Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whoaltbury 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 Money the cast
Speaker 2: millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one
Speaker 2: of our money daries where I get the absolute privilege
Speaker 2: of talking to one of our incredible She's on the
Speaker 2: Money community members all about their story. Let's jump straight
Speaker 2: into it, because this week we got a message and
Speaker 2: it sounded exactly like this, Dear She's on the Money.
Speaker 2: In twenty nineteen, I was made redundant, started a new
Speaker 2: job and met my husband. COVID fast tracked our relationship.
Speaker 2: We moved in together within months. During this I finally
Speaker 2: paid off my debts when a work cover incident left
Speaker 2: me on work cover for three years, which limited my
Speaker 2: career options and my income. Despite this, we have built
Speaker 2: our dream home managed to secure a mortgage, even with
Speaker 2: one of us on work cover and the other on
Speaker 2: a veteran's pension. Now with a baby, we are laser
Speaker 2: focused on our finances. Discovering we'd spent ten thousand dollars
Speaker 2: on coffee was a wake up cool. We've restructured our budget,
Speaker 2: boosted mortgage payments, and set new savings goals, all with
Speaker 2: the plan to eventually buy a bush block with a
Speaker 2: tiny home for our family. Money Diarist, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: This sounds so fun.
Speaker 4: It is so fun, and it's funny. Like hearing it
Speaker 4: back that it's my life, I'm like, this is.
Speaker 2: Whack it is? That is crazy. I mean the fun
Speaker 2: part is definitely you being laser focused on your finances
Speaker 2: and like buying property and doing budgeting, not the part
Speaker 2: where you were on work cover, because that sounds like trash.
Speaker 2: So before we get into your money story, can you
Speaker 2: tell me what your money habits would be if you
Speaker 2: had to rate them from a three to F I.
Speaker 4: Think I would be a C, but only in the
Speaker 4: last twelve months. Prior to that, I was definitely down
Speaker 4: in the d's.
Speaker 2: Okay, so we're glowing up. We're in glow up phase.
Speaker 2: I love that. All Right, money dires, let's dive into it.
Speaker 2: Tell me a little bit more about your money story.
Speaker 4: So I grew up with a single mum. My parents
Speaker 4: split up when I was about four, and my dad,
Speaker 4: while my parents were together, was quiet financially and emotionally abusive.
Speaker 4: So my mum had a bit of a budget that
Speaker 4: she was given each month to clothe and feed my
Speaker 4: brother and I, which was nowhere near enough. So my
Speaker 4: grandparents kept us financially. So my understanding of money was
Speaker 4: that if you couldn't afford something, you put it on
Speaker 4: Pop's credit card. And that's what I learned about money.
Speaker 2: Okay, but like iconic from Pop, oh.
Speaker 4: Like amazing legend and even today, like I'm thirty one
Speaker 4: and he's still like, you need my credit card for
Speaker 4: groceries and I'm like, Nah'm good.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, what her honey?
Speaker 4: I love lost you. Yeah, So that was my understanding
Speaker 4: of money. We never went without, but we also didn't
Speaker 4: have any extra, So school camps, excursion things like that
Speaker 4: didn't happen really for us. And then my mum started
Speaker 4: working again, so she was never allowed to work when
Speaker 4: she was married to my dad, and she didn't go
Speaker 4: back to work until we went to high school and
Speaker 4: she just worked in retail. And again, you know, there
Speaker 4: was no extra, but there was sort of just enough.
Speaker 4: And that's kind of the mindset I had. Yeah, as
Speaker 4: I got into young autadlod with money, not only was
Speaker 4: there sort of just enough, but if there was any extra,
Speaker 4: it would go. It would get spent on, you know,
Speaker 4: I don't know what, but you know, mum had treat
Speaker 4: us or Shou'd buy us something. There was no real savings.
Speaker 4: There was no real education, I guess. And then so
Speaker 4: when I moved out on my own, it was like
Speaker 4: a bit of a struggle for me. I ended up
Speaker 4: back home twice before I finally left for the last
Speaker 4: time and stayed gone, just learning to manage my finances myself,
Speaker 4: which I hadn't really done until I met my now
Speaker 4: husband and learned some very valuable money lessons from him,
Speaker 4: which I'm very grateful for. He's very switched on, which
Speaker 4: has been really good.
Speaker 2: I love that. So what does life look like today?
