Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud Order
Speaker 1: Order Kerney Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before we
Speaker 1: get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would
Speaker 1: like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of
Speaker 1: which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging
Speaker 1: the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through
Speaker 1: as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and
Speaker 1: the storytelling of you to make a difference for today
Speaker 1: 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 4: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money Podcast Millennials
Speaker 4: who want financial freedom. My friends, welcome back to another
Speaker 4: one of our money diaries where I get the absolute
Speaker 4: pleasure of sitting down and talking to one of our
Speaker 4: incredible She's on the Money community members all about their
Speaker 4: money story. Let's jump straight into it, because this week
Speaker 4: I got an email and it sounded exactly like this
Speaker 4: high She's on the Money team. I've always been driven,
Speaker 4: and buying my first property at twenty two felt like
Speaker 4: my biggest achievement. But that excitement quickly turned into regret
Speaker 4: when I realized my rental property manager and strata, both
Speaker 4: from the same company, were mismanaging everything. The stress was
Speaker 4: overwhelming and I nearly sold the property at a loss.
Speaker 4: It took a lot of persistence, but I fought to
Speaker 4: get a new strata management company to take over, and
Speaker 4: it finally paid off. Now I'm gearing up to renovate
Speaker 4: the property so it can become the rental I've always envisioned.
Speaker 4: I've also leveraged the equity from this property to put
Speaker 4: a deposit on a new home on the Central Coast
Speaker 4: since knee prices are completely out of reach. With the
Speaker 4: settlement just around the corner, I'm so excited to start
Speaker 4: this new journey with my fiance Money Diarist. That's so exciting,
Speaker 4: but also like so stressful. I feel like I've been
Speaker 4: talking to so many people over the last few weeks
Speaker 4: about strata and how painful it can be. Are you
Speaker 4: for or against strata at this point?
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm full against it. Anybody in real estate, Like, like,
Speaker 2: when I meet them, the first thing is they put
Speaker 2: a wall up because of all the issues in the past,
Speaker 2: So I feel bad, but like, yeah, I would say again.
Speaker 4: I'm not in real estate weekend hangout. I'm like, I
Speaker 4: am kind of in property. I suppose I'm in mortgage broking.
Speaker 2: So like, oh no, that's okay. I love my mortgage broker.
Speaker 4: He's awesome, right, yeah, okay, all right, yeah, we love
Speaker 4: mortgage brokers. All right, on the same page. Let's start
Speaker 4: the way that I always start money, Diris, Before I
Speaker 4: get into the nitty gritty, can you let me know
Speaker 4: what grade you would give your money habits if I
Speaker 4: asked you to give them a grade from eight through
Speaker 4: to F.
Speaker 2: At the moment, I think I would give myself a solid.
Speaker 4: Bee solid be all right, Well, let's learn more about
Speaker 4: that money dice. Can you tell me a little bit
Speaker 4: more about your money story.
Speaker 2: So my money story obviously started around my parents. They
Speaker 2: were very hard workers when I was young. I learned
Speaker 2: from them that if you want to be wealthy or
Speaker 2: have money, then you have to put hard work in
Speaker 2: to get there. Like, for example, my dad was a
Speaker 2: sole trader and he would leave the house before I
Speaker 2: even woke up, and then in the afternoon when I
Speaker 2: finished dancing late at night, I would have to walk
Speaker 2: over to his work and wait till about eleven o'clock
Speaker 2: before I could go home.
Speaker 4: So, oh my gosh, eleven. As a kid, you would
Speaker 4: have been exhausted at school the next day.
Speaker 2: Oh, I would sleep in the truck and then just yeah,
Speaker 2: go home. And he would repeat it every day too,
Speaker 2: So like seeing how much hours he put in, then
Speaker 2: that sort of trigging in my mind like hard work
Speaker 2: means wealth. So and then mum was the same. Mum
Speaker 2: would do all the business admin for him and was
Speaker 2: the bookkeeper. But then she's working full time and managing
Speaker 2: a household with my brother and I. So yeah, so
Speaker 2: seeing all the hours that she put in, Oh.
Speaker 4: What a queen. We love that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So there was always those conversations around the house
Speaker 2: like oh, you can't, please, don't take any more work
Speaker 2: from this person. The invoice haven't been paid, or if
Speaker 2: we want that machinery, we've got to wait for xyz.
Speaker 2: Like there wasn't any conversations that were ever struggling, but
Speaker 2: it's just they were around the kitchen, never at the
Speaker 2: table or anything. But yeah, I just off heard dose.
Speaker 2: I was never really involved, but yeah, hearing that kind
Speaker 2: of set in a little bit of like financial literacy there.
Speaker 2: Even though I didn't really pay attention.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I feel like these conscious or unconscious conversations
Speaker 4: kind of become part of the narrative. You kind of go, okay,
Speaker 4: well I know what they're talking about, Like, you know,
Speaker 4: it's like your parents' family friends, Like I'm not friends
Speaker 4: with them, but I know lots about them because Mum
Speaker 4: will be like, oh, such and such jit X y
Speaker 4: Z over the week, and like you remember from all
Speaker 4: the other conversations you've had, who that person is, who
Speaker 4: their kids are, what that looks like, like you're starting
Speaker 4: to put puzzle pieces together. What was it like hearing
Speaker 4: conversations about business as a kid, So, you know, coming
Speaker 4: home and maybe mum and dad are like, don't accept
Speaker 4: any more work from you know, Sharon because she didn't
Speaker 4: pay her invoice. Like were you stressed by that because
Speaker 4: you were like, oh my gosh, invoices aren't getting paid?
Speaker 4: Or were you like get it, mum, you show them
Speaker 4: the boundary, Like what did that look like?
Speaker 2: It probably was more like get it, mum, because my
Speaker 2: dad's more of a joke star. If he's not happy
Speaker 2: with something and then he makes a joke, it's like,
Speaker 2: oh he accepts me now, or whatnot. So like every
Speaker 2: time Mum would say something and put a foot down,
Speaker 2: he would crack a joke and it would be more
Speaker 2: of like a laughing situation than or you need to
Speaker 2: be serious and get this sorted. So yeah, it was
Speaker 2: more funny, but I think it kind of set in sewn,
Speaker 2: like finances behind me and saving and like Mum would
Speaker 2: be like, oh, no, you can't talk to me today
Speaker 2: because it's business day and I have to get stuff sorted,
Speaker 2: so like you learn the hard line, and also just
Speaker 2: made me really driven because I see how hard that
Speaker 2: day work. And then when I've got my first job,
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, well, Mum and Dad are working
Speaker 2: like this, so that's set a standard, so then I
Speaker 2: should be working like that too, or I should be
Speaker 2: having those conversations.
Speaker 4: And how young were you?
Speaker 2: Oh Dad had his business before I can even remember.
Speaker 2: I don't remember him in any other job except for business,
Speaker 2: so I would have been really young. I remember my
Speaker 2: first couple of times when I was in school, so
Speaker 2: like maybe kindergarten, primary school, I was hearing these conversations.
Speaker 4: Yeah, which is kind of cool, and it's also I mean,
Speaker 4: very relevant for me at the moment because I'm in
Speaker 4: the middle of I have a six month old. I'm
Speaker 4: seeing all these conversations about you know, daycare and about
Speaker 4: you know, working parents versus being able to be a
Speaker 4: stay at home parent. And obviously we're all out here
Speaker 4: just doing the best that we can. But I'm quite
Speaker 4: clearly a working parent. But then you get a little
Speaker 4: bit of anxiety. You're like, am I doing the right thing?
