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.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Speaker 4: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
Speaker 4: us that let you be pervy on other people's financial
Speaker 4: situations for educational purposes, of course.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to another one of our.
Speaker 4: Money Diaries episodes where I get the absolute privilege of
Speaker 4: talking to someone from how She's on the Money community
Speaker 4: all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it, because
Speaker 4: this week I got a message and it sounded exactly
Speaker 4: like this, Dear She's on the Money. After my youngest
Speaker 4: spent time in the Niicquu, I realized how precious time,
Speaker 4: really is. I didn't want to keep putting off the
Speaker 4: dream of traveling with my family, but I had no
Speaker 4: idea how we could make it work. That's when I
Speaker 4: decided to get creative. I took my skills as a
Speaker 4: paramedic and turned them into something completely different, a business
Speaker 4: I could run from anywhere, and.
Speaker 2: It's given us so much freedom.
Speaker 4: Now we're raising our kids, investing in our future, and
Speaker 4: finally getting to chase those travel dreams. The best part,
Speaker 4: we didn't need to become millionaires to make it happen,
Speaker 4: and I'd love to share how we did it.
Speaker 2: Money diarists, that sounds so excited.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's more complicated than that in real life, but
Speaker 5: it is a lot of fun. We've had a great journey.
Speaker 4: I'm sure, But like that was honestly a great little
Speaker 4: clickbait loop.
Speaker 2: What do they call it?
Speaker 4: A hook to make us go, oh, she was a paramedic,
Speaker 4: But what is she doing?
Speaker 2: How is she doing it?
Speaker 4: So let's dive straight in because I would love to
Speaker 4: know more about this moneyed diarist before we get into it, though,
Speaker 4: I want to know if I asked you to grade
Speaker 4: your money.
Speaker 2: Habits from A through to F what grade would you
Speaker 2: give them?
Speaker 5: I think probably a B minus B minus.
Speaker 4: All right, let's learn a little bit more about you
Speaker 4: and your journey. My favorite question ever money Darist. Can
Speaker 4: we dive a little bit more into your money story?
Speaker 5: Yeah, so, I'll go all the way back to be
Speaker 5: an eighties baby. So I was raised by parents who
Speaker 5: went through the difficulties in the nineties with the recession,
Speaker 5: and money was always not tired. But everyone was conscious
Speaker 5: of money, I guess, being raised by parents who were
Speaker 5: very much like, we need a home, we need security.
Speaker 5: Not that that was ever explicitly said to us as kids,
Speaker 5: but it was always there, right for many families.
Speaker 2: I think of that generation, it's a tone like, it's
Speaker 2: a feeling.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and yeah, you feel it for sure, even if
Speaker 5: it's not said. You know that that's the most important
Speaker 5: thing is to have a roof over your head, food
Speaker 5: on the table, and everything else is after that. So
Speaker 5: as I sort of got older, I realized that you
Speaker 5: can do more than that with money if you have
Speaker 5: the ability to do so, you know, as the economy
Speaker 5: changed as I got older, and that kind of thing.
Speaker 5: But you know, when you're raised that way, you always
Speaker 5: have that undercot like I have to make sure I
Speaker 5: have X, Y Z, and you feel guilty if you
Speaker 5: don't do those things. So in my twenties, I was
Speaker 5: earning quite a bit of money and I didn't particularly
Speaker 5: want to follow that route. So I suppose I wasn't
Speaker 5: as thoughtful with my money I could have been, because
Speaker 5: I wasn't sure, you know, if I didn't want to
Speaker 5: go to that same path, but I wasn't sure what
Speaker 5: other options there were. So I just followed my love
Speaker 5: of trouble, which is the only thing I've ever wanted
Speaker 5: to do. And I spent all of our dollars, a
Speaker 5: hardened dollars on traveling the world on my own, and
Speaker 5: then when I met my husband as well. So yeah,
Speaker 5: we've done lots of things after that, but that was
Speaker 5: my younger years. That's how I spent all our dollars.
Speaker 5: As that time went on and we had kids, we
Speaker 5: sort of weren't too sure again how we could continue
Speaker 5: that life. We went through covid own of Victoria, like
Speaker 5: I'm sure you guys did, and then had our second
Speaker 5: and I just thought, I really want to make this happen,
Speaker 5: you know, for sure. I want to find a way
Speaker 5: that we can have enough money to do exactly what
Speaker 5: it is that we want, whatever it is that we want,
Speaker 5: So we took a really long time to decide what
Speaker 5: our priorities were, and then how do we go about
Speaker 5: earning the money in the way we want to get
Speaker 5: those priorities working for us? I guess yeah, to live
Speaker 5: that life.
Speaker 4: Which literally sounds like the dream, right, like getting our
Speaker 4: money in order, like so that we can live our
Speaker 4: values and live our dream. Like I know you were like, oh,
Speaker 4: you know, I didn't spend my money very thoughtfully in
Speaker 4: my twenties, Like, babe, that's what your twenties were for,
Speaker 4: to learn what you like and what you dislike. And
Speaker 4: how would you know if you liked travel or not
Speaker 4: if you didn't get those experiences. Like I think that
Speaker 4: you did exactly what you were meant to do in
Speaker 4: those moments, but I want to know more because like,
Speaker 4: you can't just be like.
Speaker 2: Oh, I've kind of cracked the code.
Speaker 4: Guys, you don't need to be a millionaire, but you
Speaker 4: can craft your life to live in line with your
Speaker 4: values and.
Speaker 2: Travel, Like what do you do? How do you do it?
Speaker 4: Like my next question is meant to be like what
Speaker 4: do you do for work and how much you earn,
Speaker 4: but like, I feel like there's a bit more than
Speaker 4: just your job. I want to know how you got
Speaker 4: there and how you crafted this and even how you
Speaker 4: had these conversations with your partner to go like life
Speaker 4: could be better, Like we could create something here.
