Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud or
Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whaltbury 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 through.
Speaker 1: As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and
Speaker 1: the storytelling of you to make a difference for today
Speaker 1: and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Let's get into it. She's on the Money.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money.
Speaker 4: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
Speaker 4: that let's you be pervy about other people's money habits
Speaker 4: for educational purposes, of course.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to.
Speaker 4: Another one of our money daries where I get the
Speaker 4: absolute pleasure of talking to one of our beautiful She's
Speaker 4: on the Money community members all about their journey. This week,
Speaker 4: we got a message and it sounded exactly like this,
Speaker 4: Dear She's on the Money. I'm thirty three and currently
Speaker 4: building my dream home, something that simply wouldn't have been
Speaker 4: possible without my job in the tech sector. I'm not
Speaker 4: in a technical role, and I didn't take a traditional
Speaker 4: path to get here. It took a lot of determination,
Speaker 4: a few lucky breaks, and saying yes to opportunities that
Speaker 4: felt a little bit out of reach at the time.
Speaker 4: I'm sharing this to encourage others to explore the tech
Speaker 4: space even if your background doesn't seem like the perfect fit.
Speaker 4: There's a real opportunity in this industry and it can
Speaker 4: be incredibly lucrative, but this often comes with unpredictability. Just
Speaker 4: three months into my role, half my team was laid off.
Speaker 4: That experience taught me a lot about future planning. Money Darist.
Speaker 4: When I heard that this was your story orsa in
Speaker 4: our inbox, I was.
Speaker 2: Like, get her on the podcast. This will be so interesting.
Speaker 2: So I'm excited to chat to you.
Speaker 4: But before we get there, as always, I have to
Speaker 4: ask everybody the same question, Money Diarist. If I asked
Speaker 4: you to give your money habits a grade from A
Speaker 4: through to F, what grade would you give them?
Speaker 5: I'm thinking I'll give myself a be maybe a bit plus.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 4: Now my favorite question, can you tell us a little
Speaker 4: bit more about your money story?
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally.
Speaker 5: My attitude towards money, I think was very much shaped
Speaker 5: by my upbringing, which I didn't realize until I was
Speaker 5: thinking about my story. I grew up and I guess
Speaker 5: what you would call like a middle class household, but
Speaker 5: money was pretty variable when I was growing up. We
Speaker 5: moved around a bit. Sometimes first my parents were working,
Speaker 5: sometimes just my dad, like, we always had enough, but
Speaker 5: money was sometimes quite tight, especially when I was younger.
Speaker 5: Both my parents come from Eastern Europe, and they like
Speaker 5: both grew up during Communism, and neither of them had
Speaker 5: very much back in those days. Like my mum would
Speaker 5: tell me stories of how she would get an orange
Speaker 5: for Christmas because they were so hard to find otherwise, like,
Speaker 5: it's just a completely different way of life, and so
Speaker 5: I think for them it was really important to work
Speaker 5: hard and create something for themselves. I kind of put
Speaker 5: a stake in the ground. So when I was younger,
Speaker 5: they pulled all their resources into building a house for us,
Speaker 5: and it was pretty stressful at the time because I
Speaker 5: think their ambitions were a little bit bigger than their means.
Speaker 5: I think we didn't really have enough money to fully
Speaker 5: complete the house, and I saw it caused them a
Speaker 5: lot of anxiety, a lot of stress. Like I remember
Speaker 5: as a kid, I would try to not ask them
Speaker 5: for things because I knew that it would just contribute
Speaker 5: to that stress more and more. And so yeah, once
Speaker 5: the house was done enough, we moved in, but it
Speaker 5: was half finished for many years, so it was kind
Speaker 5: of like living half construction site half in an actual house.
Speaker 5: And then yeah, later things improved. We were a little
Speaker 5: bit more comfortable as I got older and went to
Speaker 5: high school, but we never really talked about money. My
Speaker 5: dad mentioned having some investments, we never really discussed it,
Speaker 5: but I think from a really early age, my parents
Speaker 5: really instilled this idea of financial stability is super important,
Speaker 5: and they didn't want me and my sister to go
Speaker 5: through the challenges that they went through. And so looking back,
Speaker 5: I think my attitude towards money is very much based
Speaker 5: on this idea that not having enough money can cause
Speaker 5: a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety, and that money, yeah,
Speaker 5: plays I guess, an important role in building stability, in
Speaker 5: giving you control, giving you freedom, and so yeah, seeing
Speaker 5: them struggle early on, I kind of realized that I
Speaker 5: don't want to feel that way, and so that's I
Speaker 5: guess influenced some of my trajectory, and as I've entered
Speaker 5: my working life, I've really kind of kept that in
Speaker 5: the back of my mind, which has ended up with
Speaker 5: me working in tech. I always pretty interested in people
Speaker 5: and technology, and I've kind of managed to carve myself
Speaker 5: a path that combines both of those things. But yeah,
Speaker 5: I'm not gonna lie like a big drop. Working in
Speaker 5: tech early on in my life was its ability to
Speaker 5: kind of set me up for the future.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally.
Speaker 4: And I feel like we all hear it right, like
Speaker 4: you can make heaps of money in tech. But like then,
Speaker 4: I guess the conversation up until today has really stopped,
Speaker 4: like you go, okay, cool, I'm not technical, or I
Speaker 4: don't understand it, so I don't know what that means.
Speaker 4: You are thirty three, Now, what age were you when
Speaker 4: you first started working, Like, was this like your first job?
Speaker 4: Were you like, okay, cool, I'm eighteen, fresh out of
Speaker 4: school and we are going to work in tech or
Speaker 4: what did that journey look like.
Speaker 5: I think at the back of my mind, I was like,
Speaker 5: I'd love to work in tech, but it was a
Speaker 5: bit of a pipe dream at the time. I come
Speaker 5: from a social science's background, so I studied psychology, which
Speaker 5: I think you did as well. I did so similar,
Speaker 5: similar path but different yeah, much different outcomes.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I started.
Speaker 5: My first job was actually in government, but I think
Speaker 5: in the back of my mind, I was always thinking,
Speaker 5: you know, tech is a it's an area that I'm
Speaker 5: really interested in. I think it's something that I want
Speaker 5: to move towards. And so through these kind of little
Speaker 5: I call them little half steps, I started to move
Speaker 5: closer and closer to the type of role that I
Speaker 5: really wanted to have. And so from my government role,
Speaker 5: I was really fortunate to get a job at a
Speaker 5: small startup. I wrote a really kind of desperate cover letter,
Speaker 5: and you know that idea that women don't apply for
Speaker 5: roles that they don't meet like one hundred percent critera
Speaker 5: for I really really.
Speaker 2: Chant I love this though. I was channeling that.