Speaker 4: Like when I drop Harvey off at daycare? Like this
Speaker 4: morning I dropped him off at daycare. He looked like
Speaker 4: he was having the best time ever. He saw his
Speaker 4: like room leader, and he's little face lit up and
Speaker 4: was like, oh, heck, yeah, what a good day.
Speaker 2: This is probably more fun than home.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh. Yeah, Like genuinely, they are going to
Speaker 4: be teaching him more and giving him more activities than
Speaker 4: I could ever do. But you kind of go, am
Speaker 4: I doing the right thing? So, as a child of
Speaker 4: you know, very hard working parents, do you think that
Speaker 4: that was a positive or a negative thing? That mom
Speaker 4: and dad were going to work and drawing boundaries and
Speaker 4: saying no money, dorist, don't talk to us today. We've
Speaker 4: you know, got to crack the whip on the business today.
Speaker 4: I've got to get you know, all this admin out
Speaker 4: or was that something that you're like, oh, I'm a
Speaker 4: little bit resentful because I want to ask these questions
Speaker 4: when it's anonymous.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it depends on the time. Because when
Speaker 2: I was young, like, there were times when Mum treated
Speaker 2: me like a like a business, like, for example, you
Speaker 2: would love this. Actually, when I started my first job,
Speaker 2: she put like a hard line in and I joke
Speaker 2: about it and I say, oh, she cut me off,
Speaker 2: but really she didn't. It was just if you want anything,
Speaker 2: you pay for it. If you need anything, you'll support
Speaker 2: you through it.
Speaker 4: And so see, I think that's good parenting. But I
Speaker 4: can also see that when you were probably what like
Speaker 4: fourteen or fifteen, you were like, that's a joke. I
Speaker 4: hate it here exactly.
Speaker 2: And that's why I'm like, I was so resentful for
Speaker 2: it because I went to a private Catholic school and
Speaker 2: all my friends.
Speaker 4: Again you're given everything, yeah, and.
Speaker 2: I'm there having to like work hard for Like I
Speaker 2: know at the time, I was so resentful for it,
Speaker 2: and I'm so grateful now, but yeah, like there were
Speaker 2: times where she treated me like she was a tax agent,
Speaker 2: like if I didn't pay my board. She would send
Speaker 2: me a text message like a tax person, and I'm like, mom,
Speaker 2: like my mother, like my friends laugh at the messages.
Speaker 2: So at the time I was very resentful. Now I'm like, no,
Speaker 2: she was just teaching me a really hard lesson and
Speaker 2: it really has paid off.
Speaker 4: And do you have siblings, Is this the same kind
Speaker 4: of situation for them?
Speaker 2: Yes? I have an older brother. He's very savvy, like
Speaker 2: I've never seen him do an assignment in his life,
Speaker 2: and he got first in all of his subjects at school,
Speaker 2: so like he's just very special.
Speaker 4: On Why is it always like that so rude?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that had caused a little tension between us,
Speaker 2: Like he always thought that I got things that he
Speaker 2: didn't get. So yeah, I believe Mum did the same
Speaker 2: for him. He actually, I think he got it at
Speaker 2: some points a little bit harder, like once he got
Speaker 2: a full time job, the board came before I did.
Speaker 2: I got to negotiate a little bit.
Speaker 4: I see. I feel like that second child privilege, like
Speaker 4: my sister and I reminis on things that like my
Speaker 4: parents were like absolutely not Victoria Devine and then Alex
Speaker 4: would be like can I do this? And mom and
Speaker 4: dad be like sure, I'd be like what.
Speaker 2: I was like, No, I don't have a full paying,
Speaker 2: full time job yet you can't pay me board, Like, oh,
Speaker 2: I can't pay for you.
Speaker 4: Were just negotiating this. Yeah, I like it. I mean
Speaker 4: that's a good skill to develop very early. So I
Speaker 4: guess now you're an adult, you're twenty nine years old.
Speaker 4: What do you do for work? And how much money
Speaker 4: do you earn?
Speaker 2: Now, I work at a local council in town planning,
Speaker 2: and I'm on around ninety five k, well very much
Speaker 2: a year. And then if you count the rental income
Speaker 2: from my investment, that's around twenty three k a year.
Speaker 4: Excuse me, that's very cool, isn't it? Twenty three grand
Speaker 4: a year? In I would assume passive income. I'm going
Speaker 4: to ask about debt later. But you then paying your
Speaker 4: mortgage and stuff or is that like a twenty three clean.
Speaker 2: Twenty three before management fees come out in the mortgage
Speaker 2: as well? So yeah, I haven't factored that in.
Speaker 4: And is it positive or negatively yeared?
Speaker 2: I believe I'm still negative. I've only been positive once
Speaker 2: and that was during COVID when the interest rates were
Speaker 2: so low.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was a good time. To have a mortgage honestly,
Speaker 4: like I remember we got ours during that period of time,
Speaker 4: and I don't know, but I would like to think
Speaker 4: that I'm relatively financially literate, so I should have seen
Speaker 4: this coming. But I got my first mortgage and I
Speaker 4: was like, this is easier than I thought it would be.
Speaker 4: And then obviously the economy recovered and my mortgage did not,
Speaker 4: and I was like, wow, what a surprise. Why didn't
Speaker 4: I see that coming?
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I was like mine, I got it another
Speaker 2: high and then it went to a low. And then
Speaker 2: when it go into a high, and I was like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, how did I do this? Before?
Speaker 4: I know? All right, So I want to know more.
Speaker 4: You obviously already have a property. You mentioned in your
Speaker 4: diary in that you have a fiance. Tell me a
Speaker 4: little bit about your big money goals. What are you
Speaker 4: currently working towards.
Speaker 2: I actually had to write this down because the last year,
Speaker 2: with all the stress from the rental property, like, our
Speaker 2: money goals have changed so much, Like because I got
Speaker 2: to a point where I was like, my goal was
Speaker 2: to sell the property.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because you were like just done.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was just done. And I went to a
Speaker 2: financial advisor to crunch the numbers for me because I
Speaker 2: thought I was be at a loss. But then I
Speaker 2: wasn't happy with the financial advice because I wanted to
Speaker 2: see data. I wanted to see those datas so I
Speaker 2: could make that decision. So yeah, but moment our goal
Speaker 2: is to get the investment property into a condition where
Speaker 2: it just functions in the background and I can actually
Speaker 2: put the rent up to market value because I've kept
Speaker 2: it quite low because of the condition. I felt so bad.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I couldn't put the rent up and they're
Speaker 2: living in that state. I was like, not fair.
Speaker 4: But that's really nice of you to not absolutely take
Speaker 4: the mickey, because I feel like a lot of landlords
Speaker 4: at this point in time are just going, well, market's
Speaker 4: paying this, either pay it or ship out. Someone else
Speaker 4: will pay the rent. And I feel like that's a
Speaker 4: really awful way to do things. But why did you
Speaker 4: do that? Is that just your morals and your ethics
Speaker 4: or where does this come from.
Speaker 2: I started renting myself around the same time these issues
Speaker 2: came up, and I even just asked for like a
Speaker 2: fly screen door, like just can I please have a
Speaker 2: fly screen on the front door, And they said no,
Speaker 2: and I like that would have cost them like thirty dollars.
