Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud or
Speaker 1: the Order KERNI Whoaltbury 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: let's you be pervy about other people's money habits for
Speaker 4: educational purposes of course. Welcome back to another one of
Speaker 4: our moneydarries where we get to talk with one of
Speaker 4: our beautiful She's on the Money community members all about
Speaker 4: their money story. So let's jump straight into it, because
Speaker 4: this week I got a message and it founded exactly
Speaker 4: like this, Dear She's on the Money. For years, I
Speaker 4: was living the life I thought I wanted, working hard,
Speaker 4: enjoying the moment and never really thinking about the future.
Speaker 4: I thought, as long as the bills were paid, I
Speaker 4: was doing okay. But when I read my first finance
Speaker 4: book at forty five and started my financial literacy journey,
Speaker 4: I had a wake up call. All those little treats
Speaker 4: and luxuries I never thought twice about were adding up,
Speaker 4: and they weren't getting me any closer to real financial security.
Speaker 4: That realization changed everything. Now, at fifty five, my partner
Speaker 4: and I are debt free, living full time in our
Speaker 4: fully decked out caravan, and working intense periods of seasonal
Speaker 4: jobs so we can have the freedom to take four
Speaker 4: or five months off every year to travel. I'm proof
Speaker 4: that it's never too late to take control of your
Speaker 4: money and design a life you truly love money. Doris,
Speaker 4: this is genuinely so exciting to get you on the show.
Speaker 2: Thank you for wanting to share your story with us. Oh,
Speaker 2: thank you. It's actually very different hearing you read that back.
Speaker 2: I just sort of sat there typing when I submitted it.
Speaker 2: But when you hear someone read it back, it sounds
Speaker 2: very very exciting.
Speaker 4: It sounds so aspirational, and like so many of us
Speaker 4: don't realize that by documenting our own journey. We can
Speaker 4: see how far we've come, like you don't take the
Speaker 4: time to reflect on Actually I did something and it
Speaker 4: was really really cool, Like that is awesome. I adore it.
Speaker 4: Before we dive further in because I have a lot
Speaker 4: of questions. I want to know what grade would you
Speaker 4: give your money habits from A three to F. If
Speaker 4: I asked you to give them a.
Speaker 2: Grade, I would have to say, I'm always pretty hard
Speaker 2: on myself, So I'm going to go with a C.
Speaker 2: A C.
Speaker 4: Okay, all right, we're going to talk at it money diarist.
Speaker 4: I get to ask my favorite question now, and that
Speaker 4: is can you tell me a little bit more about
Speaker 4: your money story?
Speaker 2: Certainly so as I mentioned, like I'm fifty five now,
Speaker 2: So about ten years ago, everything was sweet, Like we
Speaker 2: were living. We had debt on our car and our
Speaker 2: caravan because we had sold everything else. Everything was fine,
Speaker 2: and I think it was it was really just like
Speaker 2: you're in routine, so you're in a rut, you're just living.
Speaker 2: We were never hard up for money, like we could
Speaker 2: afford anything. We had weekends away all the time. So
Speaker 2: our lifestyle and what we were doing was very good.
Speaker 2: It was only when I started thinking about it, and
Speaker 2: then when I read my first major book, I realized
Speaker 2: that I had never really thought about the long term.
Speaker 2: And then it sort of hit me how old I
Speaker 2: was getting at the time, and you know, like I
Speaker 2: really needed to think about where we want to be
Speaker 2: in ten years or what level of lifestyle we wanted
Speaker 2: in ten years time. So that started a big shift
Speaker 2: for me in learning about finance and just sort of
Speaker 2: grabbing onto it and running with it and starting to
Speaker 2: manage my money as opposed to just using my money.
Speaker 2: I suppose you could say it like.
Speaker 4: That and tell me a little bit more about just
Speaker 4: growing up around money. So is this something obviously you
Speaker 4: hadn't thought about it before you read your first finance
Speaker 4: book and changed your narrative, which.
Speaker 2: Is so cool.
Speaker 4: But before that, growing up was a just same easy,
Speaker 4: like hard What did that look like?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was never mentioned like with my family, it
Speaker 2: was never something spoken about my mom and dad. There's
Speaker 2: two things when I think about this, which I find
Speaker 2: quite funny now. I can remember growing up that we
Speaker 2: owned a small convenience store in a small country town
Speaker 2: and that's where my mum worked. So it was, you know,
Speaker 2: six to seven days a week and Dad was a
Speaker 2: a contractor, so he would do a heap of different stuff.
Speaker 2: But I always remember my dad never wanted for anything.
Speaker 2: If ever Dad went and got something, it was nearly
Speaker 2: like he had a money tree. There was never talk
Speaker 2: from mom about like, oh no, we can't afford that
Speaker 2: or anything. But Dad was open slaughter. If Dad wanted something,
Speaker 2: next minute, he just came home with it. And the
Speaker 2: older I got, I remember my dad always saying one
Speaker 2: thing to me, and he still says it to this day,
Speaker 2: is what you want and what you need are two
Speaker 2: totally different things. And I think that's probably the best
Speaker 2: bit of advice I've carried with me with regards to money,
Speaker 2: because I do often find myself thinking about that whenever
Speaker 2: I know I could just go to buy something, and
Speaker 2: next minute I'm thinking, oh, do I really want it?
Speaker 2: Or is it just that I needed. So that's probably
Speaker 2: the most important thing that has stuck with me. But
Speaker 2: with growing up as a child and then even in
Speaker 2: my early marriage, yes, with children of my own, it
Speaker 2: was really just a week by week thing. We were
Speaker 2: on good money. We could always pay the bills on
Speaker 2: time or ahead of time. We never struggled for anything.
