Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud Yr
Speaker 1: the Order Kerney Whalbury 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. She's on the Money, She's on
Speaker 2: the Money. Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money,
Speaker 2: the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back
Speaker 2: to another one of our money diaries where we get
Speaker 2: to talk with one of our beautiful She's on the
Speaker 2: Money community members all about their money story. Let's jump
Speaker 2: straight into it, because this week I got a message
Speaker 2: and it went like this, Hi, Victoria, I grew up
Speaker 2: with the polar opposite immigrant parents, tiger parent versus carefree.
Speaker 2: I went on to earn minimum wage in a toxic
Speaker 2: work environment and felt so lost to tripling my income
Speaker 2: in a job and team that I absolutely adore. I
Speaker 2: have a DIY investment portfolio, a side hustle in the
Speaker 2: wedding industry that had a one hundred and fifty k
Speaker 2: profit within the first nine months of its starting. But
Speaker 2: most importantly repairing the relationship with my inner child, and
Speaker 2: having the best circle of friends that love and support
Speaker 2: me unconditionally. Looking back, everything I've been through has been
Speaker 2: preparing me for the life I'm living now. Money Diarist,
Speaker 2: what a beautiful story.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited to talk to you. Before we jump
Speaker 2: into the structured questions, though, I want to know if
Speaker 2: I asked you to give yourself a grade of your
Speaker 2: money habits all the way from A through F, what
Speaker 2: would you say your money habits are.
Speaker 3: I think if you asked me like two years ago,
Speaker 3: I'll give you like an A, because I was like
Speaker 3: clean of like saving and like budgeting. And now I
Speaker 3: think I'm sitting around like a B or a C.
Speaker 3: I think I really fell off that slippery slope.
Speaker 2: Why do you think you fell off the slippery slope.
Speaker 3: I think lifestyle creep is a huge thing for me,
Speaker 3: which is terrible to save. But I think as I
Speaker 3: started earning more. I started, you know, treating myself a
Speaker 3: bit too much and going on like really nice holidays,
Speaker 3: like splurging on really nice facials, dog toys, stuff like that.
Speaker 2: I love that you're like holidays and dog toys.
Speaker 3: I have no self control, like, especially when I go
Speaker 3: on holidays toys.
Speaker 2: I feel like that's really relatable though, and it makes sense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. And then it got to a point I
Speaker 3: think last year I realized I didn't really save any money.
Speaker 3: I just spent it all.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, were you heartbroken when you worked that out?
Speaker 3: I was more concerned, like you know, when you just
Speaker 3: get horrified about what you've done, and it was all me,
Speaker 3: so no one to blame but myself.
Speaker 2: Yes, I totally do. I have absolutely been there, all right.
Speaker 2: I feel like I've gotten a fairly good vibe of
Speaker 2: where you're at at the moment. But I want to know,
Speaker 2: can you tell us a little bit more about your
Speaker 2: money story.
Speaker 3: I touched on when I wrote in that I grew
Speaker 3: up with two immigrant parents. My mum was always very strict.
Speaker 3: She was a typical tyger parent, you know the one
Speaker 3: that you know her doctor, you're a lawyer or engineer
Speaker 3: or you're just a disappointment. Oh no, yeah, And my
Speaker 3: dad was always more like, you know, be happy and everything.
Speaker 3: So when I finished high school, I didn't go down
Speaker 3: the traditional doctor path. I went and I studied media,
Speaker 3: and then I kind of thought that if I got
Speaker 3: a job which paid nicely, and you know how media
Speaker 3: is kind of typical for being underpaid, especially when you're starting.
Speaker 3: So I thought, event if I work myself up to
Speaker 3: make a nice size income, it will be something that
Speaker 3: you know, my mom in particular, my parents would acknowledge
Speaker 3: what I do. So when I started within the media industry,
Speaker 3: I was earning I think forty five grand pro rather
Speaker 3: by the way, it was basically.
Speaker 2: Which is a pretty standard starter, yeah.
Speaker 3: Which is basically a good starter. Then I left that
Speaker 3: to earn around sixty and that was post COVID, So
Speaker 3: I basically got really bored and just wanted a job
Speaker 3: at home because I quit my job after UNI, thinking
Speaker 3: I'm going to get travel, I'm going to have the
Speaker 3: time of my life, find myself, and then COVID happened
Speaker 3: and shut all my plans down. So I got this
Speaker 3: job also within the media field, and it was the
Speaker 3: most toxic environment i've ever been in. I think the
Speaker 3: red flags were flying off when I first started my
Speaker 3: interview with the managing director, and then it just kind
Speaker 3: of felt like very mean girls with like thirty year
Speaker 3: old men and women. It was very strange.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there was this one instance where I think he
Speaker 3: was one of the directors who'll go around asking everyone
Speaker 3: for a coffee. So he'll be like, hey, Victoria, do
Speaker 3: you want a coffee? Hehs, do you want a coffee?
