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.
Speaker 4: She's on the Money.
Speaker 2: Hello and welcome.
Speaker 5: She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want
Speaker 5: financial freedom. Welcome back to another one of our money diaries,
Speaker 5: my favorite episode of the week where we get to
Speaker 5: talk with one of our incredible She's on the Money
Speaker 5: community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it,
Speaker 5: because this week I got an email and it sounded
Speaker 5: like this, Hi, She's on the Money team. Three years ago,
Speaker 5: my husband and I found ourselves drowning in debt after
Speaker 5: traveling and treating ourselves a little too much with no regrets.
Speaker 5: We were overwhelmed by the task of sorting out our finances.
Speaker 5: We have a little boy with special needs who is
Speaker 5: the center of our world, and in between juggling family life,
Speaker 5: working part time as a teacher's aid, and terrible surprise
Speaker 5: tax bills, we've paid off eighty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Worth of debt in only three years.
Speaker 5: We are very close to being debt free and we
Speaker 5: cannot wait for the next step in our money journey.
Speaker 5: Money Diarist, you just sound like a queen all round.
Speaker 5: Not only eighty grand, you're still working, you have a
Speaker 5: little special boy, Like, what's going on?
Speaker 2: How good is that?
Speaker 3: Yes, we've been very dissy.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 5: I'm very excited to be able to share your story.
Speaker 5: Do you want to just dive right in? Let's start
Speaker 5: with the question that I ask every single Mundy Diarist
Speaker 5: money Dirist before we dive into your story. What grade
Speaker 5: would you give your money habits if I asked you
Speaker 5: to grade them from A through to an F.
Speaker 3: I think at the moment I would give myself a B.
Speaker 2: Minus a B minus.
Speaker 5: All right, Well, now my favorite question, let's dive into
Speaker 5: the juicy stuff. Can you tell us a little bit
Speaker 5: more about your money story.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, so I guess our money story would start when
Speaker 3: we got married. We got married quite young, and my
Speaker 3: husband and I have very different money backgrounds. So for me,
Speaker 3: I remember growing up, I was always very aware of money.
Speaker 3: My parents worked really hard and they never burdened my
Speaker 3: brother and I with any challenges they had or anything
Speaker 3: like that. But I just remember my friends not having
Speaker 3: a care in the world, And you know, I wanted
Speaker 3: to save. I wanted to buy my own things at
Speaker 3: a young age, and when I got my first part
Speaker 3: time job, I would always put money aside, even though
Speaker 3: it was only like twenty dollars a week, and I'd
Speaker 3: create these little tracking sheets where I could keep track
Speaker 3: of how much I could save. So that's definitely continued
Speaker 3: on into my adult life. However, my husband, his family
Speaker 3: moved countries twice when he was ten and then eighteen. Wow,
Speaker 3: So yeah, he's got a very different background. He's just
Speaker 3: grateful for anything he has, which is such a beautiful attitude.
Speaker 3: And for him, if his bills are paid, he wants
Speaker 3: to use the rest of his money to be generous
Speaker 3: to his friends and family and to enjoy, which I
Speaker 3: really appreciate, but it's definitely different to my approach, Like
Speaker 3: I'm definitely a saver. So yeah, that's how we've kind
Speaker 3: of had to meet in the middle, and I feel
Speaker 3: like now we're in a great place where we are
Speaker 3: able to do that and we share the same money values.
Speaker 2: That's really sweet.
Speaker 5: Though he sounds like a honey, this is so sidetracked.
Speaker 5: But everyone wonders, I don't know, how did you meet
Speaker 5: your husband?
Speaker 3: We just met through friends, actually, and it was one
Speaker 3: of those things where we just connected straight away, got
Speaker 3: to know each other and just have never spent a
Speaker 3: moment apart since. Really, like we just really connected and
Speaker 3: very in love still, which I'm grateful for because we
Speaker 3: never could have foreseen the challenges that would come our way.
Speaker 3: And yeah, probably if we did, it would have been
Speaker 3: a lot more stressful.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, when you say challenges, what are we looking at?
