Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before
Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Speaker 4: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
Speaker 4: for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another
Speaker 4: one of our money diaries where we get to talk
Speaker 4: to one of our incredible Shees on the Money community
Speaker 4: members all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it, though,
Speaker 4: because this week we got a message and it went
Speaker 4: a little bit like this. Eighteen months ago, my partner
Speaker 4: was in an accident and passed away at twenty eight.
Speaker 4: I'd just resigned from my job as a personal injury
Speaker 4: lawyer when he died and on top of my world imploding,
Speaker 4: my financial stress went through the roof. I'd luckily been
Speaker 4: on a good path financially for a few years before
Speaker 4: this happened with my emergency savings and had thirty thousand
Speaker 4: dollars saved. It took eight months for my income protection
Speaker 4: to set in, and I didn't have cover for psychological injury.
Speaker 4: I hope that by sharing my story I might help
Speaker 4: others in need. Money diarists, what, I don't want to
Speaker 4: call it a journey?
Speaker 2: What a situation?
Speaker 3: Yes, I as you say, zero out of ten? Record?
Speaker 4: No, no, not even zero, like negative ten out of ten?
Speaker 2: Like, oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. Thanks, are you?
Speaker 2: Are you doing okay?
Speaker 1: Now? Oh?
Speaker 3: That's it to be continued even okay? Is that a
Speaker 3: little hard?
Speaker 2: Do you know what?
Speaker 4: There's nothing to say that. That's just real shit. I'm sorry,
Speaker 4: money diarist. But without further ado, let's get into the
Speaker 4: money Diary and we're shaking it up this year. I'm
Speaker 4: going to ask you first, what grade would you give
Speaker 4: your money habits? If I forced you to give yourself
Speaker 4: a grade from A to F.
Speaker 3: We'd probably say a B. Maybe that's generous, But I'm
Speaker 3: going to say.
Speaker 2: A B I don't know.
Speaker 4: Let's have a chat and then we'll come back to
Speaker 4: that at the end of the f So money diarist,
Speaker 4: talk to me. I want to know a little bit
Speaker 4: about your money story.
Speaker 3: I grew up in a very low income household, and
Speaker 3: on top of that and all the challenges that that
Speaker 3: has for families in that situation, one of my parents
Speaker 3: I had a gambling and money spending a problem, which
Speaker 3: effectively meant that my other parent was really the sole
Speaker 3: income provider and also domestic provider, and that was quite stressful.
Speaker 3: They did their best with their resources to provide like
Speaker 3: what opportunities they could for us, and we're really grateful
Speaker 3: for what they were able to achieve. I actually do
Speaker 3: say that I am quite lucky in that situation. But
Speaker 3: it sort of made money a bit of a non
Speaker 3: topic in our house, Like it wasn't something that was
Speaker 3: discussed because it was only a discussed in the context
Speaker 3: of not having it and not being able to do
Speaker 3: certain things or you know, that other people were doing.
Speaker 3: I think also there was probably a bit of embarrassment
Speaker 3: or stigmatization around it, so it just wasn't something that
Speaker 3: was talked about it and Obviously, parents obviously don't want to
Speaker 3: talk about that stuff with their kids if they're in
Speaker 3: financial difficulty. Anyway, when I was in school, in high school,
Speaker 3: I got a job, a part time job, just to
Speaker 3: help supplement our household income. But even then there was
Speaker 3: no discussion about what it is actually meant to have
Speaker 3: a job and budget and saving and superannation all those things.
Speaker 3: And school didn't assist with that education at that time
Speaker 3: because I was in an OP class, and OP classes
Speaker 3: they you know, look at all complex maths, whereas the
Speaker 3: non OP classes they actually do deal with you know,
Speaker 3: money and vegeting, budgeting and you know things like that.
Speaker 3: So that was I was a little unhelpful. After school,
Speaker 3: I moved to go to university, I had to sport myself.
Speaker 3: I lived out of home, I had to move, And
Speaker 3: that was really where my money education started because it
Speaker 3: was the experience of having to live through, you know,
Speaker 3: providing for own utilities and and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 3: I was on central whilst working and working part time
Speaker 3: in studying but clive and often I was really just
Speaker 3: living week to week. If I did have a little
Speaker 3: bit of scrapper money that I could spare, I honestly
Speaker 3: would usually put that into my one of my parents.
Speaker 3: Disole provided parent their bank account because I knew that
Speaker 3: they were still struggling. But yeah, I did struggle week tweek.
Speaker 4: Like that's so wholesome that even though you were struggling,
Speaker 4: you were like, oh, even if I had some dollars free,
Speaker 4: I'm just going to give it to one of my parents.
Speaker 4: Like that's so wholesome and so thoughtful. You must be
Speaker 4: the kindest human ever.
Speaker 3: I don't know about that, but you know, the income
Speaker 3: the income provided parent worked really hard, and this was
Speaker 3: just my way of being able to help, word could.