Speaker 5: Energy and I was amazing. Yeah, I think I met
Speaker 5: maybe twenty percent of that criteria, but.
Speaker 2: Whatever, but you got the job. Yeah.
Speaker 5: I wrote a really passionate cover letter and I looked
Speaker 5: back at it.
Speaker 2: No, we don't look back. We don't look back that
Speaker 2: it's so silly. It was so cringe, But you know
Speaker 2: what is it cringe? If it worked. Yeah, it worked.
Speaker 5: I think the lucky thing is I'm a real people
Speaker 5: person and my interview because it was a startup with
Speaker 5: the CEO, his dog was in the room and his
Speaker 5: dog loved me, and I think he took it as
Speaker 5: a side dogs.
Speaker 2: No though, dogs no good people. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I bring my dog to every single recording I do,
Speaker 4: and she and I are on the same page. If
Speaker 4: she doesn't like somebody, she lets me know by giving
Speaker 4: them absolutely no attention, which is very strange from her.
Speaker 2: But when you know, you know, dogs no. Yeah, So
Speaker 2: that was my lucky break.
Speaker 5: I was twenty four at the time, so that was
Speaker 5: my first kind of forea in the tech world. And
Speaker 5: then since then, Yeah, it's been a series of I guess,
Speaker 5: deliberate next steps that I've taken, going from startup to
Speaker 5: slightly large a tech company to or I find myself now,
Speaker 5: which is kind of super big tech company I suppose.
Speaker 5: So that's how I ended up here.
Speaker 4: So talk to me about what that actually means. So
Speaker 4: what is your job title, like, what do you do
Speaker 4: for work? And how much money do you earn?
Speaker 5: So I'm a user experience researcher and for my salary
Speaker 5: So compensation and Big Tech is often kind of referred
Speaker 5: to as total comp total compensation, which includes salary, it
Speaker 5: includes shares, bonuses. So there's a few different components that
Speaker 5: make up my total income. My base salary is two
Speaker 5: hundred thousand.
Speaker 2: Oh, very nice.
Speaker 5: It is very nice, yet very very fortunate to have that,
Speaker 5: and that includes super so that's all included in there.
Speaker 5: And then a significant portion of my compensation.
Speaker 2: Is in shares.
Speaker 5: Okay, Yeah, it's this number fluctuates a lot, especially in
Speaker 5: recent times, and yeah, it can go up and down
Speaker 5: really significantly throughout the year, but annually it works out
Speaker 5: to be anywhere between two hundred to four hundred thousand
Speaker 5: before tax.
Speaker 2: It's a lot. Yeah, So how does tax on that work?
Speaker 4: So you're based in New Zealand, so this is going
Speaker 4: to be slightly different when answering it. But if you're
Speaker 4: being issued like between two hundred and four hundred thousand
Speaker 4: dollars worth of shares, are you having to pay tax
Speaker 4: on that asset acquisition? And what does that mean for
Speaker 4: like your cash flow? Because to me, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 4: like everybody's probably thinking, oh that's great, and I'm like,
Speaker 4: hold on, hold on, You're giving me this, and I'm
Speaker 4: incurring a massive tax bill, Like what's the deal?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, it looks like you know, all that money
Speaker 5: is like wow, such like as a huge amount of
Speaker 5: money regardless of the tax, but you do pay income
Speaker 5: tax on it, and you are responsible for paying that yourself,
Speaker 5: so I have to pay that annually. I basically end
Speaker 5: up with a massive tax bill, and my tax bill
Speaker 5: is so large that I end up having to pay
Speaker 5: an installments throughout the year. So for example, last year,
Speaker 5: every four months, I was stung with a forty thousand
Speaker 5: dollars tax bill.
Speaker 2: That I am to pay.
Speaker 4: But also in the long run, like we're not complaining.
Speaker 4: This is just like part of the cash flow problem,
Speaker 4: right Like more money, more problems. But the more cash
Speaker 4: flow you have, obviously, I'm assuming that would mean the
Speaker 4: more shares would be being issued to you. So even
Speaker 4: if you quote earned more, I'm assuming this whole total
Speaker 4: compensation package would increase. So you're always going to have
Speaker 4: this problem. But I'll pay tax to get a massive asset.
Speaker 4: But it has to be a value to you, right
Speaker 4: Like if you didn't value shares or anything like, you'd
Speaker 4: be like absolutely not.
Speaker 5: It's a bit it stings a lot the first time
Speaker 5: you do it, and you almost have to check yourself
Speaker 5: sometimes because you go, this is so unfair, and then
Speaker 5: I realize that.
Speaker 2: This is absolutely fair.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're like, oh, okay, Like the entire reason I'm
Speaker 4: getting these shares is because the company doesn't have the
Speaker 4: cash flow to pay me half a million dollars a year,
Speaker 4: and so they're giving me assets and that's going to
Speaker 4: make me wealthy because I'm assuming you work for a
Speaker 4: business that you really believe in, so you're assuming that
Speaker 4: these shares are going to increase in value, right, one
Speaker 4: hundred percent?
Speaker 5: Yeah, And you know it's funny you say that, Like
Speaker 5: sometimes I talk to my workmates because no one else
Speaker 5: can really relate to this problem totally. I can't talk
Speaker 5: to my friends about it because they'll just go, you know,
Speaker 5: what are you talking about?
Speaker 2: Like it's unrelatable.
Speaker 4: And also like, oh, no, big worldwide problem like oh money,
Speaker 4: dist has to pay tax because her workplace remunerated her,
Speaker 4: so well, like I get it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Yeah, it's not the best thing to talk about,
Speaker 5: but it is a real biggest challenge and something you
Speaker 5: need to stay across.
Speaker 4: It's also a cash flow issue, like you have like
Speaker 4: at the end of the day, as much as like,
Speaker 4: you know, I think people listen to money diaries because
Speaker 4: like we so pervy about other people's situations. We're not
Speaker 4: expecting that every single person is super relatable. Like, but
Speaker 4: the idea that you're like, hey, I'm going to tell
Speaker 4: you about this situation.
Speaker 2: How cool.
Speaker 4: We now know that there are some businesses that do
Speaker 4: total compensation and salary packages and shares, and that's what
Speaker 4: this means.
Speaker 2: If people are.
Speaker 4: Being issued shares, they're now responsible for their own tax.
Speaker 4: And that means that that two hundred thousand dollars salary
Speaker 4: package you're getting, you're probably actually earning closer to one
Speaker 4: hundred thousand dollars when it comes down to it, because
Speaker 4: you're having to allocate so much of that post tax
Speaker 4: income to paying tax on this asset that you're building.
