Speaker 1: Hello.
Speaker 2: My name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud Yr the
Speaker 2: Order Kerney Whalbury and a waddery woman. And before we
Speaker 2: get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would
Speaker 2: like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of
Speaker 2: which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging
Speaker 2: the elders, the ancestors and the next.
Speaker 1: Generation coming through.
Speaker 2: As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and
Speaker 2: the storytelling of you to make a difference for today
Speaker 2: and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Let's get into it.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
Speaker 1: for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another
Speaker 1: one of our money diaries where I get the absolute
Speaker 1: privilege of talking to one of our beautiful community members
Speaker 1: all about their money story. Let's jump straight in because
Speaker 1: this week I got a message and it went like this. Hi, Victoria.
Speaker 1: As a twenty nine year old, I've gone from living
Speaker 1: paycheck to paycheck in a constant cycle of debt that
Speaker 1: got up to thirty thousand dollars two, paying all debt
Speaker 1: off and owning our home and working towards semi retirement
Speaker 1: next year, Money Diarist, that sounds like an absolute dream
Speaker 1: and you're only twenty nine. What the heck?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Oh, I cannot wait to learn more. This is wild.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1: I am so excited that you have written in. Let's
Speaker 1: jump straight in the first question, as always is Money Diarist,
Speaker 1: what grade would you give your money habits If I
Speaker 1: asked you to give them a grade from A through
Speaker 1: to F.
Speaker 4: That's gonna sound not that great. But I think like
Speaker 4: a C plus to a B minus.
Speaker 1: I don't know about that. Sometimes I argue with people
Speaker 1: about their ratings, so I'm not gonna argue with you
Speaker 1: this close. But like, there's no way someone with a
Speaker 1: money story that goes from paying off that much debt
Speaker 1: to working towards semi retirement is only a C plus
Speaker 1: in my head. But you know what, you can tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit more about you and we can
Speaker 1: have that conversation at the end. How does that sound
Speaker 1: sounds good? All right? My favorite question, money dires. Can
Speaker 1: you tell us a little bit more about your money story?
Speaker 4: Yeah? So, basically, my partner and I got married when
Speaker 4: we were like twenty two cute and I we've been
Speaker 4: together since we're fifteen.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, No you haven't. So you're like high
Speaker 1: school sweethearts. Yes, well my whole heart. That's so fun.
Speaker 1: I'm just assuming you met at high school together.
Speaker 4: No, we didn't. We went to youth group together.
Speaker 1: Oh cute, So you didn't even have to do the
Speaker 1: whole awkward school thing. That's a win. That is a win,
Speaker 1: No wonder it worked.
Speaker 4: Out Basically when we got married, we were children and
Speaker 4: didn't really know how to manage money. It was also
Speaker 4: the first time both of us lived independently from home,
Speaker 4: so it was the first time both of us moved out,
Speaker 4: and so we had to furnish your house. And we
Speaker 4: both had quite low paying jobs at the same time,
Speaker 4: so we were both pretty much on minimum wage.
Speaker 1: I mean, you were twenty two, so that makes a
Speaker 1: lot of sense.
Speaker 4: Yeah, my partner isn't really a spender, but he's also,
Speaker 4: like I would say, maybe a little bit of an enabler,
Speaker 4: because like every time I would ask like, oh can
Speaker 4: I get this thing, he'd be like, yeah, I don't care.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I love that. I mean, I'm glad that that has stopped,
Speaker 1: But I mean I like a man who just lets
Speaker 1: you have whatever you want ten out of ten.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And so because of that, we just kind of
Speaker 4: ended up with a lot of unnecessary spending. And what
Speaker 4: kind of took us over the edge is we got
Speaker 4: a puppy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what kind of puppy you were allowed to tell us?
Speaker 1: It's a Japanese Oh my gosh, they're gorgeous.
Speaker 4: Yeah, little white fluffy cloud ah, cloud baby. We were
Speaker 4: on a wait list for like two and a half
Speaker 4: years with this breeder because I wanted an ethical breeder
Speaker 4: and all that sort of stuff, and she basically said like, oh,
Speaker 4: someone can't get their puppy, so like, do you want it?
Speaker 4: Like it's available, You're next on the list. And so
Speaker 4: I very stupidly drew out money on a credit card.
Speaker 4: So it was quite a lot of interest on that,
Speaker 4: and then on top of just constantly living in overdraft
Speaker 4: and all of these types of things, we just ended
Speaker 4: up in a lot of debt.
Speaker 1: Basically, I'm not surprised. I mean, I feel like, regardless
Speaker 1: of my financial situation, I would have done the same
Speaker 1: thing as you. I don't know how many of the
Speaker 1: podcasts you've listened to, but I have spoken publicly before
Speaker 1: about how I got my cat Bailey when he was
Speaker 1: one and he was a rescue, but it cost me
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty dollars and at that point I
Speaker 1: only had three hundred dollars in my account and I
Speaker 1: didn't have enough money to buy him like a crate
Speaker 1: or food or anything. But I was like, this is
Speaker 1: an investment, like I need this pet, like they're the rules,
Speaker 1: Like I feel like pets circumvent money rules, so like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I feel like your baby was a
Speaker 1: good decision.