Speaker 2: So and they kept bumping the rent up on us.
Speaker 2: Hence why we now live with the in laws, because
Speaker 2: every they kept bumping it up and I kept going
Speaker 2: back saying no, I will accept CPI increase and they
Speaker 2: match that. But it's just I thought it was unfair.
Speaker 2: So how can I put higher rent on them if
Speaker 2: they're in poor living conditions?
Speaker 4: So you just have your head screwed on. I like that.
Speaker 4: Tell me a bit more. You mentioned that one of
Speaker 4: the things that was getting in the way of your
Speaker 4: money goals was your rental property issues. Tell me a
Speaker 4: bit more about that. When did they start to come
Speaker 4: to fruition, Like did you purchase Obviously, when you purchase,
Speaker 4: hopefully you had a good solicitor that took you through
Speaker 4: like here's the strata, this is what it's going to cost,
Speaker 4: this is what it means. Here are any potential issues.
Speaker 4: But when did it become a massive issue for you?
Speaker 4: And yeah, tell me a bit more about that, because
Speaker 4: that's one of the like I don't want to say
Speaker 4: horror stories, but it's one of the things that if
Speaker 4: you're purchasing property, you just don't want to run into
Speaker 4: that issue.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and when I did purchase the property with my fiance,
Speaker 2: I grilled everything, so it's definitely taught me learning curve.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I recognized it when like I didn't have
Speaker 2: any communication or any issues for two years, so I
Speaker 2: just fought things for good. And then I noticed on
Speaker 2: one of the inspections at the bathroom looked like there
Speaker 2: was a bit of mold, and I just emailed and
Speaker 2: was like, hey, like, can you send me some more
Speaker 2: photos If that's mold, I would like to get a
Speaker 2: builder in and get things sorted, like can you arrange
Speaker 2: an inspection? And a response back it was just oh,
Speaker 2: you could just tell it was going to go downhill.
Speaker 2: It was like there's been a leak, our builders onto it.
Speaker 2: Don't worry about it.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, that's not what I asked.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I got the property manager and was like, look
Speaker 2: like that's great, thank you for being on top of it,
Speaker 2: but like, I still want to do an inspection. When
Speaker 2: did the league happen? It was six months ago. They
Speaker 2: didn't tell me. Yeah, and as soon as that happened,
Speaker 2: I was like, shit, here we go. So I kept
Speaker 2: pushing for an inspection. And it took about a couple
Speaker 2: of months and I finally got to like go in
Speaker 2: and have a look, and oh, it was like the
Speaker 2: most a fighting day because like if I sold the
Speaker 2: house on the spot that inspect I potentially would have
Speaker 2: had to drop the pice by like twenty thirty k
Speaker 2: because of the amount of work that was needed. And
Speaker 2: it was so defining considering I work so hard, Like
Speaker 2: at one point I had five jobs, Like there was
Speaker 2: even points where.
Speaker 4: I had two jobs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I was like, I was so determined to
Speaker 2: get this house.
Speaker 4: No, I love that so much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I was like, this is so defining.
Speaker 4: And to not be told You're like, I'm literally paying
Speaker 4: you to be in communication with me and you're not.
Speaker 4: So what happened then? Obviously there was mold and it
Speaker 4: was identified.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was so many things, Like I knew I
Speaker 2: purchased a house with an issue in the bedroom and
Speaker 2: the issue had grown. No one told me the balcony
Speaker 2: flooded the living room. There's so many issues. So from there,
Speaker 2: like I tried to build a relationship with the tenants.
Speaker 2: Once the real estate left. He kept trying to avoid
Speaker 2: me talking to.
Speaker 4: Them, so of course they do I was.
Speaker 2: Like, you're kidding. So I gave him my email address
Speaker 2: and I'm like blind see see me and everything, like,
Speaker 2: I'm going to try and track things from here. They
Speaker 2: don't get along with the real estate. They don't report
Speaker 2: things to the real estate because they had a lot
Speaker 2: of issues, so things weren't getting reported.
Speaker 4: A lack of communication ends up ruining everything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I was like, just tell me. So I
Speaker 2: did a whole page of works and I sat down
Speaker 2: with the property manager and said, look, draw a line
Speaker 2: in the sand. Whatever's history, I don't care, like it
Speaker 2: needs to be brought up to a good condition. This
Speaker 2: is my list of things to do. So many times
Speaker 2: I followed up for months. For every two weeks I
Speaker 2: called them, I kept trying to follow through, and I
Speaker 2: never got a response. I rocked up there. I've had
Speaker 2: meetings with the strata manager and she said, yeah, we'll
Speaker 2: get things sorted.
Speaker 4: And they're not doing it. Still.
Speaker 2: No. Well, they did go in and fix the bedroom,
Speaker 2: but they were meant to fix the balcony at the
Speaker 2: same time. And for a year straight, they kept telling
Speaker 2: me that it's being fixed. They're like, it's been fixed,
Speaker 2: it's been fixed. I'm like, showed me the invoice. I
Speaker 2: want to see the invoice. They never sent me the invoice.
Speaker 2: I put motions down, I phone called, emailed everything for
Speaker 2: a year, and then I got I had enough. The
Speaker 2: balcony flooded. I put five grand worth of electrical through
Speaker 2: that property, and all the water I went through my
Speaker 2: new electrical and I lost it. I was so angry.
Speaker 2: I called them and I was like, you promised me.
Speaker 4: Did they ever have to pay for that? Because to me,
Speaker 4: that just seems like negligence and that's not your responsibility,
Speaker 4: and I mean that becomes quite complicated, But what did
Speaker 4: you do well?
Speaker 2: When I called her, she was kind of like gaslighting
Speaker 2: me a little bit because she said it had been
Speaker 2: done and like send me the invoice on the phone
Speaker 2: and it didn't have anything for the balcony. And she's like, oh,
Speaker 2: call my contractor. I was like, you can call me
Speaker 2: back in an hour with an answer. Please. If not,
Speaker 2: I'm going to fair trading.
Speaker 4: You're a savage, you're on the job. You can work
Speaker 4: for me. Like, I don't know what you'll do, and
Speaker 4: I don't have these issues, but like I just know
Speaker 4: that I want you on my team. If I've got
Speaker 4: an issue. I'm calling you, You're going to fix it.
Speaker 2: I got to that point because I was so stressed,
Speaker 2: and I was like, I've given you two years to
Speaker 2: actually come to the party, and I tried to be
Speaker 2: nice and support you and like just work together, and
Speaker 2: you just threw it in my face. So yeah, I
Speaker 2: started to become a bit savvy.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Good, you have to be, especially when they're literally
Speaker 4: walking all over you. So what happened? I know that
Speaker 4: they ended up getting the boot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they called me back and said I was right,
Speaker 2: and I was.
Speaker 4: Like, okay, wow, what a coincidence.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I was like, thank you for finally listening. So
Speaker 2: after that phone call, Yeah, that was a line in
Speaker 2: the sand for me, I was like I'm done. I
Speaker 2: went and got a new property manager. But obviously changing
Speaker 2: the strata is quite hard because you have to go
Speaker 2: through the right process and get everyone to agree.
Speaker 4: With your house. How many different owners are there in
Speaker 4: your strata?
Speaker 2: Thankfully there's only six. I'm not in a massive unit.
Speaker 2: And it also is you think it's fifty percent of
Speaker 2: people at the meeting, you need fifty percent of that boat.
