Speaker 1: Hello.
Speaker 2: My name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr the
Speaker 2: Order Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before we
Speaker 2: get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would
Speaker 2: like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of
Speaker 2: which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging
Speaker 2: the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through
Speaker 2: as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and
Speaker 2: the storytelling of you to make a difference for today
Speaker 2: and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Let's get into it.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
Speaker 1: for millennials who want financial freedom. My name is Victoria
Speaker 1: Devine and we are back for another one of our
Speaker 1: shop Back Money darries where we get to have a
Speaker 1: very exciting conversation with one of our She's on the
Speaker 1: Money community members about their money story and the journey
Speaker 1: that they're on. And this week, as always, we have
Speaker 1: a beautiful one for you, So let's dive straight in.
Speaker 1: This is the message I got this week. I am
Speaker 1: a twenty seven year old veterinarian and have definitely been
Speaker 1: living beyond my means despite making a six figure salary.
Speaker 1: Given my hectic workload sometimes easily one hundred hours a
Speaker 1: week and the emotional told the job takes on myself,
Speaker 1: I definitely decide to treat myself a little bit too much.
Speaker 1: I've now decided that in order to keep up with
Speaker 1: my lifestyle, I'll need to make some drastic changes to
Speaker 1: my money habits. I've also decided that this will need
Speaker 1: to involve a dramatic mental health overhaul to make it sustainable.
Speaker 1: My dad was always and still is obsessed with finances.
Speaker 1: He tells me where I need to be at in
Speaker 1: my super to be able to retire comfortably weekly and
Speaker 1: sends me the spreadsheets. Becoming financially free from him, although
Speaker 1: probably not the best decision for myself financially, has been
Speaker 1: great for my mental health. I really want to share
Speaker 1: my story so that other young professionals out there can
Speaker 1: have someone to relate to as a single woman who
Speaker 1: is nowhere near buying a house. All right, money diarist,
Speaker 1: what a story? Are you ready to dive straight into
Speaker 1: this one?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: My gosh, all right, I want to know. Can you
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit more about your money story.
Speaker 4: So I guess we can start where I, like I
Speaker 4: grew up. I grew up very comfortably.
Speaker 5: Like I said, dad's very comfortable with money, sort of
Speaker 5: discussing it my family. Both my parents to work full time.
Speaker 5: They both have higher degrees. That's got to pitch. Gee,
Speaker 5: mum's got higher degree as well.
Speaker 1: Oh not the only doctor in the family.
Speaker 5: No, no, yeah, Dad's the first doctor. So we always
Speaker 5: were extremely comfortably. My sister and I went to good schools.
Speaker 5: They weren't private schools, but they were you know, well
Speaker 5: known public schools that you had to try really hard
Speaker 5: to you know, get into. They've always had We've got
Speaker 5: investment properties or the family has investment properties. It's my
Speaker 5: parents super and they've got their own businesses. Everything with
Speaker 5: the money, they've done correctly. So yeah, and like I
Speaker 5: said in my little blurb that Dad was sort of
Speaker 5: always talking about money growing up, and he still is
Speaker 5: acually having my email calumn a section for him. Says
Speaker 5: that all the emails go to cups constant, so I
Speaker 5: always get spreadsheets about, yeah, where my finances are meant
Speaker 5: to be at and how much are meant to save,
Speaker 5: And that's sort of where my money story started.
Speaker 1: I love that. Does he want a job? I feel
Speaker 1: like he would love that. I feel like there are
Speaker 1: a lot of people in our community that need this
Speaker 1: as well. Ten out of ten Dad behavior.
Speaker 4: Oh, he loves a good spreadsheets. I don't want there.
Speaker 4: I inherited that from him.
Speaker 5: The other part of my money story, I guess, is
Speaker 5: that I have a twin sister, and we've taken very
Speaker 5: different life paths at the moment.
Speaker 4: So my degree was.
Speaker 5: Seven years in the end, it took me to finish
Speaker 5: met school where she is a paramedic who's in London now,
Speaker 5: and she finished in three years, moved straight to London
Speaker 5: and made really good money, literally traveled the world. So
Speaker 5: we've always sort of competed against each other growing up.
Speaker 5: So she's obviously got a lot of savings and she can,
Speaker 5: you know, travels freely and just living life, especially in London,
Speaker 5: whereas I've sort of always been like in the countrytown
Speaker 5: and working for.
Speaker 4: Very minimal wage usually until now. But yeah, wow, basically
Speaker 4: where I've come from.
Speaker 1: How interesting. I feel like, that's really like, it's interesting
Speaker 1: to see twins go in two different ways.
Speaker 4: Oh, it's just it's scary to look at.
Speaker 1: No, it's not. We'll come back to that. We are
Speaker 1: going to come back to that, all right. I want
Speaker 1: to know what do you do for work now and
Speaker 1: how much money do you earn.
