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: Millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one
Speaker 2: of our money daries where I get the absolute pleasure
Speaker 2: of sitting down with one of our She's on the
Speaker 2: Money community members and learning all about their journey. Let's
Speaker 2: jump straight into it, because this week I got a
Speaker 2: message and it sounded like this, Hi V. I've gone
Speaker 2: from a terrible relationship with money and a huge life
Speaker 2: setback which meant time off work and going broke, to
Speaker 2: turning around my whole life and money story with She's
Speaker 2: on the money, I'm well on the way to paying
Speaker 2: off my debts, I'm engaged, and the future looks so bright.
Speaker 2: I wanted to share this with you and our community
Speaker 2: money diarrest.
Speaker 4: Congrats, thank you. How exciting.
Speaker 2: I want to know a little bit more about the
Speaker 2: engagement though, because I love love. How long have you
Speaker 2: been engaged?
Speaker 4: About a year and a half now.
Speaker 2: So not even that long. Are we planning a wedding
Speaker 2: or not yet? What's the plan?
Speaker 4: Absolutely? We are so. At first we weren't sure how
Speaker 4: we were going to pull it off. But since I've
Speaker 4: got my money somewhat on track, we are planning on
Speaker 4: eloping next year.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I love that. And I just got
Speaker 2: a little glimpse of your gorgeous pair ring. Yes please,
Speaker 2: let's do a money diary, though, and let's start it
Speaker 2: the way I always do money diarist. What grade would
Speaker 2: you give your money habits if I asked you to
Speaker 2: give them a grade from A through to F.
Speaker 4: At the moment, I would give myself a C. That
Speaker 4: has actually come a long way. Just a few months ago,
Speaker 4: I probably would have been like an F minus.
Speaker 2: An F minus it's not being harsh on yourself at all.
Speaker 4: But it's still just at a c because I know
Speaker 4: that I've got a long way to go, but.
Speaker 2: You're on the way and you're excited about it, and
Speaker 2: I'm excited about it, So let's learn more about it.
Speaker 2: Tell me a bit more about your money story.
Speaker 4: Okay, So as a kid, I grew up in a
Speaker 4: pretty comfortable household. My parents have always been amazing with money. However,
Speaker 4: I did not inherit that gene. They've always been very
Speaker 4: low income owners but been really really good at saving.
Speaker 4: And I'm also an only child, so I never felt
Speaker 4: like I was missing out on anything. When I got
Speaker 4: my pocket money and stuff, I could never save it,
Speaker 4: Like I would be out at the shops the next
Speaker 4: day buying potato scallops most of the time.
Speaker 2: But I mean, I'm going to start a fight with
Speaker 2: you later about the sea, but we can also start
Speaker 2: a fight between calling it a potato scollop or a
Speaker 2: potato cake two if you want, but oh no, Victoria
Speaker 2: also like an elite purchase. I had one on the
Speaker 2: weekend and I hadn't had one in a couple of years,
Speaker 2: and I was like, why have I done this to myself?
Speaker 2: This is the best thing I've ever eaten in my
Speaker 2: whole life. Yeah, I need one, just so good anyway,
Speaker 2: tell me more.
Speaker 4: I feel like I wasn't really allowed to talk about money,
Speaker 4: so it wasn't something I worried about. But it also
Speaker 4: I wasn't really learning anything either, Like I would ask
Speaker 4: questions sometimes about mortgages and saving and things to do
Speaker 4: with money, but it just wasn't allowed to be talked about.
Speaker 2: So why do you think that's the case, Because you
Speaker 2: mentioned before the appearance were good at money, but then
Speaker 2: didn't want to talk about it. So is it just
Speaker 2: like a taboo topic or was it something where maybe
Speaker 2: they weren't as comfortable with it, Like I don't know.
Speaker 4: We sort of don't really talk about anything deep or
Speaker 4: serious in my house, so I think that it must
Speaker 4: have just been considered one of those types of taboo
Speaker 4: topics I guess, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, It's always interesting asking because sometimes people would respond
Speaker 2: and be like, well, they were really good with money,
Speaker 2: but I think they tried really really hard with it
Speaker 2: and didn't want to, you know, worry me or something
Speaker 2: that's really hard. If it's like we didn't really share
Speaker 2: much in the way of deep conversation and money was
Speaker 2: considered that that's just so challenging, But I'm assuming lots
Speaker 2: of people are resonating with it and being like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, me too.
Speaker 4: I moved out when I was seventeen, which was quite
Speaker 4: young but really good for my mental health. I pretty
Speaker 4: much got through that. I was able to access Centerlink
Speaker 4: like Huge Study or whatever it was called. And I
Speaker 4: also had a bit of an inheritance from my grand
Speaker 4: who passed away when I was younger, so my parents
Speaker 4: had actually invested that and so there was quite a
Speaker 4: bit more there and they allowed me to access that
Speaker 4: when I turned eighteen. So unfortunately I did blow quite
Speaker 4: a lot of it just on living expenses and living
Speaker 4: outside of my means. Yeah, but that money still did
Speaker 4: come in handy later on, I sort of just got
Speaker 4: through UNI really always worrying about money. I never felt
Speaker 4: like I was earning enough, and even when I did
Speaker 4: start to earn a lot more, lifestyle creep happened.
