Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before
Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
Speaker 2: for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another
Speaker 2: one of our money daries, where I have the absolute
Speaker 2: privilege of sitting down with one of our incredible She's
Speaker 2: on the Money community members and talking all about their
Speaker 2: money story. Let's jump straight into it, because this week
Speaker 2: I got a message and it sounded like this. Hi, Victoria.
Speaker 2: I recently quit a toxic, yet well paying one hundred
Speaker 2: and twenty five thousand dollars plus tech job to run
Speaker 2: my small business full time. At twenty four years old
Speaker 2: working with my dad. As an immigrant, I always felt
Speaker 2: family and societal pressure to achieve, and I'm still struggling
Speaker 2: with comparing myself to my peers with a more traditional
Speaker 2: career path, and I'm second guessing if I made the
Speaker 2: right decision. I want to share my story of consolidating
Speaker 2: pressure and finding my truth with the community. Money Darist,
Speaker 2: Welcome to the show. What a good story to share.
Speaker 3: Thank you. Yeah, that was an excellent summary.
Speaker 2: I am so excited. I feel like this will be
Speaker 2: a really, really good story to share because background, my
Speaker 2: producer has told me that you moved here at five
Speaker 2: from China and you didn't know any English, and now
Speaker 2: you're running a business here like look at her glow up.
Speaker 2: I love this, but let's get into it, money Darius,
Speaker 2: The first question we always ask is if I asked
Speaker 2: you to give your money habits a grade from A
Speaker 2: through to F, what would you grade them?
Speaker 3: I think I'd give myself a B a B, which is,
Speaker 3: you know, like, I think it's good, but it could
Speaker 3: be better.
Speaker 2: Love all right. My favorite question comes as no surprise
Speaker 2: to anybody. Can you tell me a little bit more
Speaker 2: about your history and your money story.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, I think, Yeah, you mentioned like I am
Speaker 3: a first gen immigrant, so I think my story in
Speaker 3: some parts might be quite like typical of like a
Speaker 3: lot of immigrants. But I guess the gist of it is,
Speaker 3: grew up with not much money at all, moved here
Speaker 3: when I was five from China with mom and dad,
Speaker 3: and and yeah, I had no English ability at all.
Speaker 3: And yeah, without like the help of some really nice
Speaker 3: like ESL teachers back then, I felt like I would
Speaker 3: have just been, yeah, just way out of my depth.
Speaker 3: I think it's easier to stomach as a child really young,
Speaker 3: moving overseas, because you know, you're sort of like a
Speaker 3: sponge and you soak everything up. So within a couple
Speaker 3: of years I was sort of like any other kid
Speaker 3: on the playground. But definitely those first years were really tough,
Speaker 3: especially I think for my parents. They were both like
Speaker 3: uni educated, but when they came back here to Australia.
Speaker 3: So when they came to Australia, they basically had to
Speaker 3: start from scratch. They were like working in factories and
Speaker 3: doing like delivery driver jobs and yeah, just trying to
Speaker 3: you know, earn an income to support the three of us.
Speaker 3: I remember when we first moved here, like we were
Speaker 3: living in like a tiny flat. I think I remember
Speaker 3: literally sleeping on a mattress on the floor. It was
Speaker 3: really like bare bonoons at that time. But I think
Speaker 3: also like benefit of being a small kid, you don't
Speaker 3: like that sort of stuff. You sort of you know,
Speaker 3: don't really remember it.
Speaker 2: You don't care. It's novel, it's new, Like it doesn't
Speaker 2: matter that the mattresses on the floor. I had a
Speaker 2: good sleep, right exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And like you know, I'm with mum and dad
Speaker 3: and that's sort of all that matters. I remember, like,
Speaker 3: despite being in like a not so great area of town,
Speaker 3: like we had really lovely neighbors and most of them
Speaker 3: were immigrants as well, and they would like leave me
Speaker 3: secondhand toys and books outside the door.
Speaker 2: That's so sweet. It it'd be like coming home to
Speaker 2: a surprise.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that was like my first impression as a
Speaker 3: kid was that.
Speaker 2: This place is great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this place is great. He would just give me
Speaker 3: free stuff now hundred percent.
Speaker 2: Like if I was five and people were leaving toys
Speaker 2: on my Doorsteff, I'd be like, this place is lit.
Speaker 3: I think they just felt really sorry for us. But yeah,
Speaker 3: my first impression was, yeah, like, you know, despite people
Speaker 3: here probably not all having that much, like, they were
Speaker 3: all still willing to sort of band together as a community,
Speaker 3: and I guess make you know, the newcomers' lives a
Speaker 3: bit easier, which I just found really heartwarming looking back
Speaker 3: on it.
Speaker 2: That's so kind though. That's the kind of I guess
Speaker 2: community and hospitality that you deserve if you're new to
Speaker 2: a country, like I feel like everyone should experience that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, Well, sorry, I guess back to the story,
Speaker 3: Like my parents, they did work really hard, and I
Speaker 3: think their hard work really did pay off because they
Speaker 3: started a business in importing and wholesaling, and bit by
Speaker 3: bit it started to I guess, grow bigger and able
Speaker 3: to sustain our family. But it wasn't until I was
Speaker 3: sort of well into my late teens that my family's
Speaker 3: financial situation improved, and then we were sort of sending
Speaker 3: my siblings to private schools, family holidays every year sort
Speaker 3: of thing. But growing up, I did not have any
Speaker 3: of these privileges. I like to tell my siblings, I
Speaker 3: walked so they could run.