Speaker 4: So I'm a VET.
Speaker 5: I started in GP, and like I said, I was
Speaker 5: making six figures. Eventually, after a few months I got
Speaker 5: a good pay rise. Then, in the height of COVID,
Speaker 5: I actually took a big paycard of about forty to
Speaker 5: forty five thousand dollars to be a Vetery intern, which
Speaker 5: means when you graduate from VET, you come out as
Speaker 5: a general practitioner, so you can get paid okay, but
Speaker 5: the award's about fifty something, so not a lot.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I was doing well, took a.
Speaker 5: Big pay cut, and now I've started after my internship,
Speaker 5: I've got a residency, which means I am treating to
Speaker 5: be a specialist, and I'm on about ninety a year,
Speaker 5: roughly a bit under.
Speaker 4: So I was just looking at my paychecks.
Speaker 5: Then actually, I've done your course, so I've got all
Speaker 5: the bits and pieces spilled in.
Speaker 4: So I make.
Speaker 5: Twenty two hundred and seventy eight dollars a fortnight after.
Speaker 1: Tax, not bad, not bad.
Speaker 4: And then you have to take into accountable work expenses.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. Yeah, look, let's not take that there
Speaker 1: right now. I want to know what you're working towards though.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us a little bit about your big
Speaker 1: money goal?
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I've got as for your pregnant again, I've
Speaker 5: sort of split up all my little money goals.
Speaker 1: Oh so you do the full blown trees on the
Speaker 1: money budgetings flow system.
Speaker 5: Yep, I've literally done it all. So I've got like
Speaker 5: my short.
Speaker 4: Medium, and long term goals.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: With my short term goal at the moment is just
Speaker 5: to get out of essentially personal debt as quick as
Speaker 5: I can, which we'll.
Speaker 4: Get into later.
Speaker 5: I guess we've got a fair bit of a little
Speaker 5: bits and pieces and they sort of all add up.
Speaker 4: So that's my first one. And then because of my.
Speaker 5: Training program, I actually get to go overseas. I'm not
Speaker 5: allowed to just train in the same clinic, it's the
Speaker 5: same specialist hospital. So I'm going to go to Queensland,
Speaker 5: Hong Kong and hopefully the UK to do some training
Speaker 5: in the next couple of years under some big, well
Speaker 5: known bets. But that's going to cost a lot of money.
Speaker 1: That's all right. The experience is going to be there,
Speaker 1: and the way your eyes lit up when you explained
Speaker 1: that to me tells me you cannot wait.
Speaker 4: Oh, I'm very excited, really excited.
Speaker 5: And then I've got my medium term goal, which i've
Speaker 5: put so my first short term I've put sort of
Speaker 5: one to two years because I know a lot of
Speaker 5: my savings are going to go into my externships. My
Speaker 5: medium term goal is to save a very solid emergency fund,
Speaker 5: which I know I should do earlier, but it's just realistically,
Speaker 5: I'm paying so much debt down and i know it's
Speaker 5: going to go straight into the internships. And I've got like,
Speaker 5: it's sort of nice that my parents are on top
Speaker 5: of money because I can always I always rely on them,
Speaker 5: as much as I hate to do it, but just
Speaker 5: in this job and this career path that I've taken,
Speaker 5: I'm unfortunately not going to be able to save a
Speaker 5: ton of money while doing the externships.
Speaker 4: It's just it is what it is.
Speaker 5: So you'll go overseas for a few months at a
Speaker 5: time and you won't make any money. So the next
Speaker 5: goal is the medium term goal, So I've just sort
Speaker 5: of put an arbitrary amount about fifteen thousand.
Speaker 4: I'd like to be able to get a few months of.
Speaker 5: Expenses saved, and then my long term goal is which
Speaker 5: is ten years plus. I've decided that I want to
Speaker 5: get into investment properties like my family. But given the
Speaker 5: market at the moment, and my wage and my debt
Speaker 5: from that school and all that, I just think there's
Speaker 5: a to do that anytime soon.
Speaker 1: Still happen in the future, though, that's the plan. If
Speaker 1: we make a plan, we are halfway there exactly. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, I love it. All right. You mentioned debt before,
Speaker 1: but I want to ask first about investments. So do
Speaker 1: you have any investments? If so, what are they.
Speaker 5: I only have my super at the moment, which I
Speaker 5: checked before.
Speaker 4: It's at about seventeen thousand, which I.
Speaker 5: Think is pretty good for technically only working full time
Speaker 5: for two years. I've only done sort of casual shift
Speaker 5: work well at UNI.
Speaker 4: That's the only investment I technically have at the moment.
Speaker 5: I did have a raise account then I figured, I mean,
Speaker 5: it's nice to get into it, but I had so
Speaker 5: much debt that I ended up taking the money straight
Speaker 5: out of that when it had increased a little bit,
Speaker 5: just to pay down the debt.