Speaker 2: So everyone at the meeting because half the people didn't
Speaker 2: show up. They agreed, so thankfully I had a relationship
Speaker 2: with them, and they also have similar issues that we
Speaker 2: could move forward to a new strata.
Speaker 4: I'm always so confused, like as somebody who has worked
Speaker 4: my butt off to get into my first property and
Speaker 4: you'd be the same. It blows my mind that you
Speaker 4: could organize a strata meeting and then people literally don't
Speaker 4: turn up. I'm like, this is like a property that
Speaker 4: you own, this is your wealth, Like why don't you care?
Speaker 4: Especially because I'm assuming that you well articulated to them
Speaker 4: why you needed the meeting and shared all the issues,
Speaker 4: like if they're issues in my house, but they're probably
Speaker 4: in yours as well, Like do you want this? Like
Speaker 4: we're spending money on this and you don't care, Like
Speaker 4: what in the wealth? Like how?
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's a common thing. And that's my tip.
Speaker 2: If you're having any issues in astrata, get your ass
Speaker 2: for the meeting, jump on the strata committee, like don't
Speaker 2: ignore it.
Speaker 4: Yeah one hundred percent. And I feel like saying I'm
Speaker 4: on the strata committee sounds really complicated, but it's not not. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's absolutely not all right, So tell me a bit more.
Speaker 4: You got somebody new you got all the issues sorted?
Speaker 4: How much did it cost you?
Speaker 2: Thankfully a lot of the issues fell back to strata,
Speaker 2: So at the moment, I haven't actually had to do
Speaker 2: that much of money out of my own pocket, but
Speaker 2: I do have around fifteen K estimated of renovations that
Speaker 2: I need to do now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And is that off the back of all the
Speaker 4: damage or is that you adding value to the property?
Speaker 2: All the painting in the carpet would be off the
Speaker 2: back of the damage, but everything else would be us
Speaker 2: adding value. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Okay, so not too bad. And I mean fresh carpets
Speaker 4: and stuff like that expensive, but it makes the apartment
Speaker 4: just feel so much more welcoming as well. So I
Speaker 4: mean there's probably a lot of value in doing that.
Speaker 4: So now all of that is there, there's fifteen grand
Speaker 4: worth of things that you probably need to spend on.
Speaker 4: Is that kind of your big money goal? Is that
Speaker 4: what you're saving for or where's that going to come from?
Speaker 4: How's that going to work?
Speaker 2: Well, I've already got that money in savings.
Speaker 4: Oh look at you go, otto worryve, I've already got
Speaker 4: it in savings. Okay.
Speaker 2: It's just also like if I'm worried because that is
Speaker 2: a big chunk of my savings. After the house, I'm
Speaker 2: just like, oh, what are we going to have left?
Speaker 4: But it's a bit like that right. Property can feel
Speaker 4: like an absolute money pit, and it's a massive goal
Speaker 4: for so many people in our community, and I totally
Speaker 4: get it. It was a massive goal for me as well.
Speaker 4: But you really need to weigh up what that could
Speaker 4: add to your financial burden. Like for us, we're exactly
Speaker 4: the same. Like we found out all the plumbing in
Speaker 4: the back of the house had literally been done DIY,
Speaker 4: like it all had to be replaced, and because it
Speaker 4: wasn't identified in the building and pest inspection, like, it
Speaker 4: wasn't something that I could weigh up like money diarist.
Speaker 4: When we removed the deck on the back of the house,
Speaker 4: their idea of plumbing was they had literally hit a
Speaker 4: hole into a storm water drain. Like I am pretty
Speaker 4: convinced they just did it with a hammer. They smashed
Speaker 4: a hole into the store water drain. It wasn't even cut,
Speaker 4: it was smashed, and that was how they were dealing
Speaker 4: with the drainage under the deck.
Speaker 2: I see all that at work too with compliance because
Speaker 2: of town planning. Yeah, and some of the stuff that
Speaker 2: they do is insane. So the whine when I bought
Speaker 2: this property, I checked everything.
Speaker 4: I was calling counsel, So you did everything and still
Speaker 4: got stooged.
Speaker 2: Oh no, this was my second property. I checked everything.
Speaker 2: The first property, the rental, I had no idea of stout.
Speaker 4: Okay, well, that makes me feel a little bit better
Speaker 4: that you didn't get absolutely screwed from the start. But
Speaker 4: it is really stressful, right like, and if you don't
Speaker 4: know what you're looking for, like you just don't know.
Speaker 4: And that's why paying the professionals can really help sometimes.
Speaker 4: Like I remember when we were first purchasing my house,
Speaker 4: we found this like three bedroom apartment and at the time,
Speaker 4: our budget only allowed for we thought maybe like a
Speaker 4: two bedroom, like I don't know, unit or something. So
Speaker 4: this three bedroom apartment seemed really lux and I was
Speaker 4: very excited about it until my solicitor was like, Victoria,
Speaker 4: have you read the minutes of the strata meetings? And
Speaker 4: I'm like, no, I didn't even know you could do that.
Speaker 4: And all of the cladding on the outside of that
Speaker 4: property was needing to be replaced because it was a
Speaker 4: fire hazard and it was going to cost like four
Speaker 4: hundred grand across all of the people that own the apartments,
Speaker 4: So in addition to us purchasing, it was very clear
Speaker 4: that there was probably fifty thousand dollars in addition that
Speaker 4: we would have needed to tip in at some point
Speaker 4: to replace the cladding. And I was like, I didn't
Speaker 4: even know that was a thing, Like, it's crazy to
Speaker 4: think that if we hadn't looked, we might have ended
Speaker 4: up in a situation which would have been financially crippling
Speaker 4: at the time, like it would have absolutely ruined us.
Speaker 4: I probably would have had to sell, Like that's not
Speaker 4: something that I would have had.
Speaker 2: And that's a very good point that you bring that up,
Speaker 2: because now in Sydney, a lot of my friends can
Speaker 2: only buy sort of apartments because that's in their price range.
Speaker 2: And if you don't look at the minutes and you
Speaker 2: don't chat with your solucidar and go into that detail,
Speaker 2: you could be in a situation like that. Because I
Speaker 2: have a friend who's currently in that situation. That's a
Speaker 2: really good point.
Speaker 4: And there are probably people listening to this going what
Speaker 4: are you talking about? But if your apartment building or
Speaker 4: the apartment building that you're looking at has a strata
Speaker 4: or a body corporate. They're going to have meetings and
Speaker 4: they might have them quarterly or every year, but you
Speaker 4: will have access to the meeting minutes, so the notes
Speaker 4: from the meetings to see what they were talking about,
Speaker 4: and then you can see if there are any issues
Speaker 4: from that, because if I was in a strata, you
Speaker 4: know what I'm bringing up in the meeting, the issues
Speaker 4: I have.
Speaker 2: And if you get to a point where you say
Speaker 2: you've already purchased it and you don't know where to
Speaker 2: go from there, like fair Trading has been very helpful
Speaker 2: and they have a lot of information and you can
Speaker 2: have a chat with them about your issues. So yeah,
Speaker 2: if you do get to a point where you have
Speaker 2: purchased in I did lean on Fair Training.
Speaker 4: Good because that's what they're there for.
Speaker 2: The only thing is but if you put a complaint in.
Speaker 2: They're there to protect the strata. They're not there to
Speaker 2: advertise the issues. So it's very hard to determine which strata.