Speaker 2: Yes, you did, That's exactly what happened.
Speaker 3: Yeah, jokes, but not really.
Speaker 2: You're like, sorry, not sorry. Also, I'm joking, not joking.
Speaker 2: So you moved here when you were five, and you
Speaker 2: didn't have any siblings at that point because you said
Speaker 2: it was just the three of us. How old are
Speaker 2: your siblings in comparison to you?
Speaker 3: So I have three siblings.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, I did not see that coming.
Speaker 3: So quite a large family, I think by today's standards.
Speaker 3: I've got my two sisters are four years younger, once
Speaker 3: eight years younger, and my little brother's actually twelve years younger.
Speaker 3: Oh how exciting, big age gap. And it's funny because
Speaker 3: I think for the past like ten years, we've always
Speaker 3: had like at least one child in the family in
Speaker 3: a different stage of like schooling.
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, that's the like that's when people say,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, I can't wait to get out of
Speaker 2: Nappy's stage, Like your parents really did say we enjoy that,
Speaker 2: and then just kept putting themselves back in there, like
Speaker 2: they didn't even you know, try and knock a couple
Speaker 2: together so that you could just do the nappy stage together.
Speaker 2: They were like, let's just go back to the start,
Speaker 2: start from scratch, like we want this to be as
Speaker 2: hard as possible for.
Speaker 3: Us exactly every four years, it's like start over again.
Speaker 2: Why don't we just do this again? I love that
Speaker 2: for them.
Speaker 3: Genius is actually tell my mom that From time to time.
Speaker 2: I feel like, why did you do this? Like I
Speaker 2: love my siblings, but also you're crazy exactly, No, that's
Speaker 2: so special. Having three siblings must be a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: I want to know more about now who you are, so,
Speaker 2: you know, growing up obviously that was the case, you're
Speaker 2: now an adult. What happened between being a teenager and
Speaker 2: your money story changing and today.
Speaker 3: I'd say because of the way I grew up, I
Speaker 3: guess I and like the way that my parents sort
Speaker 3: of you know, hustled head down trying to just make
Speaker 3: enough money to survive and just like put food on
Speaker 3: the table. I guess I grew up with that motto
Speaker 3: of like money's meant to be saved and not spent,
Speaker 3: and if it's spent then it has to be like
Speaker 3: for necessities only, which is I guess, like a you know,
Speaker 3: solid mindset to start from. But I feel like it
Speaker 3: sort of had impacts on me later on when I
Speaker 3: had my own money as well, because I felt like
Speaker 3: I would get like a bit of spending anxiety, even
Speaker 3: on like things that were necessities, like bills or like
Speaker 3: groceries or yeah, just like food and stuff, Like I
Speaker 3: would like put off paying bills to the last day,
Speaker 3: for example, just to I don't know, stretch it out,
Speaker 3: even though I knew I'd eventually have to pay it.
Speaker 2: I feel like that's really common though. I feel like
Speaker 2: that's so common, especially for people in your circa stance,
Speaker 2: where if you didn't come from money, then finally having it,
Speaker 2: it's really hard to part with it. And that's often
Speaker 2: obviously relatively crippling because it doesn't put you in the
Speaker 2: best possible financial position. Because I know if I sat
Speaker 2: you down at the time a bill with you and
Speaker 2: I'll be like, it's better to pay it early, right,
Speaker 2: You'd be like absolutely, Victoria, like get it off my plate.
Speaker 2: But then in the background, it's this mental anguish of going,
Speaker 2: but if I pay it, the money's out of my account,
Speaker 2: and what if something happens and I need the money
Speaker 2: for something, And I just I think that's really relatable.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's always the like, what if some big
Speaker 3: thing happens and I suddenly need to take a lot
Speaker 3: of money for that. I think like the concept of
Speaker 3: having an emergency fund has helped me in that aspect.
Speaker 3: So it's sort of like that waights off my mind.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's good. That's good. I really like that. I
Speaker 2: want to know. You mentioned in your story in that
Speaker 2: you used to have a job and now you have
Speaker 2: your own business with your dad. What do you do
Speaker 2: for work and how much money do you earn?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So right now I run a small property management
Speaker 3: business of my dad with my dad as the business partner,
Speaker 3: my sole business partner. We specialize in short term and
Speaker 3: vacation rentals and we help our clients of everything from
Speaker 3: like setting up their property and marketing it to like
Speaker 3: managing bookings and guests and housekeeping. So basically like everything
Speaker 3: you need to run a successful short stay or vacation rental.
Speaker 2: That's very cool.
Speaker 3: And within that, I because it's really just us too,
Speaker 3: wear a lot of hats. In terms of pay I
Speaker 3: currently pay myself fifty five K plus super plus a
Speaker 3: ten percent profit share. And you know, although that's what
Speaker 3: we have on paper, I'm actually thinking of like putting
Speaker 3: that ten percent back into the business instead of taking
Speaker 3: it for myself, just because I think like at this point,
Speaker 3: investing in the business and helping it grow is yeah
Speaker 3: really my priority. And I think with the way I live,
Speaker 3: especially like after taking a pay cut, like I don't
Speaker 3: have a really fancy line for anything, like I'm able
Speaker 3: to sort of maintain my current lifestyle.
Speaker 2: I like that tell me more about these business like
Speaker 2: how did you know that you wanted to go all
Speaker 2: in and quit your big paying job. You're one hundred
Speaker 2: and twenty five grand and then you're like, you know what,
Speaker 2: I'm just going to start my own business. What was
Speaker 2: that thought process and what made you confident to do it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, well I definitely wasn't confident to do it, just
Speaker 3: to put that out there, and I think I know
Speaker 3: mentioned in my submission in that like to this day.