Speaker 2: If the children needed new shoes. Then we just got it.
Speaker 2: You know. I never had to budget for anything, if
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. So it was more the
Speaker 2: fact that I didn't really at any point during those
Speaker 2: very early years, I just didn't give thought to the future.
Speaker 2: And that's the part that has stuck with me the most.
Speaker 4: And what was that like when you know, decided I'm
Speaker 4: going to pick up my first finance book.
Speaker 2: One, why did you do that? And two?
Speaker 4: How did you feel after you finished that? Because I
Speaker 4: feel like that could be relatively confronting.
Speaker 2: I did it because I worked with a much younger
Speaker 2: lady that I worked with in a very small office.
Speaker 2: She put me onto it, and it was purely because
Speaker 2: we were processing pays one day and people with new
Speaker 2: bank accounts. It was all through ing and that come
Speaker 2: up with the Barefoot Investor. Yeah, the wave of the
Speaker 2: Barefoot Investor. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's how I got onto it.
Speaker 2: And I think I was very excited reading it. And
Speaker 2: the thing I liked the most it was very down
Speaker 2: to earth and very basic to understand. There were you know,
Speaker 2: it was easy terminology in there as well. And for me,
Speaker 2: once I got the concept and I knew what I
Speaker 2: had to do. It actually felt really empowering because it
Speaker 2: felt like I was taking control of something that I
Speaker 2: sort of didn't really feel like I had control of before.
Speaker 2: I was just like on the Merry Go Round, riding
Speaker 2: round and round. Now I was in control of it
Speaker 2: a lot more and that was the part that really
Speaker 2: made me feel probably a lot more secure, knowing that
Speaker 2: I was now in control of my future.
Speaker 4: And I feel like that is really cool, Like it's
Speaker 4: really cool to have had that, I guess coming home
Speaker 4: moment of going actually life's good, but like it can't
Speaker 4: always be like this if I stopped working, like what
Speaker 4: am I actually going to do? And I feel like
Speaker 4: that can be I'm glad that it wasn't too confronting,
Speaker 4: but for some people be really scary because they realize
Speaker 4: that the lifestyle they have is completely unsustainable. And it
Speaker 4: sounds like you were living not a ridiculous lifestyle that
Speaker 4: you couldn't keep up with, but more there was just
Speaker 4: not a lot of thought for the future and what
Speaker 4: that looked like and the life you wanted to create
Speaker 4: for yourself. But it sounds like you've now created it,
Speaker 4: which is very very cool. So next question, I want
Speaker 4: to know is what do you do for work and
Speaker 4: how much money do you earn?
Speaker 2: So we have changed a bit, and I suppose our
Speaker 2: change in work circumstances and travel is also what gets
Speaker 2: me inspired about my future because now I'm in a
Speaker 2: lifestyle that I would like to maintain. So for the
Speaker 2: last five years we've actually been I suppose, what you
Speaker 2: would call contractors. So when we left Queensland to travel,
Speaker 2: we did first go to wa and we did six
Speaker 2: months in a gold mine over there. Wow, both of
Speaker 2: us working six days a week, twelve hour days. My goodness,
Speaker 2: that's a lot. It was a lot, and it was
Speaker 2: a big, big it was a big culture shop. But
Speaker 2: the thing that I like about what we do now
Speaker 2: is when we stopped to work, we actually know the timeframe.
Speaker 2: So I knew that that was only going to be
Speaker 2: for six months, and because of the goal that I had,
Speaker 2: knuckling down for six months working those hours in those days,
Speaker 2: it didn't really feel hard because I knew there was
Speaker 2: light at the end of the tunnel. And since then
Speaker 2: we basically I classic as contractors. We have done everything
Speaker 2: from gold mines, we have worked on cattle stations, both
Speaker 2: of us driving machinery. We have worked for a sapphire
Speaker 2: mining company and a rare earth minerals company where we
Speaker 2: do field work or maintenance or machinery driving or processing
Speaker 2: and looking for sapphires on a very large scale. Have
Speaker 2: you found sapphires? Yes? I have. Oh my goodness, is
Speaker 2: that so exciting? Well, it is, but the drawback is
Speaker 2: they're very, very small, and there's actually not a lot
Speaker 2: of money in sapphires at the moment, so it's sort
Speaker 2: of like just like finding something pretty. Yeah, but like
Speaker 2: I am basically a bower bird, so I'm born for that.
Speaker 2: Ah well a shiny yeah, I'd much rather be finding gold.
Speaker 4: But anyhow, yeah, that's fair, that's fair. I mean we
Speaker 4: do what we can. What do these jobs pay? Like
Speaker 4: obviously their short term contracts, And you said, you know,
Speaker 4: like short term goal it's worth it, But what's worth it?
Speaker 2: Like what is what's the salary lack? So for last year,
Speaker 2: let me give you last year's example. So last year
Speaker 2: we contracted for a six month period. We are actually
Speaker 2: set up as a company, so I then like invoice
Speaker 2: our time and everything out to our employers as such,
Speaker 2: and last year we made one hundred and twenty five
Speaker 2: thousand in that six months. Yeah for both of you. Yep, yeah,
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. And was that working like six months
Speaker 2: twelve hour days or what did that look like? No,
Speaker 2: that one last year in particular, was it was still
Speaker 2: six months. It was a majority of five days a
Speaker 2: week anywhere from let's just say eight to ten hours,
Speaker 2: depending on what the day needed. There might have been
Speaker 2: some days where we did six hours depending on the
Speaker 2: weather and we couldn't work anymore. But then there were
Speaker 2: other days when you're right in the middle of it,
Speaker 2: we just keep going until dark because we were so
Speaker 2: close to finishing something. Yeah. Wow. So yeah, and sort
Speaker 2: of like my budget and my forecast as such for
Speaker 2: this year puts us pretty much around the same for
Speaker 2: when we go to start work in May. Yeah, very cool.