Speaker 5: Am I correct, absolutely, yeah, And your tax goes up
Speaker 5: as well, so you end up hitting much higher tax brackets.
Speaker 5: You end up paying more tax. I have come up
Speaker 5: with a bit of a system to help me manage that.
Speaker 5: So with shares that you get access to them in
Speaker 5: my company three months, so they vest every three months,
Speaker 5: and I sell. I usually always sell my shares just
Speaker 5: to kind of not have all my eggs in one basket.
Speaker 5: But what I do is I sell sell off my
Speaker 5: shares and then I allocate a portion to that to tax,
Speaker 5: and I put it in a high interest savings account
Speaker 5: until I have to pay it. So I'm kind of
Speaker 5: trying to make the most of that money before I
Speaker 5: actually have to pay that tax. So there's a bit
Speaker 5: of technicality in there, but yeah, it works.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Absolutely. When you say you sell off shares, are you
Speaker 4: selling off shares like immediately when you get them, or
Speaker 4: are you selling them off like after a couple of years.
Speaker 4: Like I'm only asking because in Australia, if you have
Speaker 4: a share for less than twelve months, you're hit with
Speaker 4: like much higher capital gains tax and like much higher
Speaker 4: tax rates than if you hold them for more than
Speaker 4: twelve months. Is that something that you experience?
Speaker 5: So in New Zealand, we don't have a capital gains tax,
Speaker 5: so it's been less unrelatable.
Speaker 4: It must be nice, it is, ok, yes, every day.
Speaker 4: We can stop talking about this now because I might
Speaker 4: get jellous my.
Speaker 5: Workmates who are based in Australia yet they have to
Speaker 5: do that, and I guess the strategy there it really works.
Speaker 4: That's so rude that you get out of it and
Speaker 4: then you're like, haha, have fun over there, have fun
Speaker 4: on the other side of the ditch where tax suck.
Speaker 2: I mean, Australia's got a lot of good things going
Speaker 2: for it as well.
Speaker 4: So no, no, I like, how like it sounds lame,
Speaker 4: But I do really like our tax system. I think
Speaker 4: it is incredibly Like there are definitely always places that
Speaker 4: we could fix and do different things, but I think
Speaker 4: we have a very fair tax system for the economy
Speaker 4: that we've built.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, the tax is interesting, but you know, at
Speaker 5: the end of the day, I love knowing that that
Speaker 5: money is being allocated to you know, the courses that
Speaker 5: need it. And yeah, it's not money that I would
Speaker 5: rather keep. It makes sense to have to pay it.
Speaker 5: I should also add as part of my total compensation,
Speaker 5: there's salary shares. There's also a bonus that I get,
Speaker 5: so on top of everything else, there is a twenty
Speaker 5: percent I guess, performance based bonus that I get and
Speaker 5: obviously that can vary as well, so annually that's yeah,
Speaker 5: depending on how well I do in my role, it
Speaker 5: can be up to twenty percent of my salary. So
Speaker 5: I guess in total, I mean it's a significant amount
Speaker 5: of cash, but it can be anywhere between like four
Speaker 5: hundred and eighty to six fifty annually a.
Speaker 2: Year as a cash bonus. Uh no, that's total. That's total.
Speaker 5: So the cash bonus is twenty percent of the annual salary.
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness, that is a lot of money to
Speaker 4: be dealing with. Talk to me about, like, this is
Speaker 4: just exciting, like getting pervy, Like you've got like when
Speaker 4: you give women money, you give them power, and if
Speaker 4: they've got power, they can create really cool things. So
Speaker 4: talk to me about your big money goals, Like what
Speaker 4: are you currently working towards.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm kind of in my like while the sunshines
Speaker 5: make hay error, yes, And so I think at the
Speaker 5: back of my mind, I'm very aware of the fact that,
Speaker 5: like when tick is good, tick is great, and this
Speaker 5: is not going to last forever. Like I've been super
Speaker 5: fortunate to have joined my company at a time time
Speaker 5: where shares were low, so they have increased in value
Speaker 5: quite a lot since I've been there. And I'm trying
Speaker 5: to be really mindful of like making sure that I
Speaker 5: do this money justice and I use it wisely, and
Speaker 5: I kind of set myself up for success. And so
Speaker 5: I guess we've got of come full circle with the
Speaker 5: story that I described earlier on with my upbringing. But
Speaker 5: my big goal at the moment is to build my
Speaker 5: own house. My partner and I just bought a house
Speaker 5: right before Christmas.
Speaker 2: That's so exciting.
Speaker 5: It's the proverbial like the worst house on the best street.
Speaker 2: Good. That's what we want to see. That was the plan.
Speaker 5: We're very, very handy, so we're going to spend the
Speaker 5: next year doing it up. So we're not living there
Speaker 5: right now, but in the next twelve months hopefully, yeah,
Speaker 5: we're going to be living in it. The goal is, yeah,
Speaker 5: to create our dream home, I suppose, and as we
Speaker 5: do that, try to keep the mortgage on that house
Speaker 5: as little as possible. And I think that goes back
Speaker 5: to the fact that I'm very aware of the fact
Speaker 5: that tech is pretty unstable. You know, there's a lot
Speaker 5: of I guess, job and security and and I don't
Speaker 5: want to end up in a position where I've over
Speaker 5: committed myself to an amazing big house with a big mortgage,
Speaker 5: assuming I'm going to be making lots of money forever.
Speaker 5: I think, Yeah, it's important for me to make sure
Speaker 5: that that mortgage is as little as possible, so I'm.
Speaker 2: Not stressing out.
Speaker 4: And is that would you say the biggest goal is
Speaker 4: smashing down your mortgage.
Speaker 5: I think in the next few years. Yes, I want
Speaker 5: to kind of make the most of this high income
Speaker 5: I have and try to just not be stressed about money.
Speaker 5: Like I think it goes back to that anxiety of
Speaker 5: if something happens, I want to not have a huge
Speaker 5: burden on myself. It's unlikely that I be able to
Speaker 5: find a job earning this much ever again, probably, but
Speaker 5: I just want to keep it manageable.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not something you just walk straight into.
Speaker 5: Absolutely not. It's a very temporary thing. And yeah, so
Speaker 5: build the house and then hopefully with time also look
Speaker 5: at kind of other investments, potentially using some of the
Speaker 5: equity in that house. But yeah, that's one thing at
Speaker 5: a time, that's kind of a future thing for us
Speaker 5: to think about.
