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 4: Hello, and welcome on the Money the podcast and millennials
Speaker 4: who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one of
Speaker 4: our money daries where we get to talk with one
Speaker 4: of our incredible Shees on the Money community members all
Speaker 4: about their journey. Let's jump straight into it, because this
Speaker 4: week I got a message and it sounded exactly like this. Hi, Victoria.
Speaker 4: I never thought I would be unemployed or renegotiating the mortgage.
Speaker 4: I had a career that was going places. Then cancer
Speaker 4: hit twice. I was told ten years ago that I
Speaker 4: wouldn't live this long and here I am with two
Speaker 4: adult children and at the end of a steep learning curve.
Speaker 4: I hope others can learn from my experience. Money Darist,
Speaker 4: Hello and welcome. Hello, thank you, thank you for coming
Speaker 4: on the show. Thank you for writing in. I am
Speaker 4: very excited to have you. What made you want to
Speaker 4: share your story?
Speaker 2: I guess I learned a lot, and especially now that
Speaker 2: you hear that others are struggling with the cost of living,
Speaker 2: there is just that desire to be able to say
Speaker 2: I've been through this too, and this is how I
Speaker 2: got through it. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Wow, I'm excited to get into it. So let's start
Speaker 4: at the very start. Money Dorist have asked you to
Speaker 4: give your money habits a grade from A through to F.
Speaker 4: What would your grade them?
Speaker 2: I would give myself a B A B.
Speaker 4: I like that. Let's get into it. I'd love to
Speaker 4: know now more about your money story. So money Diarists,
Speaker 4: let's dive in. Can you tell me a little bit
Speaker 4: more about your money story?
Speaker 2: Six or seven years ago, I was firstly diagnosed with
Speaker 2: leukemia and had to take time off work. At that time,
Speaker 2: I decided to leave my full time permanent government safe
Speaker 2: job and then when it was time to come back,
Speaker 2: I've found I could only get contract work. And then,
Speaker 2: of course I had breast cancer diagnosed.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, go through leukemia and then you get
Speaker 4: breast cancer like talk about being kicked while you already
Speaker 4: went down.
Speaker 2: I'm fine now I'm in full remission from the breast cancer.
Speaker 2: And the leukemia is a chronic condition. It's more of
Speaker 2: a nuisance than anything, but it does impact on my
Speaker 2: ability to get contracts, hold onto them, and have the
Speaker 2: flexibility that employers are looking for, particularly in my previous profession,
Speaker 2: which was very hands on, face to face work. So yeah,
Speaker 2: we went from a situation where we just the year
Speaker 2: before borrowed the maximum amount we could from the bank
Speaker 2: and I was earning seventy percent of our income. Oh wow,
Speaker 2: I had two weeks before surgery and overnight that's it.
Speaker 2: Somehow make it all work. And we had teenage kids
Speaker 2: at the time, and yeah, going to the bank, renegotiating
Speaker 2: the loan, do all the things you're supposed to do,
Speaker 2: and we did manage to hold onto the house and
Speaker 2: we did see it through.
Speaker 4: Yeah wow, I'm impressed that you managed to see it through.
Speaker 4: Given you with a bread winner in that situation. How
Speaker 4: much of a spin did that send you, guys into?
Speaker 2: It was huge because also I think something that's often
Speaker 2: underestimated is the amount of time off that your partner
Speaker 2: has when you are unwell or vice versa. So it
Speaker 2: wasn't just that I was not working at all, but
Speaker 2: there were frequent significant or important appointments that my husband
Speaker 2: wanted to be there for, and he found it hard
Speaker 2: because he's dealing with this new reality, particularly in that
Speaker 2: timeframe when you know this is advanced, get your affairs
Speaker 2: in order sort of things, So oh wow, and he
Speaker 2: had to keep working. We did not want to lose
Speaker 2: the house. We didn't know what the future was going
Speaker 2: to hold, but I don't know. It was like my
Speaker 2: daughter's in final year of high school and we were
Speaker 2: going to at least stay in the house until she'd
Speaker 2: finished high school. We didn't want to disrupt her at
Speaker 2: such a critical point in her education. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Wow, that sounds like an absolute whirlwind, Like that would
Speaker 4: be a horrible situation to be in. But I'm actually
Speaker 4: really glad to hear that you had a husband that
Speaker 4: really wanted to be there for you and support you
Speaker 4: through that. Like that's so important, and sometimes it's just
Speaker 4: not the case. So I adore that for you. What
Speaker 4: happened next, obviously you had two teenage kids, you managed
Speaker 4: to keep the house. What happened once I guess you
Speaker 4: went into remission.
