Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before
Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money. She's on the Money.
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to She's on the the podcast for
Speaker 2: millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one
Speaker 2: of our money diaries. What I get the absolute pleasure
Speaker 2: of talking to one of our incredible She's on the
Speaker 2: Money community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight
Speaker 2: into it, because this week I got a message and
Speaker 2: it went like this, Hi V, I'd like to share
Speaker 2: my property story as in amongst my friendship group, my
Speaker 2: partner and I are definitely on the more risky side
Speaker 2: of things. We bought our one point five million dollar
Speaker 2: home in our dream suburb, then rented it because we
Speaker 2: couldn't afford to live in it. Earlier this year, my
Speaker 2: partner took a fifty thousand dollar pay cut, and like
Speaker 2: everyone else, our repayments are increasing. We're about to move in,
Speaker 2: and I want to share my story of calculated risk
Speaker 2: taking with the community. Money Diarist, I'm so excited about this.
Speaker 3: That's a really good summary.
Speaker 2: Actually, I mean, it's not bad, is it. You wrote it,
Speaker 2: so I'm pretty proud of it.
Speaker 3: About that.
Speaker 2: I'm really excited to hear about your story because I
Speaker 2: feel like, in this day and age, with the property
Speaker 2: prices increasing in the way that they are, one point
Speaker 2: five million dollars is kind of becoming the norm for
Speaker 2: a family home, and it's also becoming really overwhelming. Like
Speaker 2: to me, that sounds like just so so so much money.
Speaker 2: But let's get into it. Are you ready? Yes, I'm ready?
Speaker 2: All right, Money Diarist. The first question I always start
Speaker 2: with is if I asked you to grade yourself and
Speaker 2: your money habits on a scale of eighth through to f,
Speaker 2: what would you grade yourself?
Speaker 3: I think I would grade myself a B.
Speaker 2: Plus B plus. She's got a one point five million
Speaker 2: dollar home guys, and she's a B plus. Alright, alright,
Speaker 2: I'll sit down. My favorite question as always, let's dive
Speaker 2: straight into it, money diarist, Can you tell me a
Speaker 2: little bit more about your money story.
Speaker 3: So I suppose, like everyone, my money story would go
Speaker 3: back all the way to childhood. So I had a
Speaker 3: pretty unconventional childhood. My biological parents they split up when
Speaker 3: I was around four years old, and my mom remarried
Speaker 3: at that time, and she sort of quit her career
Speaker 3: and joined my stepdad in a property development business, which,
Speaker 3: like many of the property development businesses out that went
Speaker 3: pretty much barely up. Everything was in her name and
Speaker 3: she declared bankruptcy. She had to pull money out of
Speaker 3: super for financial hardship reasons, and we didn't really have
Speaker 3: a stable family home. We always lived in the same area,
Speaker 3: but we had to move around a lot four or
Speaker 3: five times to different rentals. Then my mum had to
Speaker 3: go back to work and she completely changed careers at
Speaker 3: that point. And my stepdad, he's a bit unconventional. He
Speaker 3: never really believed in an honest day's work. Since then,
Speaker 3: has been trying to sort of make it in quotes,
Speaker 3: in sort of like get rich quick schemes and basically
Speaker 3: their situation hasn't really improved. My mum still doesn't really
Speaker 3: have any assets. Her rent to this day is going
Speaker 3: up one hundred and eighty dollars a week. So I
Speaker 3: guess that's where my money story begins because I never
Speaker 3: want to be in that situation. I want to create
Speaker 3: something for the future, assets for the future, and yeah,
Speaker 3: I never want to be left with nothing.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, when you started to say, oh, my stepdad
Speaker 2: and my mum started this property development company, like my
Speaker 2: mind was going one way and it completely went the opposet.
Speaker 2: Do you think that this narrative has really, I guess
Speaker 2: driven you to want to be in property just because
Speaker 2: of the stability and the security, or has it made
Speaker 2: you want to shy away? Like what's your thoughts on property,
Speaker 2: especially after going through that in childhood.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so in terms of property, most of the people
Speaker 3: I know have bought a home before I did. It
Speaker 3: was never really my goal to get a property as
Speaker 3: soon as possible or anything like that. But I think
Speaker 3: there was that instability of the business that they were
Speaker 3: in that has sort of made me a bit shy
Speaker 3: towards debt. But there was also the fact that my
Speaker 3: family home when I was young is just gone. That
Speaker 3: makes me want to secure something like that, to buy
Speaker 3: something like that so that, you know, if I ever
Speaker 3: had a kid, I don't have to move my kid
Speaker 3: around to lots of various rentals and suffer the consequences,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, wow, all right, let's fast forward. You now have
Speaker 2: a partner. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Speaker 2: How did you meet your partner? How did you decide
Speaker 2: property was the plan? What's going on there?
