Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
Speaker 1: the Order Kerney 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 Money the podcast.
Speaker 4: Millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one
Speaker 4: of our money diaries where we get to talk to
Speaker 4: one of our incredible She's on the Money community members
Speaker 4: all about their money story. Let's jump straight into it,
Speaker 4: because this week I got a message and it went
Speaker 4: like this, Hi, Victoria, my story is a rollercoaster. I'm
Speaker 4: one of getting through six years of financial coercion in
Speaker 4: a relationship. I've recovered a sixty five thousand dollar car
Speaker 4: debt and a forty thousand dollar personal loan, both in
Speaker 4: my name.
Speaker 2: Due to my ex.
Speaker 4: I have two kids with my new husband, but this
Speaker 4: relationship has recently broken down. I left my full time
Speaker 4: salary to start a business in December twenty twenty one
Speaker 4: to support kids, which was tricky timing, but I'm now
Speaker 4: on my way back. What a journey it has been,
Speaker 4: Money Diarist, Welcome to the show. I'm so excited to
Speaker 4: learn more about you.
Speaker 5: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, I feel like there's just so many
Speaker 4: questions I have, but we'll dive in with the first question.
Speaker 4: I always ask whitches money darist, what grade would you
Speaker 4: give you your money habits from an AA through to
Speaker 4: an F. If I asked you to give them a grade.
Speaker 3: I would say a C right in the middle, because
Speaker 3: there has been so much change and I feel like
Speaker 3: I haven't quite gotten my decks in a room yet,
Speaker 3: but I feel like I'm on.
Speaker 5: The way to it.
Speaker 2: I love this. Let's learn a little bit more about it.
Speaker 2: Let's take it all the way back.
Speaker 4: Money dis Can you tell me a little bit more
Speaker 4: about your money story?
Speaker 5: Cool?
Speaker 3: So my ex and I were engaged, We're in a
Speaker 3: relationship from twenty thirteen to twenty nineteen, and long story short, yeah,
Speaker 3: lots of financial coercion and just compulsive lying about money.
Speaker 3: And I always had this uneasy feeling like why is money.
Speaker 5: Always a conversation? Where is the money going?
Speaker 3: Like from what he's telling me to what I'm actually seeing,
Speaker 3: it doesn't add up. And we will working in the
Speaker 3: sporting fitness industry, and we set up a business within
Speaker 3: a business, and for that we needed to buy a
Speaker 3: new equipment and we wanted to go on a holiday.
Speaker 3: So for some reason, I was like, yeah, we'll take
Speaker 3: out a personal loan of forty thousand dollars in my name.
Speaker 3: That's fine because you can't get approved for one because
Speaker 3: within the last I think it was like a five
Speaker 3: or seven year period, he had claimed bankruptcy from another business, which, yes,
Speaker 3: that's a red flag that I didn't take notice of.
Speaker 4: But that's okay, because when you're in love and you
Speaker 4: trust someone, you immediately go no, let's make this happen totally.
Speaker 3: I was like, this is my forever person. I will
Speaker 3: support you whatever exactly, Oh, forty thousand dollars personal loan.
Speaker 3: And he also needed a new count but again couldn't
Speaker 3: get a loan because YadA YadA.
Speaker 5: So we were like, yep, we want to start.
Speaker 3: A family, let's get like a full drysuv thing.
Speaker 5: And so yeah, I can totally take out a.
Speaker 3: Sixty five thousand dollars car loan in my name and
Speaker 3: run it through my business. So yeah, he was paying
Speaker 3: the repayments, but I would often get calls and emails
Speaker 3: and text messages saying your repayment's like, your repayment's late,
Speaker 3: and I'd be like, just pay it on time. It's
Speaker 3: not that hard, and that just became a bit of
Speaker 3: an issue and all these red flags from the state.
Speaker 3: So that's my number one thing is maybe just don't
Speaker 3: take out over one hundred thousand dollars worth of loans
Speaker 3: in your name for someone else.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Look, it's really challenging though, because I can see how
Speaker 4: it would have happened, and I think a lot of
Speaker 4: people might jump to the conclusion and well, that's so silly.
Speaker 2: I can't believe you do that. Don't do it.
Speaker 4: And I mean even you right now you're like, don't
Speaker 4: do that. But in the moment, you're like, well, this
Speaker 4: is my person. I love my person. We've got this
Speaker 4: life we're building together. There's some stuff in his past
Speaker 4: that's so fine. We're going to get through it, you know,
Speaker 4: to move forward and actually create the life we want.
