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 Mune, the podcast
Speaker 2: for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome to another one
Speaker 2: of our money diaries where we get to talk to
Speaker 2: one of our incredible Shees on the Money community members
Speaker 2: all about their money story. Let's jump straight into it
Speaker 2: today because this week we've got a juicy one. Here's
Speaker 2: the message I got. Hi, Victoria. I'm a doctor who
Speaker 2: got scammed two hundred and seventy one thousand dollars by
Speaker 2: my cousin who lives overseas. I've managed to get out
Speaker 2: of the financial hellhole with a lot of help and
Speaker 2: hard labor, and it has catapulted my financial literacy like
Speaker 2: no other. I wanted to share my experience given the
Speaker 2: prevalence of cybercrime, and to break down stigma for others
Speaker 2: who have also been scammed. Money diarist, Hello, what an
Speaker 2: awful cousin. I know one out of ten cannot recommend.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean didn't see that one coming through.
Speaker 2: No, you wouldn't have, especially because they're family, right. I
Speaker 2: want to know so much about this before we get there, though.
Speaker 2: I want to know if I asked you to grade
Speaker 2: your money habits from A through F, what would you
Speaker 2: grade yourself?
Speaker 3: Probably A B plus B plus.
Speaker 2: I like it.
Speaker 3: I like it.
Speaker 2: Let's get into the money diary, though, because I want
Speaker 2: to know all about this money dirates, Can you tell
Speaker 2: us a little bit about your money story?
Speaker 3: Sure? So, growing up, I didn't have a lot of
Speaker 3: financial literacy. Money wasn't talked about in the family like
Speaker 3: adult affairs. Hush hush, you don't talk about it. So
Speaker 3: I just learned to not ask my parents or anything
Speaker 3: to do with you know, their jobs or how much
Speaker 3: they earn or anything like that. I was also made
Speaker 3: to feel like it was a bad thing to accept
Speaker 3: gifts or you know, money on you know, birthdays or
Speaker 3: special events, because you know you're not meant to be
Speaker 3: taking money from others. You're meant to be saving your
Speaker 3: own money. So a lot of conflicting types of ideologies
Speaker 3: growing up where you know, you don't talk about money,
Speaker 3: but you know you can't sort of accept gifts and
Speaker 3: things from family and other people as well. And I
Speaker 3: didn't really work until I was nineteen, so I had
Speaker 3: no concept of super or taxes until I started work,
Speaker 3: and even then, working while doing UNI, I didn't realize,
Speaker 3: you know, what the importance of super was, or you know,
Speaker 3: how to do your taxes, things like that.
Speaker 2: That's so common though, so common.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I just sort of blindly fumbled my way
Speaker 3: through working a few part time jobs while studying. Even
Speaker 3: when I started working as a doctor, it was just all,
Speaker 3: you know, I earned, I spent, I earned, I spent,
Speaker 3: I saved, but I didn't know what I was saving
Speaker 3: for and I didn't know how to save, so it's
Speaker 3: just whatever I didn't spend ended up being savings. So,
Speaker 3: you know, I was just sort of going through that
Speaker 3: sort of endless cycle until I got scammed. Basically, Oh
Speaker 3: my gosh, that sort of changed my perspective on things.
Speaker 2: So talk to me a little bit about this circumstance. Obviously,
Speaker 2: that's the reason you've reached out to us. And I
Speaker 2: feel like you sound very articulate, very well spoken, and
Speaker 2: like a very intelligent human being. He dropped before that
Speaker 2: you're a doctor. I feel like that is the exact
Speaker 2: opposite of the type of person I would have assumed to.
Speaker 2: Let's call it full for a scam, even though it's
Speaker 2: not really falling for a scam, it's being manipulated into
Speaker 2: parting with money. Right, how did this happen? How do
Speaker 2: you get scammed out of two hundred and seventy one
Speaker 2: one thousand dollars?
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, it didn't happen in just one big lump
Speaker 3: sum here? Can I have two hund seventy one k.
Speaker 3: It was over a period of a year and a half,
Speaker 3: and it just started off. So I have family overseas
Speaker 3: and my cousin's overseas, but I grew up with her,
Speaker 3: so you know, we had a pretty close relationship and
Speaker 3: it just started off with a initial sort of Her
Speaker 3: boyfriend was in trouble and she needed to help him out.