Speaker 4: Yeah, very cool. All right, let's go to a really
Speaker 4: quick break because on the flip side, I want to
Speaker 4: learn a little bit more about your investments. I had
Speaker 4: to hold myself back earlier before, like diving in and
Speaker 4: then we're going to talk about debt invest and worst
Speaker 4: money habits. So guys that don't go anywhere, all right,
Speaker 4: money dist we are back, and I need to talk
Speaker 4: more about your investments. So each and every single year,
Speaker 4: your work is giving you between two hundred to four
Speaker 4: hundred thousand dollars worth of shares like that is I
Speaker 4: would say, it's not unheard of, but it's not often
Speaker 4: heard of, and I just think that is so exciting.
Speaker 4: Talk to me about what you're currently investing in. How
Speaker 4: much is your portfolio worth now? And like you mentioned
Speaker 4: that you're selling off a lot of shares, what are
Speaker 4: you doing with that cash? Like, what are we doing
Speaker 4: to invest for our futures?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Absolutely, So I'll start from the top. Until recently, I
Speaker 5: actually did have an investment So my first home I
Speaker 5: bought an apartment right before COVID with the intent of
Speaker 5: living in it. That was also what I got with
Speaker 5: my now current partner, and so as COVID happened, I
Speaker 5: very quickly rented that out. So my first home very
Speaker 5: quickly became an investment property. And I have recently just
Speaker 5: sold that actually last week, very recently, very recently, and
Speaker 5: so that's going to help us pay for building our house,
Speaker 5: and the significant portion of that will go towards creating
Speaker 5: the dream home. So I suppose that's no longer an investment,
Speaker 5: but it was an investment until recently. And in terms
Speaker 5: of shares. So obviously I've got the shares from my employer.
Speaker 5: And the way that works is when I first joined
Speaker 5: my organization, I got a kind of set of shares
Speaker 5: that they allocated to me over a four year period.
Speaker 5: So every year I get access, yeah, investing over four years,
Speaker 5: and so I got and got them allocated at quite
Speaker 5: a good price. So the price that you get them
Speaker 5: allocated at is the day you start, basically, and so
Speaker 5: that's why the shares have increased in value quite a lot.
Speaker 5: So it's not like they give me two hundred k's
Speaker 5: worth of shares every year, but it is based on
Speaker 5: that initial grant that I got, which has increased a
Speaker 5: lot just because the company has been doing pretty well
Speaker 5: since then.
Speaker 4: How good is that? So just to not but in
Speaker 4: but give a little bit of context to those listening
Speaker 4: when you get allocated shares in this way, I use
Speaker 4: the word vested before, and essentially vested is like a
Speaker 4: I would say a legal term for promised, and it's
Speaker 4: essentially saying, and I'll ask a few other questions in
Speaker 4: a hot second, but it's essentially saying that when she started,
Speaker 4: she was promised X amount of shares and it might
Speaker 4: have been like ten shares, and then over time, this
Speaker 4: is the vesting part, she will be given those shares.
Speaker 4: But it doesn't just happen upfront, because otherwise there's no
Speaker 4: incentive to work hard, but there will be an incentive
Speaker 4: to wait until your shares are vested. So this could
Speaker 4: happen over like and I'll ask you in a second
Speaker 4: what yours, But it could happen over twelve months, it
Speaker 4: could happen over two years, three years. Like I've seen
Speaker 4: share vesting agreements that are like ten years long, where
Speaker 4: every single year you get like two or three percent
Speaker 4: of the shares that you're allocated, And I just think
Speaker 4: it's so interesting to know more about that. But when
Speaker 4: you joined, like, do you remember the number of shares
Speaker 4: that were like vested to you.
Speaker 5: I don't remember the number of shares specifically, but I
Speaker 5: remember the amount that it was, and it was about
Speaker 5: at that point, probably about six hundred thousand dollars over four.
Speaker 2: Years, oh wow.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then that's obviously increased in value. Do you
Speaker 4: know on average what it would be worth now, like
Speaker 4: obviously you haven't gotten access to it, but like total.
Speaker 5: Yeah, total. I did look recently and it was over
Speaker 5: a million dollars.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, how cray is that?
Speaker 5: It was crazy to see that number again pre tax.
Speaker 5: So there's most half a million dollars worth of tax today.
Speaker 4: That's okay, it's not the point like they're not looking at.
Speaker 5: That right now, but yeah, it's a I guess life
Speaker 5: changing amount of money.
Speaker 4: Oh, absolutely, So talk to me about this. So vesting agreements,
Speaker 4: there's lots of different vesting agreements. How long is your term?
Speaker 4: Like how many years is it over?
Speaker 5: So mine originally was over four years, and initially it
Speaker 5: was what they call a one year cliff, so I
Speaker 5: didn't get any for the first year. After the first year.
Speaker 5: Now I get access to I think it's like four
Speaker 5: point two five percent of my shares every three months.
Speaker 5: And really the incentive there is to keep me there
Speaker 5: for as long as possible.
Speaker 2: Absolutely it is.
Speaker 4: Otherwise why would they give you that, because at the
Speaker 4: end of the day, they've obviously seen you as like
Speaker 4: great talent, and been like we need to lock this
Speaker 4: woman in because this industry is so lucrative, like you
Speaker 4: could go and get another job tomorrow and be paid
Speaker 4: really well, they're assuming, but they got to lock you
Speaker 4: in for a long period of time because you're doing
Speaker 4: user experience right, Like you said you were a user
Speaker 4: experience researcher. The longer that you're doing that, the more
Speaker 4: value you are to their company, Like you're just really
Speaker 4: understanding clientele, right.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, yeah, and I think, yeah, it's great to be
Speaker 5: in a company that recognizes that. Of course, you know,
Speaker 5: it is a big driver for keeping people there as well.
Speaker 5: And I think there's this notion and tech of like
Speaker 5: golden handcuffs where even if you want to leave a job.
Speaker 4: You're stuck because your shares haven't vested, or like there's
Speaker 4: too big of a carrot dangling, right yeah, and.
Speaker 5: All the flip side as well. You know, if you
Speaker 5: get laid off, which does happen.
Speaker 4: You just lose everything, you use everything.
Speaker 5: So you look at that million dollars and suddenly it's gone,
Speaker 5: and it can be hard to plan around that. And
Speaker 5: so going back to investments, I kind of treat those
Speaker 5: shares a little bit like I kind of call them
Speaker 5: monopoly money, because.
Speaker 4: Yeah, until it's in your cold, hard hands, like I
Speaker 4: just yeah, like you don't also want the heartbreak of
Speaker 4: like what if something happens and you are like making
Speaker 4: life plans based on those shares vesting and then they don't.
Speaker 4: So if you leave, do you get to keep the
Speaker 4: shares that you've already had vested to you and you
Speaker 4: lose the rest?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: How does that work?
Speaker 5: Yeah? So everything that you've grunted up until that point
Speaker 5: is yours, and then anything that you haven't received yet
Speaker 5: is just disappears.