Speaker 4: And talk to me about is that consistent because you've
Speaker 4: decided I know you mentioned you have set up company
Speaker 4: for this. You've decided on like an hourly rate, so
Speaker 4: it doesn't matter where you go, it'll be consistent.
Speaker 2: For anywhere that we contract out too. It's normally just
Speaker 2: a day rate is what we work on, a flat
Speaker 2: day rate. The only other sort of variables I suppose,
Speaker 2: for example, they supply our food as well. Oh money,
Speaker 2: we because we're normally remote, so we're well last year
Speaker 2: we were i suppose two hours from a main town
Speaker 2: and stuff like that. So there's a few little perks
Speaker 2: to it as well. When we did work over in
Speaker 2: Wa on the cattle stations, that was the same deal.
Speaker 2: We were again a day rate, but they supplied food, vehicles,
Speaker 2: and fuel. Oh that's a money win as well.
Speaker 4: How good. So tell me about accommodation. Like you mentioned
Speaker 4: earlier that you have a caravan. Are you going to
Speaker 4: these places and then staying in your caravan or are
Speaker 4: you like going to these places and renting?
Speaker 2: Like how does that work? No, because we have our
Speaker 2: own caravan. Everywhere we go, we basically stay in that.
Speaker 2: We've lived in our caravan full time for the last
Speaker 2: ten years. That's so cool. Yeah, it just goes everywhere
Speaker 2: with us. So and as I said, because some of
Speaker 2: these places or most of them that we work out,
Speaker 2: we are remote. So therefore the fact that we have
Speaker 2: our own accommodation is it's a bonus for the employer
Speaker 2: because they don't have to try and think of or
Speaker 2: provide any sort of accommodation. We have our own with us. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that is really cool.
Speaker 4: And I mean you've probably set it up in a
Speaker 4: way where you're like it's home, Like it's comfy, Like
Speaker 4: you come back at the end of the day and
Speaker 4: you're in your own space. Like I feel like that
Speaker 4: would feel significantly different than you if you're on a
Speaker 4: mind side and you're in the shared accommodation like area,
Speaker 4: even if you've got your own room.
Speaker 2: You're just like, this is not my space. I don't
Speaker 2: feel at home. Oh definitely. Yeah. And that's a lot
Speaker 2: of my friends, you know, when we talk about it,
Speaker 2: I go like, I have my own bed with me
Speaker 2: everywhere I go, Like, you know, what can be better
Speaker 2: than that?
Speaker 4: You're like, I picked the sheets, I picked the pillows,
Speaker 4: I am super comfy. I am living my best life.
Speaker 4: How good I adore that for you guys, talk to
Speaker 4: me about you know, you mentioned in your submission that
Speaker 4: like you're living debt free and like you don't have
Speaker 4: any debt anymore. What is now the big money got
Speaker 4: what are you currently working towards? You mentioned last year
Speaker 4: and one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars and you're
Speaker 4: going to earn similar What are we doing with that?
Speaker 2: Cash, Where is it going? What are our goals? I
Speaker 2: do have, Like my big money goal obviously is I've
Speaker 2: already like we invest through comsec onto the share market,
Speaker 2: So one of my main goals is to increase that,
Speaker 2: and I do plan on setting that up for automation.
Speaker 2: I have a few things set on automation at the moment,
Speaker 2: which is a godsend. I tend to do this though,
Speaker 2: for the periods of time that we work, because then
Speaker 2: I have that guaranteed amount that I know each week
Speaker 2: and I can just take some out of that and
Speaker 2: pay it. And I tend to stop that for the
Speaker 2: periods of time that we travel or we're not working,
Speaker 2: purely for peace of mind, so I'm not overspending what
Speaker 2: I have already sort of pocketed and saved as such.
Speaker 4: And that's the beauty of having an investment portfolio over
Speaker 4: paying something like a mortgage, which if you weren't working,
Speaker 4: they still like, well you have to make your payments
Speaker 4: money diaris like you don't just get out of that,
Speaker 4: whereas with your share portfolio, like we're going to load
Speaker 4: it and then when we're not earning money, take the press.
Speaker 2: I love that for you. Yeah, yeah, the flexibility of
Speaker 2: doing it that way is it's very much peace of
Speaker 2: mind for us. Anyhow, Yeah, like, ultimately I would like
Speaker 2: to my first milestone is to get that over one
Speaker 2: hundred thousand invested. I haven't progressed into the foreign exchange
Speaker 2: yet or international, so I would like to increase and
Speaker 2: sort of play a little bit there. But ultimately to
Speaker 2: have I suppose, as they all say, passive income, whether
Speaker 2: it be from you know, my shares on the stock
Speaker 2: exchange or any sort of investing, that passive income that
Speaker 2: will then allow me to continue my lifestyle. And you know,
Speaker 2: it might just mean that instead of stopping to work
Speaker 2: for six months, we're able to stop and work for
Speaker 2: four and keep traveling. You know, it's not necessarily that
Speaker 2: I want to fully retire, but just to have those
Speaker 2: choices where if we just want to travel for twelve months,
Speaker 2: we can continue doing it. But then if we feel
Speaker 2: we need to knuckle down for four months instead of six.
Speaker 2: You know, that to me is optimal. That is very cool.
Speaker 2: I want to know more. My parents have been talking
Speaker 2: recently about, you know, traveling around Australia in a caravan,
Speaker 2: and I wonder, what are you doing when you're traveling around.