Speaker 2: Basically it happens to the best of us.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And around that time I got into a pretty
Speaker 4: serious relationship, not the one I'm in now. And at
Speaker 4: the end of that, like just as I staid working
Speaker 4: full time in my graduate role. I actually lent him
Speaker 4: ten thousand dollars and I never saw that money again. No, yeah,
Speaker 4: so lesson.
Speaker 2: Learnt you know what, that's actually a cheap get out
Speaker 2: of jail free card of that relationship. It cost you
Speaker 2: ten grand to be like, you're not my verse in.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so he said he was still going to pay
Speaker 4: me back and then disappeared off the face of the
Speaker 4: earth after we broke up. So after that, I feel
Speaker 4: like my relationship with money just got even worse because
Speaker 4: that was ten thousand dollars that my grand had left
Speaker 4: me and it was gone and I knew I wasn't
Speaker 4: getting it back, and I just sort of went into
Speaker 4: this really like all or nothing mindset and started to
Speaker 4: spend everything.
Speaker 2: Yeah wow.
Speaker 4: And that was when, because I had just got my
Speaker 4: first full time job, I thought it would be a
Speaker 4: good idea to apply for a credit card. I thought
Speaker 4: I wouldn't need like good credit. But I've learned from
Speaker 4: the podcast that that's not actually how it worked.
Speaker 2: But you didn't learn about financial literacy growing up. But
Speaker 2: I feel like that's a fair thing to kind of deduce.
Speaker 2: If you've heard it around, you're like, actually, that could
Speaker 2: really help me. I'm trying to set my financial future up,
Speaker 2: and I feel like that gets so many of us right,
Speaker 2: you go, I'm here just doing the right thing for me,
Speaker 2: like you only know what you know.
Speaker 4: M Yeah, And I've since learned that I'm not the
Speaker 4: type of personality that can have a credit card.
Speaker 2: You were me both, baby.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I got that, got a couple of credit cards.
Speaker 4: And then luckily around that time, my parents did want
Speaker 4: to talk about money a bit more, and they actually
Speaker 4: set me up in a really really lucky position where
Speaker 4: they actually purchased a house and I actually owe my
Speaker 4: mortgage to them.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, how nice. Thank you for not talking about it,
Speaker 2: but then maybe doing a little flippy flip, like not
Speaker 2: the worst thing.
Speaker 4: So that put me in a really really good position.
Speaker 4: And I was only twenty two at the time, so
Speaker 4: I had like some money that I gave as a
Speaker 4: deposit to them. Yeah, but that's been so lucky because
Speaker 4: I don't have any interest on that at all.
Speaker 2: Okay, so that's the sexiest loan I've ever heard of.
Speaker 2: If your parents are like, look, we really want to
Speaker 2: do that again, you can go. My friend Victoria is interested.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I'm super lucky in that regard, and I
Speaker 4: think because of that, I'm not in as bad a
Speaker 4: position as I would have been otherwise. Yeah right, yeah,
Speaker 4: So again, once I had the house, I thought, well,
Speaker 4: I don't have to save anymore. I've got my house,
Speaker 4: I'm in the property market, et cetera, et cetera. So
Speaker 4: any savings I did have still started going back out
Speaker 4: the window again. Yeah, and I had a couple of
Speaker 4: thousand dollars left. And then the hot water system in
Speaker 4: my new house died.
Speaker 2: Oh no, and they're so expensive.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I spent my last dollars fixing that.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was sort of just it for me at
Speaker 4: that point. It put me on a really bad trajectory
Speaker 4: of spending absolutely everything that I earned. At one point,
Speaker 4: I decided to get a bit better. I took out
Speaker 4: a ten thousand dollar personal loan to consolidate credit cards
Speaker 4: and buy now, pay laters and all that. Ye, however,
Speaker 4: I paid off those things, didn't close the accounts. Yeah, okay, yeah,
Speaker 4: you can see where this is going.
Speaker 2: It's one after the other with debt, right Like, I
Speaker 2: just feel like it just spirals out of control. You
Speaker 2: didn't get your first credit card because you were like,
Speaker 2: do you know what I want to do? I want
Speaker 2: to go into debt. That sounds so sexy. You got
Speaker 2: it because you were doing the right thing, or you
Speaker 2: thought you were doing the right thing, and then you're
Speaker 2: probably consolidating because you're like, you know what I'm going
Speaker 2: to do. I'm gonna get my shit together, and you
Speaker 2: knew what you were doing at the time. But I
Speaker 2: feel like it's just such a slippery slope, right, and
Speaker 2: when you're on it and then you start slipping again,
Speaker 2: it just feels like trash and you're like, why bother?