Speaker 4: My goodness, and I'm being so pervy. How long have
Speaker 4: you worked it this role?
Speaker 2: I've been there for almost two and a half years.
Speaker 4: So what happens at four years when all of your
Speaker 4: shares have vested? Are they going to like vest you
Speaker 4: more shares to stay longer or like what happens?
Speaker 2: Then? Yeah?
Speaker 5: So every and obviously they want to keep you there
Speaker 5: for a bit longer than four years, So they give
Speaker 5: you an allocation every year when we do performance reviews,
Speaker 5: So apart from just a bonus, they give you kind
Speaker 5: of a little carrot of additional shares, and those shares
Speaker 5: also get allocated on a four year basis, so you
Speaker 5: end up in a situation where you always have new
Speaker 5: shares coming up and that kind of carrot dangling there
Speaker 5: for you to keep going.
Speaker 4: Yeah, which is smart from them, But also and I mean,
Speaker 4: you're making a lot of money and that's fantastic, and
Speaker 4: you clearly enjoy your job. But what if one day
Speaker 4: you woke up and you weren't enjoying your job, Like,
Speaker 4: what would be your situation?
Speaker 5: Then I think that would be a really hard to
Speaker 5: look at my current circumstances. And I guess knowing when
Speaker 5: enough is enough, because I think that is something that
Speaker 5: is in the back of my mind. Working in a
Speaker 5: big tech company, it is quite demanding, and it is competitive,
Speaker 5: and we do have quite a lot of pressure on
Speaker 5: us to perform, and I think that there could very
Speaker 5: easily be a point at which I realized that this
Speaker 5: is no longer serving me. I'm not enjoying it, and
Speaker 5: when I decide to leave, I will be leaving some
Speaker 5: money on the table, regardless of when I decide to
Speaker 5: do that.
Speaker 4: You have to because like otherwise, like you're not performing
Speaker 4: and then you're not getting shares vested to you at
Speaker 4: your performance review at which point I'm assuming they would lay.
Speaker 2: You off, so you're going to lose something.
Speaker 5: So for me, it's yeah, getting to a point where
Speaker 5: hopefully I have my you know, my house by then
Speaker 5: that I enjoy living in and I can take the
Speaker 5: foot off the gas a little bit and decide to
Speaker 5: do something else. And yeah, have I guess enough of
Speaker 5: an emergency fund or enough money to time you over
Speaker 5: to the out what's next for me? But yeah, I
Speaker 5: think having a bit of that plan and really thinking
Speaker 5: about what that future without this job could look like
Speaker 5: is something that I think about quite a lot because
Speaker 5: it's not guaranteed. And also, yeah, I will have to
Speaker 5: live it one day and you know what happens then,
Speaker 5: Like I don't want to get used to it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, fair, but it sounds like you're trying to make
Speaker 4: hay while the sun is shining. You mentioned that when
Speaker 4: you get your shares you often just sell them off,
Speaker 4: which is so nice because you don't have any capital
Speaker 4: gains tax. But on the flip side, I need to
Speaker 4: know what are you doing with that money? Is that
Speaker 4: just going into your house deposit savings? Is that going
Speaker 4: into another like share portfolio? Like what's the plan?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: So it has changed a little bit recently. So I
Speaker 5: paid off the mortgage on my first home and that
Speaker 5: was my main goal.
Speaker 2: That's crazy, that's so cool. That is so cool. It
Speaker 2: was amazing. Yeah, it was like, oh yeah, I just
Speaker 2: paid off my first mogg. Just see down. That is
Speaker 2: so cool.
Speaker 5: It was a baby mortgage, it was a one bedroom place.
Speaker 5: But I was really proud of myself yet to pay
Speaker 5: that often yeah five years, five years, five years.
Speaker 4: Well, I just paid it off over five years.
Speaker 2: Unrelatable?
Speaker 4: No, no, but it's not you know what, who cares
Speaker 4: about unrelatable? Like, it's just so cool that you got
Speaker 4: to do that. Like, especially going back, can we just
Speaker 4: remember that you were telling us how your parents are
Speaker 4: from Eastern European descent and they experienced Communism and your
Speaker 4: mum got oranges for Christmas, Like, and now you're like, yes,
Speaker 4: I paid off my whole lass house in five years.
Speaker 4: Like are they just like so proud of you because
Speaker 4: they would be mind blown that the child that they
Speaker 4: had is now capable of this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're super super proud.
Speaker 5: But it's funny you say that because the first I
Speaker 5: mentioned some of the job hopping I did early in
Speaker 5: my career, and the first take job I got, my
Speaker 5: mom was super proud of me, and she was like,
Speaker 5: this is amazing, this is great. Then when I told
Speaker 5: her that I was leaving that job and I was
Speaker 5: I got another offer and I was going somewhere else,
Speaker 5: she thought I was bonkers. She thought, why would you
Speaker 5: throw away the step.
Speaker 2: The money? What are you doing? And she almost yelled
Speaker 2: at me.
Speaker 4: She was like, really, I mean she's not wrong, like
Speaker 4: from her background, that's of such value.
Speaker 5: Yeah, she was already proud of me then, but then,
Speaker 5: you know, I said, this is how much I'm going
Speaker 5: to be making, and suddenly she.
Speaker 4: Was just like oh, She's like, are you sure did
Speaker 4: they mark up?
Speaker 2: Because that's fake money. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think for them it's really hard to relate. I mean,
Speaker 5: my parents barely understand what I do for except for them. Fine, yeah,
Speaker 5: it's hard for them to relate. But they're super proud.
Speaker 5: And I think, you know, seeing me go through the
Speaker 5: same thing of you know, now creating my house, not
Speaker 5: having to do it under a whole bunch of stress,
Speaker 5: I think they're just really proud to see that the
Speaker 5: sacrifices and the challenges they had are no longer something
Speaker 5: that I'm having to do myself so.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent.
Speaker 4: And like it's so nice to wrap back to that
Speaker 4: story that you shared with us at the start, because
Speaker 4: it's just like, yeah, you mentioned it's unrelatable totally, but
Speaker 4: like we're not in isolation having this conversation about someone
Speaker 4: paying off their mortgage in five years and not giving
Speaker 4: you the content, extend the how and literally the playbook
Speaker 4: of Okay, well, if you also wanted to work in tech,
Speaker 4: these are the opportunities on the table. Like, we're sharing
Speaker 4: this so that people can learn and people can grow
Speaker 4: and be inspired because, my friend, if you can do it, like,
Speaker 4: there are opportunities on the table for other women to
Speaker 4: do something similar, and I just I'm so excited about that, Like,
Speaker 4: and that's why we're sharing these stories because like, imagine
Speaker 4: how cool it would be if we get a message saying, oh,
Speaker 4: I just I put my hat in the ring and
Speaker 4: I got my first job in tech and I've like
Speaker 4: doubled my salary, which we totally know, like you and
Speaker 4: I know is completely possible if somebody wanted to do that. Like,
Speaker 4: imagine that type of stuff coming out of you sharing
Speaker 4: your story, which we know is going to happen like,
Speaker 4: that's so cool.