Speaker 2: Well, I guess one of the things that happened which
Speaker 2: I don't think would have happened otherwise. My husband was
Speaker 2: working as a supervisor in a retail store, and he
Speaker 2: wasn't happy with his job, and he wasn't well paid,
Speaker 2: and we were in this situation where something somewhere had
Speaker 2: to give. So he went into a whole new career
Speaker 2: that he absolutely loved. That he got paid almost double
Speaker 2: what he was earning before, and it started out simply
Speaker 2: from necessity, and he just was determined that he was
Speaker 2: going to do everything he could to take the pressure
Speaker 2: off me. And now he's doing an occupation where he
Speaker 2: feels more valued. It takes the pressure off me. When
Speaker 2: I am able to work, I don't feel like I
Speaker 2: have to do the same amount of hours. I can
Speaker 2: cut my hours back and it's even given me the
Speaker 2: luxury of being able to start my own business on
Speaker 2: the side.
Speaker 5: Oh how cool.
Speaker 4: I love that. I love that he is in a
Speaker 4: career that he just feels a lot more fulfilled and valued,
Speaker 4: Like everyone deserves that. But it kind of sucks that
Speaker 4: it was out of necessity, but very cool that now
Speaker 4: he gets to enjoy it. So tell me a bit
Speaker 4: more about what you do for work now and how
Speaker 4: much you earn when you're able to work.
Speaker 2: Okay, I work for myself. I'm an author. Mostly I
Speaker 2: write feminist erotica under a pseudonym.
Speaker 4: Oh, very cool. Not what I expected money diarists.
Speaker 2: Especially for someone who'd had an academic background. But it
Speaker 2: started just as aside.
Speaker 4: Oh, I mean that would probably make it even better,
Speaker 4: Like are you kidding me? Like that is very very cool.
Speaker 4: And also for those of you playing along at home,
Speaker 4: like money Press literally looks like one of my mum's
Speaker 4: good friends. Like she just looks like one of those
Speaker 4: people that you'd be like, oh, I haven't seen you
Speaker 4: in ages, money Dress. Love to have a cup of
Speaker 4: tea with you, and then you're like, yep, feminist erotica,
Speaker 4: let's go.
Speaker 2: Adore. I started doing it as a side hustle. I
Speaker 2: used to joke that when you meet people, you're dealing
Speaker 2: with cancer or chronic illness. Every time you meet someone
Speaker 2: you haven't seen for a while, they'll say how are you,
Speaker 2: and it's such a loaded question. Oh yes, I loved
Speaker 2: it when I started writing this often on the chemotherapy
Speaker 2: chair that it gave me something else to talk about.
Speaker 2: And the nurses were buying my books, so that was
Speaker 2: pretty cool.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, that is actually so cool. So are
Speaker 4: you self published? Do you distribute all of this? How
Speaker 4: do you do it?
Speaker 2: Yes? I'm a self published indie author. And to be honest,
Speaker 2: for all those indie authors out there, these first two books,
Speaker 2: I didn't spend a cent on them. I put them
Speaker 2: out there just because these were something I'd written for
Speaker 2: myself that helped me, and I thought was rather self indulgent.
Speaker 2: But they've started to get all by themselves a bit
Speaker 2: of a following in Germany. They're written in English in Germany.
Speaker 2: They're earning that tiny bit of money for me on
Speaker 2: the side, and that's given me the justification to say, Okay,
Speaker 2: it's really hard for me to hold on to other work.
Speaker 2: Let's get serious about the writing.
Speaker 4: I am obsessed with this. I just love that you've
Speaker 4: got this side hustle that I didn't see coming at all, Like,
Speaker 4: did not see coming. And it's actually very well timed
Speaker 4: because you know, complete side note, money diarist and complete
Speaker 4: side note everybody listening to She's on the money because
Speaker 4: you're not here to hear about feminist erotica. But I
Speaker 4: had it recommended by like four different other people over
Speaker 4: the weekend, this stream and a whole heap of books
Speaker 4: by what is it. It's called Chestnut Springs, which you
Speaker 4: might have heard of, but you were probably up and coming.