Speaker 4: These are the decisions that we're making, and obviously they
Speaker 4: weren't great. But I'm sure you know what, there are
Speaker 4: probably some people in our community who have done exactly
Speaker 4: that and their partner's paid off the loans early and
Speaker 4: everything with sunshine and roses.
Speaker 2: And I'm assuming that's what you thought it would be.
Speaker 4: Because when you've got those blinkers on, you just don't
Speaker 4: see what you don't see, and even though red flags exist,
Speaker 4: you sometimes just go, that's all right. Like I know
Speaker 4: some other people might think this is a red flag,
Speaker 4: but I know this person deeply because they're my partner,
Speaker 4: right They were engaged, so he's going to be here
Speaker 4: for the long haul.
Speaker 5: Yes.
Speaker 3: In the start of those types of relationships, it's all
Speaker 3: about confusing the person with words and beautiful gestures and stuff,
Speaker 3: so that when red flags do pop up, the person
Speaker 3: holds onto the hope of oh no, but their actual
Speaker 3: behavior is you know, loving and grand gestures and all
Speaker 3: that sort of stuff that the red flags just get
Speaker 3: overtaken because essentially you're just.
Speaker 4: Confused exactly, and they did that on purpose.
Speaker 2: So tell bit more.
Speaker 4: You took out these loans, obviously repayments started being late.
Speaker 2: What did that then lead to?
Speaker 3: So once we separated and I moved into State, the
Speaker 3: personal loan, so the forty thousand dollar loan was down
Speaker 3: to about twenty five thousand dollars, so still a fair
Speaker 3: amount on it. And I in that time frame had
Speaker 3: also bought myself a car, but ran it through my
Speaker 3: dad's business because I already had a car through my name,
Speaker 3: which was my partner's car. And he offered to pay
Speaker 3: off that loan as well, which was only one hundred
Speaker 3: dollars a week. So when we separated, the agreements was
Speaker 3: that he would continue to pay off the personal loan.
Speaker 3: I paid eight thousand dollars into that loan, which was
Speaker 3: equivalent to the repayments that he had been doing for
Speaker 3: my car, so that brought it down to about fifteen
Speaker 3: thousand dollars. We set up this agreement in writing that
Speaker 3: he would continue to pay the loan. It wouldn't have
Speaker 3: stood up in court, but I don't think he was
Speaker 3: smart enough to know that it wouldn't, so he thought
Speaker 3: it was a legal document I knew it wasn't quite,
Speaker 3: but it was something in writing, so he would keep
Speaker 3: the repayments coming.
Speaker 5: Fast.
Speaker 3: Forward a couple of years and I had my new
Speaker 3: partner and I'd fallen pregnant, and I still had this
Speaker 3: stress of this personal loan, and so I think by
Speaker 3: that time it was down to that seven thousand dollars,
Speaker 3: and I asked my dad and I said, I don't
Speaker 3: want this loan to be a debt. Can I borrow
Speaker 3: seven thousand dollars so I can.
Speaker 5: Pay that off?
Speaker 3: And my ex will continue to pay the repayments, and.
Speaker 5: If he doesn't for whatever reason.
Speaker 3: I will cop that on the chin and I will
Speaker 3: just repay you that seven thousand dollars. So that meant
Speaker 3: I had no debts to my name, which was more
Speaker 3: important to me than the actual value of the money.
Speaker 5: I just wanted that person out of my life.
Speaker 4: Especially when you're planning a family and you're going to
Speaker 4: have a baby, like this is not where I need
Speaker 4: to be, even if it costs me more.
Speaker 2: I don't need this stress exactly.
Speaker 3: So that was fine, And eventually it did get paid
Speaker 3: off when I was pregnant with my second child, so
Speaker 3: that it was really nice. To actually not have to
Speaker 3: fall into like a debt for a debt, so that
Speaker 3: finally got paid off, and with the car really, in hindsight,
Speaker 3: because it was technically mine, however, I was into state
Speaker 3: I really should have kept the car.
Speaker 5: And sold it and just paid off that debt.
Speaker 3: But I couldn't really access the car to get it,
Speaker 3: and there's no way he would have handed it over,
Speaker 3: and I didn't want to have to get you know,
Speaker 3: police and lawyers involved. So for me to get that
Speaker 3: loan transferred into his name through one of the big
Speaker 3: four banks took months of paperwork back and forwards, but
Speaker 3: he eventually got the car and his name and the
Speaker 3: loan in his name. So was his problem and again
Speaker 3: just not tied to me anyway.