Speaker 3: I want to know meeting my partner. So I met
Speaker 3: my partner on a dating app, same Bay then not
Speaker 3: the same as your one. I met my partner on
Speaker 3: Plenty of Fish.
Speaker 2: Oh how exciting? And then did you just know you
Speaker 2: just matched and you knew or like, what's the story?
Speaker 2: Come on, we need the juicy gas.
Speaker 3: So we started messaging for a few weeks on Plenty
Speaker 3: of Fish and then we had our first date. It
Speaker 3: wasn't the sort of date where you just want to
Speaker 3: have dinner and then part ways and then leave and
Speaker 3: see you next time. We wanted to, you know, keep
Speaker 3: going for a walk, and we wanted to find coffee
Speaker 3: and all that. So it was sort of the one.
Speaker 2: Where we stretched it out.
Speaker 3: Yes, we stretched it out and he dropped me home.
Speaker 3: And then I think at first he was a bit
Speaker 3: more keen than I was, and he started meeting me
Speaker 3: for lunches when I worked in the city, and then
Speaker 3: it went really fast from there, basically. But we we
Speaker 3: tried to keep it traditional, so to speak, and we
Speaker 3: waited a whole year before moving in together. But as
Speaker 3: soon as that one year mark crossed.
Speaker 2: It was a free for all.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then you know a few years later, now
Speaker 3: we've got the dog in the house.
Speaker 2: So how exciting. I love this so much for you.
Speaker 2: It's actually really really fun to hear about. I guess
Speaker 2: how people met and what's going on. And I think
Speaker 2: it's so much more common these days to be like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: I met my partner on the dating website. I mean,
Speaker 2: I met my partner years ago, and I remember at
Speaker 2: the time being so embarrassed that I'd met him on
Speaker 2: a dating website. Now I couldn't care less, but at
Speaker 2: the time I remember being like, what am I going
Speaker 2: to tell my parents that I was on a dating website?
Speaker 3: Like, oh, I don't know, yeah, I mean that's the
Speaker 3: thing I never would have met my partner if I
Speaker 3: didn't go on this dating website because we lived on
Speaker 3: different sides of town at the time, we don't run
Speaker 3: in the same circle. So yeah, it was a really
Speaker 3: good thing that we both went on this dating app.
Speaker 2: I love it all right, Tell me a little bit
Speaker 2: more about you. What do you do for work and
Speaker 2: how much money do you earn?
Speaker 3: Yes, so I'm an accountant, a manager level, and I
Speaker 3: worked from home full time and I earn one hundred
Speaker 3: and nine thousand plus.
Speaker 2: Super very nice. And what are you currently working towards?
Speaker 2: Obviously you've already bought your one point five million dollar
Speaker 2: dream home in your dream suburb. What's next?
Speaker 3: So we're not married yet, we're not engaged yet either.
Speaker 3: I think that's what I would like to come next,
Speaker 3: and then maybe a little bit down the tracks and children.
Speaker 3: But we as a couple, we want to sort out
Speaker 3: our finances first. So yeah, at the moment, it's a
Speaker 3: little bit hard to try and put aside money for
Speaker 3: a wedding and a ring. I mean, I know the
Speaker 3: guy is supposed to buy the ring, but in reality,
Speaker 3: if he buys the ring, then it comes out of
Speaker 3: our shared full of money. You know. At the end
Speaker 3: of the day, so it's still something that both of
Speaker 3: us have to think about. But yeah, I mean I
Speaker 3: think like big, big term, long term goals I'd want,
Speaker 3: you know, like the white picket fence, life with the
Speaker 3: dog and the house and the two holidays a year,
Speaker 3: one's overseas and all that. That's what I want.
Speaker 2: I love that. And what is your partner's take on this?
Speaker 2: Is he totally on board with the marriage engagement ring
Speaker 2: side of things or is this something that you're like,
Speaker 2: you know what, I'd really like this, But he has
Speaker 2: no idea.