Speaker 4: So today we live in a regional area. We moved
Speaker 4: from more in the city, bought a couple of acres
Speaker 4: and built our dream home, which we're already ready to
Speaker 4: move on from no, and go bigger and better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that. It's yeah, so common though, people
Speaker 2: are like, I'm going to build my dream home, We're
Speaker 2: going to live here forever, let's leave.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's exactly us. We were like, let's do a
Speaker 4: bit of a tree change and get some land. And
Speaker 4: you know, now we're like, let's get more land and
Speaker 4: a cow or something.
Speaker 2: I love that though, and I love that you've got
Speaker 2: the freedom to do that.
Speaker 4: It's very cool. And I think the things that have
Speaker 4: happened to us that have landed us in these sort
Speaker 4: of financial positions also that a sort of freedom in
Speaker 4: our life, which you know, a bit of a give
Speaker 4: and take, but it's been really nice.
Speaker 2: It's a compromise for sure.
Speaker 4: Yeah, to sort of end up here from where we
Speaker 4: both were. So yeah, we met at the end of
Speaker 4: twenty nineteen, and the apartment I was living in at
Speaker 4: the time then decided no dogs. So we myself and
Speaker 4: my dog Stephen got the boot.
Speaker 2: Steven Stephen, Oh my gosh, that's my husband's name, but
Speaker 2: that is a great dog name.
Speaker 4: He's fantastic. We got the boot, and I sort of
Speaker 4: said to my husband, you know, can I stay with
Speaker 4: you just while I find somewhere. And then COVID happened
Speaker 4: and no open homes, no rentals, so we then just
Speaker 4: lived there and that was that about three months into
Speaker 4: our relationships.
Speaker 2: So, oh my gosh, go hard to go home, right,
Speaker 2: I love that? And then what happened.
Speaker 4: And then following that, I sustained my injury and that
Speaker 4: was probably twelve months after we had met. And so
Speaker 4: my husband's first meeting of my mum was when he
Speaker 4: picked her up at the airport and she stayed in
Speaker 4: our home for six weeks without me.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that would have been an initiation by fire.
Speaker 4: But I have my So my grandmother's engagement ring is
Speaker 4: my engagement ring.
Speaker 2: And oh that's so sweet.
Speaker 4: Yeah, my husband knew I wanted that. So when he
Speaker 4: called my mum to go, you know, you better come,
Speaker 4: he also asked her to bring the ring, which was
Speaker 4: so sweet.
Speaker 2: Because like, I bring that ring. Yeah, Oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: I love that but also that would have been so traumatic.
Speaker 2: Are you comfortable telling us a little bit more about
Speaker 2: your injury and what happened.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I just sustained injury with one of my clients
Speaker 4: that I was working with, and that injury resulted in
Speaker 4: a number of reconstructive surgeries and a brain injury. And yeah,
Speaker 4: an inability to work, an inability to finish my university studies. Yeah,
Speaker 4: just a whole pause on my.
Speaker 2: Life, which I think is important context, not because we
Speaker 2: want to know the pervy details, but sometimes a work
Speaker 2: cover thing could be like, oh, yes, I worked in
Speaker 2: a factory and a box fell off and I broke
Speaker 2: my leg and therefore wasn't able to work. Like I
Speaker 2: knew in the background that yours was a bit deeper
Speaker 2: than that, which is why you needed three years off,
Speaker 2: And it is an ongoing issue for you that is
Speaker 2: going to impact your ability to have a career into
Speaker 2: the future.
Speaker 4: Right, Yes, that's correct.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you have a baby now.
Speaker 4: I do have a baby now, which is very exciting.
Speaker 2: That is so exciting.
Speaker 4: It's so exciting. So she's ten months old and she's
Speaker 4: just wild.
Speaker 2: They are, aren't they.
Speaker 4: Yes, I'm solo parenting for the first time this week
Speaker 4: my husband is away and hats off to single mums
Speaker 4: single parrot, like, I don't know how they do it.
Speaker 2: It's I don't know either. I was saying this to
Speaker 2: one of my girlfriends the other day. I was like,
Speaker 2: I have such a supportive and kind husband, and I
Speaker 2: don't know what I would do without him. Like, single
Speaker 2: moms are a force to be reckoned with. Like, if
Speaker 2: you're a single mom, like, hats off to you, you
Speaker 2: are so impressive one hundred percent. Like they don't get
Speaker 2: the credit they deserve. And it's not until you're a
Speaker 2: mom that you're like, oh, I knew that you were
Speaker 2: impressive before. Now I just you are insanely good.