Speaker 4: Quicker. I was paying so much, so much interest.
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, all right, well let's talk about debt then.
Speaker 1: I want to know you mentioned before that you have debts,
Speaker 1: So what are they and what are they for?
Speaker 4: All right, we'll go through my little list. It's a
Speaker 4: very daunting but I was like, I need to have it.
Speaker 5: I haven't actually saved in my computer because if I
Speaker 5: don't have it right in front of me, then I
Speaker 5: sort of bury my head in the sand. And one
Speaker 5: of these people that are just sort of lived. I
Speaker 5: do live paycheck unfortunately at the moment. That's because I'm
Speaker 5: trying to put everything towards payment debts off. So at
Speaker 5: the moment, so I did initially pay my help blown off,
Speaker 5: which was nice when I was working with my six
Speaker 5: figure job.
Speaker 4: And then I went back and did a post rate certificate.
Speaker 5: So that's sitting at about eighty six hundred, which is
Speaker 5: not too bad, but it's still there.
Speaker 1: That's not bad debt exactly.
Speaker 4: It was about seventy thousand.
Speaker 1: I think that the school ended up being Wow, and
Speaker 1: you paid all of that off.
Speaker 4: I paid a part scholarship part with my own work.
Speaker 1: So wow, that's a very big feat on its own.
Speaker 5: I know, but look, there's better places I could have
Speaker 5: put my money, but it made me feel good to
Speaker 5: actually pay some of it off.
Speaker 1: Yea one hundred percent, and now it's not coming out
Speaker 1: of your paycheck each and every single month as much
Speaker 1: as you've already done it. Like, I don't think it's
Speaker 1: the worst decision.
Speaker 5: And I've got my car break down, and I had
Speaker 5: basically no savings though, so I still have a car
Speaker 5: alan I think it's sitting.
Speaker 4: Just over eight thousand an hour roughly.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I also how could I have.
Speaker 5: I have got a credit card debt, which I consolidated recently,
Speaker 5: so that's down to four thousand. But I put all
Speaker 5: my little twenty debts into that. A. I did a
Speaker 5: balance transfer zero percent interest because I felt like the
Speaker 5: accounts that I did have, I was spending more in
Speaker 5: interest per week, per month, and I was actually putting
Speaker 5: back into the payment so.
Speaker 4: I wasn't getting anyway. And then I.
Speaker 5: Had the fine repayments that is about thirteen hundred dollars.
Speaker 5: Le've done that so drive one hundreds or sent car.
Speaker 4: I didn't realize that.
Speaker 1: Oh no.
Speaker 5: And then my workplace also didn't text me correctly in
Speaker 5: the last year, so I had about sixteen hundred initially
Speaker 5: on that, and that's about down to.
Speaker 4: I've paid a bit of that off. It's about thirteen hundred.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, so is that a total of around
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand dollars worth of debt? I'm sorry to add
Speaker 1: that all up.
Speaker 4: No, let me actually, let me keep this spreadsheet. It's
Speaker 4: all along here loan repayments. This is the daunting part.
Speaker 4: It's a just under twenty four thousand.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, not too bad. Honestly, that is not
Speaker 1: the worst place that you can be. And I think
Speaker 1: it's interesting that you said, look, I just bury my
Speaker 1: head in the sand. But it kind of is what
Speaker 1: it is, right Like, we don't need to we recify
Speaker 1: ourselves over debt. We just need to go it's there.
Speaker 1: We need to make a plan for it, full stop.
Speaker 1: End of story. I think the most important thing you
Speaker 1: can do when it comes to managing money is just
Speaker 1: acknowledges the existence and kind of pick yourself up and
Speaker 1: move on, because if we dwell on it like it
Speaker 1: doesn't actually grow us, it doesn't benefit us, it doesn't
Speaker 1: put us in a better position, Like feeling bad about
Speaker 1: things like that's a waste of time from my perspective.
Speaker 1: But what we can do is do exactly what you're
Speaker 1: doing right now, is create a budget and cash flow
Speaker 1: system that works and put it into place, and then
Speaker 1: you know that plan is eventually going to work. And
Speaker 1: just because you're in debt doesn't mean we can't project
Speaker 1: ourselves forward. Still, like paying off debt is a really
Speaker 1: good lesson, Like it is a lesson in discipline, in savings.
Speaker 1: And the second that you've paid off that twenty four
Speaker 1: thousand dollars worth of debt, well that's twenty four thousand
Speaker 1: dollars worth of savings we now can create because I
Speaker 1: know that you've been able to save that in a way.
Speaker 1: So that's a good position to be in, my friend,
Speaker 1: I don't think it is the most negative, but I
Speaker 1: mean that's not how the person who is in debt
Speaker 1: often feels.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, definitely not. And I think, look, it's eye opening.