Speaker 5: So it was really when when our littlest was born
Speaker 5: and he was in NICKQU, my husband was working a
Speaker 5: billion hours a week. Luckily, you know, he was able
Speaker 5: to keep his job through COVID. I'd taken a few
Speaker 5: years off, you know, to be at home with our eldest,
Speaker 5: and I was sitting in nick Q one day, and
Speaker 5: you know, I knew I had all these skills, I
Speaker 5: didn't really know what I was going to do about
Speaker 5: going back to work. At the time that he was
Speaker 5: in NICKQ, we were told in the early days that
Speaker 5: there was a very strong likelihood that he would not
Speaker 5: live a easy life. He would potentially have a significant
Speaker 5: brain injury, and you know, we would have to adjust
Speaker 5: our lives to fit around that, which of course we
Speaker 5: were prepared to do. But I was like, I have
Speaker 5: no idea what my future career is going to look like.
Speaker 5: It's definitely not going back to the paramedic, so that's
Speaker 5: not going to work if I have a child with
Speaker 5: extreme physical needs. My husband's work was it's great, but
Speaker 5: it's not enough to sustain a family for years and years,
Speaker 5: you know, on just one income. And that's not what
Speaker 5: we really wanted to do either. And one of the
Speaker 5: nurses said to me, we've been talking for hours because
Speaker 5: you have a one on one nurse and Nick you
Speaker 5: like that. And she was just sitting and chatting to me,
Speaker 5: and she said, what do you want to if you
Speaker 5: could go home, take him home and he's healthy, what
Speaker 5: would you do? And I said, well, I'd pack up
Speaker 5: my house, I take my boys, work on my laptop,
Speaker 5: and just travel until we feel like we're ready to
Speaker 5: stop again. And she's like, well, then just do that.
Speaker 5: I was like, okay, I guess I'm just going to
Speaker 5: do that. So the next time I talked to my husband,
Speaker 5: I was like, let's float this lady.
Speaker 4: I feel like that's crazy advice. I feel like it's
Speaker 4: crazy advice at the same time as being like great
Speaker 4: advice because like you would know that, like Nick, you
Speaker 4: nurses like they're a next level special like their advice,
Speaker 4: like they're warmt like to be a nick you nurse,
Speaker 4: you're a super special human being for her to be
Speaker 4: like cultivating this relationship with you and then just being like, hey,
Speaker 4: money doves, just do it and you're like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, great, let's just do it.
Speaker 4: Like I feel like that was probably a very pivotal
Speaker 4: conversation for you where you were like, yeah, you're right,
Speaker 4: let's just do it. So what you went home, you
Speaker 4: created a plan, like I need to ask, how's your
Speaker 4: son now? Like he's obviously out of nick you because
Speaker 4: you're traveling, but like what happened in that situation.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so he's two and a half now. He At
Speaker 5: the point of that conversation, we still weren't one hundred
Speaker 5: percent sure of how what his long term health would
Speaker 5: be like, but we knew he was probably going to
Speaker 5: come home. That conversation was literally the turning point of
Speaker 5: our lives. The next time I spoke to my husband,
Speaker 5: who managed to get COVID, well, our little one was
Speaker 5: in NICKI no, and I said, why don't we just
Speaker 5: sell everything we own, travel and just spend time with
Speaker 5: our kids, because you know, we're in the paramedics. You see,
Speaker 5: life is so short and it can end at any moment.
Speaker 5: But you never think that's going to happened to you.
Speaker 5: And those weeks that we thought he might not survive
Speaker 5: really just brought home for us, right, what are we doing? Like,
Speaker 5: what do we actually want from this life? We want
Speaker 5: to spend time with our kids. Obviously that costs money,
Speaker 5: so how do we what do we do? What does
Speaker 5: that look like? So, you know, he said to me,
Speaker 5: I used to work in medical admin before I was
Speaker 5: a paramedic, so I can obviously talk to people and
Speaker 5: I've got the admin skills. And he's like, why don't
Speaker 5: you just do that? Like if you want to work, Like,
Speaker 5: why don't we make that happen? So that's exactly what
Speaker 5: we did. You know, he came home from nick You
Speaker 5: we sold literally everything we owned and we bought a
Speaker 5: caravan and went traveling around Australia and it was just
Speaker 5: the best. Having that time together with my husband there
Speaker 5: too gave me a chance to sort of grow my business,
Speaker 5: so I could start out. There wasn't too much pressure
Speaker 5: on me in the beginning because we had some savings,
Speaker 5: and then yeah, just grew from there. A little bit
Speaker 5: of word of mouth. I was doing some you know,
Speaker 5: just sending out invoices for clients and booking appointments, and
Speaker 5: then you know, that person recommended me to someone else,
Speaker 5: and someone else and someone else, and on and on
Speaker 5: we go, and two years later, I've been fully booked
Speaker 5: for a while. We are in a house at the moment,
Speaker 5: we've stopped for a little while, and I work around
Speaker 5: my husband's house so there's always someone home with the
Speaker 5: kids here. Works part time. I work part time. And
Speaker 5: it's yeah, we travel whenever we can.
Speaker 2: That sounds like the dream. It is.
Speaker 5: It was our dream. I think that's there. Yeah, I
Speaker 5: love it.
Speaker 2: So I need to get pervy though.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know, but I think I love the idea
Speaker 4: that the value at the crux of that is obviously
Speaker 4: like travel, but spending quality time with your family. And
Speaker 4: I just irrespective of whether you want to travel or
Speaker 4: you want to, you know, create a big business or
Speaker 4: do whatever, like, quality time with family is so special
Speaker 4: and being able to prioritize that is theirpic. But I
Speaker 4: need to know, like what is your job title, like
Speaker 4: what is your business? And like how much money are
Speaker 4: you earning? Because I think some people might go, oh great,
Speaker 4: like she travels, she just lives in a caravan and
Speaker 4: earns twenty grand a year and that's enough for them
Speaker 4: to get by. But like, I know that's not the case.
