Speaker 1: She's on the Money.
Speaker 2: She's on the Money.
Speaker 3: Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
Speaker 3: mililes who want Financial Freedom. You're joining us for another
Speaker 3: one of our shop Back Money Diary mondays, where we
Speaker 3: get to chat to one of our beautiful community members,
Speaker 3: learn about them, learn about their story, and ask all
Speaker 3: of the juicy questions that you guys at home absolutely
Speaker 3: want to know about Victoria, I've got a really good
Speaker 3: one for you this week.
Speaker 4: Are you ready? I am so ready?
Speaker 3: What have you got so our diret said, I am
Speaker 3: approaching thirty and starting out. I have what might be
Speaker 3: considered an average money story, but I am working on it.
Speaker 3: I've experienced severe soul crushing consumer debt after making horrible
Speaker 3: financial decisions in my early twenties that left me with
Speaker 3: a terrible credit rating. But I am on the up
Speaker 3: and up, improving my financial position one step at a time.
Speaker 3: Although my story might not be super inspiring, I think
Speaker 3: it's relatable to the Shoes on the Money community to
Speaker 3: show people there is a light at the end of
Speaker 3: the tunnel once you accept that you deserve the light.
Speaker 3: And my heart, can I just tell you I'm so
Speaker 3: excited for this chat.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, me too, money diarist, you are hanging
Speaker 4: out in the wings. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Hello everyone.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, I am so excited to have you here.
Speaker 4: And I guess the first thing off the vat there's
Speaker 4: no such thing as an average money story. Like, come on,
Speaker 4: my friend, you've been in the ses on the money
Speaker 4: community long enough to know that, no, there's no such
Speaker 4: thing as average. Story is so special. Yeah, absolutely, but
Speaker 4: let's get straight into it. Can you tell us a
Speaker 4: little bit about your money story? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Sure. So I grew up in a relatively middle class,
Speaker 1: sort of working family, and I was quite privileged to
Speaker 1: be able to travel really extensively when I was younger.
Speaker 1: I was never really left out with anything that I
Speaker 1: really wanted, and I think that kind of set me
Speaker 1: up for the misconception that money's easy. Money is you know,
Speaker 1: essentially it did grow on trees because I didn't see
Speaker 1: how hard my parents worked in the background to give
Speaker 1: me the things I wanted. Yeah, which sort of led
Speaker 1: me into this false sense of you know, oh, everything
Speaker 1: will be fine. I can have whatever I wanted when
Speaker 1: I started working. So I started working when I was
Speaker 1: fourteen through high school, just part time jobs just to
Speaker 1: sort of have a bit of extra pocket money on
Speaker 1: the side. But once I started a full time role
Speaker 1: when I was nineteen, that led me into living way
Speaker 1: beyond my means and you know, thinking that that was
Speaker 1: an acceptable way of living and really really really did
Speaker 1: not think a future self at all.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I feel like that's so relatable though. I
Speaker 4: feel like so many of us work when we're really young,
Speaker 4: and we kind of just don't comprehend money because money diarist,
Speaker 4: what were you doing with your money when you were
Speaker 4: working at fourteen? I feel like what we don't comprehend
Speaker 4: once we get to eighteen or we move out is
Speaker 4: that that money now has to pay for living expenses
Speaker 4: as opposed to disposables. So I'm interested to know what
Speaker 4: you were doing with your money. Well, the roof of
Speaker 4: your head was paid for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, Bolkovt just went to hanging out with friends, shopping.
Speaker 1: I had, you know, just going to things like parties
Speaker 1: and going out to dinners on a Friday night after
Speaker 1: school and you know, gifts for friends, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: I really didn't have to pay for, you know, things
Speaker 1: simple things such as regro when I was you know,
Speaker 1: the seventeen eighteen year old mark. That was something that
Speaker 1: was always gifted to me, and I didn't have to
Speaker 1: really anticipate that the money that I was earning had
Speaker 1: to go anywhere else other than fun, which then led
Speaker 1: me into a world of hat.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you just think it'll keep going, right, You're like,
Speaker 4: that's fine, Like I don't have to change my lifestyle.
Speaker 4: But I'm going to move out. I'm going to get
Speaker 4: my own apartment. It's going to be so fun, right,
Speaker 4: And where's all my money?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Exactly?
Speaker 4: So, oh my gosh, I feel like I did that
Speaker 4: a fair bit, and that's how I ended up in
Speaker 4: a little bit of a pickle when it came to
Speaker 4: personal debt when I was younger. But moving on money, darist,
Speaker 4: what do you do for work? How much money do
Speaker 4: you earn?
Speaker 1: So I'm a contract coordinator for a large defense subcontractor,
Speaker 1: so I work in the defense industry without actually being
Speaker 1: part of the ADF. So quite interesting. Actually, I started
Speaker 1: off as the receptionist for this company on quite a
Speaker 1: lower salary and just have taken the opportunities that as
Speaker 1: they've come and moved on to a personal assistant execute
Speaker 1: of assistant and now a contract coordinator, So I'm quite
Speaker 1: proud of that. I've finished high school, but I don't
Speaker 1: have any further education after that, so I'm quite proud
Speaker 1: of where I'm at and where I started.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, she hustled her way to the top.
Speaker 4: I love that. And now, how much money do you earn?
Speaker 1: So I'm on eighty three thousand plus super.
Speaker 4: Oof plus super or. We love that. We love that.
Speaker 4: That is so good.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, very proud of where I've started to where
Speaker 1: I was at because when I started this company five
Speaker 1: years ago, I was on about the fifty thousand, So yeah,
Speaker 1: I've just been trying to work my way up the ladder.
Speaker 4: I love that. And you definitely have worked your way
Speaker 4: up the ladder by the looks of it, Like that's
Speaker 4: so pretty good climbing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Is there a lot of career opportunity to keep progressing
Speaker 4: that in the same company, like if you stay even longer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. So it's a huge company and we operate
Speaker 1: all over the world as well, so there's lots of
Speaker 1: interconnecting roles and opportunities as well as the defense sector
Speaker 1: just obviously just will keep going and growing. So even
Speaker 1: if I step out of the company I'm in now.