Speaker 4: Like I did the course, I've got it in front
Speaker 4: of me, and I literally keep a list right on
Speaker 4: my computer where I check every day, and.
Speaker 5: It's sort of nice because once I pay a little
Speaker 5: bit more, I'll just sort of knock the price down
Speaker 5: on my little It's just like a little note on
Speaker 5: my computer so I can visualize it every day and
Speaker 5: be like, look, this is actually a lot smaller than
Speaker 5: it used to be. And since doing that, I've been like, Okay,
Speaker 5: I'll pick a couple shifts up in the er department,
Speaker 5: or I'll start another job very soon, just on the side,
Speaker 5: which will make me. It could make me another fifteen
Speaker 5: hundred per week potentially.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, she'll smash it off in no time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's the aim.
Speaker 1: Oh I love this figure. That is so exciting. All right,
Speaker 1: let's move on to the next question. I want to
Speaker 1: know when you're shopping online, do you shop back?
Speaker 4: I sure do.
Speaker 5: I've been using it for years. I've totally forgot I
Speaker 5: had it until you guys, I'm talking about it on
Speaker 5: the podcast again. And then I went back and it
Speaker 5: turns out I had about thirty dollars. So I made
Speaker 5: a new account that they let me merge it.
Speaker 1: I use the cheating my money, oh money win.
Speaker 5: The other day, I think I got sixty dollars out
Speaker 5: of it, so, but I can't remember when I put
Speaker 5: it towards I paid something with it, but I was like,
Speaker 5: I may as well take money from that, and use
Speaker 5: it while I can, and if I buy it all
Speaker 5: my dog food, anything that I can, I try to
Speaker 5: buy a lance.
Speaker 1: So yeah, how good. I love that You're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I still got the discount code even though I wasn't
Speaker 1: the one that introduced you to it. Like that's a
Speaker 1: money win itself. I think you're a genius. Ten out
Speaker 1: of ten good money hack. The next question I have
Speaker 1: for you, I want to know, what do you think
Speaker 1: is your best money habit.
Speaker 4: I think it's like that again.
Speaker 5: I think I'm just good at getting the best price
Speaker 5: I can. I used to be very I would just
Speaker 5: buy things if I saw it and I wanted it,
Speaker 5: Whereas nowadays, because I'm so I know how much debt
Speaker 5: I have, I actually step back and you know, the
Speaker 5: time between my purchasers, Like generally I will be like
Speaker 5: do I really need this? When I go to purchase something.
Speaker 5: It's one thing I think I do quite well. It
Speaker 5: definitely like it takes to me hundreds here and there
Speaker 5: because if I go out and I look at it,
Speaker 5: donate that other shoes really, So it's something that I've
Speaker 5: developed over the last few years.
Speaker 1: Definitely, that is a good habit. I want to bring
Speaker 1: the mood down, though, I want to know, now, what
Speaker 1: is your worst money Habit.
Speaker 5: Probably putting my head in the sand, especially when it
Speaker 5: comes to like grocery, some little purchases. I was adding
Speaker 5: them up the other day and I spent like an
Speaker 5: extra two hundred dollars over when I bunted it just
Speaker 5: between like.
Speaker 4: Drinks and coffee and buying food out.
Speaker 5: We've got a put across the road from work, soonce's
Speaker 5: had a crap tea, a lot of us will be like, oh,
Speaker 5: let's go to the pub and have a drink, and.
Speaker 1: It adds up totally, totally, all right. Last question I've
Speaker 1: got for you before we head to a quick break,
Speaker 1: I want to know what would you grade yourself if
Speaker 1: we forced you to give yourself a money grade.
Speaker 5: I'd probably say like a sea at the moment, mainly
Speaker 5: because I obviously have the death still and they don't
Speaker 5: feel very financially.
Speaker 4: Free yet, and that's what I want to achieve.
Speaker 5: And I don't want to be living week to week
Speaker 5: off paychecks, which I'm doing at the moment because I'm
Speaker 5: trying to pay them. So once I get on top
Speaker 5: of that and probably get on top of my depth
Speaker 5: a little bit, more and have a bit of a
Speaker 5: saving space. Then I probably increase it a bit. But
Speaker 5: with my where my career will go totally. That will
Speaker 5: happen in the next five years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh my gosh. All right, Well, I have a
Speaker 1: lot of questions for you. I want to talk to
Speaker 1: you about growing up as a twin. I want to
Speaker 1: know what it's like mentally to work as a vet,
Speaker 1: and if it's actually Victoria Devine's dream job, because that's
Speaker 1: what she thought she wanted to be when she was little.
Speaker 1: But I have a heap of questions for you. But
Speaker 1: we're first going to go to a really quick break.
Speaker 1: Don't go anywhere, guys, All right, money diarist, We are back,
Speaker 1: and I want to dive straight in. When I was little,
Speaker 1: all I wanted in life was to become a vet.