Speaker 4: That's so stressful though to have to go through. Was
Speaker 4: he really, I guess, defiant during that, not wanting to
Speaker 4: take it on.
Speaker 5: Yes.
Speaker 3: It got to a point where I think the amount
Speaker 3: of money was like ten grand that was floating around,
Speaker 3: and I said to him, why don't you just borrow
Speaker 3: the money off.
Speaker 5: Your parents and pay them.
Speaker 3: Back like interest free loan be paid off quicker, you
Speaker 3: know than like really ten thousand dollars isn't that much money?
Speaker 3: And it later came out I had a conversation with
Speaker 3: his family and he'd already taken a lot of their
Speaker 3: money and they didn't have any super.
Speaker 4: Less and so of course they wouldn't give him another
Speaker 4: ten grand.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so they physically couldn't. And then all these lives
Speaker 3: started coming out from people that he'd asked to invest in,
Speaker 3: these fake businesses that had lost money. And there were
Speaker 3: stories of him collecting money from friends of friends for
Speaker 3: someone's birthday present, which was out to thousand dollars, and
Speaker 3: then trying to run off with that money. So all
Speaker 3: of these really fraudulent theft stories started to come out
Speaker 3: about all this money stuff.
Speaker 2: Oh that is so it.
Speaker 3: Oh it's such a problem for this person. And how
Speaker 3: have they not been reported to the police?
Speaker 4: So what's happening there so hasn't been reported to the police.
Speaker 4: Is he just still out there coercing people into giving
Speaker 4: them their money for these fake investments or how is
Speaker 4: he being held accountable?
Speaker 5: I literally have no idea.
Speaker 3: I think in the fine print of these investments, if
Speaker 3: you're an investor, you kind of sign a thing to say, hey,
Speaker 3: like if the business doesn't work.
Speaker 2: Out, like, yeah, you could lose any to lose that money.
Speaker 5: I'd a couple of them call me and say like
Speaker 5: what do I do?
Speaker 3: And I said, just get a paper from your lawyer
Speaker 3: that says you're on going to be on a payment plan.
Speaker 5: It might take a little bit longer, but at.
Speaker 3: Least you get some more all of your money back,
Speaker 3: and he won't know that it's not going to stand
Speaker 3: in court because he can't afford a proper lawyer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, Yeah, he's still out there doing it. Oh
Speaker 2: my god, I don't know. That makes me feel sick.
Speaker 4: I cannot stand stories like that where it's just these
Speaker 4: people that take advantage of you and then just run
Speaker 4: off with it.
Speaker 2: I mean, karma does have a way of coming around.
Speaker 4: But my gosh, is that something that you carried into
Speaker 4: your next relationship? Maybe some anxieties or like some hang ups,
Speaker 4: or you weren't willing to share money in another relationship,
Speaker 4: Like how did that impact the relationship with your now
Speaker 4: husband that you're separating with.
Speaker 3: Yes, so I never had joint bank accounts with my
Speaker 3: exx and I never have in a relationship. It's just
Speaker 3: something that I've never done because I've never seen the
Speaker 3: point in it, you're just really moving money across to
Speaker 3: somewhere for no reason. So in that sense of things,
Speaker 3: there wasn't really a conversation about it because neither of
Speaker 3: us said to one another, hey, let's do a joint
Speaker 3: bank account. My husband knew what was happening with the
Speaker 3: repayments and stuff, so we were very open about the
Speaker 3: money situation, but there was never a conversation of him
Speaker 3: to go, oh, well, let's do a joint bank account.
Speaker 5: Anyway. So I think always.