Speaker 4: He definitely was. So he's poor now and so definitely
Speaker 4: well worth the money, and very fortunately because part of
Speaker 4: it is we wanted a healthy breed. He hasn't cost
Speaker 4: us any additional money yet.
Speaker 1: I love that you waited for an ethical breeder too.
Speaker 1: That sounds like exactly how I ended up with our
Speaker 1: dog Lucy. Like we were on this really big wait
Speaker 1: list and then someone didn't want her because she was
Speaker 1: the wrong color, and they called us like three days
Speaker 1: before we got her and said do you want her?
Speaker 1: And I was like absolutely, I do. Like it happened
Speaker 1: all so quickly, but like ethical breeders have such long lists.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's pretty much what happened with us, and then
Speaker 4: like it was us so Christmas time, we were moving
Speaker 4: into a new rental at the time, and so like
Speaker 4: we had to pay bond and then it was a lot.
Speaker 1: Aah so much. So tell me what happened after that.
Speaker 1: So we've had a puppy join the family and we've
Speaker 1: started to get into debt.
Speaker 4: After that, we still weren't like great, We were still
Speaker 4: just kind of coasting along really, but then also puppy
Speaker 4: Instagram influence sort of took over, and so I was
Speaker 4: spending a lot of money on him and that sort
Speaker 4: of stuff when I didn't really have anything to do.
Speaker 4: And then we were just sort of talking about it
Speaker 4: and then just decided one day to go to the
Speaker 4: bank just to see like if we could get a mortgage,
Speaker 4: like what we would have to do to one day
Speaker 4: buy a house. And we didn't think anything would happen
Speaker 4: because we had not had any savings whatsoever. But we
Speaker 4: did have a Kili saver where you put like three
Speaker 4: percent away of your income. Yeah, because we were low earners,
Speaker 4: we were in the threshold for the first home buyers,
Speaker 4: and so we got one of the homes that were
Speaker 4: affordably priced by the government and that sort of stuff.
Speaker 4: It's not a forever home or anything like that, but
Speaker 4: it's a great start at home and we got all
Speaker 4: of the grants that we were able to do, so
Speaker 4: we ended up being able to purchase a house. Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, that makes absolute sense. To just explain it a
Speaker 1: little bit more. Because a lot of our audience are Australian,
Speaker 1: our money most today is from New Zealand, which is
Speaker 1: why she said that she had a Kiwi Saver. But
Speaker 1: one of the cool things about Kiwi Saver is that
Speaker 1: you can use it to purchase your first property, which
Speaker 1: is kind of helpful and not something that's available to
Speaker 1: us but fun to learn from.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So we basically just had that and then at
Speaker 4: the time, the government had grants to go towards your
Speaker 4: deposit as well if you were a low income earner
Speaker 4: as well.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
Speaker 4: And so we were able to get our house for
Speaker 4: well under what it would be commercially priced for. I
Speaker 4: suppose money win, definite money win. I think I actually
Speaker 4: posted about it.
Speaker 1: Oh did you actually?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that would have been a few years
Speaker 1: ago too.
Speaker 4: Huh yeah, just three years ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm going to go find it. I love it.
Speaker 4: Then we literally lived in an empty house with a
Speaker 4: bed for a year almost yep, because we didn't have
Speaker 4: anything else. And after about a year, we just decided
Speaker 4: we didn't want to be living paycheck to paycheck or
Speaker 4: putting everything on a credit card or overdraft anymore. Yeah,
Speaker 4: And so we just got a consolidation loan, got all
Speaker 4: of our credit card debt, overdraft debt and all that
Speaker 4: sort of stuff into one loan, and they try to
Speaker 4: put us on for like ten years to pay it off,
Speaker 4: and I was like, no, no, We're paying it off.
Speaker 1: In three years, Queen, I love this. Yeah.
Speaker 4: So the time pressure really helped get that down. And
Speaker 4: we pretty much did like a one to eighty on
Speaker 4: how we were living our life and spending our money
Speaker 4: after that, because we went from barely having any money
Speaker 4: and then like lookdown as like why is this because
Speaker 4: there was no reason for us because we had gotten
Speaker 4: like a few promotions over the time and that sort
Speaker 4: of stuff, so we were earning more money, but we
Speaker 4: were still very skinned and so mostly we just like
Speaker 4: focus on cutting down on like unnecessary spending and stuff
Speaker 4: like that. So like a big thing we found after
Speaker 4: going through our accounts is like we spent a lot
Speaker 4: on groceries but then spent a lot of money on takeaways.
Speaker 1: That feels very familiar to me. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I want to expand on that or talk about it.