Speaker 5: Are we talking debt? Are we talking family? Tell me
Speaker 5: a little bit more about that side of your story.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So, once we got married, we wanted to travel
Speaker 3: and we did not have much money, but we would
Speaker 3: just save up, book a flight, save up, go kind
Speaker 3: of thing, and we loved that and we had really
Speaker 3: not a care in the world, like, we didn't care
Speaker 3: if we came home and we had nothing. We were
Speaker 3: just enjoying those experiences together and like I said in
Speaker 3: the intro, like no regrets whatsoever. And a couple of
Speaker 3: years after we got married, we fell pregnant with our son,
Speaker 3: which was a big surprise. And we'd been to America
Speaker 3: and Singapore and Fiji, and an opportunity came up to
Speaker 3: go to Europe with one of my husband's best friends,
Speaker 3: and it was kind of a once in a lifetime
Speaker 3: opportunity because he'd had two friends pull out. So we
Speaker 3: were just feeling those spots and a lot of things
Speaker 3: were already paid for. He just wanted some companies. So
Speaker 3: I was heavily pregnant, but we were like, we're not
Speaker 3: passing that up. So obviously amazing experience and so so grateful.
Speaker 3: But we got home we had nothing, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3: my goodness, We've got to buy all this stuff for
Speaker 3: a baby now. But you know that all works out.
Speaker 3: And then when our son was quite young, I think
Speaker 3: he was probably about eighteen months, my husband was a
Speaker 3: subcontractor at the time, and we received some information from
Speaker 3: our accountant that basically said we had a big tax
Speaker 3: bill coming of twenty eight thousand dollars. I wouldn't say
Speaker 3: we were struggling, but we were finding it hard to
Speaker 3: make ends meet. We were definitely saving a little bit, but
Speaker 3: mostly living week to week because I was working, I
Speaker 3: was home with our son and that was really important
Speaker 3: for us to have that time with him. So that
Speaker 3: was quite daunting. That was probably the biggest challenge we've
Speaker 3: ever faced. And we just kind of looked at each
Speaker 3: other and we're like, you know, our life's going to
Speaker 3: be very different while we pay this off. And we
Speaker 3: had some beautiful friends who knew what were going through
Speaker 3: and offered to pay it off for us, but we
Speaker 3: just felt we needed to do this on our own,
Speaker 3: and we ended up coming to the decision to move
Speaker 3: in with my parents, and my parents, you know, did
Speaker 3: not hesitate for a second. They were more than happy
Speaker 3: to have us there while we were to pay that
Speaker 3: debt down.
Speaker 5: So tell me a little bit more about how a
Speaker 5: surprise twenty eight thousand dollars tax debt happens Like that
Speaker 5: to me is terrifying, Like I hate the idea that
Speaker 5: one day you wake up and wow, twenty eight thousand
Speaker 5: dollars is owed, Like what happened was your husband, you know,
Speaker 5: not paying tax or not paying enough for like got
Speaker 5: bad advice, like what happened.
Speaker 3: So basically what happened was we were always paying tax.
Speaker 3: I always put aside twenty percent from each of his incomes.
Speaker 3: That was something we always stressed about a lot. Was
Speaker 3: this situation that ended up happening At the end of
Speaker 3: the day, it was just an error. When you work
Speaker 3: for yourself, I guess your accountant will send you all
Speaker 3: of your tax return, your income statements, all of those things,
Speaker 3: and you have to look over it as well as
Speaker 3: them and to us. So we're like, yeah, everything's fine,
Speaker 3: and there was an error in it, unfortunately, so we
Speaker 3: thought we'd paid quite a lot of tax and GST,
Speaker 3: but it clearly wasn't enough, and so it wasn't until
Speaker 3: things were checked at a later date that it was
Speaker 3: discovered that this mistake had been made. And luckily it
Speaker 3: wasn't a really really bad situation. You get a payment
Speaker 3: plan from the ATO, there's no interest or anything like that.
Speaker 5: I was about to ask, Yeah, I was about to
Speaker 5: be like, surely they let you have a payment plan.
Speaker 2: Please tell me they do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know that was my first question. I'm like,
Speaker 3: what are we going to do and he's like, oh,
Speaker 3: there's a payment plan. It's eight hundred a month was
Speaker 3: like the minimum. Don't quote me on that, but it
Speaker 3: was a lot. So we'd just taken out a car
Speaker 3: loan of forty grand. No. Yeah, I was a bit
Speaker 3: hesitant to do that, but we were like, oh, it's
Speaker 3: you know, a business expense because the car would be
Speaker 3: used for work. So yeah, well like, oh my goodness.