Speaker 3: Having that independence of having my own money has just
Speaker 3: stuck with me and I think it will stay with
Speaker 3: me forever. And I know plenty of long term partners
Speaker 3: that still don't have joint bank accounts. And I think
Speaker 3: that's really normal because you know, if we think of
Speaker 3: this is going to be really like negative. But if
Speaker 3: we think of marriages like a business, it's the same stats,
Speaker 3: you know, like forty percent succeed So yeah, exactly did
Speaker 3: you start shifting money around? Really, there's no point if
Speaker 3: you're paying rent or mortgage repayments or bills, you just
Speaker 3: split the money.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, that's fair, And I know that, like obviously,
Speaker 4: lots of people have different ways of managing it, and
Speaker 4: there's actually no right way. But it makes me so
Speaker 4: happy to know that your money wasn't as intertwined with
Speaker 4: this person as it could have been, Like I feel
Speaker 4: like that put you in a much better position than
Speaker 4: what you came out as. Like, it's just, yeah, it
Speaker 4: gives me so much anxiety that this person is out
Speaker 4: there taking advantage of other people. And what would have
Speaker 4: you done if he actually had access to all of
Speaker 4: your funds.
Speaker 3: Exactly because all this money was disappearing and I didn't
Speaker 3: know where it was going, but then later found out
Speaker 3: like there was a substance abuse problem happening right in front.
Speaker 5: Of my face. So no, only that, but then you've.
Speaker 3: Got money shifting out to god knows where to fuel
Speaker 3: that addiction as well.
Speaker 2: How did you figure all of that out?
Speaker 4: Was there like a turning point in the relationship where
Speaker 4: all of a sudden you realized, oh my gosh, this
Speaker 4: is definitely happening, or did somebody else bring it to
Speaker 4: your attention?
Speaker 2: Like how does this come up?
Speaker 3: Somebody else brought it to my attention because they had
Speaker 3: seen the transactions happen. They'd been you know, messaged for it,
Speaker 3: you know, looking for it, and then when that light
Speaker 3: bulb clicked, I went, this is where all that cash
Speaker 3: is going, Him saying that he lost an envelope of
Speaker 3: cash from a client and fell out.
Speaker 5: Of his pocket.
Speaker 3: These people coming over to our apartment, but not coming upstairs,
Speaker 3: just staying downstairs and having a bit of a chat.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, him saying he was tired, and you know, just
Speaker 3: so many obvious things, you know, going to the bathroom
Speaker 3: lots and having this vague look on his face.
Speaker 5: But I just didn't think anything of it.
Speaker 4: Well, if you're not a substance abuser and you never
Speaker 4: have been, it might be something that you're going on.
Speaker 2: I don't I really hadn't thought about that.
Speaker 3: And I also thought, like in his honesty of the
Speaker 3: way he communicated with me, I was sort of like,
Speaker 3: why wouldn't you just tell me, Like I don't want
Speaker 3: to do it, but just tell.
Speaker 5: Me if you're going to go out or whatever. That
Speaker 5: doesn't bother me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, oh my gosh, that is heartbreaking to work all
Speaker 4: of that out and have to go through that. I
Speaker 4: want to know now, I guess you've come through all
Speaker 4: of that you mentioned before. You know, you're currently in
Speaker 4: the midst of a relationship breakdown. But you also started
Speaker 4: a business in December twenty twenty one. Talk to me
Speaker 4: about what you do now for work and how much
Speaker 4: money you bring in.
Speaker 3: So I am an Infant and Todd Last Sleek consultant,
Speaker 3: so I worked with children up to five years old.
Speaker 3: Previous to that, I was working in a school full time,
Speaker 3: and then with my first pregnancy that was a COVID baby,
Speaker 3: and we were in and out of lockdowns and sport
Speaker 3: just shut down, and I just thought, oh my gosh,
Speaker 3: I need something that will always be able to be around.
Speaker 3: So I started that business. And then when I had
Speaker 3: my second baby, I didn't go back to my full
Speaker 3: time job, and that full time job was bringing in
Speaker 3: seventy six thousand dollars eight hundred and seventy five, so
Speaker 3: it was an amazing money and I'd been asking for
Speaker 3: a pay rock. And then I started my business, which
Speaker 3: was great because I didn't get maternity leave from my
Speaker 3: employer as well as Centerlink. I just got the cent
Speaker 3: to Link payments, so it really helped me through my
Speaker 3: second maternity leave.
Speaker 5: And then when I went to return.
Speaker 3: To full time work, the way that was handled was
Speaker 3: not ideal and they'd readvertised my job with a very
Speaker 3: substantial over ten thousand dollars pay drom and I just
Speaker 3: couldn't afford going back, and I just thought, well, let's
Speaker 3: just make my business vibe or By this stage it
Speaker 3: was about eight months up and running, and so it
Speaker 3: has its second birthday on the first of December this year.
Speaker 2: Oh exciting, Yeah, it's really exciting.
Speaker 5: And so last financial year, let's take.