Speaker 1: There is so many different levels within government as well
Speaker 1: as the private sector. So very fortunate to have landed
Speaker 1: myself randomly in this field. Was it something that I
Speaker 1: had wets drove out to really achieve? I was in
Speaker 1: legal services beforehand, so yeah, very excited.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, that is so cool. And to be
Speaker 4: a little bit pervy because you did tell me a
Speaker 4: little tip bit about your life before we are started
Speaker 4: recording money darist. You're currently on maternity leave. Is that correct?
Speaker 4: I am yes. Can you tell me a little bit
Speaker 4: about how that plays into I guess your role and
Speaker 4: your pay, Like how much paid leave do you get?
Speaker 4: How did you apply for it? How did you tell
Speaker 4: your work that you were going to be taking a
Speaker 4: period of time off to have a beautiful little baby.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so obviously very fortunate to live in Australia with
Speaker 1: such a well, I think a good maternia leave system
Speaker 1: provided from the government. So I think after tax I'll
Speaker 1: be getting about eleven and a half grand, which is
Speaker 1: the eighteen weeks full pay at at the minimum wage,
Speaker 1: and then on top of that, my supplier provides twelve
Speaker 1: weeks of full pay. However, They've got a bit of
Speaker 1: a weird system where you get half of that upfront
Speaker 1: and then half of that when you return to work,
Speaker 1: which for me will be in September this year.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, So twelve weeks of full play plus
Speaker 4: the government time off, which means you're taking what like
Speaker 4: is a about twenty four weeks off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so twenty four weeks of pay and then the
Speaker 1: rest is unpaid, which obviously that's a bit of a
Speaker 1: juggle between what I've received from the government and my
Speaker 1: work and then my husband's salary as well. So yeah,
Speaker 1: the next ten I'm a super budget now, which I
Speaker 1: wasn't in the past, so I've really like stepped out
Speaker 1: what we can afford each month. So yeah, lucky to
Speaker 1: have the whole year off, which was nice.
Speaker 4: Oh how good. I've got so many questions about that,
Speaker 4: But we will leave back to the second part of
Speaker 4: the show money diarist. What is your big money goal
Speaker 4: at the moment?
Speaker 1: Would be to buy a larger property. So in our
Speaker 1: first home at the moment, but it's a two bedroom,
Speaker 1: one bathroom little house, so just to buy the next house,
Speaker 1: and for us in the position we're in, we're going
Speaker 1: to have to sell this one to afford the next,
Speaker 1: especially in the current market. So that's the that's the
Speaker 1: biggest goal. And second it's just building wealth in other areas,
Speaker 1: so shares, Super and just general savings as well is
Speaker 1: another huge one.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, so many goals. Yes, ah, so exciting.
Speaker 4: Next question is do you currently have any investments?
Speaker 1: I do, yes, so Super. I have about one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty thousand in Super.
Speaker 4: Sorry what and you're not even thirty yet. Yes, one
Speaker 4: hundred and twenty thousand dollars in Super. Yeah, sorry that track?
Speaker 4: How did that happen?
Speaker 1: So? I am so guilty of completely ignoring Super. I
Speaker 1: had about six or seven different funds across, you know,
Speaker 1: from working since I was fourteen and swopping jobs. And
Speaker 1: about a year ago we went and saw a financial advisor.
Speaker 4: I've hurt. They're good people, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he just moved everything into one fund and
Speaker 1: just that fund. I guess it's been performing quite well.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I was very shocked about six months ago
Speaker 1: when I logged in to find that I had one
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty thousand there, from completely ignoring it to
Speaker 1: having such a balance, I was, yeah, very very surprised
Speaker 1: and yeah, have.
Speaker 4: You ever contributed additional to super? No, No, you've just
Speaker 4: amassed it since you were fourteen, and it's been growing
Speaker 4: and growing. Because the average amount of money in superannuation
Speaker 4: for a woman between the age of twenty five to
Speaker 4: thirty four is actually thirty one six hundred dollars. So like,
Speaker 4: you are blowing that out of the water, my friend.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you knew that, but when you
Speaker 4: said that number, I was like, hold up, you're not
Speaker 4: even thirty yet. The average is literally like thirty one grando.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I know that government is really notorious for
Speaker 3: paying a high level of super. What percentage is your super?
Speaker 1: So it's just a standard at the moment because we're
Speaker 1: not technically part of the AAF. However, I did work
Speaker 1: for two years at the ATO, so yeah, but that again,
Speaker 1: I was earning a very low salary there. It was
Speaker 1: like an introductory to work sort of program straight out
Speaker 1: of high school almost, so I think I was on
Speaker 1: about thirty six thousand dollars a year in that progress.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you wouldn't have got you wouldn't have got bucket
Speaker 4: loads a SUPER for that salary. And my friend, no,
Speaker 4: the other question I have is actually look just being
Speaker 4: really pervy, because I think a lot of people are
Speaker 4: going to listen and go, what that's so much super
Speaker 4: without trying, which is the biggest money whin I've heard
Speaker 4: to date. But the question I think is more around hours,
Speaker 4: because a lot of us do start working when we
Speaker 4: turn fourteen years and nine months old, and we go
Speaker 4: down in my case, to the local ice cream shop
Speaker 4: and get a job. And so when we work, they
Speaker 4: aren't legally obligated to pay us super innuation until we
Speaker 4: hit a certain amount of hours or a certain amount
Speaker 4: of income in a certain amount of time frame. So
Speaker 4: money Diarist, were you working a lot of hours when
Speaker 4: you were younger?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was probably working about twenty hours a week,
Speaker 1: I would say so from the age of fourteen. So
Speaker 1: I two went down to Muff and Break and started
Speaker 1: out there and then moved on to.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, one of my best friends worked at
Speaker 4: Muff and Break. It was the best. We were in
Speaker 4: grade ten and she used to bring muff and Break
Speaker 4: for like morning tea the next day pretty much daily.