Speaker 2: Like I still second guess your decision.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like second guessing, have doubts come up time to time.
Speaker 3: But from like I guess talking to like you know,
Speaker 3: mentors or other people who have run businesses, it seems
Speaker 3: like they always tell me that's quite common.
Speaker 2: It's very normal. I question myself literally every day. I
Speaker 2: have the worst imposter syndrome in the entire world. I
Speaker 2: genuinely believe that After nearly five hundred podcast episodes, someone's
Speaker 2: going to listen to my podcast and be like, she
Speaker 2: doesn't know what she's talking about. Get her off, get
Speaker 2: her off here? What the hell? Who let her hear?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: Who let her out of this house? Like absolutely not?
Speaker 2: Put her back in a box? Like cancel, she's on
Speaker 2: the money. It's toxic. It doesn't help anybody, does it?
Speaker 3: One hundred percent? Like it's it's definitely like the impost syndrome.
Speaker 3: And yeah, that's exactly the same spiral.
Speaker 2: I go down. You're like, I don't deserve to be
Speaker 2: running a business? Who who am I? What audacity have
Speaker 2: I got? But do you know what? I learned a
Speaker 2: lot about you when you told me what you earned
Speaker 2: and the fact that you've probably got an incredibly well
Speaker 2: structured business and financial plan. When you say I pay
Speaker 2: myself fifty five thousand dollars plus super organized tax, and
Speaker 2: I also have a ten percent profit share? How did
Speaker 2: you learn to structure a business that way so early,
Speaker 2: my friend? Because that's not normal. Most people just take
Speaker 2: out some cash to pay their bills. They don't pay
Speaker 2: themselves super They're definitely not talking about profit share, especially
Speaker 2: this early on, Like where's this come from? Why are
Speaker 2: you so smart, I'd say the fifty five K.
Speaker 3: I sort of just calculated the amount that I would
Speaker 3: need to just live on, and I cut down a
Speaker 3: lot of my expenses by first of all moving from
Speaker 3: my very nice apartment in the city to you know,
Speaker 3: into the suburbs of my partner. And then I guess
Speaker 3: having shared living costs that way has really helped with
Speaker 3: like budgeting. As I said before, like I don't really
Speaker 3: have a very glam life apart from I guess, like
Speaker 3: a holiday every year. Like there's not like I'm not
Speaker 3: going out to like fine dining or high end places
Speaker 3: or shopping a lot. I guess I'm lucky in that
Speaker 3: my lifestyle has always been quite manageable. I guess the
Speaker 3: downside is then obviously I'm not saving as much like
Speaker 3: you know in my bank account, or investing as much.
Speaker 3: But I sort of think of it the other way,
Speaker 3: which is like I'm investing in the business instead, and eventually,
Speaker 3: like this is the biggest investment, it's hopefully going to
Speaker 3: have the biggest returns as far in the future.
Speaker 2: How did you structure this so you thought, all right,
Speaker 2: I'm going to start a business. I'm assuming you went
Speaker 2: onto the government website registered in ABN. But how did
Speaker 2: you know what to do next? How did you know
Speaker 2: what to do about accounting and you know, marketing and
Speaker 2: finance and even HR like what does all of that
Speaker 2: look like and how did you learn?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's a combination of my dad already
Speaker 3: having run a business in the past, so he's you know,
Speaker 3: already operating a small business, albeit like in a completely
Speaker 3: different industry, so he sort of needed a process of
Speaker 3: like setting up an ABN, setting up an ACN and
Speaker 3: all of that, and sort of the paperwork behind it.
Speaker 3: Already had like a business accountant, so we were able
Speaker 3: to leverage that, but also everything else like I think
Speaker 3: came from like just researching digging through Google, and also
Speaker 3: just like from my past experiences is working in my
Speaker 3: day job. Since graduating, I've worked in marketing, I've worked
Speaker 3: in consulting and then most recently tech and I think
Speaker 3: given the structure of some of those companies as well,
Speaker 3: some were large organizations, some were startups, I was like
Speaker 3: exposed to like different areas in each business and sort
Speaker 3: of how they manage their employees and like, for example,
Speaker 3: the startup had options for employees to you know, buy
Speaker 3: shares and you know, become like part of the business
Speaker 3: and participate in that profit share scheme as well. So
Speaker 3: that sort of came from Yeah, just a I guess
Speaker 3: margamation of yeah, different experiences I had sort of gathered
Speaker 3: last free years of work, but definitely not perfect.
Speaker 2: No, that's fine. It's just really cool to understand how
Speaker 2: people start, because I think a lot of us have
Speaker 2: the aspiration of being like, well, maybe one day I'll
Speaker 2: start a business, but like how And I promise it's
Speaker 2: not as hard as people think it is. Running the
Speaker 2: business is hard, but starting the business is very easy.
Speaker 2: Why property management, my friend, how did you fall into that?
Speaker 2: When did you realize that that was something that you
Speaker 2: were like, do you know what? I think I could
Speaker 2: make a whole business out of this.