Speaker 3: So that plus this is like seventy thousand dollars of
Speaker 3: debt pretty much overnight. So yeah, it was daunting.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. And then what happened?
Speaker 5: So you sorted out this payment plan with the atiro
Speaker 5: started smashing that down at a minimum of eight hundred
Speaker 5: bucks a month. How long did that take you or
Speaker 5: is this something that you're still working through? Like where
Speaker 5: does that additional ten thousand dollars worth of debt come from?
Speaker 5: When we're talking about that eighty grand that you said
Speaker 5: that you're in in your letter into the show.
Speaker 3: Right, So we found out about the tax debt at
Speaker 3: the end of twenty twenty, and thankfully our rental lease
Speaker 3: was up in March, so we just paid the minimum
Speaker 3: for those couple of months, and we moved in with
Speaker 3: my parents and we had it all paid off by
Speaker 3: I think September that year. It was between six and
Speaker 3: nine months we paid off. So we would do the
Speaker 3: minimum repayments, but we would just do as much as
Speaker 3: we could on top of that. Yeah, of course, to
Speaker 3: just smash it out. And it's such a daunting amount,
Speaker 3: Like I feel like, you know, anything from the ATO
Speaker 3: is daunting, but that was quite confronting.
Speaker 5: It's really scary when something like that happens because you
Speaker 5: also just don't have anything to show for it. You go, oh,
Speaker 5: but this isn't because of my quote spending habits, So
Speaker 5: this isn't a car loan, or this isn't something that
Speaker 5: you know, it was an asset that I could sell
Speaker 5: and get the tax down, Like I can't do that.
Speaker 5: I actually have to pay every single dollar of this,
Speaker 5: and I don't have any choice. I'm glad they set
Speaker 5: you up on a payment plan, but even that if
Speaker 5: feels like a more serious payment plan than paying a
Speaker 5: bank about k.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, there's no flexibility, like you really need to pay
Speaker 3: that off every month, and like you said, there's no
Speaker 3: satisfaction at the end of it, it's just off. Now
Speaker 3: we're at zero great, so yeah.
Speaker 5: The worst and you know what, it happens to a
Speaker 5: lot of people. And that's why I'm so passionate about
Speaker 5: Like she's on the money stuff, and we obviously do
Speaker 5: the Business Bible because it is actually on you. And
Speaker 5: I know that you said, oh, there was an error
Speaker 5: in it, and like that could have come from anywhere,
Speaker 5: but it's just you need to be in a position
Speaker 5: where you can read.
Speaker 2: It too and go, actually, that's not quite right.
Speaker 5: Even if you didn't know how to submit all of
Speaker 5: your forms or you didn't know how to do a
Speaker 5: full tax return yourself. Like I want to put people
Speaker 5: in the position where they can look at a tax
Speaker 5: return form and go, oh, actually that doesn't add up,
Speaker 5: so that they don't end up in your situation because
Speaker 5: it's trash, Like.
Speaker 2: That's not fun.
Speaker 5: You probably had a million and one other things that
Speaker 5: twenty eight grand could have gone towards, and unfortunately it
Speaker 5: didn't exactly.
Speaker 3: And that's why I'm so grateful for the podcast, because
Speaker 3: like before that, we were definitely like the kind of
Speaker 3: people who thought, Okay, let's just ignore that and hope
Speaker 3: it goes away. But the podcast has empowered me to,
Speaker 3: you know, just look at what's happening with our finances,
Speaker 3: and there's no secrets, there's no room for hiding. It
Speaker 3: is what it is, and the black and white is
Speaker 3: right in front of you. So now I have no
Speaker 3: issue looking through any of those documents and I just
Speaker 3: want to be informed about where we're at. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I love that so much.
Speaker 5: It makes me genuinely so happy because I just look
Speaker 5: at it and go, all right, well, I've seen people
Speaker 5: in these situations where the tax thing has scared them
Speaker 5: off so much that they don't do subcontracting work anymore,
Speaker 5: or you know, they change roles, or they don't you know,
Speaker 5: pursue having their own small business anymore because they're like,
Speaker 5: I'm not smart enough or I'm not good enough, or
Speaker 5: I was too silly with it and I couldn't be responsible.
Speaker 2: When that's not the case at all. It's just about education.
Speaker 5: And I'm sure you know, now, money direst You just
Speaker 5: read through it and you have a look and you go, oh,
Speaker 5: that doesn't make sense. I'll do a bit more research
Speaker 5: as to what that means, but it actually is quite logical.