Speaker 4: So could you give us a bit of insight into, like,
Speaker 4: quote your job description or what your clients would say
Speaker 4: you do, and then how much money you earn.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Sure, So I am a virtual assistant. I work
Speaker 5: specifically in Allied Health, where you can work in really
Speaker 5: any field you want to. You can work for tradees
Speaker 5: or whoever, so Allied Health virtual assistant. I work for myself.
Speaker 5: I'm a sole trader. I've just increased the clients that
Speaker 5: I'm working. At the moment, I'm working enough. I should
Speaker 5: be on track to earn about sixty k this year.
Speaker 5: That's part time. That obviously I have all my business
Speaker 5: expenses and all those kinds of things. So that's my
Speaker 5: best estimate for what I should earn this financial year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that is very cool, and I have to be
Speaker 4: super pervy. You're going to have to tell me what
Speaker 4: does your husband do if he's able to work part
Speaker 4: time as well.
Speaker 5: So he's a trade it's unusual for him to be
Speaker 5: able to work part time. But we just sort of
Speaker 5: we move somewhere where we knew that was a possibility
Speaker 5: because trades are in higher demand and you can be
Speaker 5: a little bit more open with your wants and needs.
Speaker 5: And yeah, it worked out, but you know, we took
Speaker 5: a bit of a leap. He asked the question and
Speaker 5: got what he asked for. So yeah, it's lovely actually
Speaker 5: because he despite him just working part time hours, he
Speaker 5: has been able to keep a company car and he
Speaker 5: has his phone paid for too, So those are expenses
Speaker 5: that you know, we don't have to worry about. Running
Speaker 5: a second car is so expensive, so be able to
Speaker 5: keep that benefit has really been a bit of a
Speaker 5: game changer for us too.
Speaker 4: So that's a total money win. Tell me a bit
Speaker 4: more like I feel like you've I don't know you've
Speaker 4: got it so sordid, but you probably still have some
Speaker 4: big money goals.
Speaker 2: You came home one day and said to your husband,
Speaker 2: all right, we're done.
Speaker 4: We're selling everything and we're traveling. After making that decision,
Speaker 4: what are your big money goals? What are you currently
Speaker 4: working towards.
Speaker 5: At the moment, we've given ourselves till the end of
Speaker 5: next year, we're not too sure whether we want to
Speaker 5: head off traveling again for time. At this stage, I
Speaker 5: earn enough that we should be able to go overseas
Speaker 5: and travel full time as long as we stick to
Speaker 5: you know, like the cheaper country. So that's an option.
Speaker 5: Maybe we want to move somewhere else, maybe have a
Speaker 5: second place and live six months of the year in
Speaker 5: the warm six months of the year and the cold.
Speaker 5: We'll just tossing up a few ideas at the moment,
Speaker 5: but one of the goals we really want to be
Speaker 5: mortgage free by fifty that's one thing we both really want.
Speaker 5: That's about twelve years away. And obviously saving for whatever
Speaker 5: is going to happen at the end of next year,
Speaker 5: whatever that is, more travel or you know, a second
Speaker 5: home or whatever.
Speaker 4: So talk to me about saving and budgeting, because I
Speaker 4: feel like to be able to achieve the lifestyle that
Speaker 4: you have to be able to live in a home
Speaker 4: right now and also be mortgage free by fifty, you
Speaker 4: probably have to be pretty savvy, Like you can't just go, ah,
Speaker 4: we just travel and do whatever we want like we
Speaker 4: were in our early twenties.
Speaker 2: What does that now look like like?
Speaker 4: Are you sitting down with a spreadsheet every single day
Speaker 4: or every single month, or are you just you know,
Speaker 4: working it out as you go, like what's the plan,
Speaker 4: Because saying something like oh, we want to be mortgage
Speaker 4: free by fifty, in my head means that there must
Speaker 4: be some kind of strategic plan at play in the background.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we definitely. I'm all over every dollar that we spend,
Speaker 5: probably a little obsessively. We do zero dollar budgeting, so
Speaker 5: we give every dollar that comes into our house a job,
Speaker 5: whether that's you know, putting at the moment where saving
Speaker 5: a little account to save up to renew our passports
Speaker 5: in a five years time. So we trying to keep
Speaker 5: a little bit of money tucked aside for every single
Speaker 5: thing that could potentially come up. So we don't have
Speaker 5: an emergency funders such or general savings as such. We
Speaker 5: have lots of little tiny goals all in sort of
Speaker 5: one or two big accounts, and we yeah, keeping one
Speaker 5: that I'm in there every day, but I am working
Speaker 5: on it once a week minimum, because it does take
Speaker 5: a lot of budget. You know, we live in a
Speaker 5: really little house. Well it's barely three bedroo. It's two
Speaker 5: bedrooms and one bathroom for the four of us with
Speaker 5: two raucous boys. That's chaotic. We've moved regionally so that
Speaker 5: we don't have a huge housing cost or prices that
Speaker 5: other you know, cities have. I grew up on the
Speaker 5: Gold Coast. There's no way we could afford to live
Speaker 5: on the Gold Coast. Now, I buy pretty much everything
Speaker 5: from op shops. I've got probably enough clothes to last
Speaker 5: everyone a week. That's about it. We don't have any
Speaker 5: excess of anything. We don't have excess food, you know, clothing.
Speaker 5: We don't drive if we don't have to. We walk
Speaker 5: or we ride our bikes. We're very conscious of spending
Speaker 5: more than we absolutely have to. So having said that,
Speaker 5: I have a pensiant for takeaway coffee. We'll talk about
Speaker 5: that later.