Speaker 3: I then had a few negative experiences. I made the
Speaker 3: mistake that a lot of UNIE students do, and I
Speaker 3: got a credit card because you know, banks then just
Speaker 3: offer them to you anything can go step on for emergencies.
Speaker 3: But when you're leaving week to week, all of a
Speaker 3: sudden everything becomes an emergency, and all of a sudden
Speaker 3: that credit card gets away from you. And then I
Speaker 3: also took out a loan which I could not afford,
Speaker 3: and it was because of the insistence of the parent
Speaker 3: that had the spending problem. They sort of insisted that
Speaker 3: I get this loan out so that they could do
Speaker 3: something to surprise the other parent and or obviously lots
Speaker 3: of red flags and I said no, but they just
Speaker 3: sort of wore me down, and eventually I was like,
Speaker 3: you know, fine, I'll take out this loan. You know,
Speaker 3: they said they would pay it all back and paid
Speaker 3: back quickly, but that did not happen. And you know,
Speaker 3: as someone who was living week to week, all of
Speaker 3: a sudden, I was paying for a very high interest
Speaker 3: loan for a substantial amount of money. Could not afford it.
Speaker 3: We already had quite a complex relationship and that just
Speaker 3: completely destroyed it. And it took me about twelve months
Speaker 3: before I ended up going to speak to my other parent,
Speaker 3: letting them know what was going on and take possession
Speaker 3: of the thing that my other parent had used my
Speaker 3: money to buy. But I still had to pay up
Speaker 3: that loan. Eventually they were sort of able to assist. Eventually,
Speaker 3: you know, we got rid of that loan, but it
Speaker 3: took years. I spent a lot of money, a lot
Speaker 3: of stress. I had to go get counseling for it
Speaker 3: because I was just in a state so lesson learnt,
Speaker 3: so I didn't have a good run with money after university.
Speaker 3: I got my full time job, and I started on
Speaker 3: a wage of like seventy seven thousand dollars, So straight
Speaker 3: out of UNI, that's a really excellent I.
Speaker 4: Was gonna say, going from being on sentilink, coming from
Speaker 4: a lower income household, seventy seven grand, did you know
Speaker 4: what to do with it?
Speaker 3: Thought?
Speaker 5: I did, And I told myself I was going to
Speaker 5: be smart with that money, you know, I would, you know,
Speaker 5: let myself live in a better circumstance, but be really
Speaker 5: wise with that money.
Speaker 3: But look, it just gets away from you. And a
Speaker 3: couple of years in, as my wage had gone up,
Speaker 3: I sort of reflected back and realized, oh, my gosh,
Speaker 3: I had earned all this money, and you know, I
Speaker 3: actually didn't have much to show for it.
Speaker 2: Lifestyle creepy.
Speaker 3: I got your lifestyle creep for sure. And I guess
Speaker 3: because I had this bittersweet, reluctant, messy relationship with money,
Speaker 3: I had thought, well, yes I want to be better,
Speaker 3: and yes I want to educate myself with money. But
Speaker 3: I'd been almost too afraid to do those things at
Speaker 3: that point. So I actually hadn't set myself up very well.
Speaker 3: So I got myself together and fixed all of that,
Speaker 3: and at this point I did have the credit card
Speaker 3: on the loans. That was great. I actually did start saving.
Speaker 3: I was in a really good you know, for a
Speaker 3: few years, and it was actually in a really good position.
Speaker 3: But it does still make me quite sick to look
Speaker 3: back on those first three sort of years and understand,
Speaker 3: like the amount of money in that just vanished.
Speaker 4: No, we're not sick over it. We were learning, We
Speaker 4: were doing the best that we could.
Speaker 3: It was learning, but it's so bad, you know. I
Speaker 3: could have put myself in a much better financial position,
Speaker 3: but I didn't, and I've definitely learned from that mistake.
Speaker 3: I didn't buy things that were you know, I was
Speaker 3: really scared of buying big things that actually have meaning
Speaker 3: and I could maybe resell later. But I was absolutely
Speaker 3: happy to spend on friends and my co workers who
Speaker 3: earned less and buy them coffees and lunches and all
Speaker 3: those things, and all of a sudden the money disappears.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I got my situation together. I was lucky
Speaker 3: enough to meet my partner, and my partner is really
Speaker 3: financially mind and he loves talking about it, which is
Speaker 3: great because it wasn't a thing that I had anyone
Speaker 3: to speak to about before. He loved talking about all
Speaker 3: things money, and so we just had this really lots
Speaker 3: of discussions him. It just well to grow together.
Speaker 4: Did he grow up in a lower income household or
Speaker 4: like what was his money story?
Speaker 3: Like, I wouldn't say that it was a lower income household,
Speaker 3: but he was one of many children, and so you know,
Speaker 3: that has a lot of costs associated with having.
Speaker 4: Budget incomes into playing when you have multiple children.