Speaker 5: You just have to be taught the language, and that's
Speaker 5: what we're trying to do with She's on them money
Speaker 5: is like, give you the tools so you can read
Speaker 5: something and go, oh, that that makes sense. One plus
Speaker 5: one equals two. No worry, so I can see. So
Speaker 5: tell me you said that you were very close to
Speaker 5: being debt free. What does that mean? How long have
Speaker 5: we got to go? And what does the journey after
Speaker 5: that look like?
Speaker 3: So we have almost paid off our car. We also
Speaker 3: had another tax bill after that, twenty eight thousand dollars
Speaker 3: one which was twelve thousand you know. We paid that
Speaker 3: off quite quickly as well, and then my husband had
Speaker 3: no work for six months, so that was really hard.
Speaker 3: We used up our savings to get through that time.
Speaker 3: So I feel like it has been like one thing
Speaker 3: after another. But we're finally in a place where we've
Speaker 3: moved out of my mum and dads now, and we
Speaker 3: are very very very close. I think within the next
Speaker 3: few weeks we'll have our car paid off, so we'll
Speaker 3: owe that.
Speaker 2: Anah, that's so exciting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2: It feels like that though.
Speaker 5: Hey, when it rains, it pause like when one thing happens,
Speaker 5: I feel like it's a domino effect and you're like, Wow,
Speaker 5: this must just be an entire season of my life
Speaker 5: because it's one thing after another, and when it's money stuff.
Speaker 2: You're just like, can you give it a rest?
Speaker 5: Like I'm done with this, Like I'd like to just
Speaker 5: feel a little bit comfy for a little bit of time.
Speaker 3: Oh, definitely, can definitely relate.
Speaker 2: I want to know.
Speaker 5: Now you mentioned that you're still working, Tell me what
Speaker 5: do you do for work? How much money do you earn?
Speaker 3: So I am a teacher aid and currently I am
Speaker 3: just working casually. I went back to work in the
Speaker 3: middle of twenty twenty two. I was offered a contract
Speaker 3: three days a week and that was a lifesaver because
Speaker 3: that was the time when my husband wasn't working much
Speaker 3: and the last financial year, I think I earned just
Speaker 3: eighteen thousand. But this year I've decided to take a
Speaker 3: break because it's the last year before our beautiful sun
Speaker 3: goes off to prep So I just really want to
Speaker 3: have that time with him and have the flexibility to
Speaker 3: say yes or no to the work depending on what
Speaker 3: my family's needs are at the time. So very grateful
Speaker 3: for that.
Speaker 5: What will that look like? You mentioned that your son
Speaker 5: has special needs. What are they and what kind of
Speaker 5: financial impact does that have.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so our son has autism level three and ADHD
Speaker 3: and that has been a huge challenge for us. It's
Speaker 3: not what we plan for at all. I don't think
Speaker 3: anyone does. But he was diagnosed at a young age
Speaker 3: who were able to access NDIS funding really early on.
Speaker 3: We did pay out of pocket for therapies for a
Speaker 3: couple of months, which was obviously hard, but we knew
Speaker 3: he needed it and it was very beneficial. And now like,
Speaker 3: obviously all of his therapies and things like that are covered,
Speaker 3: which we're so grateful for. But I feel like the
Speaker 3: financial implications are more just the fact that I can't
Speaker 3: work full time. I can't even really commit to part
Speaker 3: time work at the moment because his needs are high
Speaker 3: and I need to be available for him if he's
Speaker 3: not able to go to Kindy that day or something
Speaker 3: like that, because some days he just needs to be
Speaker 3: at home in his safe space.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and that's what I was going to stretch into.
Speaker 5: I was hoping that you would mention the impact on
Speaker 5: you not being able to work, and like, obviously that's
Speaker 5: a choice for a lot of families, but you seem
Speaker 5: motivated to want to work and get back into the
Speaker 5: community and do all this stuff. But obviously you're unable
Speaker 5: to what will that look like when he's at school
Speaker 5: or is that something that you just don't know yet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we definitely don't know. Luckily, he attends
Speaker 3: a program one day a week at the school where
Speaker 3: he'll be attending, and that's why we've moved is to
Speaker 3: be closer to that. So I'm very confident that he
Speaker 3: will settle in beautifully because he's kind of familiar with
Speaker 3: the environment.