Speaker 4: It was the best thing ever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was great. And then I moved on to
Speaker 1: Barnacle Bills, which is the Seafood Shot down in South
Speaker 1: Australia and also Woolworths were my three that I moved
Speaker 1: around in during high school. And yeah, probably about twenty
Speaker 1: hours a week throughout that whole period, which.
Speaker 4: You definitely would have been getting paid superrom whereas I
Speaker 4: was only working like maybe a couple of hours after school. Like,
Speaker 4: I definitely didn't accrue twenty hours a week. But the
Speaker 4: other thing that is playing to your benefit is you
Speaker 4: didn't go to UNI. You just went straight into the workforce,
Speaker 4: which means you've been accruing a full time salary worth
Speaker 4: of super even though you're saying it was a lower salary,
Speaker 4: but you've just been consistent, and consistency pays off over time.
Speaker 4: And I just think that that's so often underplayed that
Speaker 4: you go, oh my gosh, I'm going to be so
Speaker 4: far behind because I didn't go to UNI. But you
Speaker 4: have all these years on other people of superannuation accumulation.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, I don't know if you want me to
Speaker 1: talk about this now.
Speaker 4: And talk about whatever you want. You're the boss of
Speaker 4: this show.
Speaker 1: I did go to UNI for a few semesters, which
Speaker 1: has left me with a heck stet, which is part
Speaker 1: of my debt that I wanted to talk about because
Speaker 1: I have seventeen thousand dollars of HEX set with no degree.
Speaker 4: So well, let's get into that because that's actually the
Speaker 4: next question, my friend, So money dis talk to us
Speaker 4: about your debts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So currently I have a two hundred and forty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars mortgage which we've had for ten years, so
Speaker 1: just sort of working that down. I also have a
Speaker 1: sixteen thousand dollar car loan. So I've always been the
Speaker 1: type of person to just have a five hundred dollar
Speaker 1: car that's just sort of gotten me through and you know,
Speaker 1: no pow of steering, no power windows, that sort of scenario.
Speaker 1: So last year I bought my first big girl car
Speaker 1: and I was fortunate enough to have ten thousand dollars
Speaker 1: that I put down as a lump sump payment and
Speaker 1: then just sixteen thousand for the remainder. So I'm quite
Speaker 1: happy with that, and that's that because it's given me
Speaker 1: probably a safer mode of transport than before. And then
Speaker 1: I have seventeen thousand dollars in hects as well.
Speaker 4: And you were saying before that that hex is for
Speaker 4: a degree that you didn't end up finishing, So talk
Speaker 4: to me about I guess how you made the decision
Speaker 4: to maybe not keep studying, but also how does that
Speaker 4: hex step now make you feel.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, to be honest, a lot of people say,
Speaker 1: you know, hextex is fine, you don't ever worry about
Speaker 1: it coming out because it's all taken out before you
Speaker 1: receive your net income, so you won't even notice it.
Speaker 1: And I found it to be the exact opposite, to
Speaker 1: be honest, I started out when I left school, or
Speaker 1: when I finished school. My mum was begin to you
Speaker 1: go to UNI or you get a job. It was,
Speaker 1: you know, nothing really in between. So I started a
Speaker 1: nursing degree. I did two semesters of that and really
Speaker 1: really really was not for me. So then a couple
Speaker 1: of years later, once I'd had a couple of years
Speaker 1: in the working force, I thought that I needed higher
Speaker 1: education to get me anywhere in the corporate sort of world.
Speaker 1: So because of that, I started a business degree online.
Speaker 1: And this is during the period where I wasn't that
Speaker 1: great with my finances, so kind of just buried my
Speaker 1: head in the sand, miscut off dates for subjects I
Speaker 1: didn't even start, So that added onto my hex Yeah.
Speaker 1: So now I have, Yeah, the seventeen thousand dollars hex
Speaker 1: step for something that I didn't even invest myself in,
Speaker 1: nor did I really care about. And now I'm definitely
Speaker 1: seeing the negative of that.
Speaker 4: So you're seeing it come out. But I'm going to
Speaker 4: make some assumptions that you learnt a fair bit even
Speaker 4: if it wasn't for your future career during UNI. Would
Speaker 4: that be a correct assumption? And I mean a lot
Speaker 4: of people say, like, oh my god, I can't believe
Speaker 4: I'm paying for a degree I'm not even using, which
Speaker 4: in your case, you said you did nursing. You're not
Speaker 4: even working in a space close to nursing. So I
Speaker 4: can see how that would feel like a bit of
Speaker 4: a waste. But I feel like we get a lot
Speaker 4: of life experience and learn a lot about ourselves during
Speaker 4: that period. So as much as you're paying for it now,
Speaker 4: is it as big a waste, I don't know. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Look, during the nursing time, it wasn't you know. I
Speaker 1: got to live a bit of the UNI life, which
Speaker 1: was obviously really fun and met a lot of really
Speaker 1: nice people through it. But during the business side of it,
Speaker 1: I was working full time. I kind of signed up
Speaker 1: thinking you know, I was going to give myself all
Speaker 1: these incredible opportunities to earn more money down the track,
Speaker 1: but it was it was a case of me signing up.
Speaker 1: I did a few subjects. I failed my accounting subjects,
Speaker 1: so that will give you a bit of an insight
Speaker 1: as to where my money was at at that time
Speaker 1: and just my mindset around it all. So you know,
Speaker 1: the business side of HEADS was just a complete mistake.
Speaker 4: And yeah, yeah, I feel like I totally get the regret.
Speaker 4: I don't want you to feel bad about it. I
Speaker 4: feel like you've learned a lot from it and it's
Speaker 4: helped you become who you are today. But I also
Speaker 4: look at it and I go look at how much
Speaker 4: pressure you were putting on yourself, and how much pressure
Speaker 4: other people in our community are putting on themselves to
Speaker 4: go to UNI for degrees that they might not even
Speaker 4: want to work in spaces that they don't even fully
Speaker 4: comprehend the career opportunities. And like, obviously, if you go
Speaker 4: do nursing, there's a really brilliant career of nursing ahead
Speaker 4: of that. So please don't get me wrong. It's not
Speaker 4: saying it's a waste by any stretch of the imagination.