Speaker 1: I'm not ready to make any change, but I like
Speaker 1: that you did.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so that was one thing we did. We cut
Speaker 4: down on like our takeaway and grocery bills from I
Speaker 4: think we were spending like two hundred and fifty bucks
Speaker 4: for like two people and a small dog, which was
Speaker 4: a little bit overboard for us because we were also
Speaker 4: buying the takeaways and stuff. So now our grocery bills
Speaker 4: like one hundred dollars and we spend like thirty dollars
Speaker 4: on takeaway a week.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that's a massive change.
Speaker 4: We've got like a reduced to clear. I don't know
Speaker 4: what they are in Australia, but they're like it's.
Speaker 1: Kind of like a not quite right INQR. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we've got them over here as well. I think it's
Speaker 1: the same chain, to be honest.
Speaker 4: And so like we get like our coffee pods and
Speaker 4: like all those sorts of things that don't really matter,
Speaker 4: but like I get them for a lot cheaper and
Speaker 4: stuff like that.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's very smart. Though. We have a
Speaker 1: shop over here called the Reject Shop. Oh I don't
Speaker 1: know if you've got that there, but at the Reject
Speaker 1: Shop they have like lots of I guess, pantry staples
Speaker 1: and cleaning products and stuff. And I went in there
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago looking for one thing, and
Speaker 1: I came out with so much stuff because I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, these like dish washing tablets are so
Speaker 1: cheap and look at this dish washing Like I got
Speaker 1: so many cleaning supplies and I think I spent like
Speaker 1: thirty dollars or something, and it was like so good.
Speaker 1: And I said to my husband when I got home,
Speaker 1: I was like, you're not buying dish washing tablets ever
Speaker 1: again from WOOLI. It's like it's not happening, No deal,
Speaker 1: no deal.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So that's like pretty much what we go Therefore,
Speaker 4: we go for like all the household sort of stuff
Speaker 4: and just all those like random things that it doesn't
Speaker 4: really matter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no smart, I love it. I think that regardless
Speaker 1: of what you earn, that's a really easy way to
Speaker 1: get basically the same thing, but for cheaper. Why not.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then like another thing we did is like
Speaker 4: we implemented personal spending separate from our joint spending.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So originally we just had like a joint account and
Speaker 4: all of our money went in there and all of
Speaker 4: our money went out from the same account. But when
Speaker 4: we decided to sort out our financials, we both got
Speaker 4: a personal account that the other doesn't have access to,
Speaker 4: which we get like pocket money yeap.
Speaker 1: Cool, and so we can spend it on whatever you like.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we both earn very similar amounts and so it's
Speaker 4: not really a one person earns more than the other
Speaker 4: sort of thing, so it's not.
Speaker 1: Really too much of an issue for us. Yeah cool,
Speaker 1: but it all works out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then the dog gets his pocket money.
Speaker 1: Too, does he actually is that for like his food
Speaker 1: or is that for like additional like baby chinos or
Speaker 1: do they call them puppy chinos? And then like outfits
Speaker 1: and stuff, because I feel like having a Japanese spits
Speaker 1: like those are fashionable boys, Like those aren't like normal
Speaker 1: dogs that just you know, get a dry as a
Speaker 1: bone coat, Like he's probably got fancy wardrobe, right.
Speaker 4: He doesn't like wearing clothes fortunately, because he's a fluffy boy.
Speaker 4: But he's got a lot of bandannas and bows.
Speaker 1: Yeah. See, he's got outfits. He's a fancy boy.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So also we've got like his account is accumulating,
Speaker 4: so because we don't have pit insurance because his breed
Speaker 4: is known for being a little bit more healthy and
Speaker 4: that sort of stuff. So instead of having pit insurance,
Speaker 4: we just put money in there just in case.
Speaker 1: Oh I love that. I think that that's really I
Speaker 1: guess smart from your perspective, but like what a little
Speaker 1: responsible dog boy. Yeah's got his own saving account. He's
Speaker 1: getting it, yes he does. Can't wait for you guys
Speaker 1: to potentially have kids one day, like they are gonna
Speaker 1: be so financially savvy look at the dog.
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely. And so at the same time, with all
Speaker 4: of the financial side, we were so just working towards
Speaker 4: earning more and so we did a lot of overtime.
Speaker 4: For about a year and a half, we were working
Speaker 4: for like six days a week. I think we at
Speaker 4: some points we're going up to like seventy hours a week.
Speaker 1: No, that's so many hours. Did you sleep?
Speaker 4: Yeah, we slept, but all we did was wake up,
Speaker 4: go to work, come sleep.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the dogs sleep amazing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then at the time I started my own business.
Speaker 1: Of course you do it. These story is just getting better.
Speaker 1: I told you I'm going to have a bone to
Speaker 1: pick with their C plus. You're not prepping yourself for
Speaker 1: a C plus at the end, my friend.