Speaker 2: I would love to hear those stories, girl friend.
Speaker 4: When it comes up, I will absolutely share it with you.
Speaker 4: But tell me a bit more about this investment plan.
Speaker 4: Like you've got a house, you paid it off, you
Speaker 4: just sold your house, you're building a dream home, Like
Speaker 4: are you planning on expanding and having like a bigger
Speaker 4: investment folio or what does that look like?
Speaker 5: Yeah, so alongside I guess paying off my mortgage. While
Speaker 5: I was doing that, I was also trying to kind
Speaker 5: of build up money to help myself in the case
Speaker 5: of emergencies or in the case that something was to
Speaker 5: happen to my job. So I started investing pretty aggressively
Speaker 5: over the last I think, you know, year year and
Speaker 5: a half when my income allowed me to put you know,
Speaker 5: significant amounts of money aside. So for a period of time,
Speaker 5: I was trying to invest about twenty percent of my income.
Speaker 5: So now I've got about one hundred and thirty thousand
Speaker 5: dollars in cheers eas.
Speaker 2: Oh how cool? In chasa's did you say in chaerseas?
Speaker 2: I love Cheersya's. I love this and it's from your
Speaker 2: side of the ditch exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I love how easy they make it, and
Speaker 5: I just love all the content that they produce.
Speaker 2: So big cheersyas fan me too.
Speaker 4: Don't worry, girlfriend, But like, I'm not even doing that
Speaker 4: because they pay me. Like I'm literally obsessed with them.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I've seen them their team speak locally and talk
Speaker 5: about their journey. So yeah, super don't want to support
Speaker 5: them obviously. Now that I'm saving to, you know, do
Speaker 5: a huge renovation on our house, I've dropped back some
Speaker 5: of the investments, but I am still investing just to
Speaker 5: keep the habit up.
Speaker 4: Oh, I love this for you. So we're investing. Talk
Speaker 4: to me about debt. So you've just before Christmas you
Speaker 4: purchased a house with your partner. How much debt are
Speaker 4: you in now?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: So our house, we bought it for nine hundred and
Speaker 5: ninety thousand, and the mortgage on that at the moment
Speaker 5: is eight hundred and eighty thousand, which I'm currently paying
Speaker 5: off myself. My partner's got a house that we live
Speaker 5: in currently, so he's paying off that mortgage and I'm
Speaker 5: paying off the mortgage for our future home.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: How cool. So you're in New Zealand. What does a
Speaker 4: nine hundred and ninety thousand dollars purchase get you like,
Speaker 4: what type of property are we buying? Because in Melbourne,
Speaker 4: like and in Sydney, that gets you to redroom, really
Speaker 4: nice apartment, but.
Speaker 2: Like it might not buy you land anymore.
Speaker 4: I mean further out absolutely, But like in Melbourne and Sydney,
Speaker 4: which are obviously CAPITALI ish cities, you don't get a
Speaker 4: lot anymore for undred million dollars. So what did you
Speaker 4: get to purchase?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: So I think the New Zealand property market has dropped
Speaker 5: significantly in recent years. And I'm looking at what's happening
Speaker 5: in Australia and it's completely different to what's happening over here.
Speaker 2: It's wild. It's such a different market.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so we got pretty lucky. We've managed to buy
Speaker 5: a very big house which is almost two hundred and
Speaker 5: fifty square meters.
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness, that's like nearly the size of the
Speaker 4: block I own.
Speaker 5: Like, so it's about four bedrooms, two bathrooms and about
Speaker 5: six hundred meters of land.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, how good.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it is one hundred years old and it is unlivable.
Speaker 5: It is in a really bad state. And so I
Speaker 5: just think a lot of people didn't want to touch.
Speaker 2: It, yeah, because you can't just move in. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so it's got a lot of work to do.
Speaker 5: I think we're planning to put about maybe five hundred
Speaker 5: to six hundred thousand into it over the next year.
Speaker 4: And it's going to be your dream home exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I love that.
Speaker 4: And like, in terms of proximity to your closest capital city,
Speaker 4: what does that look like.
Speaker 2: It's literally five kilometers from the CBD.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, Okay, that is so cool. So it's
Speaker 4: basically like a one point five million dollar property once
Speaker 4: it all comes out in the wash, Like, that's what
Speaker 4: it'll cost you. I love that. And are you planning
Speaker 4: on smashing this mortgage down as aggressively? Like obviously you're
Speaker 4: saving for the renous and stuff. Is that all going
Speaker 4: to be in cash or are you extending your mortgage
Speaker 4: for that?
Speaker 5: Yeah, So the goal is to not have to go
Speaker 5: back to the bank. So we're trying to fund all
Speaker 5: of the renovation with what we have in cash and
Speaker 5: the shares from my employer and our salaries and savings
Speaker 5: and things like that. And then yeah, once we're ready
Speaker 5: to move in, the plan is for my partner to
Speaker 5: sell the house we currently live in and just try
Speaker 5: to bring that mortgage down to be as little as possible.
Speaker 2: So bad. Good.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we don't have a big mortgage coming out every month.
Speaker 4: So fair. And then let's say you still work in
Speaker 4: tech and you're still making the same amount, and you
Speaker 4: now have no mortgages, Like, what would the plan there be?
Speaker 4: Is that like expand your property portfolio? Is it like
Speaker 4: double down on investing in shares, Like what would that
Speaker 4: look like after you, you know, smash these mortgages out, which
Speaker 4: I have no doubt you're doing another five years or something.
Speaker 2: As long as I stay in float, I have no doubt.
Speaker 2: It sounds like they really value you. Thank you.
Speaker 5: I'm in two minds about it. On one hand, I
Speaker 5: hear a lot about property. I see a lot of
Speaker 5: people I know investing in property, and I guess I
Speaker 5: have anadvertently dabbled in it a little bit myself. I'm
Speaker 5: not sure if I love property as an investment. I
Speaker 5: think I quite like the idea of investing my money
Speaker 5: in shares and being able to draw down on it,
Speaker 5: you know, every yeah, every year, just have a little
Speaker 5: bit of I guess, like passive income coming through shares,
Speaker 5: I might change my mind about that. But I think
Speaker 5: at this point in time, I find the idea of
Speaker 5: investing a property to be a little bit of a
Speaker 5: hassle totally.