Speaker 3: Into account that I had a four month old baby
Speaker 3: at the start of the financial year. Last year, it
Speaker 3: brought in thirty eight and a half thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, how good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's only working part time as well, so
Speaker 3: I really it wasn't like full time.
Speaker 5: So I think that's pretty good.
Speaker 4: I think that's airpic, especially for the first couple of
Speaker 4: years of business. And then you drop in, oh, by
Speaker 4: the way, I also had one child and a four
Speaker 4: month old baby, like that's killing it.
Speaker 5: I was really proud of that.
Speaker 3: And now that the kids are older and they're in care,
Speaker 3: I'm able to dedicate more time and effort into the business.
Speaker 3: I'm just about to do a rebrand all of this stuff,
Speaker 3: which has really going to freshen it up and I'm
Speaker 3: so much clearer with it. Next financial year, I'm hoping
Speaker 3: to crack fifty.
Speaker 5: But we just have to see how that goes.
Speaker 3: And yeah, also like managing separation and working out, you know,
Speaker 3: being a single parent and what that sort of looks
Speaker 3: like in terms of income and expenses. You know, I'm
Speaker 3: still waiting on child support arrangements to come into place.
Speaker 3: That can take a few months, so I don't quite
Speaker 3: know what that looks like at this present time. I'm
Speaker 3: still yet to receive any money from my ex husband
Speaker 3: for the kids. So yeah, things are a little bit tight,
Speaker 3: but we are getting there, which is great.
Speaker 4: And to be a little bit pervy because obviously this
Speaker 4: is something that does happen in our community.
Speaker 2: Is relationship breakdown?
Speaker 4: Was this amicable or is this something where you're going
Speaker 4: to have to argue a fair bit for child support?
Speaker 2: Like what does that actually look like? Do you think?
Speaker 1: For you?
Speaker 3: So it wasn't amicable, but it was explicitly talked about
Speaker 3: before I left, so I'll just be honest. It was
Speaker 3: because of domestic abuse.
Speaker 2: So I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Sorry.
Speaker 5: I'm in a much more.
Speaker 3: Supportive and safer environment now with regards to the kids.
Speaker 3: The requests from the other party is fifty to fifty.
Speaker 3: But when you look at family law and what's actually
Speaker 3: more beneficial for the kids, especially because they're so young,
Speaker 3: like my kids are three years.
Speaker 5: And almost one and a half.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they need to be spending more time with the
Speaker 3: primary care because of their age. And then as they
Speaker 3: get older and your child support gets reviewed every six months,
Speaker 3: you can start to request more overnight stays with the
Speaker 3: other parties. So at the moment, we're still waiting for mediation,
Speaker 3: but I'm requesting that I have them eleven out of
Speaker 3: fourteen nights and then it will just look to improve,
Speaker 3: which is kind of motivating for the other party as well.
Speaker 5: It's getting up.
Speaker 3: I do really well for six months and I prove that,
Speaker 3: you know, I can have the kids in that capacity,
Speaker 3: that's got the next step for him to ask for
Speaker 3: an extra night or two, which is great.
Speaker 4: Obviously I do not know nearly enough about your circumstance,
Speaker 4: but given you mentioned that the reason for the relationship
Speaker 4: breakdown was domestic abuse, I just feel like he is
Speaker 4: lucky that it's not you asking for one hundred percent
Speaker 4: of that, because that is a very real outcome that
Speaker 4: could happen and to be honest, I feel like if
Speaker 4: that's the circumstance, the courts would probably agree with you.
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly, because family law, they went through a phase
Speaker 3: of having fifty to fifty and then they realized that
Speaker 3: it wasn't in the best interest of the children, so
Speaker 3: they went back to the primary care having the majority.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, and it makes absolute sense. I'm so sorry
Speaker 4: that you have to go through that. It would just
Speaker 4: be such a shitty period. But I'm glad that you're
Speaker 4: in a better position and you're, you know.
Speaker 2: Building it up.
Speaker 4: You've obviously got so much to look forward to, Like,
Speaker 4: You've got goals in your business, and I think you're
Speaker 4: killing it. Like, I'm so excited to see where you go.
Speaker 4: The next question I've got is what's your big money
Speaker 4: goal at the moment? What are you currently working towards.
Speaker 4: Is it that fifty thousand dollars goal in your business
Speaker 4: or are there other ones you want to talk to
Speaker 4: me about.