Speaker 2: You're going just site to site hanging out, like is
Speaker 2: there a whole tour plan? Like what are we doing
Speaker 2: when we aren't at work and we are traveling? Oh,
Speaker 2: it's limitless. Really, it is just the best lifestyle we
Speaker 2: can be doing anything from I'll give you a few examples.
Speaker 2: We were pulled up on a beach in Western Australia
Speaker 2: and we spent four days there and each night we
Speaker 2: would go down and walk through the rock pools and
Speaker 2: collect baby octopus to eat fresh off the rocks. No,
Speaker 2: you did not. That is living the dream. Oh, it
Speaker 2: was just fantastic. And it's such a different community. Because
Speaker 2: we had a young girl who pulled up one day
Speaker 2: and was camping beside us, and she was the age
Speaker 2: of my daughter. Really, I can't just like not talk
Speaker 2: to anyone. So next minute she was over with us.
Speaker 2: She was having dinner with us, we were having a
Speaker 2: few drinks, we were down with our spotlights on the water.
Speaker 2: That would be me.
Speaker 4: I'm born to Yeah, plag you want to stuff in
Speaker 4: the supermarket and have a chat, that's me. You're buying
Speaker 4: something that I'm buying, we're talking about it. I'm some
Speaker 4: people's worst nightmare.
Speaker 2: She stayed with us that night. She had like she
Speaker 2: was Pip right beside us. So she slept in her
Speaker 2: swag in the back of her car, but she had
Speaker 2: dinner with us. She put her beers in our fridge.
Speaker 2: She come off to Pus hunting with us. She hopped
Speaker 2: up and she had a cup of tea and breakfast
Speaker 2: and lunch with us. And she just stayed with us
Speaker 2: all day. And then she went home and went back
Speaker 2: to work. But you know, we could be anywhere from
Speaker 2: We've been pulled up on beaches. We've done National Park
Speaker 2: tours and walks on you know, to view the nature's
Speaker 2: window in Western Australia. We've been to you know, museums
Speaker 2: and beaches and markets in dah and it's just limitless,
Speaker 2: Like you know, you find so much to go and do.
Speaker 2: And that's not like we don't tend to do a
Speaker 2: lot of the paid activities or paid sight seeing stuff
Speaker 2: purely because it can get quite expensive if you were
Speaker 2: to do something every stop that you went to. Yeah. Absolutely, so, Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's just so much stuff, so much stuff to do.
Speaker 4: I love that, And tell me what does it cost?
Speaker 4: Like if we're traveling around Australia. Obviously, I've got no idea.
Speaker 4: I've never done this, Like do you have a budget?
Speaker 4: If so, what does that look like? And you know
Speaker 4: things are more expensive, but that other things would be
Speaker 4: much cheaper, Like how does it all work.
Speaker 2: I don't necessarily have a budget. I have like a
Speaker 2: savings account with a figure in it. You know, it's
Speaker 2: part and parcel. A lot of the traveling community people
Speaker 2: say they work on that one to twelve hundred dollars
Speaker 2: a week as your budget. However, there's huge impacts on that.
Speaker 2: The more you travel or the quicker you travel, obviously,
Speaker 2: the more expensive it is based on the cost of fuel.
Speaker 2: A lot of people, you know, if it's free camping,
Speaker 2: you could stay a month if you wanted to. You know,
Speaker 2: that becomes your base. You might just travel into town
Speaker 2: for a few groceries on the odd occasion. So the
Speaker 2: quicker you travel, the more expensive it is, based on
Speaker 2: the diesel. But you know, I just find that. I
Speaker 2: think if you have a budget, you're very restricted and
Speaker 2: it's very consuming. I did try it once actually, when
Speaker 2: we started a trip, I tried to record my kilometers
Speaker 2: every penny we've spent, you know, where we traveled each
Speaker 2: day all that sort of stuff, and you know, within
Speaker 2: two weeks I was just I was too busy living
Speaker 2: my life to remember to go to the diary and
Speaker 2: write everything down for the day. So yeah, I don't
Speaker 2: tend to have a budget, but as I said, I
Speaker 2: do have an amount, and I just watch that closely
Speaker 2: as to how we're going through it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and when you're going, are you prioritizing free camp
Speaker 4: sites or like what does that cost look like?
Speaker 2: Usually for you? We do. We definitely look for free
Speaker 2: camp sites. There's a lot more of them in Wa
Speaker 2: than what there is through Queensland. And if not free camps,
Speaker 2: they getting a lot more popular are either farm stays
Speaker 2: or hip camps. Ah, what's a hip camp. Well, they're
Speaker 2: basically just people who have small acreage and have opened
Speaker 2: it up to travelers. Oh that's so sweet. Whether it
Speaker 2: be caravans, tents or something like that. A lot of
Speaker 2: the time you have to be self contained. So some
Speaker 2: do and some don't offer you know, showers and toilets,
Speaker 2: and they're just a small fee, like you might only
Speaker 2: pay fifteen dollars a night versus some caravan parks in
Speaker 2: peak time have been over one hundred dollars a night
Speaker 2: just for a sight of grass.
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness, one hundred dollars for a patch of grass.
Speaker 2: Yeah for one night. Yeah, you've got your own caravan,
Speaker 2: your own water. Some of those can be powered or unpowered.
Speaker 2: But yeah, during peak season the prices for caravan parks
Speaker 2: are getting quite dear.
Speaker 4: That's crazy, No, wonder there's a rise in alternatives. Like
Speaker 4: that is crazy? And is that one of the reasons
Speaker 4: you've chosen to, you know, kind of stick to Wa
Speaker 4: or like the kind of that side, or.