Speaker 3: Completely ignore one person in the room and skip them
Speaker 3: and go the person sitting next to them, and it
Speaker 3: was just so obvious. I just I think after my
Speaker 3: first week there, I was like, I need to get
Speaker 3: out of here, like I was so unhappy. And then
Speaker 3: that's when I started mass applying to everything and was like,
Speaker 3: even if I was not qualified at all, I just
Speaker 3: applied anyway, Like what's the worst that could happen, that
Speaker 3: will ghost me whatever, And then I landed this job here,
Speaker 3: which I'm really happy with. Everyone's super lovely, getting paid
Speaker 3: more than ever, but my mom still doesn't know what
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 2: She's great, Oh no, so what do you currently do
Speaker 2: for work and how much money do you earn?
Speaker 3: So I'm currently working in the dart in analytics space,
Speaker 3: specifically marketing. So I'm a senior mark analysts and I
Speaker 3: earn one hundred and thirty grand a year plus my
Speaker 3: super plus a twenty percent bonus.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, that's exciting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, can considering way from like forty five grand to
Speaker 3: one hundred and thirty within like a few years. That's
Speaker 3: pretty cool. I love what I do. It's really it's
Speaker 3: really interesting looking into like all the data stuff of
Speaker 3: marketing and like first party data and everything as well.
Speaker 3: And then I have a rental income of five hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty a week and my wedding side hustle which
Speaker 3: is ticking over two hundred and ten grand and becomes
Speaker 3: our one year anniversary next month.
Speaker 2: I need to know what do you do? How are
Speaker 2: you doing it? What is this company? I just need
Speaker 2: to know more.
Speaker 3: Wedding photography and videography, which is really nice. Me and
Speaker 3: my partner do it. He's a professional videographer and photographer
Speaker 3: as a career, so he has all the gear and
Speaker 3: all the knowledge behind that, and he needs to do
Speaker 3: weddings as part of his media company. And then after
Speaker 3: he sold it, people kept coming to him for like
Speaker 3: shooting their weddings and stuff, and I was like, I'm
Speaker 3: going to read and I'm going to take it away
Speaker 3: from the traditional media vibe. So everything's very like soft pinks,
Speaker 3: rich burgundies. Very nice. It also helps. I have a
Speaker 3: background in marketing, so like paid marketing is.
Speaker 2: Like one point and I'm very helpful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but yeah, it's a really nice thing we do
Speaker 3: on the side.
Speaker 2: Oh how exciting. That is so cool. So do you
Speaker 2: work full time during the week and then do that
Speaker 2: on the.
Speaker 3: Weekends, Yeah, which becomes a lot.
Speaker 2: It sounds like a lot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but we're really good. We kind of set a
Speaker 3: limit on how many we do a week or a month,
Speaker 3: and then we just chop it off and if we
Speaker 3: don't want to take it on, we don't. It's more
Speaker 3: important finding the people that you know, suits our vibe,
Speaker 3: that we get along with, because I think we spend
Speaker 3: the whole day with you, like we're there the whole day.
Speaker 3: There's no going anywhere. If you don't feel comfortable with us,
Speaker 3: it makes for a very awkward portrait session.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent. One hundred percent. So you are absolutely
Speaker 2: smashing it. You've basically tripled your income and you and
Speaker 2: your partner have this epic wedding side hustle business. Talk
Speaker 2: to me about what your big money goal at the
Speaker 2: moment is.
Speaker 3: I would love to have my own little home in
Speaker 3: Sydney that's where I'm based, with a backyard for my dogs,
Speaker 3: which kind of puts me of like purchase price well
Speaker 3: into like two meal around there if you want like
Speaker 3: a backyard, So not the cheapest place to buy a property.
Speaker 3: I think that's a goal within the next few years
Speaker 3: that we might tick off, but for now, I really
Speaker 3: want to travel a bit more.
Speaker 2: That's so exciting. I feel like a big money goal
Speaker 2: like that can be really overwhelming, but it sounds like
Speaker 2: you're really optimistic about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think it helps with the side dussle.
Speaker 2: Oh totally. And to be super pervy, what does your
Speaker 2: partner do Monday to Friday, nine to five.
Speaker 3: He has a media agency.