Speaker 3: No, we talk about it all the time. We talk
Speaker 3: about it all the time. He's on the same page.
Speaker 2: Oh good, how exciting. All right, let's go to a
Speaker 2: really quick break because I have heaps more questions and
Speaker 2: we'll get to them in a hot minute. All right, money, darist,
Speaker 2: we are back, and I want to know you've bought
Speaker 2: a one point five million dollar property, but do you
Speaker 2: have any investments?
Speaker 3: I do, so, I have about fifteen thousand dollars worth
Speaker 3: of shares and ETFs and I've got my super balance
Speaker 3: which is currently eighty three thousand.
Speaker 2: Ooh, very nice.
Speaker 3: And that's really it for investments. We cleared most of
Speaker 3: our investments to pay for the property last year.
Speaker 2: Very very fair. Tell me a bit more about the
Speaker 2: fifteen thousand dollars you have in shares. How did you
Speaker 2: pick the shares and ets that you hold, and like
Speaker 2: what was your kind of like gateway into investing.
Speaker 3: So my gateway into investing was probably just talking about
Speaker 3: it a little bit. So my dad, my biological dad,
Speaker 3: which he did move overseas when I was little, but
Speaker 3: he came back to have a relationship with his daughters
Speaker 3: when I was fifteen. Anyway, he has always had an
Speaker 3: interest in the share market, so he would talk to
Speaker 3: me about it a little bit. Obviously. With my job,
Speaker 3: because I've worked in tax I am fortunate enough to
Speaker 3: see what portfolios other people have. So I can see,
Speaker 3: you know, ooh, this client has CSL that they bought
Speaker 3: way back in the heyday. How do I do something
Speaker 3: like that? I can see both the smart and the
Speaker 3: not so smart on paper decisions that clients have made.
Speaker 3: Just in my everyday job. A lot of the shares
Speaker 3: as well, I bought during COVID during the low side,
Speaker 3: so I picked say a bank, a retail, a tech
Speaker 3: just trying to sort of diversify my portfolio a little bit.
Speaker 3: Plus the ETFs I have in you know, I shares
Speaker 3: those listed ones, Yes, those ones just traditionally for me,
Speaker 3: they've seemed pretty pretty conservative safe. Yeah, just something you
Speaker 3: can just buy and then leave.
Speaker 2: Very cool. And you mentioned before that you bought some
Speaker 2: shares during I guess the low point during COVID. Did
Speaker 2: this contribute your house deposit? Is this something you've said before, like, oh,
Speaker 2: we sold down some of our shares, Like, is this
Speaker 2: what contributed to your house deposit? Or tell me how
Speaker 2: you got to have a house deposit for a one
Speaker 2: point five million dollar house.
Speaker 3: So it's a combination of things. So the house purchase
Speaker 3: was actually one point four seven five as per the contract,
Speaker 3: but then we had to pay around sixty five thousand
Speaker 3: of stamp duty.
Speaker 2: Yep, ill ill, Yes, I know, ill.
Speaker 3: But our loan was for one point two seven five,
Speaker 3: So that leaves about two hundred and sixty five thousand
Speaker 3: in cash that we had to cough up. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: So that was funded by a combination of things. So
Speaker 3: one thing I had is back in I think May
Speaker 3: twenty nineteen, I started putting money into Colonial first State.
Speaker 3: I was putting in one thousand each month pretty much
Speaker 3: up until January twenty twenty two, and then I pulled
Speaker 3: all that out and sold it for the house. There
Speaker 3: was also shares that I had purchased during COVID during
Speaker 3: the low period, so I've kept some, but I've also
Speaker 3: sold some. Plus there is just general cash savings. So
Speaker 3: one thing we did is we negotiated for a ninety
Speaker 3: day settlement so that wis mark give us three.
Speaker 2: Months to a bit more flexibility.
Speaker 3: Yes, well to live very, very cheaply and save all
Speaker 3: the cash we could. The other thing was that my
Speaker 3: partner also had about one hundred and twenty thousand in
Speaker 3: Colonial first State, plus he sold some bitcoin that he
Speaker 3: had bought back in I think twenty seventeen, twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3: That's mainly where the cash came from. So obviously my
Speaker 3: partner contributed more off the cash, but my borrowing capacity
Speaker 3: accounts for most of the loan because he has already
Speaker 3: got two properties, right, So he's got two properties, the
Speaker 3: one that we live in currently which is owner occupied,
Speaker 3: and then another investment property he bought both of those.