Speaker 3: How it all sort of started was, I guess before
Speaker 3: I started my grad job. So out of UNI, I
Speaker 3: helped my dad set up the first property online, and
Speaker 3: that was like an investment property that he had originally
Speaker 3: purchased and wanted to live in after retirement and occasionally
Speaker 3: use it as like a holiday home. He sort of
Speaker 3: just asked me like, hey, do you want me to
Speaker 3: help me manage this property? Sort of as like a
Speaker 3: side thing like then that was really the original intent
Speaker 3: for it to be sort of like a thing that
Speaker 3: I set and forget and it's sort of, you know,
Speaker 3: just one property runs on its own, not that much overhead.
Speaker 3: So I originally started with that, and yeah, it was
Speaker 3: really trial and error for like the first few months.
Speaker 3: I quickly realized that there's a totally different level of
Speaker 3: risk running like a short stay rental versus like just
Speaker 3: a long term lease, because a long term lease is
Speaker 3: really just set and forget, right, like you just want
Speaker 3: someone who pays the bills on time, whereas a short stay.
Speaker 3: I realized that this is like a business, Like there's
Speaker 3: like communication with like people coming in and out, organizing
Speaker 3: like housekeeping, schedules, marketing it so you know, in the
Speaker 3: high seasons you can attract more bookings and then the
Speaker 3: low seasons you sort of have different pricing strategies to
Speaker 3: sort of shoulder it as well. But yeah, that's sort
Speaker 3: of how it started. And for a while it was
Speaker 3: sort of you know, cruise, we were trial and erroring
Speaker 3: it the point where I realized like, oh, this is
Speaker 3: you know, like a business, this is.
Speaker 2: The whole thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, like it's actually gaining some traction. Is
Speaker 3: when we started getting noticed by like other property owners
Speaker 3: nearby asking us.
Speaker 2: Like hey, who manages your property?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, like would you possibly be interested in helping
Speaker 3: us manage ours? Or like you know, how do you
Speaker 3: do it? And it was then that we acquired a
Speaker 3: few more under our management. But one thing I'd like
Speaker 3: to say is at this time, like our infrastructure did
Speaker 3: not support it, yeah, or like it was really yet
Speaker 3: breaking point, like because he had asked me to set
Speaker 3: up this one property for him when I was just
Speaker 3: out of UNI, before I had even started a full
Speaker 3: time job. Yet our operating like processes and procedure were
Speaker 3: like bare bones. It was basically just an Excel sheet
Speaker 3: with like a to random formulas that I had made.
Speaker 2: Is that's the easiest thing to do when you just
Speaker 2: have one thing to do exactly?
Speaker 3: It was like the MVP, right, And it was just
Speaker 3: like a few message templars I had written up. There
Speaker 3: was like no chat GPT, so I just you know
Speaker 3: wrote all of them myself.
Speaker 2: Oh chat GPT would do amazing things for you now,
Speaker 2: right right, so incredible, Yeah.
Speaker 3: So it was really really like their votes. Everything was
Speaker 3: like manual on exl so when we got a few
Speaker 3: more properties under management. To be honest, I feel like
Speaker 3: I could have buffed up the tech more at that time,
Speaker 3: but because I was also by that time also juggling
Speaker 3: a full time job, I just didn't have like the
Speaker 3: time or energy to invest into it. So it was
Speaker 3: really like bootstrapping it.
Speaker 2: For a while, just get it done.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. And yeah, because my intention had always been,
Speaker 3: my thinking has always been like, oh yeah, I'm just gonna,
Speaker 3: you know, through my day job. I'm gonna go and
Speaker 3: you know, start my career, and I'm going to progress
Speaker 3: along in my career in like a completely different field.
Speaker 3: This is just like a humble side hustle that I'm doing.
Speaker 3: I didn't really invest that much more into it. I'd say,
Speaker 3: like the point when I decided that I could go
Speaker 3: full time into this business, it was because of like
Speaker 3: several reasons, I guess. First of all, the current job
Speaker 3: that I was in, the one right before this was,
Speaker 3: like I mentioned in my submission, a bit toxic.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I don't want to say that word lightly as well,
Speaker 3: because it is like quite a strong word.
Speaker 2: It was really bad.
Speaker 3: It was really bad, Like it was it was full
Speaker 3: of politics, a lot of red tape. It was a
Speaker 3: large organization and just like a poor work culture, and
Speaker 3: I was just like mentally and emotionally drained every day
Speaker 3: working there. But at the same time, it was like
Speaker 3: I was getting paid like a good salary.
Speaker 2: There's always a trade off.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, So it really took a lot of I guess,
Speaker 3: like convincing from I guess like my partner and also
Speaker 3: myself to make that switch, because I think by that
Speaker 3: point I was like still so focused on like the
Speaker 3: dollar figure and like the number.
Speaker 2: And that would have meant a lot to you as well,
Speaker 2: especially in your background, the idea of earning one hundred
Speaker 2: and twenty five thousand dollars at twenty three, Like, I
Speaker 2: don't know, if I could have walked away from that,
Speaker 2: I would have stayed in my little toxic bubble of
Speaker 2: toxicness and pretended I liked it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I think what it came down
Speaker 3: to was like after just being so like emotionally drained
Speaker 3: every day, just wondering to myself, like is this actually
Speaker 3: worth it? Like first of all, like my lifestyle isn't
Speaker 3: like I don't need a lot of money to just
Speaker 3: live mine lifestyle, Like, yes, I was saving a lot,
Speaker 3: which was good. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: like you know, I think you like you talk about
Speaker 3: values on your podcast, and I think it that's sort
Speaker 3: of what it came down to, is like the life
Speaker 3: that I want to lead in the future. Like I
Speaker 3: sort of I realized, like, hey, I just need to
Speaker 3: make enough money to facilitate the sort of life I
Speaker 3: want in the future.