Speaker 2: Yeah, awesome, So he's got his own thing going on,
Speaker 2: and then you've got this wedding thing together and then
Speaker 2: you are absolutely killing it in your career. That's all
Speaker 2: so so exciting, all right, I have so many questions.
Speaker 2: We're going to kind of really quick break and then
Speaker 2: when we get back, I actually want to ask you
Speaker 2: a little bit more about that rental income you mentioned.
Speaker 2: Don't go anywhere, guys, money diarist. You mentioned before that
Speaker 2: you have a five hundred and fifty dollars per week
Speaker 2: rental income. How did that come to be? How did
Speaker 2: you end up with rental income? Is this your property
Speaker 2: you and your partners? Like, when did you first purchase?
Speaker 2: I want to know all the juicy details.
Speaker 3: It is my property that I purchased. It's inter state,
Speaker 3: so the property is in Brisbane. So I purchased it
Speaker 3: two years ago, which is the anniversary of my fixed
Speaker 3: rate coming off fix, which is quite depressing.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So my brother goes to UNI up in Brisbane, so
Speaker 3: he was using like student accommodation for a while, and
Speaker 3: then it got to a point where we realized he
Speaker 3: wasn't coming back to Sydney to study or anything, so
Speaker 3: we figured that I might as well buy it off there.
Speaker 3: He paid me very minimum rent for the first year
Speaker 3: that he was there, and then he moved out with
Speaker 3: his girlfriend and I got like a a tenant in
Speaker 3: giving me proper rent, which was nice. Do you want
Speaker 3: to know the finances behind?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I was gonna say that is so exciting I
Speaker 2: would love to know more about how you saved for
Speaker 2: that first property, given you haven't been in your current
Speaker 2: role as long as that property has been owned.
Speaker 3: It was a lot of saving for my Europe. Chope,
Speaker 3: it's just my whole Europe funds went into there, So
Speaker 3: I think I put down I purchased the property for
Speaker 3: four hundred and forty thousand, so I think I put
Speaker 3: down around one hundred eighty grand on it.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, how on earth did you come to
Speaker 2: have that much savings? I'm so impressed.
Speaker 3: I worked a lot when I was in Uni. I
Speaker 3: think I started, like first year out of UNI, just
Speaker 3: doing like your typical retail jobs. I mostly stocked cosmetics,
Speaker 3: so I worked at Sofara and Mecha, which paid a
Speaker 3: little bit better than normal like clothing retail. And then
Speaker 3: all the money that I saved from working just all
Speaker 3: went into that, which made me feel really sad when
Speaker 3: I like signed all my money away. But it's good.
Speaker 3: It's a lot in value. I had it revalued recently
Speaker 3: and it is six hundred k. Now it's quite a
Speaker 3: bit of equity, which is nice. I'm hoping I can
Speaker 3: use that. Oh my gosh, what yeah, I think I
Speaker 3: bought pre COVID.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, but all of that works out really nicely
Speaker 2: to have purchased for four forty and now it's worth
Speaker 2: six hundred K. You absolutely need to come and talk
Speaker 2: to one of our Zello brokers to see what you
Speaker 2: can do as your next step.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely, all right.
Speaker 2: Next question I have for you, so we already know
Speaker 2: about your property, talk to me about debts. What is
Speaker 2: the mortgage on that currently and do you have any
Speaker 2: other debts?
Speaker 3: So I have the current mortgage. I wrote this all
Speaker 3: down for you. The current mortgage three hundred and fifty
Speaker 3: grand on the home loan a thirty grand hexet. I
Speaker 3: did a double degree in media and commerce, may have
Speaker 3: failed the subject or two, so it's not looking pretty.
Speaker 2: We won't talk about that. Thirty K for a double
Speaker 2: degree is pretty good.
Speaker 3: Which I think it was sitting at around forty. I
Speaker 3: think it helps that I earn a little bit higher,
Speaker 3: so it takes away a bit more so when I
Speaker 3: get my pay slip if they all lump it into tax,
Speaker 3: so all my normal income tax with my hextare all
Speaker 3: come out. Yeah, very sad amount to look at. And
Speaker 3: then I also salary sacrifice for my car, which costs
Speaker 3: me around seven hundred and fifty or fortnite. Oh cool, Yeah,
Speaker 3: but that pretty much seven to fifty that pays for
Speaker 3: the car, pays for my petrol, servicing, tires, any insurances,
Speaker 3: green slips and stuff like that. So the car is
Speaker 3: salary sacrifice for three years. I did go for a
Speaker 3: bougier car.