Speaker 1: Is it all that it has cracked up to be?
Speaker 1: I feel like you are living my dream job.
Speaker 4: That's what most people think. No, I love it. I do.
Speaker 4: I do.
Speaker 5: I really love my patience, and I think the work itself,
Speaker 5: like the science behind everything's very very interesting. It's just
Speaker 5: a very taxing job mentally and financially. Like I was
Speaker 5: saying before our award, which is dramatically improved in the
Speaker 5: last five years. When you graduate, I think you're on
Speaker 5: about fifty seven thousand, like, which is not a lot
Speaker 5: of money compared to like my friends.
Speaker 4: That finish med school and thereon, they.
Speaker 5: Can be close to double that as soon as you
Speaker 5: come out. So in that way, it's quite taxing as well,
Speaker 5: especially like living in Sydney, so everything's way more expensive now.
Speaker 5: It's also it costs a lot of money just to
Speaker 5: keep up, like to keep up with continuing education. I
Speaker 5: think it's spent about seven thousand last year and that
Speaker 5: was a minimum on CPD points and things like that.
Speaker 5: But like I said, I do absolutely love it, and
Speaker 5: there's there's definitely places you can progress your career. And
Speaker 5: I actually don't like working with the young cute dogs.
Speaker 5: I like working with the old crossy ones. It's my
Speaker 5: area that I want to specialize in.
Speaker 1: Oh dogs are more special though, I am convinced like
Speaker 1: there's something so wholesome and space about an old baby.
Speaker 5: I just love it because everyone in the ear like
Speaker 5: when they transferred to me in the specialist department, they'll
Speaker 5: give me the old crosses because that's all I want
Speaker 5: to deal with. That's actually where I've taken my new
Speaker 5: job with a Paletti of care business as well in Sydney.
Speaker 1: So, oh my gosh, that's so wholesome.
Speaker 5: We'll go around to people's house, isn't either. It sounds
Speaker 5: really depressing, but it's quite nice. I actually put their
Speaker 5: dogs down at home around their family, or perform paliative
Speaker 5: care practices at times they don't have to come into
Speaker 5: the clinic.
Speaker 4: But yeah, no, I love. I did not see my
Speaker 4: career going in that direction at all.
Speaker 5: I thought I just wanted to be a general practice
Speaker 5: set or even work with cows. I didn't actually think
Speaker 5: I'd be ending up working with old crossings. But yeah,
Speaker 5: that's where my career is safe in me at the moment,
Speaker 5: and I'm absolutely loving it.
Speaker 4: But yeah, like every job, it's got its substance down.
Speaker 1: How do you deal with that mentally? Because I actually
Speaker 1: think that that is it's a really special position to
Speaker 1: be in. Having had pets that I have had to
Speaker 1: put to sleep before, it is heartbreaking and one of
Speaker 1: the hardest things ever. And you know, the idea that
Speaker 1: you can do it at home, I don't think was
Speaker 1: an option available to us when we did that. I
Speaker 1: remember our first dog had to be put to sleep
Speaker 1: on Christmas Eve one year when I was twelve, and
Speaker 1: it was heartbreaking. And now I can't drive past that
Speaker 1: vet without thinking of it. And it just wasn't this
Speaker 1: you know, experience that you know she deserved. And I mean,
Speaker 1: she had the best life ever, right like she was
Speaker 1: Milo the dog. She was the best thing that ever
Speaker 1: happened to my family. She existed in the family before
Speaker 1: I did, and then she passed away when I would
Speaker 1: have been at high school, right like she had a legacy.
Speaker 1: But I feel like being able to do that in
Speaker 1: people's homes is so special. But that would take such
Speaker 1: a toll for me, Like how do you deal with
Speaker 1: that and how do you look after yourself in a
Speaker 1: role like this?
Speaker 5: Well, I feel like that's the It's like again, it
Speaker 5: sounds really funny, but it's I was talking to someone
Speaker 5: calling about this the other day actually, and that kind
Speaker 5: of things actually called it filling my vet cup. Because
Speaker 5: the families are so grateful in most cases, beautiful family
Speaker 5: Like in your situation, it's usually you know, the family's
Speaker 5: first baby that they're putting down and they're just very appreciative.
Speaker 4: And if it's like a pallid.
Speaker 5: Care type consult At least we know that we're making
Speaker 5: a plan and making the animal most comfortable and doing
Speaker 5: the most, you know, the best respectful thing we can
Speaker 5: for them. Same when it comes to euthanasia, because so
Speaker 5: we obviously I will go out or even in the clinic,
Speaker 5: will tell them if it's you know, we think it's
Speaker 5: actually a time because we have to be an advocate
Speaker 5: for the animal.
Speaker 4: It's all about mindset.