Speaker 4: I feel like it's going wild on TikTok at the
Speaker 4: moment as well, so I'm not surprised that you're popular
Speaker 4: in Germany. It's probably going to spread far and wide
Speaker 4: in the not too distant future.
Speaker 2: Fingers crossed.
Speaker 4: Oh, I'm excited. So at the end of the day,
Speaker 4: how much is an author content like yours make?
Speaker 2: The fact that I have not really invested any money yet,
Speaker 2: I'm making about two hundred dollars a month, so you
Speaker 2: know I can feed the cat.
Speaker 4: Yes, very good enough, and let's be honest, that's a
Speaker 4: lot more than a lot of other authors, Like I
Speaker 4: feel like lots of authors write books and then don't
Speaker 4: make a dollar. So this is very very good and
Speaker 4: it's only going to compound from here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so now I'm in the position to be
Speaker 2: able to be in the house that we held on
Speaker 2: to the kids a fine, they've both gone off to university.
Speaker 2: You sort of breathe a sigh of relief and think
Speaker 2: we're not in that horrible situation anymore with our backs
Speaker 2: against the wall, and I can actually move on as
Speaker 2: a writer, knowing that that experience probably helped me with
Speaker 2: my writing as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that is very cool. All right, Well, tell me
Speaker 4: a bit more about your money goals now, what are
Speaker 4: you currently working towards what your big money.
Speaker 2: My big money goal is getting debt free. I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm fifty seven years of age now, and I'm probably
Speaker 2: not going to have the amount of time that others
Speaker 2: do in their retirement because the nature of my illness.
Speaker 2: I need to be able to get out there and
Speaker 2: do the sorts of things people normally do in their seventies.
Speaker 2: I need to be able to do them in my sixties.
Speaker 2: So we've only got the one debt, and that's the house.
Speaker 2: And my dream is to have the house paid off
Speaker 2: and a granny flat on the house and rent those
Speaker 2: both out and then we could travel as gray nomads.
Speaker 2: That's my dream.
Speaker 4: Oh that sounds very very nice. And is your husband
Speaker 4: up for that?
Speaker 2: I think he's a bit of a homebody. He would
Speaker 2: have gladly stayed here. But he also knows how important
Speaker 2: this is to me. I've talked about it for such
Speaker 2: a long time. I think I've worn him down.
Speaker 4: And it can become if you're doing the gray nomad thing,
Speaker 4: you might have a caravan or something similar and you'll
Speaker 4: still have all of those home comforts. I'm sure he'll
Speaker 4: wrap his head around it really quickly. Yeah, all right, money, Doris,
Speaker 4: let's go to a really quick break because on the
Speaker 4: flip side, I have a lot of questions for you,
Speaker 4: like this has gone in a direction that I didn't expect,
Speaker 4: So guys, don't go anywhere. All right, money, Doris, I
Speaker 4: want to know do you have any investments? If so,
Speaker 4: what are they? If not, what's the plan?
Speaker 2: No investments whatsoever. We've had a laser beam focus on
Speaker 2: the mortgage and nothing else.
Speaker 4: Do you have superannuation?
Speaker 2: Yes, not a lot, but it would be enough to
Speaker 2: build the granny flat.
Speaker 4: Yeah, very cool. And is that something that you've done
Speaker 4: a little bit more planning for? Is that something that
Speaker 4: you're like, look, we've talked about it, and it'll happen
Speaker 4: at some point, but no idea what the cost associated
Speaker 4: with is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've I've really looked into the granny flat and
Speaker 2: I see it as a rent potential and provide the
Speaker 2: additional income that we need in retirement.
Speaker 4: I love this. I would argue that your writing is
Speaker 4: an investment in itself. I mean it started to bring
Speaker 4: in an income stream. Is that something you're going to
Speaker 4: spend more time on or is this something that you
Speaker 4: wrote a few books while you're in the chemo chair
Speaker 4: and now you're done with that, or like, what's the
Speaker 4: plan for being an author?
Speaker 2: I couldn't imagine a situation where I wasn't writing, even
Speaker 2: if I was a millionaire. The urge to write is
Speaker 2: so strong. I'd probably write really bad, self indulgent poetry,
Speaker 2: but I'd still be writing.