Speaker 2: I was about to say, so, you're saying it was
Speaker 2: seven to fifty per fortnite, which according to my calculations
Speaker 2: is very close to maybe twenty thousand is Ish dollars
Speaker 2: a year, which if it's a three year loan, that's
Speaker 2: about sixty thousand dollars. What are you driving? We need
Speaker 2: to know Mercedes, a fancy girl car.
Speaker 3: Yeah. The interior of the car, there's like the whole
Speaker 3: screen that goes across from the driver to the passenger side.
Speaker 3: It was very bougie and I couldn't look last.
Speaker 2: Well, we all have very different money goals. So do
Speaker 2: you have any other their debts apart from the hex
Speaker 2: step that you mentioned and the mortgage and obviously your
Speaker 2: salary sacrificing a car, which let's call that a debt
Speaker 2: because it's a consistent repayment. You need to make.
Speaker 3: No no other debts.
Speaker 2: How exciting?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 2: I want to know you said before, and so I'm
Speaker 2: really interested to know what you think this is. You're
Speaker 2: maybe now a B or a C, and two years
Speaker 2: ago maybe you were in A So I want to know, now,
Speaker 2: what do you think your best money habit is.
Speaker 3: I'm that person that loves points, So I put all
Speaker 3: my expenses on my credit card and then I pay
Speaker 3: it off pretty much as I buy. So if I
Speaker 3: went to woo work spent two hundred bucks, I'll transfer
Speaker 3: to two hundred bucks and pay it off straight away. I've
Speaker 3: gone very strict with myself on that, which I guess
Speaker 3: also pays for my flights when I go traveling. So
Speaker 3: I've gotten like pretty nice flights for like one hundred
Speaker 3: and two hundred dollars because I just pay the taxes.
Speaker 2: I feel like I need to be better at this
Speaker 2: because everyone talks about how they're getting all these free
Speaker 2: flights and I just had to book flights recently for
Speaker 2: a trip that I'm going on and I didn't get anything.
Speaker 2: I think I put some points towards it that I
Speaker 2: had and I was like, what do you mean? I
Speaker 2: only get fifty bucks off what is this? Everybody gets
Speaker 2: free flights. I want free flights.
Speaker 3: You need to book the classic reward flights otherwise think
Speaker 3: it becomes like ridiculously expensive. There's like selected types of
Speaker 3: seats that they have opened.
Speaker 2: I need to get everybody's tips and tricks.
Speaker 3: I booked business class tickets to Europe for this year
Speaker 3: and it only cost me like three four hundred dollars return.
Speaker 2: So, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3: I think that's my best money habit. And then like
Speaker 3: your calls, your Wi words, your Quantus points and stuff.
Speaker 3: I'm with Medibank for my health insurance and they have
Speaker 3: this thing called the Live More app or Live Better
Speaker 3: or something like that, and you earn points which you
Speaker 3: can use to take money off your premiums. So I've
Speaker 3: been doing that and it saves me like two three
Speaker 3: hundred bucks a year.
Speaker 2: That's pretty exciting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for like stuff you do, like getting your steps
Speaker 3: in or like reading book.
Speaker 2: Yes smart, Oh my gosh. All right, we'll flip it
Speaker 2: on its head. I want to know, what do you
Speaker 2: think your worst money habit is.
Speaker 3: I get hyper fixated on something and I won't stop
Speaker 3: until I get it. And most of the time that
Speaker 3: thing that I'm really fixated on there is like a
Speaker 3: nice handbag, but it would be like a nice Chanel bag,
Speaker 3: which does not come to you. I think if I
Speaker 3: want something, I would get the best that there is
Speaker 3: on the market for it. In my head, I try
Speaker 3: and rationalize it.
Speaker 2: In your head. You try and rationalize it. How do
Speaker 2: we rationalize a Chanel bag?
Speaker 3: All the values increased? Heave so great investment.
Speaker 2: I feel like everybody says that, But if I'm going
Speaker 2: to buy a handbag, not only am I going to
Speaker 2: use it, but there's no way you're going to pry
Speaker 2: that off me and make me sell it. Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: it might increase in value, but I'm gonna keep that.
Speaker 2: Nobody's going to get that off me.
Speaker 3: It makes me feel better. I was like, if I
Speaker 3: wanted to, I could, but I'm not going to.
Speaker 2: That's fair. That's fair speaking about investments, and I mean
Speaker 2: Chanelle is probably not the best investment. In saying that,
Speaker 2: when it does come to the financial return of Chanell bags,
Speaker 2: I do believe over the last ten years they have
Speaker 2: performed better than the share market, which is a bit wild.