Speaker 4: Yes, definitely. We like cross the calendar off each evening
Speaker 4: when dad's coming back. And that's not for her, that's
Speaker 4: for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're counting down the days. Oh my gosh, So
Speaker 2: tell me what do you do for work? How much
Speaker 2: money do you earn?
Speaker 4: So I am a youth worker and I earn it'd
Speaker 4: be approximately one thousand dollars a week. I have three
Speaker 4: casual sorry a thousand dollars one fortnite. I have three
Speaker 4: casual positions, so that fluctuates quite a bit.
Speaker 2: Hey, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So my theory was if I didn't get hours
Speaker 4: at one, I would get out at another, which has
Speaker 4: worked out quite well. Some weeks are really busy, though, So.
Speaker 2: And is it working out having a ten month old
Speaker 2: and still working, Like, what does that, I guess juggle
Speaker 2: look like.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so our girl's in daycare four days a week.
Speaker 2: Very cool.
Speaker 4: So yeah, we don't have any family. All of our
Speaker 4: families into state, so it's just me and my husband.
Speaker 4: Our closest friends are over an hour away, so it's
Speaker 4: just us. So I felt a lot of guilt, actually
Speaker 4: a lot of mum guilt when we first put her in.
Speaker 4: But everyone talks about the village, and it just happens
Speaker 4: that our village is our daycare and they're wonderful people.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent. Harvey's in daycare and he thrives there,
Speaker 2: like he is obsessed with daycare. This morning, I was
Speaker 2: pushing the pram up the ramp and he had his
Speaker 2: little flappy bird arms because he was so excited. He'd
Speaker 2: just realized where he was, and I was just like,
Speaker 2: you have your little job at daycare, and then mum
Speaker 2: goes to work and then we come back together and
Speaker 2: we're all just having a good life. Like the mum
Speaker 2: guilt around daycare, Like I get it, Like you want
Speaker 2: to spend more time with your kid, but that is
Speaker 2: a separate conversation. I think about, you know, having quality
Speaker 2: time and enjoying your children and than having to work
Speaker 2: and provide and put your kids into care. Like that's
Speaker 2: a different conversation. Like I think we all want more
Speaker 2: time with our kids. But like I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 2: Maybe this I don't know. Definitely doesn't make me a
Speaker 2: bad parent, but like I love a bit of a break,
Speaker 2: Like I love that I get to go pick up
Speaker 2: my baby from daycare in the afternoon and he's had
Speaker 2: his day and I've had mine, and even if he
Speaker 2: cracks it, I just don't have that mental load of
Speaker 2: having had that all day.
Speaker 4: And that's what I absolutely love about it. Like we
Speaker 4: have three whole days together where it's just us and
Speaker 4: we don't do washing, we don't do groceries, we don't
Speaker 4: do chores. We just hang out and it's the best.
Speaker 2: I adore that. And what does your partner or your
Speaker 2: husband sorry.
Speaker 4: Do So he is a youth worker as well or
Speaker 4: youth mentor he works on a school holiday program, so
Speaker 4: during the week he does it, he does one like
Speaker 4: support client, but yeah, he just does school holiday work mostly.
Speaker 2: So you guys are super special people. I love this,
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 4: And yeah, and he receives a comwell super pension for
Speaker 4: his time in defense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, very cool.
Speaker 4: He was medically discharged.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, medically discharged is hard, but also like very deserved.
Speaker 2: I love that. Yeah, I love that. You get that
Speaker 2: all right, So tell me what are your big money goals?
Speaker 2: You said before, like, oh, we live regionally, We've built
Speaker 2: our dream home, but we don't want this anymore. So
Speaker 2: what do your goals look like?
Speaker 4: Well, I discovered mortgage Monster the website. I'm not sure
Speaker 4: if you're you're probably familiar. Yeah, So basically I went
Speaker 4: down the rabbit hole with mortgage Monster, which told me
Speaker 4: that if I made one twenty thousand dollars payment on
Speaker 4: my mortgage, I would reduce it by five years and
Speaker 4: like seventy five thousand dollars in interest.
Speaker 2: So isn't it fun doing all the coalcs and being
Speaker 2: like this is fun?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Literally, and I'm like obsessed. So that at the
Speaker 4: moment is our big financial goal is to save that
Speaker 4: twenty grand on top of our other little things to
Speaker 4: get that mortgage payment down, and then we would like
Speaker 4: to use our equity to buy a bush block. We
Speaker 4: have off road buggies and follall drives and cord bikes
Speaker 4: and things.
Speaker 2: Oh you sound like you're living the dream. I want
Speaker 2: to complay.