Speaker 4: I have a reason for what right?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: All right, all right, I'll let you get to it.
Speaker 1: Tell me about your small business.
Speaker 4: So I'm a virtual assistant, So I helped small businesses
Speaker 4: and that sort of stuff who were literally a single
Speaker 4: person just doing their small business and they can't quite
Speaker 4: employ a full i'm staff member or anything like that,
Speaker 4: So I do their admin work in like a couple
Speaker 4: of hours here and there for a couple of different people.
Speaker 1: Oh, how cool. That's so helpful. When I was starting up,
Speaker 1: I definitely needed that.
Speaker 4: I've got one consistent client that I do quite a
Speaker 4: lot of work for.
Speaker 1: It's quite a lot of fun. All right. I want
Speaker 1: to know, now you've obviously got a lot under your belt.
Speaker 1: What do you do for work? How much money do
Speaker 1: you win? And if you feel like it, can you
Speaker 1: tell me what your partner does and what he owns.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so we actually work together at his family's business.
Speaker 1: Very cool.
Speaker 4: His family owns a craft retail store, and quite a
Speaker 4: few years ago now, he moved over there to go
Speaker 4: work with them because they were expanding a little bit,
Speaker 4: and then when COVID hit and that sort of stuff,
Speaker 4: they needed a few people to help out because online
Speaker 4: sales went a little bit nutsy. That's cool though, yeah,
Speaker 4: And so I moved over there and I work in
Speaker 4: the warehouse with my husband, doing like all the post
Speaker 4: and stuff like that, getting everyone's orders out and making
Speaker 4: sure everyone's happy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, very cool.
Speaker 4: So I earn seventy two a year my salary, and
Speaker 4: then my partner earns I think it's about seventy eight.
Speaker 1: Is there a reason why it's different.
Speaker 4: He's been working me longer and he is also a technician.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, that makes sense. I was like, hold up,
Speaker 1: you're telling me that you do the same job for
Speaker 1: different pays. I'm not having that, though.
Speaker 4: He has additional responsibilities and stuff like that because he's
Speaker 4: also a technician for some of their.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, that makes absolute sense for those of
Speaker 1: you playing along in the Australian market, seventy two thousand
Speaker 1: dollars in New Zealand money is sixty six eight hundred
Speaker 1: in Australian, which is just interesting to know. And has
Speaker 1: that always been your income? You said before, Oh, we
Speaker 1: were super low income earners, and like, that's not super
Speaker 1: low income to me. So is that recent?
Speaker 4: There is recent? Yeah, within the last year. When we
Speaker 4: first got married, I was working at a law.
Speaker 1: For were your fancy pants?
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I was just like the admin stuff And
Speaker 4: I was earning barely minimum wage for quite a long time.
Speaker 4: And he was an apprentice electrician, so he was an
Speaker 4: apprentice for wages, so we had very minimal income.
Speaker 1: It would have been a snug budget. Yeah. I love
Speaker 1: that all right. I want to know now, because you
Speaker 1: already own your first home, what is your big money goal?
Speaker 1: What are you currently working towards?
Speaker 4: So our current money goal is hopefully next year, as
Speaker 4: long as everything goes well, we'll be able to sell
Speaker 4: this one and move to a lifestyle block and be
Speaker 4: semi retired hopefully.
Speaker 1: What does semi retired mean.
Speaker 4: My partner, Hopefully he won't be working like a traditional
Speaker 4: job anymore. We're hoping that he'll be able to because
Speaker 4: we want to get a few goats and sheep and chickens. Yeah,
Speaker 4: so like he'll be looking after the land and doing
Speaker 4: that sort of stuff and hopefully go into markets and
Speaker 4: you know, just a little bit of extra pocket money.
Speaker 4: Not really the main source of income, yeah, but still
Speaker 4: like we want to be as self sustainable as possible.
Speaker 4: And then for me, hopefully I'll be able to get
Speaker 4: my business running. So I'll be working about thirty eight
Speaker 4: hours yep, because we both work forty five hours and
Speaker 4: we've got about two and a half hours of travel
Speaker 4: time a day.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, No, you don't. That's crazy, No, wonder
Speaker 1: you're looking forward to going. All right, we've got this
Speaker 1: big goal we're working towards. We're going to get a
Speaker 1: lifestyle block. We're going to semi retire because you would
Speaker 1: be exhausted right now. Yes, Oh my gosh, that's crazy.
Speaker 1: Tell me more about these business of yours. Obviously going
Speaker 1: to thirty eight hours a week would be super exciting,
Speaker 1: also much nicer doing that seventy hours that you were
Speaker 1: doing historically. But what type of income do you think
Speaker 1: that will bring in? Really?
Speaker 4: I just want enough to survive, so I don't really
Speaker 4: want to be a big earner or anything like that,
Speaker 4: Like just enough to cover what little mortgage we have,
Speaker 4: because hopefully we'll be able to sell and that will
Speaker 4: cover our new property because we want to go somewhere
Speaker 4: really rural, so it's not going to be too expensive exciting. Yeah,
Speaker 4: so like just enough to sort of cover going to
Speaker 4: the cafe once a week kind of thing.