Speaker 2: That's a good catch. That's a good man to find
Speaker 2: on plenty of fish. I like that.
Speaker 3: You know. What happened is on our first date, I
Speaker 3: asked him where are you living? Are you renting somewhere?
Speaker 3: Because you know, that's what I was doing.
Speaker 2: I was renting, Yeah, or do you live with your parents?
Speaker 2: Which one is there?
Speaker 3: And then he said, actually, I'm living in my own home.
Speaker 2: So I was like, wow, that's sexy. Ten out of ten.
Speaker 3: And then a few weeks later I met some of
Speaker 3: his friends and then it just sort of popped up
Speaker 3: that he owned another property and I was thinking, what,
Speaker 3: how do you own two and I don't own any?
Speaker 2: Yeah, the pressure is real. Yes, that's actually really cool
Speaker 2: though that he was so financially stable when starting to date,
Speaker 2: because I feel like that's not common.
Speaker 3: It's not common. But his stad is a financial planner.
Speaker 2: Oh what a Janiet.
Speaker 3: He didn't grow up with very much either.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so it's just a really big priority to him.
Speaker 3: Yes, he has that, you know that money motivation, you.
Speaker 2: Know, absolutely, So talk to me about the next question
Speaker 2: I want to ask is really about debt. So you've
Speaker 2: taken on a one point two seven five million dollar loan.
Speaker 2: How does that play into your cash flow? And with
Speaker 2: current interest rates, how are you feeling about that, especially
Speaker 2: because you're about to move into it.
Speaker 3: Yes, So what we did is we got our loan
Speaker 3: for the house, and it was at a quite a
Speaker 3: low interest rate, and we fixed it for twelve months.
Speaker 3: So the fixed period.
Speaker 2: Has ended, and now it's painful.
Speaker 3: Yes. So our repayments were five thousand, six hundred and
Speaker 3: fifteen and now they are going up to seven thousand,
Speaker 3: six hundred and eighty six.
Speaker 2: Wowe. And how is that going to work into the
Speaker 2: cash flow system each month?
Speaker 3: So, because we rented it for the first you know,
Speaker 3: I think it's twelve to fifteen months, we have saved
Speaker 3: a buffer. So we have about sixty thousand in cash
Speaker 3: now so that we can cover the difference, the two
Speaker 3: thousand dollars difference each month. And I am also sort
Speaker 3: of hoping for or banking on a salary increase this month.
Speaker 3: It does normally happen in August, it should be the
Speaker 3: you know, the seven percent yeah, that I'm expecting. And
Speaker 3: then what will happen is we'll move into our home
Speaker 3: and our dream suburb, and then the home that we're
Speaker 3: currently living in we will try and rent out. It
Speaker 3: won't be the same level of rent, No of course, yeap,
Speaker 3: just because we're moving into a better area, but it'll
Speaker 3: still help.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. I'm feeling like you guys are so financially
Speaker 2: literate to be like, all right, well we had shares,
Speaker 2: we had this, we sold this, and then we've got
Speaker 2: some cash over here. And my partner here had two
Speaker 2: properties and you know, we leased it out for twelve
Speaker 2: to fifteen months, and now we've got a sixty thousand
Speaker 2: dollar cash buffer. How did you do that? Because to say, oh,
Speaker 2: in twelve to sixteen months, we've organized a sixty thousand
Speaker 2: dollar cash buffer our money was it? No, I'm not
Speaker 2: because that's so much money, so.
Speaker 3: I should discloser. Our rent was nine hundred a week,
Speaker 3: so there's that. And then we also save each month,
Speaker 3: so I get paid monthly and I've been saving twenty
Speaker 3: five hundred a month.
Speaker 2: How good is that?
Speaker 3: Yeah? And then my partner's also been saving a little
Speaker 3: bit each month. But we weren't actually looking for a
Speaker 3: house to buy until just by chance, my partner saw
Speaker 3: that there was a property for sale in one of
Speaker 3: the streets that I used to live in that was
Speaker 3: a very good suburb. I love it, and I think
Speaker 3: it was on sale for maybe one point three five,
Speaker 3: and he looked at it and just conched the numbers
Speaker 3: one day and said, you know, if we rented it,
Speaker 3: we could afford a place like that and then we
Speaker 3: could eventually move in. So that's pretty much where it started.