Speaker 3: Could I sort of help her help him out? And
Speaker 3: you know, as a once off thing, you know, I
Speaker 3: did in mind, So I transferred her some money, and
Speaker 3: then I guess it just that was the sort of
Speaker 3: opening for an ongoing cycle of a web of lives.
Speaker 3: It's a bit complicated, but essentially it started off with
Speaker 3: one thing. So say, for example, her boyfriend needed money
Speaker 3: for X, Y Z reason and she couldn't go to
Speaker 3: anyone else, and I was the only one she could trust,
Speaker 3: and I was the only one she had kind of scenario.
Speaker 3: And then when that sort of story had reached its limit,
Speaker 3: it was some other story about someone we knew, a
Speaker 3: mutual person that we knew, and that how he was
Speaker 3: in financial strife and he was hounded by loan sharks
Speaker 3: and we were all he had, and so it became
Speaker 3: a just a sort of spiraling web of lies. And
Speaker 3: at the time, because I knew the person that she
Speaker 3: was referring to as being in all this financial strife,
Speaker 3: I believed her and just didn't question it. Even the
Speaker 3: stories got more and more weird. So for example, he needed,
Speaker 3: you know, medical expenses covered for being really unwell, and
Speaker 3: then his mother died, and then it just spiraled. And
Speaker 3: I mean, I guess at the back of my mind,
Speaker 3: I sort of I was like, what am I doing?
Speaker 3: Why is this happening? Because I never spoke to the
Speaker 3: person that she was referring to. Ever, I was always
Speaker 3: through her. I never saw evidence of anything. I just
Speaker 3: sort of blindly trusted her.
Speaker 2: Well, she was a family member, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3: So it just kept going until it reached a point
Speaker 3: where I guess it was just getting too ridiculous. So
Speaker 3: I was getting random messages from random phone numbers I
Speaker 3: didn't recognize, sort of harassing me for money and things
Speaker 3: like that, and when I've questioned her about it, that'll
Speaker 3: be more lies. So then I was like, Okay, this
Speaker 3: is just weird. So then I'd stopped giving her money,
Speaker 3: and then I guess there are a few clues that
Speaker 3: I'd picked up along the way that led me to
Speaker 3: believe that everything was just a sham, but it wasn't.
Speaker 3: So I realized when I'd stopped giving her money, that
Speaker 3: she changed her whole story again to a different sort
Speaker 3: of story to try and get money off me. That
Speaker 3: I realized that this is all a sham, and that
Speaker 3: I just needed bail. But I guess by then I'd
Speaker 3: already been scammed to under in so many.
Speaker 2: K Oh, my gosh, that's awful. I'm so sorry you
Speaker 2: went through that.
Speaker 3: It wasn't a pleasant time and I had to. I
Speaker 3: took out, you know, four credit cards out of personal loone.
Speaker 3: I was working day and night to cover this. And
Speaker 3: the funny thing was I wasn't even the money, wasn't
Speaker 3: even for me. I was just sort of earning it
Speaker 3: and then fundling it to her, and so just escalated.
Speaker 3: But I think once I realized and started getting help,
Speaker 3: then that was the point of no return. I was
Speaker 3: never gonna sort of return to that cycle, I guess.
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course. So this cousin that you had, you
Speaker 2: mentioned your cousin's overseas. Was this someone that you were
Speaker 2: relatively close with before.
Speaker 3: Yep, yep, so used to see her on school holidays,
Speaker 3: grew up with her when we were younger, So totally
Speaker 3: did not see this coming.
Speaker 2: And how did you broach this with family? You said
Speaker 2: that you reached out for help. Was that through family?
Speaker 2: Was it through you know, external sources? What were your
Speaker 2: first few steps there? Because that would be heartbreaking to
Speaker 2: find that out, but also so difficult because it's a
Speaker 2: family member.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's really awkward, and it's still to this day.