Speaker 4: But you know, I feel like everyone's got something right,
Speaker 4: you've got to have something you cannot And I'm glad
Speaker 4: that you said that, because I'm like, this woman is incredible,
Speaker 4: Like she's budgeting, she's saving, like she's doing zero dollars budgeting,
Speaker 4: Like this is crazy. And then you're like and the coffees.
Speaker 4: I'm like, okay, it is a bit relatable, Like this
Speaker 4: is good, this is good.
Speaker 2: So tell me.
Speaker 4: About this idea of no excess of anything. I love
Speaker 4: that concept. Is that a way that you've always lived
Speaker 4: or is this something that when you decided to sell
Speaker 4: up shop and get rid of everything and travel for
Speaker 4: the first time. You got rid of everything, because I
Speaker 4: feel like for me to be able to get rid
Speaker 4: of everything and travel, that just sounds like an admin nightmare.
Speaker 5: We it was. It definitely wasn't admid nightmare. I was
Speaker 5: never very into like clothes or anything like that. So
Speaker 5: we didn't have heaps of stuff, but we had a
Speaker 5: normal family amount of things.
Speaker 2: Right one hundred percent.
Speaker 5: So when we got our caravan, we only had about
Speaker 5: one hundred and fifty kilos of stuff that we could
Speaker 5: put in. That included like bedding, gas bottles, saucepans, everything,
Speaker 5: and that adds up very quickly. And we lived for
Speaker 5: a year like that. And so when we moved into
Speaker 5: our house, we were like, we really don't need all of
Speaker 5: the things. We don't need, you know, three fry pans.
Speaker 5: It's nice to have, but we don't need them. You know,
Speaker 5: I don't need well, no, I need an air fry
Speaker 5: That's the one thing I missed the whole time we
Speaker 5: were away.
Speaker 4: Can you fit an air fryer? I feel like you
Speaker 4: could fit an air fryer in a caravan. I feel
Speaker 4: like that's a good idea.
Speaker 5: Yes, we only had twelve volts, so all along I
Speaker 5: was like, quick find power and you know, plug something
Speaker 5: in and just quickly eat sup and then get rid
Speaker 5: of it again.
Speaker 4: What type of stuff have you accumulated excess of? You
Speaker 4: were saying before, like, well, we have some stuff we
Speaker 4: don't need, Like, I don't think I've ever thought about
Speaker 4: that in my house. I'm like, I need my stuff,
Speaker 4: please don't take it away. Like do you look through
Speaker 4: your house now and go we don't need that and
Speaker 4: want to get rid of it?
Speaker 5: Yes, I mean I know. It's totally change my mindset.
Speaker 5: My husband hates it because he likes having things. So
Speaker 5: I'm like, why have we got eight towls? We don't
Speaker 5: need eight towels. Let's get rid of four of them.
Speaker 5: Let's donate them. He's like, could we just not? Can
Speaker 5: we just have towers? Is that okay? And we have
Speaker 5: a lot of books. That's one that you can't take
Speaker 5: those obviously in the caravan. They're way too heavy. So
Speaker 5: we're both readers, so we've got stacks of books. I'm like,
Speaker 5: these are unnecessary, but I'm not going to get rid
Speaker 5: of them till we leave again.
Speaker 2: That's so fair.
Speaker 4: Are you putting things in storage when you're traveling or
Speaker 4: are you literally getting rid of it and then you know,
Speaker 4: accumulating stuff when you park again.
Speaker 5: When we left for our chapran Australia, we got rid
Speaker 5: of everything. It was mostly stuff that we both had
Speaker 5: before we got married, and it was really old. I've
Speaker 5: been together for like twelve years, so it was oldest
Speaker 5: stuff and it was due for replacement. So we gave
Speaker 5: it away to a young lady who was moving into
Speaker 5: her first rental. That felt like a nice thing to
Speaker 5: do this time. If we leave, I would say, we'll
Speaker 5: probably rent our house out furnished, just to save the
Speaker 5: drama of trying to move a couch and all those things.
Speaker 5: But it's definitely changed out. Before I would have been like,
Speaker 5: I don't want to rent my house that was furniture
Speaker 5: in it. I don't want someone sleeping on my couch
Speaker 5: and stuff like that. And now I'm like, eh, it's
Speaker 5: just a couch, like he cas. It's replaceable if you
Speaker 5: really need it, or you can just have memories. You know,
Speaker 5: that's fine too. So it's changed the way we look
Speaker 5: at things that aren't essential, you know.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 4: I feel like it's a really healthy mindset shift. Like
Speaker 4: going from feeling like maybe you don't have the life
Speaker 4: you want now having the life you want and realizing
Speaker 4: it was never about stuff but more about experiences is
Speaker 4: something I think we can all learn from. Like there's
Speaker 4: this great quote that says, if you're not content with
Speaker 4: what you already have, more stuff is not going to
Speaker 4: make you more content, And I just think you're living
Speaker 4: that and that's really cool.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it's served us well here. The little
Speaker 5: town that we live in is a mining town, so
Speaker 5: as you can imagine, there's lots of people with lots
Speaker 5: of money. Some of the houses are stunning, Like I mean,
Speaker 5: I wouldn't say no to one of those houses if
Speaker 5: someone gave me one, but I don't feel the need
Speaker 5: to have it where I think it is very ingred
Speaker 5: in our culture to have the biggest upgrade things, you know,
Speaker 5: like upgrade the car and upgrade your house. And not
Speaker 5: that there's anything wrong with that, but I love that
Speaker 5: I don't feel the need to do that because it
Speaker 5: just takes the pressure off. You'm not worried about it.
Speaker 2: Oh totally.