Speaker 2: Ah exciting. And then where did you purchase close to
Speaker 2: where you used to live and where you grew up?
Speaker 3: So we didn't actually purchase in that area. So the
Speaker 3: area that I'm talking about was when I first moved
Speaker 3: out of home. I moved into a suburb in Brisbane
Speaker 3: that's quite in city. Yeah, and that's where he saw
Speaker 3: the other house that was for sale, But we were
Speaker 3: priced out of there very quickly. The market moved so
Speaker 3: quickly at that time, and you know, houses that could
Speaker 3: have been like one point four we're going for like
Speaker 3: one point seven and so crazy. We had a look
Speaker 3: at another inner city suburb that looks and has like
Speaker 3: a great sort of neighborhood feel, but it's still in
Speaker 3: a city, and that's where we bought in the end.
Speaker 2: Yeah, wow, all right, Well tell me about how you
Speaker 2: purchased your property. Was it off market? Were you just
Speaker 2: straight sale? Did you purchase it at an option?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: Was it most stressful thing in the entire world or
Speaker 2: was it super easy? Like I want to know more
Speaker 2: about that, because if you're going to spend one point
Speaker 2: five million dollars, like I feel like you're already nervous.
Speaker 3: Yep, you're right about that. So we were looking for
Speaker 3: houses that we're in a good area that we could rent.
Speaker 3: So that means we couldn't buy some bomb in a
Speaker 3: good area because then we'd have to spend money fixing
Speaker 3: it up, which we don't have the cash for. So
Speaker 3: I did see this property one day and I saw
Speaker 3: it was listed, and then a couple of days after
Speaker 3: there was going to be the first open home. It
Speaker 3: was like a Champagne viewing something like that.
Speaker 2: That's so fancy. Yeah, it sounds fancy, right, it sounds
Speaker 2: so fancy. They're like, can we have all your money?
Speaker 3: And so it's a three bedroom, two bathroom, and two
Speaker 3: garage or two castpays. Sorry. It was after work one
Speaker 3: day and I told my partner to go to the
Speaker 3: open home just have a look. It looks like it's
Speaker 3: out of our price range, but just have a look.
Speaker 3: And he had a look, showed up to the Champagne
Speaker 3: viewing with his sneakers and his you know, very old
Speaker 3: white T shirt. And then he came home and he said,
Speaker 3: it's perfect. It's exactly what we're looking for. And so
Speaker 3: we called the agent that night and made a verbal
Speaker 3: offer for a little bit under the one point four
Speaker 3: seven five. I think we offered one point four to five,
Speaker 3: and then the agent said, look, I'll talk to the
Speaker 3: sellers and then i'll give you a call first thing
Speaker 3: in the morning.
Speaker 2: And so you didn't sleep at all that night.
Speaker 3: We were just crunching numbers the whole line, how far
Speaker 3: we could stretch, and one point four seven five was
Speaker 3: our max. And so the agent called me in the
Speaker 3: morning and that was my offer, one point four seven five.
Speaker 3: To try and secure it. I said, we'll do a
Speaker 3: ten percent deposit, but we need a ninety day settlement.
Speaker 3: And then it was kind of underwhelming in a way
Speaker 3: because a few hours later we got the docu sign
Speaker 3: for the contract, just a docu sign like no call.
Speaker 2: No champagne, nothing, just like sign here, babe.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sign your babe, And so we both did sign
Speaker 3: there and then a couple of hours later we got
Speaker 3: completed docu sign back via.
Speaker 2: Email and that was it. That was the wholesales process.
Speaker 3: And then half an hour later the agent called and said, congratulations.
Speaker 3: You guys were super aggressive, but clearly it worked. That
Speaker 3: was it.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. And you were like, we didn't even realize,
Speaker 2: Like you didn't call me, you didn't communicate this to me.
Speaker 2: You just sent a DOCU sign and I thought it
Speaker 2: might have been a mistake, but I signed it anyway.
Speaker 3: So I didn't actually see the house.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. You hadn't seen it at this point.
Speaker 2: You just had to trust your partner.