Speaker 4: But for you in particular, like you have a really
Speaker 4: great salary. You haven't had to go to UNI for that.
Speaker 4: Like I know Jess, you're the same. You haven't gone
Speaker 4: to university for the career that you are doing at
Speaker 4: the moment, and both of you are I would say,
Speaker 4: wildly successful. So I think if you're in that position
Speaker 4: and you're like I really hate UNI and I really
Speaker 4: don't like it, like, don't follow something you don't love,
Speaker 4: because it's not going to give you, I guess the
Speaker 4: outcome that you think it might, Like, it's not just
Speaker 4: going to miraculously turn into a high paying job. Because
Speaker 4: the one thing that I do see that you two
Speaker 4: probably have in common, my friends, is that you have
Speaker 4: really great work ethics, and you work hard, and you
Speaker 4: have direction and you put your head down a money
Speaker 4: arris that has been obvious from the fact that you
Speaker 4: have progressed so quickly in your career to different roles
Speaker 4: and kind of like climbed that ladder on your own.
Speaker 4: You don't need to a degree, you don't have your
Speaker 4: own ladder.
Speaker 1: Right, And I'm very big on that as well. So
Speaker 1: you know, when I talk to my younger cousins who
Speaker 1: are just about to finish high school. I hate asking
Speaker 1: the term of what are you going to do next year?
Speaker 1: Because I just think that if that takes two pressure Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think if that takes two to three years
Speaker 1: to figure out what you want to do, I think
Speaker 1: that's better than just jumping straight into a career. I
Speaker 1: know people that have gone and done, you know, a
Speaker 1: six year engineering degree and wound up as police officer.
Speaker 1: So you know, I just think the pressure to know
Speaker 1: what you want to do straight out of high school
Speaker 1: is just immense, and I think it can probably lead
Speaker 1: people down the wrong path for maybe not such a
Speaker 1: happy career. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I couldn't agree more. And I mean I've got that
Speaker 4: from understanding that she's on the money community and talking
Speaker 4: to so many people. But even looking back on my
Speaker 4: own career when I was eighteen, how did I know
Speaker 4: that I wanted to do what I wanted to do?
Speaker 4: Like I had no idea, Like I was drinking vodka
Speaker 4: cruz is Like if that's that's like a summary of
Speaker 4: the life choices I was making at the time. How
Speaker 4: was she little vodka Cruzer Victoria? How was she picking
Speaker 4: future Victoria's career? Because even if she'd tried to predict
Speaker 4: what I was doing today, it wouldn't have come to fruition.
Speaker 4: I feel like year eleven and twelve is also a
Speaker 4: massive amount of pressure as well, that people like, if
Speaker 4: you don't perform well and you're eleven and twelve, like
Speaker 4: you won't get into UNI and then basically you'll die.
Speaker 4: And that's just not the case at all. Like so
Speaker 4: many people on the show as well have been like, oh,
Speaker 4: I was a mature age student, got a really really
Speaker 4: terrible ATAR, but like, you know, just entered later and
Speaker 4: got my dream career once I found that focus. Like,
Speaker 4: I think we need to give ourselves a little bit
Speaker 4: more space. But moving on, because I feel like we
Speaker 4: could all talk about this forever. Money Diarist to one
Speaker 4: of our favorite questions, do you use shop Back?
Speaker 1: Look? I do have the app downloaded and I have
Speaker 1: an account going, but I'm not an active user, which
Speaker 1: I should be because I online shopped like an absolute fiend.
Speaker 1: So I need to be bad. It needs to be
Speaker 1: better in that space.
Speaker 4: I feel like I was really bad at using shop
Speaker 4: back until I installed it on my Chrome browser, and
Speaker 4: now it just automatically pops up. It's like, oh, you
Speaker 4: look like you're buying something. Turn on shop back and
Speaker 4: you're like, yes, yes, turn it on, turn it on.
Speaker 4: So I feel like until that point, I didn't really
Speaker 4: shop through the app, but I definitely shop on my desktop.
Speaker 4: And I probably shouldn't go on about that because if
Speaker 4: you look at Jess, you'll probably be like, well, I
Speaker 4: know you do. You probably should be doing your work.
Speaker 4: Victoria money Darist. Next question, what do you think is
Speaker 4: your best money habit?
Speaker 1: My absolute best money habit, which I'm very proud of
Speaker 1: now because old me would have again buried my hand
Speaker 1: in the sand. Is my budgeting skills. So I budget,
Speaker 1: you know, every single month, and I don't know exactly where
Speaker 1: every single one of my dollars is now going. Old
Speaker 1: me literally just use my card intil it was declined
Speaker 1: and I had no idea what was coming in and out.
Speaker 1: But now I'm totally across it. Got a beautiful spreadsheet
Speaker 1: that I'm extremely proud of running, and yeah, that's probably
Speaker 1: my best money habit.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, I love spreadsheets. I would love to
Speaker 4: see yours. Where did you start, like when it comes
Speaker 4: to budgeting and spreadsheets, you said before you had your
Speaker 4: head in the sand, were in personal debt, Like, how
Speaker 4: do we change our mindset to being a spreadsheet queen?
Speaker 4: How do we do it? Like where did you start?
Speaker 4: Because it feels so overwhelming for so many people. Yeah?
Speaker 1: Absolutely, so I just did the old print out the statement,
Speaker 1: found out what was going in, what was going out,
Speaker 1: What was a monthly sort of trend of mine? So
Speaker 1: online shopping gifts as well, so I like, I like
Speaker 1: giving gifts, so really budgeting now I have one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty dollars a month for any upcoming birthdays or
Speaker 1: baby shower gifts, things like that. But it was a
Speaker 1: case of opening my account and really just going through
Speaker 1: old school about what was in and out and just
Speaker 1: the monthly trends. So once you start, and then it
Speaker 1: just snowed balled into there into my epic spreadsheet.
Speaker 4: Yeah, from little things, big things do really grow. But
Speaker 4: it's kind of like a snowball effect. But first you
Speaker 4: have to put your head out of stand.
Speaker 1: Right Is that right?
Speaker 4: Absolutely all right? To bring the tone of this converse
Speaker 4: all the way down money, dirice, what is your worst
Speaker 4: money Habit.