Speaker 4: Yeah. Absolutely, and that's such a big thing that I've
Speaker 4: had to try and change about my mindset. Yeah, so
Speaker 4: very quickly, unsurprisingly, those by an hour pay laters and
Speaker 4: the credit cards all went back up maxed out and
Speaker 4: I still owed ten thousand dollars, and yeah, things started
Speaker 4: to get a bit messy at that stage, and it's
Speaker 4: sort of just been that way. That was about five
Speaker 4: years ago now, so I would say that probably the
Speaker 4: last four years of just I couldn't save anything, Like
Speaker 4: I literally didn't have a dollar.
Speaker 2: To my name, and that's so stressful.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and like I'm in a very lucky position where
Speaker 4: I'm a pretty high income earner. My mortgage is not
Speaker 4: very expensive.
Speaker 2: Very nice. I'm going to ask you about that in
Speaker 2: a hot second.
Speaker 4: And yeah, my mortgage is not expensive. And I was
Speaker 4: still getting to the end of every fortnight broke. Yeah, wow,
Speaker 4: getting my card declined over like twenty cent purchases and
Speaker 4: stuff like that.
Speaker 2: So that just feels like you're being kicked while you're
Speaker 2: down right, Like it just feels like trash. And you
Speaker 2: get this mindset where you're like, I'm just not good
Speaker 2: at money, and it's not the reality, right, Like you
Speaker 2: just didn't have the tools and resources you needed to
Speaker 2: manage money. And now I'm looking at your little story
Speaker 2: that you've written in and we don't know enough about
Speaker 2: it yet, but you've flipped it. Right. So you were
Speaker 2: in a relationship. Now tell me about this new relationship.
Speaker 2: Where did you meet? How's all of that panning out?
Speaker 2: And like, is that something that you had to bring
Speaker 2: up with your partner?
Speaker 4: Yeah? So we actually met on a dating app, one
Speaker 4: that not many people have heard of, called her, which
Speaker 4: is for like same sex relationships.
Speaker 2: Yeah cool, I met my partner on a dating app.
Speaker 2: So I'm the biggest fan of them.
Speaker 4: Oh, nice. I reckon we should be their spokesperson.
Speaker 2: But anyway, but yeah, look I can imagine you look
Speaker 2: really cute together. And also when you're talking about her,
Speaker 2: you're like smiling and grinning. So yeah, like ten out
Speaker 2: of ten.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she's the best. We fell in love super quickly
Speaker 4: and moved in together and got engaged pretty early on.
Speaker 4: It was about nine months in. But we're like two
Speaker 4: and a half years into our relationship now, and when
Speaker 4: we get married, it would have been about four years.
Speaker 2: So I always laugh because all of my girlfriends in
Speaker 2: same sex relationships are so similar, Like we're just like
Speaker 2: you guys go from zero to a million zero point
Speaker 2: two seconds.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a stereotype forever.
Speaker 6: Reason you were actually living up to it, Like I
Speaker 6: love it, Like you know, we shouldn't stereotype, but if
Speaker 6: you guys could stop living up to that stereotype, you're
Speaker 6: just like, you know what, we're chicks.
Speaker 2: We know when we know exactly. So obviously started this
Speaker 2: beautiful relationship and then you know you're still in debt.
Speaker 2: So how did that go? Was that something that you
Speaker 2: hit at the start of a relationship or was it
Speaker 2: something that you spoke about or like how did this
Speaker 2: pan out.
Speaker 4: We spoke about it pretty early on. So when we met,
Speaker 4: I was in about thirty thousand dollars worth of consumer debt. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and that's not including I still have my car on
Speaker 4: an ovaded lease system, which that actually works for me,
Speaker 4: so I'm happy with that. But yeah, the thirty thousand
Speaker 4: wasn't even including that. And I did tell her pretty
Speaker 4: early on, and actually being with her started just baby
Speaker 4: steps towards repairing my relationship with money. So over time
Speaker 4: I stopped using my credit cards and using loans and
Speaker 4: things like that. I was still just paying the minimum,
Speaker 4: but I was gradually using them less and less, and eventually, actually,
Speaker 4: even before I really started this big turnaround, I actually
Speaker 4: hadn't used my credit cards for about a year, so
Speaker 4: the loans and the debt was still decreasing. And once
Speaker 4: we were super invested and I really really trusted her,
Speaker 4: and this might sound weird to some people, but this
Speaker 4: is just really what I needed. I actually gave her
Speaker 4: the logins to any lines of credit that I have
Speaker 4: and asked her to change the passwords so I can
Speaker 4: only pay down those debts, you.
Speaker 2: Can't go and play with them.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh that's really sweet. That she's willing to do that
Speaker 2: for you too. I feel like that's a common thing.
Speaker 2: I've done it for a girlfriend, like, and we're not
Speaker 2: even in a relationship. She's like, just take it off me,
Speaker 2: like change the password, and I'm like, okay, no worries.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And whenever I explain it, I'm like, it's not
Speaker 4: like a financially controlling relationship at all, but it might
Speaker 4: sound weird to some people.