Speaker 4: I love that so much. And I can hear it
Speaker 4: in your voice that you're really passionate about it as well,
Speaker 4: Like you can just hear that little spark of like, no,
Speaker 4: this is my thing. Have you always been a writer
Speaker 4: or is this a recent discovery.
Speaker 2: No, I've always been a writer. I always had these
Speaker 2: ten year plans where first you raise the kids, you
Speaker 2: get debt free, and then you live a simple life
Speaker 2: and you write. I think the big mistake I made
Speaker 2: was thinking that this is the order that things have
Speaker 2: to be in, and you can't do all these things simultaneously.
Speaker 2: I wish now that I had taken my writing serious
Speaker 2: at a younger age.
Speaker 4: All right, Mandy youres You mentioned before that the only
Speaker 4: debt that you have is the remainder of the mortgage.
Speaker 4: What does that look like and what's the plan for
Speaker 4: getting rid of it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's two hundred and thirty thousand, and realistically, while
Speaker 2: I know these days that's not a lot, I don't
Speaker 2: see us getting that paid off by my sixties. So
Speaker 2: having the granny flat was so that we would have income,
Speaker 2: and we're hoping to have the mortgage to the point
Speaker 2: where renting out the main house covers its own costs,
Speaker 2: it doesn't require anything for.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that is very cool. I feel like these days
Speaker 4: more and more people are getting to retirement and still
Speaker 4: having a mortgage and having to find ways to pay
Speaker 4: it off during retirement or do exactly what you're planning.
Speaker 4: Because doing the great nomad thing, while very sexy, let's
Speaker 4: be honest like that sounds like a life worth living.
Speaker 4: It's also relatively cheap in comparison to a mortgage. So
Speaker 4: if you can do that, that's actually going to put
Speaker 4: you in a pretty good financial position. Was that one
Speaker 4: of the motivators as well? Or was it just like
Speaker 4: that's a bonus.
Speaker 2: It's a bonus. I think I've just got a wandering
Speaker 2: spirit and I'd love to live a simpler life.
Speaker 4: I love it. So have we got any plans for
Speaker 4: when that might happen? Or have you been, you know,
Speaker 4: fantasizing by googling and looking at caravans online, Like what's
Speaker 4: the plan look like at this point?
Speaker 2: I've got it pretty sussed because you know, I do
Speaker 2: my own. At what point will the mortgage be at
Speaker 2: this point? And so forth? So the year I turned
Speaker 2: late in my sixtieth years, which is just over three
Speaker 2: years to go, we should be free.
Speaker 4: How exciting. I love this for you. Talk to me
Speaker 4: a bit more because I know in the background you're
Speaker 4: a pretty savvy savor and pretty good at getting a
Speaker 4: dollar to stretch. Tell me what you think your best
Speaker 4: money habit is.
Speaker 2: My best money tip is always think through every purchase
Speaker 2: that you make. We have a rule that we do
Speaker 2: not buy anything over three hundred dollars without talking to
Speaker 2: each other first. That's our boundary line. People can have
Speaker 2: different boundary lines, but I think in a relationship, when
Speaker 2: you've really got to pull together, you have to have
Speaker 2: some rules around. These are the purchases I can make
Speaker 2: without saying anything, and these are the purchases we should
Speaker 2: talk about first. And I always do my shopping having
Speaker 2: a shopping list, and I keep it really low. So yeah,
Speaker 2: for a lot of us, our grocery shopping is our
Speaker 2: biggest discretionary bill, and that's where I'm really able to
Speaker 2: keep the costs down.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so how are you doing that? You're going in
Speaker 4: with a list, but like are you meal planning? Are
Speaker 4: you online looking up recipes? Like what are you doing
Speaker 4: that you would think impacts saving so much on your
Speaker 4: grocery bill?
Speaker 2: I am able further two of us if I have
Speaker 2: to to do a shopping trip for under fifty dollars
Speaker 2: a week and make sure that we've actually covered all
Speaker 2: our nutritional requirements. There are treats, you know, but I
Speaker 2: come at that with knowing exactly how much calcium, how
Speaker 2: much magnesium, how much nice and I literally get down
Speaker 2: to that level to decide, well, these are the bare
Speaker 2: minimums we need to meet so that we're not compromising
Speaker 2: our health. When you go from that level, I think
Speaker 2: that's really important.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, I think that's genius. It sounds like
Speaker 4: a lot of work, though, but clearly worth it. Now
Speaker 4: I wanted to ask you a bit more about money here.