Speaker 2: Oh that's so good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's amazing. So I'm really really hoping that once
Speaker 3: he settled into school next year, I can continue with
Speaker 3: my teacher aid work and we're just going to have
Speaker 3: to see how it goes, obviously, but we're in an
Speaker 3: area where there's a lot of local schools, so I
Speaker 3: think even if I just do casual for a while,
Speaker 3: that'll be fine too.
Speaker 2: Yeah. How good. I love that you've found something that
Speaker 2: fits in.
Speaker 5: And teachers aids are so undervalued, and I would argue
Speaker 5: very underpaid given how to work you end up doing,
Speaker 5: but I think that that's such a special role for
Speaker 5: someone in your position, where there's that level of flexibility
Speaker 5: but also you probably have a level of empathy that
Speaker 5: not a lot of people do because you're going through
Speaker 5: a situation like you know how to deal with autism
Speaker 5: and ADHD and probably respond a lot better to those
Speaker 5: kids than someone who doesn't just have that first hand experience.
Speaker 5: So they're lucky to have you too.
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you. I love my job. It's amazing and yeah.
Speaker 2: It's so sweet.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 5: I want to know what are your big money goals?
Speaker 5: What are you and your husband currently working towards.
Speaker 3: Well, obviously the first one is being completely debt free
Speaker 3: for the first time in our whole relationship. I think
Speaker 3: we'll just soap that in for a little bit.
Speaker 2: That's big.
Speaker 5: Yeah, are you planning to celebrate? Like, what will we
Speaker 5: do when we get out of debt? Surely there's something
Speaker 5: has to be.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm going to set aside five hundred dollars and
Speaker 3: I think we're going to just spend the day together,
Speaker 3: go out for a lovely lunch and do a little
Speaker 3: bit of shopping. And I feel like things like that.
Speaker 3: Last few years, every dollar's counted and we've had to
Speaker 3: be so careful. So I just want to day where
Speaker 3: we just do whatever we want. And then get back
Speaker 3: on track with our goals.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I love it, but you do have to celebrate
Speaker 5: these things. I think that they're so important to celebrate
Speaker 5: because it's kind of like a pivot point not only
Speaker 5: in your relationship but in your financial journey. And you
Speaker 5: want to remember that. You want to be like, remember
Speaker 5: the time we got out of debt completely, Like that
Speaker 5: was special? Like that was cool? Yeah, definitely, And what
Speaker 5: else are you currently working towards apart from the debt
Speaker 5: free goal?
Speaker 3: So we would love to buy a property just to
Speaker 3: really help our son to have, you know, a home
Speaker 3: base that he can always come back to and where
Speaker 3: he feels safe and supported. And obviously we feel that
Speaker 3: home is where the heart is and we know wherever
Speaker 3: we move, he'll be okay because he's got us. But
Speaker 3: we would just love to have that for him where
Speaker 3: he can grow up and create memories. And one day,
Speaker 3: once we're in there, we would love to have a
Speaker 3: pool for him because water is his favorite thing in
Speaker 3: the world and I think that would just be amazing
Speaker 3: to have access to that every day.
Speaker 2: That would be so sweet. I love that.
Speaker 5: And I know that you're in Queensland, so having a
Speaker 5: pool in Queensland would be elite.
Speaker 2: Like I'm coming over one day.
Speaker 5: I want to ask about that because I feel so
Speaker 5: many of us in different stages of our lives, Like
Speaker 5: you might be quite young and you're like, I never
Speaker 5: want to own property?
Speaker 2: Was that you?
Speaker 5: And then just life has happened and pivoted and you're like, actually,
Speaker 5: that level of stability and that goal has now become
Speaker 5: quite attractive. Given our lives are very different to what
Speaker 5: they were when I was, you know, twenty two and
Speaker 5: didn't care so much about the property market. Like, at
Speaker 5: what point did you realize that was like, oh, actually
Speaker 5: we didn't want this, but now we do.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. Yeah, So we were definitely not interested in buying
Speaker 3: a home. We're kind of like why would we, Like,
Speaker 3: we can keep traveling, and after having our son, that
Speaker 3: was definitely a turning point. And I think also the
Speaker 3: obstacles we've faced over the last few years, we've realized
Speaker 3: how much we can achieve. I never thought could pay
Speaker 3: off you know, almost eighty thousand dollars of debt in
Speaker 3: a couple of years, but that's also shown me, Okay,
Speaker 3: well we can probably save that much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 5: I love your mindset at the moment, because so many
Speaker 5: people get swallowed by debt and don't see it as
Speaker 5: an achievement. Like, don't get me wrong, being in debt
Speaker 5: it feels awful. But if you can create a plan
Speaker 5: and you go you know, before you mentioned your tax debt,
Speaker 5: you had to pay eight hundred dollars a month off, Like,
Speaker 5: if you can create that type of plan, the second
Speaker 5: that's paid off, if you can consistently contribute that to
Speaker 5: now a savings account, like that all becomes yours instead
Speaker 5: of it becoming the taxman's, instead of it becoming a
Speaker 5: debt repayment, it's now your money to create financial freedom with.