Speaker 4: It is so much fun. We have a YouTube channel,
Speaker 4: so that has kind of lit the fire, I guess
Speaker 4: for us to get this bush block. And yeah, have
Speaker 4: our little adventures.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, Adore, And how has YouTube been going?
Speaker 2: Is that something that you are able to monetize yet?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so my husband was doing it prior to us meeting.
Speaker 4: And we've had a lot of products. So we've built
Speaker 4: both of our cars through sponsorship.
Speaker 2: What this is so cool. This is not where I
Speaker 2: thought this conversation would go.
Speaker 4: I left it completely out I realized when I submitted.
Speaker 2: But and you're like, oh, yes, this is also part
Speaker 2: of my money story. Sorry, yeah that so, yeah.
Speaker 4: We've both built our cars and things like that from sponsorship.
Speaker 4: We've not received any actual finances, no money itself, but
Speaker 4: product and trips and that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: That's a very good deal.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's very cool.
Speaker 2: That is a very good deal. I love that for
Speaker 2: you guys, So obviously getting the bush block that long
Speaker 2: term are their goals to retire early or you know,
Speaker 2: be able to not work long term or like what
Speaker 2: does that look like.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so we would love to be sort of retired
Speaker 4: by mid forties. And yeah, when our daughter is old
Speaker 4: enough to attend high school, we would look to move
Speaker 4: further away. When she has a little bit more independence,
Speaker 4: we would look to move to our bush block.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like that's a smart way of going
Speaker 2: about it, because it can be really hard for kids
Speaker 2: when there's like a lot of I guess connection when
Speaker 2: it comes to school and their social networks and stuff
Speaker 2: like that being so far up. But also, I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: it sounds lit like I would like to live there,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure she would love it too, So whatever
Speaker 2: works works.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we're in the process of finding a container home
Speaker 4: to renovate on marketplace to dump on there and spend
Speaker 4: their weekends in the bush.
Speaker 2: So that would be so fun. I am literally going
Speaker 2: to snoop you later and then follow you on YouTube
Speaker 2: because I don't want to miss any of this money.
Speaker 2: Direst Let's go to a really quick break and on
Speaker 2: the flip side, I want to know about like your debt,
Speaker 2: your best and worst money habits, and whether you're investing
Speaker 2: or not. All right, guys, we are back money diarist.
Speaker 2: I feel like you have a rollercoaster of a story,
Speaker 2: but it sounds like you are laser focused at the
Speaker 2: moment on smashing down your debt. Will talking about how
Speaker 2: you'd calculated that a twenty thousand dollar payment on your
Speaker 2: mortgage would cut so much time off it. I want
Speaker 2: to know, apart from your mortgage and smashing that down,
Speaker 2: do you invest, If so, what does that look like.
Speaker 4: I only have my superannuation at the moment, which is
Speaker 4: currently sitting at just over ninety five thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Hey, that's not too bad for thirty one.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I didn't receive super for the three years
Speaker 4: that I was on workover. You don't receive super, so.
Speaker 2: I was about to ask. I was like, hey, pervy question,
Speaker 2: but did you receive superannuation while you're on work cover?
Speaker 2: No is the answer.
Speaker 4: I did not receive superannuation. However, I previously and they've
Speaker 4: closed down now. But I was with the super company
Speaker 4: who had a round up feature similar to our bank,
Speaker 4: and so every day I would pay for my parking
Speaker 4: and another fifty cents would go into my super for
Speaker 4: about five years, so that was a handy little addition.
Speaker 4: And I also put my own voluntary contributions in every
Speaker 4: month as well.
Speaker 2: That's very cool and also very savvy. Is that something
Speaker 2: that you I knew Okay, well I'm not you know,
Speaker 2: earning an income like I was. I'm not getting super paid.
Speaker 2: I need to be supporting this or is this something
Speaker 2: that you were just doing for you know, funsies and
Speaker 2: you knew it was good, but weren't entirely sure, Like
Speaker 2: how did you fall upon making sure that you were
Speaker 2: looking after your super because it's so important.
Speaker 4: This was something I when I got my very first job.
Speaker 4: I started working when I was twelve, and I got
Speaker 4: like the superform and I was like, what is superannuation?
Speaker 4: Because I'm twelve and it was the only thing I
Speaker 4: looked into. I didn't know anything about tax or anything
Speaker 4: like that, and I was like, this is amazing. I
Speaker 4: don't want to work till I'm one hundred. My little
Speaker 4: twelve year old mine was thinking. So yeah, I was
Speaker 4: like I need to save here, and I just kept
Speaker 4: it up.