Speaker 3: And I know his parents did have times when they
Speaker 3: had quite a lot of financial pressures, but generally speaking,
Speaker 3: they were quite ed. Their parents were quite educated how
Speaker 3: about money. His grandfather was quite educated about money, and
Speaker 3: so this sort of filtered down to him, and so
Speaker 3: he was varying with his money. He was very frugal.
Speaker 2: What a catch. Oh my gosh, Yes, she is on
Speaker 2: the money dream boat.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, definitely.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I was in a Leigan position and we were
Speaker 3: looking at buying a house because we were both earning
Speaker 3: over six figures. We both had decent savings. He also
Speaker 3: had quite a lot of investments that he at that
Speaker 3: time was ready to pull out and you know, just
Speaker 3: pay off a substantial part of the morgo you know, deposit.
Speaker 4: Upfront, and he was twenty eight and he's got investments,
Speaker 4: six week income.
Speaker 2: He was getting it done.
Speaker 3: And he had his own side hustle business as well,
Speaker 3: so sexy to be absolute king about. And I I
Speaker 3: wanted a career change at that point, so I resigned
Speaker 3: from my job at that time. But I wasn't concerned
Speaker 3: about that because in the work that I do in
Speaker 3: the industry I am, there's a lot of opportunities, So
Speaker 3: I wasn't too concerned about that. However, literally a couple
Speaker 3: of days after I finished it up there, he passed
Speaker 3: away in an accident. So all of a sudden, just
Speaker 3: a world imploded.
Speaker 4: And yeah, that is literally the worst thing in the
Speaker 4: entire world to happen. And I'm so sorry you went
Speaker 4: through that, Like, oh, I cannot begin to imagine. So
Speaker 4: I want to go back to, like, I guess, the
Speaker 4: money side of things. Obviously, you guys had a very
Speaker 4: similar attitude towards money. What were you working towards? So
Speaker 4: you said, I want to buy a house. You know,
Speaker 4: he had some investments. What did the bigger future, I
Speaker 4: guess look like at that point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we've been together for quite some years at
Speaker 3: this point, and we were both very financially stable. I
Speaker 3: guess at that point We've been talking about buying Hustle
Speaker 3: quite some time, but we were really at that point
Speaker 3: now where we wanted to make that step where the
Speaker 3: other circumstances in our life didn't need providing for. We
Speaker 3: were just ready to go. So our next step was
Speaker 3: looking at buying house. We were at the time of
Speaker 3: his passing actually in discussions with brokers. We were going
Speaker 3: out to see properties, were talking builders, all that sort
Speaker 3: of stuff. I had actually wanted to be slowed down
Speaker 3: by an extra couple of months. He was really really keen.
Speaker 2: You're a little bit more conservative, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Because I've always been really conscious of having an emergency fund.
Speaker 3: That actually he wasn't because he was like, well, I've
Speaker 3: got so much savings that's in effect, you know, includes
Speaker 3: my emergency, but I always have that separate kitty, and
Speaker 3: I sort of had said to him, look, I probably
Speaker 3: just want to wait three months just to make sure
Speaker 3: that that's exactly where I want it so that we
Speaker 3: can get it. So we were probably maybe like three
Speaker 3: months or so away from that, but otherwise, yeah, that
Speaker 3: was sort of a big goal. And then our sort
Speaker 3: of The second goal was just to continue our investment journey.
Speaker 3: So the house you buy we were going to live in,
Speaker 3: and then we wanted to build out sort of stocks
Speaker 3: and other sorts of things. I'm also really big on
Speaker 3: obviously building supernovation, so I was quite keen to continue
Speaker 3: to builop that as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, all right, So the next question on my list
Speaker 4: leads really well into the next thing I want to
Speaker 4: talk about about you, and that is what do you
Speaker 4: currently do for work and how much money do you earn?
Speaker 3: So currently, I actually have only just returned to work
Speaker 3: since my partner's passing. As I said, I had just
Speaker 3: finished up a job, so I didn't have someone to
Speaker 3: go back to and ease me back into work, and
Speaker 3: that is a real barrier to returning to work once
Speaker 3: you've lost someone or had a significant event. So I've
Speaker 3: only just started a new job at the beginning of
Speaker 3: this year.
Speaker 2: Congrats, thank you.
Speaker 3: I'm still adjusting to that. It's a new area of
Speaker 3: flaw at a community legal center. It is only part
Speaker 3: time because I'm easing myself into it as part of
Speaker 3: a sort of a grief and brievement process. Your brain
Speaker 3: just shuts down and I have a color neal appreciation
Speaker 3: for mothers who have baby brain because I never feel
Speaker 3: like it. I can actually relate to that because I
Speaker 3: have grief brain, and it is such a thing and
Speaker 3: it is ongoing. So I'm sort of easing my I've
Speaker 3: back in work. I'm working part time. It's three days
Speaker 3: a week. I'm only about seventeen hundred net a fortnite,
Speaker 3: which is about fifty three thousand gross a year. If
Speaker 3: I was working full time, that would be about just
Speaker 3: almost like it's over eighty eight thousand gross full time
Speaker 3: a year, but I'm obviously doing that in a limited
Speaker 3: capacity at the moment.