Speaker 1: Would have to be just my It is much better
Speaker 1: than previous years, but just my lack of self control
Speaker 1: when it comes to online shopping. I was an absolute
Speaker 1: sucker for Instagram ads and you know the junk mail
Speaker 1: that would come into the inbox, and you know, whatever
Speaker 1: brand was having a sale, and I thought that it
Speaker 1: meant if I didn't buy what I wanted in that sale,
Speaker 1: I was never going to be able to get it again,
Speaker 1: which is just not the case.
Speaker 4: So hid it's not, but it's so easy to be like,
Speaker 4: oh my gosh, but like it's on sale, I really
Speaker 4: wanted it, and now it's like discounted. If I don't
Speaker 4: get it now, I'll never be able to afford it
Speaker 4: or get it or I totally get that sense of urgency.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so just and my I just had no self
Speaker 1: control around that at all, which is it has gotten better,
Speaker 1: but it's it's still there. And I do have quite
Speaker 1: high taste when it comes to fashion, so you know,
Speaker 1: the twenty dollar cotton on dress just doesn't do it
Speaker 1: for me anymore. So I have to I feel like
Speaker 1: I have to anyway go you know, go to the larger,
Speaker 1: more expensive brands.
Speaker 4: Feels It's called lifestyle creep, my friend, we all experience it.
Speaker 4: It is depressing when you start working it out. And
Speaker 4: do you know what's more frustrating is that I totally
Speaker 4: get that the twenty dollars came out dress would have
Speaker 4: probably done the same thing. Am I comfortable with it? Though?
Speaker 4: Do I want that? No? Does that set my heart
Speaker 4: on fire the same way that the steel dress I
Speaker 4: have saved on my browser right now does. No. No,
Speaker 4: I'm going to get the steel dress right.
Speaker 1: And the worst part is that I hardly ever wear them.
Speaker 1: So I've probably got ten to twelve dresses in my
Speaker 1: wardrobe right now that I've never worn, but they're just
Speaker 1: so pretty.
Speaker 4: Oops. Yea, all right, before we go to the break
Speaker 4: money diarist, if we forced you to give yourself a
Speaker 4: money grade, what would your grade your money have its?
Speaker 1: I thought about this and honestly, old me wouldn't even
Speaker 1: sat down for the test. I would have completely skipped test,
Speaker 1: wouldn't and just sort of accepted an F. Whereas now
Speaker 1: I think I'm sitting in the C minus to be
Speaker 1: plus kind of range because I've still got a long
Speaker 1: way to go, but I've improved so so much. So yeah,
Speaker 1: C plus to B minus range, I feel like that's fair.
Speaker 4: I do have a few questions for you, though, so
Speaker 4: let's go to a quick break and we'll jump straight
Speaker 4: into them after that. All right, money Diarist, We are back,
Speaker 4: and I feel like our office is a little bit
Speaker 4: baby crazy at the moment, So I want to start
Speaker 4: by talking about your gorgeous three month old. Can you
Speaker 4: talk us through that process of planning for maternity leave?
Speaker 4: Before you mentioned that you're taking some unpaid leave in
Speaker 4: addition to the paid maternity leave that you're going to get.
Speaker 4: How did you budget for that? How do we start
Speaker 4: thinking about topics like that. I feel like it's so
Speaker 4: overwhelming when you're in this phase of like, this is
Speaker 4: what I really want to do, But then it's like
Speaker 4: the balance of one do we have the budget, but
Speaker 4: two how do you drop to one income? So can
Speaker 4: you talk us through your mindset and how that works?
Speaker 4: And yeah tell us all yeah, sure.
Speaker 1: So we were fortunate that we didn't have to save
Speaker 1: for any of the IVF processes or anything like that,
Speaker 1: which I know can be a really big expense. So
Speaker 1: for us, the biggest thing, you know, was buying everything
Speaker 1: that you needed for a baby. And I know a
Speaker 1: lot of people say that babies don't need much, but
Speaker 1: it is a huge snowball, and you think that you
Speaker 1: do need everything that's out there. So I was fortunate
Speaker 1: enough to be on a salary that I could save
Speaker 1: quite a bit, so I've I managed to save and
Speaker 1: pay outright for everything that we needed for the baby.
Speaker 1: We also have a husband and I have quite a
Speaker 1: big savings account to fall back on, so we Once
Speaker 1: I factored in what I was going to be getting
Speaker 1: as the lump some sort of payment from the government
Speaker 1: as well as my work, I just split that into
Speaker 1: the twelve months and made that my new salary for
Speaker 1: the month. So that salary combined with my husband's salary,
Speaker 1: just sort of breaks even on all of our bills.
Speaker 1: So I was fortunate for that. But then we also
Speaker 1: did have the savings that we could fall back into,
Speaker 1: but it was just more the preparation that was needed
Speaker 1: to buy everything the car seat. It really does add up,
Speaker 1: and I would say that we probably spent about five
Speaker 1: grand leading into leading into the him being here.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, can I ask you just said?
Speaker 3: Obviously, it's really hard, and I would totally be this
Speaker 3: person who is like, I must have everything to be
Speaker 3: as prepared as I can be. Was there anything that
Speaker 3: you purchased pre baby that now that you have your
Speaker 3: little one, you're like, that was so unnecessary.
Speaker 4: Oh, such a good question.
Speaker 1: Yes, and I have a very good example because I
Speaker 1: just sold it on marketplace the money we need. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so there is a particular brand of and I call
Speaker 1: it a baby coffee machine. So because we're formula feeding,
Speaker 1: it basically makes a bottle in thirty seconds. You press
Speaker 1: one button and it's done. So no, thirds Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's amazing that exists. Yes, So I bought it about
Speaker 1: three months before the baby was here and had it
Speaker 1: all set up on my kitchen bench ready to go.
Speaker 1: And once he was here and we started the process,
Speaker 1: it was just much easier. I found anyway to use
Speaker 1: the old thermo and scooping the formula out of the
Speaker 1: tin yourself. It took about a minute to make a bottle,
Speaker 1: whereas this four hundred and fifty dollars machine did it
Speaker 1: in thirty seconds and I didn't even turn it on.