Speaker 4: I think it's so healthy. All right, let's go to
Speaker 4: a really quick break. On the flip side, I want
Speaker 4: to talk to you a little bit more about this
Speaker 4: mortgage free by fifty. I want to talk about investing,
Speaker 4: I want to talk about your debts, and then I
Speaker 4: also want to talk about this coffee habit you mentioned,
Speaker 4: because I feel like that's going to make this a
Speaker 4: little bit more relatable.
Speaker 2: So guys, don't go anywhere Money Diarist.
Speaker 4: We are back, and I just feel like this has
Speaker 4: been such a fun chat and to get to mortgage
Speaker 4: free by fifty is a pretty big goal, right, Like
Speaker 4: you've set this. I know that you are a spreadsheeting queen.
Speaker 4: But before we get into me asking you about your
Speaker 4: investments and how you're doing.
Speaker 2: That, how did you start budgeting?
Speaker 4: Like your spreadsheet that you said you're going into on
Speaker 4: a daily basis and then working on every week is
Speaker 4: on your phone?
Speaker 2: Is it on a laptop?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 4: How are you managing this? And did you download something
Speaker 4: like where are we beginning?
Speaker 5: Yes? So it's actually it's not a spreadsheet, it's an
Speaker 5: app that I use. I wasn't too sure if I
Speaker 5: should mention another.
Speaker 2: Oh, you can mention anything. What app is it?
Speaker 5: I use a wine app? Which is since you need
Speaker 5: a budget.
Speaker 2: I've heard this is fantastic.
Speaker 5: It's incredible. I downloaded it by chance when I was
Speaker 5: pregnant with my eldest. By the way, he's asked me
Speaker 5: to give him a shout out if that's okay, Hello Darla.
Speaker 2: He can have as many shout outs as he wants.
Speaker 5: Hi, don't forget mum, please mention me.
Speaker 2: Oh of course angel.
Speaker 5: So yeah, when I was pregnant with him, I was like, well,
Speaker 5: our income's about to be terrible, so let's look into
Speaker 5: every kind of budgeting that we can. So I came
Speaker 5: across the Wine Up podcast, and then of course I
Speaker 5: came across your podcast and or not. It went from
Speaker 5: there and the app the Wine Up has has been
Speaker 5: like a game change of us, combined with all the
Speaker 5: other you know, verbal resources that we've got on podcas
Speaker 5: and it really just really looks at making sure that
Speaker 5: you've got enough money to do what you need it
Speaker 5: to do until the next time you get paid, which
Speaker 5: I find is specially helpful when you have a variable income.
Speaker 5: So I have that app. Yeah, that app is with
Speaker 5: me all the time. My husband has like obviously has
Speaker 5: access to it, but he can see it live. So
Speaker 5: if I change something, he can see it and vice versa.
Speaker 4: Oh, that's actually really helpful because so many people ask
Speaker 4: us questions about apps and I'm like, well, I don't
Speaker 4: really know. We used to have pocketbook that went away,
Speaker 4: Like people talk about why NAB, but I haven't used it.
Speaker 4: And one of the main questions is I want to
Speaker 4: have a budget, but I want to be able to
Speaker 4: share it with my partner or like we can edit
Speaker 4: it and see what's going on.
Speaker 2: That is great feedback.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's great, and I think you can actually add.
Speaker 5: Don't quote because we don't use it, but I think
Speaker 5: you can add like your kids and they cannot see
Speaker 5: your budget, but they can have access to their own
Speaker 5: within your family. I'm not too sure how that we.
Speaker 2: Well, dad is cool. I will look into this.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's been a life saver for us really, And
Speaker 5: apart from that, I love my numbers, so a lot
Speaker 5: of it sits in my head because I just enjoy
Speaker 5: doing maths all day walking around the house.
Speaker 4: You're preaching to the converted, Like, I'm not going to
Speaker 4: think you're crazy for that. I would actually be like,
Speaker 4: call me, tell me what you're up to.
Speaker 5: Especially I try to do like compounding interest sums in
Speaker 5: my head, I'm like, just do it on the computer.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's actually a little bit complicated.
Speaker 4: After the first year, I'm like, this isn't going to
Speaker 4: work in my head anymore.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So using that up really showed us where we
Speaker 5: have not excess money because it doesn't allow for excess money.
Speaker 5: It gives every dollar a job, but it allows you
Speaker 5: to see where you can move in your budget to
Speaker 5: put extra money towards your mortgage. So at the moment
Speaker 5: we pay I think it's just strive five hundred a
Speaker 5: week towards our mortgage. That's the minimum repayment. And then
Speaker 5: at the moment we're doing one hundred dollars a week extra.
Speaker 5: And as the months go on in our app, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 5: I can pull ten dollars from that fund and ten
Speaker 5: dollars from that and I can just save eight dollars
Speaker 5: a week instead of ten dollars for our passport, So
Speaker 5: that gives two dollars more for our mortgage. So each
Speaker 5: three months, we're going to add another fifty dollars per
Speaker 5: week to our mortgage, if that makes sense. We're gonna
Speaker 5: up the repayments, the extra payments by another fifty dollars
Speaker 5: until we sort of get to the point where we're like,
Speaker 5: I got no more WIGOROUM for now, I would just
Speaker 5: have to stop there. And I'm thinking that I'll be
Speaker 5: at around three fifty four hundred extra a week. I've
Speaker 5: worked that at that should get us done by.
Speaker 4: Fifty which is very cool because I think so many
Speaker 4: people like I love the way you're talking about this
Speaker 4: as well, because you're like using numbers that are really relatable.