Speaker 3: So basically I reached out to her parents to sort
Speaker 3: of query on her side whether all of this was true,
Speaker 3: which I don't know whether that was a mistake or not,
Speaker 3: but basically they ended up taking her side, and which
Speaker 3: was to say basically that none of this was true
Speaker 3: and that I was lying. So it became a he said,
Speaker 3: she said thing. But I had a bit of help
Speaker 3: from other relatives where she lives to sort of do
Speaker 3: a bit of background snooping, which which then gave me
Speaker 3: the evidence that this is all not true. And I
Speaker 3: guess in terms of financial help, I did receive a
Speaker 3: lot of help from my parents and my friends to
Speaker 3: sort of get me out of it, but it took
Speaker 3: me a long time to confess to them, I guess
Speaker 3: for one of a better term as to what had happened,
Speaker 3: because I was just so ashamed of what I did
Speaker 3: and I felt like I was the one that caused
Speaker 3: it all, and so it was just a bit difficult
Speaker 3: to let them know. But once I did, it was fine.
Speaker 2: So what does this look like today?
Speaker 3: Then?
Speaker 2: Obviously family is family kind of forever. You obviously don't
Speaker 2: have a relationship with her anymore, But what does that
Speaker 2: look like for the broader family.
Speaker 3: Well, I still don't know, because I haven't seen her
Speaker 3: or heard from her since I've confronted her with the
Speaker 3: you know, I know you're lying thing. She's basically blocked me.
Speaker 3: Her parents have blocked me. They've sort of cut off
Speaker 3: all contact from the rest of the family as well,
Speaker 3: so no one really knows what happened to them and
Speaker 3: where she is or what she's doing. I have tried
Speaker 3: sought legal options to try and get the money back,
Speaker 3: but it ended up being sort of throwing good money
Speaker 3: at bad and so I thought it wasn't worth it
Speaker 3: and the emotional hohoha of going down that pathway and
Speaker 3: sort of all the debts that I'd accumulated in that
Speaker 3: time period, I've now paid off and completely debt free.
Speaker 3: So that's good from a debt free from that point
Speaker 3: of view.
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm glad. I was about to ask about that.
Speaker 2: I was like, please tell me you're not still in this.
Speaker 3: No, but it took me about three years to get
Speaker 3: completely debt free from that whole saga, so slow process,
Speaker 3: but conscience, clean slate white now, so oh good.
Speaker 2: I'm glad that you're in that position. And when I
Speaker 2: ask a few more perfect questions about your cousin, you said,
Speaker 2: you know, we'd see each other on school holidays. Obviously
Speaker 2: you never saw this coming. And I mean, if my
Speaker 2: cousin reached out to me and said I need help,
Speaker 2: I'd be there with bells on, absolutely no worries, like
Speaker 2: I've got your back with family. Right. Were there indicators
Speaker 2: or little red flags growing up that maybe she wasn't
Speaker 2: the most honest person or did this just come completely
Speaker 2: out of the blue.
Speaker 3: I guess on reflection, there were probably some indicators. So
Speaker 3: she's a bit older than me, and I used to
Speaker 3: see her lie sometimes when we went situations, and sometimes
Speaker 3: I'd get the blame for something I never did, and
Speaker 3: I just put that down to you know, childhood, immaturity
Speaker 3: or whatever, like I never took it seriously, but I
Speaker 3: was looking back, there might be some things that hinted
Speaker 3: at an unbecoming character to be.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. And then as an adult, as things
Speaker 2: started to become very complex, and obviously there was a
Speaker 2: string of lies. And then she told you that you
Speaker 2: know someone you liked was in trouble and then obviously
Speaker 2: you kind of worked out that maybe this wasn't what
Speaker 2: she was saying it was. At what point was that
Speaker 2: and how did you go about going all right? Well,
Speaker 2: you mentioned before that you had some family or some
Speaker 2: people in the same country as her do a little
Speaker 2: bit of digging, which was helpful. How did you reach
Speaker 2: out about that? And I guess explain that circumstance because
Speaker 2: when it comes to being scammed, there is often a
Speaker 2: lot of stigma and shame that exists when they shouldn't be. Like,
Speaker 2: looking at it from the surface level. From my perspective,
Speaker 2: you did it because you cared. You did it because
Speaker 2: you're a kind human being who wanted your cousin to
Speaker 2: be okay and this other person to be okay, and
Speaker 2: you were just like okay, no worries, like of course
Speaker 2: I'm going to help. So I don't think there should
Speaker 2: be any shame there at all. But I think the
Speaker 2: shame exists when you realize or you feel as though
Speaker 2: you got manipulated, And no one likes to think that
Speaker 2: they got manipulated, right, But how did you break that
Speaker 2: to your family and start unraveling this web of lies?