Speaker 2: I love I love it. That's the way you're thinking
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 3: Rather than like just reach like a really high, arbitrary
Speaker 3: figure that you know will never be enough, Like if
Speaker 3: you'll just focused on a figure, go high, higher, But
Speaker 3: the trade off is like work life balance or mental health,
Speaker 3: and like, that's not what I want to see in
Speaker 3: my future. So I guess it was realizing that, but
Speaker 3: realizing that was also kind of painful because it was
Speaker 3: then like going back and realizing, like, oh, what have
Speaker 3: I worked so hard for?
Speaker 2: I guess, Yeah, but you learned a lot. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: you learn a lot about what you didn't like and
Speaker 2: what you wouldn't accept. And I think that sometimes we
Speaker 2: disregard how much we've learned, even though it's not super positive.
Speaker 2: But yeah, pay off in the future, I promise.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, one hundred percent. Like I sort of, you know,
Speaker 3: took it always learning experiences, but I did sort of,
Speaker 3: upon reflection, look back and sort of realize that I
Speaker 3: had pinned a lot of my self worth to my
Speaker 3: achievements and by like how much I was making or
Speaker 3: what I was doing, and and it's like really dangerous,
Speaker 3: I feel to think that way, because yeah, like when
Speaker 3: what you're doing no longer sort of fulfills you anymore,
Speaker 3: like I was feeling in my last job, your self
Speaker 3: worth or like your sense of self starts shipping away
Speaker 3: as well, because it's so like inextricably tied in your
Speaker 3: mind to your achievements and what you're doing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so true.
Speaker 3: So it's like your whole reality.
Speaker 2: Like YEAHS questioned, Yeah, oh my gosh, I'm so excited
Speaker 2: that you did it though. That's so good.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it was definitely like a leap of faith.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I think a calculated one.
Speaker 3: Yes, hopefully calculated.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 3: But yeah, this opportunity as well to run a full
Speaker 3: time also, I guess appeared at the right time and
Speaker 3: place as well, because, as I said, we were sort
Speaker 3: of at breaking point with how we were managing it,
Speaker 3: like our current operations, Our current infrastructure wasn't supporting like
Speaker 3: the amount of I guess, like bookings or like traffic
Speaker 3: and revenue that we were taking.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fair as well.
Speaker 3: Like it was literally the same Excel spreadsheet and formulas
Speaker 3: I had made years ago.
Speaker 2: Please tell me we've retired the XL.
Speaker 3: Oh, my gosh, it's it's really bad.
Speaker 2: Like no, not, we all start somewhere. My entire business
Speaker 2: used to be run on XL and it was embarrassing
Speaker 2: the day I walked into my account and I, I
Speaker 2: think I've got a legit business and we probably should
Speaker 2: have accounting software. And you said, m Yeah, I told
Speaker 2: you that twelve months ago. So you know what, I
Speaker 2: did my stuff in my time, and I'm sure you
Speaker 2: did too. But we're just we're all just trying our
Speaker 2: best out here.
Speaker 3: Okay, exactly exactly. It's MVP. It's you know, the minimum
Speaker 3: viable product. It's it's whatever works.
Speaker 2: Exaxactly all right. I want to know, can you tell
Speaker 2: me a bit more about your big money goals, like
Speaker 2: what are you working towards?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so a big money goal right now is definitely
Speaker 3: purchasing our next home with my partner. So in the
Speaker 3: next four to five.
Speaker 2: Years, do you already own a home.
Speaker 3: Yes, both of us own a home.
Speaker 2: A big dog, energy, she's a baby, she has her
Speaker 2: own business, she owns a home. She wants to buy
Speaker 2: another one, of course she does.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's our money goal in the next four
Speaker 3: to five years. So it's still quite a while away.
Speaker 2: Four to five years. That's tomorrow. That's so soon. That's
Speaker 2: so exciting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so you know, yeah, hoping by then we'll
Speaker 3: both have enough like borrowing power and you know, would
Speaker 3: have saved up a bit as well to make that purchase.
Speaker 3: And you know, we might have to sell one of
Speaker 3: both properties. Depends how we go. I see, I guess.
Speaker 2: Oh how exciting. All right, I have a lot more
Speaker 2: questions for you. We're going to go to a really
Speaker 2: quick break and on the flip side. I want to
Speaker 2: know more about your investments, your properties. I want to
Speaker 2: know about debt, and I also want to know about
Speaker 2: your best and worst money habits. Don't go anywhere, guys.
Speaker 2: All right, money diarist, we are back, and you slipped
Speaker 2: in that you might have to sell one or both properties.
Speaker 2: Are you trying to tell me that you've got multiple properties.
Speaker 2: If so, can you tell me about your investments, my friend.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely not multiple. I do have one investment property
Speaker 3: that I got about a year ago. It's an investment
Speaker 3: property that I do get rental income from, so it
Speaker 3: adds about twenty k to my income every year.
Speaker 2: Oh how cool.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I did buy it at a very sweet
Speaker 3: low interest rate a year ago.
Speaker 2: So oh yeah, and now you feel like you're being
Speaker 2: kicked while you're down.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, So I'm really not looking forward to when
Speaker 3: that fixed rate period runs out and I have to
Speaker 3: face the reality. Like everyone else, you need.
Speaker 2: To talk to the girls at Zella Money to make
Speaker 2: sure that you're structured well for that so that it
Speaker 2: doesn't completely bite you in the bottom when it pops up,
Speaker 2: so that everything is good to go. I feel like
Speaker 2: all of our clients at the moment are super stressed
Speaker 2: about that. But with some good planning, it won't be
Speaker 2: nearly as painful, I promise.