Speaker 1: So I sold it on marketplace only last week.
Speaker 4: Yeah, oh my gosh, that's so expensive as well. It
Speaker 4: was like, yeah, I didn't even know that was a thing,
Speaker 4: a little baby coffee machine. But it does formula, not
Speaker 4: the coffee like what, Yeah, they think of everything, Like
Speaker 4: I only recently learned of that snoo thing that like
Speaker 4: rocks your baby, and I'm mind blown that there's like
Speaker 4: a device in a bed that rocks you up. Anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 4: probably sound very naive in comparison to a lot of
Speaker 4: people who are listening to this podcast, who are seasoned mothers,
Speaker 4: and they're going to be like, Victoria, you don't know
Speaker 4: what you're in for one day.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: When it came to buying stuff for baby as well,
Speaker 4: did you find that you had to make up a
Speaker 4: budget at the start or did you collect things as
Speaker 4: you go, Like how many things do you think on
Speaker 4: average a new mum would have to buy? Like was
Speaker 4: that five grand an average baby shop or was it
Speaker 4: a oh well, actually we got the cot and the
Speaker 4: prem for free, like it was a handy down or
Speaker 4: like what I guess scope did that five grand include?
Speaker 1: Yeah? So again I had a queen of a spreadsheet
Speaker 1: going and I had everything lestened to what I wanted
Speaker 1: and how much it was, where I could buy it,
Speaker 1: where was the best deal. So I was very prepared
Speaker 1: in that sense, but I probably just took it to
Speaker 1: the next level in terms of as just said, I
Speaker 1: felt like I needed absolutely anything just in case I
Speaker 1: needed it, So I probably spent one thousand dollars over
Speaker 1: what I probably needed to in a lot of the
Speaker 1: gadgets that are on the market at the moment, and
Speaker 1: they really know how to target mothers in particular. I
Speaker 1: think that you need this to make sure your baby
Speaker 1: is sleeping well overnight and is happy. And it was
Speaker 1: just allow all of those products I have actually used,
Speaker 1: I really really did not need. So in terms of
Speaker 1: the five grand, I probably only needed to really spend
Speaker 1: about four on the essentials. So the biggest one was
Speaker 1: the prem. So my husband six foot four, so we
Speaker 1: needed a prem that sat up quite high, and unfortunately
Speaker 1: that meant for us that it was the most expensive one,
Speaker 1: but it was just it was just worth it first
Speaker 1: saving his back in my back on it, I'm five
Speaker 1: foot tens as well, so I'm quite tall, so you know,
Speaker 1: just that for us was a necessity item. And then
Speaker 1: we unfortunately didn't have a lot of friends that I
Speaker 1: had babies before us, so we didn't have things right
Speaker 1: hand me downs or secondhand. And I know you can
Speaker 1: buy a lot of things on marketplace, but they sometimes
Speaker 1: advise just to buy a new for the safety side
Speaker 1: of things. YEA.
Speaker 4: Well, of course, of course, I feel like I wouldn't
Speaker 4: even know where to start, So asking questions like this
Speaker 4: is just personally very helpful, so I appreciate it. But
Speaker 4: let's pivot away from baby stuff. I want to know
Speaker 4: about savings while you are on maternity leave. So you
Speaker 4: mentioned before that you've worked out your budget and like
Speaker 4: your husband's income can help you cover bills and stuff
Speaker 4: like that. Are you saving while you're on leave or
Speaker 4: is that something that you like. Nope, we've just put
Speaker 4: that to the side. That's not happening while we are
Speaker 4: doing this. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, and I think this sort of touch back to
Speaker 1: my old self and what I feel like I need
Speaker 1: to do to make myself happy really is the method
Speaker 1: of paying yourself first. So I actually give my husband
Speaker 1: and I both give each other a three hundred fifty
Speaker 1: dollars a week for our play money, which I know
Speaker 1: sounds excessive, but that's just what we figure out we
Speaker 1: need because they're both quite social people, so we do
Speaker 1: have quite a large play money bucket that we dip
Speaker 1: into every week, so there is an opportunity for us
Speaker 1: to save. But that hasn't been our goal well on
Speaker 1: attornity leave, so we have quite a big amount of
Speaker 1: money that we can use every week just for you know,
Speaker 1: going out to dinners and things like that. But if
Speaker 1: we can save money after that point, then that's great.
Speaker 1: If we don't, we haven't put the pressure on ourselves
Speaker 1: to as well.
Speaker 3: I think it's a new mum that you can't undervalue
Speaker 3: as well giving yourself the opportunity to do something for you.
Speaker 3: And this is applicable to any I guess a new
Speaker 3: parent who is you know, primarily caregiving. You're the one
Speaker 3: on attorney leave, so I'm assuming this situation you're the
Speaker 3: one who's with love the most. I think that as
Speaker 3: much as you say it seems really excessive. You're not
Speaker 3: getting to go to work every day like you would
Speaker 3: normally and have those adult interactions. You're not getting time
Speaker 3: away from your little one, who of course you would
Speaker 3: love immensely. I have no doubt, but I think that
Speaker 3: you need to remember that there is so much value
Speaker 3: in giving your self space because you deserve that as
Speaker 3: just a human being. And yes, it might be costing
Speaker 3: you money, but I think maybe for your mental health,
Speaker 3: particularly because you said.
Speaker 4: You're a super social person.
Speaker 3: I do think that it's really important that you're recognizing that,
Speaker 3: and it's really admirable you've gone, okay, well right now,
Speaker 3: this is what I need.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And we said before that before we started trying
Speaker 1: for a baby, that we wanted the baby to fit
Speaker 1: into our lifestyle rather than change our life to suit baby,
Speaker 1: and we were just watching it that we had a
Speaker 1: salary that we could maintain our lifestyle while me being
Speaker 1: on the tonity leave just to we didn't want to
Speaker 1: miss out on things and feel like that we had
Speaker 1: to give up that aspect of our life just because
Speaker 1: they was here. So again, quite a fortunate position to
Speaker 1: be in, and I definitely don't take that for granted,
Speaker 1: but that's just the concession that my husband and I
Speaker 1: had that we wanted to still maintain what we wanted
Speaker 1: to do and not feel guilty about that money.