Speaker 3: So I reached out to a different cousin to try
Speaker 3: and because I guess the number of the person that
Speaker 3: you're saying was in all sorts of strife, every time
Speaker 3: I tried contacting that number to get the facts, they
Speaker 3: never answered the phone, which is obviously a red, massive
Speaker 3: red flag. So I tried to get the number of
Speaker 3: the actual person from a different cousin, who then managed
Speaker 3: to get it, and I called up that actual person,
Speaker 3: who had no idea that his name was being used
Speaker 3: in this whole string of things. I mean, he could
Speaker 3: be lying as well, but I don't think so. I
Speaker 3: think it was just a scapegoat essentially. So I guess
Speaker 3: that was sort of a year after a year or
Speaker 3: so of being sort of manipulated, And then it took
Speaker 3: me another half a year or so to let my
Speaker 3: mom know. I had to write a letter explaining everything
Speaker 3: because it was just one of those things that it
Speaker 3: was so complex and unbelievable that I couldn't verbalize it,
Speaker 3: so I had to write it down in auto sequence
Speaker 3: just so she could get the facts before sort of
Speaker 3: losing losing her mind. Yeah, yeah, so that's what happened
Speaker 3: that Yeah.
Speaker 2: And what did your parents say? When they found out,
Speaker 2: how did they feel about this, because obviously this was
Speaker 2: their niece.
Speaker 3: They were really surprised and shocked that this had happened.
Speaker 3: My mom was particularly very angry at me more than
Speaker 3: anything else, for being sort of deceived in being so gullible. No,
Speaker 3: as in that that was her reaction. I know now
Speaker 3: that that's not the case, so that that's that's how
Speaker 3: she reacted, And I mean, she was also angry at
Speaker 3: my cousin, but I guess on her trying to confront
Speaker 3: my cousin, she just sort of made up more lives
Speaker 3: and things, and I guess at that point my mom
Speaker 3: realized that what had happened to me, as In initially
Speaker 3: she couldn't quite believe it. And it wasn't until she
Speaker 3: talked to my cousin and realized that she was not
Speaker 3: making sense to her as well that she realized how
Speaker 3: much I'd been manipulated. And then she did. Although she
Speaker 3: wasn't happy that all of this had occurred, she helped
Speaker 3: me out to get it at some of my debt
Speaker 3: and things like that.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I'm so glad you had your parents,
Speaker 2: And I feel like that's really common for parents to
Speaker 2: sometimes learn something that's really shocking, especially about their child
Speaker 2: that they want to love and protect and you know,
Speaker 2: don't want you to get into trouble. They don't always
Speaker 2: respond in the way that you would hope to immediately.
Speaker 2: Sometimes they need a bit of time to calm down
Speaker 2: and find to their feet and find their actual response,
Speaker 2: So that that's very relatable. But money diarist, I want
Speaker 2: to know a bit more about you, because obviously this
Speaker 2: is just something that happened to you along your financial journey.
Speaker 2: It's not the defining factor of who you are or
Speaker 2: what you're creating when it comes to financial freedom. I
Speaker 2: want to know what do you do for work? How
Speaker 2: much money do you earn.
Speaker 3: So I'm a doctor, I do both work in a
Speaker 3: hospital and I do private work as well, so I
Speaker 3: have about four streams of income.
Speaker 2: Oh, very sexy, which can be.
Speaker 3: A bit variable because of the private work, but I
Speaker 3: guess at the moment. I think last financial year, I
Speaker 3: think was about two hundred and just under two fifty
Speaker 3: k pre tax, which works out to be I've worked
Speaker 3: out on my spreadsheet that I allow myself an income
Speaker 3: of about thirteen thousand a month after tax, So I
Speaker 3: allow myself about thirteen thousand dollars a month for income.
Speaker 2: That is very impressive.
Speaker 3: I divide that into sort of daily expense, shared expenses
Speaker 3: with my husband, and savings and splurge.
Speaker 2: Perfect. Next question I've got for you is what is
Speaker 2: your big money goal. You said that you'd paid back
Speaker 2: all of the debt from being scams, So where are
Speaker 2: we going now? What are we working towards?