Speaker 4: That's so stressful. All right, money dires, let's go to
Speaker 4: a really quick break on the flip side. I want
Speaker 4: to ask you a few more questions because you said, no,
Speaker 4: that was my first property and I was like, excuse me, okay, baller,
Speaker 4: I want to talk about investments and debt and your
Speaker 4: best and worst money habits, So guys, don't go anywhere money,
Speaker 4: diarist do. We are back and we have been talking
Speaker 4: about strata, which has been honestly really interesting for me
Speaker 4: but probably eye opening for a lot of people who
Speaker 4: probably didn't realize how much control you can still have
Speaker 4: while being in a strata. You mentioned before nov that
Speaker 4: was with my first property. The next question I've got
Speaker 4: is do you have any investments? My friend? How many
Speaker 4: houses do you have?
Speaker 2: So with houses, we just successfully got our second house. Congrats,
Speaker 2: So I avoided strata at like, I did not go
Speaker 2: get anything with strata. So yeah, we are in settlement
Speaker 2: at the moment.
Speaker 4: Oh, how exciting. Tell me So this first property, did
Speaker 4: you buy that on your own?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So my first property was on my own. I
Speaker 2: actually do give credit to my mother because she did
Speaker 2: help me a lot with that. A lot of people
Speaker 2: didn't take me seriously twenty two year old like trying
Speaker 2: to get a house. So I do give her a
Speaker 2: lot of credit. So she did help with guaranteal as well.
Speaker 2: And then after a year or two and I had
Speaker 2: better finances. I refinanced to get her offt alone.
Speaker 4: How good is that though, that after two years you
Speaker 4: got to get rid of her as a guaranteur, Like
Speaker 4: I feel like so many times when you're speaking about guarantees,
Speaker 4: you think it's going to be for the life of
Speaker 4: the loan. But why did it free up? Did you
Speaker 4: pay off enough or did the property price change? Like
Speaker 4: did you end up with some more equity?
Speaker 2: How I did try and do as much as possible
Speaker 2: in that first two years towards the principle. I did
Speaker 2: get a bit of a pay increase as well, and
Speaker 2: with the second job it helped me with a lot
Speaker 2: of the bills that I would have originally taken from savings,
Speaker 2: so I could get a bit of a chunk of
Speaker 2: savings as well. So all my fine answers were a
Speaker 2: little bit better than the first assessment of my life
Speaker 2: with it for the loan, so that helped, and I
Speaker 2: was able to get them off. And it was also
Speaker 2: very low interest rates at the time. I think I
Speaker 2: refinanced and it was about two percent.
Speaker 4: Okay, nice for some that sunheard of in this day
Speaker 4: and age. Yes, yeah, So tell me a little bit
Speaker 4: more about that first property. I'm really pervy. How much
Speaker 4: did it cost? I know you had a guarantee, but like,
Speaker 4: how much did you have to save? How much did
Speaker 4: it cost? What was it worth? What's it worth now?
Speaker 4: Like I need all the juicy dats, like the babe
Speaker 4: this is anonymous, Like I want to know all the
Speaker 4: details that would be inappropriate to ask you if we're
Speaker 4: at dinner together.
Speaker 2: No, that's fine. So the first property, the rental, it
Speaker 2: was four and a half and I had forty five
Speaker 2: K savings already for the deposit. My parents were guarantel
Speaker 2: for around about ninety K to help me with that,
Speaker 2: so I ended up getting the full loan. It's currently been.
Speaker 2: I had to do a reevaluation for the next property.
Speaker 2: It's currently sitting at five seventy five or something.
Speaker 4: Oh how good is that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So, and I think I've only had it for
Speaker 2: about six years and it's gone up. So it's not
Speaker 2: like obviously as much as the house. And it's a
Speaker 2: little bit different to a unit because it's actually the townhouse.
Speaker 2: It's like a juplex, so that has affected the value
Speaker 2: a little bit. But anything up is better than nothing.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, that's a lot up, Like yeah. I always
Speaker 4: say like in this economy, but literally, in this economy,
Speaker 4: for it to have gone from four point fifty to
Speaker 4: five seventy five, like that is very nice because, as
Speaker 4: you guys know, I run a mortgage broking business, sealer money,
Speaker 4: and we talk every day with people about buying property,
Speaker 4: and we really have to dispel this idea that property
Speaker 4: is going to work the same way that it did
Speaker 4: for your parents. So like when my parents had the
Speaker 4: ability to purchase, it wasn't unheard of to have a
Speaker 4: property that you purchase and then twenty years later it
Speaker 4: goes from being worth like fifty grand to like four meal.
Speaker 4: That's obviously a little bit sensationalized. Like that was quite
Speaker 4: you know, you would believe it that stuff did happen.
Speaker 4: It doesn't happen anymore because our economy can't sustain it.
Speaker 4: But to see a property go up a couple of
Speaker 4: hundred grand, yes, please, Like I'm quite happy with that
Speaker 4: for you.
Speaker 2: When I got the reevaluation, I was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: because I was working off the previous one and that's
Speaker 2: where I was like, I met a financial loss.
Speaker 4: But when I saw your oh my god, yeah exactly,
Speaker 4: And that's you creating wealth for yourself. Okay, so you
Speaker 4: did that on your own obviously had your mum. That's
Speaker 4: really good. But you have a fiance, is that who
Speaker 4: you've just purchased your second property with. Tell me about
Speaker 4: this purchase.
Speaker 2: This purchase is out of Sydney because obviously the market
Speaker 2: is bit better. I went looking with him for a
Speaker 2: couple months at the time, did go looking for a house,
Speaker 2: came back with a ring, and then three weeks later
Speaker 2: I went up again and then found the house so
Speaker 2: very nice. Yes, we purchased together. In regards to the
Speaker 2: financials that we use for that, obviously my equity or
Speaker 2: my financials were tied up in an asset compared to
Speaker 2: my partner who was tied up in cash and savings.
Speaker 2: So we had both different financial situations. So when we
Speaker 2: were going for the loan, it was his money for
Speaker 2: the deposit and then I did everything else and I
Speaker 2: had the equity to sort of counteract that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and a good broker would have been able to
Speaker 4: sit you down and go, well, this is what it's
Speaker 4: going to look like money direst and here are a
Speaker 4: few different options, and like talk through that. I think
Speaker 4: that so many people are like, oh, it's a bit complicated.
Speaker 4: Maybe we can't buy because we don't have a deposit.
Speaker 4: It's like we'll actually go and talk to someone about
Speaker 4: how that might work, because it can be a bit complicated,
Speaker 4: but a broker can sort it all out. So what
Speaker 4: did you purchase for?
Speaker 2: So we purchased for seven thirty.
Speaker 4: K oh, very nice? And what did you purchase for
Speaker 4: seven thirty? Is it a townhouse? Is it a house?
Speaker 4: Is it an apartment? I know it's not an apartment
Speaker 4: because you said no strata.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no strata. It's a standalone house. It's probably like
Speaker 2: three bedroom, two car Okay. It's on a quite generous
Speaker 2: block as well. Cold sacks, so we.
Speaker 4: Happyly the cold a sack?
Speaker 2: How beautiful And it's probably like five minutes walk from
Speaker 2: the beach.
Speaker 4: How good is that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? But it's a complete Rehno, like it hadn't been
Speaker 2: touched in thirty years. The tenants that are in there
Speaker 2: now have been there for that long. So okay, considering
Speaker 2: nothing's been done to it, I'm like, this is a
Speaker 2: perfect reno at the same time as we moving right
Speaker 2: now and it'll be perfectly fine.