Speaker 4: Yeah, how good is it that you found a role
Speaker 4: I guess in a different what would you say, a
Speaker 4: different silo of law, so that you can still practice law,
Speaker 4: but maybe not in the space where you were.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and look, I don't know that going back into
Speaker 3: that space is an option for me now after what
Speaker 3: I've been through. But I had been considering maybe making
Speaker 3: a change anyway, but working at communityleague or centers just
Speaker 3: really fits with my value.
Speaker 2: So I'm very fortunate totally.
Speaker 4: I told you earlier that you're a super kind person,
Speaker 4: and then you told me, oh, and I spent all
Speaker 4: my money on paying for other people's lunches, and now
Speaker 4: you're telling me you're in community law, like you cannot
Speaker 4: change my mind on this, my friend, I guess it
Speaker 4: fits a little bit. I Oh, my gosh, all right,
Speaker 4: I want to know. So obviously the goalpost have changed significantly.
Speaker 4: And you said before you have grief brain, which sounds
Speaker 4: really frustrating because I'm sure you just want to be
Speaker 4: able to put that aside sometimes and just go to
Speaker 4: work normally and feel like you can just get stuff done.
Speaker 2: But I want to know.
Speaker 4: Have you thought about what your new big money goals
Speaker 4: are going to be?
Speaker 3: I have, but that's really difficult now because everything in
Speaker 3: my life has changed now, so the things that we
Speaker 3: could achieve before just not realistic anymore. But also I've
Speaker 3: changed as a person from this, so on top of
Speaker 3: not having finances to achieve those goals anymore, because my
Speaker 3: finances have significantly diminished over the last year and a half,
Speaker 3: I actually don't really know what my life is going
Speaker 3: to look like moving forward. I'm still working that out.
Speaker 3: I guess my main goal at the moment now that
Speaker 3: I return to work is replenishing my emergency find like
Speaker 3: that is my number one priority. That's always been really
Speaker 3: important to me. So that is definitely something that I
Speaker 3: really want to do. Well, I'm not entirely sure as
Speaker 3: the second step.
Speaker 4: That's okay though, That's why I said, have you thought
Speaker 4: about it not?
Speaker 3: What are Yeah? Maybe just making sure that I can
Speaker 3: after I sort of work myself into this job and
Speaker 3: I feel a bit more comfortable over time. Obviously at
Speaker 3: some point I would like to increase that to full time.
Speaker 3: So that's just a bit more of my longer journey
Speaker 3: in terms of my finances.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's good to know where you're at at the
Speaker 4: moment because sadly this story is going to be really
Speaker 4: relatable to a portion of our community. I want to
Speaker 4: know a little bit more though about You said before
Speaker 4: your finances diminished, you were a personal injury lawyer, and
Speaker 4: you said that you applied for income protection but you
Speaker 4: weren't covered for psychological injury. Obviously that can be a
Speaker 4: really big one, and in MySpace as an ex financial advisor,
Speaker 4: I'd always talk about IP making sure that we had
Speaker 4: cover for psych How did you find that out? And
Speaker 4: what is your journey around personal insurance seances and the
Speaker 4: necessity for them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm actually a huge advocate for this, and
Speaker 3: certainly after what has happened. But even before my partner's accident,
Speaker 3: I had thought that I'd had decent ish approach. So
Speaker 3: I made sure it's through my superannuation fund, which is
Speaker 3: not always the best place to get your personal insurances.
Speaker 3: But whilst I wanted to explore external personal insurances, I
Speaker 3: want to make sure that at least in the meantime
Speaker 3: I had sufficient through my superannuation. So I'd increase my
Speaker 3: life insurance policy to reflect my circumstances. I increase my
Speaker 3: total and permanent disability insurance. It's quite a significant amount.
Speaker 3: And then I actually did increase my income protection to
Speaker 3: reflect the wages that I've been earning over the last
Speaker 3: few years. So I did that actually got four months
Speaker 3: before my partner's accident. However, my super fund came back
Speaker 3: to me and said, hey, look, two years elo you
Speaker 3: had work stress, and work stress is actually not a diagnosis.
Speaker 3: I've had work stress brief period of time where.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I was a personal injury lawyer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and our team had been going through some changes
Speaker 3: at the time, and so we had a lot on
Speaker 3: our fate. So I'd been to the doctor and had
Speaker 3: like a couple of days off work, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 3: It was very minor, it was very short lived. But
Speaker 3: the super fun said, two years ago you had this,
Speaker 3: we want another year of clean psychological health again, keeping
Speaker 3: in mind that's work. Stress is not a diagnosis of depression,
Speaker 3: of PTSD or anything like that.
Speaker 2: No, it's not.
Speaker 4: It's I was putting my mental health first by even
Speaker 4: taking that step.
Speaker 3: That's right. I didn't think to challenge it at that
Speaker 3: time because I thought, all, everything's.