Speaker 4: And I think that each to their own obviously, but
Speaker 4: it's like me, like, I just look at property and go, oh,
Speaker 4: there's like a heap of risk and heap of overheads,
Speaker 4: and you also need a lot of money to get
Speaker 4: started and then and a lot of ongoing upkeep. Like
Speaker 4: for me, I'm like, hello, share market, but for other
Speaker 4: people they go, no, it's bricks and mortar. And I
Speaker 4: feel really secure with this, so like it's literally based
Speaker 4: on your personal decisions, which is honestly why I find
Speaker 4: investing so interesting. Now, with the income that you've got,
Speaker 4: with the background that you have, and all of the
Speaker 4: things that you've achieved thus far and will in the
Speaker 4: near future. What do you think your best money habit is,
Speaker 4: Because I think that we could learn a lot from you.
Speaker 5: I think the best habit I have is that, despite
Speaker 5: earning a lot, I still try to stay quite frugal
Speaker 5: in some areas. So for me, that's things like, you know,
Speaker 5: cooking something that lasts three days, not eating out too much,
Speaker 5: you know, doing my own nails at home rather than
Speaker 5: paying for it. And sometimes I think recently I've been
Speaker 5: challenging myself and creating my own little money challenges. But
Speaker 5: a recent one that I had was not spending any
Speaker 5: money on Uber eats or takeaways.
Speaker 2: I don't know if that's possible for me unless I
Speaker 2: make that money elsewhere. So oh, that's cute.
Speaker 5: Yeah, through selling something on trade me or marketplace, that
Speaker 5: could turn into Uber eats money. That's Uber eats money.
Speaker 5: If I get some kind of voucher from a friend
Speaker 5: or through work, that's Uber eats money.
Speaker 4: Oh, I love that. I couldn't stick to it, but
Speaker 4: in theory, that sounds fantastic.
Speaker 5: Sometimes I do little like online surveys or participate in
Speaker 5: market research just to fund my Uber.
Speaker 4: And you're like, that is a burger.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's.
Speaker 5: My Uber fund and Uber doesn't get paid in cash.
Speaker 5: Uber is like a treat. And I think that's really
Speaker 5: helped me because even though I love convenience, I still, yeah,
Speaker 5: in the back of my mind, I still know that
Speaker 5: like every dollar counts. And again, like sickond hand shopping,
Speaker 5: I grew up with my mom who loved thrifting, and
Speaker 5: that's really stuck with me, And I do think that
Speaker 5: sometimes when I think about it, like I do see
Speaker 5: a little maybe like trace of communism still in my blood.
Speaker 5: Where I reuse things, I try to get a good deal.
Speaker 5: I don't buy things I don't need.
Speaker 4: That's part of our money story though, And I kind
Speaker 4: of like, as long as it's not causing you trauma,
Speaker 4: I think it's kind of sweet that you have things
Speaker 4: that you've kind of inherited from your parents, Like it's
Speaker 4: so nice to be like, that's so my mum of me.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I think my parents really helped me like
Speaker 5: tep two feet on the ground at all times, you know,
Speaker 5: they really instilled that in us really strongly when we
Speaker 5: were growing up. And so I try not to get
Speaker 5: too carried away with my own spending and keep things manageable,
Speaker 5: and yeah, don't get carried away too much totally.
Speaker 4: The other thing that I'm saying that you're really good
Speaker 4: at that you haven't identified, but you did mention earlier,
Speaker 4: is that you're really good at throwing your hat in
Speaker 4: the ring. Like, it is not that common to meet
Speaker 4: a woman who says that. At twenty four, she wrote
Speaker 4: a really convincing couple letter and then met with the
Speaker 4: CEO and got her dream role, which was like the
Speaker 4: stepping stone. And like your quote lucky break, you explained
Speaker 4: it as in an industry she wanted to get into,
Speaker 4: like so many women, as you said, wait until they
Speaker 4: meet one hundred percent of the criteria before they apply
Speaker 4: for a job. Like I think a good money habit
Speaker 4: is just backing yourself. You're like, nope, I could totally
Speaker 4: do that, Like and I am completely going to back
Speaker 4: myself into this, And like, I don't think it's a
Speaker 4: lucky break. I think it was like someone identified the
Speaker 4: tenacity that you had and realized that you would be
Speaker 4: a really good staff member. There was nothing that luck
Speaker 4: had to do with this. And I just I think
Speaker 4: that that is also a really good money habit that
Speaker 4: you probably haven't identified. But I would hope that people
Speaker 4: are taking from this episode because I'm just like, oh
Speaker 4: my god, Like you're just getting it done.
Speaker 2: You're like, how hard can it be? I could do that.
Speaker 2: That's fine.
Speaker 4: Did I meet twenty percent of the criteria? Yes, But
Speaker 4: also I'm really good at talking, and I would like
Speaker 4: you to sit down and listen.
Speaker 2: And I just think that's so cool.
Speaker 5: Thanks for saying that. Yeah, I think I don't reckon
Speaker 5: that enough, but I do help. You know, when I'm
Speaker 5: helping my friends, like you know, find jobs or applying,
Speaker 5: you're their hype girl. I'm their hype girl. And I
Speaker 5: always think there's no harm in trying.
Speaker 2: Just try.
Speaker 4: I know, what's the worst They could say no, and
Speaker 4: you go, oh, thank you for the opportunity, moving on.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I think you owe it to yourself to try.
Speaker 5: Worst case scenario you don't hear back. This case scenario
Speaker 5: leads to a conversation or maybe a job or maybe
Speaker 5: a career change.
Speaker 2: So cool. See, that's a very good habit.
Speaker 4: Like, I like that your habit is being the ultimate
Speaker 4: hype girl for your friends. That's a very good habit.
Speaker 4: You're making them a lot of money. Ten out of
Speaker 4: ten bringing the mood down. Though, what's your worst money habit?
Speaker 5: I think I've got too. So one of them is
Speaker 5: I don't budget. And despite having a lot of money
Speaker 5: coming in and like, despite educating myself with podcasts and
Speaker 5: books and listening to money diaries, I don't have a
Speaker 5: good sense of how much I actually have coming in
Speaker 5: and coming out. And I do feel like there's a
Speaker 5: lot I could optimize to really get the most out
Speaker 5: of it and to be really smart with the money
Speaker 5: that I am making at the moment. So I think
Speaker 5: for me, I don't know what has blocked me or
Speaker 5: stopped me from doing it. I imagine it's because I don't
Speaker 5: need to budget. So it's not budgeting for a necessity,
Speaker 5: but it's budgeting for making sure that I'm Yeah, I
Speaker 5: guess making the most of this situation and setting myself
Speaker 5: up for the future as well as possible.
Speaker 2: And what's your second one?