Speaker 1: I love this. It's so lifestyle focused. All right. I
Speaker 1: want to ask you a lot more about your mortgage
Speaker 1: and what you're currently paying and what's left on it,
Speaker 1: and what a lifestyle block is going to cost. But
Speaker 1: let's do that right after this break. All right, we
Speaker 1: are back money diarist. I'm so invested in understanding a
Speaker 1: bit more about your buying a lifestyle block and like
Speaker 1: semi retired life, Like you're buying goats, Like how does
Speaker 1: it feel to live my actual dream? My husband said,
Speaker 1: I can't have a goat because they have you had
Speaker 1: shaped eyes, like their eyes are square.
Speaker 4: No, so we want to get They're called pygmy goats.
Speaker 1: Oh no, they don't. They're the cutest kind.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the little minutia goats.
Speaker 1: I follow pigmy goats on TikTok and like have you
Speaker 1: seen them? They like have their hay baiales and they
Speaker 1: like jump up and down their hay bales like they're
Speaker 1: so cute, they're mini.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So we're in contact with a breeder at the moment,
Speaker 4: So can.
Speaker 1: I please come visit? Like you are going to actually
Speaker 1: live my dream, like I asked for a goat at
Speaker 1: least once a week, like I wish I was joking.
Speaker 1: The next question I want to ask you is do
Speaker 1: you have any investments. If so, what are they so
Speaker 1: talk to me about that and how that plays into
Speaker 1: potentially being able to semi retire.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so about four months ago, we both had a
Speaker 4: bunch of savings and we decided to just put ten
Speaker 4: thousand dollars into a managed fund.
Speaker 1: Oh, very cool.
Speaker 4: Someone else can make some decisions for me. I don't
Speaker 4: want to think about it.
Speaker 1: Tell me how you picked the managed fund. How did
Speaker 1: you make that decision? Because a lot of people they'll
Speaker 1: go straight into maybe like an ETF because it's the easiest,
Speaker 1: Like you could just download the chasas app and buy that.
Speaker 1: And obviously you can get managed funds, but they seem
Speaker 1: a little bit more complex, especially to first time investors.
Speaker 1: Where did you get your info from? Where did you
Speaker 1: get your confidence to go? You know what, I'm going
Speaker 1: to put ten grand in this.
Speaker 4: Asset, So I spoke to a few different people. We
Speaker 4: ended up just going through a company that my cousin
Speaker 4: works for, so that sort of helps. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was going to say that would make me a
Speaker 1: bit more comfortable too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it might not be the highest owner, but
Speaker 4: we wanted to do an ethical fund, so it's for
Speaker 4: businesses who are doing more sustainable work and that sort
Speaker 4: of stuff, because it just aligned with our values.
Speaker 1: Love love love. So it was just something that you
Speaker 1: were like, all right, We've done a bit of research.
Speaker 1: I've got a family friend or a family member that
Speaker 1: works there. It all just makes sense for us at
Speaker 1: this point. I love that I always ask because it's
Speaker 1: often such a big decision to start your investing journey
Speaker 1: and it can be so overwhelming. And the more I
Speaker 1: know about it and ask you about it, the more
Speaker 1: our community knows and the more comfortable they are starting
Speaker 1: their investment journeys. Was that always what you were thinking?
Speaker 1: You were like, Oh, we're going to get this lump
Speaker 1: sum and invest or. Was it something that you really
Speaker 1: hadn't thought much about when it came to saving, or like,
Speaker 1: how did that work?
Speaker 4: So originally we were actually saving because our original plan
Speaker 4: was to buy a van and travel around New Zealand
Speaker 4: for a year.
Speaker 1: Mm hm.
Speaker 4: But we just decided we didn't really want to do
Speaker 4: that anymore. So we had this money and I just
Speaker 4: didn't want it sitting around in a bank account. Really,
Speaker 4: and I spoke to my partner. I don't remember, but
Speaker 4: I think I listened to an episode about investment and
Speaker 4: stuff like that, and I was like, Hey, can we
Speaker 4: do that? And he's very nonchalant about money, so he's like, yes,
Speaker 4: you'll go for it.
Speaker 1: I love this, all right, talk to me about debt.
Speaker 1: You said before you have a mortgage, do you have
Speaker 1: any personal debt left? If so, what is it? And
Speaker 1: then tell me all about your mortgage.
Speaker 4: So we have a credit card, but like, I have
Speaker 4: the money an account to pay off my credit card,
Speaker 4: so we always have the money for the credit card,
Speaker 4: and that's all that we have outside of the mortgage.
Speaker 4: I paid off my student loan and we paid off
Speaker 4: that personal loan, and we sort of made the decision
Speaker 4: not to have any debt besides the mortgage.