Speaker 2: Some people would not be comfortable with it, and that
Speaker 2: is totally fine, But like money works differently for everybody, right,
Speaker 2: Like it's like before you were saying like I can't
Speaker 2: be trusted with a credit card, and I'm like, look neither,
Speaker 2: because I've tried it and I was not so good
Speaker 2: at it. But other people are like, oh, I'm so
Speaker 2: good at racking up points and I get all these
Speaker 2: business class flights and I'm like how because like I
Speaker 2: just go into debt.
Speaker 4: Yeah, me too. So she's always been amazing about that.
Speaker 4: And then we got to last year, and this is
Speaker 4: where things went really bad but then started to get good.
Speaker 4: So probably about midway through last year, I actually went
Speaker 4: through a really serious mental health breakdown, which meant that
Speaker 4: I couldn't work for I think it was just under
Speaker 4: two months.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's a significant period of time you Okay, now,
Speaker 2: yeah good.
Speaker 4: I wasn't getting paid and it was just such a
Speaker 4: kick up the bum basically because I had nothing and
Speaker 4: we actually had to live off my partner's savings. And
Speaker 4: she's a low incommerer, like she's a student, she works
Speaker 4: casually sometimes, but it was just like she earns probably
Speaker 4: less than a quarter of what I earn, and she
Speaker 4: was the one that had their savings and she was
Speaker 4: the one that was.
Speaker 2: Able to keep us afloat what a queen.
Speaker 4: Yeah she is. So I'm so so grateful to that,
Speaker 4: but it kind of showed me how am I here?
Speaker 4: I've been working full time in this role for six
Speaker 4: years at that point, yeah, and I just have nothing
Speaker 4: to show for it.
Speaker 2: Obviously. Mental health is so closely tied to finances, right, Yeah?
Speaker 2: Did that worse in it as well? Because you were
Speaker 2: realizing like, oh shit, like, not only am I doing this?
Speaker 2: I feel like that could have really made it even worse,
Speaker 2: knowing that your partner, who's on a quarter of what
Speaker 2: you're doing, is support you, just like what am I
Speaker 2: doing with my life?
Speaker 4: Yeah? And for me, until that point, money had always
Speaker 4: been linked pretty closely to poor mental health. For me,
Speaker 4: I'm pretty impulsive, and I would have a tendency to
Speaker 4: cope with things by just buying so much stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 4: so yeah, I guess as I started to go through
Speaker 4: the recovery process from that really difficult time, I knew
Speaker 4: about She's on the Money, and I had listened to
Speaker 4: a couple of episodes years ago, but it obviously just
Speaker 4: wasn't the right time for me.
Speaker 2: I had a really annoying voice when I first started,
Speaker 2: so like, I get.
Speaker 4: It well, I was just about to say I actually
Speaker 4: started listening right from the beginning. So I'm lucky. I'm
Speaker 4: not up to date yet. I listened to so many episodes,
Speaker 4: but I'm still like in twenty twenty one, No.
Speaker 2: I love that. I feel like I have tried to
Speaker 2: overwhelm the community with content, Like we went from you know,
Speaker 2: in like in twenty nineteen twenty twenty, having like one
Speaker 2: episode a week and that being really easy to digest,
Speaker 2: me being like, let's tour about charge it, Let's do
Speaker 2: three episodes a week. Yeah, I would like catching up.
Speaker 4: But I love it. I love that there's so much content.
Speaker 2: I love that you're here. I love that this is
Speaker 2: helping and a part of your journey. So yeah, you
Speaker 2: binged cheese on the money, You're now in a better
Speaker 2: mental place.
Speaker 4: Yeah, much better. Yeah. And at first when I started listening,
Speaker 4: I was obviously sort of motivated, but not heapes. And
Speaker 4: it took me about maybe three episodes and I was
Speaker 4: hooked and I was just ready to change everything.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's my favorite type of feed that.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So that's what I've done. And that was only a
Speaker 4: few months ago, so I've still got a long way
Speaker 4: to go here we are. My partner knows how obsessed
Speaker 4: with the podcast I am. So whenever I'm struggling with
Speaker 4: something financial or when she is, we have a bit
Speaker 4: of a motto in our household now where we say WWVD.
Speaker 2: No, what would be do? Like sometimes not the right thing.
Speaker 4: So well it's more about what you would say.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Like I like that. What my community
Speaker 2: knows is that I'm a do as I say, not
Speaker 2: as I do, kind of gal. Like I don't want
Speaker 2: you thinking that I'm perfect to finance, but like, if
Speaker 2: you're struggling, here's what you should do. But I empathize
Speaker 2: if you don't do that, Like I get it.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, it's been really helpful because it's also been
Speaker 4: like if I've slipped up a bit, she'll be like, well,
Speaker 4: Victoria would say that it's fine, and you know, you
Speaker 4: just keep building up from here. You don't have to
Speaker 4: blow all your money, all right.