Speaker 2: Going great whatever. Yeah, nothing's going to happen in the
Speaker 2: next twelve months.
Speaker 3: Nothing's going to happen next twelve months, and you know
Speaker 3: that I'll be right as rain. Of course, a couple
Speaker 3: of months later, my partner passed away in an accident.
Speaker 3: When we applied for the income protection, they said, we
Speaker 3: will pay you your base rate, but we won't pay
Speaker 3: the rate that you've been paying because you have had
Speaker 3: a psychological history. We appealed that because obviously, and the
Speaker 3: depth of a partner is significantly different, and you know,
Speaker 3: realistically those protections that the Superannuation Fund and injuries have
Speaker 3: really that you know, shouldn't include exceptional circumstances like this.
Speaker 3: So we did appeal, but it wasn't successful and I
Speaker 3: could have gone to court about it, but it just
Speaker 3: didn't have the energy too. So instead of being paid
Speaker 3: at a rate that was like eighty five percent of
Speaker 3: my income, I was paid at about in my pocket
Speaker 3: twenty two hundred dollars a month. So it's not that
Speaker 3: much more than sent a link, to be honest. And
Speaker 3: you know, if we had bought a house, I would
Speaker 3: have been in very difficult circumstances. So I'm really disappointed
Speaker 3: that we didn't get that opportunity. It's really really sad
Speaker 3: for me.
Speaker 2: But financially it would have been awful.
Speaker 3: That's right. In the eight months before I got the
Speaker 3: income protection arabel, out of my emergency savings, which I'm
Speaker 3: so glad that I have, there's such a necessity. I
Speaker 3: did obviously have to change the way that I spent
Speaker 3: because I had to plan and my money over that time.
Speaker 3: I wasn't sure that I was going to get income protection.
Speaker 3: When I did, they back paid me that amount for
Speaker 3: the eight months, so that was good.
Speaker 2: That's helpful, but still not enough.
Speaker 3: That's still not enough, and income protection, my income protection
Speaker 3: is capped at two years, so I'm more than three
Speaker 3: calls away through that two years. Obviously, other people have
Speaker 3: circumstances where they're, you know, the injury they suffer, they
Speaker 3: might be out of work for longer than two years.
Speaker 3: So you know, I'm lucky that I've just returned to
Speaker 3: work so I'm within my time limit. But yeah, it's
Speaker 3: just not great.
Speaker 2: See, that's what breaks my heart.
Speaker 4: And as a financial advisor, I used to harp on
Speaker 4: about income protection not being good enough through your superannuation
Speaker 4: fund or obviously the exclusion is not great.
Speaker 3: And if I had a motivatal accident or if so,
Speaker 3: if I had a physical injury, I would be paid.
Speaker 3: I'd be getting paid the level that I'm currently paying
Speaker 3: my fees for. But because I am having a psychological injury,
Speaker 3: I don't get that benefit that I've been paying for.
Speaker 3: So that is pretty disappointing. I have to say, I
Speaker 3: was pretty disappointed in my fund and I am considering
Speaker 3: changing funds as a result of that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would too, my friend, I absolutely would be,
Speaker 4: especially if they declined to appeal given the circumstances. Can
Speaker 4: we talk a little bit about the income protection or
Speaker 4: the insurances that your partner might have had. Was he
Speaker 4: all sorted in that aspect or what did that look like?
Speaker 4: Because obviously twenty eight is so young. You just don't
Speaker 4: think that anything is going to happen, and you just
Speaker 4: don't prioritize those things most of the time.
Speaker 2: So what did that look like.
Speaker 3: Yes, so we had a lot of discussions about money
Speaker 3: all the time, and one of those things was also,
Speaker 3: we need to get a will, We need to write
Speaker 3: a will. But because we're young and we don't you know,
Speaker 3: we're quite risk adverse in our lives. We don't have
Speaker 3: any health issues, we thought, yeah, we'll get to it.
Speaker 3: It's not a necessity, you know, maybe when we buy
Speaker 3: a house or set all that. So at the time
Speaker 3: he passed, he didn't have a will, which has its
Speaker 3: own complications. His obviously income protexture was a role than
Speaker 3: if he'd survived. His TVD was not It was at
Speaker 3: the base level. If he survived, it would not have
Speaker 3: been enough to support him. His life insurance policy was
Speaker 3: just the standard through his super fund. We actually have
Speaker 3: the same super fun and it was very low. So
Speaker 3: the standard is that it's that default amount. It is
Speaker 3: quite low, you know, it is six figures, but it's
Speaker 3: not a lot.
Speaker 2: It's not a lot in the grand scheme of things.
Speaker 3: That's right. If we had a house, if we'd had children,
Speaker 3: it just would not have been enough. I'm not fortunate
Speaker 3: that we have missed out on those things at all.