Speaker 5: And I think it's so much easier. And you know,
Speaker 5: people aren't going to like to hear this, but once
Speaker 5: you've been in debt and you've seen how much actually
Speaker 5: goes out and you go fire out, twenty eight thousand
Speaker 5: dollars is so much money, and then you realize I
Speaker 5: could create that for myself. I feel like there's a
Speaker 5: really powerful turning point for us where we go, actually,
Speaker 5: I'm going to get out of debt and I am
Speaker 5: going to turn all of this around. And some of
Speaker 5: the most incredible journeys I've seen have been from people
Speaker 5: who have been in debt to people who are now
Speaker 5: investors or now owning property or you know, absolutely killing
Speaker 5: it financially because they know what it's like to be
Speaker 5: on the other end of the scale and they just
Speaker 5: go never again and they just have this deeper level
Speaker 5: of motivation. Do you think that's going to be you guys?
Speaker 3: Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: It's created big motivation for us to work out what
Speaker 3: we want to do, and it's been, like you said,
Speaker 3: very empowering to know that we can achieve our goals
Speaker 3: and to just put that into action, make it practical
Speaker 3: and make it happen.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 5: All right, let's go to a really quick break and
Speaker 5: on the flip side, I've got a lot of questions
Speaker 5: for you, So guys, don't go anywhere, all right, money, dirist,
Speaker 5: We are back and I want to talk about investments.
Speaker 5: Do you have any If you don't, what's the plan
Speaker 5: for the future.
Speaker 3: So at the moment, I have between four and five
Speaker 3: thousand in my super and I have four hundred dollars
Speaker 3: in Charez eas so I just kind of contribute a
Speaker 3: little bit each week to that, which is exciting.
Speaker 5: I love that you're on this journey, but you're also
Speaker 5: like no and prioritizing investing. Tell me why you picked
Speaker 5: Chazi's and I guess how you got started. Did you
Speaker 5: just put some.
Speaker 2: Cash on there? And then how did you pick which investments?
Speaker 5: I feel like that's the biggest question from our community
Speaker 5: at the moment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm still definitely working it out how to choose
Speaker 3: wisely and all of those things. But I think just
Speaker 3: listening to the podcast, obviously chazys Is mentioned a lot
Speaker 3: and having access to the free ten dollars, I was like,
Speaker 3: I'm not going to turn away free money.
Speaker 2: It's free money. Hey, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: So I did that and I just kind of thought, oh,
Speaker 3: let's just have a look and you know, if it
Speaker 3: goes nowhere, it's okay, it's ten dollars.
Speaker 2: So yeah, and it was free ten dollars.
Speaker 3: Obviously not super educated in this at all, but I
Speaker 3: get little dividends paid back into my account from certain
Speaker 3: ones that I've invested in, So you know, at the moment,
Speaker 3: it's not the right time in our life for me
Speaker 3: to be putting a lot into that, but I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 3: I can see this actually works. I've learned from the
Speaker 3: podcast that you know, if I just keep my money
Speaker 3: in there, just keep chipping away at it, popping what
Speaker 3: we can afford in each week, it will grow and
Speaker 3: I'll have something to show for it in the future.
Speaker 5: Yes, I love that, and I feel like sometimes people
Speaker 5: just go, oh, it's not worth it. I don't have
Speaker 5: heaps and heaps of money, but you can see that
Speaker 5: you've learned the process, you've learned the plan, you've seen
Speaker 5: the dividends, and it kind of proves to you that
Speaker 5: it's possible.
Speaker 2: And that you can do it.