Speaker 3: Yep, so recently hit previous money goal, which was to
Speaker 3: buy a house, so that's done. Money goal would be
Speaker 3: saving up for when I'm not able to work, say
Speaker 3: for example, for maternity lead. Yeah, and also saving for
Speaker 3: investments to grow our wealth.
Speaker 2: That's exciting. All right, We're going to go to a
Speaker 2: really quick break, and on the other side of the break,
Speaker 2: I want to learn a little bit more about your
Speaker 2: investing habits and what your plans are, so guys, don't
Speaker 2: go anywhere. All right, we are back money Diarist. I
Speaker 2: feel like you have been through the absolute wars, but
Speaker 2: it sounds like you're coming out the other side, and
Speaker 2: you are a very good example of somebody who has
Speaker 2: been scammed that you just wouldn't expect. I feel like
Speaker 2: everybody just assumes that to be scammed. You have to
Speaker 2: be silly or not intelligent or not be able to
Speaker 2: see things. But the scam you went through was incredibly
Speaker 2: manipulative and was also run by a family member, which
Speaker 2: is honestly, just from my perspective, absolutely cooked. But we're
Speaker 2: jumping back into it. You are back on track, you're
Speaker 2: out of debt, you are working towards big money goals.
Speaker 2: You've purchased your first home, which is so exciting. So
Speaker 2: I want to know what's your investment plans for the future.
Speaker 3: So I've already got some investments in terms of an
Speaker 3: investment property and some shares that the investment plan longer
Speaker 3: term would be to invest for potential future children's education
Speaker 3: and also to grow our wealth generally in terms of
Speaker 3: having a passive income, so I don't have to work
Speaker 3: as much.
Speaker 2: Very sexy. I like that when it comes to investing
Speaker 2: for children's education. How do you think you might go
Speaker 2: about doing that? Have you given that any thought?
Speaker 3: Yep. So every month we're putting aside a certain amount
Speaker 3: of money to invest in shares, and the idea is
Speaker 3: to invest over the next fifteen years or so and
Speaker 3: hopefully build a portfolio that's going to be something that
Speaker 3: we can use to fund future child education and if
Speaker 3: we need to.
Speaker 2: How exciting. I feel like that is really far aheads,
Speaker 2: like that's something that you know, I've just gotten married
Speaker 2: and we're starting to talk about kids and stuff like that,
Speaker 2: And it's not a conversation I've even had with my
Speaker 2: partner yet about education. How have you started having these
Speaker 2: conversations with your husband? Is this something that you and
Speaker 2: your husband just openly talk about always? Because I feel
Speaker 2: like this is so progressive.
Speaker 3: I love it, Yes, just because he's obsessed with our
Speaker 3: future kids going to private schools and that being a
Speaker 3: significant cost. And I don't share the exact same beliefs
Speaker 3: about needing a private school education to give being exceptionally
Speaker 3: important in a child's life. But I can see that.
Speaker 3: I mean, I had a private education and I thought that,
Speaker 3: you know, my school was fantastic, But I mean, I
Speaker 3: don't have anything to compare to. I never went to
Speaker 3: a public school. So I guess that conversation was always
Speaker 3: open because he's so vocal about it and so keen
Speaker 3: for that to that we thought we might as well
Speaker 3: just plan Earie.
Speaker 2: I feel like I love that, Like it's just something
Speaker 2: that a lot of couples aren't thinking about especially before
Speaker 2: they have kids. Are you guys as communicative or is
Speaker 2: your husband as vocal about other financial goals or is
Speaker 2: it just really about the education Now?
Speaker 3: I think we're pretty open about everything. We do the
Speaker 3: whole for date night thing where we talk about money
Speaker 3: related to dud, you know, and review our goals and
Speaker 3: our savings and budget and all of that. So we're
Speaker 3: pretty open about talking about money.
Speaker 2: How exciting. Oh my gosh. You mentioned before you've recently
Speaker 2: bought a home and you have an investment property. So
Speaker 2: the next question I want to know is what debts
Speaker 2: do you have and how much are you carrying?
Speaker 3: Yep, so I have zero personal debt or credit card
Speaker 3: debt or X debt.
Speaker 2: Yes, Queen.