Speaker 5: Totally. So, one of my goals for this year was
Speaker 5: to buy a new car because I've simply outgrown my
Speaker 5: small little car, and I pick up my brand new wheels.
Speaker 5: I actually pick them up tomorrow mornings.
Speaker 3: So got the car is a bit more symbolic now,
Speaker 3: I feel, so with that car, I'll be trading in
Speaker 3: my old car. So the loan will be thirty four
Speaker 3: thousand dollars and I'm going to pay it off over
Speaker 3: four years with no balloon payment, and it's going to
Speaker 3: be about.
Speaker 5: Two hundred and three dollars a week.
Speaker 3: When that four years is up. I would like to
Speaker 3: also have a bit of a house deposit ready to.
Speaker 5: Go, so that I don't have any current debt.
Speaker 3: I can just go, here is my deposit, buy a house,
Speaker 3: hopefully see what the market is doing. I'm in a
Speaker 3: really fortunate situation at the moment where there's no rush
Speaker 3: for me to move out of where I'm living, but
Speaker 3: that would be my big kind of future goal.
Speaker 2: That's so exciting.
Speaker 4: I feel like that's a lot of clarity for someone
Speaker 4: going through arguably a pretty tumultuous time new car, saving
Speaker 4: for a house deposit. Is there anything else you're currently
Speaker 4: working towards.
Speaker 3: I would say after the Christmas busy season this year,
Speaker 3: I would like to have five thousand dollars sitting in
Speaker 3: my savings account to kick me off for next year.
Speaker 3: Because you know, as all small business owners know, January
Speaker 3: February is a bit of a quiet time, so that's
Speaker 3: sort of my short term.
Speaker 5: Goal coming into the next sort of six statementths.
Speaker 2: I'm loving this.
Speaker 4: I can already see Money Direst, that you and I
Speaker 4: are going to have a little disagreement at the end
Speaker 4: of this episode, given you think your received, but we
Speaker 4: can get to that a little bit later. Let's go
Speaker 4: to a really quick break and we will come right back.
Speaker 4: All right, Money Direst, we are back. I feel like
Speaker 4: you are killing it more than you're giving yourself credit for.
Speaker 4: I want to know do you have any investments. If so,
Speaker 4: what are they, If not, do you have plans for them?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So in my super I have sixty three and a
Speaker 3: half thousand dollars. When I was going through UNI back
Speaker 3: in the day for four years, I was a bit
Speaker 3: naughty and didn't pay into my own super as I
Speaker 3: was a sole trader. But as soon as you finished,
Speaker 3: I was back into that. So I pay about ten
Speaker 3: percent a month straight into my super.
Speaker 4: So even though you own your own business and it's
Speaker 4: only just started, you're already paying yourself super.
Speaker 3: Yes, I love this so much because I want to
Speaker 3: be able to retire and live a great life my
Speaker 3: other investments. So in my savings currently I have three
Speaker 3: and a half thousand dollars. I also have a micro
Speaker 3: investment account through Rays. I use that for my holidays,
Speaker 3: so at the moment there is seven hundred and twenty
Speaker 3: dollars in there. I also invest five dollars a week
Speaker 3: for each of my kids, so that when they're eighteen,
Speaker 3: they're going to have about thirteen thousand dollars each. And
Speaker 3: at the moment they've got three hundred and seventy five
Speaker 3: dollars sitting in their accounts. I have recently gotten into
Speaker 3: shop back and that's going to be my Christmas account
Speaker 3: with my Flybys dollars, So if that gives me a
Speaker 3: few hundred dollars, that's going to be great.
Speaker 5: At the moment, I've got twenty dollars.
Speaker 4: In there from little things, big things grow. I want
Speaker 4: to know a little bit more about investing for kids.
Speaker 4: You mentioned that you're investing five dollars each per week
Speaker 4: for them. Can you tell me what you're investing into
Speaker 4: and how you made that decision.
Speaker 3: So my sister used to work for a bank, and
Speaker 3: I asked her about setting up, you know, like a
Speaker 3: term deposit for the kids. She said, because of all
Speaker 3: the interest rate you know, variability, and you get taxed
Speaker 3: on the interests and stuff like that. She said, it's
Speaker 3: actually probably smarter doing the micro investing because yeah, there'll
Speaker 3: be a little bit of fluctuation, but she said, it's
Speaker 3: just a lot easier and you'll probably get better returns
Speaker 3: if you do that at that kind of small rate.