Speaker 4: You're like, okay, cool, well if I move ten dollars here,
Speaker 4: like I'll be able to save eight dollars here, Like
Speaker 4: those small things add up, and you've probably looked at
Speaker 4: all of the mortgage calculators online, but these little amounts
Speaker 4: do genuinely add up. So like ten dollars here in there,
Speaker 4: if you're not in this budgeting space, you might think, oh,
Speaker 4: that's like you know, a coffee or two, that doesn't matter,
Speaker 4: like why would I bother putting that on my mortgage.
Speaker 4: But at the end of the day, these little amounts
Speaker 4: add up over time, and you're going to end up
Speaker 4: paying your mortgage off sooner than other people in similar situations,
Speaker 4: just because these do have compounding impacts, right, So how
Speaker 4: have you seen these small amounts start to impact you
Speaker 4: being able to pay off your mortgage sooner, because like
Speaker 4: being able to pay a couple of one hundred dollars
Speaker 4: off from all those small steps is actually a massive feat.
Speaker 5: I think it's just mostly about being conscious of it.
Speaker 5: And when you've got a card in your hand and
Speaker 5: no record of what you're spending other than a bank statement,
Speaker 5: it's so easy that you just lose five dollars here
Speaker 5: and ten dollars there, and if you actually see it,
Speaker 5: you know, moving from this account where you can spend
Speaker 5: it to an account where you don't want to spend it,
Speaker 5: so onto your mortgage. It's like that positive feedback loop, right,
Speaker 5: You're like, oh, that feels good. I'm going to do
Speaker 5: that again and again and again, and every single time
Speaker 5: just feels Yeah. We really are enjoying putting money on
Speaker 5: the mortgage because it's a tangible asset I suppose for us,
Speaker 5: and we're like, oh, we can touch it and it's there.
Speaker 5: You know, if when we're got little kids it feels safer,
Speaker 5: it will probably because it is, you know. Yeah, So
Speaker 5: we're just really giving ourselves positive feedback and it's yeah,
Speaker 5: helping immensely.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 4: So with this idea to have your mortgage gone by fifty,
Speaker 4: are you investing if so in what what's the plan
Speaker 4: around that?
Speaker 5: Yeah, so we use Pearler. We at the moment, we're
Speaker 5: not investing as much as we have in the past,
Speaker 5: and that for us, the Pearler account is mostly being
Speaker 5: used to save to do some investing for our kids.
Speaker 5: So my folks give them like ten dollars each week
Speaker 5: and we put that into a Pearler account for them
Speaker 5: and we match that. So that's what we're doing at
Speaker 5: the moment. But in the past we've been putting more
Speaker 5: in and then it felt like it was too much.
Speaker 5: You know, we didn't really care he let it properly.
Speaker 5: I was like, oh, yeah, I'll just throw that much
Speaker 5: in there, and I didn't really think about it properly.
Speaker 5: I heard you on a podcast with someone else the
Speaker 5: other day talking about this, and you're like, you better
Speaker 5: to just take a little step rather than going gung ho,
Speaker 5: And then like, no, I don't like it. It's too much, like.
Speaker 4: Exactly, like baby steps in the right direction mean that
Speaker 4: nothing becomes overwhelming, Like how many times have I like
Speaker 4: and maybe this is just me talking from my own experience,
Speaker 4: like and being a little bit adhd.
Speaker 2: I'm like, all right, well now.
Speaker 4: I'm really passionate about this hobby, and like I go
Speaker 4: boots and all in. In the week after, I'm like, I
Speaker 4: didn't really like that. So I think that we need
Speaker 4: to like test the borders and see what happens. And
Speaker 4: you know, if you're putting too much into it, like
Speaker 4: and it's impacting the rest of your world, Like that's
Speaker 4: not positive. And I know that investing for kids is
Speaker 4: so important, and like I adore that you're doing that,
Speaker 4: But one of the best ways to put their financial
Speaker 4: security and their financial future first is to invest in
Speaker 4: yourselves and pay off your mortgage and be financially secure
Speaker 4: and role model that because they're more likely to be
Speaker 4: financially secure in the future, not just because you know,
Speaker 4: when they got to eighteen they had a little trust
Speaker 4: fund of some cash that they could blow. Like, I
Speaker 4: think it's the behaviors and it's you know, the underlying
Speaker 4: tone of money that you teach that is so much
Speaker 4: more important than what you can invest. But still, like,
Speaker 4: investing is clearly very important, and I don't know a
Speaker 4: passion project of mine if you hadn't picked up on that.
Speaker 5: No, I mean your podcast is what taught me about
Speaker 5: I was like, you're investing in oh etsaw, that sounds
Speaker 5: scary when we're on the road. I was like, I
Speaker 5: just binged your podcast traveling.
Speaker 2: Oh so I've been around Australia too, you have. I'm
Speaker 2: so lucky.
Speaker 5: I was like, why is on my internet working? Victoria's
Speaker 5: halfway through a podcast. I'm not happy about this.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry about that.
Speaker 4: Sorry, So you've got to download the whole episode to
Speaker 4: make sure that it doesn't cut out.
Speaker 5: Yes, but yeah, And so I was like, okay, well
Speaker 5: we can do that. We can just check ten dollars
Speaker 5: in here and there. And it's really addictive when it
Speaker 5: going up. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is we
Speaker 5: went a little bit too hard.
Speaker 4: But that's okay, because like you were able to pull
Speaker 4: back a bit and now you kind of know your
Speaker 4: limits and what you're working on. And I think that
Speaker 4: that's a good learning as well.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think too. I know one of the questions
Speaker 5: you're going to ask is like, what it's one of
Speaker 5: your good money habits, and that sort of ties into it.
Speaker 5: I'm like, we've become really good at working at what
Speaker 5: our priorities are. I think, and you know, at the moment,
Speaker 5: our priority is a time with our kids and having
Speaker 5: a fund to travel, and also them having a safe
Speaker 5: place to live always. So we're able to do those
Speaker 5: three things not much more, but that's what we're able
Speaker 5: to do right now, and we can just be happy
Speaker 5: with that, and that's great. Like, I love that we
Speaker 5: can just be comfortable with that.