Speaker 2: But I want to know what do you currently invest
Speaker 2: in and how do you do that?
Speaker 3: Just mentioning on the Chanel bags. I bought a bag
Speaker 3: in I think twenty eighteen or twenty sixteen or something
Speaker 3: like that for three point five in our retails for
Speaker 3: seven grand. So just putting it out there not bad.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's good. But the real question here is are
Speaker 2: you selling it?
Speaker 3: No? But doesn't make me feel boder Yes.
Speaker 2: You're like, no, but it does make me feel better
Speaker 2: that it's worth that about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it'll never part with it, but just.
Speaker 2: Knowing that's very fair. I want to know, though, tell
Speaker 2: me all about your DIY investment portfolio.
Speaker 3: So I think I have like fifteen or twenty grand
Speaker 3: sitting in it. It's mostly ETFs and a few shares
Speaker 3: that I just picked out because they sounded cool at
Speaker 3: the time. I think my first one I bought was
Speaker 3: I had no idea what I was buying. I was
Speaker 3: on the Comsec app on the Comsex website, and you
Speaker 3: know how there's a section that goes trending shares. I
Speaker 3: picked on that was trending and I bought it. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and it actually was like the best performer in my.
Speaker 2: For a solid investment strategy.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Other than that, it's just your usual ETFs, like
Speaker 3: the very common ones I've been putting money into. I
Speaker 3: was introduced to shares from pretty much after high school
Speaker 3: and UNI. I think it was something that my boyfriends
Speaker 3: at the time we were really into. So I dated
Speaker 3: someone that was an options trader, so that's all that
Speaker 3: he would talk about, and then other people that were
Speaker 3: like in the investment industry. So I learned a lot
Speaker 3: about different strategies and different what your different options are
Speaker 3: through them, which forever grateful even if it didn't work out,
Speaker 3: at least I learned something and moved on. I also
Speaker 3: have the investment property in Brisbane which is at six
Speaker 3: hundred K and super which is thirty K.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so good. I love that you've lumped in even
Speaker 2: though you have a DII investment platform, you've still included
Speaker 2: superannuation because it's so important to still see that as
Speaker 2: a proper investment, and that is actually putting you in
Speaker 2: a better position to working towards financial freedom. Now that
Speaker 2: we've had this chat, I feel like I've learned to
Speaker 2: lot about you. I feel like we're on the same
Speaker 2: page when it comes to valuing Chanell bags, but also
Speaker 2: maybe not wanting to part with them. I want to
Speaker 2: know you said earlier that I'd probably give myself a
Speaker 2: B or a C when it came to money habits.
Speaker 2: But I feel like you've got it pretty sorted out.
Speaker 2: You've got a really good income. You're earning one thirty
Speaker 2: plus super plus a twenty percent bonus, which to me
Speaker 2: is wild. You want to buy a home, You've already
Speaker 2: got an investment property, you're investing in Chares and Chanell.
Speaker 2: Do you still think you're sitting at a B or
Speaker 2: a C? Would you want to change that at all?
Speaker 3: I think still a BEER or a C. Like all
Speaker 3: that money that I made last year was all spence,
Speaker 3: so not the best on my behalf.
Speaker 2: That's very fair. I feel like being honest about our
Speaker 2: situations means we can put ourselves in a better one
Speaker 2: in the future, Money Direst. I have loved having this
Speaker 2: conversation with you. I feel like it's so interesting to
Speaker 2: talk to people, especially people like you. Where you said,
Speaker 2: I've grown up with immigrant parents. They were completely polar opposites,
Speaker 2: and it's so interesting to see what like types of
Speaker 2: personality traits you might have got either of them. Because
Speaker 2: now that you're talking about it, you are so structured
Speaker 2: and you are so good with it, and I don't
Speaker 2: think you're giving yourself as much credit as you could,
Speaker 2: which maybe leans towards your tiger mum. But then you're
Speaker 2: also kind of carefree, which leans a little bit more
Speaker 2: towards your dad, which is so beautiful to see it
Speaker 2: coming out in different ways.
Speaker 3: That's so nice.
Speaker 2: I think, thank you, no, well, thank you so much. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: that is all we have time for today, and I'm
Speaker 2: sure we'll speak soon. Thank you so much for your
Speaker 2: money diary.
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
Speaker 2: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
Speaker 2: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
Speaker 2: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
Speaker 2: If you do choose to buy a financial product, read
Speaker 2: the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards
Speaker 2: your needs. Victoria Divine and She's on the Line Money
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