Speaker 3: Yeah. No, I definitely need to get onto that.
Speaker 2: Tell me a bit more about this property though. How
Speaker 2: much did you have to save to purchase it, and
Speaker 2: how did you decide that that was the right investment
Speaker 2: property for you?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I have to save the twenty percent deposit.
Speaker 3: So it was a five hundred and seventy k property,
Speaker 3: so the deposit on that was just over one hundred grand.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, and you saved all of that money
Speaker 2: and you're a baby. How did you do that?
Speaker 3: I would say savings from UNI not much at all,
Speaker 3: because I was working part time, of course, but also
Speaker 3: then working full time for just over two years and
Speaker 3: living at home.
Speaker 2: I'd say, yeah, okay, so that makes a lot more sense.
Speaker 2: And as you said before, you obviously had a very
Speaker 2: high income, but I'm assuming from the way that we've
Speaker 2: been conversing, you don't spend all of that. You have
Speaker 2: a relatively frugal life. Is that correct?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, And to be honest, I wasn't sort of
Speaker 3: like actively like saving towards this first home. Like it
Speaker 3: wasn't in my mind that like, I'm saving towards a
Speaker 3: first home because I really want to buy a property
Speaker 3: at this time time or by the state. And like
Speaker 3: I was living at home as well, which I'm super
Speaker 3: lucky to have done. So I wasn't sort of like
Speaker 3: paying rent or bills or anything. So yeah, incredibly lucky
Speaker 3: for that. And I guess you know, those two years
Speaker 3: were lockdown, so twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and there's not a lot you can do at
Speaker 2: that period of time.
Speaker 3: Exactly, so that you know, even if I wanted to,
Speaker 3: there wasn't too much that I could blow my money
Speaker 3: on during that time, And like, I know, like as
Speaker 3: bad as it sounds, because I know a lot of
Speaker 3: people suffered during lockdown, of course, like I don't think
Speaker 3: I would have been able to save up for a
Speaker 3: deposit if.
Speaker 2: It hadn't been yeah, unless you were kind of literally
Speaker 2: locked inside and you couldn't go and spend all your money. Yes, yeah, yeah, no,
Speaker 2: I think there are a lot of people like that.
Speaker 2: And I mean it goes in ebbs and flows right
Speaker 2: every single market, whether it is a bull market or
Speaker 2: a bear market. There are people who benefit and there
Speaker 2: are people who don't. And that's actually okay, it's not
Speaker 2: your fault, but I can see why you're like, oh,
Speaker 2: I feel a bit icky about this because so many
Speaker 2: people were not doing well during that time. But I
Speaker 2: promise you it is okay, my friend.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And I felt, like, you know, honestly, I felt,
Speaker 3: I don't know, like even a bit guilty at the time, Like,
Speaker 3: I didn't put it on socials. I didn't really tell
Speaker 3: many of my friends except like my closest.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you just feel uncomfortable because so many of
Speaker 2: your friends might have lost jobs or really been struggling,
Speaker 2: or their partners were losing jobs, or they're moving back
Speaker 2: in with parents because they can't afford things. And then
Speaker 2: you're out here being like, actually, hey, I've achieved something
Speaker 2: really cool. I completely understand where you're coming from, but
Speaker 2: it doesn't mean we should downplay your achievements because somebody
Speaker 2: else quote has it worse.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm realizing that as well, but definitely, yeah, back
Speaker 3: then it was sort of something I couldn't openly celebrate.
Speaker 2: And that's okay. I think that just tells us how
Speaker 2: much of a kind human being you are.
Speaker 3: I guess. So the how I ended up buying that home, though,
Speaker 3: was I wasn't really thinking about buying a property, but
Speaker 3: sort of, you know, lockdowns and stuff lifted. The interest
Speaker 3: rates were really low. I think that was definitely a
Speaker 3: big motivator. And I know, like there's risks to that
Speaker 3: as well, because it won't stay low forever. And now
Speaker 3: I'm sort of you know, now we're all seeing that,
Speaker 3: but that definitely was like a big incentive to sort
Speaker 3: of jump into the property market at the time, and
Speaker 3: I was sort of encouraged by like family as well
Speaker 3: to do it. It was sort of I think for them,
Speaker 3: their mindset was really like why not, Like you have
Speaker 3: the deposit and it's a really low interest rate, cash
Speaker 3: is cheaper than ever, sort of the like why not
Speaker 3: just do it now? So like I wish I could
Speaker 3: say that I thought more about it apart from that,
Speaker 3: but that was really like how it happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow. I feel like it's nice that you can
Speaker 2: be so honest about it, though, because I think so
Speaker 2: many times people are saving and they just don't know
Speaker 2: what they're saving for at that point, and then all
Speaker 2: of a sudden it all falls into place and that's okay,
Speaker 2: and that's amazing, and that's why we need consistent savings goals.
Speaker 2: Do you have any other investments?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I invest in stocks, so like ETFs and shares,
Speaker 3: and I started doing that during like lockdown as well.
Speaker 3: So I think to date, I've got about twenty two
Speaker 3: thousand dollars in like ETFs and shares.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, you're a baller. I did not expect this.
Speaker 3: That was definitely not the amount I put it. It's
Speaker 3: gone up a bit from the time I put it in,
Speaker 3: and it was like during the crash. So yeah, I
Speaker 3: think I'm lucky.