Speaker 2: I love this because when I got my superformer, I
Speaker 2: was like, oh, just take whatever box, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: I don't even care. What is this? Why is the
Speaker 2: government wore my money? Like I had no idea. So
Speaker 2: I'm glad that you were smarter than me, because honestly,
Speaker 2: you have more superannuation than I do at this point
Speaker 2: in my life. All right, tell me a bit more
Speaker 2: about debt. So you purchased your dream home regionally? What
Speaker 2: did it cost you? What debt are you currently sitting on?
Speaker 4: So my husband is a very smart man. He deployed
Speaker 4: to Afghanistan.
Speaker 2: Yes, he married you, so thank you.
Speaker 4: When he was very young. So he was nineteen when
Speaker 4: he went over, and.
Speaker 2: He was just a baby.
Speaker 4: He was a baby. And as a mother, now I
Speaker 4: said to my mother in law, how did you stand
Speaker 4: in the airport and wave him? I just couldn't anyway,
Speaker 4: What did you say? Because that would have been so painful.
Speaker 4: So we don't have any sort of religious ties in
Speaker 4: our family. But my father in law actually jumped in
Speaker 4: and said, we prayed every day. Oh my god, I know, horrible.
Speaker 2: But he came home. He came home now a dad
Speaker 2: and a husband, and it all worked out.
Speaker 4: Yes, And we're very, very thankful every day. So he
Speaker 4: very smart. Defense had a scheme at the time where
Speaker 4: if you purchased a property, they would pay a contribution
Speaker 4: towards your mortgage, so they would pay half your payment.
Speaker 2: Basically, wow, I mean deserved, Yes, very well deserved.
Speaker 4: Husband was like, will you pay half the payment if
Speaker 4: I make the full payment? And they still.
Speaker 2: Said yes, so he yes, please.
Speaker 4: So he was paying a payment and a half instead
Speaker 4: of yeah, just the full payment. And that's something we've continued,
Speaker 4: not a payment and a half, but rounding our mortgage
Speaker 4: payment up so we have rounded up to the nearest thousand.
Speaker 4: So while we have been hit with rate rises, our
Speaker 4: actual budget hasn't changed because we were just rounding up
Speaker 4: to the nearest thousand anyway. So our current repayment is
Speaker 4: about nineteen hundred a month and we pay two thousand
Speaker 4: and have been doing for however long.
Speaker 2: I love that. That's so smart and like over the
Speaker 2: long term it will pay off.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, definitely, and yeah, just to cover us from
Speaker 4: any kind of increases.
Speaker 2: I guess.
Speaker 4: So we sold his property that he owned for six
Speaker 4: hundred and seventy seven thousand, which he purchased it for
Speaker 4: three hundred and seventy okay, yeah, so he had two
Speaker 4: hundred and sixty thousand left on it on the mortgage
Speaker 4: when we sold it for six seventy seven.
Speaker 2: Okay, what a king.
Speaker 4: We had about three hundred thousand dollars in profit by
Speaker 4: the end, I think, which gave us a really hefty deposit.
Speaker 4: We had a land and a house mortgage because we
Speaker 4: built our home. So we bought our land for about
Speaker 4: two hundred and thirty four thousand, and we spent four
Speaker 4: hundred and fourteen thousand on our build.
Speaker 2: That is so good. So what debt do you currently like,
Speaker 2: what is your mortgage setting at today?
Speaker 4: So our current mortgage sits at three hundred and seven
Speaker 4: nine hundred and thirty five dollars and eight.
Speaker 2: That is very cool. And do you know what your
Speaker 2: property is worth?
Speaker 4: So we had it valued a couple of weeks ago
Speaker 4: for nine hundred and seventy five thousand. However, our neighbour's
Speaker 4: house just sold for over a million, the difference being
Speaker 4: they have a pool, but we have more land and
Speaker 4: a big shed and other features and things.
Speaker 2: Oh, we don't need a poll. Whoever buys your property,
Speaker 2: they can put a pool on it if they want.
Speaker 4: Right, So yeah, I think we'd sit roughly even with them,
Speaker 4: just based on the market and what they got.
Speaker 2: At about a meal. How nice. I love that for you.
Speaker 2: You guys are sitting very comfortably to be able to
Speaker 2: achieve everything that you want to achieve. I need to know, though,
Speaker 2: I feel like you've had to be savvy over your
Speaker 2: lifetime when it comes to money. What is your best
Speaker 2: money habit?