Speaker 4: And is that the intention? Are you and your partner
Speaker 4: going to be moving into that property.
Speaker 2: We hope too. But first it'll be six months of
Speaker 2: reno's at the rental property, and then it'll be rennoing
Speaker 2: that new purchase and then hopefully it'll be moving up there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and so the plan is to is it still
Speaker 4: leased out for the interim to the same people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thankfully, because we didn't expect to get the house
Speaker 2: as quick as we did. We thought it would come
Speaker 2: towards the end of the year. So yeah, we're keeping
Speaker 2: them on for another six months and then when we're
Speaker 2: ready to switch to that house, we can do that
Speaker 2: in March. Yeah.
Speaker 4: How good? And have they been good about it? Obviously
Speaker 4: having lived there for so long, like they probably a
Speaker 4: bit attached. What did that look like? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I remember because I was the first one at the
Speaker 2: inspection and the lady wouldn't let the real estate in
Speaker 2: because she was so attached to the property. She didn't
Speaker 2: know there was an inspection too. I don't think that
Speaker 2: was communicated to her. And when I had a chat
Speaker 2: with the real estate I was like, oh, I didn't
Speaker 2: know if you wanted me to like interrupt or anything,
Speaker 2: and he was like, no, no, no, it's just they've
Speaker 2: been here for so long. They're very attached, which is
Speaker 2: which is fine. Like their grandkids go through there like that,
Speaker 2: you can tell they're very attached to the home.
Speaker 4: Oh, that's really sad at the same time as like
Speaker 4: being so sweet that they've looked after it. Like, oh,
Speaker 4: money diarist, tell me about debt. So obviously you purchased
Speaker 4: for four fifty. What do your mortgages look like now?
Speaker 4: And do you have any other debt?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So my other debt is a hextet of seven grand,
Speaker 2: but I estimated that would be gone by next financial
Speaker 2: year with the salary sacrifice. And then you've got my
Speaker 2: rental property, which is sitting around three ninety I think
Speaker 2: it is.
Speaker 4: Hey, that's pretty good on a five seventy five property.
Speaker 2: Okay, so I'm kind of glad that that's underneath the
Speaker 2: four hundred number. That was really good to see.
Speaker 4: Isn't it crazy that in our heads somehow that makes
Speaker 4: a lot of sense. We're like, oh, but it's under
Speaker 4: four hundred grand. It's like, well, where did you get
Speaker 4: that number from? And you're like, I don't know.
Speaker 2: It just feels good, Yeah, it just feels good, like
Speaker 2: you've dropped down it doesn't feel as big as it
Speaker 2: would if it's three nine nine, Like.
Speaker 4: It just exactly three ninet nine. That's astronomical. Three ninety Oh,
Speaker 4: that's that's doable. Yeah, And what about the second property,
Speaker 4: the second.
Speaker 2: Property, the I believe the loan would actually be a
Speaker 2: six ninety because of the deposit we put into it.
Speaker 2: So the loan isn't as the full price.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because your partner had cash, didn't they. Yeah, yeah, okay,
Speaker 4: so that makes a lot of sense. So it's just
Speaker 4: hex and property at the moment.
Speaker 2: Yes, we did pay off a car loan two, which
Speaker 2: is great before the house. So we've ticked that one
Speaker 2: off to already.
Speaker 4: And is this partner's first property. Yes, I lokey love
Speaker 4: that you were the one that got in first. You're like, oh,
Speaker 4: I look at how much I bring to this relationship.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, when I first started dating him, because I
Speaker 2: knew he had that savings there, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: like it was a little bit deflating, to be honest,
Speaker 2: because I knew mine my savings were wrapped up in
Speaker 2: an asset.
Speaker 4: What do you mean you've got assets that are creating wealth.
Speaker 4: I want to like go back and shake you and
Speaker 4: be like, I'm sorry, this dude just has cash, like, h.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it was sometimes where like because you had
Speaker 2: that financial behind you, especially during COVID, where you had
Speaker 2: like your job wasn't secure, like sometimes you did have
Speaker 2: that regret come through. Yeah, so it's hard to like
Speaker 2: shake that off with the imposter syndrome as well.
Speaker 4: Like I genuinely feel like women are the worst at this.
Speaker 4: They're like, oh, but it's not good enough. What like
Speaker 4: absolutely not? You were in absolute catch. Obviously you're engaged
Speaker 4: because you said in your letter in fiance, do you
Speaker 4: have wedding plans? If so, tell me about the finances, like,
Speaker 4: how are we funding a wedding in this economy? My friend?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well it only happened like potentially a month ago,
Speaker 2: so oh.
Speaker 4: My gosh, did that Actually that's so exciting.
Speaker 2: And then we got the house a couple of weeks later.
Speaker 4: So show me your ring, show me your ring. This
Speaker 4: is very important. Oh it's like a gorgeous gold band
Speaker 4: with an oval. You are living the dream, my friend.
Speaker 4: Did you have any say in what that was going
Speaker 4: to look like?
Speaker 2: No? I had no idea it was coming. I know,
Speaker 2: like I told my friends, I wanted an oval, but like, yeah,
Speaker 2: he did everything. He went out and picked it like
Speaker 2: I didn't have any So he did very well for
Speaker 2: himself because he doesn't usually plan a lot of things.
Speaker 2: So the fact that he planned this and then like
Speaker 2: the proposal and everything, I'm.
Speaker 4: I'm surprised you. How did he propose? We need to know.
Speaker 2: Well, we went looking for houses and afterwards, after we
Speaker 2: finished the whole day of looking at like ten different houses,
Speaker 2: we went to like a lookout and he asked me
Speaker 2: at the lookout.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, why is that so wholesome? There's something
Speaker 4: about like simple but well thought through proposal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we'll think it was like he's like, well,
Speaker 2: if we're buying something for the rest of our lives,
Speaker 2: might as well have like a ring. So oh good.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 4: So have you spoken about weddings.
Speaker 2: We've spoken about like a location, but considering the house
Speaker 2: and the stress, like I didn't realize how insane settlement
Speaker 2: and stuff were. I haven't really had time to like
Speaker 2: really pick a date or look at anything.
Speaker 4: Ah. That is so fair, especially because you've only engaged
Speaker 4: for a month, Like you have so much time. Money arsed,
Speaker 4: What do you think your best money habit is.
Speaker 2: I kind of have too, considering I was brought up
Speaker 2: with only thinking about like needs and wants and being
Speaker 2: able to split that into two separate categories. I usually
Speaker 2: only buy things that I need and like maybe like
Speaker 2: once a season or something like winter or summer, I'll
Speaker 2: go out and buy things that I want, like with clothing.
Speaker 2: I don't care about brands and all that sort of stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm pretty good at sticking to what I need and
Speaker 2: making a list of what I want and then figuring
Speaker 2: out which one I'm going to do first. But the
Speaker 2: main money habit that I have been doing since I
Speaker 2: was young was my employer splits my pay up for
Speaker 2: me and it goes into four separate accounts like what
Speaker 2: saving spending, and a house account. So when I get
Speaker 2: my pay I only see two hundred and fifty dollars,
Speaker 2: which is my spending, and in my mind, I'm only
Speaker 2: getting paid two hundred and fifty dollars, even though in
Speaker 2: the background the money is going elsewhere already.