Speaker 2: She's my new best friend. I love her, No, no, no,
Speaker 2: I love her too.
Speaker 4: Everyone I introduce her to loves her more than they
Speaker 4: love me.
Speaker 2: So what, I think that's a really good trait in
Speaker 2: a partner, and I'm sure she says exactly the same
Speaker 2: thing about you. I feel like the ultimate relationship, like
Speaker 2: the pinnacle of a relationship is when each person thinks
Speaker 2: they're getting the better deal, like where you both are
Speaker 2: like so hyped about each other and you both think no, no,
Speaker 2: no on batting, Like I just feel like that works
Speaker 2: so well. Money, Diaris, tell me a bit more about
Speaker 2: your work. So what do you do for work? And
Speaker 2: how much money are you earning?
Speaker 4: So I'm a special education teacher and I'm currently on
Speaker 4: about one hundred and fourteen thousand dollars a year. Oh,
Speaker 4: very nice, which I believe is the second highest pay
Speaker 4: step in my state. Yeap, I think I started on
Speaker 4: sixty something and have.
Speaker 2: Worked your way up to there. What a queen. I
Speaker 2: love this, and a special ed teacher like, you're such
Speaker 2: a nice human, and then you go, oh and I'm
Speaker 2: a special ed teacher and I'm like, of course, your
Speaker 2: bloody is like, you're just too nice. All right, tell me,
Speaker 2: I guess a bit more about your money goals. You've
Speaker 2: gone through a lot in the last twelve months. You
Speaker 2: have said as well, look, I'm engaged, my future looks
Speaker 2: so bright. What are your big money goals right now?
Speaker 1: So?
Speaker 4: I have some really nice clear ones, which is a
Speaker 4: really nice place to be in.
Speaker 2: That's very sexy. I love this. What are they?
Speaker 4: Well, the first one is I'm on track to be
Speaker 4: completely out of consumer debt by November this year.
Speaker 2: Yeap, oh my gosh. And then you said you were
Speaker 2: getting married next year, so you're going to be debt free. Yeah, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: that's really nice.
Speaker 4: I didn't want to get married until I was debt free.
Speaker 4: That was really important to me. I doore around the
Speaker 4: same time. So about September this year, we will actually
Speaker 4: have enough saved to pay for everything wedding related, even
Speaker 4: though we're not getting married for about another year after that,
Speaker 4: but we'll be able to pay for everything for the
Speaker 4: wedding and honeymoon around September.
Speaker 2: That'll take so much pressure off, Like, that'll be really nice.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a big goal. After that, our goal as
Speaker 4: a family is to save towards having kids. Yeah, which
Speaker 4: is super exciting And obviously babies are expensive anyway, but
Speaker 4: being in a same sex relationship, we might rack up
Speaker 4: some fees trying to get the baby.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it turns out you need to do a bit
Speaker 2: more work and it's a lot financial.
Speaker 4: But yeah, which is rude if you ask me.
Speaker 2: But anyway, I think it is really rude, Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: but do you know what that's going to cost you,
Speaker 2: like or have you done anything in the process towards that.
Speaker 4: So we know it's going to cost a lot. But
Speaker 4: basically the planet this stage is to get all the
Speaker 4: debts cleared and the wedding savings out of the way
Speaker 4: and then start speaking with doctors and things like that
Speaker 4: to make a clear plan.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I've got a girlfriend in a same sex
Speaker 2: relationship and she's going through that at the moment, and
Speaker 2: I didn't realize how much was involved. I'm dumb, so like,
Speaker 2: I just thought, you just kind of trot down to
Speaker 2: the sperm bank and go, these are my criteria. Could
Speaker 2: I please have something to help me create a baby.
Speaker 2: But they're doing all of these tests and genetic testing
Speaker 2: to see, you know, which egg is going to work
Speaker 2: and which body is going to be better to carry
Speaker 2: the baby, And I'm like, oh, this is very science.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so that's a bit overwhelming.
Speaker 2: But that's okay, one step at a time.
Speaker 4: We're super set on that goal. Lastly after that, so
Speaker 4: within the next ten years, but I'm not exactly sure
Speaker 4: on timeframes. We would like to purchase a bigger house.
Speaker 4: My house is sort of falling apart and very tiny,
Speaker 4: so we would like to move.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you're gonna have babies, so we need a
Speaker 2: bigger house.
Speaker 4: Yeah, move somewhere that's more suitable for a family, and
Speaker 4: hopefully do that before we at least have a second child,
Speaker 4: if that's in the cards for us. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh, how exciting. You guys are going to be invest parents.
Speaker 2: I love that so much. All right, let's go to
Speaker 2: a really quick break, because I at the moment could
Speaker 2: talk about babies for literally ever. And on the flip side,
Speaker 2: let's talk about investments. Let's talk about what debt you
Speaker 2: have left and your best and worst money habits. So
Speaker 2: guys don't go anywhere, all right, money dist We are back,
Speaker 2: and I want to know. Obviously you're in debt, but
Speaker 2: that doesn't stop you from being able to progress your
Speaker 2: life or start investing. Are you investing? If so, what in?