Speaker 4: My best money habit, I would say I've only developed
Speaker 4: in the last twelve months, and that's knowing where our
Speaker 4: money goes. I said when I wrote in that we
Speaker 4: spent ten thousand dollars on coffee, and I nearly hit
Speaker 4: the floor.
Speaker 2: How did you do that? By the way, because that's
Speaker 2: like twenty seven dollars fifty a day.
Speaker 4: That's a lot.
Speaker 2: So like, that's not just like coffee a day, bab.
Speaker 4: So it was like coffee and treats and a snack.
Speaker 2: And like a little treaty treat.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Look, I'm not mad. I am just interested in people
Speaker 2: having complete visibility over their cash flow. And if you
Speaker 2: turn around and said, Vibe, that's what I want to
Speaker 2: spend my money on, pop off queen, Like I want
Speaker 2: that for you but you looked into it and said,
Speaker 2: absolutely not. What is this.
Speaker 4: We're not doing this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're not doing this anymore.
Speaker 4: Being able to go to the supermarket or get fuel,
Speaker 4: do something now and not require retreat has been a
Speaker 4: real game changer for me, to do adult things without
Speaker 4: treating myself.
Speaker 2: What. No, I'm not past that.
Speaker 4: I still get on the day the one day that
Speaker 4: I actually go into work that I don't work from home,
Speaker 4: I do get myself a coffee on the days that
Speaker 4: I go to work. It's my little Yeah.
Speaker 2: There has to be some level of balance. You can't
Speaker 2: just go cold turkey, especially on coffee.
Speaker 4: Well, we did buy a coffee machine, which I didn't
Speaker 4: learn to use for about eighteen months. Was just a
Speaker 4: very expensive kettle.
Speaker 2: But I've said lunch and now now we use I
Speaker 2: love that though. I feel like you're doing all of
Speaker 2: the right things. I feel like you're moving in the
Speaker 2: right direction now. Not spending twenty seven bucks a day
Speaker 2: on coffee and where is that reallocated too?
Speaker 4: Yeah, So we now have like a set budget that
Speaker 4: we you know, each week we aim to spend this
Speaker 4: much on groceries. And you know, for a long time
Speaker 4: my head was in the sand about the cost of living.
Speaker 4: So I'm like, why can't we buy groceries for our
Speaker 4: hundred bucks a week? Well, because that's not the time
Speaker 4: we live in.
Speaker 2: It's a hard realization to come to, isn't it, like,
Speaker 2: Cause you're like, no, no, no, I'll do it for
Speaker 2: one hundred though, and then it just it never comes
Speaker 2: out in the wash.
Speaker 4: No, And my husband never had a budget prior to
Speaker 4: us meeting. He's like, why do I need a budget?
Speaker 4: I have plenty of money.
Speaker 2: It must be nicer. But that's not the world we
Speaker 2: live in now.
Speaker 4: Well, I think trying to manage the two incomes at
Speaker 4: the time as well, like we could you know. So yeah,
Speaker 4: so now having a budget, knowing where our money goes.
Speaker 4: And we're really really good at paying off debt. So
Speaker 4: we paid privately to birth our daughter and we paid
Speaker 4: that on a credit card, and we took out a
Speaker 4: twenty five thousand dollar credit card just in case there
Speaker 4: were any complications and things like that, and yeah, it
Speaker 4: cost us just over nine and a half and we
Speaker 4: just smashed that and got rid of it. So we're
Speaker 4: really good at, yeah, smashing down debt when it appears.
Speaker 2: That's very cool. Can you tell me a bit more
Speaker 2: about that, because birth there's so much more expensive than
Speaker 2: I had anticipated it to be, right, And that might
Speaker 2: be a little bit delulu from me, I suppose, because
Speaker 2: I had, like, you know, my private health insurance, and
Speaker 2: then I went and got my obstetrician. But like, I
Speaker 2: ended up paying her ten thousand dollars out of pocket.
Speaker 2: That wasn't by Medicare, And I am grateful that I
Speaker 2: could have thought that, but I was really shocked that
Speaker 2: that portion of you know, the birth cost was not covered.
Speaker 2: I was like, sorry, what, Like, I already have private
Speaker 2: health insurance. So when you say you paid to birth
Speaker 2: your child privately, do you mean that you didn't have
Speaker 2: private health insurance and you paid as just like a
Speaker 2: paying client to pay to birth in a private hospital
Speaker 2: or were you talking about additional costs that also exist?