Speaker 3: But it really makes me concern for other people who
Speaker 3: have a mortgage, who have children, who haven't got their
Speaker 3: personal insurances at least set up, because it means all
Speaker 3: the world, and it takes that pressure off you. And
Speaker 3: it's that security of knowing that if something happens, you've
Speaker 3: got that to fall back on, and it's appropriate. A
Speaker 3: lot of people have spoken to since my partner's accident
Speaker 3: because I'm now I'm so I feel so strongly about this.
Speaker 3: I talk to everyone I know about this, and more
Speaker 3: often than not, despite the fact that they are mortgages
Speaker 3: and partners and their narrative and they have children and
Speaker 3: sometimes multiple children and dogs and cats and all those things,
Speaker 3: they quite off and say, oh, I don't have a will,
Speaker 3: and actually I don't know if I having come protection.
Speaker 3: I don't know my life insurances, and I don't know
Speaker 3: what my TPD amount or tumoraw insurance is and I'm
Speaker 3: just it sort of makes my heart flutter and anxiety
Speaker 3: for them because the fact is, you know these things
Speaker 3: can happen to anyone, and you know it happened to us,
Speaker 3: so it really can just happen to anyone. I think
Speaker 3: people don't like to think about.
Speaker 2: It because it feels morbid.
Speaker 4: It feels gross to think about your own reality, right, like,
Speaker 4: no one wants to talk about it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's so important just to have that coverage.
Speaker 4: Yeah. No, I could not agree with you more in
Speaker 4: this space. Having worked in financial advice for a number
Speaker 4: of years before leaving, the amount of stories and you
Speaker 4: would have been the same in personal injury, like you
Speaker 4: would just see people go through these to refix circumstances.
Speaker 2: No one expects it.
Speaker 4: Nobody goes out one day expecting all the worst is
Speaker 4: going to happen today. I wish I had set my
Speaker 4: will up. I just think it's one of those things
Speaker 4: that we need to get done as a hygiene factor,
Speaker 4: because you touched on it before and you said, oh,
Speaker 4: that has its own set of issues. Not having a
Speaker 4: will in Australia means you have to go through the
Speaker 4: Supreme Court to access any assets that that individual had
Speaker 4: it's not, oh, it just defaults to the partner. That's
Speaker 4: not the case at all. It is a more than
Speaker 4: twelve month process, and if they then have any type
Speaker 4: of significant assets, it can take even longer. So I
Speaker 4: can't imagine what you have gone through.
Speaker 3: And with managing a stage without a will, it really
Speaker 3: becomes quite burdensome to the people that are left behind,
Speaker 3: who are already going through so much grief and trauma
Speaker 3: and financial difficulty of their own, to then have to
Speaker 3: find work out how to manage someone's a state without
Speaker 3: a will. Obviously, without a will, you don't have an executor.
Speaker 3: You have to apply for letters of administration and just
Speaker 3: do all these things and it's just so much more
Speaker 3: complicated than it needs to be. Yeah, highly recommend everyone
Speaker 3: get one.
Speaker 2: You do not have a will for you, You have
Speaker 2: a will for.
Speaker 4: Your friends and your family, Like, it's not actually an
Speaker 4: asset that you go, oh, I'm so glad I have
Speaker 4: my will for me. It's no, I'm so glad I
Speaker 4: have my will for my partner, for my friends, for
Speaker 4: my family that will have to go through this situation
Speaker 4: should the worst happen.
Speaker 3: That's right, and well, another part of this process is
Speaker 3: that there's something I just got along long as journey.
Speaker 3: Even if you have a will, you superannuation isn't covered
Speaker 3: in your will in most circumstances. And so you know,
Speaker 3: if you have your life insurance through superannuation, or if
Speaker 3: you have significant superannuation that you want to leave to
Speaker 3: your family, it's actually not covered. Even if you do
Speaker 3: have a will, the superannuation fund can it's our dair
Speaker 3: discretion as to who they give it to. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: that isn't it itself another really difficult process. So a
Speaker 3: lot of people aren't aware of that either, and that
Speaker 3: has its own challenges.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and if you nominate somebody who's not actually a
Speaker 4: quote legitimate beneficiary, they can decline it and it will
Speaker 4: have to then go through the state again. So yeah,
Speaker 4: have a chat to an estate planning lawyer if you're
Speaker 4: getting a little bit stressy about this conversation, have a
Speaker 4: chat to a good financial advisor about putting in place
Speaker 4: your wills and a state planning process is because it's essential.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, I have to say, you know, when you
Speaker 3: go through that process, I think we've put off because
Speaker 3: we think it's going to really hard. But once you
Speaker 3: sit down and you actually knock it out. You realize
Speaker 3: I've been stressing about that for no reason. You know,
Speaker 3: the right people will help you put all those things
Speaker 3: in face, and it actually brings you so much peace
Speaker 3: of mind.
Speaker 4: And it can actually be quite an empowering process to
Speaker 4: go through with your partner, as well as somebody who
Speaker 4: has done that with their partner. It sounds a little
Speaker 4: bit sappy, but to go. You know, if one day
Speaker 4: we have kids, who's going to look after those kids?