Speaker 2: I adore that so much.
Speaker 4: And just the idea that your priority is to give
Speaker 4: your kids a safe space, like is a much bigger
Speaker 4: concept than you probably imagine it to be. Like so
Speaker 4: many people would just take that for granted. But then
Speaker 4: on the flip side, so many people will be saying,
Speaker 4: I I just had that, Like that is honestly so
Speaker 4: special and like it's honestly one of my biggest goals
Speaker 4: is to just always be that safe place. And to
Speaker 4: do that, you actually have to have a good hold
Speaker 4: of your financial literacy. You have to have a good
Speaker 4: hold of your investing because otherwise you're not able to
Speaker 4: create that sustainably. So tell me a bit more about debt.
Speaker 4: I want to know you mentioned your mortgage. How much
Speaker 4: is your mortgage? What are we paying off? Do we
Speaker 4: have any other debts floating around? How do we feel
Speaker 4: about it?
Speaker 5: So we've got our mortgage which is three fifty just
Speaker 5: to touch over that, so I think, yeah, our payments
Speaker 5: that just shire five hundred a week and that I mean,
Speaker 5: I've got hecteat. I try not to I think about it,
Speaker 5: but I'm sort of like, I'm not going to stress
Speaker 5: about it. So far, I haven't earned enough to need
Speaker 5: to pay it, like since I've had the kids. So
Speaker 5: I'm just like, I'll deal with that problem maybe one day.
Speaker 2: Honestly. Yeah, I'm on your team for that one.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's it. No other debts. We have talked about
Speaker 5: getting a credit card to you use it like a
Speaker 5: you know, to pay our bills on it and then
Speaker 5: have our money in our read or account for our
Speaker 5: mortgage and just save a bit of interest that way.
Speaker 5: We're both very like nervous about that because we don't
Speaker 5: want to have any other depths or you know, anything
Speaker 5: like that. And even though we know it would get
Speaker 5: paid off, it's still a bit risky for us. So
Speaker 5: that's it. That's us, very basic.
Speaker 4: No, But I love that and I feel like it's
Speaker 4: a good consideration to have because for so many people,
Speaker 4: a credit card is something that is a slippery slope,
Speaker 4: and you've kind of got to know your limits and
Speaker 4: you go maybe like the benefits don't outweigh the risk,
Speaker 4: And to be honest, I like.
Speaker 2: Being a little bit conservative. I don't care if it's
Speaker 2: a bit boring, that's fine by me.
Speaker 4: Now, you told me before about your good money habits,
Speaker 4: which I adore, but you also mentioned coffee. Do you
Speaker 4: have any other bad habits?
Speaker 2: What are they? How are you working through them?
Speaker 4: Can you just have a little bit of a confession
Speaker 4: with us, because I feel like you've been too good too.
Speaker 5: Oh no, I'm definitely not good. I think probably the
Speaker 5: nerves got Jimmy. So my husband does on call as well,
Speaker 5: and we don't use those callouts as a predictable sort
Speaker 5: of budget, like, oh, next month, we should don't x
Speaker 5: amount because it's sort of unpredictable and well, I don't
Speaker 5: know if it's a bad habit, but we certainly don't
Speaker 5: put that to as good use as we could. You know,
Speaker 5: it's quite a fair bit of money if he does
Speaker 5: even one call out. I'm like, that's a significant amount
Speaker 5: of forbody that we could put jars, our mortgage or whatever.
Speaker 5: But we're like, oh, we aren't it. We need to
Speaker 5: go away for the weekend, Like we haven't. There's two
Speaker 5: hundred and something dollars for you know whatever, let's go
Speaker 5: get expensive ice cream and take the kids to time zone.
Speaker 5: So I sometimes feel like we should probably rain that
Speaker 5: in a little bit, but you know, the mum, part
Speaker 5: of my brain's life, we have to enjoy ourselves.
Speaker 4: Kids are only young once, Like there's going to be
Speaker 4: a period of time where you go, kids, do you
Speaker 4: want to go to time zone? And they go, no, Mum,
Speaker 4: that's lame, Like I don't want that to happen yet
Speaker 4: for my son.
Speaker 2: So I don't know.
Speaker 4: I feel like you need to make hay while the
Speaker 4: sun is shining as well, Like we've got to live
Speaker 4: a little as well and enjoy the journey.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean we have I suppose built into it
Speaker 5: income already. We have like that fun money. So I'm
Speaker 5: just like, oh, I look at this bonus fun money,
Speaker 5: which I think we're gonna have to sit down and
Speaker 5: be like, okay, let's be as somewhat more intentional. Maybe
Speaker 5: half of those call out you know, extra money can
Speaker 5: be fun and half can be towards our travel goals
Speaker 5: or whatever, so it's definitely a jog. Although you know
Speaker 5: you're like, I just want to hang out with my kids.
Speaker 5: They're fun. Like my six year old is so much fun.
Speaker 5: He's a wild and he loves does though I.
Speaker 4: Feel like nobody talks about this enough, Like you always
Speaker 4: get the people that are like, just wait until they're
Speaker 4: fore just wait until they're six, Oh, just wait until
Speaker 4: they're a teenager, And like, I don't know, hanging out
Speaker 4: with my nearly one year old is so fun, Like
Speaker 4: he is the best, and like every day I feel
Speaker 4: like he just gets better. So I can just imagine,
Speaker 4: like when he's six, that would be the most fun.