Speaker 4: Ros we've talked about budgeting for baby and planning what
Speaker 4: was going on, and earlier in this episode, you actually
Speaker 4: said that you saw a financial advisor about twelve months ago.
Speaker 4: What was that trigger point of seeing a financial advisor
Speaker 4: potentially having a baby. Is that where we were at
Speaker 4: mind frame wise, like what was a trigger point for
Speaker 4: saying an advisor, I guess is what I'm trying to
Speaker 4: get around to asking. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, So there was two. One was definitely planning for
Speaker 1: our family. The other one was just learning more about
Speaker 1: the shares an investment market. So we had a con
Speaker 1: sec account going and we just weren't sure if that
Speaker 1: was where we needed to be for the the best
Speaker 1: financial outcome or if we needed to move that into
Speaker 1: you know, the other areas of investing. So we just
Speaker 1: wanted to get advice on that really, and then that
Speaker 1: sort of rolled into combining you know, consolidating soupers and
Speaker 1: what we need to do for a wheels, what we
Speaker 1: need to do for you know, setting our child up
Speaker 1: for the best future that he can have as well.
Speaker 1: I'm really concerned, should say concerned, I'm not sure, but
Speaker 1: concerned about the housing market, you know, when he's twenty
Speaker 1: five years old. So I'd love to have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to give him a bit of a house deposit already
Speaker 1: sitting there. So I just wanted to get the ball
Speaker 1: rolling really on how that all works.
Speaker 4: I love that, and I feel like financial advice is
Speaker 4: something that people often have triggers for so you'll go
Speaker 4: ages not even considering it, and then there's some kind
Speaker 4: of life change and you go, we should talk to
Speaker 4: an advice now, like we probably should edit together and
Speaker 4: have that chat. But the next question I want to
Speaker 4: ask you is actually about Super. So you talked about
Speaker 4: rolling Super together and while you're on maternity leave, you
Speaker 4: wouldn't be contributing to Super through your salary because that's
Speaker 4: not a part of it. But have you and your partner,
Speaker 4: and I mean maybe not because you do have a
Speaker 4: pretty healthy looking Superannuation account, but if you and your
Speaker 4: partner talked about what that would mean for you to
Speaker 4: miss contributions to Superannuation during that time that you're off
Speaker 4: for you.
Speaker 1: Look, we haven't had the discussion, but I've been very
Speaker 1: aware of it because it's quite a hot topic in
Speaker 1: the mother's online mother's group that I'm in that has,
Speaker 1: you know, three thousand members and a lot of people
Speaker 1: do talk about this. We again, didn't have the conversation,
Speaker 1: and I'm currently not contributing to Super again. I think
Speaker 1: it's also because I did have the larger balance sitting there,
Speaker 1: so I felt like I maybe wasn't really missing it.
Speaker 1: Over the next twelve months, and I knew that when
Speaker 1: I go back to work, I'm going back to all
Speaker 1: my full time salary as well, so I could not
Speaker 1: make up for the time. But I you know, it's
Speaker 1: not like I'm only going back part time, where again
Speaker 1: I would miss the next fifteen years of contributing the
Speaker 1: same sort of amount.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So, yeah, you've thought about it, but it wasn't
Speaker 4: the biggest priority. I feel like potentially that would have
Speaker 4: changed if you'd looked at it and had like twenty
Speaker 4: thousand dollars in Super, You'd be like, oh, actually, maybe
Speaker 4: we need to plan around this. But yeah, financially, I
Speaker 4: think you're doing fine because it sounds like you've turbocharged
Speaker 4: your career.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, speaking of career, just before we head off, I
Speaker 3: wanted to swing it back around.
Speaker 4: I know we've been chatting out baby.
Speaker 3: Beau but all maybe crazy, but just to change that,
Speaker 3: Super Jess and Super as well, I wanted to just
Speaker 3: chat about you a little bit and ask, as a
Speaker 3: fellow degreeless person who has worked their way up in
Speaker 3: this industry, how did that look for You've obviously sat
Speaker 3: at one company for many years now, and you came
Speaker 3: in on kind of a more entry level role. How
Speaker 3: did that career progression go. Did you put your hand up,
Speaker 3: were you talking to managers asking for promotions? Did you
Speaker 3: just wait for the right opportunity? How did you take
Speaker 3: those steps? Because I think there'd be a lot of
Speaker 3: people in a similar boat who maybe don't have the
Speaker 3: degree to back stepping right into a big role, but
Speaker 3: have big inspirations to do what you've done.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so definitely it was seeking out other opportunities as
Speaker 1: they came up. I didn't really wait around for someone
Speaker 1: to tap me on the shoulder and say, hey, do
Speaker 1: you want to do this. That has happened once in
Speaker 1: that career stepping stone, and I was very lucky for
Speaker 1: that because that landed me what I'm in, the role
Speaker 1: I'm in now. However, I just, yeah, again, just took
Speaker 1: the opportunities as they came up. I consulted with the
Speaker 1: HR team at my current employer as well. Obviously, the
Speaker 1: industry i'm in as well is a largely male dominated industry,
Speaker 1: so for instance, in my team of twenty five, I'm
Speaker 1: the only female. There was a lot of opportunity sort
Speaker 1: of given away those lower level sort of roles to
Speaker 1: really just take little baby steps to sort of get
Speaker 1: where I'm at today.
Speaker 4: Incredible.
Speaker 3: How do you find being the only female in a
Speaker 3: team of twenty five, because that's not an easy position
Speaker 3: I wouldn't imagine to find yourself in.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, before going into this industria that she worked in
Speaker 1: legal services where there was a major lee female team
Speaker 1: as a legal secretary. So I really enjoy the different
Speaker 1: side of things. And obviously heading into Materney leave as well,
Speaker 1: they were very supportive and it's just it's a very
Speaker 1: different environment about an enjoyable one as well.