Speaker 5: I really don't mind doing it if I think it's
Speaker 5: genuinely the best decision for both the animal and for
Speaker 5: the client. Especially it sounds like bad money obviously comes
Speaker 5: into it a lot, especially working in a specialist clinic.
Speaker 5: Some animals, some treatments cost tens of thousands of dollars,
Speaker 5: and people course can't afford that. Especially in this day
Speaker 5: and age. We're getting people that are taking loans out
Speaker 5: and I don't I don't like to see the clients
Speaker 5: in that position either where they kind of compete themselves
Speaker 5: or they can't pay the rent.
Speaker 4: If euthanasia is a feasible option, as bad as that sounds, Yeah,
Speaker 4: and as for keeping myself and my mental health under control,
Speaker 4: I feel like doing.
Speaker 5: The at home stuff it fills my cup because we're
Speaker 5: doing something really sweet for the family, and most animals
Speaker 5: hate going to the vets anyway, especially when they get
Speaker 5: to fifteen and they're in pain and they're.
Speaker 4: Experiences at the vet before, whereas doing.
Speaker 5: A lot of my normal everyday work doesn't because I
Speaker 5: just get a lot of abusive clients as that as
Speaker 5: it sounds just because of the money started thing and
Speaker 5: just the nature of the practice that I'm in, so
Speaker 5: it sounds awful, But when I explain it to people,
Speaker 5: I get they generally understand where I'm coming from.
Speaker 4: So if you just have to put yourself in that position.
Speaker 1: Yourself, yeah, it doesn't mean that you love doing it,
Speaker 1: but I think that getting the best outcome for the
Speaker 1: animal and the family, like that's, you know, at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, a dream role. And I just
Speaker 1: I don't know, I've got a lot to say about
Speaker 1: that space because I just think that humans should be
Speaker 1: extended that same grace. But we won't go down that
Speaker 1: path at this time. I want to pivot the conversation. Actually,
Speaker 1: you said something at the very beginning of our conversation.
Speaker 1: You grew up as a twin and you felt like
Speaker 1: it will feel like you're always competing against your twin.
Speaker 1: And it's an interesting concept because we talk about it
Speaker 1: on the podcast all the time that comparison is the
Speaker 1: thief of joy. But you've literally grown up with somebody
Speaker 1: who's basically cut paste of you. I'm assuming and watching
Speaker 1: them flourish might not be the easiest thing to do.
Speaker 1: So can you talk us through what that's like and
Speaker 1: why that's the case, because I feel like I've got
Speaker 1: some choice words for you to stop doing that after this.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So, literally, if you was a kid, obviously, even to the
Speaker 5: same primary school, we had all the same friends, just
Speaker 5: to people Cindy.
Speaker 4: Suburb, so it was like from the get go. And
Speaker 4: I think it's just.
Speaker 5: Our personalities in the family we grew up in just
Speaker 5: super competitive, whether it came to like just extracurricular.
Speaker 4: Activities or school grades. Usually school grade when we were
Speaker 4: school age, that was the main thing. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 4: I just said a very bad memory of school.
Speaker 5: Actually, in our hc SO year twelve, Dad put together
Speaker 5: this is probably where some of my she's going from.
Speaker 5: Dad put together a payment scheme depending on what a
Speaker 5: tire you got.
Speaker 4: She's probably not the best thing you could do for
Speaker 4: like a.
Speaker 1: Young Oh the pressure, no dads.
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 5: So we both ended up splitting from our regular high schools,
Speaker 5: which didn't solve a lot of issues because then we
Speaker 5: weren't constantly competing against each other at school, and obviously
Speaker 5: we're both quite academic.
Speaker 4: So she went to our local selective school.
Speaker 5: I went to one out west, and my school actually
Speaker 5: ranked better. We played the HC game a little bit,
Speaker 5: and I obviously got better marks probably well.
Speaker 4: I did well in some of my very well in
Speaker 4: some of my subjects.
Speaker 5: But I probably got a lot of good My ati
Speaker 5: in general was better just because at the school I
Speaker 5: went to, because it was ranked high, so I think
Speaker 5: everyone pulled my marks up.
Speaker 4: So in that case, my sister probably got ten points
Speaker 4: below me. I think it ended up being and I don't.
Speaker 5: Even think she made it technically onto dance scheme, which
Speaker 5: was just awkward in general. So he literally for every mark,
Speaker 5: he had a different amount of money than he would
Speaker 5: pay us if we got that mark, or if it
Speaker 5: was over like ninety.
Speaker 4: Nine, he would buy us a new car, which we
Speaker 4: both didn't achieve. But it's just got a pressure growing up, obviously,
Speaker 4: So that's my I mean this is my money story
Speaker 4: as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Dad, we need to sit down and talk about
Speaker 1: toxic behavior. We really need to have a chat. I'll
Speaker 1: talk to him later, I know.