Speaker 3: But I did go and see the house because there
Speaker 3: was another scheduled open home the weekend following.
Speaker 2: Even though you'd signed the contract.
Speaker 3: Yes, so I think the agent just kept it open
Speaker 3: as is for BioResearch opportunities.
Speaker 2: Jeez, Louise, I would have been like, get out, this
Speaker 2: is now my house.
Speaker 3: Well, there was no one else there because it was
Speaker 3: already marked as under contract. Yeah, but I showed up
Speaker 3: and I took a friend with me, and I said,
Speaker 3: this is actually my house. I just bought it.
Speaker 2: So funny. Yeah, real estate confuses me because like I
Speaker 2: have no I like, if you are in the market
Speaker 2: to buy a property, and imagine if somebody else saw
Speaker 2: that house, like that was your dream property. I'm sure
Speaker 2: someone else would have looked at it and been like, oh,
Speaker 2: my gosh, that's also my dream property. Mugine turning up
Speaker 2: and then being told, oh, well, this one's actually three
Speaker 2: years old. We're just doing some research. I would have
Speaker 2: seen off my head. I would have been so annoyed.
Speaker 2: We'd be like, don't waste my time, because when it
Speaker 2: comes to property as well, like often they're only open
Speaker 2: and like on a Saturday from like eleven to twelve,
Speaker 2: and you've got to work out which properties you're going
Speaker 2: to see. I would have been very salty about that situation.
Speaker 2: But I'm so glad that you got it. That's literally
Speaker 2: the best. I feel like that's a dreamy story. Like
Speaker 2: that's just too easy, my friend.
Speaker 3: I think I'm making it sound easy.
Speaker 2: But it would have been very stressful.
Speaker 3: In the background. There's a lot of spreadsheets. You know,
Speaker 3: we've even to look for the house we wanted. We've
Speaker 3: got a spreadsheet with all the different factors that we
Speaker 3: were looking for, like does it have a wide frontage,
Speaker 3: what are the schools? Like, how many bedrooms and bathrooms?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: I love that that's so smart.
Speaker 3: Is there a dog? Park nearby, is it in the
Speaker 3: flood zone? Everything?
Speaker 2: No, that's really really important, like literally so important. On
Speaker 2: our podcast, the Property Playbook, I teach that all the time.
Speaker 2: I'm like, document it, go and do your research, understand
Speaker 2: what you're looking for, because I'm sure money daris that
Speaker 2: that was why you were so easily able to say,
Speaker 2: oh no, no, no, we'll buy this one, and you
Speaker 2: hadn't even seen it.
Speaker 3: So I became quite knowledgeable with just the kinds of
Speaker 3: properties out there. I learned what a character home is,
Speaker 3: what a pre war versus post war is, so I
Speaker 3: knew which ones to avoid, which ones would need lots
Speaker 3: of fix ups and counsel approvals and all that.
Speaker 2: How good? All right, tell me a bit more about you.
Speaker 2: I want to know what is your best money habit.
Speaker 3: So I think my best money habit would be I
Speaker 3: don't like to buy anything at full price. I will
Speaker 3: always wait for the.
Speaker 2: Sale that's fair. I like that. That's a very good
Speaker 2: money habit.
Speaker 3: Yes, but just on a monthly basis. What we do
Speaker 3: is we do have our own everyday accounts and savings
Speaker 3: accounts and things like that, but we've also got a
Speaker 3: joint everyday account and we each tip in five hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty dollars for the month, which we use to
Speaker 3: spend on internet subscriptions and food. And basically, if there's
Speaker 3: something extra that we have to pay for that month,
Speaker 3: like a gift or something, it will come out of
Speaker 3: that pool as well. But if we find that we
Speaker 3: don't have enough money left over for the essentials, we
Speaker 3: will tip more in to compensate for that extra thing.
Speaker 3: But if we find out we've got extra cash at
Speaker 3: the end of the month, then that's sort of like
Speaker 3: a bonus, and we'll either decide to save it or
Speaker 3: use it to go out for a nice dinner or
Speaker 3: something all cute.
Speaker 2: I like that. I feel like that means that you're
Speaker 2: kind of sticking within budget but still living your best
Speaker 2: life trying to.
Speaker 3: So we do live on the cheap in some respects,
Speaker 3: so we do place limitations on ourself, Like we might
Speaker 3: go out for brunch on a Sunday, which is probably
Speaker 3: one of our worst or one of my worst money habits.