Speaker 2: Invested at a smart time in that sense. Yeah, how
Speaker 2: did you decide what shares and what ETFs you wanted
Speaker 2: to pick?
Speaker 3: I'd say, like for myself, it was like a combination
Speaker 3: of like research articles. No, sorry, not research articles that
Speaker 3: makes it sound like it was like a medical journal
Speaker 3: or something, but like researching articles online. Like friends and family,
Speaker 3: I guess just like conversations with them, like oh, what
Speaker 3: do you invest in and what do you think is
Speaker 3: performing well? We're going to perform well. And like I'm
Speaker 3: not like a very fine and investing person myself, Like
Speaker 3: I don't like keep up with the stock market or anything.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I really just rely on like my conversations
Speaker 3: with the people around me to sort of let me
Speaker 3: know what's going on most of the time.
Speaker 2: That's cool to know, though. I really like understanding how
Speaker 2: people make decisions and why they make decisions. And it's
Speaker 2: so interesting because even if this was your first investment,
Speaker 2: it's going to be so different to somebody else's first
Speaker 2: investment and their thought process and what that actually looks like.
Speaker 2: It makes me. I just love it. I'm so interested
Speaker 2: in it. Everyone else is like, Victoria, that's so boring.
Speaker 2: I'm like, no, it's not. Tell me more.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's really interesting. I find it fascinating myself as
Speaker 3: well too.
Speaker 2: I want to know. Now, I know you've got some debt,
Speaker 2: because there's no way you've paid off that whole mortgage yet,
Speaker 2: tell me about debts. Do you have any? If so,
Speaker 2: what are they?
Speaker 3: Yes, so I do have a mortgage on my property,
Speaker 3: and yeah, like you said, I really should calculate how
Speaker 3: much my repayments will go up by and yeah, what
Speaker 3: impact that would have on like my lifestyle. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I've just been procrastinating, putting it off a bit, just
Speaker 3: because the thought seems very scary.
Speaker 2: Soon you work out what that's going to mean, and
Speaker 2: when the easier or b I promise, I know, I know,
Speaker 2: I promise. So any other debts just the mortgage at
Speaker 2: this point.
Speaker 3: No, I also have my hex debt, although I'm not
Speaker 3: loving the indexation on that either.
Speaker 2: Nobody is. Don't worry.
Speaker 3: Currently after indexation, it's sitting at just over eight.
Speaker 2: K oh that's Okay, that's not too bad at all,
Speaker 2: but indexation would have made you feel a little bit
Speaker 2: sick when you're so close to the finish line.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, I actually just checked it last night, and
Speaker 3: I was like surprised by the amount. I think, like
Speaker 3: because it had just been like I've just been automatically
Speaker 3: paying it off like every pacelip. It's gone down like
Speaker 3: faster than I've thought it would have been.
Speaker 2: Oh that's good, though. I want to know, because I
Speaker 2: feel like you've got a few what are your best
Speaker 2: money have its?
Speaker 3: I think like a combination of having like a high
Speaker 3: interest bank account and credit card. So I do use
Speaker 3: a credit card to you know, just manage my like
Speaker 3: cash and cash out sort of thing. Like I use
Speaker 3: it more as like a financial tool, which is why
Speaker 3: I sort of don't consider it that much as dead
Speaker 3: because I've I've never been late on a payment.
Speaker 2: No, But that's okay, because everybody is. Everyone's in a
Speaker 2: different situation, right. I know, if you gave me a
Speaker 2: credit card, I'd be tap happy and we would not
Speaker 2: be in a good financial position at all. But someone
Speaker 2: like you who's using it as a tool to create
Speaker 2: more financial resources genius, so smart I can't be trusted though.
Speaker 3: I think it's also the points that I earned from
Speaker 3: credit cards. Like I sort of just see it as like, oh,
Speaker 3: free money, because.
Speaker 2: I mean technically it is if you're not paying a
Speaker 2: really big annual fee for your credit card.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, So like on my day to day spending,
Speaker 3: like it's money that I would have to spend anyway.
Speaker 3: I sort of use my credit card to get the points,
Speaker 3: but then like I have most of my money for
Speaker 3: like most of the time in like a high interest
Speaker 3: bank account, so I get the interest, but then I
Speaker 3: also get the points. And right before my credit cards
Speaker 3: bill is do you I pay it off fully? So
Speaker 3: I don't, you know, get any fees from that.
Speaker 2: You don't see it. You don't get any fees, you're
Speaker 2: not paying any interest, which is the smart way to
Speaker 2: use a credit card.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. And because I had like accumulated like a
Speaker 3: fair amount of points from like some credit cards have
Speaker 3: bonuses when you sign up for them. Plus sort of
Speaker 3: like my like day to day spending, I've cashed out
Speaker 3: like four or five hundred dollars worth of like vouchers.
Speaker 2: So far money win. That's free money. That's absolutely free money.
Speaker 2: That's girl Math.
Speaker 3: It's one hundred percent girl maths and it's so good.
Speaker 2: Oh, I love that You're so smart when it comes
Speaker 2: to that. See, I would just collect all the points
Speaker 2: and then forget that they were there as well, because
Speaker 2: I had all this new stuff that I bought with
Speaker 2: my credit card.
Speaker 3: I've been using it on like a Willy's vouchers oh
Speaker 3: so much, just because like, groceries are so expensive these
Speaker 3: days anyway.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent they are. That's such a smart way
Speaker 2: of using it as well, because that would go so
Speaker 2: much further, and it also ends up impacting your overall budget.