Speaker 2: If not? Like, do you have a plan?
Speaker 4: Yeah? So at the moment, my only investment is my
Speaker 4: super YEP, and my supers sitting at about fifty three
Speaker 4: thousand dollars at the moment.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's pretty good.
Speaker 4: Yeah, once my debts are paid off alongside saving, I'm
Speaker 4: pretty determined to get into investing a bit more. And
Speaker 4: my plan is at the moment, my round ups go
Speaker 4: towards an account that pays off my debt. But I
Speaker 4: would like to start by having my round ups go
Speaker 4: to micro investing, learn a bit more about that, and
Speaker 4: then branch out bigger. I had no idea about investing
Speaker 4: before the podcast, even though my parents did it, and
Speaker 4: I've recently bought that. She's on the Money Investing book,
Speaker 4: and it's like sitting in my bookshelf ready to go.
Speaker 2: For when I'm ready, She's ready.
Speaker 4: So I'm super excited about that.
Speaker 2: I love that, and you're going to be debt free
Speaker 2: in November, and I kind of love that you're putting
Speaker 2: it off. I know that some people want to do
Speaker 2: it at the same time and like to be honest
Speaker 2: each to their own. It's what engages you and keeps
Speaker 2: you excited about money, right, But haying off debt is
Speaker 2: an investment in itself because you probably have a not
Speaker 2: so sexy interest rate on that, and the more dollars
Speaker 2: that you're sending towards that, the more you're saving, the
Speaker 2: more you're actually cutting it down. But you're also proving
Speaker 2: to yourself that you can allocate money towards that. Every
Speaker 2: time you make a debt repayment, it should be exciting
Speaker 2: because you're like, oh my gosh, come November, that's actually
Speaker 2: gonna be investment. That's going to be savings, that's going
Speaker 2: to be financial freedom, that's going to be baby making.
Speaker 2: How exciting.
Speaker 4: And that's exactly how I like to look at it,
Speaker 4: because at the moment, a huge, huge chunk of my
Speaker 4: pay eighth fortnite goes to that debt, and in my
Speaker 4: mind now I'm like, oh, I can be investing this
Speaker 4: soon exactly.
Speaker 2: And I feel like sometimes when we look at these
Speaker 2: big amounts coming out of our income each month or
Speaker 2: each week or fortnite or however you get paid, it
Speaker 2: can be really disheartening because you're like, it feels like
Speaker 2: I'm just tipping it down the drain, like I'm wasting
Speaker 2: so much money. But with a very simple mindset shift,
Speaker 2: we can become really excited about this because it is
Speaker 2: actually constructive. It is a really good money habit. It
Speaker 2: is a good behavior to start because you end up
Speaker 2: in the best possible position at the end of it.
Speaker 2: Like November, Oh, I can't wait for you. You deserve
Speaker 2: the biggest bottle of champagne to crack open.
Speaker 4: Haha.
Speaker 2: Money Diarist debt, how much debt are we still in?
Speaker 2: What does that look like? And can you tell me
Speaker 2: a little bit about your plan to become debt free?
Speaker 2: Why November? Like, how have you calculated this out?
Speaker 4: Okay, so, firstly, the amount of debt I'm in still
Speaker 4: got about seven thousand dollars of consumer debt. I have
Speaker 4: a hex help debt of about twenty one thousand remaining. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm a bit crazy and I'm about to start online
Speaker 4: UNI alongside work.
Speaker 2: So no, that's okay, that's exciting, that's constructive.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exciting, But that one's not going to go down
Speaker 4: anytime soon. And I owe on my mortgage about three
Speaker 4: hundred and twenty one thousand dollars and I also have
Speaker 4: my novated lease, but I'm not sure exactly how to
Speaker 4: calculate how much that is. But that takes a few
Speaker 4: hundred out of my pretax page.
Speaker 2: Fornight, with your mortgage, you said three hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: one thousand dollars left. Do you know what the property's worth?
Speaker 4: The best sort of estimate I could find was about
Speaker 4: six point fifty.
Speaker 2: Oh, very nice. So you are sitting pretty at the moment.
Speaker 2: That is not a bad position to be and when
Speaker 2: you're twenty seven. Yeah, I love this so much. All right,
Speaker 2: So tell me now, what do you think your best
Speaker 2: money habit is?
Speaker 4: My best money habit is definitely. I've made a spreadsheet
Speaker 4: for my budget and it's all color coordinated and automated
Speaker 4: and pretty, and it tells me exactly where every single
Speaker 4: dollar of what I'm getting paid, exactly where that's going.
Speaker 2: That's hot. I don't know if you know this, but
Speaker 2: I do like a spreadsheet.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I have fully been meaning to do like your
Speaker 4: cash Flow master Class, so I'm hoping that when I
Speaker 4: eventually get around to that, I'll do it even better.