Speaker 4: So your employee lets you set it up that they
Speaker 4: pay into like four separate accounts for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because they have a fancy system, it allows you
Speaker 2: to do that. But my partner just does the automatic transfers,
Speaker 2: so you can do that as well with your own bank.
Speaker 4: How good, So you don't even see it, and then
Speaker 4: you've worked out in your like little budget and cash
Speaker 4: flow system that two hundred and fifty dollars is it
Speaker 4: a month a week?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 4: How often is that on week?
Speaker 2: And it's just that's the leftover after all my things
Speaker 2: are dimmed up.
Speaker 4: And what do you spend that two fifty on? Is
Speaker 4: that like your fun money or is that like groceries
Speaker 4: or what does that look like?
Speaker 2: I think that's just a bit more fun money. It's
Speaker 2: just like if I ever want like a coffee during
Speaker 2: the week or something like that, or if I go
Speaker 2: out on the weekend, I use that money and if
Speaker 2: there's anything left over, I just turned for it to
Speaker 2: my savings and start from two point fifty again.
Speaker 4: So that's yeah, I feel like that's such a It's
Speaker 4: very similar to my money masterclass, which you've probably seen online,
Speaker 4: but I talk about that fund being your food, fuel
Speaker 4: and fun so like anything that you tap your card for,
Speaker 4: like you know, if you're getting petrol, you're getting a
Speaker 4: coffee or you know, for me, I used to play netball,
Speaker 4: so like that amount of money would go into there,
Speaker 4: and every single Thursday, I would direct debitit to that account,
Speaker 4: and then on that same Thursday, before it transferred, I
Speaker 4: go in and get rid of the excess and be like, okay, cool,
Speaker 4: starting clean. And I feel like it's such a good
Speaker 4: budgeting hack because in the back of my head I
Speaker 4: always knew, all right, Thursday Friday, and I had it
Speaker 4: on a Thursday because I knew that the weekend was
Speaker 4: my busiest time. I'm like, all right, so Thursday, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna have new cash. Like in my head, I'm like,
Speaker 4: it's new cash, and so if I wanted to go
Speaker 4: for brunch, I'd be like, oh, okay, that's probably you know,
Speaker 4: like fifty dollars or whatever it is. So like in
Speaker 4: my head, I'm like I can only do that once.
Speaker 4: And like budgeting with a smaller amount of money, do
Speaker 4: you feel that it takes the stress off? Because it
Speaker 4: did for me, Like I feel like I'm less stressed
Speaker 4: because all the other stuff is automated in the background.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it did a little bit. But then when it
Speaker 2: got to the point where like because I did have
Speaker 2: a bad relationship once with money, where like I bought
Speaker 2: a Kentiki trip, and I cried because it was a
Speaker 2: want and not a need, and it was the biggest
Speaker 2: payment I've ever done. And I remember I was so
Speaker 2: young at the time and I was so upset. So
Speaker 2: at one point it did get to a point where
Speaker 2: it's like, oh, I don't have any money, and I
Speaker 2: didn't want to tap into that savings, even though I
Speaker 2: knew I had a big chunk of savings. And I
Speaker 2: think it's because I had it on the house and
Speaker 2: I was taking it away from that dream and putting
Speaker 2: it to something else. So at a point it did.
Speaker 2: It was a little bit negative because I kept being like,
Speaker 2: I don't have any money, when really I do. But
Speaker 2: once those bills at the bill's account started telling up,
Speaker 2: like oh my god, it was so much easier when
Speaker 2: a bill came in, I can just pay it because
Speaker 2: I knew that I had at least a year of
Speaker 2: bill saved up. So it did take a weight off
Speaker 2: my shoulders.
Speaker 4: I feel like that's where people just assume that you
Speaker 4: must be really good at money, therefore it doesn't stress you.
Speaker 4: And that's where we need to do a lot of
Speaker 4: work around our money mindset and what that money is
Speaker 4: actually for and if it's for fun, it's for holidays,
Speaker 4: Like you've got to find a way to enable yourself
Speaker 4: to spend it. Otherwise we're going to just be stressed
Speaker 4: about money forever. Have you changed your mindset around that now?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So after my little travels, I did sort of
Speaker 2: get a different attitude where like, experiences and things that
Speaker 2: I want sometimes are worth it, and that even though
Speaker 2: it is a want and you don't need it, like,
Speaker 2: it's fine to spend that money if you're going to
Speaker 2: be happy. So like, for example, I moved out with
Speaker 2: my partner after COVID and we started renting, and everyone
Speaker 2: told me renting is dead money, but we are able
Speaker 2: to be together every day and that experience.
Speaker 4: See, I think it's a lifestyle choice. Rent money is
Speaker 4: not dead money. At the end of the day, You're
Speaker 4: going to have to pay in some way, shape or
Speaker 4: form to put a roof over your head. Like exactly,
Speaker 4: if you've got the privilege of living a home, fantastic,
Speaker 4: but like that's not something that everybody has. So whether
Speaker 4: you're paying cheap rent or expensive rent, that comes down
Speaker 4: to lifestyle costs and the lifestyle you want to lead.
Speaker 4: And I think that the idea that rent money is
Speaker 4: dead money. It's like, well, actually it's not. And that's
Speaker 4: actually a pretty entitled thing for people to think, because
Speaker 4: we all need to put a roof over.
Speaker 2: Our head exactly. And the experience of living with my
Speaker 2: partner when you just were in COVID and I couldn't
Speaker 2: see him for like six weeks straight, like it was
Speaker 2: a relief.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it would have been so stressful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was happy to pay for that like one
Speaker 2: hundred percent.
Speaker 4: All right, tell me, now, what do you think your
Speaker 4: worst money habit is.
Speaker 2: I think I overcomplicate things, Like even my brokers like
Speaker 2: you have too many bank accounts.
Speaker 4: So sit down, I'll do what I want.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I overcomplicate things. I look at things
Speaker 2: too much, or I go through the budget too much,
Speaker 2: and I read you the formula too much, especially when
Speaker 2: it comes to at the moment I'm trying to conjoin
Speaker 2: finances with my partner and it because I overthink everything,
Speaker 2: or I have so many bank accounts, it's actually making
Speaker 2: it more complicated than it should be. And I think
Speaker 2: I'm just going in a downward spiral. So yeah, and
Speaker 2: now that we've purchased everything with the house, I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm going to have to redo this again and that's
Speaker 2: like I don't want to, but I know I need to.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and how do you manage that at the moment?
Speaker 4: Are you're a spreadsheet early? Are you a back of
Speaker 4: the envelope girl? Is it all in your brain? Like
Speaker 4: how are you budgeting?
Speaker 2: I have a spreadsheet. I'm a massive spreadsheet pan So
Speaker 2: at the moment, I haven't got a budget spreadsheet updated,
Speaker 2: but I have a spreadsheet with every single bill that
Speaker 2: we've had in the past six weeks. Because our bills
Speaker 2: came at the same time.
Speaker 4: Oh how good? That would be so handy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like, when's the billed?
Speaker 1: You?