Speaker 4: So we had no private health insurance? We did, And
Speaker 4: then I was well, I had private health insurance. My
Speaker 4: husband's covered under DBA, so he doesn't, but we when
Speaker 4: I had pregnancy and birth cover and I rung my insurer.
Speaker 4: Turns out the pregnancy and birth didn't cover the actual birthing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, isn't it insane?
Speaker 4: And that was me and my young naivety just assuming
Speaker 4: that pregnant. I didn't read it. I'm not pregnant. I
Speaker 4: don't want a family. You know, Pregnancy and birth is
Speaker 4: pregnancy and birth, you know, but it's not so you know,
Speaker 4: it covered other things, but not that. And so we
Speaker 4: decided to save the money that we were spending on
Speaker 4: private health insurance and put towards the cost of birthing.
Speaker 4: We had had a loss prior to having our daughter,
Speaker 4: and so I'm sorry, yeah, I know you can. You
Speaker 4: can relate to that.
Speaker 2: It's real shit, like it's the shittiest club in the
Speaker 2: entire world.
Speaker 4: And we found out falling pregnant with my daughter that
Speaker 4: there was a very simple reason that we had lost
Speaker 4: our previous pregnancy that could have been very much avoided
Speaker 4: had no blood has been done, and so yeah, that
Speaker 4: was really difficult for me. And I just said, we're
Speaker 4: paying like I'm not having an oversight happened again, you know,
Speaker 4: and that I'm sure there are great public health care workers,
Speaker 4: you know, where those things don't.
Speaker 2: Happen, but one hundred percent, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was our experience, and I wasn't prepared to
Speaker 4: do that again.
Speaker 2: But if you're in the financial position to make that decision,
Speaker 2: and that's what makes you comfortable. It's kind of like
Speaker 2: going shoe shopping, right, you could go to kmart and
Speaker 2: you could be really happy with that, or you could
Speaker 2: go and buy a really fancy pair of shoes, Like
Speaker 2: same outcome. You're wearing shoes full stop, end of story.
Speaker 2: But like, it's what makes you comfortable, and no one
Speaker 2: can tell you how to feel. No one gets the
Speaker 2: power to go well, actually, moneyed diarist, you should have
Speaker 2: just done it this way. No, no, no, I picked
Speaker 2: what I felt comfortable with and was within my financial realm.
Speaker 2: It doesn't mean that you think that your situation is
Speaker 2: what everybody else should do, like it's It actually drives
Speaker 2: me insane when people are like, so you think that
Speaker 2: everyone should go private, and I'm like, no, I think
Speaker 2: you should just make a decision that works for you
Speaker 2: one p.
Speaker 4: One hundred percent. And I have endometriosis and a few
Speaker 4: other things going on, so I was like, I'm not,
Speaker 4: you know, I.
Speaker 2: Feel comfy here, let me stay that's right.
Speaker 4: I'm like, I want to be able to go to
Speaker 4: the doctor and they know my years of history and surgery,
Speaker 4: and you know we can just get it all sort of. So, yeah,
Speaker 4: we took out our credit card on the off chance
Speaker 4: that our baby ended up, you know, needing special care
Speaker 4: or anything like that, we would be able to cover it. Luckily,
Speaker 4: we didn't need anything like that. We were very lucky.
Speaker 4: So yeah, she ended up coming via emergency section and
Speaker 4: we stayed for three days and that cost us just
Speaker 4: under nine and a half thousand dollars, and then we
Speaker 4: paid our obstetrition about one hundred dollars a visit, getting
Speaker 4: half of that back from Medicare.
Speaker 2: Yeah cool, Yeah, how good. I love that that was
Speaker 2: good for you. I mean, emergency SEA section sucks. As
Speaker 2: somebody who also had an emergency C section, I don't
Speaker 2: rate it. But like, we're both happy, we're both healthy,
Speaker 2: we're both here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely. And you know, my daughter still doesn't play
Speaker 4: the game when we've got somewhere to be, so she
Speaker 4: wasn't playing the game than either.
Speaker 2: So yeah, look, neither does Harvey. Don't worry. Do not worry,
Speaker 2: money director. On the flip side, what's your worst money habit?
Speaker 4: My worst money habit is and it might be a
Speaker 4: bit of a funny one, I guess I don't like
Speaker 4: to spend money, so like, if I need something, I'll
Speaker 4: buy the cheaper option, probably having to replace it in
Speaker 4: a month and buy it again. And I'm starting to
Speaker 4: do that slow down and make more purchases that are
Speaker 4: more sort of quality and might be that higher price point.