Speaker 3: In terms of investment property, I have about I think
Speaker 3: four under thirty k mortgage and now place where we
Speaker 3: live we share a one point three million dollar property mortgage,
Speaker 3: so those would be the main debts at the moment.
Speaker 2: When it comes to investment property. You're quite young. You're
Speaker 2: thirty three, so I feel like you are still a
Speaker 2: baby and you are killing it. And I know you've
Speaker 2: been through some pretty significant financial hardship, but to have
Speaker 2: gone through what you've gone through and to have an
Speaker 2: investment property in a family home like this is so exciting.
Speaker 2: I want to know when did you get your investment
Speaker 2: property and what led you down the path of making
Speaker 2: the decision to purchase that.
Speaker 3: Sure. So, actually, my investment property was my principal place
Speaker 3: of residence at the time that I purchased it in
Speaker 3: It was an off the planned place that I purchased
Speaker 3: in twenty eighteen. The funny thing is that while I
Speaker 3: was getting scammed, I still knew that I had to
Speaker 3: pay my mortgage repayments first above anything else. I never
Speaker 3: defaulted on on that.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm so glad.
Speaker 3: I just didn't have money for anything else. Basically, so
Speaker 3: I was living there and then when I met my
Speaker 3: husband and we decided to move in together, he had
Speaker 3: the bums for a deposit already saved, and I had
Speaker 3: the I.
Speaker 2: Guess the borrowing capacity yep.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the borrowing capacity yep. So with our powers combined,
Speaker 3: we managed to get a property together. So joined in
Speaker 3: both our names and that's when my other place turned
Speaker 3: into an investment property.
Speaker 2: Yeah. How exciting. And then with your family home one
Speaker 2: point three to three million, dollars as a mortgage leaves
Speaker 2: a bit of a lump in my throat. How did
Speaker 2: you feel going and getting that mortgage? Was that something
Speaker 2: where we were like, okay, cool, like I know in
Speaker 2: the area I live, this is just what property costs.
Speaker 2: But also, how did you feel taking out a mortgage
Speaker 2: of more than a million dollars?
Speaker 3: Okay? Only because we had a good mortgage broker who
Speaker 3: gave us a pre approval, and you know, we bought
Speaker 3: below our pre approval max, and we saw a lot
Speaker 3: of properties in the area, so we've done a lot
Speaker 3: of research beforehand, and so when we did buy what
Speaker 3: we did by we were comfortable that we could make
Speaker 3: those repayments. But we bought just before the first lot
Speaker 3: of interest rates went up, so in April last year.
Speaker 3: So since then, every time we think, oh, this is
Speaker 3: the repayment, it just goes up.
Speaker 2: I can feel that in my soul at the moment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's still manageable. I think it helped that we
Speaker 3: didn't sort of stretch out what we could borrow. We
Speaker 3: just borrowed sort of just under Yeah.
Speaker 2: Wow, all right, I want to know what do you
Speaker 2: think is your best money Habit.
Speaker 3: Probably setting up direct debits for transfers into savings and
Speaker 3: for bills and things so that I don't have to
Speaker 3: think about it it's all automated. And also just setting up
Speaker 3: all the bucketing in the first place, because prior to that,
Speaker 3: I was just like I said whatever, I didn't spend
Speaker 3: with savings, so there was no structure to anything, so
Speaker 3: I didn't know what I was doing. Whereas now I
Speaker 3: feel more in control and I can see when you
Speaker 3: know savings are built up over time and it's satisfying.
Speaker 2: I love that. I feel like cashlow is one of
Speaker 2: my favorite things ever. It's literally why I built the
Speaker 2: Budget and Cashlow Masterclass, because I was just obsessed with
Speaker 2: creating a cash flow system very selfishly for me, and
Speaker 2: then I shared it with everybody else. But it's actually
Speaker 2: so fun when things start to work and you know
Speaker 2: where things are going and which bucket it's going to
Speaker 2: fall into, and you know that your goals are going
Speaker 2: to be achieved. There's just such a sense of accomplishment
Speaker 2: with that. Yeah, when people say, oh, my best have
Speaker 2: it is cashlow, I'm like, yeah, and get it because
Speaker 2: it's kind of set you up for life, like it's
Speaker 2: the best thing that you can do for yourself regardless
Speaker 2: of what you earn to bring the mood down a
Speaker 2: little bit, because I'm all about knowing about worse things too.