Speaker 2: Now I'm going to gift it to you now, if
Speaker 2: you want to do it, you're doing it. I will
Speaker 2: send you a log in after this, honestly as a
Speaker 2: spreadsheet early. I think you're gonna love it, but I
Speaker 2: will gift you the Budgeting cash Flow master Class of
Speaker 2: rebrand it to the money master Class.
Speaker 4: Sorry, you can tell that I've been listening to the
Speaker 4: old episodes.
Speaker 2: Then it is fine. I still can't remember what I've
Speaker 2: rebranded it too, Like the girls often listen to our
Speaker 2: episodes and they're like, Victoria's stopped calling at the budget
Speaker 2: and Cashley master Class. We changed it to be simpler,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, yeah, but I'm stuck in the past.
Speaker 2: So no, I'll give that to you. I'll send you
Speaker 2: a log in. I think that you will love it,
Speaker 2: and you're obviously on the right trajectory, so I think
Speaker 2: that this will hopefully turbocharge. It will turn that C
Speaker 2: into an A really quickly. But tell me.
Speaker 4: More so, that tells me where everything's going, and it
Speaker 4: prioritizes paying down my debts first of all, and then
Speaker 4: prioritizes savings. So obviously last year I realized very quickly
Speaker 4: that I need an emergency fund. So that's slowly building
Speaker 4: away in the background. Oh good, Which that's another money
Speaker 4: goal that I forgot to mention. I really want my
Speaker 4: emergency fund to sit at about fifteen thousand dollars, which
Speaker 4: sounds high, but after having that time off work and
Speaker 4: mental health treatment is extremely expensive. Yes, I figure that
Speaker 4: that's comfortable.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but if you go down that route again, you'll
Speaker 2: be feeling so much better about it because you know
Speaker 2: you can support yourself through this and what you actually
Speaker 2: need during these times money, It doesn't need to be
Speaker 2: the stressor if you set yourself up properly and hopefully
Speaker 2: that means that there'll be less time out of the workforce.
Speaker 2: There'll be less time that you're struggling. Like, that's a
Speaker 2: money win to me.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And along with my budget spreadsheet, I have lots
Speaker 4: of different accounts set up because that's what works for me.
Speaker 4: I have a bill's account where obviously everything goes for bills,
Speaker 4: and I have a groceries account that both my partner
Speaker 4: and I use for groceries. I have an account for
Speaker 4: my pets.
Speaker 2: Oh you didn't mention you had pets. What pets have
Speaker 2: you got? Come on?
Speaker 4: Oh, I've got a dog called Toast, Oh high Toast,
Speaker 4: a cat called Vegi might No you don't. This is
Speaker 4: so cute, another cat called Sea, and because I just
Speaker 4: love matching names, I have a fish and a water
Speaker 4: snail called Gomez and thing.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, adore, adore. I love this so much.
Speaker 2: So you're a pet girly as well. I knew we'd
Speaker 2: be best friends when we started this. I was like,
Speaker 2: we are absolutely best friends.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I love my pets.
Speaker 2: I don't know. If you follow me on social media,
Speaker 2: it's same. I am a crazy pet lady. Those are
Speaker 2: very good money habits. But let's bring the tone back down.
Speaker 2: What's your worst money habit.
Speaker 4: So this has changed a lot, and it's still something
Speaker 4: I'm working on and getting better at. But I am very,
Speaker 4: very impulsive. That's who I am as a person.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, now we like impulsive people. They're fun. We just
Speaker 2: need to be good at managing our money.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Look, most of my pets were bought impulsively, so.
Speaker 2: And we love them and they weren't bad decisions, so
Speaker 2: is not really a bad habit.
Speaker 4: Yeah. True. I'm really trying to change that. I've been
Speaker 4: trying to take photos of things, make wish lists, etc.
Speaker 4: But I can still be swayed very easily, especially when
Speaker 4: it comes to food. That's something that I find really
Speaker 4: difficult because I hate cooking and luckily my partner likes cooking.
Speaker 4: But it's still very easy to just accidentally get takeaway
Speaker 4: a lot.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4: And along with that, sometimes that means that I take
Speaker 4: money from my savings accounts. Then I have like a
Speaker 4: list of what I owe to my savings and I
Speaker 4: do pay it back, but that just puts me in
Speaker 4: a bit of a negative sort of frame of mind
Speaker 4: because it feels like more debt. I've come a long
Speaker 4: way with that, but that's my worst money habit. Something
Speaker 4: that's helping, though, is that I often used to buy
Speaker 4: a lot of clothes, particularly if they were on sale,
Speaker 4: and in twenty twenty four, I have set a goal
Speaker 4: that I'm not purchasing any new clothes, shoes, or bags,
Speaker 4: and that's really helped so far.
Speaker 2: Oh, I love this. Do you follow Emma Edwards on
Speaker 2: social media? So she has the username the broke Generation.
Speaker 4: Yes I do. Yeah. I found her straight after I
Speaker 4: set that goal, which was weird.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she just finished a whole year of not buying
Speaker 2: any fashion and I just found it so inspirational because
Speaker 2: I couldn't ever do that, and I think that if
Speaker 2: you're planning on doing that, please make sure you're following Emma.