Speaker 4: I mean it's only to be.
Speaker 5: My psychologist is multiple times as well, because she's like,
Speaker 5: that's that's not normal, and I'm like, oh, I'm weare
Speaker 5: of it now.
Speaker 1: That's a lot. I'm so sorry that was your experience. HC.
Speaker 1: Or you're eleven twelve.
Speaker 4: I can look back and laugh at it now, like
Speaker 4: I no, it's it's not like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but if you don't laugh, you'll criy. So I
Speaker 1: feel like that circumstance like HC and you're eleven twelve
Speaker 1: are just such traumatic periods of time as it is
Speaker 1: like you are a teenager still you're a hormone or
Speaker 1: you're putting so much pressure on yourself to pick a
Speaker 1: career and how want would you know what career you
Speaker 1: want to do if you're still a child, like you
Speaker 1: don't know what these things are. So I just I'm
Speaker 1: sorry that was your experience, But talk to me about
Speaker 1: comparison as an adult, because I feel like as an adult,
Speaker 1: like you are you and that is special and you
Speaker 1: know you've said that you feel like a bit behind
Speaker 1: from everybody else. But I just want to know how
Speaker 1: we can move you away from this or what other
Speaker 1: twins are thinking in these circumstances.
Speaker 5: So, like I said, my sister, well, now she's in
Speaker 5: London as paramedic and she's making very good money, especially
Speaker 5: because they get a lot of overtime, whereas I spent
Speaker 5: more than twice the emailt of time at Union. I'm
Speaker 5: very dependent on my parents and at time and to
Speaker 5: get literally to get by. Like I said, I really
Speaker 5: don't have any savings at the moment because of all
Speaker 5: the deaths that I have, But I can't help that.
Speaker 4: So it's just it.
Speaker 5: Gets very awkward when she's like, come and meet me
Speaker 5: in Greece, and I'm like, we want money, and then
Speaker 5: she's like, we'll pay for you, when I was like,
Speaker 5: but then I'll own like five thousand dollars and I
Speaker 5: just don't have the money to pay that back and
Speaker 5: I don't want to do that.
Speaker 4: To us either, And then oh, and then I've got
Speaker 4: obviously i've got my friends that are all the majority
Speaker 4: of my friends.
Speaker 5: Are teachers and nurses that they came out of UNI
Speaker 5: a very similar time. To her, and they're all pretty
Speaker 5: well at the stage where I think my girl group
Speaker 5: has bought a house now and then probably half of
Speaker 5: them now are getting engaged, some of them have babies,
Speaker 5: and I'm obviously at a very very different time point
Speaker 5: in my life.
Speaker 4: To them at the moment.
Speaker 5: Of course, it's obviously very difficult when they're talking about
Speaker 5: buying houses.
Speaker 4: And I was like, I love all listening to all
Speaker 4: these stuffs, but I listen to podcasts and I love reading.
Speaker 4: I just love financings in general.
Speaker 5: But I just know that it's going to be like
Speaker 5: a good ten years before I'm in that position.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And do you know what, that's okay? And I
Speaker 1: think that that is a really hard position to be
Speaker 1: in because in a way, you might assume or feel
Speaker 1: that you all had exactly the same start point because
Speaker 1: you're graduated from the same place and kind of have
Speaker 1: been friends. I'm assuming that economically you probably have very
Speaker 1: similar families and backgrounds and experiences. So that can make
Speaker 1: us feel really behind. But I guarantee you there are
Speaker 1: people listening to your story right now, going, my gosh,
Speaker 1: you's so far ahead. Oh my gosh, you went to
Speaker 1: UNI for seven years, like that's crazy. You mentioned before
Speaker 1: that you're going to go on international externships, Like are
Speaker 1: you kidding? That is the dream, Like you are going
Speaker 1: to be absolutely flying ahead of them in years to come,
Speaker 1: because don't forget as a VET. As much as you
Speaker 1: don't start at a high salary, there is absolutely so
Speaker 1: much opportunity in the future. And it's not necessarily about
Speaker 1: how much money you earn, but rather how happy you are.
Speaker 1: And it's very, very hard to be a happy human
Speaker 1: being if you're consistently looking at the happiness of other
Speaker 1: people and going, oh, I can't be happy because I
Speaker 1: don't have what they have. I think it's about a
Speaker 1: little bit more self gratitude and looking internally and going, oh,
Speaker 1: my gosh, I'm actually a really cool human, Like I've
Speaker 1: paid off seventy thousand dollars worth of my help debt
Speaker 1: or my own I killed it, Like, babe, that's more
Speaker 1: than a house deposit for most people. Like you. You're
Speaker 1: a very cool human doing very very cool things. And
Speaker 1: I think you're giving yourself a little bit too much
Speaker 1: undue pressure.