Speaker 2: Do you think your money story plays into that? Like,
Speaker 2: why do you think that that's a decision that you're
Speaker 2: always like, mmm, I'll just get the cheap one. Where
Speaker 2: does that come from? Yeah?
Speaker 4: I think definitely. There was a time before I met
Speaker 4: my husband where I slept a little bit rough and
Speaker 4: had to I lived in a friend's investment property that
Speaker 4: had nothing in it, and you know, I had to
Speaker 4: just get the cheap of the cheap kind of stuff
Speaker 4: because that's all I could have fought at the time.
Speaker 4: And I think I've just carried that with me. I
Speaker 4: carry a very sort of scarcity mindset around money and
Speaker 4: I'm trying to really flip that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I feel like that's so powerful, But at
Speaker 2: the same time, you need to understand where you've come
Speaker 2: from or where that might be coming from to go, actually,
Speaker 2: we're not there anymore, Like we're allowed to move past this,
Speaker 2: But how do I do that that's a different story. Yes, definitely,
Speaker 2: and that can be really challenging. But I'm so proud
Speaker 2: of you. Look at you go like you have absolutely
Speaker 2: killed it. You've got a beautiful daughter, You're focusing on
Speaker 2: your finances. I mean, you're not spending twenty seven dollars
Speaker 2: fifty a day on coffee, which is a massive sleigh.
Speaker 2: You're saving. I'm so excited that you mentioned mortgage Monster
Speaker 2: because it's so fun working out what your I guess
Speaker 2: repayments could be, or like what additional contributions look like,
Speaker 2: and how you can get out of debt sooner. Like
Speaker 2: it's just so motivating, Like that is very exciting. But
Speaker 2: I just I love all of this. And I also
Speaker 2: love our conversation about daycare because I think there's so
Speaker 2: much shade being thrown around about like, oh, I don't
Speaker 2: have to have somebody else raise my children. It's like
Speaker 2: get in the bin, literally, get in the bin. Like
Speaker 2: my kid loves daycare. I love daycare. Daycare is our
Speaker 2: village and everybody who's thriving. Thank you for asking.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2: Money di is. Now we've talked and you've told me
Speaker 2: how much of a hustle you are like, you grew
Speaker 2: up with a single mum in a not so great situation.
Speaker 2: You learned a lot. I feel like you've been through
Speaker 2: the trenches and now you're out the other side and
Speaker 2: you are absolutely pulling your socks up and getting your
Speaker 2: money story together. You've got ninety five grand in super
Speaker 2: be for real, Like, that's so much money. I would
Speaker 2: not have expected that, especially when you said, look, I
Speaker 2: went through a work cover incident, was off for three years,
Speaker 2: obviously limited my career options and how that's going to grow.
Speaker 2: But you've got it nearly one hundred thousand dollars in superannuation,
Speaker 2: Like it sounds like you're killing it. But you also
Speaker 2: said that we receive what would it take to get
Speaker 2: to an a.
Speaker 4: To be confident investing in more than just my super
Speaker 4: I'm very much and this comes from that scarcity mindset,
Speaker 4: like a bricks and mortar kind of person. I would
Speaker 4: buy an investment property before I would buy a share.
Speaker 4: But in saying that the bank of Pop who always
Speaker 4: had the credit card ready came from shares, So.
Speaker 2: I love that, You're like, maybe there is something to that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely, But yeah, I think just investing and trying
Speaker 4: to find. I guess consistent income for me would get
Speaker 4: me more to that A. I think work covers a
Speaker 4: tricky beast to be involved in and there's a lot
Speaker 4: of additional costs and things that they don't kind of
Speaker 4: share with you. So that's impacted us a fair bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's really stressful, well, money direst Unfortunately, that is
Speaker 2: all we have time for today. It has been a pleasure.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for sharing some of your story
Speaker 2: with us. I love where you're going, and I hope
Speaker 2: that in a couple of years you're like, hey, b
Speaker 2: can we do an updated money diary because everything has changed.
Speaker 2: I just feel like that will be so cool.
Speaker 4: Yes, we'll have to do it in person on the Bushblock.
Speaker 2: Yes, please please, I want to explore so thank you
Speaker 2: so much for joining us. I know that the community
Speaker 2: has adored this just as much as I have, and
Speaker 2: I hope that we get to cross paths in person
Speaker 2: at some point.
Speaker 4: Perfect. Thank you so much.
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Speaker 2: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
Speaker 2: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
Speaker 2: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
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Speaker 3: I bet the petty per