Speaker 2: Instead of you seeing it as like, oh I can
Speaker 2: get something new and shiny with this, because it's girl
Speaker 2: math money, you can actually cut down your bills and
Speaker 2: your actual spending, which ultimately impacts your financial security. So
Speaker 2: that's genius.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's I guess that's that's what I've been using
Speaker 3: it for. But yeah, it's It's definitely helped with the
Speaker 3: budget a bit more.
Speaker 2: I know everybody listening to this is probably thinking, there's
Speaker 2: no way this money direct has bad money habits. She's
Speaker 2: so young, so smart, so good with money. But we
Speaker 2: need to know do you have any bad money habits.
Speaker 2: What is your.
Speaker 3: Worst Unfortunately I do.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, okay, here we go, sorry.
Speaker 3: To break the fac had. I think my worst money
Speaker 3: habit is like going back to investing, is not really
Speaker 3: having like a solid plan for investing. Like I get
Speaker 3: the basic concepts of like investments and putting money into
Speaker 3: shares and that, but I keep forgetting to do it
Speaker 3: regularly or like sort of have a solid strategy for
Speaker 3: doing it. So like, for example, every time I've invested
Speaker 3: in shares, it's literally because I'll be having a conversation
Speaker 3: with like family or a friend or my partner and
Speaker 3: I like suddenly remember, like, oh, yeah, I have shares.
Speaker 3: I should probably check in on them. It's been a while.
Speaker 2: That's not the worst way to be.
Speaker 3: And then I log on and then I might make
Speaker 3: like one or two trays and then I just forget
Speaker 3: about it for the next six months. I'm lucky in that,
Speaker 3: like overall, I haven't made a loss, but there definitely
Speaker 3: has been like certain stocks and stuff.
Speaker 2: That that haven't performed as well.
Speaker 3: No have like completely crashed, and then like I'm too
Speaker 3: lazy sometimes to just like take them out, And I
Speaker 3: don't know. I think it's like some sort of weird
Speaker 3: mental block for me. But yeah, I feel like if
Speaker 3: I am a bit more diligent and actually like sat
Speaker 3: down to do like a you know, a real investment plan,
Speaker 3: like I could get better retens on my investments.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fair, fair, I mean, I will agree that that
Speaker 2: might be your worst money habit, but that's not the
Speaker 2: worst money habit I've ever heard. In fact, it makes
Speaker 2: me think that you're relatively good at money still, even
Speaker 2: though you think that's not a good habit, which leads
Speaker 2: me to my last question. At the start of the episode,
Speaker 2: I are, do what you would grade your own money habits?
Speaker 2: And you told me it was a B. After we
Speaker 2: have had a chat, do you still agree with a B?
Speaker 2: And if so, that's cool? What would it take to
Speaker 2: get you to an A?
Speaker 3: I think after speaking with you, I'll upgrade it to
Speaker 3: a B plus.
Speaker 2: Okay, I love you.
Speaker 3: Know you've fluffed me up a little bit.
Speaker 2: Always that's my job.
Speaker 3: So what would it take for me to get to
Speaker 3: an A? I think, yeah, like just having a more
Speaker 3: solid plan for investing. I think my exposure to sort
Speaker 3: of investing when I was younger was always like from
Speaker 3: property like real estate, right like that's what I feel
Speaker 3: like most parents in that generation say, but it's not
Speaker 3: as applicable for many people now and definitely not very
Speaker 3: feasible for me to just you know, build a real
Speaker 3: estate empire.
Speaker 2: Like it's yeah, yeah, it's definitely not what it used
Speaker 2: to be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so like looking into other forms of investments and
Speaker 3: for a lot of people that shares, it's a lot
Speaker 3: more accessible. And yeah, I feel like if I actually,
Speaker 3: like you know, did more research into it, was more
Speaker 3: diligent with it. Yeah, I could probably get myself to
Speaker 3: an A.
Speaker 2: I love that. I love that there's a plan though,
Speaker 2: and you know what, it will take money, Diarist, it
Speaker 2: has been an absolute pleasure chatting with you. I feel
Speaker 2: like I've learned a lot. I have felt that you
Speaker 2: have achieved so much, but you are still only a baby.
Speaker 2: You're only twenty four and you've done all this stuff.
Speaker 2: I'm just so impressed. But sadly, that is all we
Speaker 2: have time for today. So thank you so much for
Speaker 2: joining us. I'm just genuinely so grateful to share so
Speaker 2: many diverse stories in our community, Like our community is
Speaker 2: made up of so many beautiful human beings, and the
Speaker 2: fact that you want to hang out with me and
Speaker 2: share your story. It blows my mind. It's literally my
Speaker 2: favorite thing ever.
Speaker 3: So thank you, no, thank you so much for having
Speaker 3: me feel so happy and yeah, grateful to be here.
Speaker 2: I love that. Thank you and just.
Speaker 3: Like contributing back to I guess like, yeah, like this community,
Speaker 3: as you said, because it's really helped me a lot,
Speaker 3: like your content and like the Facebook group and everything,
Speaker 3: like I love going in there and feel like I've
Speaker 3: learned a lot over the past few years.
Speaker 2: Oh, I love this. Thank you so much. All Right,
Speaker 2: have the best day, and I'm sure we'll cross paths
Speaker 2: again very soon. The advice shared on She's on the
Speaker 2: Money is general in nature and does not consider your
Speaker 2: individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists purely for educational
Speaker 2: purposes and should not be relied upon to make an
Speaker 2: investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy
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