Speaker 3: It's not like I'm putting tens of thousands of dollars away.
Speaker 3: I'm literally talking about ten dollars a week. And yeah,
Speaker 3: it's been going quite well, like the market returns have
Speaker 3: been small, Like.
Speaker 5: It's a very conservative portfolio.
Speaker 3: But yes, you can visibly see it if you wanted
Speaker 3: to take money out of it. You can easily if
Speaker 3: there was an emergency. You don't get penalized. The maintenance
Speaker 3: fee every month is really small.
Speaker 5: So overall, yeah, I've found that to be really, really helpful.
Speaker 4: I love being pervy and being like, but how because
Speaker 4: I know that every other parent that's listening to this
Speaker 4: is like, oh my gosh, I've been meaning to invest
Speaker 4: for the kids. How other people doing it? Where do
Speaker 4: I start? I feel like it can be so overwhelming.
Speaker 4: The next question I've got for you, my friend, I, oh
Speaker 4: don't know, do you have any debts?
Speaker 2: If so, what are they.
Speaker 3: I have never had a credit card in my life,
Speaker 3: and I would love to be one of those people
Speaker 3: that gets a credit card, uses all the points, and
Speaker 3: then refreshes the credit card every two years, but at
Speaker 3: the moment, I did not have the mental capacity for that.
Speaker 3: So the only debt I'm about to go into is
Speaker 3: the card debt of thirty four thousand dollars, which is fine,
Speaker 3: and apart from that, I'm debt free.
Speaker 2: Oh how good?
Speaker 4: And I feel like the car debt that you're going
Speaker 4: into is a very calculated decision, Like the way you
Speaker 4: were explaining it to me, how clear you are that
Speaker 4: there's no balloon on this loan. Don't worry, it's two
Speaker 4: hundred and three dollars a week. Like this makes sense
Speaker 4: for me my financial situation. I feel like that's what
Speaker 4: I want to hear when people are talking about taking
Speaker 4: on personal debt to get themselves further, because obviously your
Speaker 4: current card is not serving you and you did need
Speaker 4: a bigger option. But not everyone has thirty four thousand
Speaker 4: dollars sitting around, so I think it's a bit naive
Speaker 4: if I was sitting here being like, don't get car loans,
Speaker 4: that's so silly, Like this obviously works really well for you,
Speaker 4: and it's well thought out and you're making the best
Speaker 4: decision for you right.
Speaker 3: Right, and you can have it as a total tax
Speaker 3: right off. So the petrol, you know, the repayments is
Speaker 3: completely run under my business, so it makes sense for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, all right.
Speaker 4: I want to know next, because I feel like you've
Speaker 4: probably picked up a few good habits.
Speaker 2: In your years.
Speaker 4: Let me know what your best money habit is.
Speaker 3: So I've been using an expensive spreadsheet for probably twelve
Speaker 3: years and I track everything on it, so all my income,
Speaker 3: all my expenses. Then at the end of every financial year,
Speaker 3: I just shoot that off to my accountant and he
Speaker 3: does his magic. So I'm very aware of where all
Speaker 3: my money is going. I make sure that my tax
Speaker 3: is always up to date because it helps balance anything
Speaker 3: that you're doing, you know, with childcare subsidy and stuff
Speaker 3: like that, and as well if you're doing like a
Speaker 3: pay as you go system with your business, or if
Speaker 3: it's just a lump sum at the end, you want
Speaker 3: to be really clear and up to date with that
Speaker 3: so you don't get into any big tax stats. I
Speaker 3: always try to recycle clothes and goods, so I'm very
Speaker 3: thrifty on Facebook marketplace of donating and selling my stuff
Speaker 3: because you know what ten bucks is, ten bucks at
Speaker 3: all adds on. And when I do buy things, I'm
Speaker 3: doing it through either my micro investing at or my
Speaker 3: shop back apps, or at least I'm getting a kicker.
Speaker 3: And I rarely buy my meals and my coffee. I
Speaker 3: will probably buy a coffee once maybe twice a week,
Speaker 3: and I generally will go out for dinner maybe once
Speaker 3: a week, once a fortnight.
Speaker 5: So I'm very very savvy on that fun as well.
Speaker 2: Oh I love that.
Speaker 4: I feel like that is really thought out and planned.