Speaker 2: Is the way they're just better? Like the beaches look
Speaker 2: beautiful there, the beaches are pressting, they are to die for. No,
Speaker 2: we spent well, it was worked out to be roughly
Speaker 2: twelve months in WA. But no, it's just the fact
Speaker 2: that free camps tend to be a bit less populated,
Speaker 2: but not as commercial as a caravan park if you
Speaker 2: know what I mean. You are not squashed in side
Speaker 2: by side like a sardine. These are open areas where
Speaker 2: you can pick where you park. You know, you can
Speaker 2: go for a walk down by a creek in the
Speaker 2: afternoon or something like that. That's so nice.
Speaker 4: I'm going to get a caravan now you're selling me
Speaker 4: the dream. I'm like, oh, okay, so you're saying like
Speaker 4: rock pools at.
Speaker 2: Sunset, Like, yeah, say less girlfriend, Yeah, we had a
Speaker 2: lot of them when we just went up north last year.
Speaker 4: Oh and you're like, we've got an eski, it's full
Speaker 4: of beers. I'm like, I could get my husband across
Speaker 4: the line.
Speaker 2: I adore this.
Speaker 4: All right, money Das, let's go to a really quick
Speaker 4: break because I'm loving this chat and I have so
Speaker 4: many more questions for you, and we'll get to them
Speaker 4: in a second. All right, we are back, and we
Speaker 4: have been talking about so much, honestly, about you changing
Speaker 4: your money story, about you know, picking up your first
Speaker 4: finance book at forty five. Now you're fifty five and
Speaker 4: you're living debt free and you're traveling Australia full time
Speaker 4: in your fully decked out caravan. I want to know
Speaker 4: about the caravan like that is, I would say an asset.
Speaker 4: I did not realize how expensive some caravans could be.
Speaker 4: What type of caravan are we talking about? Are we
Speaker 4: talking about an older caravan with like you know, I
Speaker 4: know you mentioned water but like no toilet, no shower,
Speaker 4: or are we talking about like lux Primo r V, like,
Speaker 4: I don't know what's.
Speaker 2: That look like? Well, even the way our caravan is
Speaker 2: old compared to a lot out there lately, because it
Speaker 2: is ten years old. O ten is nothing in caravan land.
Speaker 2: I know. When we purchased it, it was one of
Speaker 2: the top of the range ones. So it's just over
Speaker 2: twenty one and a half feet long. My good nurse.
Speaker 2: As you walk in the door, you have a beautiful
Speaker 2: black leather club lounge. Oh okay. Then we have some
Speaker 2: benches and overhead storage. You have obviously the kitchen area
Speaker 2: is smaller, so sink and I have a full oven
Speaker 2: and grill and stove top. We have I think it's
Speaker 2: about a two hundred and twenty liters fridge. Then we
Speaker 2: have our queen sized beds with heaps of storage. And
Speaker 2: then what is the back end of the caravan. We
Speaker 2: have our en suite, so we have a full sized
Speaker 2: shower and toilet, and it does have a small washing
Speaker 2: machine in there. You've got a washing machine in there. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I don't tend to use it though, no, but it's
Speaker 2: nice to know that if you're completely remote and have
Speaker 2: no access to anything, you're like, I can wash money
Speaker 2: case yeah, yeah, Oh my goodness.
Speaker 4: And what does a caravan set you back? Like if
Speaker 4: people are thinking, oh this money, darist is selling the dream, Like,
Speaker 4: I know that wasn't cheap, but what are we looking at?
Speaker 2: Ten years ago we had a few extras added to
Speaker 2: our so we have three water tanks, solar panels, et cetera.
Speaker 2: So ten years ago that cost us about eighty five
Speaker 2: thousand dollars. Wow, wee. That feels like a lot, but
Speaker 2: at the same time not that much for the lifestyle
Speaker 2: that you get to live and the flexibility and like
Speaker 2: even just the creature comforts you've explained. Yeah, definitely. And
Speaker 2: the thing I love about it is well the maintenance
Speaker 2: and the upkeep and even just to be able to say, oh,
Speaker 2: I can clean my whole house in less than half
Speaker 2: an hour from top to bottom. That's a pretty good deal,
Speaker 2: you know. Like that to me is just yeah, that's
Speaker 2: perfect for my liking.
Speaker 4: I love the idea. If that you are very slowly
Speaker 4: selling me. Earlier, you mentioned that you had a share portfolio.
Speaker 4: You're investing on comsex. Your goal is to get to
Speaker 4: one hundred thousand dollars. Talk to me about investments. Is
Speaker 4: that your only investment. What does your superannuation look like? Like,
Speaker 4: what's the plan for retirement?
Speaker 2: So that is not my only investment. No, we have comsex.
Speaker 2: So at the moment we've got about ten dollars in shares,
Speaker 2: which that's like, that's my goal this year to work
Speaker 2: on an increase, you know, putting more into that. I
Speaker 2: have two thousand invested in rays online investing, which I
Speaker 2: think that's what they term the micro investing, so that
Speaker 2: one has just set up fifty bucks whenever, like every
Speaker 2: week or every month or whatever it is. I just
Speaker 2: sort of log on and watch that grow. And then
Speaker 2: we did dabble. We still are dabbling in a bit
Speaker 2: of crypto. We had a bad experience with one and
Speaker 2: we lost probably close to four thousand dollars. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: gave us a bit of a bad taste in our
Speaker 2: mouth for a little while. But at the moment we
Speaker 2: have about three and a half thousand in crypto, and
Speaker 2: then my super I have about two hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: thousand in it, very nice, yeah, and about two hundred
Speaker 2: and fifteen in my husband's super. And then we have
Speaker 2: a savings account with cash in it of fifteen thousand.
Speaker 2: How good. So talk me through.
Speaker 4: Are you supbrannuation? Because supernuation is fickle right, like it
Speaker 4: creeps up on you. Lots of people don't pay attention
Speaker 4: to it. But you're looking pretty good. Have you been
Speaker 4: making additional contributions to superannuation or like, was there a plan?