Speaker 1: Ever, again, Love, do you use the credit card just
Speaker 1: for I guess security purposes or are we you know,
Speaker 1: using it to get points or like what role does
Speaker 1: that play in your I guess money story.
Speaker 4: I also have after pay, but again I have an
Speaker 4: account where we put the money for the full purchase
Speaker 4: and then the after pay comes out because I feel
Speaker 4: very nervous having zero dollars.
Speaker 1: Yeah I get it, I totally get it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so we have our savings and stuff, but we
Speaker 4: don't touch our savings and then I feel very nervous
Speaker 4: that something is going to happen, like our tires burst
Speaker 4: or something like that. And I know that's what the
Speaker 4: savings because we have an emergency fund. I always want
Speaker 4: to have money, especially not from before when we were
Speaker 4: literally negative money all the time, and so we use
Speaker 4: the credit card and after pay just to have those
Speaker 4: things coming out slowly rather than putting down all of
Speaker 4: the money for something.
Speaker 1: See, you're one of the people that uses it responsibly.
Speaker 1: I can't be trusted with that. So I always like asking,
Speaker 1: because I'm like, oh, well, if you've got a credit
Speaker 1: card and you've got after pay, like, what does that
Speaker 1: look like? And obviously you're using it or plays easily
Speaker 1: into your cash flow. And I'm going to make a
Speaker 1: grand assumption that you like something like after pay because
Speaker 1: you get your own pocket money and therefore you can
Speaker 1: cash flow those bigger purchases. Is that right?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, So like I bought a cricket recently,
Speaker 4: and like I wanted to buy a cricket. Like, we
Speaker 4: also put time between purchases and stuff like that, and
Speaker 4: so I've been thinking about it for a really long
Speaker 4: that's a big purchase. Huh yeah, yeah, for big purchases,
Speaker 4: and so like putting it on after pay just gives
Speaker 4: me the peace of mind because I have the money there, but.
Speaker 1: You just want to see it come out slowly. I
Speaker 1: get it. I get it, like I understand it in principle,
Speaker 1: but I could never be trusted with it in real life.
Speaker 1: Let's be honest. No, I love it. So now tell me.
Speaker 1: I'd be about your mortgage. How much is it? How
Speaker 1: much did you purchase your house for? And what's the
Speaker 1: plan with getting rid of it?
Speaker 4: Our current mortgage is five hundred and forty thousand. We
Speaker 4: bought the property for six hundred and forty.
Speaker 1: Oh look at you guys going, You've only had it
Speaker 1: for three years, is that right?
Speaker 4: Yeah? So after we paid off our personal loan and
Speaker 4: stuff like that, we just basically said the three hundred
Speaker 4: dollars or four hundred dollars that was going towards it
Speaker 4: is going to our mortgage now, so we updo our
Speaker 4: mortgage as soon as we paid off our debt.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, how exciting is this? You have? What
Speaker 1: is it You're planning on getting rid of a mortgage
Speaker 1: at this rate in the less than ten years?
Speaker 4: Yeah. So the recent evaluation for the house was seven
Speaker 4: hundred and fifty oh money when Yeah, So theoretically between
Speaker 4: now and when we go to sell, the house will
Speaker 4: have paid off a little bit more and we're hoping
Speaker 4: the housing market will go up a little bit. But
Speaker 4: also we're not depending on it.
Speaker 1: It's looking very healthy right now though.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So let's pretend that the house sells for seven fifty
Speaker 1: at market price at this point in time. Is that
Speaker 1: enough to buy your lifestyle block and you know, pop
Speaker 1: a little house on it or what does that purchase
Speaker 1: look like in the future.
Speaker 4: So we actually have like a property that we really
Speaker 4: really love and it's been on the market for a
Speaker 4: while because it's a really awkward property because no one
Speaker 4: wants to live out in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 1: Except for you, You and your goats and your dog.
Speaker 1: Do yes, that tells me it's negotiable. We like that.
Speaker 4: Yes, And so it was on the market for the
Speaker 4: three hundred and twenty, but now it's gone to negotiation,
Speaker 4: so we're hoping it will be still on the market
Speaker 4: or at least something comparable.
Speaker 1: Hey, that's exciting. Is that what plays into you potentially
Speaker 1: being able to I guess semi retire.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So hopefully what we're planning is even no mortgage
Speaker 4: and then having no money and then having to build
Speaker 4: up everything like the things that we need for the
Speaker 4: animals and gardens and stuff like that, or selling the
Speaker 4: house and having a small mortgage of about one hundred
Speaker 4: thousand so that we have some money still in our
Speaker 4: pockets to be able to do the things straight away.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one hundred percent. Because if we're looking at your
Speaker 1: mortgage right now five point forty in the valuation of
Speaker 1: seven point fifty, and we'll pretend that it just goes clean,
Speaker 1: that means that you're sitting on about two hundred and
Speaker 1: ten thousand of equity. And then if you purchase a
Speaker 1: three twenty property you've got a mortgage of one hundred
Speaker 1: and ten. You've obviously done your numbers. I've just done
Speaker 1: your numbers so that I could confirm it and it
Speaker 1: made sense to me. But is that something that you go,
Speaker 1: all right, now we can kind of like go back
Speaker 1: to having one income and have more of a lifestyle
Speaker 1: as opposed to just working our lives away. Is that
Speaker 1: the plan?