Speaker 2: What account are we going to pay from? Because we've
Speaker 2: got accounts everywhere and we're not joint yet, and who
Speaker 2: it's to just because all our bills came at the
Speaker 2: same time as we're paying everything for settlement.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's so stressful, it's so overwhelming. Hey, all right, well,
Speaker 4: I'm actually going to give you my money masterclass because
Speaker 4: in my money masterclass, there is a so there's a
Speaker 4: singles option, but then there's also a couple's option of
Speaker 4: how basically my husband and I manage money together, especially
Speaker 4: if you now have a mortgage and it really turbocharges
Speaker 4: the use of your offset to make sure that everything
Speaker 4: goes in and then out, and it will simplify everything
Speaker 4: for you so that you can kind of see your
Speaker 4: partner and then yours and then what is together, and
Speaker 4: it's all automated. So hopefully with that spreadsheet you've made
Speaker 4: with all your bills, you can then take all of
Speaker 4: those numbers, put them into my spreadsheet and then have
Speaker 4: a really clean outcome. And I think that my favorite
Speaker 4: part of this is you and I are already on
Speaker 4: the same page about having that food, fuel, and fun account,
Speaker 4: so like it's basically going to align to your values
Speaker 4: or ready. So I'm excited for you to look at it. Also,
Speaker 4: if you're a spreadsheet early, you're gonna think it's really esthetic.
Speaker 4: You're gonna be like, excuse me, what do you mean?
Speaker 4: It's all automatic. Like there's even like a debt tracker
Speaker 4: in there, so you put in your mortgage, you put
Speaker 4: in their interest rate and then will tell you how
Speaker 4: long it'll take for you to pay it off, and
Speaker 4: then you can like play around with, well, what would
Speaker 4: an additional ten dollars a week look like, and it'll
Speaker 4: show you how much time it cuts off, which obviously
Speaker 4: I'm really proud of. I don't know if you can
Speaker 4: hear it in my voice, but like, I think it's
Speaker 4: real cool.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, especially the fact that it's set
Speaker 2: up to be with an offset, because that's what we
Speaker 2: have too. We have the offset, so it might be
Speaker 2: like perfect that I start using that and then it
Speaker 2: rains me in.
Speaker 4: So it's obviously going to turbocharge it if you have
Speaker 4: an offset, but if you don't have an offset, it
Speaker 4: operates on a cash hub system to make sure that
Speaker 4: every single dollar that comes in is going to work
Speaker 4: as hard for you as you do. Free it because
Speaker 4: I just look at it and go, how many times
Speaker 4: do we just like lose money along the way, like
Speaker 4: small amounts that just all away. So it really simplifies
Speaker 4: it to make sure that you're capturing as much as possible.
Speaker 4: And instead of budgeting and I mean, I'm obviously a
Speaker 4: fan of this, but I think you'll like it, but
Speaker 4: instead of budgeting in terms of restricting yourself, it just
Speaker 4: shows you, hey, money, diarist, this is what you're spending.
Speaker 4: Are you okay with it? And you're going to go
Speaker 4: oh yeah, or oh, I actually want it to go
Speaker 4: somewhere else, Like it's not really about crucifying yourself, which
Speaker 4: I feel like in your money story you probably fall
Speaker 4: into doing really easily, which we don't want to do.
Speaker 4: We want to have a positive money mindset.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for that, and also might keep
Speaker 2: me in line and don't overcomplicate things like.
Speaker 4: Oh, I'm excited, and I mean you deserve it. You
Speaker 4: shared your whole money story with our community. That's the
Speaker 4: least I can do, money diarist before we go, you
Speaker 4: have just told me so much about your journey, Like
Speaker 4: you are so cool. You're not even thirty yet. You
Speaker 4: work in local council, you're doing town planning, You're earning
Speaker 4: twenty three grand a year in rental income that you
Speaker 4: set up when you're basically still a child for real,
Speaker 4: Like you negotiated and I mean you did say you
Speaker 4: had your mum's help, but like girl power, like she
Speaker 4: made sure that you're in the right position. You got
Speaker 4: this investment property, it was what four point fifty and
Speaker 4: now it's five seventy five? Are you joking? Like you
Speaker 4: are creating wealth for yourself, but at the start you're like, oh,
Speaker 4: I don't know, maybe I'm a Bee. And then you
Speaker 4: go on to say, I've just you know, bought my
Speaker 4: first house with my partner. I also have an investment property.
Speaker 4: That's what I brought to the relationship. Also, when I
Speaker 4: was talking to you about money goals and you were like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 4: I really want to like fix the house, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 4: how much do you have to save? You're like, oh,
Speaker 4: I actually already have that in savings. I was like, what, Like,
Speaker 4: you already have that cash sitting to the side, and
Speaker 4: you're so clear about like other debts. You're like, oh,
Speaker 4: I've got the mortgages, but also the only other debt
Speaker 4: I've got its hex. Yeah, there's only seven grand, and
Speaker 4: I already know in my head that that seven grand
Speaker 4: next financial year is going to go what like B
Speaker 4: for real money, direst Do you actually think you're a bee?
Speaker 4: Because I think there are going to be a lot
Speaker 4: of people listening going is a bit du lulu.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I did think about maybe like a B
Speaker 2: plus because I know that having two homes before thirty
Speaker 2: in this climate is insane.
Speaker 4: It's really cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like you probably won't hear that from a lot
Speaker 2: of people, So I definitely know, like that's insane, but
Speaker 2: I always think like there's more to learn, there's more
Speaker 2: to improve on. So that's where that A would be. Like,
Speaker 2: there's so many things I can do, like between like
Speaker 2: learning stocks or getting to a position where I can
Speaker 2: put extra payments into my super or my homelan, like,
Speaker 2: those things are things that I feel like would get
Speaker 2: me to an A.
Speaker 4: But they're all completely doable, which is kind of cool.
Speaker 4: So that I feel like there's a lot more about
Speaker 4: money mindset than you going oh, I have a lot
Speaker 4: of work to do. It's more around going oh, I
Speaker 4: actually need to sit down with a spreadsheet and work
Speaker 4: out what additional mortgage payments I could have or what
Speaker 4: amount of money I have for investment if that's in
Speaker 4: line with my goals and value. So like that's so doable.
Speaker 4: The next time I talk to you, you're gonna be
Speaker 4: like the I'm basically an A, and I'll be like
Speaker 4: I know I already.
Speaker 2: Hopefully by the next time I talk to you, my
Speaker 2: houseland's a bit lower, and then I'll definitely be like
Speaker 2: an APAs.
Speaker 4: Yeah, one hundred percent, all right, money dove, Sadly, that
Speaker 4: is all we have time for today. It has been
Speaker 4: a pleasure. I have loved talking to you. My favorite
Speaker 4: thing ever is just talking to people about their journeys
Speaker 4: and going, how on earth have you done that? Like
Speaker 4: at the end of the day, like ninety five grand
Speaker 4: really great salary. But also i'd say, in our community
Speaker 4: a relatively common one, so lots of people are going
Speaker 4: to be like, hold up, how did she do this?
Speaker 4: And it's actually just hard work. Like at the end
Speaker 4: of the day, it's no magic. It's no like, oh
Speaker 4: I got given you know, a big deposit or a
Speaker 4: big inheritance, Like no, you actually just had to work
Speaker 4: really hard, and now it's paying off because it's been
Speaker 4: what six years, and now it's paying for itself. How good?
Speaker 2: I know. It's just bigger and better from here.
Speaker 4: I love it. Well, Thank you so much. I've adored
Speaker 4: learning more about you, and I just know that the
Speaker 4: community has to so it has been a pleasure, and
Speaker 4: I hope that we get to cross paths in person
Speaker 4: at some point.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, and thank you for having me on.
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