Speaker 2: How did that work? Strangely enough, I haven't. I will
Speaker 2: be this year though, after talking with my accountant. That's
Speaker 2: one thing that we will do with the company structure
Speaker 2: this year is make self contributions into both of our supers.
Speaker 2: The last time I had employer contributions was about five
Speaker 2: years ago, and since then, obviously when I did the
Speaker 2: Barefoot Investor, I did a full on super overhaul, or
Speaker 2: you know, revisited my super. I checked on the fees
Speaker 2: and did some comparisons to see if I was in
Speaker 2: the best super fun And.
Speaker 4: Did you move to host plus like everybody else that
Speaker 4: read the Farefoot Investor.
Speaker 2: No, I didn't. Actually, I stayed with who I was
Speaker 2: with because I was sort of pretty pleased with the
Speaker 2: results from that investigation, so I just stayed where I was.
Speaker 2: The Only thing I did do, though, is the the
Speaker 2: super innuation fund that I'm with offers like free one
Speaker 2: on one consultations with their advisors. So I took the
Speaker 2: opportunity to have one of those, probably twelve months or
Speaker 2: more ago now, and I actually changed my investing strategy.
Speaker 2: So what was probably deemed conservative is now I've moved
Speaker 2: it into aggressive for a little bit. I figured, I
Speaker 2: know it's risk taking. I'm okay with taking a bit
Speaker 2: of risk because I do feel that I still have
Speaker 2: time and that that's probably the one thing I have
Speaker 2: learned through all of my you know, trying to educate
Speaker 2: myself financially, is everything is about time. It's not a
Speaker 2: quick fix or anything like that. So I'm okay with
Speaker 2: moving that up to aggressive for a couple of years
Speaker 2: and then yeah, the plan will be this year to
Speaker 2: make those self contributions into both of our soupers.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think that that Obviously, it's a smart
Speaker 4: idea for you because it's in line with your risk
Speaker 4: profile and you've got advice on it, and that's fantastic.
Speaker 4: First thing I wanted to say there is if people
Speaker 4: haven't taken advantage of the free advice that is being
Speaker 4: offered from your superfund, please do because obviously money dice
Speaker 4: that's going to have put you in a significantly better position,
Speaker 4: Like the rate of return of a growth portfolio on
Speaker 4: average is setting at about nine percent at the moment,
Speaker 4: and that's going to mean that after about seven to
Speaker 4: ten years, the money and your supranuation by the time
Speaker 4: you're sixty five, should be looking closer to five hundred
Speaker 4: thousand dollars. And that is a very attractive position to
Speaker 4: be in. And then in addition to that, reminding people
Speaker 4: that you are already paying fees for that advice. So yes,
Speaker 4: it feels free, but you're paying superranuation fees that pay
Speaker 4: the salaries of those advisors that you're engaging, so you
Speaker 4: are paying for them. Please utilize them, like have conversations.
Speaker 4: If you decide to do nothing after that conversation, perfect,
Speaker 4: if you decided to make a small change that ultimately
Speaker 4: like the difference between a conservative portfolio and a growth portfolio,
Speaker 4: you might go, it's not much fee, it's like four
Speaker 4: percent maybe, But that is actually going to mean that
Speaker 4: instead of your money doubling after fifteen to twenty years,
Speaker 4: it's going to double within ten And I think that
Speaker 4: that puts you closer to your retirement goals, that puts
Speaker 4: you closer to financial freedom. And while that might not
Speaker 4: be aligned to your risk profile in your situation. That worked,
Speaker 4: and like, how good that you got the advice.
Speaker 2: I also jump on like they sometimes while they send
Speaker 2: me emails obviously, but whenever they have webinars, you know,
Speaker 2: they offer them to their members, so I sort of
Speaker 2: try and jump on the ones that interest me just
Speaker 2: so I can stay up to date with as much
Speaker 2: as I can. I love that.
Speaker 4: I've done a few webinars for different super funds before,
Speaker 4: and they're always really fun because the people that join
Speaker 4: them are usually really motivated and really excited to.
Speaker 2: Like learn more and do more. In the comment sections,
Speaker 2: just go off. I love it. Moneyed Arrest.
Speaker 4: You mentioned before that you are completely debt free when
Speaker 4: you went back and you picked up your first finance
Speaker 4: book at forty five.
Speaker 2: What type of debt were you in.
Speaker 4: Was that something that you're like, oh my goodness, like
Speaker 4: I'm so stressed about this, or is this something that
Speaker 4: you were like, ah, I can get out of it,
Speaker 4: but maybe I can turn to charge it get out
Speaker 4: of it sooner, or like, talk to me about your
Speaker 4: debt journey.
Speaker 2: I was never stressed about it. I've never really been
Speaker 2: stressed about debt because I think I've always been in
Speaker 2: it in a situation or in employment where I could
Speaker 2: very comfortably make those repayments. Back after reading The Barefoot Investor. Or,
Speaker 2: at that period of time, we only had two debts.
Speaker 2: One was our caravan and one was our vehicle. So
Speaker 2: after reading the book, basically what I did was I
Speaker 2: simply knuckled down increased everything or all the repayments. And
Speaker 2: for example, I think I had on both of those debts,
Speaker 2: I would have had roughly about a year and a
Speaker 2: half to go before they were paid out. I paid
Speaker 2: them both out, one within six months and one within
Speaker 2: eight months after reading the book. Oh my goodness. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's so exciting though, that you just get that level
Speaker 2: of freedom and like that would have felt so good.