Speaker 4: Yeah, both my partner and I sort of see money
Speaker 4: and that sort of stuff in just like a means
Speaker 4: to an end sort of way. We don't need a
Speaker 4: lot of it, and we don't need an excess lifestyle
Speaker 4: and stuff like that. So like having a couple of
Speaker 4: goats and chickens and stuff is more than what we
Speaker 4: need in our lives.
Speaker 1: Not literally living the dream. I love it. And you
Speaker 1: get to live in New Zealand, which is like one
Speaker 1: of the most beautiful places on earth. Like I am obsessed.
Speaker 1: This is honestly so dreamy. I want to know now, though,
Speaker 1: you have, from my understanding, pretty good at money, Like
Speaker 1: you've got some pretty good habits, Like you've shown me
Speaker 1: that you can get out of dead and like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're fully across it. So I feel like you might
Speaker 1: have some good tips and tricks for us. What is
Speaker 1: your best money habit?
Speaker 4: My best money habit I think is as soon as
Speaker 4: we get paid, we move our money into savings bills.
Speaker 4: So we've got like our personal money, we got savings account,
Speaker 4: we've got a bill's account, and then we've got a
Speaker 4: short term savings and then Marshmallow's account as well.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love that your dog's name is Marshmallow.
Speaker 1: Like that makes my entire heart so happy. Like, ah,
Speaker 1: the best cash flow planning, that's a great money habit
Speaker 1: to have. I think it's one that we all wish
Speaker 1: we were better at. But what is your worst money habit?
Speaker 4: Like my worst money habit actually is very similar, which
Speaker 4: sounds really strange, but we don't actually budget. I just
Speaker 4: kind of look at it and like, this is what
Speaker 4: we need in this account now, and this is what
Speaker 4: we need in this account. And so like, if you
Speaker 4: ask me how much I actually plan to spend on
Speaker 4: groceries or plan to spend on this, like I don't
Speaker 4: really have a number.
Speaker 1: That's okay though, because it looks like you're pretty across
Speaker 1: on average what you're spending. Because earlier in this episode,
Speaker 1: you explained to me that you used to spend two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty dollars on groceries and and you would
Speaker 1: also do takeaways and stuff. But now that's like one
Speaker 1: hundred dollars on groceries and thirty dollars on takeaway. So
Speaker 1: I feel like, even though you're saying you're not good
Speaker 1: at like calculating it, I can tell that you're across it. Still,
Speaker 1: would you say that's accurate?
Speaker 4: It's just kind of guesstimating, and I feel like I
Speaker 4: could do better, Like I never look at my statements.
Speaker 4: I know it's really bad, but no it's not.
Speaker 1: I feel like so many of us have our head
Speaker 1: in the sand about it. And let's be honest, money
Speaker 1: can be really boring, Like it's not that exciting. That's
Speaker 1: why I try so hard with this content to make
Speaker 1: it exciting. But it's still not that sexy. Let's be honest.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's just that I actually look at things. I
Speaker 4: probably spend a bit more than I need to on
Speaker 4: certain things because I'm not really focused.
Speaker 1: I totally resonate with it. Actually, I'm really excited about
Speaker 1: this because I think this is something I can fix
Speaker 1: for you. I'm actually going to gift you our budget
Speaker 1: and cashually master class after this, so i'd like, once
Speaker 1: we've done our money, Darry, I'm going to set you
Speaker 1: up on all of that because I feel like if
Speaker 1: you don't have a lot of clarity, I feel like
Speaker 1: my buddy and cash flow like system will actually really
Speaker 1: help because it sounds like you're good at cash flow planning,
Speaker 1: but like this is about cash flow planning and projecting,
Speaker 1: so you're kind of like, this is what we're actually
Speaker 1: spending in This are the accounts that needs to go into,
Speaker 1: and I feel like it might be a little bit cleaner,
Speaker 1: but you and I will talk about that after. That's
Speaker 1: a side note because I want to know now that
Speaker 1: we've had this big conversation, and I mean, I did
Speaker 1: say that i'd start a fight with you, and I'm
Speaker 1: not going to start a fight with you. That's not
Speaker 1: who I am. But you said I think I'm a
Speaker 1: C plus or like a B minus. Hearing all of
Speaker 1: this back, do you think that's accurate. If you do
Speaker 1: think it's accurate, why and tell me what it would
Speaker 1: take to get to like an A or an A plus.
Speaker 4: Maybe like after talking about it, it's like more in
Speaker 4: the B range.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would agree.