Speaker 5: You don't need to be, you know, a stockbreaking genius
Speaker 5: to be able to jump in on the action. You
Speaker 5: can just go all right, this works, and at some
Speaker 5: point in your life you can turn that up.
Speaker 2: But I'm sure that'll be after you buy property. But
Speaker 2: that's so exciting.
Speaker 5: I'm glad I asked about it because it's just very
Speaker 5: relatable to be.
Speaker 2: At that stage.
Speaker 3: Yes, definitely.
Speaker 2: Next question I have is how much debt are you
Speaker 2: still in? What does that look like? And do you
Speaker 2: have any other debts floating around?
Speaker 3: So we have no other debts apart from the car loan,
Speaker 3: and we've got ten thousand dollars owing on that and
Speaker 3: that is due to finish dune next year, so when
Speaker 3: we pay it off, we'll be paying it off about
Speaker 3: a year early.
Speaker 2: Oh exciting.
Speaker 5: Congrats And how did you end up paying it off early?
Speaker 5: Are you just smashing down the debt or is that
Speaker 5: just part of the plan, Like, how did you decide,
Speaker 5: all right.
Speaker 2: We're going to get rid of this before the time
Speaker 2: is up.
Speaker 3: We have just been saving. We haven't done extra payments
Speaker 3: just because it was a little bit tricky with the
Speaker 3: way the loan is set up. So we've just made
Speaker 3: extra payments into our savings account that we will just
Speaker 3: do one final payment very soon and just finish that off.
Speaker 2: Ah. How exciting.
Speaker 5: All right, you have gone from being eighty thousand dollars
Speaker 5: in debt to now only ten thousand dollars, but with
Speaker 5: a plan to get rid of it. What do you
Speaker 5: think your best money habit is? We need to learn
Speaker 5: from you, my friend.
Speaker 3: So I would say my best man habit is, I'm
Speaker 3: really good at budgeting, and you know, I know what's
Speaker 3: coming in and coming out at any given time of
Speaker 3: the week or whatever. So I have a you know,
Speaker 3: general budget that we stick to, but I always check
Speaker 3: each week you know, do we have something extra, Do
Speaker 3: we have a wedding coming up that I need to
Speaker 3: put aside money for a gift for whatever. So I
Speaker 3: do have a lot of different accounts, like we've got
Speaker 3: gift fund, regio fund, all different accounts like that. But
Speaker 3: for me, it's just so good to have it all
Speaker 3: separated and I can see what we've got for each
Speaker 3: necessary item.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's so exciting. I love budgeting as well. I
Speaker 5: am biased, but I would say that's one of my
Speaker 5: best skills because it's automated. Do you automate your budget
Speaker 5: or is this something that you go in and manually
Speaker 5: change things and flip them around?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: What does that budgeting process look like?
Speaker 3: I don't automate it. I probably could. I like to
Speaker 3: just do it myself and know it's done correctly. Though.
Speaker 2: Oh that's definitely a thing that's good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I just go through, you know, when the
Speaker 3: pay comes in, I'm like, okay, cool, let's distribute those
Speaker 3: necessary funds to those accounts.
Speaker 5: So yeah, no, it makes absolute sense. Flipping the narrative though,
Speaker 5: what's your worst money habit?
Speaker 3: So I asked my husband this because I wasn't sure
Speaker 3: what to say, and he answered very quickly that I
Speaker 3: definitely don't treat myself enough. That's been a bit of
Speaker 3: an issue for us.
Speaker 2: Oh what a honey.
Speaker 3: He's always saying, like, just go and get your nails done,
Speaker 3: just do this. But I think I definitely have a
Speaker 3: little bit of an obsessive personality. And I'm like, no,
Speaker 3: I either do it every week or I don't do
Speaker 3: it at all, Like I'm either budgeting for this or
Speaker 3: I'm not.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I'm like that. I'm an all in kind
Speaker 5: of girly like it's all or nothing for me. Like
Speaker 5: if I am getting my lashes done, I'm getting them
Speaker 5: every two weeks and we are committed.
Speaker 2: To the cause I don't want them one off.
Speaker 5: Because I feel like I'll get used to them, Like
Speaker 5: if I budgeted just once, I'll be like, well now,
Speaker 5: I don't want to get rid of them, like if
Speaker 5: I can't thought it ongoing, like I can't afford it
Speaker 5: because I can't afford it mentally to be taken off me.