Speaker 2: But she's also a friend of the show, so I
Speaker 2: was like, go hit her up. She's a bloody legend.
Speaker 2: I love that. So let's just do a little quick recap,
Speaker 2: right the Sue wrote in, and you know, you've turned
Speaker 2: your life around. We've learned so much about it. You've
Speaker 2: been so generous with your time. You've got this beautiful
Speaker 2: money story. You might go, oh, I don't really like
Speaker 2: this part. I get it, But like you are now
Speaker 2: engaged to the love of your life, you're getting married,
Speaker 2: you have these epic goals. You're going to be out
Speaker 2: of debt in November. You own a property, you're gonna
Speaker 2: have some beautiful bambinis at some point, you've got your
Speaker 2: wedding done, you're going to be ready to pay for
Speaker 2: it in September, and you're not even getting married. Then
Speaker 2: you've just got all this cool stuff going on for you.
Speaker 2: But at the start of the show, you said, V
Speaker 2: I think I'm a C. So we've had this gorgeous chat.
Speaker 2: Do you think that that is accurate? If not, what
Speaker 2: is it changed to. If so, what are you going
Speaker 2: to do to get to an A plus.
Speaker 4: I think I still don't feel like I'm a high grade,
Speaker 4: but maybe I could push it to like a B minus.
Speaker 2: I think that that might be fair.
Speaker 4: But in order to get an A plus for me,
Speaker 4: that would involve having an emergency fund, being out of
Speaker 4: consumer debt, and starting to invest.
Speaker 2: So you're going to be an A plus at the
Speaker 2: end of the year, I'm hoping. So like you've got
Speaker 2: the goals, You've set them up there happening.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I feel pretty good about that because I
Speaker 4: think I'm not going to be like loaded at the
Speaker 4: end of the year. But as long as I'm on
Speaker 4: the right track.
Speaker 2: It's still a baby. We're not going to be loaded asap.
Speaker 4: True, And as long as I don't have access to
Speaker 4: any lines of credit, I will feel pretty damn good.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And I think that my favorite thing is your positivity,
Speaker 2: Like you're just like, no, I'm on this, I'm working
Speaker 2: towards it, Like I think it's fair if you're like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm in heaps of debt, but I'm not doing anything
Speaker 2: about it, like I've got my head in the sands,
Speaker 2: like I'm not working towards this. Like I just think
Speaker 2: anyone who is going through, you know, the situations like
Speaker 2: you're going through, who's actively working towards it like immediate
Speaker 2: a my eyes. I'm like, you are good at money,
Speaker 2: you just don't have heaps of it yet. We are
Speaker 2: what I would call it henry, a high earner but
Speaker 2: not rich yet. I love that, so like you're gonna
Speaker 2: be really wealthy with these habits. But let's just take
Speaker 2: it back a step. You're also only twenty seven, my friend. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you're just a baby. We're not going to be millionaires
Speaker 2: right away. Like that stuff takes time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, something I forgot, but I think it's important to
Speaker 4: mention is I'll also feel like an a plus once
Speaker 4: I have insurance sort it out. I wish that I
Speaker 4: had found the podcast a long time ago, because it's
Speaker 4: actually quite hard getting insurance with my history. But once
Speaker 4: I've spoken to like an insurance advisor or broker, I
Speaker 4: don't know the difference you.
Speaker 2: Need to go talk to fell it Sky Wealth and
Speaker 2: have a chat with him.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So once I've done that, I'll feel better. And
Speaker 4: just for anyone listening, like, please listen to Victoria and
Speaker 4: get those insurances sorted early, because I don't like to
Speaker 4: have regrets, but that's something that will impact me.
Speaker 2: And I mean it's hard, right, like, especially with mental health,
Speaker 2: Like you don't feel motivated to go and get your
Speaker 2: life sorted out because you're like, what's the point. But
Speaker 2: getting it sorted out sooner rather than later means you
Speaker 2: won't end up with an exclusion. And unfortunately, if you've
Speaker 2: been through some mental health challenges as you've alluded to,
Speaker 2: and you've sought mental health treatment, it's very likely that
Speaker 2: that will be an exclusion. However, it's still worth it
Speaker 2: because you get covered for everything else. So I think
Speaker 2: it's still a good thing to do. But the sooner
Speaker 2: the better, Honestly, sooner the better. Yeah, exactly. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: what a good place to leave it, money, Doris. I
Speaker 2: have adored having this conversation with you. This is again
Speaker 2: one of my favorite money days. I feel like I
Speaker 2: say that all the time and then I meet someone
Speaker 2: you and I'm like, oh, no, no, no, this one.
Speaker 2: But you have been so generous with your information, so
Speaker 2: generous with your time, and I know our community they're
Speaker 2: just going to fall in love with you. They're going
Speaker 2: to go, oh, she was great. So I really appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much, Thank you so much for having me.
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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.
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