Speaker 3: I just love going out for brunch and sitting in
Speaker 3: the sun with my dog and a coffee and whatnot.
Speaker 3: But we limit ourselves to of thirty five dollars, so
Speaker 3: nothing more.
Speaker 2: I like that. Does that mean you just order coffee,
Speaker 2: because then you stay and age like you can't get
Speaker 2: much for thirty five dollars.
Speaker 3: No, so you can get a basic mane. Yeah, say,
Speaker 3: eggs and sour dough.
Speaker 2: Is this thirty five dollars each? Or is this thirty
Speaker 2: five dollars total?
Speaker 3: Total?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I feel like every time I'm going
Speaker 2: for brunch and this is absolutely showing my privilege. My friend,
Speaker 2: it's between fifty and sixty dollars easy, okay, so teach
Speaker 2: me your ways. Two coffees might be ten bucks minimum, No.
Speaker 3: Six dollars, six dollars each, so.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, twelve dollars twelve dollars for coffee.
Speaker 3: For coffee, plus you can get in some places you
Speaker 3: can get a maine which is like scrambled eggs and
Speaker 3: sour dough for like fifteen.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, and then you.
Speaker 3: Can get a banana bread or almond croissan.
Speaker 2: Oh and you share it.
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Oh, I love that. That's actually quite smart. I'm probably
Speaker 2: not going to do that because I am greedy when
Speaker 2: it clings to brunch and I want my own plate.
Speaker 2: And if I see French toast on the menu, I'm
Speaker 2: not sharing that, So you have a lot more willpower
Speaker 2: than I ever will possess. But I think I think
Speaker 2: that's really smart because that actually makes it so much
Speaker 2: more budget friendly, Like thirty five dollars is soo much
Speaker 2: more palatable than fifty bucks or sixty bucks.
Speaker 3: So the thirty five dollars rule, I don't want to
Speaker 3: call it a rule, but it.
Speaker 2: Is a rule, kind of a rule.
Speaker 3: It's kind of right.
Speaker 2: Just call it what it is, my friend, it's anonymous.
Speaker 3: So the thirty five dollars rule came from when we
Speaker 3: went out for dinner one time and we only spent
Speaker 3: thirty five dollars total.
Speaker 2: How where are you going out for dinner? Like, I
Speaker 2: feel like this shouldn't have been about property, It should
Speaker 2: have been about your food hacks.
Speaker 3: So we bought two ramens.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, two.
Speaker 3: Ramens, which are what seventeen fifty is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Maybe in Brisbane? In Melbourne they're at least twenty five
Speaker 2: dollars each.
Speaker 3: Now we look for things around that price, and it's
Speaker 3: it's normally going to be Asian food. If you go
Speaker 3: and get you know, Vietnamese fur, or you get some
Speaker 3: Malaysian noodles. Or something like that, and that's how you
Speaker 3: don't exceed that thirty five limit.
Speaker 2: But does this become kind of fun because I feel like,
Speaker 2: to you, this might not be limiting at all. It's
Speaker 2: kind of like fun to kind of like game the
Speaker 2: menu and work out what you're getting and how that
Speaker 2: might work. I feel like it's fun.
Speaker 3: It is fun. You have to go outside the CBD
Speaker 3: to find these places, but often that's where you can
Speaker 3: find the authentic foods as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent, And like Asian food is much
Speaker 2: better when it's more authentic. Yes, absolutely, absolutely. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: I kind of love the thirty five dollars rule. I
Speaker 2: now need to know because like you told me that
Speaker 2: brunch was your worst money habit, but then you told
Speaker 2: me it was like a money hack. What is your
Speaker 2: worst money habit?
Speaker 3: Well, what I said before about only buying things on sale, Yeah,
Speaker 3: sometimes I will buy something that I don't need just
Speaker 3: because it is on sale.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Okay, So like.
Speaker 3: The other day I bought because we're moving into our
Speaker 3: new house, I bought a marble coffee table.
Speaker 2: And stunning it was, but it was probably on sale.
Speaker 2: You're basically making money by buying that marble coffee table.
Speaker 3: Right, so it was on sale, but we don't need it.
Speaker 3: We don't need new furniture. We've obviously got furniture, but
Speaker 3: it was in sale.
