think B minus probably sounds a little harsh. I
Speaker 5: feel like I am definitely someone who won't speak highly
Speaker 5: of the things that I've done. I think I'm very
Speaker 5: proud of where I am today.
Speaker 2: Probably be a B plus.
Speaker 5: There's certainly room for improvement, a lot of cleaning up,
Speaker 5: less complexity in my life, but I'm very proud of
Speaker 5: where I've cut from and where I'm going.
Speaker 4: I feel like you're on the right path, like you're
Speaker 4: absolutely killing it, and I'm very excited for you. I've
Speaker 4: adored this. I feel like if you were back in
Speaker 4: Australia we would be best friends. So you let me
Speaker 4: know when you move home and we can organize drinks
Speaker 4: and talk about how much Starbucks is in America and
Speaker 4: how that's an absolute raught. But unfortunately we've run out
Speaker 4: of time. So thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 4: I just know that the community is going to love
Speaker 4: this like I've loved this, and I just know they're
Speaker 4: going to love learning about you and learning about what's
Speaker 4: going on over the other side of the world, and
Speaker 4: just it's such a privilege to be let into people's
Speaker 4: money lives on such a regular basis, so I really
Speaker 4: appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 4: If I shared on She's on the Money is generally
Speaker 4: nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on
Speaker 4: the Money exists pure for educational purposes and should not
Speaker 4: be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
Speaker 4: If you do choose to buy a financial product, read
Speaker 4: the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards
Speaker 4: your needs. Victoria Divine and Sheese on the Money are
Speaker 4: authorized representatives of Money sherper p t y lt D
Speaker 4: A b N three two one six four nine two
Speaker 4: seven seven zero eight AFSL four five one two eight
Speaker 4: nine