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm the same, Like it's easier to not do
Speaker 3: it than to miss out one time.
Speaker 2: Yep, No, I agree.
Speaker 5: It's so silly though, hey, because you're like, oh, but
Speaker 5: like getting your nails done once should be a little
Speaker 5: treaty treat exactly.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that's definitely my worst money habit. I think
Speaker 3: I still stress. I still have that scarcity mindset of
Speaker 3: oh my goodness, like there's a bit of trauma bay,
Speaker 3: I think from what we've gone through. So yeah, I
Speaker 3: think I still think, oh no, we're going to get
Speaker 3: another tax bill, but it's all done. My husband has
Speaker 3: a wager's job now, so it's not going to happen.
Speaker 5: Oh okay, So that really takes the pressure off, especially
Speaker 5: that side of things. And also the stability is probably
Speaker 5: very attractive. Hey oh yes, definitely, subcontracting can be quite
Speaker 5: tough because albeit really good rates, it's not consistent.
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly like he was earning such good money, but
Speaker 3: I would prefer a consistent pay each week any day. Then, yeah,
Speaker 3: you sporadic payments?
Speaker 5: Well literally all right, money dis At the very start
Speaker 5: of the show, you said you thought you're a B
Speaker 5: minus and I'm hearing a lot about how good you
Speaker 5: are with money and you're smashing down debt and like
Speaker 5: basically being a queen juggling family life and work and
Speaker 5: your husband's work and everything else in between. Do you
Speaker 5: still think you're a B minus. If so, why if not,
Speaker 5: what do you think you are now?
Speaker 3: Look, I probably could be a little bit more generous
Speaker 3: with myself. I think I'm definitely in the B range. Like,
Speaker 3: I'm still working on getting our budget to the best
Speaker 3: it can be, so you know, I feel like we've
Speaker 3: got a bit more room for improvement, and I think,
Speaker 3: you know, what we've achieved has been amazing. But I
Speaker 3: think once we get to that next stage and I
Speaker 3: can see that we're able to say, for a home
Speaker 3: and pay a deposit, then I'll definitely put myself up
Speaker 3: into that A range.
Speaker 2: I love it well.
Speaker 5: I can take you immediately to at least a B plus,
Speaker 5: maybe an A minus because I'm going to give you
Speaker 5: my money masterclass.
Speaker 2: You've said a couple of times that you want.
Speaker 5: To just get a little bit more on top of
Speaker 5: your budgeting, and like, I don't mean to be biased,
Speaker 5: but I'm pretty good at it, and it made a
Speaker 5: whole money masterclass so that I can basically do it
Speaker 5: for you. And if you love a spreadsheet, this one
Speaker 5: is all automated for you and then obviously has a
Speaker 5: whole heap of like videos to get back on top
Speaker 5: of it, and at this point, I feel like they
Speaker 5: might be really constructive for you and your husband to
Speaker 5: sit down and do because it goes through a lot
Speaker 5: about like money stories and money mindsets, so that this
Speaker 5: next chapter of your money life can be, you know,
Speaker 5: starting exactly on the same page and maybe having deeper
Speaker 5: discussions about you know, where he's come from, because you
Speaker 5: mentioned before he moves countries twice, and you know you're
Speaker 5: meeting in the middle. I reckon we could make that
Speaker 5: middle a little bit clearer so that you can both
Speaker 5: be super excited for the next chapter ahead. So I'm
Speaker 5: going to give that to you because I just think
Speaker 5: it's gonna help.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. I'm so excited.
Speaker 5: Well after the show, I'm gonna slip into your emails
Speaker 5: and make sure all of that is set up. But
Speaker 5: I'm excited that you think that you're on the way
Speaker 5: and that we are both on the same page. But Moneys, unfortunately,
Speaker 5: that is all we have time for today. It has
Speaker 5: been an absolute pleasure getting to know you. And as
Speaker 5: I said at the very start, before we even started recording,
Speaker 5: you just look so familiar and you sound so familiar.
Speaker 2: So I am convinced.
Speaker 5: We've cross paths before, but I know the community is
Speaker 5: going to love your story as much as I have
Speaker 5: loved hearing it, so thank you so much for sharing it.
Speaker 2: It has been an absolute pleasure.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 5: The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
Speaker 5: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
Speaker 5: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
Speaker 5: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
Speaker 5: If you do choose to buy a financial product, read.
Speaker 6: The PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial.
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