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's fair. That's fair. And a marble coffee table,
Speaker 2: that's an investment. I'm just trying to enable you, to
Speaker 2: make you feel better about this decision, my friend. But
Speaker 2: I totally get that. When I moved, I was basically like,
Speaker 2: new furniture. Absolutely. Do I already own a couch? Yes?
Speaker 2: Do we need a new one? I think so it's
Speaker 2: really toxic. Oh my gosh. All right, now that we've
Speaker 2: had a good chat, I feel like I know so
Speaker 2: much more about you, And oh my gosh, I wish
Speaker 2: we'd learned about the money Hack for Brunch earlier because
Speaker 2: I feel like that's such a good deal. Like I'm
Speaker 2: going to try that one day and see what we
Speaker 2: can do.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, But at the very start of this episode, you
Speaker 2: told me that you're a B plus and I'm just
Speaker 2: feeling like you're pretty good at money, Like you're a
Speaker 2: tax accountant. You've done all of this really cool stuff.
Speaker 2: You've bought your dream home, like you've managed to save
Speaker 2: up a sixty thousand dollar buffer, Like you've got really
Speaker 2: really good clarity around your joint account with your partner
Speaker 2: and how much needs to go into that, like you're
Speaker 2: even hacking brunch. Do you think that you're still a
Speaker 2: B plus? And if you are, what's it going to
Speaker 2: take to get to an A plus?
Speaker 3: Look? I do still think I'm a B plus because
Speaker 3: there is so much more that I could do, like
Speaker 3: for starters, maybe.
Speaker 2: Not buy Marble coffee table.
Speaker 3: Correct, Yeah, But also was it the best decision to
Speaker 3: sell the majority of my investments that I thought were
Speaker 3: going to be long term investments to buy a owner
Speaker 3: occupied property. Maybe that's not the best. I could be
Speaker 3: doing more by starting to do the regular monthly investment plan. Again,
Speaker 3: it's just probably going to be very tight right now.
Speaker 3: I did start putting in two hundred dollars a month,
Speaker 3: you know, it used to be a thousand. I started
Speaker 3: putting in two hundred dollars a month, But then obviously
Speaker 3: we came off our fixed rate, and so I thought,
Speaker 3: maybe it's not the best idea. There's still lots of things,
Speaker 3: lots of things that I could do to improve, So
Speaker 3: I yeah, I think a B plus is fair all right, I'll.
Speaker 2: Let you have the B plus only because I can
Speaker 2: see that you're really thinking about it. But oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: I just think you're doing so well. And I'm so
Speaker 2: glad that we got to share this story with our community.
Speaker 2: Like I'm so glad that you wrote in and you
Speaker 2: were talking about I guess taking calculated risk and it
Speaker 2: all just it all makes sense. And to create the
Speaker 2: life that you want to live. Your absolutely doing that,
Speaker 2: and I'm just I'm in awe. I think it's so cool.
Speaker 2: So one, congratulations, that's very exciting, but true, thank you
Speaker 2: for sharing this story with the community. I know so
Speaker 2: many people are going to be listening along and then
Speaker 2: come Saturday, they're all going to be having thirty five
Speaker 2: dollar brunches like this is a money win for everybody.
Speaker 3: Well, I hope some people can relate to the you know,
Speaker 3: the property story too, because totally yeah, just in the
Speaker 3: news and you know, my peers and all that, I
Speaker 3: read stories about a couple that is struggling because they're
Speaker 3: on a similar income to us and their mortgage is
Speaker 3: only eight hundred thousand, and that's the sort of thing
Speaker 3: that makes me feel bad because I can't I can't
Speaker 3: relate completely to that. But I'm also not complaining because
Speaker 3: I chose.
Speaker 2: This, so no, I love it. I love it, and
Speaker 2: I feel like you've set yourself up to be successful regardless,
Speaker 2: like you're really forward planning what that means to have
Speaker 2: a buffer, Like I think it's just so intelligent. So
Speaker 2: thank you. I feel like lots of people are going
Speaker 2: to get lots out of this story, but unfortunately that
Speaker 2: is all we have time for today. So I'm just
Speaker 2: super grateful that I got to have you on the show.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you so much, Victoria.
Speaker 4: The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
Speaker 4: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
Speaker 4: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
Speaker 4: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
Speaker 2: If you do choose to buy a financial product, read.
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