Speaker 4: Let's bring it down though, surely you have a habit
Speaker 4: that you're maybe not so proud of. What do you
Speaker 4: think is your worst money habit?
Speaker 3: So I've actually never written a budget for myself, even
Speaker 3: though I have this beautiful spreadsheet that tells me all
Speaker 3: my ins and outs, I've never sat down and gone right,
Speaker 3: how much do I have to spend on all these areas?
Speaker 3: I think because my income's always been variable, so it's
Speaker 3: kind of hard to gauge that. But I think because
Speaker 3: I'm so conscious about money and know where it's going,
Speaker 3: I don't know. It just kind of levels that out.
Speaker 3: But yeah, never written a budget, woos.
Speaker 2: I can help you with that, that's okay.
Speaker 4: I will organize that for you after we finish recording.
Speaker 3: So if I know that I'm coming into a big payment,
Speaker 3: I'll like spend that money before it hits my account.
Speaker 3: So at the moment, like I'm waiting on a six
Speaker 3: thousand dollar contract payout which is coming on the thirty
Speaker 3: first of this month, and I've already spent like four
Speaker 3: thousand dollars of it, so when it actually comes in,
Speaker 3: it's not going to be as exciting.
Speaker 5: That's probably my other really bad habit too.
Speaker 4: What have you spent the four grand on already? Are
Speaker 4: these things that you actually needed or are you just
Speaker 4: going yollo, there's money coming in.
Speaker 3: So when I moved into this house, there was a
Speaker 3: double bed, and I physically don't fit in one, so
Speaker 3: I upgraded to a queen bed.
Speaker 5: So that was thirteen hundred dollars.
Speaker 3: I just spent almost one thousand dollars on new clothes
Speaker 3: because during this process, I've lost a lot of weight,
Speaker 3: so none of my clothes fit me, and I feel
Speaker 3: like I just needed a bit of a snazz up
Speaker 3: after everything that's happened. And I spent another fifteen hundred
Speaker 3: dollars on my graphic designer as well, so she got
Speaker 3: paid too, but that's also gone a betterfit my business,
Speaker 3: so that's.
Speaker 2: Kind of that's a business cost though.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, those are definitely separate, but I feel like
Speaker 4: all of those things are very valid.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you've just got to do what you've got to do.
Speaker 4: My friend, I want to reflect on at the start
Speaker 4: of this episode. You've gone through so much and shared
Speaker 4: so much with us, which I'm so grateful for. But
Speaker 4: it sounds like you're really on top of it, like
Speaker 4: you're good at managing money. You are clear about your goals.
Speaker 4: Do you think a C still fits you after this conversation.
Speaker 4: If so, why and if not, what would you change
Speaker 4: it to.
Speaker 5: I would say maybe upgrade to a bee.
Speaker 3: I feel like there are still avenues that I could
Speaker 3: probably explore to make.
Speaker 5: My income more efficient and more supportive. But yes, after.
Speaker 3: Speaking everything through and looking at how hyper organized I am.
Speaker 2: I'm like, you're doing well, doing well.
Speaker 3: And you have to be when you've got two kids like,
Speaker 3: you have to just be so organized, otherwise the.
Speaker 2: Wheels will fall off real quick if you're not.
Speaker 3: Hey, oh yeah, so yes, all my online shopping would
Speaker 3: be out of control if I didn't have this sort
Speaker 3: of awareness of wherever the money was going.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 4: I'm glad that you upgraded yourself, because after hearing all
Speaker 4: of this.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I don't know if that fits.
Speaker 4: And as I said before we went to a break,
Speaker 4: I was like, I think we're going to have a disagreement,
Speaker 4: but we don't disagree. I agree with a Bee. I
Speaker 4: think that a beat is very reflective where you're at.
Speaker 4: I think that you've still got a few things to
Speaker 4: go in terms of just even mentally sorting through it
Speaker 4: and feeling really empowered. But I really like how clear
Speaker 4: your goals are and what you're working towards. Please stay
Speaker 4: in contact, though, I really want to know how your
Speaker 4: business goes and what that comes up to. I need
Speaker 4: to know about that financial year goal of fifty grand.
Speaker 2: Like I'm just so invested in this.
Speaker 4: I love it, but unfortunately that is all we have
Speaker 4: time for Today's money dost. Thank you so much for
Speaker 4: sharing so much time with us and so much of
Speaker 4: yourself with us.
Speaker 2: It has been an absolute privilege anytime.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
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Speaker 6: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
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