Speaker 3: I'm like, you are so good at this, but like
Speaker 3: I think it's also because I feel like, in particular
Speaker 3: because I know a lot of people struggle with getting
Speaker 3: a home and that sort of stuff, and we sort
Speaker 3: of lucked.
Speaker 4: Into it into a sort of way, like we didn't
Speaker 4: really actively try or anything like that. And so I
Speaker 4: feel like a big financial achievements not really like due
Speaker 4: to my own effort and that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: But slow and steady wins the race. No, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And I feel like you've got to be in the
Speaker 1: race to be able to win the race. And you're
Speaker 1: absolutely in the race. You're just taking a step by
Speaker 1: step and that's great.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And so like I think on my active if
Speaker 4: in my financial journey and stuff like that, like the
Speaker 4: things that I'm doing for it and stuff like that, Yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm not doing as much as I want to be
Speaker 4: doing or like could be doing kind of thing.
Speaker 1: I totally get it. I feel like we all put
Speaker 1: so much pressure on ourselves as well, because I know
Speaker 1: that there are going to be so many people listening
Speaker 1: to this yelling and being like Marshmallow's mom is so
Speaker 1: good at money, Like I don't understand what is she doing.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, there might be people listening
Speaker 1: to this and going, oh, I totally resonate, like I
Speaker 1: can do more too, Like I totally you know, feel
Speaker 1: like that's me and I'm not gonna argue with you.
Speaker 1: Feel like the B range is absolutely fair if you
Speaker 1: feel like you've got further to grow. And that's why
Speaker 1: I always ask it, because I just go, well, you know,
Speaker 1: what would it take to get from there to an A?
Speaker 1: And everyone usually has a very good like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: here are actually a few more goals and a few
Speaker 1: more things that I would like to achieve so that
Speaker 1: I feel like an A. And it's not necessarily whether
Speaker 1: you're operating in an A aspect because like, there's actually
Speaker 1: no criteria. I don't want to ruin it for you.
Speaker 1: It's more how you feel about money and do you
Speaker 1: think you could be doing better or do you think
Speaker 1: you could you know, be a little bit more relaxed
Speaker 1: on yourself. And I think you're on the right track.
Speaker 1: I'm actually so excited for you to, I don't know,
Speaker 1: live this life. It's just so about lifestyle and happiness
Speaker 1: and having goats and having chickens and having your dog
Speaker 1: have all of this space, like you're living the dream.
Speaker 1: And I think that you've done such an epic job,
Speaker 1: like going from being in debt you know, getting married
Speaker 1: so early, being in a great position, getting out of
Speaker 1: all that debt, and now owning your own home and
Speaker 1: working towards semi RETI like, what a story money, diarrist Like.
Speaker 4: I'm definitely proud of our journey, as you should be,
Speaker 4: because like when we were younger and stuff like, all
Speaker 4: that sort of stuff definitely put a strain on our relationship,
Speaker 4: Like it was a big problem for us, and so
Speaker 4: like dealing with it also, just like dealt with a
Speaker 4: lot of issues in our relationship and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I love that. And is that something that
Speaker 1: you feel a little bit more comfortable within your relationship
Speaker 1: now You're like, no, no, now we're across it, Like we're
Speaker 1: very comfortable. Now we have a better relationship. Like what
Speaker 1: could we do if we're in that circumstance back when,
Speaker 1: I guess money was a lot more of a pressure
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 4: Well, considering the fact we literally spend all of our
Speaker 4: time together. Now I would say we've got like a
Speaker 4: pretty good relationship. We don't really fight anymore. But because
Speaker 4: we've got all this sort of stuff, it's just it's
Speaker 4: a lot easier. Like recently, my partner needed an upgrade
Speaker 4: for his computer because it crashed and stuff like that,
Speaker 4: and so it was really easy for us to just go, oh, well,
Speaker 4: we'll just go and buy you some new things. It
Speaker 4: wasn't really a stress. We didn't have to think about
Speaker 4: it or anything like that. We didn't have to move
Speaker 4: money around from this overdraft to that overdraft, and we
Speaker 4: didn't have to argue about it or anything. So it's
Speaker 4: definitely put us in a bitter position.
Speaker 1: I love that so much money Diarist. Unfortunately that is
Speaker 1: all we have time for today, So thank you so
Speaker 1: much for being generous with your time and sharing your journey,
Speaker 1: and I guess being so open. I feel like I've
Speaker 1: learned a lot. But also I feel like I've made
Speaker 1: a friend who I can visit in New Zealand, who's
Speaker 1: going to have goats for me to play with. So
Speaker 1: I love it. Thank you definitely. The advice shared on
Speaker 1: She's on the Money is general in nature and does
Speaker 1: not consider your individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists
Speaker 1: purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon
Speaker 1: to make an investment or financial decision. If you do
Speaker 1: too to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD
Speaker 1: and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria
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