Speaker 4: Incredible, Jess. I know that you thought that was going
Speaker 4: to be your last question, and it was maybe your
Speaker 4: last question. But when we were introducing our money Diarist,
Speaker 4: she had explained that she was in debt and offline
Speaker 4: we had been talking about credit scores, and I feel
Speaker 4: like I want to finish their money Diarist. When it
Speaker 4: came to debt and credit scores and being in a
Speaker 4: little bit of a pickle, you, I'm saying you were
Speaker 4: pretty severely impacted by, you know, not having a very
Speaker 4: shiny credit score. Can you tell us a little bit
Speaker 4: about that? And I guess how you got out of
Speaker 4: that situation?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Sure, So growing up I really didn't even know
Speaker 1: what a credit score was, and by the time I
Speaker 1: knew what it was, it was too late. So in
Speaker 1: my early twenties I had gotten myself into about twelve
Speaker 1: gram with a credit card debt and really just buried
Speaker 1: my head in the sand. So I was the type
Speaker 1: of person that was ignoring the calls, ignoring the mail.
Speaker 1: I knew I would be getting a letter from my
Speaker 1: bank and I would just rip it up and put
Speaker 1: it in the bin. Yeah, which is horrible.
Speaker 4: No, it just feels like I can feel that stress,
Speaker 4: like when you say I'd rip it up and put
Speaker 4: it in the bins, Like I didn't even want to
Speaker 4: look at it, like just get it out of sight,
Speaker 4: out of mind. If it's all ripped up, it doesn't exist.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. And I was the type of person, which I
Speaker 1: know has been spoken about heaps in the community as well,
Speaker 1: is the just living for that moment and not really
Speaker 1: caring about future self. And I was the person that
Speaker 1: you would always see going out traveling and eating at
Speaker 1: fancy dinners and having all of the fancy clothes. But
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, I was in really a really bad
Speaker 1: place financially where I didn't eat, I didn't look at
Speaker 1: my makeup. I did not log into my makeout, I
Speaker 1: did not log into any of my debt portals, nothing
Speaker 1: like that, because I was just ignoring it, which just
Speaker 1: impacted my credit score massively. And by the time that
Speaker 1: I realized what impact that had on just day to
Speaker 1: day lives, so phone plans, things like that, it was
Speaker 1: too late for me. I couldn't I couldn't get it
Speaker 1: back up. So once I accepted the debt, and I
Speaker 1: just accepted that first phone call from the debt company
Speaker 1: saying hey, you know, and they weren't as scary as
Speaker 1: what I thought they would be. I thought they were
Speaker 1: going to get on the line and just completely almost
Speaker 1: destroy me. But they were, oh my.
Speaker 4: Gosh, no, they're usually super kind.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they were very All they wanted to do
Speaker 1: was just to make sure that I was aware of
Speaker 1: what I had and how can they help me get
Speaker 1: to where I needed to be, which was really positive
Speaker 1: in the end. So that all sort of started spiring
Speaker 1: when I was twenty two, twenty three, and now twenty nine,
Speaker 1: and only I was of about two months ago. I
Speaker 1: have my credit ratings back up to where it should be,
Speaker 1: and I don't have any defaults as to that anymore.
Speaker 1: And I just I think I just wanted to say
Speaker 1: that it's a long process, but you know, the years
Speaker 1: toick by so quickly, and so I'm not even thirty yet,
Speaker 1: and I have the opportunity now to go out and
Speaker 1: get you know, the house that I'm I'm in now,
Speaker 1: is I'm in? My husband's naying because I couldn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I couldn't do that. I didn't have a pad squat.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I really couldn't even do the home loan thing
Speaker 4: with your partner because your credit score was just not
Speaker 4: having a good time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, but by the time I realized what
Speaker 1: it was and what impact it had, it was too late.
Speaker 1: So oh my.
Speaker 4: Gosh, I feel like that's really powerful though. And what
Speaker 4: you just said before about how the years go really quickly,
Speaker 4: it's both ways, Like they go really quickly if you're
Speaker 4: not acting on a debt either, like they go really
Speaker 4: quickly and you're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe
Speaker 4: it's been like three or four years and this is
Speaker 4: still sitting there. But like we could have used that
Speaker 4: time to get out of debt. So I feel like
Speaker 4: the sooner you just pick up the phone. The sooner
Speaker 4: you put a plan in place, the sooner you pull
Speaker 4: your head out of the sand, the better for you,
Speaker 4: because now you're twenty nine and you've got all of
Speaker 4: these wealth creating opportunities ahead of you, and it's not
Speaker 4: the worst thing in the entire world. Whereas if you'd
Speaker 4: left this for another ten years or another fifteen years,
Speaker 4: which lots of people do, you would have been in
Speaker 4: a pretty big pickle.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And I didn't want to have the conversation with anyone,
Speaker 1: didn't want to have the conversation with myself, with my partner,
Speaker 1: with anyone about it. So I just ignored it, and
Speaker 1: I probably ignored it two to three years longer than
Speaker 1: what I should have.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel like, my friend, that is a really
Speaker 4: good place to leave it. We have covered so much
Speaker 4: in this money stories, so thank you so much for
Speaker 4: your time. But unfortunately I do think that is all
Speaker 4: we have time for today. So just before we head off,
Speaker 4: we'd like to acknowledge and pay respect to Australia's Aboriginal
Speaker 4: and Torres Strait islander peoples. They're the traditional custodians of
Speaker 4: the lands, the waterways and the skies all across Australia.
Speaker 4: We thank you for sharing and for caring for the
Speaker 4: land on which we are able to learn. We pay
Speaker 4: respects to elders past and present, and we share our
Speaker 4: friendship and our kindness.
Speaker 3: The advice shared on She's on the Money is generally
Speaker 3: nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on
Speaker 3: the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not
Speaker 3: be relied upon to make an investment or a financial decision,
Speaker 3: and we promise. Victoria Divine is an authorized representative of
Speaker 3: Infocused Securities Australia Proprietary Limited ABN four seven oh nine
Speaker 3: seven seven ninety seven zero four nine AFSL two three
Speaker 3: six five two three.
Speaker 4: See you next week, guys.
Speaker 3: Bye,