Speaker 2: What do you think is your worst money habit?
Speaker 3: Probably I'm a bit stingy with allocating money from self
Speaker 3: for splurge and discretionary expenses, so then I end up
Speaker 3: digging into other funds to make something happen if I
Speaker 3: really wanted to happen, and then having to keep transferring
Speaker 3: money back and forth to even it out afterwards. So
Speaker 3: I guess just reviewing my discretionary expense fund.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's totally okay. Now that we've had a good
Speaker 2: conversation and I have a really good understanding of you,
Speaker 2: it sounds like you've gone through a lot. Obviously, being
Speaker 2: scammed by your cousin who lives overseas for two hundred
Speaker 2: and seventy one thousand dollars is nuts. But you've come
Speaker 2: out the other side of this. You met your husband,
Speaker 2: you've moved in together, you have a family home together,
Speaker 2: you have your own investment property, you're investing your saving,
Speaker 2: you have a bang in cash flow system. Do you
Speaker 2: really think that you're only a B plus?
Speaker 3: My friend yes, just because I still have a bit
Speaker 3: more learning to do in terms of like things like
Speaker 3: acid protection and wealth creation. Like there's a whole lot
Speaker 3: of terminology that I still don't understand and I would
Speaker 3: like to learn more about. So, I mean, I think
Speaker 3: I was an F a few years ago, So I
Speaker 3: think I've come a long way, and I'm pretty.
Speaker 2: We've come so far. And I feel like B plus
Speaker 2: isn't bad. I always just like reflecting on it. And
Speaker 2: my favorite thing when I ask that question and say, oh,
Speaker 2: do you really think you're a B plus is not
Speaker 2: that you question it. It's actually that you can give
Speaker 2: me some tangible examples of how you would like to
Speaker 2: better your financial circumstances or the things that you want
Speaker 2: to learn about. And the things that you've mentioned are
Speaker 2: really valid, Like talking about asset protection is so important,
Speaker 2: talking about insurances is so important, especially if you're a doctor,
Speaker 2: because if you can't work as a doctor, you can't
Speaker 2: earn an income, and obviously your income is helping you
Speaker 2: pay your mortgage. So I feel like all of those
Speaker 2: things make so much sense and they are really really valid.
Speaker 2: But do you know what the best part about them
Speaker 2: is they're really easy to learn about and that's literally
Speaker 2: why we exist. So I have absolutely every belief that
Speaker 2: you are going to be in an A plus in
Speaker 2: absolutely no time. Money Diarist, it has been lovely talking
Speaker 2: to you. I am so glad that you have come
Speaker 2: on the show and spoken to me because I just
Speaker 2: genuinely believe that we're breaking down that stigma of who
Speaker 2: gets scammed and what's going on and maybe if somebody
Speaker 2: else is in a similar circumstance, they might reach out
Speaker 2: for help a little bit earlier before they actually get
Speaker 2: into a really big hole, because so many times it's
Speaker 2: this idea that you don't want to reach out because
Speaker 2: it's a bit embarrassing. That really puts us in a
Speaker 2: deeper hole than we need to be in, right.
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, it took me a while as well
Speaker 3: because of those reasons that you mentioned. And I think
Speaker 3: if it helps to allow other people to realize that
Speaker 3: it's not they're not alone, then that's that's a good thing.
Speaker 2: I couldn't agree more. Do you know what it actually
Speaker 2: reminds me of. There's a podcast that I was obsessed with.
Speaker 2: It's actually based in the UK. You might have heard
Speaker 2: of it. It's called Sweet Bobby by Tortoise Media, and
Speaker 2: it's about somebody being catfish, which I feel is very
Speaker 2: similar to your circumstance where they were scammed, and it
Speaker 2: just went for a really long time, and I'm not
Speaker 2: going to spoil it if you haven't listened to it,
Speaker 2: but it's a story that checks out on many levels
Speaker 2: as being quite similar to yours. So if anybody's interested
Speaker 2: in that, that's a little podcast recommendation from me before
Speaker 2: we go, But unfortunately that's all we have time for today.
Speaker 2: Money Deres, thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 3: Thanks so much for having me. Victoria