Speaker 4: You mentioned before you're fifty seven, you're married, which is
Speaker 4: very exciting. Have you shared money, have you had separate money?
Speaker 4: What has that looked like throughout your lifetime, especially having
Speaker 4: raised two now adult children.
Speaker 2: Okay, my husband's my second husband.
Speaker 4: Lucky guy.
Speaker 2: We have one bank account each that's our own, and
Speaker 2: we just have a sat amount of money that goes
Speaker 2: into that bank account for our use, so we don't
Speaker 2: have to explain anything. But almost all of our money
Speaker 2: goes into our everyday accounts and our mortgage, and we
Speaker 2: get excited. We sit together and we look at the
Speaker 2: graph for that mortgage, probably once a fortnite and just go, yay,
Speaker 2: we can see it going down. That's been a big thing.
Speaker 4: And was that something that when you got married you
Speaker 4: just decided to do it that way or how did
Speaker 4: that eventuate?
Speaker 2: I think we both felt that it was really important
Speaker 2: that we were very open with each other about money.
Speaker 2: I think that was always the case. It became even
Speaker 2: more critical when we had our backs against the wall,
Speaker 2: when you know, you get those red bills and you're
Speaker 2: struggling and you're thinking, here we go another payment plan.
Speaker 2: Having that total transparency meant that there was one less
Speaker 2: thing that I had to stress about. You know, there
Speaker 2: were many, many times when there was no money other
Speaker 2: than managing the bills and doing the absolute minimum.
Speaker 4: And it sounds like you've been able to work through that,
Speaker 4: and actually you know budget really well and now you've
Speaker 4: got your groceries down. Pat, I feel like you are
Speaker 4: on top of it when it comes to saving and budgeting.
Speaker 4: But I want to know, what do you think is
Speaker 4: your worst mind habit?
Speaker 2: I am bipolar with money. So during those times when
Speaker 2: I was able to earn a good income, the most
Speaker 2: bizarre thing would be that suddenly I would just splash
Speaker 2: the cash. It was like, Okay, I don't have to
Speaker 2: live like this anymore and I deserve this, and I
Speaker 2: would spend up big on silly things, and I think,
Speaker 2: why did I do that? Relatable except when I actually
Speaker 2: have real choice.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's fair. I feel like you do the best
Speaker 4: you can and then all of a sudden you have
Speaker 4: heaps and you're like, breathe a sigh of relief. But
Speaker 4: that's maybe not the best thing. I feel like that's
Speaker 4: very relatable though, money Darst. At the start of this episode,
Speaker 4: you said, I think that my money score is a be.
Speaker 4: Do you think that that's accurate?
Speaker 3: Still?
Speaker 4: Now we've talked about all your good money habits, which
Speaker 4: I'm very impressed with, and can you tell me what
Speaker 4: you think it would take for you to become an
Speaker 4: A plus.
Speaker 2: I think the real test is if I was to
Speaker 2: have the money. You know, in a way, it's so
Speaker 2: much easier to save when you don't have it and
Speaker 2: you have no choice. Yes, the real test is when
Speaker 2: you do have it and you still want to achieve
Speaker 2: your dreams, you know, stick to the same course, and
Speaker 2: suddenly know that extra money is not going on the mortgage.
Speaker 2: I think the real test is if I was to
Speaker 2: suddenly have an additional income, perhaps from my writing. It'd
Speaker 2: be interesting to see how I manage then, and if
Speaker 2: I can hold myself to account.
Speaker 4: I'm excited to see where you're writing goes. I think
Speaker 4: that that's got big legs. Thank you money Deris. Unfortunately
Speaker 4: that is all we have time for today. But I
Speaker 4: have loved getting to know you. I've loved learning a
Speaker 4: little bit more about your money story. I've loved sharing
Speaker 4: you with the community, and I know that they have
Speaker 4: loved listening along with us. So thank you so much.
Speaker 4: It has been an absolute pleasure to have you on.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 4: The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
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