Speaker 2: Oh it did, because it was the first time, I
Speaker 2: suppose the first time really in my life. You know,
Speaker 2: prior to that there was vehicles and you know, children,
Speaker 2: so there was always expenses. But it was really the
Speaker 2: first time that I could comfortably sit back and just
Speaker 2: you know, really take that breath and go, I actually
Speaker 2: have no debt. Yeah that's very attractive, Yeah, very exciting.
Speaker 4: And throughout your journey, you haven't purchased property or planned
Speaker 4: for property purchasing. Talk to me about that, because I
Speaker 4: feel like so many people, especially in my demographic and
Speaker 4: you're demographic, all like we need to own property, like
Speaker 4: that's you know, the key to financial success, and you
Speaker 4: haven't even mentioned it once, So talk to me about that.
Speaker 2: No, it's actually not on our radar at all, purely
Speaker 2: because I suppose having the last eight to ten years
Speaker 2: of being debt free. If there's anything I don't want
Speaker 2: to do for the rest of my life, it's going
Speaker 2: to debt again. So that's the main contributing factor for
Speaker 2: us not wanting to buy properties. I just do not
Speaker 2: want to go back to being you know, settled down
Speaker 2: and making regular repayments. So that's one thing. But the
Speaker 2: other is I just don't think, well, we don't have
Speaker 2: the need for it. We have so many friends, family,
Speaker 2: people that we have met, all of who have said
Speaker 2: to us, ah, you know, when you're coming by ring up,
Speaker 2: let me know, come and park your van at my place.
Speaker 2: You can stay as long as you like. So I
Speaker 2: just don't feel the need to have that. I suppose
Speaker 2: that commitment because that's how I see it is more
Speaker 2: of a commitment.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, it's ament and I think people forget that. I
Speaker 4: think people think that it's the key to financial success,
Speaker 4: and it more often than not, especially these days, it's
Speaker 4: just not. And that can be a heartbreaking decision for people.
Speaker 4: But you guys look like you've sorted it out and
Speaker 4: been like, actually, that's not for us.
Speaker 2: Have you seen the very cool life that we are living.
Speaker 4: And I'm like so excited for this episode to go
Speaker 4: live because it just it questions so much about expectations
Speaker 4: that have been set, and you know, showing that there
Speaker 4: is an ability to live an absolutely brilliant life while
Speaker 4: you know, working really hard for a couple of months
Speaker 4: and then going back out live your best life.
Speaker 2: Like how good is that?
Speaker 4: Like I want to take a leaf out of that
Speaker 4: book and maybe have these like knuckle down periods of
Speaker 4: time where I'm just work, work, work, and.
Speaker 2: Then I can have a little bit of time off.
Speaker 2: Like that just sounds so good.
Speaker 4: I feel like over all this time you would have
Speaker 4: gotten together a few good money habits. Though, talk to
Speaker 4: me about what you think your best money habit is.
Speaker 2: I want to give you this a bit of thought,
Speaker 2: and I would have to say, even when we were
Speaker 2: in debt, the best thing I have ever done is
Speaker 2: really just automation. If I can automate something, I don't
Speaker 2: have to think about it. I'm not stressed about it,
Speaker 2: and I don't have to get extra stress if I
Speaker 2: forget to pay it and I don't miss it. That's
Speaker 2: the biggest thing. I just don't miss it because I
Speaker 2: don't see it and I don't get it in my
Speaker 2: hot little hand and then have to part with it.
Speaker 2: So that's probably the best thing. It's a little bit
Speaker 2: of a challenge when you are traveling, though. One of
Speaker 2: the other things that I do try to do is
Speaker 2: I try and use the cash back app Yeah, amazing,
Speaker 2: just on general savings. But the thing is with traveling,
Speaker 2: I don't have a lot of big purchases, and sometimes
Speaker 2: I just don't know where I am or if I'm
Speaker 2: going to be in town for the next three months,
Speaker 2: so I don't sort of have to buy a lot
Speaker 2: of stuff. And I think the lifestyle that we live
Speaker 2: is very much for me. It's a good money habit
Speaker 2: because we've been in the van, as I said, for
Speaker 2: ten years now. So I do very much class myself
Speaker 2: as a minimalist.
Speaker 4: Oh you would have to be otherwise you're going to
Speaker 4: live in a very very cluttered caravan.
Speaker 2: Yes, and I'm always getting told about the weight of
Speaker 2: the caravan, like you've got to check the weight, like
Speaker 2: we need to get rid of some of this or
Speaker 2: some of those clothes or some of this. You know. So,
Speaker 2: because it does add up, it does, it does. So
Speaker 2: I think that habit of being a minimalist has certainly
Speaker 2: helped a lot of the savings as well, because I suppose,
Speaker 2: just an example, work clothes, so you know, it's standard,
Speaker 2: like we have three to five sets of work clothes,
Speaker 2: and they get worn until they can no longer be worn,
Speaker 2: and then they will be replaced. It's not a free
Speaker 2: for all, and we don't have excess of anything really
Speaker 2: laying around. Everything gets used, and you might even find
Speaker 2: there are times that we might be a week or
Speaker 2: a month without it because we're not in a position
Speaker 2: or we're not located close enough to be able to
Speaker 2: go and buy it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that means that you have to be ridiculously
Speaker 4: well resourced, because otherwise you'll find yourself in.
Speaker 2: A pretty big pickle. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So flip that narrative for a hart second. Have
Speaker 4: you got any not so good money? Have it apart
Speaker 4: from spending one hundred dollars on patches of grass sometimes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I don't do that one either. This is
Speaker 2: situational based on lifestyle. The biggest for us, and I
Speaker 2: think you will find a lot of travelers will say
Speaker 2: it is every town you go to. It's a bit
Speaker 2: of a traveling thing where you have to try the bakery.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, okay, you've sold me. I love and meat pie.