Speaker 5: And I think the big thing is like, like, because
Speaker 5: my friends will listen to the podcast as well, and
Speaker 5: so we all like we literally all listen to it,
Speaker 5: and so we have these conversations and we talk very openly,
Speaker 5: and I'll obviously openly expressing like a very freaking broken
Speaker 5: moment just with the debts that I have to pay off.
Speaker 5: But then they'll all obviously turn around and be like, doctor.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're a doctor, Like that's crazy, but I don't.
Speaker 5: Look at it like that obviously, so but they then
Speaker 5: they say, you know, put me in my placement, but
Speaker 5: you're actually doing big things, and residence is very hard
Speaker 5: to get, especially in the early stage of your career.
Speaker 5: So I'm doing I am doing well, but it's just
Speaker 5: hard to obviously force myself to think like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think that, you know, going back to
Speaker 1: you saying that you're doing my budget and cash flow,
Speaker 1: my class, I think that maybe go back to that
Speaker 1: and go resell all your values and your goals and
Speaker 1: maybe pop some blinkers on and just focus on that
Speaker 1: and what you're up to, and maybe put in place
Speaker 1: not only a plan to achieve that, but a plan
Speaker 1: to celebrate the small things, like what are you going
Speaker 1: to do when you pay off your four thousand dollars
Speaker 1: worth of credit card debt? Like are you going to celebrate? Like,
Speaker 1: are you going to you know, give yourself a pat
Speaker 1: on the back? What does that look like? Because as
Speaker 1: much as you feel like these are small things, when
Speaker 1: quote other people are doing better, bigger things and half
Speaker 1: your friends group has a house already, like these things
Speaker 1: are actually massive, Like these things are huge deals, and
Speaker 1: we need to celebrate them because it is really impressive,
Speaker 1: it is really important and I just can't wait to
Speaker 1: see you in three, five, ten years absolutely killing it
Speaker 1: going Victoria, I don't know what I was talking about, Like,
Speaker 1: I am a doctor, I am doing this stuff. I've
Speaker 1: done international externships and like that is very cool. Like
Speaker 1: before I leave you, though, I want to know when
Speaker 1: you get back from your internettional externships, like what kind
Speaker 1: of jobs will you be able to take on and
Speaker 1: do and what does that actually look like for you?
Speaker 4: So I've got a nice little timeline.
Speaker 1: See, she's got a plan, she's probably got a spreadsheet.
Speaker 5: Maan, I found a six year contract, so it's already
Speaker 5: in me. I'm still in the same place. But so
Speaker 5: I do my residency. In that residency, I do my externship,
Speaker 5: and what I do is I complete it then I'm
Speaker 5: a registrar for a few years and I do lots
Speaker 5: of study, lots and lots of extra study, sit my
Speaker 5: fellowship exams, and once I've finished that, so that's in
Speaker 5: about five to six years, i'll probably sit my fellowship exams.
Speaker 5: When I'm accepted to the college, I'm going to be
Speaker 5: a small animal internal medicine specialist.
Speaker 4: Wow, I'm lucky because I've.
Speaker 5: Got some supervisors that are very keen on my ideas.
Speaker 5: I actually want to be a geriatrician for animals, which
Speaker 5: isn't a thing yet, but I feel like in.
Speaker 4: The future it needs to be. I think we do
Speaker 4: it in people, why.
Speaker 5: Wouldn't we do it in animals, especially when we can
Speaker 5: keep them alive longer.
Speaker 4: So five to six years, hopefully one of Australia's first juristricians.
Speaker 4: But old doggos, that's the plan.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that is so wholesome and so special.
Speaker 1: But also look at that career trajectory, like that is
Speaker 1: so cool to have that clarity. I need you to
Speaker 1: give yourself a little bit more credit, my friend, Like
Speaker 1: I feel like you are not giving yourself nearly enough.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I feel like sometimes I just need to step
Speaker 5: back and be like, you know what I've actually I
Speaker 5: have achieved a lot in twenty seven years.
Speaker 1: Absolutely have. I'm so impressed by you and so proud
Speaker 1: of what you've done already and cannot wait to see
Speaker 1: where you're going. Oh I wish we had more time
Speaker 1: to keep talking, but my love, I think that that
Speaker 1: is all we have time for today. So thank you
Speaker 1: so much for coming on the show and sharing your
Speaker 1: story and being a part of our little family here
Speaker 1: at Cheese on the Money. I am honestly so grateful
Speaker 1: and so in awe of you.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much. It's been so good.
Speaker 1: The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
Speaker 1: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
Speaker 1: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
Speaker 1: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
Speaker 1: If you do choose to buy a financial product, read
Speaker 1: the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards
Speaker 1: your needs. Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are
Speaker 1: authorized representatives of Money sheper Pty Ltd ABN three two
Speaker 1: one six four nine two seven seven zero eight AFSL
Speaker 1: four five one two eight nine,