Speaker 4: And we have these wholesome conversations about our friends and
Speaker 4: our families, and I promise it's not the morbid conversation
Speaker 4: you think it's going to be.
Speaker 3: I actually think it really legitimizes us and validates your relationship.
Speaker 3: It's such a great.
Speaker 2: Feeling one hundred percent.
Speaker 4: I mean ex financial advisor and personal injury lawyer here, Like,
Speaker 4: we're probably not the best people to talk to this
Speaker 4: because we enjoy the process, but I just think it's
Speaker 4: so important. Or at Money direst let's go to a
Speaker 4: really quick break and then after that, I want to
Speaker 4: jump back into investments and debts and money habits that
Speaker 4: you have, So guys don't go anywhere, all right, Money
Speaker 4: Diarist tweet are back, and we just wrapped a very
Speaker 4: good chat about personal insurances and estate planning that I
Speaker 4: think if anyone is listening, needs to follow up. I'm
Speaker 4: actually going to put a whole heap of links in
Speaker 4: our show notes today so that you guys can put
Speaker 4: yourselves in the best possible positions. But money, darist, I
Speaker 4: want to know, do you have any investments currently? I do?
Speaker 3: And my partner was the reason for this.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I see king behavior. I told you he was
Speaker 4: a she's on the money dream guy was.
Speaker 3: I had always wanted to invest, but was a little
Speaker 3: bit afraid and I was worried that I wasn't diligent
Speaker 3: enough in my research. But he gave me the confidence
Speaker 3: to do this. So I do I have a little
Speaker 3: bit of money in cryptocurrency. Obviously it's a speculative asset.
Speaker 3: It was actually that that got me confident in having
Speaker 3: a crack at the investing in real stock.
Speaker 4: You were like, well, if I've got crypto, it can't
Speaker 4: get much worse, That's exactly it.
Speaker 3: And I, you know, in order to do that, I
Speaker 3: sort of used a cryptocurrency platform that was similar to rays,
Speaker 3: so it was sort of putting those little pennies in
Speaker 3: and watching it do his thing, and I realized, I'm like, oh, like,
Speaker 3: if I'm doing this, why am I not dealing with
Speaker 3: real money? So I then invested in ETF. So overall
Speaker 3: I have probably about maybe just over twenty seven thousand
Speaker 3: dollars in like EFTs and a little bit of the cryptocurrency.
Speaker 2: Yeah, airpiic that is a very good innings for your age.
Speaker 3: And my superannuation is about eighty thousand dollars, And during
Speaker 3: my time off work, I always made sure that a
Speaker 3: portion of my income protection I always allocated that to
Speaker 3: my superannuation. I con't contributed Oh my gosh, really yeah.
Speaker 3: It was really important for me that I had some control.
Speaker 3: You know, I didn't have a lot of control at
Speaker 3: that point. I didn't know where my life was going.
Speaker 3: But I wanted to invest in my future, and I
Speaker 3: didn't know how to do that with my current circumstances.
Speaker 3: So contributing to my renovation was a way that I
Speaker 3: was able to feel that and also contributing just a
Speaker 3: little bit of my income protection to my investments over
Speaker 3: that time gave me a little bit of a sense
Speaker 3: of control and building towards the future that I didn't
Speaker 3: know what would shape up to be.
Speaker 2: You don't know what's going to happen, but you know
Speaker 2: it's there and you know it's bright.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 4: Oh, that actually makes my heart so happy because obviously
Speaker 4: those things are small steps in the right direction, but
Speaker 4: really give you purpose and really help you get through
Speaker 4: a process that is not very nice. Money Diarist, we
Speaker 4: spoke about debt before that got taken out in your name,
Speaker 4: But do you have any other debts?
Speaker 3: No, just my hex debt. So the credit card's gone,
Speaker 3: the loan's gone, and my hextebt is at about thirty
Speaker 3: thousand dollars, so only good.
Speaker 4: Debt, only good debt and only thirty thousand dollars. And
Speaker 4: you're a lawyer, that is a good amount of debt
Speaker 4: to still have, Like, yeah, killing it money, darist, I
Speaker 4: want to know what would you think is your best money?
Speaker 3: Have it the emergency fund? Hands down? I just I
Speaker 3: claiming question that you know. I sort of went back
Speaker 3: and looked at my planning over the last few years
Speaker 3: and I always allocated it amount to an emergency fund.
Speaker 3: So for me, that was like having at least three
Speaker 3: to six months wages, you know, just in case something happened,
Speaker 3: I couldn't work or you know, sorry is now, I
Speaker 3: couldn't access income protection. On top of that, I also
Speaker 3: had like a little sub emergency account because I shouldn't
Speaker 3: have taken out private health insurance when I was earning
Speaker 3: really well, but I didn't, So you know, I always
Speaker 3: had majorre There's a little kitty there for if something
Speaker 3: came up for my health as well, that that was there.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Wow, I want to know where that habit came from,
Speaker 4: because obviously it's a great habit. Everyone should have an
Speaker 4: emergency fund. But earlier in the show, you told us
Speaker 4: that you came from a lower income household and one
Speaker 4: of your parents had an issue with gambling. That doesn't
Speaker 4: usually lead towards actually having an emergency fund, because in
Speaker 4: those circumstances, emergency funds usually get extinguished pretty quickly. So
Speaker 4: where did that habit come from? How did you know
Speaker 4: to do this for yourself?