Speaker 5: So despite my best efforts and what I just mentioned
Speaker 5: about trying to be frugal, there is a little bit
Speaker 5: of lifestyle creep creeping into my world.
Speaker 4: You're aware of it. We love a self aware queen.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 5: I do try to keep it at bay as much
Speaker 5: as I can, but I love to travel and I
Speaker 5: love to travel comfortably. So quickly my economy flights have
Speaker 5: creeped into premium economy territory, and my Airbnb search filters
Speaker 5: have expanded.
Speaker 2: A little bit, a little bit. It's so frustrating.
Speaker 4: Once you've experienced the front of the plane, you're like, welly,
Speaker 4: I can't I always see here.
Speaker 2: It's just It's funny.
Speaker 4: I was trying to explain it to somebody the other day,
Speaker 4: and like, I'm aware that this is incredibly privileged. I'm
Speaker 4: not saying something that's relatable here, but like you sit
Speaker 4: at the front of the plane, you understand what it
Speaker 4: feels like. But to me, when I get that experience,
Speaker 4: and usually it's because of my points, I'm not paying
Speaker 4: it or it's just because like I've used my points smartly.
Speaker 4: I feel like the holiday starts when you get to
Speaker 4: the airport, whereas when you are, you know, flying economy,
Speaker 4: and like there's nothing wrong with that at all, And
Speaker 4: I still do it, and I've just booked economy flights
Speaker 4: somewhere because I'm like, I'm not wasting that many points,
Speaker 4: Like the upgrade was not worth it. I feel like
Speaker 4: I don't start the holiday until I get to the
Speaker 4: destination because like it's just not as like there's nothing
Speaker 4: relaxing about being on the plane unless you're at the
Speaker 4: very front of the plane. Again, very entitled, but like
Speaker 4: once you've experienced it, you just go wow. So this
Speaker 4: is how the other halfway of maybe I should care
Speaker 4: a little bit more about points collecting or you know,
Speaker 4: being able to upgrade or what flight specials are on,
Speaker 4: because it just you get a taste of the good life.
Speaker 4: And that's what lifestyle creep is right.
Speaker 5: One hundred percent. Yeah, and I've been trying really hard
Speaker 5: to balance it and also not to feel too guilty
Speaker 5: about it as well, like I sometimes forget that I
Speaker 5: need to celebrate the fact that I am in this position,
Speaker 5: and so, yeah, it's not necessarily a bad habit, but
Speaker 5: it is something that sometimes I look back and go,
Speaker 5: I didn't really have to stay there, you know, I
Speaker 5: would have had just as much of a good time
Speaker 5: if I had taken a different flight or stayed at
Speaker 5: a different place and had.
Speaker 4: Totally well, I can't help you with that one, Like
Speaker 4: lifestyle creep, I can help you be aware of it,
Speaker 4: but I can't fix it. But I think I can
Speaker 4: fix the budgeting things. So I'll set you up with
Speaker 4: my money masterclass and I'll get you on a very
Speaker 4: good budget and we will do it together and make
Speaker 4: sure that it is all ready to go so that
Speaker 4: you've got no excuses. So I can fix one of
Speaker 4: those bad habits the other one, like, I'm sorry, do
Speaker 4: you know what you deserve that bad habit? Let's not
Speaker 4: call it bad. Let's call it treating ourselves. We're coming
Speaker 4: to the end of the episode, my love, But at
Speaker 4: the very start, like we've learned so much about you.
Speaker 4: You said that you were a B minus maybe, and
Speaker 4: then you went on to tell me all of this
Speaker 4: cool stuff like what kind of B minus pays off
Speaker 4: their mortgage or their first mortgage in five years?
Speaker 2: I just feel like after learning this.
Speaker 4: Much about you, your background, what you studied, how much
Speaker 4: you're you know, putting your hat in the ring. Understanding, Yeah,
Speaker 4: you do some frugal stuff, but like you've just bought
Speaker 4: your first like home, like your dream home with your partner,
Speaker 4: and you're planning on doing five hundred thousand dollars worth
Speaker 4: of renovations in cash. Like, girlfriend, that's not a B minus. Like,
Speaker 4: what do you think it would take for you to
Speaker 4: say to MeV, I'm an A plus? Like what type
Speaker 4: of changes would you need to make to be able
Speaker 4: to grade yourself there?
Speaker 5: I think despite earning a lot of money, I do
Speaker 5: still think I have some room to grow, and I
Speaker 5: think making them more of the money that I do
Speaker 5: have coming in, So being more aware of my budget,
Speaker 5: what my incomings are, what my outgoings are. I really
Speaker 5: think that that would help me feel more I guess,
Speaker 5: aware and conscious of where my money is going. Like
Speaker 5: there's a lot of privilege that comes with being in
Speaker 5: this situation, but I think I'm doing myself a little
Speaker 5: bit of a disservice by being a bit lazy about it,
Speaker 5: and so that education and also having a bit more
Speaker 5: of a solid emergency fund, like having a nice house
Speaker 5: isn't going to help me if I run into trouble
Speaker 5: or lose my job.
Speaker 4: But it's so good to be self aware of that
Speaker 4: as well, and I just go, well, you're on the
Speaker 4: right track, Like there are so many people who earn
Speaker 4: heaps of money who just go right, well, I'm golden.
Speaker 4: I don't have to think about this. I have heaps
Speaker 4: of money coming in, and I just I think that
Speaker 4: you're You're beyond that, Like you're not be minus to me.
Speaker 5: Maybe an a minus, but I feel like there's always
Speaker 5: room to grow.
Speaker 2: So well, we can sit there for now, my love.
Speaker 2: This has been so good.
Speaker 4: I have loved this episode, and I just know that
Speaker 4: there there's going to be someone who listens to this
Speaker 4: and goes, humh, I reckon, I could do that and
Speaker 4: then gets a better job or upgrades their lifestyle or
Speaker 4: doubles their income because you had to chat with us today.
Speaker 4: So I am just really grateful that you wanted to
Speaker 4: spend the time that you probably don't actually have to
Speaker 4: hang out with us and share your story for the
Speaker 4: betterment of our community.
Speaker 5: So thank you so much for that. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for having me. I've really really
Speaker 5: appreciated being able to share my.
Speaker 4: Story Adore, Thank you so much. The advice shared on
Speaker 4: She's on the Money is general in nature and does
Speaker 4: not consider your individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists
Speaker 4: purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon
Speaker 4: to make an investment or financial decision.
Speaker 2: If you do choose to buy a financial.
Speaker 4: Product, read the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice
Speaker 4: tailored towards your needs. Victoria Divine and She's on the
Speaker 4: Money are authorized represented gives of money, sirper P T
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