Speaker 4: I don't know. I feel like having kids, if that
Speaker 4: was like a choice that you made, is a privilege obviously,
Speaker 4: but like, just wait until they want to hang out
Speaker 4: with you.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 4: At the start of this episode, you said, look, they
Speaker 4: I reckon. I'm a B minus and I was like, okay,
Speaker 4: tell me about it, and then you went on about
Speaker 4: how you literally live in line with your values and
Speaker 4: your goals. You're got to pay off your mortgage by
Speaker 4: fifty like you've got a full plan. You're like a
Speaker 4: budgeting queen. You've introduced me properly to why NAB and
Speaker 4: I cannot wait, Like I want to talk to you,
Speaker 4: but I also want to get off this podcast so
Speaker 4: I can go and download the app and play with
Speaker 4: it myself. Like, I feel like you are a very
Speaker 4: cool individual. You're investing for your kids. Yeah, you like
Speaker 4: maybe overinvested a little bit and have like pulled that
Speaker 4: back a bit, But that just tells me that you
Speaker 4: know your limits and your budgets and what's going on.
Speaker 2: How would you get to an A plus?
Speaker 4: Is it about having a little bit more restraint with
Speaker 4: your additional fun money? Like I can't think of how
Speaker 4: you would get to an A plus, So I want
Speaker 4: to you from you what your plan is?
Speaker 5: Sure? I think in my twenties I earned a lot
Speaker 5: of SUPER because my income was quite high. And then
Speaker 5: when I took I didn't really plan on being a
Speaker 5: state home on for those few years, but COVID had,
Speaker 5: you know, other plans for us, and I missed out
Speaker 5: on SUPER. We just didn't even consider my husband putting
Speaker 5: some of his income into my SUPER just wasn't something
Speaker 5: that came up. But he has been saying for the
Speaker 5: last couple of years. Don't forget. We need to really
Speaker 5: repay your super, you know, the years that you missed
Speaker 5: out on.
Speaker 4: So I love that that's a priority for him though,
Speaker 4: And it's not you asking him, it's him telling you,
Speaker 4: like king behavior.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, he's great like that. He did his apprenticeship
Speaker 5: as a mature age student when I was earning heaps
Speaker 5: of money. So it's all We've always been very like
Speaker 5: one high and one low, like a whole relationship your team. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: for sure, it's all one fund. But I'm like, oh gosh,
Speaker 5: I don't have as much super. I've just got just
Speaker 5: shy of one hundred km my super and that doesn't
Speaker 5: feel like enough. I'm thirty eight.
Speaker 4: That's a lot of money for thirty eight, Like that's impressive.
Speaker 4: But at the same time, I totally understand how much
Speaker 4: you were earning before, and that would feel like you're
Speaker 4: going backwards.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it does. It does feel like for me. For
Speaker 5: it to be an a plus, i'd have to Yeah,
Speaker 5: it'd be at least another fifty grand in there, at
Speaker 5: least at this stage. And yeah, much more mindful with
Speaker 5: this extra money that we get from call out and
Speaker 5: things like that.
Speaker 4: I feel like you've got a good handle on it though,
Speaker 4: Like I feel like you've got some really good clarity
Speaker 4: on what you would need to do to get to
Speaker 4: an A plus.
Speaker 2: And sometimes you talk to people and they're.
Speaker 4: Like, oh, I actually don't know what it would take
Speaker 4: to get to an A plus, but you're like, oh, actually,
Speaker 4: V so my super is here and this is what
Speaker 4: I need. Like, I just love that you've thought of
Speaker 4: everything and you're like, oh no, we're already having these
Speaker 4: conversations and there's a plan in place. So basically, by
Speaker 4: the time you're fifty and you've paid off your mortgage,
Speaker 4: your super is probably going to be in line and
Speaker 4: everything's going to have worked out and you're going to
Speaker 4: be a plus fifty year olds.
Speaker 2: That's so exciting.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it feels like a million years, doesn't it.
Speaker 5: But every year, well, every day counts. I think I've
Speaker 5: learned that, yeah, for sure, mostly from your podcast.
Speaker 4: I still remember high school, Like I look back and
Speaker 4: a go that was like only a couple of years ago,
Speaker 4: and it wasn't.
Speaker 2: It wasn't just a couple of years ago.
Speaker 4: It was you know, double digits ago plus, and I
Speaker 4: just go.
Speaker 2: Ah, time really does fly, doesn't it.
Speaker 5: Especially when you have kids. You're like, wait a second,
Speaker 5: we aren't you just born yesterday? What's happened to the
Speaker 5: last six years of my life?
Speaker 4: Exactly exactly, But it sounds like you are absolutely making
Speaker 4: the most of it.
Speaker 2: I adore this story.
Speaker 4: I love that you've shared how you've you know, been
Speaker 4: able to travel, been able to live the lives that
Speaker 4: you want, and not have to become millionaires to do it. Like,
Speaker 4: I think that there's a massive misconception to have that
Speaker 4: level of freedom you need millions or even hundreds of
Speaker 4: thousands of dollars in the bank, and that's just not
Speaker 4: the reality of the situation. Sometimes it's just doing it money, diarist,
Speaker 4: I wish I had more time. This has been an
Speaker 4: absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for sharing this with me.
Speaker 4: I adore it.
Speaker 2: It's so special.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Oh thanks for having me. I had a
Speaker 5: good time. The nerves got to me in the beginning,
Speaker 5: but I really appreciate the chat. It was lovely.
Speaker 4: I promise I'm not scary like this, No need to
Speaker 4: be nervous, Like I'm just a girl wanting to hang
Speaker 4: out and be pervy on your money.
Speaker 5: That's like, how do I rate myself. Oh my goodness,
Speaker 5: to be minus. She's not gonna be happy.
Speaker 2: No, when have I ever? Oh my gosh, I get it.
Speaker 2: I get it. But at the same time, my friend,
Speaker 2: I just love a coffee and a yap as well,
Speaker 2: Like I just do.
Speaker 5: I love it. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much.
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