Speaker 3: I think it was unconsciously because of my mystory. So
Speaker 3: when I did start earning well, I did start educating myself,
Speaker 3: and I just was always planning for the unknown. Having
Speaker 3: seen my family, I suppose be in situations where they
Speaker 3: were quite tight with them in difficult circumstances, their money.
Speaker 3: It just made sense. I never wanted to be in
Speaker 3: a position where if something happened, I didn't have something
Speaker 3: to fall back on. Yeah, it was just an unconscious
Speaker 3: behavior that obviously was founded in the background.
Speaker 4: I think, Yeah, wow, I kind of love asking people, well,
Speaker 4: how did you come to the conclusion of an emergency
Speaker 4: fund And it's either I was taught or it was
Speaker 4: I came out of a situation that I knew I
Speaker 4: didn't want to be in again, and that seemed like
Speaker 4: the only logical step.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think I was also subconsciously planning for you know,
Speaker 3: at some point I was going to have a house
Speaker 3: and if something happened in the future where I wouldn't
Speaker 3: be able to pay for a payment or you know whatever.
Speaker 3: But I did have a really good kitty of emergency
Speaker 3: funds so that I wasn't ever financially stressed. Financial stress
Speaker 3: is just the worst, and on top of all my
Speaker 3: grief and bereaement, being financially stressed over the last eighteen
Speaker 3: months it really has not helped the situation. So I
Speaker 3: just I've always wanted to alleviate that. Yeah, So I
Speaker 3: would say, hands down, my best money how it is
Speaker 3: always having an emergence of fun, and I wouldn't be
Speaker 3: able to get through the last eighteen months without.
Speaker 4: It one hundred percent. All right, let's flip it. What
Speaker 4: is your worst money have they?
Speaker 3: I think definitely spending on others. That's not my love language,
Speaker 3: but it's often the love language of the people that
Speaker 3: I know, so I spend for them. I spend as
Speaker 3: a way to say thank you to them, whether it's family, friends,
Speaker 3: my coworkers, and that tends to bear my money. It
Speaker 3: sort of flitters off to I think otherwise, though I
Speaker 3: probably stress about money too much. I think about money
Speaker 3: a lot. I stress about money a lot, and I
Speaker 3: really am disappointed that I spend a lot of energy
Speaker 3: thinking about the worst case scenarios because I would like
Speaker 3: to have a bit more of a healthier mindset about
Speaker 3: money and have a really positive attitude about money. But
Speaker 3: instead I do seem to tend to think about money
Speaker 3: and stress about money for maybe longer than it's probably helpful.
Speaker 4: It kind of makes sense in your circumstances, though my friend,
Speaker 4: like the story checks out. It's not a nice thing
Speaker 4: to go through, but I can see why money would
Speaker 4: put additional pressure on you at this point in time. Yes,
Speaker 4: all right, I'm going to quickly recap because I'm about
Speaker 4: to ask you what grade you would give your money
Speaker 4: habits again, because I want to see if after having
Speaker 4: this chat, they've changed. And what I've learned is that
Speaker 4: you've come from a low income household that did have
Speaker 4: the gambling addiction in it. You killed it coming out
Speaker 4: of UNI. You have an emergency fund. You always prioritize that.
Speaker 4: You told me you have a sub emergency fund. Like
Speaker 4: you don't just have an emergency fund. You've got a
Speaker 4: sub emergency fund, You've got investments. You're always thinking about
Speaker 4: the future. During literally the shittiest period of your life,
Speaker 4: you were still contributing to your super Who does that
Speaker 4: except a queen? So do you really still think you're
Speaker 4: a bee?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I do. I do think there's things I could have can't.
Speaker 3: I mean, I can improve things. I'm still a little
Speaker 3: bit afraid of some of the the risks, and I
Speaker 3: think I still have a bit of a negative mindset. Yeah,
Speaker 3: be hoping to one day B and A.
Speaker 4: You're going to be an A and GINO. What I
Speaker 4: think it has a lot to do with money, mindset
Speaker 4: and changing that and putting your space back into a
Speaker 4: space where you feel really, really in control, because I
Speaker 4: can tell that you don't feel that yet, but I
Speaker 4: can see that you're working towards it, and honestly, I
Speaker 4: am so proud of you.
Speaker 2: Like the idea that you're.
Speaker 4: Back at work this year, Like ah Queen behavior, I'm
Speaker 4: obsessed with you. Thank you so so much for sharing
Speaker 4: your story with us, and I know that our community
Speaker 4: is going to adore you just as much as I have.
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