Speaker 2: Oh I love a salad role from a local bakery.
Speaker 2: Nothing hits as hard as a very good salad and
Speaker 2: hand roll from a small bakery. I'm sorry, you are correct.
Speaker 2: So yeah, pies and vanilla slice apparently are the go
Speaker 2: to for travelers, as even a Facebook page on the
Speaker 2: best vanilla slice in Australia. Really, yes, where is that?
Speaker 2: Come on? Give us the costs? So I don't know.
Speaker 2: Actually I don't know, because I don't I'll look it up.
Speaker 2: I'm going to join the group. I need to know. Yeah, no,
Speaker 2: I'm not quite sure on that one, but I have
Speaker 2: seen the page. But that for us is the biggest thing.
Speaker 2: Is you know, like when you do travel, you come
Speaker 2: to a new town and of course it's a novelty. Oh,
Speaker 2: let's just find the bakery. And the other thing for us,
Speaker 2: which again I think, well for me, is based on
Speaker 2: our lifestyle. Is when we are working, depending on where
Speaker 2: we are, because we do have such big days, our
Speaker 2: habit or our bad habit is choosing to eat out
Speaker 2: for the simple fact that where we worked last year,
Speaker 2: we had to travel two to three hours to get
Speaker 2: to town. If we went to town for a day
Speaker 2: to pick up parts or whatever, it was very easy
Speaker 2: for us to go, oh, while we're in here, let's
Speaker 2: go here for lunch, let's do this.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because you kind of just think of it at
Speaker 4: as activities rather than a money suck.
Speaker 2: Yeah, true, true, you're just like, oh, what else can
Speaker 2: we do to get out exactly? And that's what it
Speaker 2: was like. Yeah, I mean that's not the worst think.
Speaker 2: I don't think I have ever had a money dres
Speaker 2: on the show who said, honestly, it's the vanilla slices
Speaker 2: that bring us down, And I just feel like that's
Speaker 2: a really good bringdown. Like, if I'm going to be
Speaker 2: brought down by something, it better be a good vanilla slice. Yes, definitely,
Speaker 2: money dois.
Speaker 4: This chat has been gorgeous, But now that we've talked
Speaker 4: and gone through through everything.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie. I'm really questioning that.
Speaker 4: See, you gave yourself at the start, because one it
Speaker 4: sounds like you are living like literally your dream. Like
Speaker 4: I think the goal for so many people it's not
Speaker 4: just you know, get rich and have lots of money
Speaker 4: and have big investments. Like if we really drill down,
Speaker 4: the reason people want these things is to have freedom
Speaker 4: and to experience the world or you know, be able
Speaker 4: to choose what they do with their days. And I
Speaker 4: just really feel like you're doing that, and to have
Speaker 4: no debt and to be building towards you know, your
Speaker 4: financial future. You're clearly on top of it. When it
Speaker 4: comes to superannuation, you're clearly on top of it. When
Speaker 4: it comes to investing, you've got a really clear investing
Speaker 4: goal that you're working towards. And I mean you've got savings.
Speaker 4: You know, on average, what it costs to get around
Speaker 4: in the caravans, You're like, yep, cool, Like we've got
Speaker 4: about this.
Speaker 2: Amount of time. You were so clear on all of that.
Speaker 4: Like I often talk to people and you're like, oh,
Speaker 4: I'm not sure how much is in that, or I
Speaker 4: don't know how much it costs to do this or that,
Speaker 4: and like you've obviously got good money habits. Automation is
Speaker 4: a fantastic one Vanilla's last and not such a bad
Speaker 4: habit to have after all. But after hearing all of
Speaker 4: this back and hearing the story that you wrote in
Speaker 4: Let's take you out of it, do you feel like
Speaker 4: this money Darres we've just spoken to is a sea.
Speaker 2: I could probably bump that up a bit now that
Speaker 2: you say it like that.
Speaker 4: I feel like I'm not going to tell you what
Speaker 4: to be, but I feel like you've done a really
Speaker 4: good thing. You've like reset your money story. Like you
Speaker 4: spoke earlier about creating passive income, and your big goal is,
Speaker 4: you know, to get that investment portfolio to that amount,
Speaker 4: and I just I have no doubt that that's what
Speaker 4: you're going to be able to do. But then the
Speaker 4: like shiny cherry on top is that you're not just
Speaker 4: like at home working away to a job that you're
Speaker 4: not enjoying. Like you told me that a couple of
Speaker 4: weeks ago, you were on a beach in wa going
Speaker 4: down to the rock pools at sunset to get fresh
Speaker 4: baby octoput.
Speaker 2: What like that is living the dream? That doesn't sound
Speaker 2: like a sea diary to me. True.
Speaker 4: True, So maybe you have a think about it, maybe
Speaker 4: reassess with yourself. But money, I've loved this. I have
Speaker 4: adored this conversation. I feel like it's given me a
Speaker 4: lot of food for thought about lifestyle and what even
Speaker 4: I want to achieve. And I just know that if
Speaker 4: it's done that for me, it's probably done that for
Speaker 4: a lot of people in my community. And I'm just
Speaker 4: so grateful that you are so willing to share your
Speaker 4: story so openly.
Speaker 2: So thank you for that. And I'm so glad that
Speaker 2: I got to share you with my community. Oh no,
Speaker 2: thank you, thank you a lot. It does mean a lot.
Speaker 2: If anything, Yeah, I do hope that it does inspire
Speaker 2: some people, because yeah, life is honestly too short to
Speaker 2: be constrained by sort of stress and worry over money
Speaker 2: and not doing what you want to It's so true.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Thank you.
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Speaker 4: should not be relied upon to make an investment or
Speaker 4: financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product,
Speaker 4: read the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored
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